We're holding here page 93, סעיף אות ד. So the last thing we learned that the Rebbe added pshat, started to add pshat in the Ramban. The Ramban says that when you mechabed your father, your mother, you're really mechabed the Aibershter, because they are partners in your creation. The last thing that the Rebbe said is, based on the Gemara and the way the Chida explains the Gemara, that the goyim, they looked at, they said the stars, the sun, the moon, the Aibershter said not to give them any kavod. They're not a metziut. Don't You can't You can't daven to them, you can't give them kavod, only to Me. So when they heard the Aibershter saying אנכי ה' אלקיך, they said, \"Yeah, you know why the Aibershter feels you shouldn't give any kavod to the stars? Because He wants the whole kavod. He doesn't want any He doesn't want to share His kavod.\" But later, when He said, כבד את אביך ואת אמך, they saw, no, a siman the Aibershter tells them also to have tell kavod tell for the parents also, a siman that He's not just looking for Himself. That's the Chida's pshat in the Gemara. Then the Rebbe mentioned says that the Tzemach Tzedek says a similar pshat, but the Tzemach Tzedek explains that what is the difference, why takeh can you not give kavod or pray or say the the the stars, even though they are vehicles through which Hashem gives things to the world, while the parents, you should give them kavod. Lichorah, should be the same thing. Either parents do something, they made they create the child, but the stars also do something, the stars also give us whatever they give and the sun gives us whatever. So what's the difference? So the last thing that we learned, that the Tzemach Tzedek says the difference is they have free choice. The stars have no choice. The stars like a like a axe in the hand of the chopper, the the axe cannot doesn't have choice, should he chop or not. Whatever the baal the person wants, that's what happens. Same thing with the stars, while the person has choice, ume meila they deserve more kavod. Okay, let's go vayter. We're still in the middle of the biur, it's not not explained yet.

ולהעיר, the Rebbe says, I want to explain, want to mention, that הרי ענין עבודה זרה דדור אנוש, this idea of avodah zarah of that time, which the Rambam says started with דור אנוש, שחשבו שהכוכבים וכולו יש להם בחירה, that the goyim thought that the stars also have free choice, אם לפעול להשפיע בכח של הקדוש ברוך הוא, whether they should do, obviously with the koach of the Eibershter, they all believed that everything is with the koach of the Eibershter, but they thought that the stars also have free choice, u'meila they deserve kavod, because they chose to give you, because the sun had a choice not to give you the light, chose to give you the light, the the koach of the Eibershter, but that's why you should give him כבוד, אינו רק טעות בלבד. Lichorah, it's not so terrible. It's only a mistake. I mean why do we blame them so bad? It's a mistake. You know, people make mistakes, you can't like blame somebody for making a mistake. He's just stupid, he didn't understand. So lichorah, it's a mistake. They didn't mean bad. They know everything's from the Eibershter, and they thought, by mistake, that the stars have choice, so they felt you have to give them kavod. It's only a mistake, because seemingly we're saying the same thing! We're just saying that it's wrong, they don't have choice, but if they do have choice, we admit that you should give them kavod. V'ha raya, we give kavod to the parents, because the parents have choice, so why are they different? Ela mai, seems like they made a mistake. They thought that the stars are like the parents. Nisht geferlach. So the Rebbe says no, אינו רק טעות בלבד, not just a mistake שתעו בהבנת הדברים וכולו. They pashut made a mistake in understanding what the stars do, so they weren't such great astronomers, and they didn't understand how the stars work, they thought the stars have choice. So he says no, אלא עצם סברא זו הוא בסתירה לעיקרי אמונה. The sevara itself to believe that something has its own choice, even if you feel that it comes with the koach of the Eibershter, but to believe that there is something that has its own choice is against the foundation of emunah. Sounds very strange. Every Yid has free choice, no? How is that not a stirah? Well, that's what we're going to have to get to. So the etzem zach to believe that the stars, the sun, or the the moon, the all the צבא השמים have a choice is against, it contradicts the ikkarei emunah. וכמו שכתב Rambam בי\"ג עיקרים שלו, like the Rambam writes in his 13 ikarim, which some people say every day, we don't, he writes like this, יסוד החמישי, the fifth foundation, the fifth principle of אידישקייט, שהוא יתברך הוא הראוי לעבדו ולגדלו, He, the Eibershter himself, is