נשא, the first שיחה of פרשת נשא in חלק י"ג, it happens to be a very short שיחה. So what I'm going to do is, first I'm going to learn the שיחה with some of the הערות, which is long because there's more time, because the שיחה itself will take very short. Another thing I'm going to do this time is I'm going to, after I finish learning the whole שיחה, I'm going to go back and point out a few of the things that the רבי wrote, changed when the רבי edited the שיחה. In other words, the way it was given into the רבי, and the way it's printed, the רבי changed things, wrote things. So I happen to have access to it, so I will bring out a few of the things, some of the things, the רבי changed a lot like in every שיחה, changed and wrote and added הערות, but I will bring out just a few points later after we finish. I'll go back to the beginning and go through some of the things. Okay, we'll start. Happens to be an easy שיחה, short שיחה and an easy שיחה. כמדובר כמה פעמים, the רבי says, like I spoke many times, הכלל שהתורה היא נצחית, this rule that the תורה is eternal, בתקפה הוא, it is strong, it is true, real, בנוגע לכל התורה כולה, concerning everything in תורה, גם הענינים שבתורה, even those things in the תורה, אשר בגשמיות אינם בזמננו, physically they are not, they don't apply in our times, but nevertheless, נמצאים הם גם עכשיו ברוחניותם, they are, they do apply nowadays in the רוחניות aspect of it, והרי הרוחניות היא מקור ושורש הגשמיות, רוחניות is the source of the גשמיות. So

ממילא the רבי is trying to bring out that therefore, even though בגשמיות it's not, but the main part of it, which is the רוחניות, which is the source of the גשמיות, is there. So what's it בנוגע to our פרשה? וכן בענין הנאמר בפרשתנו. So that also will apply to something that's written in our פרשה, פרשת נשא. What is written in פרשת נשא? מנין בני גרשון ובני מררי, the תורה counts the family of גרשון and מררי, because the לויים were counted in the previous סדרה. All the אידן were counted in פרשת במדבר, and the לויים were counted. But then at the end of last week's סדרה the אייבערשטער starts dividing, counting the people who were given positions. So each family, שבט לוי was divided into three families, each family was given certain position, what they have to do. So here the תורה talks about גרשון and מררי, but it started, this whole thing started at the end of the previous פרשה with concerning קהת. So the רבי says, this that we said that the תורה is eternal ברוחניות, applies also to what we learn in this פרשה, מנין בני גרשון ובני מררי, what the תורה counts the children of גרשון and מררי and what they did, והתחלתו, and the beginning of this, הנאמרת בסוף פרשה הקודמת, which was written at the end of the previous פרשה, which is מנין בני קהת, which is the counting of קהת and what they will do and their appointments, המסתיים בפרשתנו, and that finishes off in our פרשה, that even this, שאף שבגשמיות אינו ענין נצחי, even though בגשמיות this is not something eternal, שהיה הציווי למנותם, there was a commandment to count them, that was a one-time commandment, only then, and also המנין עצמו היה רק פעם אחת, even that counting was one time only. Even for them, the counting was once, בשנה השנית לצאתם מארץ מצרים, the first year, second, the beginning of the second year when they left מצרים. So even though it's something that happened then, nothing to do with now, הרי ענינו ברוחניות הוא נצחי, but the ענין רוחני that this shows, the הוראה that we get from here, is still נצחי, is still eternal, בכל דור ודור, in every generation. So what is the lesson, the רוחניות'דיקע פשט that we have in this ענין of the counting of בני גרשון and קהת and מררי? ויובן זה בהקדם, this the רבי said I'll explain this, will be understood by first explaining,

למה הוצרכו ישראל לישאר במדבר ארבעים שנה? Why did that have to happen that the אידן stayed in that desert for forty years? הן אמת, it's true, שעל ידי חטא המרגלים, because of the sin of the spies, of the מרגלים, נגזר עליהם שלא יכנסו לארץ ארבעים שנה, so the אייבערשטער made a decree that they can't go into ארץ ישראל for forty years, יום לשנה יום לשנה, a day for a year a year for a day, meaning they were, the spies were in ארץ ישראל when they went to spy forty days, so the אייבערשטער said for every day they were there and they came back with a bad report was a sin, they'll have to stay forty years. So true, that they had to do, אבל הרי הגזירה היתה רק בנוגע לכניסתם לארץ ישראל, the גזירה was, the decree was, you cannot go into ארץ ישראל for forty years. חטאו בזה שלא רצו לעלות לארץ ישראל, they sinned by the fact they didn't want to go up to ארץ ישראל, לכן נענשו שלא יכנסו אליה, so they were punished that they won't not go in, מדה כנגד מדה, measure for a measure, אבל הרי היו יכולים להיות מ' שנה אלו במקום ישוב, so they could have stayed these forty years ולא במדבר, but not in a desert. That wasn't part of the The reason was not to go to ארץ ישראל, but it doesn't why do they have to go to the desert? ובפרט, especially what kind of desert? המדבר הגדול והנורא, a great, it's a לשון of the פסוק, a big desert, awesome desert, fearful desert, נחש שרף ועקרב, a place of snakes and scorpions, צמאון אשר אין מים, where there is no water, is thirst there, such a terrible desert, why did they have to stay there? We understand why they couldn't go into ארץ ישראל, but why did they have to be in a desert? והענין הוא, so the תירוץ is, the ענין is,

