...one's birthday, and that is according to the way the Rebbe explains it, because we know that the Rebbe really, really encouraged people to celebrate their יום הולדת, their birthday, and just to explain what the Rebbe has to say about this and how the outlook should be and what is the reason for it all. Well, to start a little bit, originally, many, many פרומע יידן, including many Rabbanim, were against celebrating a birthday. And they used to say that celebrating a birthday is a goyishe thing. And there was even a joke that the only place we find in the Torah, in the Chumash, the celebration of a birthday is by Pharaoh. It says, ויהי ביום השלישי יום הולדת את פרעה. That was the third day after the dream of the שר המשקים and שר האופים, and it was Pharaoh's birthday, and that's when Pharaoh made a big party, a big celebration. So the only place we find in Chumash mentioned יום הולדת, the birthday, is by Pharaoh. And this was a joke to say that the concept of a birthday is only celebrated by the goyim, but it's not a Jewish thing to celebrate birthdays. And the reason that was given why it's not a positive thing to celebrate birthdays is based on a pasuk. The pasuk says, טוב יום המיתה מיום הוולדו. The day a person passes away is greater than the day he was born. And the reason is because, as the Midrash on the pasuk, the Midrash explains that when a person passes away, he already did his job, he finished his mission in this world, and then you could see what kind of person the person was. And if a person did thing, did mitzvot, learned Torah, so then you have what to celebrate. You have to celebrate this person's positive behavior. But when a person is born, you don't know what's going to be with this person. So what is there what to celebrate? That's why you make a fuss over a yahrzeit, but not over a birthday. So that's what it says, טוב יום המיתה מיום הוולדו, the day of death is better than the day that you're born, because there's nothing positive in the fact that you're born, you didn't do anything yet, and we don't know what you're going to do. And as a matter of fact, the Gemara says that נמנו וגמרו נוח לו לאדם שלא נברא משנברא. It would be better for a person if he would not be born, created, than he would be created. So what's the big yichus, the big celebration that I was born? And therefore, the approach was not to make a big fuss over a birthday. The only time they would have to know their birthday was concerning Bar Mitzvah, to know exactly when you become Bar Mitzvah. But otherwise, there were even people, יידן that didn't ever remember their birthday, because it never came up for anything, what was it important for? But this is not the approach of Chabad. Starting originally even from the first Rebbes, starting from the Alter Rebbe, the other Rebbes, all the Rebbes, they all used to celebrate birthdays, בצנעא, quietly, not in public. Chai Elul, which is the birthday of the Baal Shem Tov, and later on the birthday of the Alter Rebbe, was observed by all the Rebbes, with special private celebrations, with saying special maamarim on the day of the birthday of the Baal Shem Tov and the Alter Rebbe. ובכלל, the Rebbes used to celebrate the birthdays of all the previous Rebbes, they used to celebrate their own birthdays, they used to celebrate the birthdays of their children, especially of the children who later on were their ממלאי מקום who took over their place. So they lechatchilah, if you look back in history, that time they didn't know it yet, but when you look back in history, so they would celebrate the birthdays of their children and grandchildren who later on became the Rebbes. So they did celebrate it, but it was all בצנעא, it was all privately, it wasn't public. Then in the time of the Frierdiker Rebbe, the Frierdiker Rebbe brought it out into the open, and the Frierdiker Rebbe said to celebrate, made the fuss over the celebration of birthdays more public. And that's when chassidei Chabad started making a bigger fuss over birthdays. It became even even stronger after the Rebbe took over the נשיאות, and the Rebbe would make even a bigger fuss. The minhag used to be that those years when we were able to go into a private yichidus and a private audience with the Rebbe, so the time a person would go in was every year before his birthday. Before the יום הולדת, a person, a bachur or anybody would go into the into the Rebbe yichidus. And the Rebbe then would tell the people to to keep the minhagim, to keep the special customs, because by the Rebbe already started special customs for a יום הולדת. And the Rebbe, when you would go into yichidus, would tell you, would tell each person, make sure to do this. And what were the major customs? Number one, to get an aliyah שבת before your birthday. On the day of your birthday, to make sure to give tzedakah before Shacharit and before Mincha, extra tzedakah. If your birthday comes out on Shabbos, you should give it on Friday. You should make sure to learn an extra shiur besides everything that you learn any day. You should make an have an extra shiur in nigleh, an extra shiur in chassidus on that day. Besides it, it says in Hayom Yom, that on the day of the birthday, it's a minhag that a person should be מתבודד, should sit down by himself and think about his matzav, who he is, where he is, what he is doing. And the Rebbe would repeat many of these minhagim to people on yichidus. Sometimes the Rebbe would even add specific minhagim. I remember when I would go into yichidus before my birthday, my birthday comes out, I wouldn't say very often, but sometimes on Friday. So, a few times when my birthday came out on Friday, the Rebbe told me, you haven't even told us when your birthday is, י״ב אב. So, the Rebbe would tell me that make sure that this time, because your birthday is on Friday, that you should be maavir sedra, shnayim mikra v'echad targum on Friday. Because like this, sometimes you would leave it for Shabbos. Make sure that because it's Friday, to do it on Friday. And then, the Rebbe would give a special bracha to the person, and usually the bracha would contain, and I'm speaking of the time of being a bochur, he would give a bracha that you should have a שנת הצלחה, these I'm just saying the words that the Rebbe usually would use, a שנת הצלחה, a year of success in your לימוד התורה, in your learning תורה, לימוד הנגלה ולימוד החסידות, קיום המצוות בהידור. The main bracha was on learning and doing mitzvot, and sometimes to some people the Rebbe would add also in עבודת התפילה, you should have hatzlacha in your davenen, and sometimes he would add מתוך בריאות הנכונה, with good health. He wouldn't give a bracha for gashmiyut, you should have parnasa, because the bochurim, that wasn't