Okay. הנני מוכן ומזומן. So we're holding here page 192, סעיף ו׳. Last thing that the Rebbe didn't make בלשון קשיא, he did point it out, made the kashya that we see by Mordechai that the first thing that Mordechai did when he heard about the גזירה, so he put on שק ואפר and he went out into the street and was מעורר people to do teshuvah. And also, and then he told Esther to go to speak to Achashverosh, and also Esther did the same thing. She told מרדכי, לך כנוס את כל היהודים, go get gather all the Yidden, let them fast for three days in a row and I'll fast also. And then I'm going to go to the melech. And here there is a kashya. She was going to go to the melech hoping that he would accept her, which was against the law at that time to go without an invitation. And in order for him to want to accept her, she had to find grace in his eyes, so it would make more sense that she should not fast. Fasting doesn't make a person look good, makes a person look weak, makes a person look pale. So why did she do this? She should have, adraba, eaten better, she should have done all kinds of things to make herself look better in order to be accepted by Achashverosh. So the Rebbe says here, סעיף ו׳: נאר דער ביאור איז דא בפשטות, the explanation is very simple. Mordechai v'Esther האבן געוואוסט קלאר, Mordechai v'Esther knew clearly, אז די גזירה אויף אידן איז ניט ממנהג העולם אירע לנו וצרה זו נקרא נקרית, that it's not a natural thing that happened. This is a לשון that the Rebbe quotes from the Rambam. The Rambam in the beginning of הלכות תעניות says that a person, when people see that there's some kind of צרה coming, you have to davenen to the אויבערשטער, you have to fast, and he says a person should not chas v'shalom say that this is just by chance, it just happened. You have to know that the אויבערשטער is making it happen because of something that you deserve. And he uses the לשון that you should not say ממנהג העולם אירע לנו, that's just something from the nature of the world, וצרה זו נקרא נקרית, לשון מקרה, מקרה means just happened. And the Rambam even continues, and this is where he gets the לשון מקרה, in the תוכחה when it says there about the קללות the אויבערשטער will give Yidden, then it says ואם תלכו עמי בקרי, if you will go with me בקרי, I will go with you בקרי. What does בקרי mean? So Rashi says, or the Rambam explains, if you're going to claim that this what happened is just מקרה, מקרה means it's just a coincidence, it just happened, תלכו עמי בקרי, קרי מלשון מקרה, it just happened, so the Eibershter says if you're going to say that, I'll punish you even worse. Cuz besides the aveirot that a person did that when you see somebody suffering, not somebody else, but when Yidden see that there's a tzibbur and Yidden have a problem, so the first thing you have to know that it comes because of a certain aveirot that we did. If you feel that it's for no reason, then that's another aveirah, that makes it even worse. So for sure Mordechai vaEsther, when they saw the tzarah, they knew it's not מנהג העולם, it's not just natural, it's not just coincidence. Didn't you ask if they were relying on a miracle? Huh? They're relying on a miracle. Oh, wait wait, first of all I mentioned that yesterday also what you're saying, but we're not finished, we're just starting off here. But they knew נאר בגלל מעשיהם הרעים הורע להם, this is לשון Rambam also, they knew that the reason that happened is because of something bad that they did. And we know what bad they did. The Gemara says, what did they do that they deserve this? You're learning a sicha now in the שיחה, סדר שיחות, no? The two סברות. Or because נהנו מסעודתו של אותו רשע, which they went to the party, or the way the Rebbe is מסביר in the sicha, it's not the fact that they went to the party, but the fact that they enjoyed going to the party. And the second reason is what? I can't hear. Bowed down to Haman? Not to Haman. השתחוו לצלם, when? In the time of Nevuchadnetzar, 70 years before, they bowed down to the עבודה זרה. But there is a reason why the Eibershter did this. So Mordechai vaEsther knew that it's not just because of natural reasons that this came up, it's because of something that they did. און היות ווי דאס איז א דבר הפשוט, since it's obvious, אז מען