מבואר בליקוטי תורה ריש פרשת נשא, in ליקוטי תורה at the beginning of פרשת נשא, it says like this: שטעם נסיעתם במדבר עם המשכן וכליו, the reason that they traveled in the מדבר with the משכן and its vessels, היה כדי להכניע כח יניקת החיצונים, to subdue the power of the קליפות, of the the nursing that the קליפה gets, ששרש יניקתם הוא במדבר דוקא, the root of where קליפה gets comes from that concept of מדבר, because we know that מדבר, the Rebbe mentioned a שיחה also, we know that a desert is described in a פסוק that it's a place אשר לא ישב אדם שם, that a person doesn't live there, and the word אדם also could apply to the אויבערשטער, he's called the אדם העליון, and the מדבר represents a place where the אויבערשטער, כביכול, is not found. Now the אויבערשטער is all over, but it's a place that represents where people don't have the אויבערשטער, they don't accept the אויבערשטער, they don't believe the אויבערשטער. That's קליפה. So physically, a מדבר represents a place where אדם לא ישב שם, the אויבערשטער is not there, קליפה. So קליפה gets from the מדבר. So by the אידן traveling in the מדבר with the משכן and the כלים, imagine this holy thing, that subdued, that was מבטל the קליפה, the כח of the חיצונים, חיצונים is another word for קליפה. ויתירה מזו, goes even more, על ידי שהכניעו את החיצונים, by them subduing the חיצונים, והחשך המסתיר, and the darkness that covers up on the truth, covers up on the אויבערשטער, which means conceals אלוקות, היו ממשיכים גילוי אלוקות, by doing that they were ממשיך אלוקות. ובכדי לפעול זה, הוצרכו להיות במדבר מ' שנה. In order to accomplish that, they had to be there for 40 years. So why they couldn't go into ארץ ישראל, that's a simple reason, because they couldn't go, the אויבערשטער punished them not to go into ארץ ישראל. They were in the מדבר for a positive reason, to break the קליפות, break the darkness, and it took 40 years. ובפשטות, and we see it even what they did, not only על פי חסידות, פשוט, על ידי מסעות בני ישראל במדבר, when the אידן traveled in the מדבר, so פשוט רש״י says, היה ענן הורג את הנחשים ועקרבים, the cloud that went ahead of them went ahead and killed all the snakes and scorpions on the way. That's one thing. So the

fact that it was a מדבר was changed, physically was changed by the אידן being there. A snake, a scorpion, all these represent קליפה, but being in the מדבר, physically it was all killed. So that shows how this ענין רוחני that it was מבטל קליפה came out even בגשמיות. וגם, another thing, הפיכת המדבר למקום ישוב, being in the מדבר changed the מדבר to being a place where people live. מדבר נבדל ממקום ישוב, why? Because what's the difference between a מדבר, a desert, and a מקום ישוב? בעיקר בשני ענינים, two things. One thing is the פסוק said, לא ישב אדם שם, no one lives there, no person lives there. כשהיו ששים רבוא בני ישראל, ישב אדם שם. But when the אידן were in the מדבר, and there were six mil- 600,000 אידן were there, so now it wasn't a place where people don't live, now they live there. And if you look in הערה 11, the Rebbe even brings an interesting thing. The Rebbe brings here that the גמרא says in שבת that בזמן שישראל שרויין במדבר, when the אידן were in the מדבר, הוי נחשב לרשות הרבים, the מדבר was a רשות הרבים. The גמרא tells talks talks there about carrying. You're not allowed to carry from a רשות היחיד to a רשות הרבים, from a private domain to a public domain. What's a public domain? Where people live there. Private domain means not different all kinds of things there. A מדבר, the גמרא says, is not a רשות היחיד, it's not a רשות הרבים. Why is it not רשות הרבים? Because people don't go there. The time when the אידן were in the desert, it was considered a רשות הרבים, a public domain, because people lived there. So we see that פשוט physically they changed the מדבר while they were there from being a place where it's not a רשות הרבים, it became a רשות הרבים. What's another thing what a מדבר is? ארץ לא זרועה, it's a place that things don't grow, it's not planted, things don't grow. ובהיות בני ישראל במדבר, when the אידן were in the מדבר, היה המים מבאר של מרים, then it says חז״ל say that the water of the well of מרים, מגדל מיני דשאים ואילנות לאין סוף, it made trees and grass and things grow. So automatically we see physically the מדבר changed from being a מדבר, and this all represents the רוחניות רוחניותדיקע part, that the אידן with the ארון, the משכן, going through the מדבר, changed it from being a place of קליפה and made into a place of קדושה. Now, in הערה 8, let's go back a second to הערה 8, the רבי asks like a שאלה, if the purpose of going to the מדבר was to be מכניע, to subdue the קליפה, but they only had or stayed in the מדבר because they couldn't go into ארץ ישראל for 40 years. What happened if they wouldn't do the the sin of the מרגלים? They wouldn't, they would go into ארץ ישראל right away. What would happen with this? What would happen with the fixing the מדבר ברוחניות? So the רבי says, ומ״ש דאילולא חטא המרגלים לא היו צריכים להיות במדבר מ׳ שנה, and this, that without son of the sin of the מרגלים they wouldn't have to be there, יש לומר, the רבי says we could say, לפי שאז הי׳ הבירור באופן אחר, then בכלל there would be a different way of being מברר, of purifying the קליפה, על דרך המבואר בתורה אור בנוגע לחטא עץ הדעת, like it says in תורה אור. חטא עץ הדעת caused that there's קליפה in the world, and now we have a job to be מברר the קליפה of the world. But it only happened that the קליפה in the world because אדם הראשון sinned. Had אדם הראשון not sinned, then there wouldn't be קליפה in the world. If there wouldn't be קליפה in the world, so what's the purpose of the creation? The purpose of the creation to דירה בתחתונים, to elevate קליפה, but that only came because he sinned. But what was the כוונה before? So it says in תורה אור, if they wouldn't have sinned, אדם וחוה, there would have been a different type of עבודה. True, but now that this is עבודה, the same thing here. If they wouldn't sin with the מרגלים, they would have a different way of being מברר the מדבר, whatever it is. בפועל ממש, they were in the מדבר for 40 years, and they were מברר the מדבר. וזהו גם הטעם בפנימיות הענינים, and we're going for this is the reason, the deeper reason, שנמנו הלוים במיוחד מבן שלשים שנה, there was a special counting of the לויים of 30 years. In other words, there was a counting of the לויים in last week's פרשה, whole שבט לוי, counting every person in שבט לוי from a month old. See, by the regular אידן, it started from 20 years, between 20 and 60. By the לויים, it was from a month old. That's a certain number, certain counting. Here we're talking about another counting. We're counting the special counting that they counted those that are able to do the עבודה in the משכן. And they counted the people, the לויים that were 30 years old and on. So this is the ענין in the counting that you counted them לעבודתם ולמשאם, the נשיאת המשכן והכלים, if you counted them and you appointed them in carrying the משכן and the כלים, שעל ידם הופכת את המדבר לארץ נושבת כנ״ל, like with the תורה, and carrying the משכן and the כלים was what caused the בירור, that well the elevation of the קליפה of the מדבר. So this is the reason why the תורה made this special counting and appointing them, כי על ידי המנין המיוחד בענין זה, by counting specifically for this, נעשה במיוחד בזה דבר חשוב, it became a דבר חשוב. This goes, see there's a הערה here, the הערה 14, this comes from the של״ה. The