their inyan. But when baalei batim, people like could go in, the Rebbe would also add bracha for gashmiyut. So, and then those years, the inyan of יום הולדת was something that the Rebbe made a fuss over, but not so strong till the year that the Rebbetzin, the Rebbe's Rebbetzin passed away. So, the first occasion, the first birthday date of the Rebbetzin's's birthday after she passed away, the Rebbe spoke and the Rebbe said that he wants to institute a new minhag, and that is that they should make people should make mesibot, farbrengens in honor of the birthday, and get together and you should say l'chaim, and איין ייד זאל אנוואונטשן דעם צווייטן, you should give brachot one to another, and you should be mekabel at that occasion החלטות טובות, good resolutions for the coming year, etc., etc. And the Rebbe turned it basically into a mivtza, saying that it's very important to celebrate birth and that's when it started becoming as we would say, מיט'ן גאנצן שטורעם, the whole thing of celebrating a birthday. The truth is that if we look back, the inyan of celebrating a birthday did not start really by the Rebbe, by the Previous Rebbe. We look back in other sefarim, we find in the Ben Ish Chai writes that in his family they always would celebrate a birthday. Every year on their birthday, they would make a mesibah. There are certain dates of birthdays that the Gemara says the chachamim would make a party. That's when they became 60 years old for a reason that we're not כרת דיומא. Then some of sefarim write about 70 years old, but otherwise, we don't really find it so much. But the Ben Ish Chai writes that he would make a party. The Genzei Yosef writes that he would in his place they would make a shehecheyanu on the day of the birthday. Someone's write that some others write that they would make different different mesibot. I heard from one עפעס א in New York he considers himself a Rebbe, and he said in his family his father told him from his grandfather, which is nothing אונגארישע חסידות, not not Chabad. In his family, they knew that before your birthday the Shabbos before your birthday, you have an aliyah. And that day of your birthday, you should say lechaim. So, obviously we see that in truth it is not something new that Lubavitch made, but it was there from before. And the emet is we find in מאמרי חז״ל, we find from the chachamim, we find stressing the concept of a birthday. We find in Gemara, we find in midrashim. We find in the Gemara for instance concerning the birthday of Moshe Rabbeinu. The Gemara says concerning Purim, that when Haman threw the lots and it came out in the month of אדר, שמח שמחה גדולה, he was very happy That it came out in the month when Moshe Rabbeinu passed away, and the Gemara says, ולא היה יודע, but he didn't know ש the same month that Moshe passed away, that's the month Moshe was born. And Rashi says, כדאי הוא המיתה שתכפר על הלידה, כדאי הוא הלידה שתכפר על המיתה, I'm sorry, that the leidah, the fact that he was born, is stronger than the fact that Moshe Rabbeinu passed away. And because Moshe Rabbeinu was born then, his birthday makes that ז׳ אדר is a special zechut, a special day of zechut, and not only that, because of that the whole month is a special month, and the reason that the nes of Purim came about is because of Moshe's birthday, not because of Moshe's yahrzeit. Farkert, because of Moshe's yahrzeit there was a reason that the gezeirah, the decree of Haman should take place. Because of Moshe's birthday, that's why it happened. We find in a different Gemara, it says, Tosafot explains in Gemara Nedarim that ז׳ אדר it comes out from the גמרא ז׳ אדר has two opposites. ז׳ אדר could be a day of שמחה, ז׳ אדר could be a sad day. And the Gemara has a whole she'eilah whether when a person says, \"I will take upon myself a neder to be like ז׳ אדר,\" what does that mean? That he took upon a neder to fast, or he took upon a neder to make a party? So Tosafot explains, what are the two sides to the question? Because ז׳ אדר has two things. ז׳ אדר is a day of Moshe Rabbeinu's birthday, and therefore it's a special day, a happy day; ז׳ אדר is Moshe Rabbeinu's yahrzeit, so it's a sad day, and that's why the Gemara has a question what a person means. But we see from here that the Gemara stresses the fact that Moshe Rabbeinu was born. We also find in the Gemara that the Mishkan was ready, ready, finished in the end of Kislev, כ״ה כסלו, it was ready. We learn in Chumash that it didn't get put up till months later, Rosh Chodesh Nisan. So the Midrash says, Hashem said, \"I want to wait. I want you to put up the Mishkan, it should be at the same time when Yitzchak's birthday is.\" And Yitzchak was born in Nisan. So we see that the Gemara stresses the important the Midrash, and importance of Yitzchak's birthday. In the Gemara Rosh Hashanah we talk, the Gemara mentions about the importance of the days that the Avot in general were born. So we see from here that the concept of a birthday was already mentioned in the Torah as a day as a special day. Now emet if we go further we see that we celebrate the birthday of Klal Yisrael. We know that we celebrate Pesach, and when you ask somebody, \"Why do we celebrate Pesach?\" Well, Pesach great miracles happened to the Jews, Hashem took us out of מצרים, אמת, this is all true, but there's a pasuk in Yechezkel that Pesach is the time when it's the יום הולדת, וביום הולדת אותך, the יום הולדת of the Jewish nation. And why do we celebrate Pesach? Because it's the time when the Jewish nation was born. It compares יציאת מצרים to birth, and the emet is this is takeh when the Jewish nation, the Yidden became as a nation, and we celebrate here the a celebration of the nation, of the birth of the Jewish nation. Now we know from many other things that whatever happens or we do concerning the כלל is reflected in the יחיד, in the in the individual. So if we celebrate the birthday of the כלל, it reflects itself in the celebration of the birthday of the individual. There's an Yiddish expression that says, Vos s'vet zayn mit klal yisrael, vet zayn mit rav yisrael. Rav Yisrael, which means an individual Yid, is really a reflection of Klal Yisrael. Say that in one drop of water could reflect the whole sun the way the whole ocean could, because one drop is a drop of water of the whole כלל. Anyway, so whatever we find by by כלל, we find by the פרט. So here we see that we celebrate the birthday of Klal Yisrael, so we also should celebrate the birthday of the יחיד, of the individual. So here we're just mentioning what it the fact that it's mentioned and that Minhag Chabad is to celebrate, but what we really have to go into and understand, what is the reason for it? What is the idea of celebrating a birthday?