קען ניט מבטל, באמת מבטל זיין דעם מסובב, די גזירה די סיבה, סיבה מסובב. Here the Rebbe talks about it: די מעשים רעים. You cannot get rid of a מסובב, of a cause if you don't get rid of the סיבה. Cause if you just get rid of the effect, then it'll come back. When you go to a doctor, someone is sick, you don't want to take medicine for the symptoms, that's the result, you want to take medicine for the cause of the sickness, to get rid of the cause. Cuz if you're going to get rid of the מסובב, ain't going to help. Later on it'll be back. So here also, they knew, since the real סיבה why this happened is מעשים רעים, he said, so what's going to happen? They're going to go to Achashverosh and try to get rid of the מסובב, get rid of the גזירה. The מסובב is the גזירה. So they're going to work on getting rid of the גזירה, ain't going to help. If they don't change the סיבה of why the גזירה came, it's not going to help. So what's the first thing to do? The first thing, to work on the סיבה, not on the מסובב. איז די, זייער ערשטע פעולה געווען, so the first thing that they did, רופן אידן צו תשובה און גוזר זיין תענית. Call Yidden to do teshuvah for their bad behavior, and to make a ta'anis. Now ta'anis, we know, is one of the things that is an expression of teshuvah, not that ta'anis is teshuvah.

Let's get into that a little bit for a moment. We all, everyone learned Igeret HaTeshuvah. How'd I know everyone learned Igeret HaTeshuvah? Maybe some guys didn't learn. First of all, it's Chitas, but besides Chitas, in many places, when you start learning Tanya, you start from Igeret HaTeshuvah. There's a letter from the Rabbi where someone asked, \"I want to learn with somebody Tanya. What should I start with?\" So, one place the Rabbi says, in פרק ל״ב, I think he says, and from the beginning. But once the Rabbi, in one letter or more, the Rabbi writes to start with Igeret HaTeshuvah. Why? Cuz Igeret HaTeshuvah is much easier. It means a person who is familiar with nigleh but not familiar with chassidus, to get right away נפש אלוקית and נפש הבהמית and middot and, it's too much for him. But Igeret HaTeshuvah starts with easier things, then it gets into ענינים of chassidus. So in Igeret HaTeshuvah, the Alter Rebbe explains very clearly that ta'anis is not teshuvah. Fasting is not teshuvah. Teshuvah is what? He says a lashon there: מצות התשובה מן התורה היא עזיבת החטא בלבד. בלבד. Only leaving the aveirot. Normally, we learn, and we went through this I think in Elul time, we learn, afilu in the schools, that when we talk אלול, יום כיפור, תשובה, what is teshuvah? How do you do teshuvah? What is teshuvah? So they always say three things: חרטה על העבר, קבלה על להבא, and vidui. Vidui, these are the three. You make up your mind not to do it again. First you have charatah, you regret that you did it, you make up your mind not to do it again, and you say vidui. The English translation of the word vidui sounds very strange: confession. It's so modern a word of. Anyway, but these are the three things. Zogt der Alter Rebbe, you're right, these are three things of teshuvah, but עיקר התשובה, מצות התשובה, what is the main point of teshuvah, is one of the three: עזיבת החטא. עזיבת החטא is which one of the three? קבלה על להבא. קבלה על להבא means I take upon myself not to do it. What does that mean? I'm dropping, I'm leaving go of the aveirah. I did an aveirah and I'm leaving it behind. No more. That's, it's not charatah. Charatah is not leaving. It's a possibility for a person to have charatah and not have קבלה, you know that. Unfortunately, it happens to us a lot of times. You do something wrong and you feel bad about it, but you don't make up your mind not to do it again. You know you're going to do it again. That's terrible, but that's how that's natural, that's could happen. You have חרטה על העבר. Someone does something bad, something that you know you shouldn't be doing, and it bothers you, and you have charatah, \"I shouldn't have done it,\" but you didn't make up your mind not to do it again. The same thing, a person could have קבלה without charatah. How's that possible? You make up never to do it again, but what I did yesterday I don't regret because I have a good excuse for it. I find myself an excuse and I don't really regret, it was fine what I did, but I'm not going to do it again. So you can have קבלה without, without charatah. You can certainly have vidui without קבלה and without charatah. You could just say, \"chatati\". We do that basically twice a day. Twice a day we come by, after daven- after Shemoneh Esreh, we say אשמנו, בגדנו, which is vidui. And what do we and what do we say, what do we think in our mind? \"I ain't going to do it again. I feel bad what I did. A nechtiken tog.