של״ה says בכלל, why did the אויבערשטער want to count the אידן? Usually you count, you want to know what you have, how much you have. The אויבערשטער doesn't know? So the של״ה says there's a דין that דבר שבמנין אינו בטל. Anything that is counted becomes a דבר חשוב. When do you count things? Something that's important. So you sell it by by number. So the אויבערשטער counted because it says a דבר חשוב that's counted doesn't become בטל. Like this things become בטל if you have רוב, majority of others, it becomes בטל in others. Something that's counted doesn't become בטל. So the אויבערשטער counted to make sure that the אידן don't become בטל. So the רבי says the same thing here also. The אויבערשטער specifically counted now, specifically these the the לויים from these three three families, which means all the לויים from 30 years on, in order to count them for this job. Why? Because by that they became specifically חשוב for this job that they got. And what's the job? To be מברר the קליפות. איי, it's possible you try to be מברר קליפה, sometimes you get sucked into the קליפה rather than be מברר it. So the אויבערשטער wanted to make him a דבר חשוב, ולכן המדבר לא יפעל עליהם, so they won't become בטל in the מדבר, and the מדבר won't have a bad effect on them. כי דבר שבמנין לא בטל, because something that's counted is not בטל. ואדרבה, הם יהפכוה לארץ נושבת. Not only will they not become בטל, but they will change the מדבר into an inhabited place, ברוחניות, this means getting rid of the קליפה, which is the ענין of מדבר. Now this is what the רבי explains is the פשט in the תורה, why the תורה tells us about קהת and גרשון, מררי, and their counting part as their job in carrying, because this was to tell you the אויבערשטער gave them the כח, they should be able to be מברר the מדבר. הענין זה, this ענין, לעשות ממדבר ארץ נושבת, that you're able to take from a מדבר, which represents קליפה, and change it over into an inhabited place which represents קדושה, והכח הזה מלמעלה על ידי הציווי למנותם, and the אויבערשטער gave the כח by commanding to count them, that gave them the כח that they should be able to accomplish the job, הוא ענין נצחי. That part is an eternal thing, ככל הענינים שבתורה, כנ״ל, like we said before. everything in תורה, בכל דור ודור in every generation. This is, from this we could take a lesson even in our times. And this is what the רבי says:

כשמתבונן האדם בסביבה בו הוא נמצא, when a person thinks about the environment where he finds himself, לפעמים כזו, sometimes it comes out like this, שיראה, he will see, שהיא בבחינת מדבר אשר לא ישב אדם העליון שם. Look around yourself, and where are you? You're in a place which is like a desert, which a desert, we said, is a person doesn't live, and we're טייטשינג ברוחניות means the person means אדם העליון, the אייבערשטער is not there. What does it mean you realize that around you, your environment is a place where is like a מדבר, the אייבערשטער is not there? כי רוב בני אדם בסביבתו, because most of the people around you, אינם יודעים ענין אלקות, don't know about אלקות, which is the אדם העליון, the אייבערשטער is the אדם העליון, he's not there, which type he's not there, people don't recognize him. ואלה היודעים, and those that do know, ואלה המשתדלים להתנהג כהוראת הקדוש ברוך הוא בתורה, and those that do get, be כסדר, awakened to behave as the אייבערשטער tells us in the תורה, still הרי אין צדיק בארץ אשר יעשה טוב ולא יחטא. There is no צדיק in the land, in the world, that does only good and doesn't sin, על כל פנים ביחס מכדבעי למהוי, שצריך להיות בעבודתו. Now in חסידות it says that the word יחטא means sin, but יחטא also means missing, cuz you do have צדיקים that never, didn't sin anything. But there's no צדיק that didn't miss a little bit, that he could've done more. So at least that, you learn around and he should, could didn't do enough, he says כדבעי למהוי, how much you should do, שצריך להיות בעבודתו, that has to be in your עבודה. In הערה 17*, the Rebbe brings the גמרא in כתובות, cuz the גמרא tells there a story about a great, great rich man that did the greatest צדקה, and nevertheless bad things happened, and the גמרא says how could that be? Didn't he do so much צדקה? And the גמרא answers כדבעי למהוי לא עבד, he didn't do as much as he could, and even for that he was punished. So the Rebbe says, you look around, you see first of all most of the people don't even care about the אייבערשטער, the אייבערשטער is not there. Those that do care, and those that, you know, are כסדר, but everybody has something missing. שעל פי זה, based on that חשבון you make, הרי נמצא הוא במדבר אשר לא ישב אדם שם. You find yourself in a מדבר where the אייבערשטער is not there, כי אדם העליון אינו נמצא שם באופן של התיישבות, קביעות, the אייבערשטער is not there settled. The word, it's a play on words, it's not a play, it's a טייטש on the word. The לשון in a מדבר is לא ישב אדם שם. What does לא ישב אדם שם mean? A person doesn't live there. But the word ישב, also see, the Rebbe brings the הערה 18, look in the גמרא in מגילה, the גמרא says אין ישיבה אלא לשון עכבה. The word ישיבה, living, means staying there, not just walking by. So here you see people, sometimes they're better, sometimes, but not לא ישב. The אייבערשטער is not ישב, is not there בקביעות in a permanent way that he settled there. So what happens if you make that חשבון? ויכול הדבר להביאו ליפול בעצבות ויאוש, חס ושלום. So the person that's serving השם, he makes, realizes that, could come come sad, come depressed, he could give up hope, חס ושלום. And what's he going to want to do? לנטוש שליחותו בעניי עירו. He wants to leave, run away from his שליחות in the place where he is living. And the Rebbe uses the words here, it says when you give צדקה and you have a lot of people to give, עניי עירך קודמין, first comes the poor people of your city. You have to give what you have left, you can give other places. So the Rebbe uses the same לשון here: you live in a city, this city is called עניי עירך. So you think, you look around, what do I have around here? I have the people are not good, it's a מדבר. So if it's a מדבר, what am I going to do? I'm going to leave them. And the Rebbe uses the word עניי עירך already to hint that this is wrong, just like the גמרא says that you have to give first to עניי עירך, so he's But that's what he says, you're going to leave עניי עירך, ולנוס למקום אחר, you're going to run away someplace else. על זה באה ההוראה, here comes the lesson, לנסוע במדבר. No, the אייבערשטער said to travel in the מדבר, ולשנותו, and you have to travel in the מדבר and change it, כנסיעת בני ישראל במדבר שבפרשתנו, like the יידן traveled in the מדבר in our פרשה, כשם שנסיעתם במדבר אז היתה על פי ציווי הקדוש ברוך הוא, just like when they traveled in the מדבר the אייבערשטער commanded them to do it, והפכו המדבר למקום ישוב, and they changed over the מדבר, the desert, for an inhabited place, כן הוא בנוגע לכל אחד ואחד מישראל בכל הזמנים. So too בנוגע, every ייד, now the Rebbe stresses, when it's italics, it's like the Rebbe used to underline those words, underlines that everyone has this know, has to know, שבכל מקום שהוא נמצא, any place where he is, גם אם המקום הוא מדבר שמם, even though it's a desolate desert, הרי היותם שמה, היותו שם הוא לא במקרה חס ושלום, he's there not by