the only one that deserves to worship, deserves to make big, ולהודיע גדולתו, and to notify, to publicize his greatness, ולעשות מצותיו, and to do what he commands us, ושלא יעשה כזה למי שהוא תחתיו, but we cannot do this, we cannot worship, we cannot give כבוד to anybody who is under him במציאות, מן המלאכים והכוכבים והגלגלים, whether it's מלאכים, whether it's the stars, the spheres, והיסודות, and all the foundation the the the the elements of the world, ומה שהורכב מהם, or anything which is made up of these elements. And how many elements are there? Four. Four. אש, רוח, מים, עפר, that's what we just learned in the Rambam. Even though years ago, now things changed, science came up with 98 elements. Then I remember when I was in school, as a little kid, they came up, they just found out that there are two more elements. They tried to break everything down into more pieces. Two more. It was 100 elements, maybe 101 later, I don't know. And later they dlink tsurik, and now they're trying to find not the differences, the different elements, but trying to find the the נקודה המשותפת, the common denominator, so now they're coming to the everything farkert is made up of two. Everything made up of only two: energy and matter. That's what is the really the the thing, whatever it is. But the bottom line is that there are these elements. All these things, you're not allowed to do, the Rambam says. You can't give them any כבוד, לפי שכולם מוטבעים, they're all set up by the אייבערשטער, ועל פעולתם אין משפט, and what they do, there is no judgment, they can't decide what to do, ולא בחירה, they have no choice. That's one of the עיקרי האמונה. אלא לו לבדו השם יתברך, only to him. וכן אין ראוי לעובדם, you can't, you're not allowed to worship them, כדי להיותם אמצעיים, they should be intermediaries לקרבם אליו, to make you close, אלא אליו בלבד יכוונו המחשבות. Your machshavah has to be only to him, ויניחו כל מה שזולתו, and drop anything besides him. And it's not just a mistake in pshat, it's pashut against our emunah. וזהו היסוד החמישי שהזהיר על עבודה זרה. This is what the Aibershter said you're not allowed to worship Avodah Zarah. So, it comes out like this: that what they made a mistake, could be it's a mistake in from their mistake, but it's a mistake in the yesodos of emunah. It's not a mistake in pshat, so you say they learned pshat wrong. If someone makes a mistake a mistake in pshat of of of a Gemara, he's an apikorus? He's not an apikorus, even though he's saying something wrong, he's saying something wrong in the Torah. But this is not this, this is a mistake in emunah. They say the Rav' Chaim Brisker said about a person who is an apikorus because he was raised that way, it's not his fault. So, the lashon they say in his name, we'll see how it if it fits the sichah or not, but he said, nebech an apikorus iz oich an apikorus. The guy who doesn't know any better, nebech, you know, you say nebech, he didn't learn, he didn't get a chance, so you have rachmanus, it's nebech. So, he says, you're right, can't punish him, he's a nebech, aber nebech an apikorus, the bottom line is apikorus, I mean he doesn't believe. These people did not believe in the יסודי האמונה. They believed that the stars have its own bechirah, which is not true. So lichorah, now that we said that this is not just a mistake, it's just against our emunah, see, till now when you think it's a mistake, so where's the pshat it's a mistake? The truth is that stars don't have bechirah, they thought it has bechirah. But the mere fact the but the etzem idea to say that something else has bechirah is no problem. Ela mai? They got it wrong. They got the wrong people, they got the wrong thing. They thought the stars have bechirah, it's not. The Rebbe comes with a new idea now. To say such a thing is apikorsut. To say it's a mistake, but it's a mistake in emunah, that it's a mistake that there's no such thing, the Rambam says. Nobody has bechirah. Nobody has bechirah besides him. So, that's a setirah that you say you have to give kavod to your parents because they have bechirah. How's that work? But we said it can't be. So, the Rebbe continues:

ומכל מקום אין זו סתירה למה שכתב הצמח צדק, it's not a contradiction to what the Tzemach Tzedek writes, דכיבוד אב ואם הוא לפי שהם בעלי בחירה, that the reason you have to give kavod to your father and mother because they have choice. So, he taytsh it like this: כי אין הפירוש בזה doesn't mean שלהיותם בעלי בחירה, because they have free choice, יש להם שליטה, חס ושלום, בהנהגת העולם, they have some control in how to run the world. No one says that they have control to run the world. ובידם להוליד או לא להוליד, that it's in their hands to give birth or not to give birth, וכן להטיב או להרע, or to do good or bad, שלא ברצון הקדוש ברוך הוא, חס ושלום, without the Eibershter's will. אלא הוא רק על דרך חמרא למריה טיבותא לשקיה. If someone is a shaliach to bring something, so what what do you do? Who do you thank? You thank the shaliach, even though it's not his. If someone is a messenger to bring you a present from somebody, so you have to thank the person that sent you the present, but you also have to thank the shaliach. Which means דאף שהשקיא אינו משפיע ונותן כלום משלו, the shaliach doesn't give you anything, כי אם של מריה, בעל החמרא, the one that brings you the the wine, the one that brings you whatever it is, he gets the thanks. He gave you! This guy didn't give. וגם זה גופא שמשקה החמרא בשליחותו של בעל החמרא, and, first of all, the guy who brought you didn't give you anything, it's not his. And second of all, what he did bring you is only because he sent him. So it's all back to the owner. עכומ״כ כיוון שאינו מוכרח בזה, since the shaliach didn't have to do it, ומעשהו בבחירה חפשית, and what he did is just with his free choice, לכן מגיע לו הכרת הטוב עבור זה, so you have to appreciate, you have to thank him. You have to appreciate somebody who chose to do something good, even though it's not his, he didn't give anything. וכן בענייננו, so here too, דכיוון שהם בחרו להיות שלוחי שלוחי השם, since they chose to be the שלוחי השם להוליד בן זה, to to give birth to this child, ולגדלו ולטפחו, and to raise him, לכן מגיע להם שכר וכבוד עבור בחירה זו, they get sechar for this choice. So there's two types of ways of looking at something that has free choice. You could say somebody has free choice and therefore what he does makes it happen. He could have chosen to not make it happen, or he could choose to make it happen. So when he makes it happen, you got to thank him. That the Rambam says that's no good, that's not true. There's no such thing as somebody having choice and to make it happen or not make it happen. There is such a thing as having free choice whether to be the shaliach to bring it or not. And that's not a setirah to the ikkarei emunah. Which means, so far seems to be saying, that the child that's born is not the the choice of the parents to decide, and that's why the child is born or not born. A child is born because the Eibershter wants. The The parents chose to be the shluchim to make it happen. And that's why we see sometimes there are people who don't have children, rachmana litzlan. Why not? 'Cause the Eibershter doesn't want it. So it's not their choice. They could have a choice a hundred times they want. It's the Eibershter doesn't want. In other words, what happens is what the Eibershter does, and the Eibershter is the only one that does it, and he decides when it happens. But the parents are the ones that have the choice whether to be the shluchim. Then obviously they that's כאילו נימא איגלאי מילתא למפרע The Eibershter didn't want this child to be born. It's not only that could be born or not to be born, to be born and where to be born, which family to be born. That's all the Eibershter's decision. As baalei bechirah, whether to be the ones to do it or not, that's, yeah. Well, you're only you're asking how does bechirah fit with saying the Eibershter makes it happen and they still, they have bechirah? It's al derech the שאלה בחירה and hashgachah, how does it work together? You have to see further the sichah before we could get into this idea, to see, to explain it, 'cause there seems a contradiction here. What happens if they choose b'fo'al not to do it? They choose not to have children, they choose and guy chooses not to get married? Memeila a siman that the Eibershter want, but then it's not his choice, I mean, the Eibershter... We'll have to finish this whole sichah. This is a tif, very tife sichah, like I said, very fundamental, but very deep. Just to just to make it clear, not this inyan, that's a prat which needs biur by itself. But even what the Rebbe says here, according to what the Rebbe says, what's the peshat in the Rambam? When the Rambam said that it's מעיקרי האמונה is that there's nobody who has bechirah? That was the whole shailah of the Rebbe, that mimeila when they made a mistake, it's not just a mistake. It's a mistake in עיקרי אמונה. So according to the way the Rebbe says pshat, it's not that the the mistake is, not עיקרי אמונה is that there can't be bechirah. The best proof is, we all have bechirah. The way they understood it, and that's against emunah, that there should be a person who has bechirah and his bechirah will actually make it or break it. It's up to him to decide whether to do it or not, whether it should happen or not. Not whether to do it, whether it should happen or not. That's against עיקרי אמונה. There's nobody who could decide. But bechirah to say whether to be the shaliach or not, it'll happen anyway. Probably let's get into a little a little bit, it's probably connected. The Rebbe brings here