The first reason why to celebrate a birthday is, we know that one of the most important middot that Yidden have is the middah of hakarat hatov, of appreciation, of thanks, giving thanks to somebody. So imagine if somebody would give you a present, it's only right that we should show an appreciation, we should say thank you. Imagine if somebody didn't just give you a present, but he gave you something very precious, not just a present, a simple present, you show a greater appreciation. Imagine someone saved your life, gave you the biggest present possible, so imagine that certainly you have to show your appreciation and be happy and show the person how glad you are that he saved your life. Now if we're talking about about a human being saving your life, you have to show an appreciation and show show happiness, here we're talking about Hashem, and Hashem who gave you your whole מציאות, your whole being. Shouldn't a person show Hashem, thanking Hashem for the fact that He created him, so to speak? Show Hashem that he's thankful that He made him into a מציאות? Much more than you show another human being that you're thankful for what he gave you. So we have to thank Hashem for what He did to us. But the truth is, when do you have to thank Hashem for that? A person should thank Hashem for the fact that He created him. He's here. Now really, in theory, this is just theory, you should thank Hashem the moment you're born. That's really you're born, you have to thank Hashem. It's impossible, but really that's what you should do. And we actually find that Adam Harishon, the Gemara says Adam Harishon the day he was created brought korbanot to Hashem. And the Gemara explains what the korban looked like. And the mefarshim say, what was the reason he brought the korban? He thanked Hashem for creating him. What was the reason that Noach brought a korban right after the Mabul, many korbanot right after the Mabul? Thanking Hashem for saving his life. So a person who is born should right away get up and thank Hashem, just like when we get up in the morning we say מודה אני. We don't wait for later, we get up and we say מודה אני. What is מודה אני? מודה אני לפניך, we thank השם, שהחזרת בי נשמתי, you returned my neshamah to me. You didn't create me, because I was created before. What happened was you took my neshamah last night when I went to sleep, and you kept it, and now you gave it back. So you gave me back my neshamah, for that, Hashem, you have to thank You right away. And then we say אלקי, נשמה שנתת בי טהורה, we thank Hashem for the neshamah. So we should really thank Hashem right away. As soon as we we wake up. It's much more As soon as we're born, I mean, it's much more than when we wake up. When we wake up, it says when a person is sleeping, it's אחד מששים במיתה, it's a sixtieth of death. That's all, but mostly you're alive. So Hashem didn't really give you your life, because you're alive when you're sleeping too, but He gave you a different level of life, He gave back the neshamah. So imagine the fact that a person is created from nothing, and now he became a human being, and Hashem gave him his being. So therefore, he should really thank Hashem. So in theory, if it only would be possible, the moment a person is created you have to thank Hashem. It's impossible. So who what should When should a person thank Hashem for the fact that he was created? Adam Harishon was able to do it right away because the Midrash says when Adam Harishon was created, he was the size and looked as if he was 20 years old, okay? So a 20-year-old he was only a minute old, but he was like 20, so he could bring a korban and thank Hashem. But a baby that's born can't do it. So when should you do it? Well, maybe you should do it when you become הגיע לחינוך, when you reach reach an age of chinuch, when you're חייב במצות מדרבנן, but that's still young. So you know, maybe it should be when you become 12 years old, or a girl 11, that's al pi din for Nedarim you become already שייך like a גדול, but that's still young. You know when you should do it? When you become bar mitzvah. So really when you become bar mitzvah, that's when you get your דעת. So really the day of your bar mitzvah should be a day, the first chance you have, to thank Hashem for the fact that He gave He made you, that He that you were born. And that's takeh true. And we takeh do it. There's even a שאלה whether you make shehecheyanu on the day of your bar mitzvah. The הלכה is that we don't make shehecheyanu, but there is a סברא that we should try to make shehecheyanu at least when you put on tefillin. But why shehecheyanu? Thanking Hashem for the fact that He created you, and now you're the first chance you have. Now the אמת is, when we say that at the day of your bar mitzvah you should thank Hashem, it's not only because that's the first chance. Till your bar mitzvah you're not a בר דעת, so you don't have the right שכל to thank Hashem. But when you become bar mitzvah, you have the right דעת. It's more than that. The day of your bar mitzvah is really a repeat of the day you were born. The Arizal says, everyone knows this, in the Megillah where it says הימים האלה נזכרים ונעשים, that these days are mentioned and are done. So the Arizal says that every year when the same day comes around, it repeats itself. The same thing that happened the first time repeats itself. And therefore when the day of your birthday comes, the day you were born, whatever happened on that day repeats itself. So when the day you become bar mitzvah, what happens? It's a repeat of your birth. So really you're thanking Hashem for the fact that you're now repeating the birth, so you're thanking Hashem for your birth. And the אמת is it's not just a repeat of your birth, it's actually every time your birthday comes, there is actual thing that happens like your birthday. What I mean is, it says in Yerushalmi, in Yerushalmi it says, concerning להבדיל the גוים, but it says לגבי עמלק, that when עמלק attacked the Yidden in the desert, and it says they were successful. And Moshe Rabbeinu had to send Yehoshua out to fight and he himself went up the mountain and stuck his hand, and he had to daven, and even then, the Yidden did not destroy Amalek. ויחלש ישראל את עמלק, they only weakened them. Why? Because Amalek was very strong. What was the strength of Amalek? So the Yerushalmi says that Amalek was smart. Amalek chose soldiers, only such soldiers, that that day that they attacked was their birthday. And on the day of your birthday, מזלו גבר. The mazal of the person is strong on the day of his birthday. And since the mazal is strong, they had their strength. And there was an extra special fight the Yidden had to put up against that. So we see from here that on the day of the birthday, the mazal is strong, it means that whatever happened the first time happens again and are repeated. When a person is born, why is it that the mazal is strong on the birthday? When a person is born, he's born under a certain mazal. So that mazal is his mazal. So the day that he's born, the mazal is there, that's him. As the day passes, the mazalot change. So even though that mazal is set into him, but that mazal is really not בולט, not so so גילוי, because after all, today's a different mazal. It's within him, but that's not the next day is a different mazal is shining. But when next year comes around, the same day he was born, that same mazal is back. So that same mazal that's within him is reawakened, and that's the day that he was born. And therefore, whatever took place that first time is not just remembered, oh, a year ago, 10 years ago I was born, and b'meila the same thing now happens. Actually, the mazal is back. It is back here, and the mazal is within me. And that's why whatever that's me, that's more so there's something stronger within me. And therefore, every year when the birthday so when the the Bar Mitzvah comes, that's the day of your birthday, so the mazal is stronger. And the emet is, according to this, it shouldn't be only the day of your Bar Mitzvah. The same thing every year. Every year when the day of your birth comes, the the day that you were born comes, so what happened when you were born repeats itself, נזכרים ונעשים, and therefore you have to thank Hashem again. Even though we know that it says there is an opinion, אין מזל לישראל, that the Yidden are not up to mazalot, and all these things that happen in the mazalot don't apply to the Yidden, but we all know that that's