chance, אלא בשליחותו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, with the שליחות of the, he's the שליחות of the אייבערשטער, like it says מה' מצעדי גבר כוננו, that steps of man is guided by the אייבערשטער, and the purpose is בכדי שיהפך אותו, he should change it, על ידי עבודתו, through his עבודה, למקום מושב אדם אדם עליון, make him a place where the אויבערשטער does live, the אדם עליון should live. And that's what we take from here. Just like in the מדבר the אויבערשטער said, travel in the מדבר, go to a מדבר which is קליפה, but change it over. Every איד has to follow that. Now, the רבי in אות י״ט says of something very important, because this is something when we talk about being מקרב אידן, moving to שליחות to some place, everyone asks the שאלה from this רמב״ם. הגם now people stopped asking the שאלה so much because everybody else does it too. All the ליטווישע also do these things, they copy us, it's alright, that's very good! But they used to, years ago, when they were against it, they used to always ask, "Look at the רמב״ם, look at the רמב״ם!" So let's learn the אות. The רבי says when he says you have to go to the מדבר where there's no קדושה, no אלקות, and change it, אין סתירה לזה ממה שכתב הרמב״ם הלכות דעות ריש פרק ו, there's no contradiction from what the רמב״ם writes in הלכות דעות.

The רמב״ם writes like this: אם היה במדינה שמנהגיה רעים, if a person lives in a country, place, where their customs are bad, they don't behave properly, ילך, go away! Go away from there. You can't You can't live there. So לכאורה, it's the opposite what we're saying here. The רבי says no, go, go to the מדבר! Go to the place where there's no קדושה, no אלקות! So he answers: כי הטעם לדין זה הוא, the reason for this דין is, ממה שכתב הרמב״ם שם לפנ״ז, like the רמב״ם writes. The רמב״ם says why why does he say that if you live in a place where is no good behavior, you have to run away, go away? So he writes before that, because דרך ברייתו של אדם להיות נמשך, that the דרך, the nature of a human being is to follow, to be schlepped into what other people do, ויהיה כמנהג אנשי מדינתו, so he will behave like the people of that place. לפיכך, therefore, the רמב״ם says, אם היה במדינה, if you're in a country that's no good, run away! היינו דזה, that means, שמדובר במי שנמצא במדריגה כזו, we're talking about a person that's in such a level, שנמשך אחר מנהגי המקום, a person that we assume will follow the מנהגים of the place. אבל

אם מחליט בכל התוקף, if a person decides, takes a resolution, resolves with the full strength, שעליו לפעול על הסביבה ולשנותה לטוב, that his job is to פועל, to influence the people around him rather than him being influenced, for that, אמרו חז״ל, so the חז״ל say: הבא לטהר, מסייעין אותו. It says in גמרא, if someone comes to do an עבירה, to become טמא, the אויבערשטער says I don't close the door, I don't force you. I tell you not to do it, but I'm not going to force you. So the door is open. Then it says if someone comes wants to come טהור, not only the door is open, the אויבערשטער מסייע, helps him. But the רבי טייטשט here, and there's ספרים that טייטש also, it doesn't say הבא ליטהר. הבא ליטהר means someone comes to become טהור, then the אויבערשטער helps him. הבא לטהר! לטהר means to make other people טהור! So הבא לטהר אחרים, that's how it says in לקוטי תורה, מסייעין אותו the גמרא says. That means שניתן לו כח ממעלה, the אויבערשטער gives a special power, שלא להיות נמשך, not to be נמשך, ואדרבה, לשנות אנשי המדינה, ואדרבה you will change them, מבפנים like it says here. So what we're talking here is that you have to make up your mind to to help. And the