ראה לקוטי שיחות הערה 32, לקוטי שיחות חלק ז' עמוד 14, הערה 22. In that sichah, the Rebbe talks a lot about the Alter Rebbe in Iggeret HaKodesh. Alter Rebbe says in Iggeret HaKodesh that if someone is mazik you, don't be angry at him. Why? Because the Aibershter wanted you to happen. If you got hurt, the Aibershter wanted you to get hurt. And therefore, that guy, why is that guy punished by the Aibershter? A guy who hits you is punished, or by Beit Din, because he chose to be the shaliach. The Aibershter would have made it happen anyway, but הרבה שלוחין למקום, it would have been some other way. Then in the הערה the Rebbe goes into and say says, but you, but he says you don't be, the Alter Rebbe says, you don't be angry at him, because as far what you got, you deserved or whatever the Aibershter wanted to give it to you. Then the shailah, if someone does something good for you, we shouldn't thank him either, the same reason. He should have gotten it, for sure you should, the Aibershter wanted you to get it. But you thank him for being a shaliach. You can't punish him for being a shaliach, for a bad shaliach, that you look what you got, but lefoal mamash if he chose to be good, he deserves a thanks from you. Oh, if you lend him money, thanking, you can take it if he's for a matanah, so there's nothing wrong in it. If he lent you money, you can't thank him because then you're giving him ריבית, but only for lending money or lending something, but this is not. Just when we talk about that sichah, somebody before, where is he, asked me a sheilah, one of the shluchim, Pearson asked me בנוגע a sichah that the Rebbe said תשכ״ט. It has to do with this sichah. Has to do with this with this sichah. This sichah is a sichah of Vayikra. Came out in תשכ״ט, this sichah. That Shabbos, something very strange happened in 770 when this sichah came out, not when the Rebbe said this, when the sichah came out. Used to be, oh, Da bistu? M'hat gezagt a speshel Tehillim far dir. The seder was at that time, different times that the Rebbe would tell before Shabbos which Rashi he's going to discuss on Shabbos. First they asked the Rebbe to to give out, and the Rebbe didn't really want. The Rebbe said to give out mareh mekomot before is like a gesheft for a rosh yeshivah to give for a shiur, but he's not going to give out. L'foel the Rebbe started giving out, but then certain times he used to give out a tzetel. Sometimes, Waldman, oh, now I remember his name, Mr. Waldman, he was known the Rashi person, he kacht zich in the Rebbe's Rashis and wrote shailos to the Rebbe, so he wrote to the Rebbe, the בעצם זאך that the Rebbe continued, תשכ״ה the Rebbe spoke a two Rashis every Shabbos. The Rebbe stopped after כ״ה, after his mother's year of aveilut. He wrote to the Rebbe, they want the Rebbe should continue, so פרשת שמות תשכ״ו the Rebbe started again, and every farbrengen there was a Rashi. So later on he was the Rashi guy, so the Rebbe would sometimes write to him a tzetel which Rashi is going. Sometimes he would when the Rebbe would come to 770 Shabbos morning, he would stand by the door, and the Rebbe would walk in, and the Rebbe would tell him which Rashi. Sometimes there was even a Shabbos that they didn't even know there's going to be a farbrengen or not. Not every Shabbos farbrengen. So he would stand there. If there was a farbrengen and it was a Rashi, the Rebbe would tell him, so people knew already that besides they knew which Rashi, there'll be a farbrengen. And if the Rebbe walked in and didn't say anything, there was not. And what would happen? When the Rebbe walked in, he would stand there, the Rebbe would tell him which Rashi. The Rebbe went into his room, he would right away tell somebody or other people heard, run down to shul, to downstairs, run over to R'' Zalman Duchman, right in front of the shul he davent, and when the Rebbe would walk in, he would announce which Rashi. people should know. That's how the seder was. So one Shabbos, this is the שבת פרשת ויקרא, a bachur made a joke. The Rebbe came and did not say anything. But one bachur played a joke on another bachur, סתם. So he told another bachur, \"You know the Rashi, this the Rebbe said the Rashi is going to be in this and this parshah.\" This other bochur, well, can't blame him, and he heard, he ran down, told Rav Zalman Duchman that this is the Rashi. The Rebbe walked in, and Rav Zalman announced the Rashi. The Rebbe looked, and got very upset, came over to his place, and he was standing there, turned around, says, \"ווער האט דאס געזאגט? Who said this?\" \"It's a bochur.\" \"וואו איז דער בחור?\" So this bochur who said it to Rav Zalman Duchman was there. You can imagine how he felt. He went, ran over to the Rebbe. I remember him, the Rebbe standing like this, very upset, and he came over, and he tells the Rebbe that someone told me. So the Rebbe said, \"נו, וואו איז יענער בחור?