not the pshat. The pshat is not that there is no mazal by Yidden. We once had a shiur on this inyan of mazalot. It says הכל תלוי במזל, everything depends on מזל, אפילו ספר תורה שבהיכל, even the Sefer Torah in the Aron Kodesh depends on the mazal. When you go over to the Aron Kodesh, which Sefer Torah to take out, you can take any, and you have to take one, it's mazal. So we call mazal, well, it's luck, but mazal means there is something there in the mazalot. So what do we mean אין מזל לישראל? It means a Yid, if there is a bad mazal, could overcome it. A Yid has the power of Torah and tefillah and tzedakah and gute zaken, maasim tovim, mitzvot, and could overturn it if it's bad. If it's good, there's nothing to overturn. So if there is something, some help we get from the mazal, that applies to a Yid also. So since on the day of your birthday there is a certain mazal, and that is a fact as it says in Yerushalmi, and on that day it's stronger, so that applies to a Yid every year. Every year when the day comes around, so the same thing happens over again, and the mazal is back there again. And if the mazal is there again, we should celebrate it. And it's every year, because when we want to thank Hashem for something good He did to us, so it's not only to thank Him once. If we're thanking Him for this, call it miracle that He did, and He brought me into the world, every year when this day comes around, I have to do it again. Where do we find it? We find it, for instance, by Chanukah and Purim. What do we say, what bracha do we make by Chanukah and Purim? שעשה נסים לאבותינו בימים ההם בזמן הזה. What does that mean, how do we translate it? He did miracles to the Yidden, בימים ההם means those days, בזמן הזה in this time. Was it then or is it now? But it means, in pashut pshat, it was those days, years, years ago, this time of the year. So because He did a miracle on the 25th day of Kislev, so every year when the 25th day of Kislev comes around, that is repeated, and we have to again feel the miracle in time. Just like there is a halacha if the Eibershter makes a nes to somebody in a certain place, every time he comes back to that place, he has to make a bracha, ברוך אתה השם אלקינו מלך העולם שעשה לי נס במקום הזה, that He made miracles for me in this place. So time and place is the same. So every time the time comes around, you have to do the same thing over again. We know that by Yidden there was always a minhag that when certain a miracle happened to an individual or to a community, Every year on that day they would make a special simcha. We all know that the י״ט כסלו, what's in י״ט כסלו? Every year י״ט כסלו make another party, and we farbrengen, and we make a whole fuss, a Yom Tov, because one year there was a nes that happened, the Alter Rebbe went out of jail. We know that there is a special day that the Rambam used to celebrate every year, the day I think he came to Yerushalayim. There is a day that the אייניקלעך, the grandchildren of the Shpoler Zeide celebrate up today, a day that he was free, saved from a ship sank and he was he survived, so he celebrates he used to celebrate and told his children to celebrate. The Tosefos Yom Tov had a day that something happened to him, a nes, and he wanted his children to celebrate, so they celebrate it every year. And the same is with us, that the fact that we have to thank Hashem for the fact that we were born, that's the first thing. And when we have to thank Hashem for that, it's not a one-time thing. Every year when it comes, so the first time is the bar mitzvah, but then after the bar mitzvah comes again the next year and the next year and the next year, we always have to celebrate. The truth is even before the bar mitzvah, but you can't expect the child is still a child, but for the parents were able to celebrate. So we're able to celebrate this simcha that we have, and we know that when a child is born the simcha is very great. When a child is born, the parents are happy and the people around them are happy, it's a simcha for Klal Yisrael. We know when a person, a child is born, it's a simcha for all the friends are happy, and it's a simcha for Klal Yisrael besides the fact that it's a simcha that when a child is born, it brings Mashiach closer. The Gemara says אין בן דוד בא עד שיכלו כל הנשמות שבגוף. Mashiach will not come till all the neshamot that are there in this section called גוף, doesn't mean the body, there's an area למעלה called גוף, when all the and that's the אוצר, it says in Rashi, the אוצר הנשמות, the storage of the neshamot, when all the neshamot leave, that's when Mashiach will come. So the more children are born, it makes Mashiach closer, so that itself is a simcha. The person himself who was born certainly has to have the simcha. So if you have to have a simcha and be happy that Hashem did this to you, so obviously you have to thank Hashem, and you have to thank Hashem not only once, but you have to thank Hashem every year for this simcha like we thank Hashem for every nes every year. And if we don't thank Hashem for that, that means we're lacking this appreciation and this thanks and this simcha in a miracle, in a present that He gave us. Imagine if someone gave saved our lives and we wouldn't care. Really, what a human being does, a person saved my life, every year on the same day I will send him a present, I will call him up and speak to him, this is the day he saved my life. This is the day Hashem gave us our life, put us down into this world. That's one thing that we have with the birthday.

Then there's another inyan of the birthday. The Eibershter sends down the neshamah into this world when a child is born with a mission. Otherwise, why did the Eibershter bring us down here? He gave us a mission. Well, what is the mission? The mission is that we have to learn Torah and do mitzvot. You put that on? It's very hot in here. The Eibershter gave us a mission. Besides the general mission that every single Yid has, which is equal by all, which is the mission of learning Torah and doing mitzvot, but everyone has an individual mission, and tzadikim would see it, would know their mission, most people don't, but Hashem finds His ways of letting us know what our special mission is. Many times it is by seeing what is the hardest for us to do. It says in ספרים that sometimes there are things that in truth are not hard to do, but I find it's very hard to do it, is a re'iyah that this is your mission. But whatever it is, everyone has a mission. Now let's imagine if someone had a mission from a king, comes over to him, he says, \"I give you a mission.\" This would be the greatest simcha. A king, a great person gave you a mission to do something, you'd have a simcha. And not only you would have a simcha, if the mission is very special, it's many people what they would do is that every year the day that the mission was given to them, which is the greatest present they could have gotten, they would make a party or be happy. Imagine if the mission is not even over yet. You have a mission and you're still in middle of doing it, and the mission was for three years, and the day you got the mission was this and this day. So the next year, if you really understand what it means to get a mission from a king—if a person doesn't understand it, then he won't appreciate it and then he won't make a simcha, but if a person only has the understanding what a king is and how special it is to get a special mission from this king, then there is no question that you would make a party, you would celebrate, you would be happy. And not only, every year you'd be happy. Here we're not talking about a mission that's given to us from a king. It's given to us from the Melech Malchei HaMelachim HaKadosh Baruch Hu, given to us by Hashem. So, shouldn't we appreciate and tell Hashem thank you for this mission? And not only once when he gave it to us, but we should tell Hashem thank you for the mission every time every year when the mission was given to us, we should tell Hashem thank you for it. And that's what we do when we celebrate a birthday. What we're doing is we're celebrating the fact that we were born in this world. First of all, Hashem gave us our chiyut, our metziut that we are, so we have to thank him for that, that's the first step. And the second step is he gave us a mission, and we have to thank him for giving us the mission. The mission is that we have Torah u'mitzvot. And when is the day that we got the Torah u'mitzvot? The