רבי once also brought another דין concerning this ענין. The רבי doesn't bring it here, but he brought another פסק, that someone asked the שאלה, so the רבי at a פארברענגען he said this. So the רבי answered, there's a דין in in in גמרא פסחים in הלכות פסח, that if a person doesn't בודק חמץ on before פסח, he has and he reminds or he comes to a place on you have to בודק חמץ on פסח. And the גמרא says that the גמרא asks, but if you בודק חמץ on פסח you might find חמץ and by mistake you'll come to eat it! But the גמרא answers, if the whole reason you're checking for the חמץ is to get rid of it, is a שייכות that you will take and and eat it? So the רבי the same thing here. When you go to live in a place, בדרך כלל, you might get influenced by the people there. If it's a place that has no אלקות, no קדושה, don't stay there. But if you're coming to the place in order to influence them, then that protects you from being influenced by them. So the רמב״ם is talking about a regular place, you're coming to live there. So you find like in הלכות בשר בחלב, when it says you should salt meat. What's the reason of salting meat? Because it has blood, and when you salt it, it takes out the blood. So the גמרא asked, מלח, salt has a a property of even putting things in. So while it's drawing it out, maybe it'll put it in? So the גמרא answers, איידי דטריד למיפלט לא בלע, since you put it on and it starts to take it out, you will not it will you will not it will not absorb it back. Here, same thing here: if you go there in order to give out, to give out השפעה on them, you will not absorb. Okay, but this is the lesson that we take from the going in the מדבר and counting the the לויים for carrying, because they went to the מדבר to change the מדבר ברוחניות, the job of every איד. על פי מה שכתב הרמב״ם, let's continue, and based on what the רמב״ם says, that Like this, he says,

ולא שבט לוי בלבד, he says that the שבט לוי did not have a share in ארץ ישראל, we know, because the רמב״ם said, because their job was to serve השם. שבט לוי, the כהנים and the לויים, they were all in the בית המקדש, so they didn't So, they were completely given over to השם, and השם provided them. So, the רמב״ם says, לא שבט לוי בלבד, not only שבט לוי could do that, אלא כל איש ואיש, every person אשר נדבה רוחו אותו, that decides and wants to give himself over, להבדל, to separate himself, ולעמוד לפני השם לשרתו, to stand before השם and to serve השם, יהיה השם חלקו ונחלתו, השם, he could do that, every איד could do that, and השם will Everyone could be like שבט לוי, and השם will be his share and his inheritance, כמו שזכה לכהנים וללויים, like the אייבערשטער was זוכה for the כהנים and לויים. הרי what do we see from there? That כל אחד ואחד, every איד, ואם רק נדבה רוחו אותו, just as long as he is מנדב, he donates himself, להורות דרכיו הישרים, 'cause the רמב״ם says, what is the job of the שבט לוי? To teach other אידן תורה, not to do anything else. So, a איד who wants to do the same thing, he wants to give himself over to teach the אייבערשטער's proper ways, ומשפטיו הצדיקים, and the righteous laws of the אייבערשטער, לרבים, to the to many, יותן לו ממעלה הכח, the אייבערשטער will give him the power, והחשיבות, and the importance, אך שאינו בטל, he won't be בטל, and that refers a little bit, it doesn't say it, it refers to what he said before, you will not be בטל amongst the people you're מקרב, because if you're giving yourself over to teach others, so you won't be בטל. And not only that, and he'll go מדרגא לדרגא, you will go from one level to another, דבני גרשון, that starting from גרשון, it says נשא את ראש גם, it says you should in the פרשה it says in the beginning you should pick up the head, which is count, also בני גרשון. נשיאת ראש בצירוף לגורלם, and you will be

picked up, 'cause נשא really means to pick up. It means to count, to appoint, but it means to pick up, also, also to who? עד למדרגא דבני קהת. First he says in the end of previous פרשה about קהת, קהת is the highest level, they carried the ארון. You will be picked up to be like them, נשא את ראש בפני עצמה, you will be a separate נשא, and you will be reach the level, a higher level. ועל ידי זה ביכלתו לעשות מקום המצאו, that this will make him that he is able to make the place where he is found, גם אם בתחילה היה מדבר, even though it started with being a desert, you will make it for a דירה, and the רבי underlines the word דירה לו יתברך, a דירה for the אייבערשטער, but the word דירה is specifically used, because קליפה is a מדבר where there is no living people, no ישוב, no דירה, and you're going to change over the מדבר to make it a דירה for the אייבערשטער, which is the opposite change over from the מדבר. Now that is בנוגע the רבי said till now, you look around you see you're in a מדבר, what should you do? Don't worry about it. Stay here, don't run away. Work with the מדבר. And then the רבי says, וההוראה האמורה שייכת היא גם בעבודת האדם עם עצמו. This also this lesson we said also fits to the person working with himself. This this was working with somebody else, working with himself. How does it fit?