\" And then the Rebbe said, this is a shtender, he was facing this way, and he said, \"מ'זאל נישט שטעלן דאווענען ביז דער בחור קומט. We're not going to start davenen till the bochur comes.\" This bochur who said it, as soon as he heard that the guy ran down to tell him to announce it, realized there's going to be tzarot. So he ran away. Ran across the street, ran to the dormitory, no one could find him. And the Rebbe is standing and waiting. He said, \"I'm not starting to daven till the bochur comes.\" The Rebbe waited a few minutes and the bochur didn't come, and they continued davening. The Rebbe was very, very upset. Next Shabbos, the Rebbe spoke about it by a farbrengen. And he said, \"This is what happened last Shabbos, and I got very upset, but I shouldn't have gotten upset,\" he said. And he quoted the Alter Rebbe in Iggeres HaKodesh that if something bad happens to you, don't be angry at anybody. So why did I get angry? And then he said, \"uv'frat that the sichah that came out last week, that I gave out last week spoke about this and was meva'er the inyan.\" And then the Rebbe said, \"it was takeh a geshmake biur.\" The Rebbe said on his own sichah, it was takeh a geshmakeh biur. \"And I myself,\" he said, \"did not do what it says there. But because of that,\" what the Rebbe did, besides, next week was Parashat Tzav, besides saying a regular Rashi on צו, he said, \"Because of that, I'm going to explain that Rashi.\" That Rashi that this bachur said, the Rebbe explained it. Like as a compensation for for for, so to speak, being upset, but at that time it was the Rebbe was Anyway, let's get back to this to explain the inyan here. So that's that vort is that the ניזק, the one that got damaged, that got hurt, it's min haShamayim. The guy who chose, it's his own choice. The same thing by something good: the guy who got something good can't credit the guy who gave it to him, cuz everything is from the Oibershter. Someone comes and gives you a present, $1,000, the Oibershter gave you the $1,000. So why does he have to thank him for? There's a big thing in Torah that you have to thank, because he was the shaliach. He chose to be the shaliach. But he himself has no free choice whether I should get or not. He has free choice whether be the whether to be the delivery boy. And that's the same thing that the Rebbe says is b'negeia the difference between the stars, that those goyim that said that the stars have bechirah, they didn't mean just have bechirah whether to give it or not, but the but the Oibershter wants give the light anyway. Whether they choose it or not, so I'll get the light some other way. They said that they have a choice whether to give and if they decide not to give, it won't happen. If they decide to give, if the star decides to give, it'll happen. That is apikorsus. That is היפך האמונה. But to believe that there is somebody who has bechirah to choose to be the shaliach to do the Oibershter's job, that could be, and that's what the parents are. But the shailah is how that fits, it doesn't answer the shailah as before, but I'm just saying to be more ma'arich on this inyan. So now the Rebbe says, \"

ויש לעיין בדברי הרמב״ן הנ״ל.\" So now let's look at the words of the Ramban. שהענין דכיבוד אב ואם The Ramban said that the inyan of כיבוד אב is לא הכרת הטוב על בחירתם. Now the question, does this fit with the Ramban? We said before that what does the Ramban say? Why do you have to do כיבוד אב? Because you're giving kavod to the Oibershter. Why are you giving kavod to the Oibershter? So the Ramban says, \"בשביל שהאב משתתף ביצירתו,\" because the father and say the mother are partners in your creation. Is that the same vort as we said now? Now we said a different vort. Now we said, why do you have to give him kavod? Because they chose. So it's something else. The Oibershter does everything, they have nothing to do, they chose. So the Ramban should have said, \"You know why you give them kavod? על בחירתם.\" But then it wouldn't be kavod Hashem. If you give him kavod because they chose, so you're giving them kavod. It's no stirah to giving kavod to the Oibershter, it's no contradiction. But you can't say that giving kavod to the parents is kavod of the Oibershter. Why? You're giving the kavod for what they did, they chose. That's not what the Ramban said the way the Rebbe explained before. The Ramban said giving kavod to the parents is give- this itself is giving kavod to the Oibershter because they are partners. This is a different vort. So the shailah is are is it the same vort or how can we explain it should fit together the two verter? That's going to be the hemshech of the sichah.