day that I was born. The only thing people might ask, which is the basis of those people who did not feel to celebrate birthdays, is when you got the mission, how do you know that you're going to fulfill it? There are a lot of tests in the world, and how do you know it's takeh going to happen? Getting the mission is one thing, but if you get a mission and you don't do your job, then it's even worse. So, therefore, when a person finishes his time in this world, then you see that he did his job, fine, we celebrate. But to celebrate the fact that you got your mission, how could you celebrate that? How do you know what's going to be? Which is the reason why some said we can't celebrate a birthday. But the truth is we have the same question on something else that everybody agrees upon, and I can't even understand how people could not see it that way. How do we celebrate Bar Mitzvah? What is so special about celebrating a Bar Mitzvah? Everyone knows the specialty of a Bar Mitzvah is it's the day you become מחוייב במצוות, the day you're obligated. Maybe this child is not gonna fulfill the mitzvot properly. How do you know what's gonna happen? The same question we have here. How do you know, when you celebrate the fact that you were born and now you have a mission in this world, maybe you won't... that you will not fulfill it? You see, by Moshe Rabbeinu, see, we said before, by Moshe Rabbeinu they celebrated his birthday. That's not a re'iyah, 'cause by Moshe Rabbeinu, they knew that he's going to be a tzadik. It says when Moshe Rabbeinu was born, ותרא אותו כי טוב הוא, she saw he was good. Rashi said נתמלא הבית כולו אורה, the house was full with light. So they knew this is going to be a tzadik, so they had reason to celebrate the day he was born. But other people, how do you know what's going to happen? How do you celebrate? But, as I said, the same question is concerning a Bar Mitzvah. And the answer is very simple: al pi halacha, and this is the answer for בר מצוה, too, על פי הלכה, כל ישראל בחזקת כשרות. According to halacha, every איד has the chazaka that he is good and he will do good. If a איד does not do good, and it could be many of them, but if he doesn't do good, that is something going against his nature. So when we start looking at it, what do we assume is going to happen? For sure he's going to be good. If he's not, that's going to be a change that he will choose to do. But as far as the normal way of looking at things, the chazaka is he will. That's why we celebrate בר מצוה. The Magen Avraham brings that you have to make a big celebration by the בר מצוה. Where does he take it from? It says in the Zohar that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai made a very big celebration for his son Rabbi Elazar's בר מצוה like by a chatunah. So concerning the Rashbi and Rabbi Elazar, we have no proof either, because Rashbi maybe saw with ruach hakodesh that this son is going to be a tzadik. So already by the בר מצוה he knew that he's going to be a tzadik, and this is the day he was obligated to do the mitzvot, so he celebrated. But the Magen Avraham brings this as a halacha for everybody. And we don't know what our children will be. We hope! So how do we do it? But the answer must be because we are sure, because every איד בחזקת כשרות. If a person doesn't turn out the way he's supposed to, that's a change. And the same way we say it concerning בר מצוה, we say it concerning the יום הולדת. That the reason we celebrate the birthday, because that's the day that you came to this world with a mission, which is a mission of תורה ומצוות. We are sure you're going to do the mission, and therefore we have to celebrate the fact that we were given that that mission. The question one might ask, in that case, why don't we say shehecheyanu on the day of your birthday? Well, there is, says some would make a, had a minhag to say shehecheyanu on a new fruit, but on the day of the birthday. Actually, the Rabbi said part of the Minhag Chabad on a birthday is to get a new fruit and to say shehecheyanu. But why shouldn't we say lechatchilah shehecheyanu? This is the day the mission was given to you, and for sure we know you will do the mission, because every איד בחזקת כשרות, you should say shehecheyanu. That, for that, the answer is very simple: even if we're sure about something, the din is we only say shehecheyanu on something that happened already. We don't say shehecheyanu for the future. One of the reasons it says, it says in sefarim, why we don't say shehecheyanu on שביעי של פסח and אחרון של פסח, the last days of Pesach. The last days of Sukkot we say shehecheyanu, Shemini Atzeret, Simchat Torah, but why don't we say shehecheyanu on the last days of Sukkot, of Pesach? And it, so the simple answer is because it's not a separate Yom Tov, but in chassidut it says because the first days of Pesach are mainly a celebration for יציאת מצרים. The last days of Pesach is mainly a celebration for the coming of Mashiach, the גאולה העתידה, and we tachles see on אחרון של פסח the haftarah is about Mashiach. And we are sure Mashiach is going to come. There's no question he's going to come. And we're so happy about his coming, as if he came, we even make a seudah, the Baal Shem Tov said to make a party and we call it משיח'ס סעודה. Obviously we celebrate it, but shehecheyanu we don't make, because after all he's still not here. So shehecheyanu has nothing to do with the fact that we are sure something is going to happen, as good as it is, it has to have happened already. So when it the fact that you were born and you got this mission, and we are sure you're going to fulfill the mission, and it's a reason for celebration with the biggest way, but to make shehecheyanu we don't. So this is another reason why we celebrate is because we have to show Hashem how happy we are with the fact that He put us into this world with a mission. Because of that, there's another reason: When did we get the actual chiyuv of mitzvot? By the bar mitzvah. We came to this world with a mission the day you were born, but 13 years later on the same day, that's when you became מחויב במצוות, you actually got the חיוב מצוות. So every year after the bar mitzvah, you have to celebrate not only the fact that this is your birthday, this is a repeat of your bar mitzvah. Since we said before that every year when the same day comes around the thing repeats itself, so not only the fact that you came into this world and this is the day you got your mission, this is the day that repeats itself of the fact that you were given the חיוב מצוות on the day of your bar mitzvah. So till your bar mitzvah, you only celebrate the birthday because this is the day you came to this world and this is the day the mission was given to you. After your bar mitzvah, all the years from 13 till 120, every year your bar mitzvah repeats itself, the חיוב מצוה repeats itself, so we have to celebrate again the fact that Hashem gave us the mitzvot. And the truth is that these two things, celebrating your birth, celebrating the birth the fact that you were born on this day and the fact that you were became bar mitzvah on this day really come together, because the bar mitzvah is also called the day of your birth. אני השם, אני היום ילדתיך, and it says today I gave birth to you, so it says that this goes on the bar mitzvah. On the day of the bar mitzvah, that's really the time when a person is born because that's when his יצר טוב comes into him. The difference is the day you were born you were born physically, the day of your bar mitzvah you were born spiritually, but the two things come together. So celebrating the bar mitzvah, the birthday is celebrating again the fact that this is the day which repeats itself of the day you were מחויב במצוות. And this is all to show your appreciation for the fact that you were given a mission by מלך מלכי המלכים הקדוש ברוך הוא. So here again so we have the two main reasons. The main reason is to show appreciation and simcha to Hashem, thanking Him for the fact that He brought you into this world and gave you your metziut, which is much more than you have to thank a human being for giving you a present or anything he gives you. And the second thing, this is the day you have to show Hashem the appreciation for the fact that He gave you a mission and He gave you something special, a matana of תורה ומצוות, and that happens on the day when the neshamah came down to this world, and later on when you become bar mitzvah.