\" So it's twice a day that we do this. So bepo'al, vidui itself is certainly nothing. The Rambam says, \"Do doing vidui by itself is basically a joke. The Rambam says it's כטובל ושרץ בידו. A sheretz makes you tamei. Imagine you're holding the sheretz and you're going to the mikveh and you're tovel while you're holding the sheretz. It's exactly what vidui itself is. Charatah without קבלה is also something, but it's not you're not מקיים the mitzvah of teshuvah. Kabbalah without charatah and without vidui is you are מקיים תשובה. The main thing is עזיבת החטא, that you plan not to do it again, that's the main thing of teshuvah. So in in in Iggeret Hateshuvah we learn, what is the inyan of teshuvah? So there he says that a taanit is not teshuvah. Fasting is not teshuvah. What is fasting? We know, always connect teshuvah to fasting. Why? Because he says when you do teshuvah, which is teshuvah is בלב and you make up your mind not to do the aveirah again, then you have to give the Aibershter a present, just like when they brought korbanot, it's a present to the Aibershter. And he gives a mashal, Gemara gives this mashal of a king that you did something against the king and you ask forgiveness and you say you promise never to do it again, the king forgives you. Fine. Then you bring you send the king a present, so he should like you like he did before. So the fasting is like a korban, it's a present to the Aibershter. Why is fasting like a korban? You are giving away your חלב ודם, your fats, because when you don't eat you lose fats, and you the blood, so you have giving up חלב חלב ודם to the Aibershter, that's a korban. So that's what it is. But לפועל ממש, it is an expression, someone someone does teshuvah, one of the things that it brings him to do is taanit. So the Rebbe says here that Mordechai and Esther knew that the reason for the גזירה is because of מעשים הרעים, because of what they did, and the result, that's the סיבה, the result the מסובב is the גזירה, what are we going to do, fix the מסובב and not fix the סיבה? So we have to fix first the סיבה. What's the סיבה? The bad behavior. So we got to do teshuvah. So that's why they called Yidden to teshuvah and גוזר זיין תענית. און נישט סתם גערופן צו תשובה, when they called Yidden to teshuvah, it wasn't סתם תשובה, נאר אויסגעטייטשט קלאר דעם חטא וועלכן מען דארף תשובה טון. They even told the Yidden exactly what aveirah they have to do teshuvah. ווי שטייט אין מדרש אויפן פסוק צומו עלי ואל תאכלו ואל תשתו, when she said, \"Fast for me and don't eat and don't drink\", lichorah it's extra words. Everyone knows that fasting means not to eat and not to drink. So why did she have to say, \"צומו ואל תאכלו ואל תשתו\", and don't eat and don't drink? So the Midrash says that this is what she said, \"אתם צמים על שאכלתם ושתיתם מסעודתו של אחשורוש\". She wanted to stress what make him fast and tell him what it's for. Now you're not going to eat and drink because what you did the problem you had was that you did eat and drink. You ate the seudah of Achashverosh and you drank in the in the seudah of Achashverosh. Now we have to see how these words here fit to the Rebbe's sichah, that it wasn't eating and drinking that was the problem, the problem was that they had hana'ah from, but still it's not such a kashya, I mean here this is all written many many years before the Rebbe said that sichah. No, not not true. The Rebbe said that sichah twice. The first time was תשכ״ב, and this sichah came out this Likkutei came out in תש״ל. But still, it's not a setirah anyway because the fact is what in what did they have hana'ah? That they were able to eat and drink the seudah of Achashverosh. It expressed itself lema'aseh their hana'ah was in the eating and drinking. So Mordechai and Esther