Okay, we'll get started. On the first page here, on the right side, the right column, so I'm going to read first what it says here: בזמן הגלות משולים בני ישראל ליורדי הים, הולכי מדבריות, חבושי בית האסורים, וחולים. That means in the time of גלות, the Jews are compared to one of these four, or to all four. There are four situations, as he says here further, ארבעת המצבים שהיוצא מהם חייב להקריב קרבן תודה. There are four situations that the law is that when a person finishes with it, leaves it, gets out of it, he has to bring a special sacrifice. That means in the time of the בית המקדש, when we had a temple and they used to bring sacrifices, there was a special korban, a special sacrifice that was brought as a thanksgiving to Hashem for a miracle that He would have done to somebody. That was called קרבן תודה, the korban of thanksgiving. And that korban was brought mainly for these four situations: a person who crossed the sea and he came out fine, a person who crossed the desert, a person who was freed from jail, and a person who was sick and became cured. Actually, there are... there is

a word in Shemoneh Esrei that is a hint to all four. We say in Shemoneh Esrei: וכל החיים יודוך סלה, that means all living will forever thank You, praise You. The word חיים is made up of four letters: ח', י', י', מ'. So the word חיים, actually these four letters represent all four of these: ח' is חבוש, חבוש means somebody who was in jail; the י', the next י' is ים, if you cross the ים, you cross the sea; the next one is ייסורים, a person who suffers, that's a person who's sick; and the מ' is מדבר, if you go through a desert. These are the four people that have to bring this korban. Nowadays that we don't have a קרבן תודה, nevertheless the halacha is that when you do one of these four things, you have to bentsch hagomel. That means that you have to say a special blessing over the sefer Torah when you come to shul the first occasion. Actually, it says it should be done within the four... the first three days since it happened. So therefore, when you cross the sea, you cross the desert, or a person who was sick and was cured, person was freed from jail has to make the beracha hagomel, which is: ברוך אתה השם אלוקינו מלך העולם, you thank השם, הגומל לחייבים טובות, who did good to those who are not deserving, שגמלני טוב, that You did good to me, and everyone answers: מי שגמלך טוב הוא יגמלך כל טוב סלה, whoever did good to you so far should continue doing good. Anyway, these are the four people who have to thank Hashem. So it

says here that while the Jews are in the desert, in the גלות, I'm sorry, when the Jews are in גלות, in exile, it's as if we are going through these four situations. Why? And he explains it: ים, the first one is ים, when you cross the sea. When you're in a ים, an ocean, a sea, היינו המים רבים של טרדות הפרנסה. That refers to the many waters or the mighty waters of people during exile, in order to make a living and to survive the exile, we have to go through something which is compared to an ocean, to a stormy water. In many sefarim it says, based on a pasuk, it says מים רבים לא יוכלו לכבות את האהבה. That's a pasuk. The pasuk means like this: mighty waters cannot extinguish the love. Now, in simple words, it means that when you love somebody, there's nothing that could stand in the way. But why pick the example of mighty waters? So the mefarshim explain that the pasuk means that we're talking about the love a Yid has to Hashem. And even though we have to go through a lot of hardships, we're like in a boat in stormy oceans, that's how we are. When a person has to make a living, he has to go through so many troubles and problems, and those problems are considered מים רבים, are considered many waters. And nevertheless, the pasuk says that the Jews are so close to Hashem that even those mighty waters cannot extinguish the love. No matter what hardships we have, instead of complaining against Hashem, what really happens? We thank Hashem and we're still close to Hashem, we still love Hashem. So we see from here, what? We pray harder. But we thank Him and we praise Him, and we don't, God forbid, complain against Him. We don't have complaints. So What I'm trying to bring out is that the mighty waters represent the hardships that we have during exile, even for a simple thing as making a living. So therefore, he says that during exile we are like in a ים, we're like in the ocean. Number one. The