This leads us to another point: When a person has a mission and you're still in middle, you didn't finish fulfilling your mission, the normal thing to do is that every once in a while to take an account of what he's doing. If a person has a business, so every once in a while you stop and you you take an audit to see did I make money, did I lose money, what's happening? What was the past? How should it go to the future? So when a person has a job to do and it's a long-lasting job, you take an account מזמן לזמן, from time to time. So when do you take your account usually? Usually it's once a year. So usually it's when that same time of the year comes around. So that's the time when you take an account, because that's when the things start over again, there's a cycle. When the cycle comes back, then you make a cheshbon, how was the past year, and then you look for the future. The same thing with our mission that Hashem gave us. When did He give us our mission? When we were born, and then later on when we became bar mitzvah. So every year on the day when you celebrate your birthday, what does celebration mean? You have to look into it to make a cheshbon. And here again we see see the similarity between the prat, the individual Jew, with כלל ישראל. כלל ישראל does the same thing. When do we make a cheshbon of our behavior as a klal? In the month of אלול, Rosh Hashanah time. Why Rosh Hashanah? Because Rosh Hashanah is when we were born. The world was born. Just like we said before by Pesach, Pesach is the birth of כלל ישראל, Rosh Hashanah is the birth of the world. Adam Harishon was born. Actually it says in Kabbalah that Adam Harishon's neshamah gets born every year anew on Rosh Hashanah, because the same thing because when everything that happens once happens again. And that's why because the klal as a whole was born on Rosh Hashanah, so that's the time when we make a cheshbon, we do teshuvah. So each person has his own personal Rosh Hashanah. That's the day he was born. That's the day he was given the mission. Shouldn't he have to make an account and see what he was, how he behaved till now, and what he has to do for the future? Whatever he has to change, what he shouldn't change, what he should go on. So that's what we have to do on our birthday. But the only thing one might ask if that's the cheshbon of a if that's the concept of a birthday to make a cheshbon hanefesh, then it has then it לכאורה that seems like it's not simcha. Before we're talking about celebrating. Celebrating is partying, making a simcha. Now we're talking about something very serious, something making a cheshbon. The truth is it's not a contradiction. We know that even when you do teshuvah, you have to do teshuvah mitoch simcha. Teshuvah doesn't mean that you cry. תשובה מתוך תשובה is a mitzvah. When you make a cheshbon hanefesh on the in the month of אלול, Rosh Hashanah time, you're doing a mitzvah. And if you're doing a mitzvah, you're serving Hashem, and עבדו את השם בשמחה. You have to serve Hashem simcha. So we know takeh in Chassidus it says that teshuva has to be mitoch simcha. And which you should be happy that you have a a chance here to fix something that you missed out. It's the biggest simcha you should have. Shouldn't bring a person to feeling sad, it should bring a person to simcha. So a birthday includes these two things. It includes takeh the simcha, it includes the seriousness of making a cheshbon hanefesh. And that's one of the things at a birthday, as I said before, says in Hayom Yom a person should be hitboded on that day and make a cheshbon of what happened the past year and what he plans to do for the next year and have החלטות טובות. And it's all because this is the end of the cycle of what? Of the mission he was given by Hashem. And you have to make a cheshbon like that. The only thing one might ask if we're talking going back to before, if we're talking about a birthday being the day that the neshama came into this world, that's the day Hashem made you who you are, gave you your life, gave you your neshama, gave you your mission in this world, so you have to celebrate just like you celebrate anything else that you got or anything special. But is that true? Is when does the neshama come into the person? One might ask we know that from conception, it's not from birth. From conception. So it would seem that not the birthday is the day that your neshama comes in. And the neshama is there before we have the best proof. It says in the Gemara when the neshama is the child is in his mother's stomach a malach comes and teaches him Torah, the whole Torah. So who does he teach Torah? The neshama. And after before he's born, the malach gives him a פאטש, סוטרו על פיו, and he forgets the whole Torah. Why he does it, mefarshim ask what's the purpose, what's the idea if he forgets it anyway? So the answer is very simple: it's much easier to learn something that you've learned once and you forgot than to start something you never learned. We know that. Something that you learn once and later and you forgot, later you relearn it, it's much easier. If you never learned it, it's much harder. If we would never learn the Torah, it would be much harder. So he teaches it to us. But the meantime, what do we see from there? That the neshama is there. So here, if we're celebrating the fact that the neshama was given to us and put down here into this world, it's not on the it seems like it's not on the day of the birthday. The answer is very simple: the Gemara says that when the child is במעי אמו, he says אוכל ממה שאמו אוכלת, eats what his mother eats, שותה ממה שאמו שותה, drinks what his mother drinks, he breathes the air of his mother. In other words, the neshama is there, but not as an entity in itself. So it's an extension of his mother. So the neshama is there as an extension of his mother. It says ראשו בין ברכיו, the Gemara says. The feet of the child, the head of the child is between his feet. That shows that he's not functioning. His head, which represents the eyes and the ears and the brain, is not functioning. It's very low, it's like the feet, which doesn't function as a brain. It's not functioning as its own entity. When does it become its own entity, which means that all obligations which is given unto this entity starts is from the moment he's born, על פי הלכה. From the moment he's born, then he's not an entity of his mother, then he's a separate entity. Says that's when the neshama really attaches itself completely to the body. Says more even by the eighth day on the bris, and even more by the day of the bar mitzvah. Because as we said before, bar mitzvah is another level of birth, but it starts with the birth. So if it starts with the birth, that's the time when the neshamah comes in, and therefore, that is the time to thank Hashem for giving him his life. That is the time to thank Hashem for giving him his שליחות in this world. That is the time to make the חשבון הנפש. And because the mazal of the איד is strong, so whenever he'll want to do these things, it won't be as successful as on the day of his birthday. Because if a person wants to thank Hashem in the middle of the year, he reminds himself, \"I want to thank Hashem, you know, You gave me a neshamah, You made me, You gave me life, you have to thank Hashem for life.