כאשר אדם עושה חשבון צדק ממה שעבר עליו, when a person makes a proper, a חשבון צדק means a proper, honest calculation of everything that passed on him, לפעמים המסקנא היא, sometimes the total is, שהנהגתו היתה בבחינת מדבר, that your behavior till now was a desert. It wasn't the way it's supposed, like we said that before, a desert is not is not good, not a place where there is no קדושה, no אלוקות. ועל ידי זה אפשר שיבוא לידי יאוש חס ושלום, you could come to lose you lose hope. וחשב, you might think, איך אוכל לשנות את הנהגתי? How could I change my behavior? I'm in a rut, and I can't change. ובפרט אם עבר ושנה בו, certainly if you did it and did again the things that you were doing, the not good things, שנעשית לו כהיתר, the גמרא says if a person does an עבירה twice, it becomes to him in his mind like it's allowed. So this could happen. ובפרט אם היה רגיל בו יותר מב' פעמים, especially if you were רגיל, means you were used to it, you did it more than two times. And the רבי brings in the הערה, הערה 26, he brings from the רמ״א in different places that if you do something three times, that's called רגיל, that's called used to. So if you did it more than two times, you did it three times, more than two, so then you become רגיל. And what happens you're רגיל? הרגל נעשה טבע, it says. הרגל means something that you get used to becomes your nature. So this bad behavior, making a חשבון, became your nature, now I can't get out of it. על זה באה ההוראה, comes the lesson here, כמו שבני לוי, just like the לוי, שהיו אז מבני שלשים שנה ומעלה, they counted here those that were thirty years and up, ועד אז לא עבדו את עבודת המשכן, till now they did not do the עבודה in the משכן. How do we know that they didn't do the עבודה in the משכן? So the רבי says in הערה 27, שהרי זה היה תכף לאחר הקמת המשכן. This counting, this appointing them to carry the ארון and these things happened right in the beginning when they built the משכן, so before that there was no משכן. So they weren't in such a high level. ובכל זה, nevertheless, ניתן להם הכח, they got the power, the strength, ועד לנשא את ראש, till a level of נשא to go higher, שמאז והלאה, at least from then, יהיו נושאי המשכן, they will be carrying the משכן, ויהפכו המדבר למקום ישוב, and they will change over the מדבר to a inhabited place. So they didn't have it before, now they have it. ומעשה רב, מעשה רב means the best lesson is from, as they say in English, the proof is in the pudding. The best lesson is what נעשה כזה בפועל, it actually happened, they טאקע did that. כן הוא בכל אחד ואחד, also the same thing by every איד, שבלי הבט על מצבו עד עכשיו, in spite of how he was till now, his level till now, his מצב. ואם יחליט, if you are מחליט, you make up your mind, you resolve, שמכאן ולהבא, from now on, יעמוד לפני השם לשרתו, that you will stand in front of השם to serve Him and to to work for Him, which is a לשון said by the לויים, יותן לו הכח לטהר את עצמו, yes, you will get the כח to make yourself טהור, which and as בגדיו, also your clothes, and this means all the ענינים that you have in your לבושים, could be is מרומז for the לבושים, מחשבה, דיבור ומעשה, which we know is considered the garment of a person, it could be clean מכל הענינים הבלתי רצויים שהיו בעבר, בעת היותו במדבר, when you were in the desert. ולהמשיך גילוי אלקות בנפשו, and you are now able to bring אלקות into yourself, ועליו יאמר, and the אייבערשטער, you could bring אלקות, the אייבערשטער will say about you, ושכנתי בתוכם, that I rest amongst you, which means that, and בתוכם means in every איד, that אייבערשטער will rest in you, להיות משכן לו יתברך, to become a משכן to the אייבערשטער. Now, the

רבי continues, ובכדי שהאדם והסביבה שלו יעשו דירה לו יתברך, in order for a person himself and the environment, like we said before that the lesson here is also that you should affect your environment, in order that that should be a דירה for השם, צריכה להיות העבודה בשני הקווים דסור מרע ועשה טוב. You have to have two things. There are two things by אידן: there's the positive מצוות and the negative מצוות, or the לשון is סור מרע, stay away from bad and do good. So in order to bring the אייבערשטער into the place, into yourself, into the place, you got to take care of these two things: get rid of the bad and do good. And it gives a משל, כדוגמת מלך בשר ודם, like the משל of a physical king, כשרוצים להכין לו דירה, if you want to make for him a place, let's say you're the king is coming to visit you, you want to have the king stay in your house. Imagine, what do you have to do about it? צריך לפנות ההיכל, it says in חסידות, you have to take you have to clean the your your your place מכל לכלוך וטינוף, from any dirt, ואחר כך לסדר שם כלים נאים, then you put in nice furniture. If you want the king to come in, you have to clean it and then put in. כן הוא גם בעשיית הדירה לו יתברך, same thing when you make a דירה for the אייבערשטער, שצריך לזה ב' ענינים, you have to have both things, סור מרע ועשה טוב, get rid of the bad, get rid of the garbage, get rid of the dirt, and then do good, like in the משל, clean the place from dirt and bring in nice things. וגם ענין זה נרמז בבני גרשון ובני קהת נושאי המשכן, this is also hinted in the בני גרשון, family of גרשון, and the family of קהת who carried the משכן, and we're learning this lesson from them, so the רבי says this detail also we could learn.