second thing is מדבר, a desert. A desert is a מקום נחש, שרף, ועקרב, וצמאון אשר אין מים. It's a pasuk in Parshat Ekev, when he describes the desert the Jews were in, so it says it was a place where you had snakes, and שרף is another type of snake, the the poisonous snakes, עקרב are scorpions, a place where you're thirsty for water. What does that mean? Remez, that's a hint לשממון הרוחני של חשכת הגלות, the spiritual emptiness that's during the time of galut. Because during the time of galut, as we've been learning for so many weeks, we don't really feel Godliness as we should, and therefore we are at a situation where we're empty of Godliness. So this is like a desert. A desert is a place that's empty. There's nothing there, no life, and I will elaborate as soon as we finish, like I always do, but this is what he says here. So the second thing that galut is compared to is to a desert. The third thing is בית האסורים, a jail. Am Yisrael, the Jewish nation, כלוא ומסוגר בגלות, we are locked in, closed in the גלות, כאדם החבוש בבית האסורים, like a person person who's locked in jail. So we're closed in galut, so we are like in jail.

Choleh, the fourth thing is a person who's sick. While we're in galut, it's like we're sick. Why? חשכת הגלות, the darkness of the גלות מעוררת בישראל אהבה ותשוקה עזה להקדוש ברוך הוא, awakens within the Yidden a great love and desire, a strong desire to השם, בבחינת חולת אהבה, like someone who is sick out of love. When you want something and you can't get it, and if you love it so much and you can't get it, it actually makes you sick. And that's a pasuk, it says חולת אהבה אני, I am sick out of love, and I'll elaborate on that too. So we, during galut, because we are not so close to Hashem, what it does is it brings out within us a desire that we want to get closer. So we want to get closer, but we can't get it because after all it is galut, and we don't have those Godly revelations that we used to have in the time of the Beit Hamikdash, or those that we will have when Mashiach will come, even more than before, but we don't have it, this makes us sick. So during galut we're like sick. So it comes out that during galut, we are passing through all four of these situations: we're going through the sea, we're going through the desert, we're locked in jail, and we are sick. כשיבוא משיח צדקנו,

when Mashiach will come, ואז, so then, נודה להשם, we will thank השם, על שהוציאנו ממצבים אלו, for that He took us out of these situations. Just like when a person goes through these situations and he's finished with it, he has to thank Hashem, whether it was bringing a קרבן תודה at that time, or nowadays that we have to bentch, make the bracha of gomel, we will then thank Hashem for taking us through these four situations as we mentioned before. And actually, there are poskim, there are certain codifiers that hold that when Mashiach will come, actually we will have to make a bracha. And one of the berachot, it says he might have to make is the same bracha that we make Pesach night by the Seder. Pesach night we drink four cups. By the second cup, the second cup is the one that we say the Haggadah over. We make kiddush, we drink the first cup, and then we say the Haggadah, we start with הא לחמא עניא, we go through the whole Haggadah, till we come to the end when we drink right before we drink the second cup, we make a special bracha. It starts with the words ברוך אתה ה׳ אלקינו מלך העולם אשר גאלנו וגאל את אבותינו, we thank Hashem our God, King of the universe, that You redeemed us and You redeemed our parents, and we go on and on, so a similar bracha we will have to make when Mashiach will come.