\" Or one day I decide I want to thank Hashem for the fact, like every day we say, we thank השם שלא עשני גוי, it's a berachah we make every day, and every day I want to make a חשבון הנפש, fine. But if you do it on the day of your birthday, you should do it always takeh, but on the day of your birthday, it has extra koach, because the mazal is much stronger, and the mazal helps you out, so you're going to be much more successful if you do it on that day. I just was thinking that if we're talking about the mazalot, so the English birthday also has something to do with the mazalot. Is there anything in the secular birthday? Because when we talk about secular birthday, it's not a גויישע thing. People think there's a יידישע calendar, there's a גויישע calendar. It's not a גויישע calendar, it's not גוייש. The secular calendar is just a solar calendar. There is a solar year, solar cycle, and there's a lunar cycle. So we count according to the moon, the גוים count according to the sun, but there is על פי הלכה a cycle of the sun. The sun's year is 365 days, the year of the moon is 354. We find in הלכה different things which are connected to 365 days. The ketoret, we say every morning in davenen the ketoret, how many מנים were there? שלש מאות וששים וחמשה כנגד ימות החמה. 365 because of the days of the year. The Rambam says why are, how do we remember that there are 365 negative mitzvot? כנגד, no, he says כנגד ימות החמה. There are 365 days a year. So there is such a thing. So maybe there is something there. I never saw anywhere to be written that there should be anything in English birthday, if it means something, I don't know. I have to tell you, I once, when Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky, once I was speaking to him, and I brought him to the ישיבה, and I was talking with the בחורים, and I remember on the way back, when we stopped the car, I went out of the car, I escorted him back into his hotel. Actually, he knew that I was going to give a shiur. He asked me what time I give a shiur, so I said at quarter to one. So he looked at his watch, he said, \"I don't want you to escort me. Run fast, run fast, I don't want you to miss a minute of your...\" Anyway, but as he was walking, he turns around to me, he says, in Yiddish, \"איך וויל אייך זאגן, היינט איז מיין יום הולדת.\" \"Today's my birthday.\" \"Oh,\" I said, \"mazal tov.\" And he turns around and smiles. \"לויט די ימות החמה.\" My English birthday. That's what he says to me, with a smile. So, I don't know if it's just a joke or something, but I've never seen anything that to be celebrated English birthday, not in halacha, not in sefarim, not anything, because we don't follow, as far as a calendar is concerned. There is such a thing as 365 days a year according to one cheshbon, but we don't follow that as a calendar, so therefore the mazalot that apply to that, I'm not so familiar, I really don't know what kind of mazalot are there, but al kol panim, I never saw anything. So, basically, it goes according to the Yiddishe calendar, and when the Yiddishe calendar day comes, הימים האלה נזכרים ונעשים, the day again is as if the birth comes over again, your bar mitzvah comes over again, and that's a time to utilize it for kedushah. And this is the basis of what the Rebbe explained in concerning why he feel that you should, you should celebrate a birthday. The only thing, one might ask, but didn't we say before that the Gemara says, \"נוח לו לאדם שלא נברא\", that it's better for a person that he wasn't born? And if it's better for a person that he wasn't born, what's the simchah that I was born? So the Alter Rebbe in Likkutei Torah says, the Gemara doesn't say, \"טוב לו לאדם שלא נברא\". \"טוב\" would mean it's better that he was born. \"נוח\", noach means easier! Definitely, it's easier, would have been easier if we wouldn't have been born. There are so many hardships in life, and so many obstacles in our way, so it would be much easier if we wouldn't be born. It doesn't say \"טוב לו\". How could you say it's better if we were... if Hashem made you born, Hashem made you a human being, you're going to say it's better if He didn't? I mean, you know better than Hashem? Hashem says it's good for you! How do we know He says it's good for you? Because He put you here! He wouldn't put us here if it's bad for us. Certainly, it's good for us. All we're saying is \"נוח לו לאדם שלא נברא\", it would be easier. True, it's easier. But once somebody came to the Rebbe, the Rebbe asked him to do something, he wasn't even a ליובאוויטשער, but he was by יחידות, and the Rebbe asked him to do him a favor, do something, it's a shlichut some place. A while later, and he said, \"When you finish, come back and tell me what you did.\" So he came back and he told the Rebbe he did it, but it was very, very hard. So the Rebbe says to him, זינט ווען האט איר געהאט א קאנטראקט מיט דעם אייבערשטן אז עס דארף זיין גרינג? Since when you make a contract with Hashem has to be easy? So it's hard. But you got to do what you got to do. It would have been easier if we wouldn't have been born, but the fact is it's better that we were born, and we have Torah, mitzvot, and with things the neshamah came down here, things that we can't do otherwise. So that's what it is.

The only thing is people could still ask, so why is it that for so many, know how many hundreds, thousands of years that people did not celebrate birthdays? But that's not a kashya because you could ask the same she'eilah by many, many minhagim that we have, that everyone has. Now, how old are the minhagim? There are some minhagim go back 2,000 years. Some minhagim go back 1,500, some two, some, some 500, some חסידישע מנהגים that happened 200 years. If these minhagim are good things to do, why didn't they happen 200 years ago? What, what's, why all of a sudden they became, why weren't they there before? Tell you the answer. This is the way Hashem made it, that as time passes, he allowed Gedolei Yisrael, tzaddikim to see what is needed and what is important to stress. I'll give you an example, not an example, but to show. It says in a pasuk in קהלת, הכל עשה יפה בעתו, everything was in its right time. You know what the Midrash says? An interesting thing. ראויה היתה התורה להינתן על ידי אדם הראשון. Really the Torah could have been given through Adam HaRishon. And Hashem decided the right time will be 26 generations later, 2,448 years later. The same thing it says, כל מה שתלמיד ותיק עתיד לחדש ניתן למשה מסיני. Whatever a proper talmid chacham, tzaddik will renew in Torah was given למשה מסיני. The question is if it was given למשה מסיני, but obviously it wasn't revealed, so different tzaddikim in different times reveal it. If this was given L'Moshe miSinai, why wasn't it revealed? If today a talmid chacham will come and say something very special, and obviously it's good, and if it's right, it was already given miSinai. It's 3,317 years, something like that, from Sinai, why it wasn't revealed until now? The answer is הכל עשה יפה בעתו, everything has its own time, and great tzaddikim see when the time is. Why are tzaddikim called עיני העדה, the eyes of Klal Yisrael? Why aren't they called the head? They're called the head also. Why are they also called why are they also called the eyes? Because their greatness is that they could see. They see what the when is the time for what. And the reason for some things, we don't know, we can't explain everything, why this minhag and this good deed, and this way happened then, but it's they know it, we don't know it. Sometimes we know reasons, we could see reasons, sometimes we don't. I'll tell you even more. We, as Chassidim, know that Chassidus, the דרך החסידות is a very important thing. Why didn't it happen before if it's so important? The Baal Shem Tov came 200-some-odd years ago and started it, why wasn't it before? Now, the Baal Shem Tov, I have to say one thing, this I must make clear, the Baal Shem Tov did not make anything new. There is no such thing as making new things in Yiddishkeit, nothing new! All he did was he took things that are there in Torah, but were not stressed enough or yet stressed, he felt now came the time to stress these inyanim. Like the, the Rebbe taitsh't and it says in Tanya, I'm going to finish in one minute, it says in Tanya that quotes a pasuk where it says that לעולם ה' דברך נצב בשמים, the pasuk says forever your words are standing in shamayim. So the, Alter, in Tanya, he says פירוש Baal Shem Tov, the Baal Shem Tov explained that that means that the