knew that they have to call Yidden to teshuvah, teshuvah, and they specified what the aveirah was, ולאחר durch תשובה האט מען אראפגענומען די סיבת הגזירה, and then they knew after through teshuvah the reason for the gezeirah is not there, דער אייבערשטער וויל דאך בכל אשר בכל אשר תעשה, and the Eibershter wants that you should do everything in דרך הטבע, like the pasuk says, what's the beginning of this פסוק בכל אשר תעשה? The beginning of the pasuk. No. וברכך ה׳ אלקיך בכל אשר תעשה, ה׳ will bless you in everything that you do. And the famous Sifri on this pasuk, the Sifri asks a shaila, the Sifri breaks up the pasuk in two parts. Starts off like this, the pasuk says \"וברכך ה׳ אלקיך\", ה׳ will bless you, okay? So whatever I get is ה׳'s blessing. So what I have to, so the Sifri says יכול, יהא יושב ובטל? Don't work, don't go to work. How could you go why should you go to work? If everything is from the Eibershter anyway, you know what, if the Eibershter wants I should make money, I'll make money by sitting home. If the Eibershter doesn't want me to make money, I could So why should I go work? תלמוד לומר בכל אשר תעשה. So the pasuk says no, the אויבערשטער טאקע makes it happen, but בכל אשר תעשה, he wants you to do in gashmiyut in derech hateva. That's what the Eibershter wants us to do. So they knew the Eibershter wants us to do בכל אשר תעשה דרך הטבע, מען זאל טאן עפעס אויך אין דרכי הטבע. We should make a keli in derech hateva, or as the in the מתנגדישע world they have the same idea, but they call it with a different name. What do they call it? You got to do hishtadlut. You got to hishtadlut. We don't call it, even the lashon is written in sefarim, it's not hishtadlut, we're not mishtadel. We just got to do because the Eibershter says. It's not even a hishtadlut. We got to do make a the Eibershter wants us to make a keli in derech hateva. איז מען דעמאלט געגאנגען צו אחשורוש אפשרייען די גזירה. So they went to Achashverosh to re- re- אפשרייען is to they agreed to revoke, is that the word? Rescind the decree. But this was in derech hateva. Why? Because the Eibershter wants us to derech hateva.

Let's stop here for a second, which is not nogeia to the המשך השיחה, but when we're talking about this, why takeh does the Eibishter want that we should do things in derech hateva? And it's very important, the Eibishter wants it bedavka, because if you don't do derech hateva, the Eibishter is upset and he might not give you the bracha. That's why a person has to go to a doctor. A person who is sick could ta'anah the same ta'anah, you think the doctor knows, the doctor is going to heal me? Everything's from the Eibishter. The Eibishter made me sick, he's going to cure me, and he could cure me. And if he doesn't want me to get cured, I can go to a hundred doctors, it won't happen. And if he wants me to get cured, you could not go to a doctor, you'll also get cured. So why go to a doctor? Same she'eilah. The answer is בכל אשר תעשה, what the Eibishter wants. I once told you the thing is a story that Reb Yaakov Kamenetsky told me once when I was here, when he was here. Told me that in Radin, I think I told the story, in Radin by the Chafetz Chaim there was a guy there who was very פארפרומט. He was so פארפרומט, he wouldn't go to a doctor when he was sick. Wouldn't want to go. I'm going to get involved in the Eibishter's business? The Eibishter got me sick. It's his business, he wants me, I'm not going to get involved. So once he got very sick, it was mamash dangerous, and he refused to go to a doctor. They didn't know what to do, so they came running to the Chafetz Chaim who was the Rav in the city. So the Chafetz Chaim said to them, and we know the Chafetz Chaim was very careful mainly his main main thing was Shmirat Halashon, was careful in the way he spoke, so imagine for him to answer like this. So he says to them, to the family, גייט זאגט דעם משוגענעם אז ער זאל גיין צו אז איך האב געזאגט ער זאל גיין צו א דאקטאר. Go tell the nut, the crazy guy, that I said he should go to the doctor. So imagine he called him the משוגענער? A Chafetz Chaim should out of his mouth call a ייד a משוגענער? Oh he must have been really upset. Because the Eibishter wants you to go to a doctor. But the question is why? What's