Some say we will have to make Shehecheyanu. When Mashiach will come, we'll actually have to make Shehecheyanu. I noticed that somebody gave out even a pamphlet with all the berachot that we should keep in our pocket, because we never know, Mashiach might just come in, and not only might, we hope and we know the Rebbe said he's coming soon. What happens if he comes? What bracha are we going to make? We're not so familiar with the berachot. So there was somebody who gave out all the berachot: Shehecheyanu, with the other bracha, with all the opinions, what bracha we'll have to make when Mashiach will come. Because, you know, we have to be ready. Just like they tell on the Chafetz Chaim that wherever he used to travel, he used to always take a little suitcase with him. And in the suitcase he had a new suit, or kapota, I guess. So they asked him, 'You always carry it with you. We expect you to wear it. If you're carrying it, obviously we assume you're going to a place, you want to wear it.' So he said, 'No, no. This is a new kapota that I made special. When Mashiach will come I should greet him with this kapota. And you never know, he might come any moment. So he wants to be ready.' Before he used to go to sleep, they say, he used to put this little suitcase next to his bed. And they asked him, 'What's for?' So he said, 'Because when Mashiach will come, and you never know, he might come just in the middle of the night, and I don't want to to waste the moment, so I want to have it right next to me so I'll be able to put it on and run to greet Mashiach.' Because the emunah that he had and we're all supposed to have is that Mashiach could come any moment. And now that we're so close to Mashiach, and the Rebbe said, so we know it's even closer, so now We really have to believe. It says we say, or those that say, those that don't say it with the mouth, but believe it, אני מאמין בכל יום שיבוא, you believe in ביאת המשיח, that he'll come כל יום, any day. אף על פי שיתמהמה, even though he's not there yet, he's, oh, time, time is taking too long, but af al pi, still, still אחכה לו, we still wait for him. So we have to be ready. So we have to have these brachot ready, so we have it. But what's the purpose of these brachot? Thanking Hashem for bringing Mashiach, but the way it's, the Rebbe explains here is that we are, we will thank Him for taking us out of these four situations. That's the general thing he says here. And now let's go back a little bit like I always do, and we'll go through the details of what it says here. First thing he says here that the galut is, is like a ים. It's like the sea, the ocean. And what is it, how is the galut, the exile, like the ocean? That's the hardships that we have, the טרדות הפרנסה it says, the, the hardships to make a living. Even that, we're not even talking about the hardships that people had and different countries you still have, persecutions and the hardships that Yidden have in galut, it's certainly that we're in מים רבים, we're in a stormy water. But even just to make a living is hard and you have to have a lot of טרדות, a lot of problems. Now that doesn't mean that it's every single person, but generally that's how it is. So we are now in the mighty waters and they're considered mighty waters, because like I said, because it's like a stormy ocean and you don't know, it turns you up and down and that's what it is, you're all, we're all mixed up and we don't know certain things that we do and we're not calm because we don't know, sometimes we don't even know what's going to be tomorrow, where is our living going to come, where is our money going to come. So those are the מים רבים. What has to be done? We have to, during galut, have to protect ourselves because of these mighty waters. That's why there's a pasuk that says, יורדי הים באניות. It's in קפיטל ק\"ז of Tehillim, 107 of Tehillim. That's the chapter of Tehillim that the custom is that we say it on Friday before mincha. Baal Shem Tov established we should say it. And in that chapter of Tehillim we have mention of all four of these things that you have to thank Hashem for. Actually the Gemara says that one of the places we learn out that these are the four situations to thank Hashem is from that קפיטל Tehillim. So the first one is learned out from the word that says יורדי הים באניות, those that go in the ים in boats. The idea of a boat is to protect yourself, that when you're there, even though there might be a storm outside, but at least you're safe, you're protected inside the boat. And during galut, even though we are in a ים, but we still have the ability to protect ourselves, which is similar to Noach and the תיבה. At the time of Noach, that's the real time when you had the mighty waters, you had the מבול, you had the flood. And Hashem told Noach to build a תיבה, to build a, an ark, and he would sit and then he would be protected. And that is the symbol of our protection also during the time of galut, that even though we have all these hardships, and because of these hardships what happens, we might, God forbid, turn away, because you think to yourself after all, if Hashem is making all this happen, and it's Him doing it, then it's His fault, all these problems are His fault. So some people know, take it and complain. And what we have to do is protect ourselves. And just like Noach at the time when he protected himself inside the teivah, it says in sefarim an interesting thing, at that time he reached a level similar to the way it's going to be when Mashiach will come. Mashiach will come, it says, one of the things that will happen is, וגר זאב עם כבש, the wolf is going to live, live peacefully with the sheep. What happened in the teivah of Noach? It's exactly what happened. You had all the animals, you had the sheep and you had the lion, and you had the wolf, and they all lived happily there together. They lived peacefully. So it says that ein hachi nami, at the time of Noach, he, spiritually, was at a level like it would be when Mashiach will come. Now if we take that lesson, that means that we are also now in galut, in the waters, but we're able to be in the galut, but while we're in the galut in the waters, which is the problem, nevertheless we are able to protect ourselves and live a life that's protected from the hardships, spiritually too, and live a life the way it's going to be when Mashiach will come. Actually it says an, something else. In Kabbalah it says that the teivah was closed in from all sides. So it says a symbol, which letter is a symbol of the teivah, is the שלאס מם, the מם, the מם סופית. The מם that you write at the end of a word. That מם is closed in from all four, looks like a box! Like a teivah. The letter מם, that letter מם it says represents the geulah. Because there is a pasuk in Tanach: למרבה המשרה ולשלום אין קץ. That's the only place in the whole Tanach that in middle of a word you have a clo-, an end מם. Usually that's only at the end of a word. In middle of a word, למרבה המשרה And there at the end of a word you have a מ that belongs in the middle of a word, because it says that the closed מ represents the geulah. And the teivah is like a מ that was geulah. And that teivah closed Noach up and blocked him out from the outside world. And what was going on in the outside world? The מים רבים, all the waters, but he was protected, and he lived a life like it will be when Mashiach will come. It's one of the reasons it says in sefarim that when the mabul was over, Hashem said to נח, ״צא מן התיבה״, go out. Before the Mabul, it says Hashem said to נח, ״בא אל התיבה״, go into the teivah. When it finished, he said go out. So, the mefarshim ask: milah when he told him to go in, he had to have a command, he didn't know exactly when he should go in. But why did Hashem have to tell him go out? The Mabul was over, and he opened the top and he saw it was over, so obviously he should go out. He needs Hashem to tell him? The answer is yes, he wanted to stay there. It was so good for him, he didn't want to leave. Cuz he felt such a spiritual height, spiritual level, that he was like like Mashiach will come, because he was protected from the world, from the מים רבים, and he was Hashem said: No, the time has come for you, you have to go out and you have to get involved in the world, etc., etc. So, what it's telling us is also, we are during galut in the מים רבים, but we are able to protect ourselves. Not only are we able to protect ourselves, but the truth is, we are able, during the time of galut, being in the מים רבים, being in those mighty waters, in the storm of the waters, we could utilize that to kedushah, and make that make that that should make us feel closer to Hashem. Now