גרשון הוא מלשון גירושין, גרשון comes from the word throwing out, chase away. That's סור מרע, that represents getting rid, getting rid of the bad. קהת, מלשון ולו יקהת עמים, קהת comes gathering, there's a פסוק it says when משיח will come in חומש, it says ולו יקהת עמים, all the nations will gather to him. So it says the word יקהת, it means אסיפה, so the same thing here, קהת represents אסיפה וקיבוץ הענינים הטובים, gathering, bringing in good things. So גרשון represents getting rid of the bad things, and קהת represents bringing in the good things. That's that's עשה טוב, that's to do good. So you have to do both. Now what's the סדר? וכמו שגרשון נולד לפני קהת, just like גרשון was older, he was born before קהת, כן הוא גם בסדר העבודה, so that applies also how the סדר is in your עבודה, שבתחילה צריך להיות סור מרע ואחר כך עשה טוב. First you have סור מרע, first you get rid of the bad, which is the born, like גרשון was born first, represents getting rid of the bad, and then קהת, which is עשה טוב. כדוגמת סידור כלים נאים, just like in the משל, that when you when do you put in the nice furniture in the house? שבא לאחר ניקוי ההיכל מכל לכלוך, after you clean up the room, the house, the the the place, the היכל from all dirt. Same thing here: first you clean out the dirt, first is גרשון, then is קהת. Then the רבי continues, וכללות העבודה דסור מרע ועשה טוב, these the עבודה that we said, taking get rid of the bad, going away from the bad and doing good, מובנים הם מהחילוק שבמשא בני גרשון ובמשא בני קהת, we also see it in what they carried. We said גרשון represents סור מרע, גרשון מלשון גירושין, kicking away away the רע. קהת represents עשה טוב. The רבי says it fits, we could see that in what they carried: בני גרשון נשאו את יריעות המשכן בני גרשון carried the יריעות which is the roof, which is the spread on top of the משכן, etc. מה שאין כן בני קהת נשאו כלי המשכן. The קהת carried the כלים of the משכן, the ארון, the Ark, and the שולחן וכולי. What's the difference between the החילוק בין היריעות וכולי והכלים הוא The difference between the יריעות on top and the vessels of the משכן, שהיריעות וכולי מקיפים ומגינים. The יריעות, what was their job? You didn't do any עבודה with the יריעות. What you did with the יריעות was it protected. It's like a roof, a ceiling that protects. It's מקיף, it surrounds and protects. מה שאין כן הכלים, the כלים see the protection is a one protection. There is nothing specific, it's one thing that's done. By the כלים, הרי יש לכל כלי עבודה פעולה מיוחדת ליה. By the כלים each כלי has a separate thing that it's done that it does. You have the ארון, which is for the עדות. ארון העדות means that it's supposed to testify the אויבערשטער. The שולחן with the לחם, with the bread, וכולי וכולי. Everything has. So we see the difference in what they did. וענינם בעבודה, and when you apply this in what we said before, in עבודת האדם, סור מרע, when we say to go away from the bad, is שלילה. שלילה means it's negative, don't do. That's what סור מרע is. Now not doing is the same by everything. I sit now, I'm not doing, not איסור שבת, not the איסור of חמץ, not it's all the same. So that is מגין על האדם מהאסור עליו, that protects a person, it's a general thing, protects a person from something that's forbidden ומזיק it might hurt him. That's what the יריעות are. So that's why גרשון, which represents סור מרע, they carried the protection, which is one protection for everything and that is מגין, protects from bad. עשה טוב, when it comes to the good, עשיית מצוות, you have מצוות, you have different things. שהם עדות, you have certain מצוות which testify certain things. Then you have יד המחלקת צדקה the hand that gives צדקה, נעשית מרכבה ממש. It becomes a מרכבה he brings from תניא פרק ל"ד becomes The hand becomes a מרכבה, becomes בטל, a chariot to the אויבערשטער. Different things. And who carry Who did that? That was קהת. So we see the what they carried fits to what it is. By the ב' העבודות And by these two עבודות, נעשה המשכן ודירה לו יתברך בשלימות. The משכן and the דירה for the אויבערשטער becomes בשלימות. Now here in הערה 34, the רבי says: Now if we said גרשון comes before קהת because גרשון represents סור מרע, that's why גרשון was born first, so how come why were they counted? החשיבות כאן בפנים לפני בני גרשון. Why was קהת counted first? Counting, which gave him the importance, the חשיבות, first it should be גרשון. So the רבי says, הוא מצד חשיבותם. For a different reason, because of נשיאת הארון, it's not because of anything else, because they carried the ארון and the ארון was the most important כלי. So that's why they had this חשיבות. ובפרט לפי מה שכתוב בפנים Certainly based on what we said before, שזה מה שבני קהת נשאו הארון מצד זה שעבודתם נקבעת בעשה טוב. We said inside here in the שיחה that the reason they carried the ארון because their job is עשה טוב, so עשה טוב they had different things. One of them was the ארון. הרי נוסף על זה שעבודה דעשה טוב נעלית יותר מעבודה דסור מרע First of all, עשה טוב is higher. So there's another reason why they were first in counting, even though that's not the סדר how you do things, but it starts off with the most important thing. This is the end, the goal is עשה טוב. And עבודה So besides the fact that it's higher, עבודה דסור מרע היא הכנה והקדמה לעבודה דעשה טוב. That סור מרע is only a preparation for the עבודה of doing good. שהרי עשיית הדירה Like we see in the משל, how do you make a place, a dwelling place for a king? It's על ידי סידור כלים נאים. When do you make it fit for a king? If you put in the nice furniture and you do the nice things. I, before that you got to clean it? ופינוי ההיכל מכל לכלוך הוא רק הקדמה לזה. The fact that you got to clean this is only a preparation to be able to put in. אם כן, הכוונה בעשה טוב הוא קודם בכוונה. So the עשה טוב is the first in goal. That's why it's first. The goal is עשה טוב, bringing קדושה. In order to do that, you've got to have סור מרע. So that's why you have both. בפועל, גרשון was born first because that's the first thing to do, but he was counted second because the first one was קהת who is the עבודה of עשה טוב. This is basically the