what's the seichel behind it? What is the reason why the Eibishter wants, if he gives us the bracha, why does he want that we should go to derech hateva? So the nekudah that is lechora what it says if I remember correctly, the Eibishter wants us to know, to recognize that everything is only the אין עוד מלבדו. The whole teva, everything in the world comes only from the Eibishter. Imagine if you wouldn't go to work and everything would happen from the Eibishter directly. You know what it would show? The Eibishter is baal habayit, the Eibershter could do whatever he wants, the Eibershter controls you. But it wouldn't show that nature is also from the Eibershter. What the Eibershter wants us to know, to understand, to believe is that even nature comes from the Eibershter. L'mashal when things grow, you ask somebody, why do things grow, why does a tree grow, you plant a seed, why does it grow? You don't see it's from the Eibershter. You have to believe it's from the Eibershter, and a Yid has to believe. Ad k'dei kach, you have to believe it, otherwise you wouldn't plant. What does the Tosafos brings in Maseches Shabbos, in Yerushalmi, which we don't have in Yerushalmi, but Tosafos in Shabbos, the second perek, the Gemara has a pasuk which is six words and the six words are מרומז to six סדרים of Mishnayot. Nu, you learned it, let's hear. What's the pasuk? והיה, this is not, the והיה is not that, אמונת עתך חוסן ישועות חכמת ודעת. So עתך למשל, just give it, עתך is סדר מועד. עתים, עתך, עתים, זמנים, מועד. Then it goes, Rashi explains everything. How is והיה אמונת, the word אמונת שייכות to סדר זרעים? אמונת is the first word, סדר זרעים, because that's the סדר of Mishnayot. What's the סדר of Mishnayot? Who knows the the סימן to remember the order of the, ah? זמן נקט. What are the, what what is it? זרעים, מועד, זמן, נשים, oh, I didn't hear, נשים, נשים, נזיקין, oh, נזיקין, קדשים, and טהרות. So the first one is זרעים. The word אמונה is Zeraim. There is another way, there is a machloket, some hold that the seder is different. The seder is נזם קטן. Not זמן נקט, but נזם קטן. But the accepted seder is זמן נקט, which is Zeraim. Why is Zeraim emunah? So Tosafot brings Tosafot in Shabbat says, איתא בירושלמי, that a איד is מאמין בחי העולמים וזרע. Why does a Yid plant? Cuz he believes in the Eibershter. Why does a goy plant? Cuz he says naturally, if you plant, it grows. A Yid says, no such a thing as nature, everything comes from the Eibershter. So if he believes in the Eibershter, he plants. So emunah is connected to Zeraim, to planting. But you don't see it. The fact is, it's only from the Eibershter. It looks like nature, which nature is also from the Eibershter, but it looks like it's by itself. What the Eibershter wants is that we should recognize that even things that happened על פי טבע are also Eibershter. That's why the Eibershter says, both things, וברכך ה׳ אלקיך, ה׳ will give you the bracha, and you have to feel and know that it's from the Eibershter, and at the same time, I want you to do בדרך הטבע. What's that going to help? It's going to make you see that teva and the Eibershter are not two separate inyanim, that teva is the Eibershter, the Eibershter works through teva. Ah? If you believe, alright, if you don't believe, it's not going to help you. He wants you to know that it comes from me, so the pasuk says, but I want you at the same time to know further that what comes from me is not because it's beyond nature. As we're going to get further in the sicha we'll see, it's not What I'm saying now is not to the המשך השיחה, but it's connected. What's the maalah of the nes of Purim over the nes of Chanukah? That Purim was a נס המלובש בטבע. What's the maalah of a nes that's in teva? A nes that's higher than teva, you know what that shows? That the Eibershter is so great, he's stronger than teva. If there's a conflict between teva and the Eibershter, על פי טבע the Yidden shouldn't have won the war of Chanukah, so the Eibershter didn't care. He's higher than teva, he's stronger than teva. That's not enough. We want to know that not the Eibershter is stronger than teva, teva itself is the Eibershter. And that you see in Purim, that it's not a nes higher than teva, it's teva, and in teva you see