words of Hashem that he said when he created the world, the 10 statements, are always there. So the Rebbe asks, the Alter Rebbe was a בקי in everything, Gemara and Mishnayot and and Midrashim. It's a Midrash! The Midrash Tehillim on the pasuk says, why does he say פירוש Baal Shem Tov? If Baal Shem Tov said it. So he says, we don't understand, usually we'd say פירוש means explained, interpreted. פירוש also means spread. The Baal Shem Tov spread it out! In other words, it was there before, he spread it to the world. And everything like that. Chassidut expects a person to be besimcha. It's a chidush of the Baal Shem Tov that you have to be besimcha? It's a פסוק, עבדו את ה' בשמחה. But it wasn't stressed so much, the time wasn't so needed then, came it was needed. So everything like that. So if a person knows the greatness of the Rebbe and seeing that he could see that now is the time that it's needed, and one of the points there is, sometimes we could know why it happens, and the Rebbe said, when there is more darkness in the world, you have to find ways of bringing more light. When the Rebbe started the whole thing with girls bentshing licht, he said, first of all, he proved that there were minhagim like that before, but then he said, darkness is coming to the world every day, more darkness and more darkness, so we have to do things now to bring more light. So if a little girl will do as מצות חינוך, make a beracha and bring light in the world through a mitzvah, adds more light. If we're able to find something that people will, because of that, thank Hashem more, people, because of that, will appreciate that Hashem gave them Torah u'mitzvot more, so that brings more recognition of Hashem, that will counter the fact that there is so much more apikorsut that comes into the world. So we have to counter it. So the fact that it didn't happen till now, the time wasn't there, whatever the reason is, and now the time was right, and now the Rebbe said it's the time to do it, and that's what we do. But the main thing is if we do it in the proper way. If we do the same minhag, we celebrate our birthdays like, להבדיל, the גוים or people who don't know, that's taka not our minhag. That's not our minhag, that's מנהג הגוי. So have candles, and blow out the candles, and מאך זיך משוגע, מאך זיך נאריש, these are שגעונות, these are משוגעתן, that's not what a birthday is. A birthday is a day to thank Hashem for giving us what he gave us, thank Hashem for giving us Torah u'mitzvot, and making a cheshbon hanefesh. And if we do that, we bring more light in the world, and that dispels the darkness, and the more light we bring, the faster the darkness will be pushed out, and then the great light will come, which is והיה השם לך לאור עולם, השם will be the great light, and he'll bring משיח צדקנו במהרה בימינו. Rashi in Chumash said that. Rashi in Chumash says. The Chodesh, the month. Not the day, the month, the month. The first day of the month was. Yes. So? Depends why you... Presents, that I don't know about presents. No, it's not an ego trip. Depends why. If you do it like that, that's an ego trip, but if you do it because you realize that Hashem gave you and you have you have a mission, that's not ego. That brings out more the bitul to Hashem. You could sometimes get kavod. I want to... he's asking me a question: by making a birthday party, you get kavod. But sometimes getting kavod does not mean it gives you ego. They once asked who was it, I think Rabbi Yisrael Ruzhiner who behaved like like a baal gaavah, so to speak. Used to be like riches, and also the kavod he got was כבוד מלכים. So someone once asked him, \"How do you take this great kavod? They're giving you they're giving you so much honor. Doesn't that make you a baal gaavah, and we know a person has to be an anav?\" So he says, \"I'll explain it to you. I'll give you a mashal,\" he said. The mashal was like this: The king, hardly ever anyone sees him. He's always locked up in his house, and once in a few years he comes out. No one even really knows what he looks like. The general of the army is somebody who's in public, and he's a very important figure, and people know him. And imagine the general was walking down the street, people would give him kavod, and let him pass by, and bow down to him, salute, whatever. Once the king was walking down the street with with the general together. People saw two people people on the street saw two people walking. They recognized the general, they didn't know who the other guy was, they didn't know it was the king. So what they started doing was as the general walked by, they started bowing to the general and saying to the general words of of kavod, ignoring the king. So the general told somebody later, \"Could you imagine how I felt? The more kavod they gave me, I every time they gave me kavod, I was ready to bury myself. Standing in front of the king, and they're giving me kavod and not the king!\" It's the same thing here. He says, \"If I realize that Hashem is always next to me, and I see them giving me kavod, the more kavod they give me, the more I want to bury myself, the worse it is.\" There's a story with the Alter Rebbe, that once by hakafot they made an announcement, they were mechabed the Alter Rebbe with hakafot. So they made an announcement, the gabbai: \"איז ממכבד כבוד קדושת אדוננו מורנו ורבנו מיט הקפות.\" When he said it, the Alter Rebbe smiled. So the gabbai saw the Alter Rebbe liked it, so he repeated it, to give the Alter Rebbe more pleasure: \"איז ממכבד כבוד קדושת אדוננו מורנו ורבנו מיט הקפות.\" That same evening later on that same gabbai happened to walk by the Alter Rebbe's room and he overheard the Alter Rebbe pacing back and forth, crying. What was he saying? And he's speaking loud to himself, and this is what he's speaking: \"איין מאל אדוננו מורנו ורבנו, נאך א מאל אדוננו מורנו ורבנו.\" In other words, if it wasn't enough they said it once, they had to say it twice? So when the gabbai heard it, he felt very bad. Obviously he made the Alter Rebbe have עגמת נפש. So the next day he walked over to him, he said, \"Rebbe, I apologize, but I tell you the truth why I did it, because I saw you smile, so obviously I saw you enjoyed it.\" Says, \"You know why I smiled? You have to be מקבל יסורים באהבה. You have to accept suffering with ahavah, so I smiled. You give me yisurim, but that's what you're doing.\" There's another story, just to finish with this story, that Tzemach Tzedek once took trip around to other cities in Russia, to see chasidim should come and see him, and he took along his son, the Maharil, the older one of the older the oldest son. So Later on, the Alter Rebbe came when the Tzemach Tzedek came back, he found a letter that his son wrote to the rebbetzin, to his mother, to the Tzemach Tzedek's rebbetzin, to the Maharil's mother. And he describes there the great kavod that his father is getting. Describes at length, in detail, the kavod that they gave, that they how, and everything that they did. And the Tzemach Tzedek read that letter, he called him in and gave him a psak. Said, \"I don't understand. How could you write this?\" This is what he said: \"ביי מיר גיסט זיך בלוט און דו שרייבסט אזא בריוו?\" ביי מיר, blood is Why? Aye, they gave him kavod, but every the more kavod they gave is ביי מיר גיסט זיך בלוט. So we're not at that level, but at the same time, if we really feel that all this is because Hashem, we're doing it for Hashem, so you could get kavod, but it's not really your kavod. It's doing it because you're celebrating the fact that Hashem gave you an opportunity to do mitzvot. So it's your kavod? It's celebrating Hashem, celebrating Hashem's mission that He gave to us. Then it's not gaavah. But we have to be careful, true. We have to make sure it's not. Rabbi? Yes. Meaning an extra shiur in nigleh and chasidut on that day. Those who want to stay. Everybody, for those who were not here,