שיחה. Like I said in the beginning, I want to go back a little bit just to make it more interesting to see some things that the רבי changed or added. I'm just going to mention a few. So go back if you're following the שיחה inside, go back to this beginning. I'm going to the second paragraph. In the second paragraph, the רבי said that וכולי the stories in this פרשה about the counting of גרשון, that's not eternal בגשמיות. The רבי said no it doesn't matter, בגשמיות it's not, but ברוחניות it is. And the רבי says the לשון here: אם even though בגשמיות it's not eternal, and he says, because there was a commandment to count them, and the counting itself was also only once. The way it was written originally and the רבי changed it, it said that after all the אייבערשטער told him to count once one time. This whole counting was a one time thing. The רבי changed it and made it into two things. Number one, the mere fact that they were counted is something that's counting them. That itself shows it's not eternal. What's it got to do with me? They counted the בני גרשון. Plus the רבי says, and even that counting was only a one time thing. So the רבי changed it to make it into one thing. Then, we'll just go through a few more things here on the next column. The רבי said that in the מדבר, the reason they travelled in the מדבר is to מכניע, to subdue the קליפה. And not only that the רבי said, that the על ידי שהכניעו את החיצונים, ואת החושך המסתיר, that by them being subduing the קליפה, and the darkness that covers up, they were ממשיך אלוקות. The way it was written originally is two things: they were מכניע the חיצונים, and they took away the darkness. But the רבי took away the took out the word took away, and he writes that they were מכניע the חיצונים and the darkness, they were מכניע the darkness. Okay, let's go weiter. In the next page, on page 17, the רבי put in the words in the second paragraph, in the third paragraph, that the counting here that we're talking about is המיוחד בענין זה, or counting מיוחד from 30. The רבי is making it clear what I said when we learned the שיחה, that he's not talking about the fact that they counted the לויים. Last week's פרשה, they counted the אידן also to make him חשוב, they counted the לויים to make him חשוב. We're talking here there was a special counting here. Counting who is going to who are the ones that are going to do this job or that job or this job. And he wanted to make him specifically חשוב for specifically this job, because this job contains the ענין of מבער the קליפה, and that can mean like a כח not to become בטל. So the רבי changed it a few places here. In the here, the paragraph זהו גם הטעם בפנימיות הענינים המיוחד מבן שלושים שנה this he put in those words. Here also, מנין המיוחד בענין זה. So, the רבי put in these words here. In the next, down the page, in this סעיף ג, the רבי said that when a person starts thinking, but he's in a מדבר. How is he in a מדבר? He looks around the people around him, and he sees that most of the people don't know about אלוקות. Then he says, and those that do know, and even those that get נסער, but אין צדיק בארץ אשר יעשה טוב ולא יחטא. Originally it was written that most don't know, and those few that do know, they still, the way it was written before, and they get נסער only from time to time, but it's not real thing. The רבי changed that, the רבי didn't like those words. The רבי changed it, not that the few that the מיעוט that do know, ואלה היודעים, those that do know, and they get נסער, so what's the problem with them? So, the way it was written before, what's the problem with them, that even that they get נסער, it's only very not often, etcetera, etcetera. And the רבי took that out, says that's not the problem. The problem is that אין צדיק בארץ אשר יעשה טוב ולא יחטא. There's no צדיק that is a complete צדיק, certainly על כל פנים, all these words the רבי wrote, על כל פנים somebody who is not missing. Everybody is missing something. So he put in those words. And then, what could a, further on, what could a person think? So the רבי writes here, a person, these are all the רבי's words, a person realizing this, יוכל העובד ליפול בעצבות וייאוש חס ושלום, he could fall into sadness, depression, and give up hope. And what will he do? לנטוש שליחותו, he will drop, he'll leave his שליחות, בענייני עירו, working with the people in his city, ולנוס למקום אחר right away. All these three lines, the רבי put on, put in. The next paragraph where it says, על זה באה ההוראה, the הוראה is לנסוע במדבר, you should travel in the מדבר and to change it. Originally it said the הוראה is from the travelling of the בני ישראל in the מדבר. The רבי added these words: the הוראה is that you have to travel. He made it very clear that you have to travel. In other words, he made it clear that what he's telling you is not that you know, learn from them, that's a that the הוראה is לנסוע במדבר, go to the means the רוחניותדיקע מדבר, go to these places. In הערה 19, the רבי actually, amongst many things that he wrote here, he said if you're מחליט, קשיא was the רמב״ם says that if you live in a place where is no good people, then run away. Don't stay there. So the רבי said if you מחליט, that was at the פארברענגען, if you make up your mind בתוקף, the רבי added the word בכל התוקף. Not enough to make up your mind just strong, with all the strength you have. And then this whole thing that the רבי added here also, that חז״ל say הבא לטהר All the things we said before that you have to change, all that the Rebbe wrote here. Let's go a little further, I want to just say which lines the Rebbe put in. You see on the next page 18 where it says that you will, if you want to be like the לויים, like the רמב״ם says, you will get the כח מלמעלה. So, here, this whole piece from the words: you will get the כח מלמעלה, המה הכח, and the חשיבות, you won't become בטל, דרגא לדרגא, נשא את ראש, נשיאת ראש בצירוף, all those till the words ועל ידי זה, the Rebbe wrote in here too. And that's why you have to figure out what exactly the words mean. The next part where the Rebbe said you could, the same applies not only לגבי others, לגבי yourself, the Rebbe said when a person makes a חשבון צדק with himself, he put in the word צדק, that you have to make an honest, when you make an honest חשבון, you have to then, then you'll realize what you really are. And then when we go further, and the Rebbe says, what could a person think if he makes a חשבון that he's not the way he's supposed to? How could I change what I'm doing? And the Rebbe added these three lines: ובפרט if you עבר ושנה בו שנעשית לו כהיתר, especially if you did it and you did it again, and it becomes like היתר, ובפרט אם היה רגיל בזה יותר מב׳ פעמים, if you did it more than twice, and the הערה here where the Rebbe brings that if you do it three times it's called רגיל, all that the Rebbe added here. And later on when it says מעשה רב, that we see from the לויים that they weren't working in the משכן and now they started and the אויבערשטער gave them the כח, so you could also start. So, the Rebbe said, added these words at the end of the second paragraph on this column: ומעשה רב שנעשה כל זה בפועל. Means the fact is that it טאקע happened, you see they could do that. Also, on the next page, the end, before סעיף ה׳, the Rebbe says that it shows that if you're, you look like yourself like a מדבר, you nevertheless could change it, and you'll bring גילוי אלקות into yourself, ועליו יאמר: ושכנתי בתוכם, and the אויבערשטער will say on you ושכנתי בתוכם. And then, I just want to mention that the end of the שיחה, not the last two lines, but the paragraph before, the whole paragraph the Rebbe wrote, he changed from what it was written before. When he's trying to explain the difference between סור מרע and עשה טוב, that סור מרע only protects the person, generally. עשה טוב is מצוות which each one is different, originally, and the Rebbe said this ביי פארברענגען, but not this the way it says here, the Rebbe said a little different, and the way it was written when they gave it into the Rebbe, had a whole piece here that the difference between סור מרע and עשה טוב, and the Rebbe crossed it all out, and instead of that, ממש, actually, I gave that part to somebody to print now. I showed him there's a whole big, actually, if I, you want to see, I want to show you here, this is, no, yeah, this is it, here on this page, you see, this is the page it was originally, and this was written here, I don't know if you could see, I'll show you more, this is it, it was written, the whole page, whole piece here that the Rebbe crossed out, and instead of that, the Rebbe wrote, that's how he used to write, he wrote on the side here, he wrote the whole thing of this, of this paragraph here. So, we, it's the, that's, it's written, so the Rebbe, when he would write גאנצע paragraphs, he would write short, not אויסגעטייטשט, not explain, so here it's also like that. So here he explains the difference between סור מרע, עשה טוב, in connection to ישן and חדש. So the Rebbe wrote this whole thing. And there are many more things the Rebbe wrote, but I didn't go into everything, the Rebbe added things and, but this is generally speaking. So this is the שיחה of חלק י״ג, and they're actually in the project לקוטי שיחות this year, next week this is going to be the שיחה that are going to be. So we learned it ahead of time, so when it comes to next week, you should be able to learn it again. Okay. Okay, a גוט יום טוב, קבלת התורה.