the nes. Anybody with a little bit of brains realizes this was a nes, but it's מלובש in teva. So the same thing בכלל, the Eibershter wants בכל אשר תעשה, he wants you should put it into teva, and in the teva itself, there's a nes. So what did they do? First they fasted, because they knew the ikar is the רוחניותדיקע ענין, cuz that was the reason for the gezeirah, and you have to work to get rid of the siba. But then the Eibershter wants בכל אשר תעשה, so what did they do? So they had to go derech hateva. Derech hateva is to go to Achashverosh to see, to take away the gezeirah. און ווייל דער גיין צו אחשורוש איז געווען ניט מער ווי א לבוש, since we just said the only going to Achashverosh is the levush of טבע, בכדי די הצלה מלמעלה זאל האבן אן אחיזה in teva, in order for that the Eibershter's help should have some kind of hold onto טבע, בכל אשר תעשה, if that's only a לבוש, אבער די סיבה פון דער הצלה is teshuvah un ta'anit, but the reason why the Eibershter would help is only because of the רוחניותדיקע ענין of teshuvah and תענית, איז שוין פארשטאנדיק, אז דער עיקר אכט האט מען געלייגט נישט אויפן לבוש, נאר אויף די סיבה. The main attention they paid is to the cause, not to the levush. So the she'eilah that we asked was, how did she fast before she went to Achashverosh, when she wanted to go and find חסד, חן וחסד in his eyes? She should not fast it. If that would be the main thing to do, ein hachi nami, it's true. But that was only a small thing, that's only a superficial thing you have to do to go to him. The main thing is the רוחניותדיקע part, and therefore, if she did the רוחניותדיקע part, this is whichever way you do it, it's fine. And takeh we see takeh, what happened in the end, I mentioned yesterday, that she came, and she takeh didn't look good, and still a nes happened! Why? Because if everything would depend on teva, ein hachi nami, this he wouldn't have taken her. But because it was only a levush, so the ikar is what's this getting rid of the sibah. And we'll use the word levush, just like by a person. A levush is something we have to have, and a levush helps a person. What does the Gemara say? רבי יוחנן קרי למאני מכבדותא. Rabbi Yochanan used to call garments kavod, because a garment gives you kavod. The way you're dressed, you could tell what kind of person So it does give the person kavod. It tells what the person is. At the other hand, it's only a levush. You could disguise yourself. Person who's nothing, a beggar, could put himself on a suit of a professor, and a vet a professor, and he comes and he comes Sometimes you know that you could dress yourself up and you become that way. Why? Because the lechatchilah, the guy who has it is lechatchilah nothing, so the welt it's a joke, which you really shouldn't say. The piriye used to laugh at the chasidim, and they used to say a joke, that you could disguise yourself to anything. You could disguise yourself to a professor, to a rav, to everything. To a rebbe, you can't disguise. Why? A rav, you're not a rav, but you put yourself on the garments, so you disguise as a rav. You're a professor, you're not. What's going to be a rebbe? What are you going to do? How are you going to disguise yourself? You're not a rebbe. You're going to put on a shtreimel, and payos, and a קאפטן, and ווייסע זאקן, you're not disguised, you are a Rebbe. Because they would laugh and they'd say, \"What's a Rebbe?\" This is all a joke. This is the frei used to say that. But bichlal it's not like that. Bichlal, it's only a disguise. So, it's a disguise, a levush. So since it's only a side thing that's not you, the main thing is the person. The person himself, if he's something, he is something. The levush is an outward thing. So since the whole thing of the gashmiyut to go to Achashveirosh is an outward thing, so you don't have to pay attention to it. That's why she didn't care that she didn't look so good and she knew if the Eibershter wants to do a nes, which they did things to make a nes because they did teshuvah, they made the Yidden to do teshuvah, so she went that way. So this is the answer to the last she'eilah of why they did fasting and all this where she should have done bigashmiyut. Then this will lead us to understand to answer the first she'eilot.