I'll explain myself. Water, it says, always represents Torah. It says in the Gemara: ״אין מים אלא תורה״. Water is Torah. There's a pasuk that says: ״הוי כל צמא לכו למים״. Anybody who is thirsty should drink water. And the Gemara says, what that means is you should learn Torah. And the mefarshim explain: How does the Gemara know it's talking about Torah? Maybe it actually means if you're thirsty, drink water. But the mefarshim say, well, the pasuk has to tell you if you're thirsty you should drink water? Everyone understands if you're thirsty you drink water. So, the pasuk must mean something else. So, it means if you're thirsty, you feel spiritual spiritual thirst, drink water. What's water? ״אין מים אלא תורה״. Water is Torah. The Rambam says in the end of the laws of mikveh, where he describes all the laws of mikveh, at the end he says that every mitzvah has a remez, has a hint. So, as the technical part of mikveh, we know, there's mikveh with water, and if you're tamei, you're impure, you have to immerse yourself. But he says there is a spiritual meaning to the word to the inyan of mikveh. Mikveh, what you do when you go to the mikveh is you immerse yourself completely. You have to have your head down completely. No part of the body has to stick out, otherwise you're not yotzei. I mean, the women know that when you go, there's a mikveh lady standing there, and the whole purpose of her standing there is she sees to make sure that when you bend go down, that your hair doesn't stay up. You have to go down all the way. You have to immerse yourself. So, the Rambam says what is the remez of mikveh is that a person has to immerse himself in the waters of Torah. The waters of Torah completely. And what's the concept of immersing yourself? Immersing yourself means you're completely covered. There is nothing of you left. Now it doesn't mean there's nothing of you left, on the contrary, the whole person is there, but you can't see the person. The whole being of the person becomes one with the being of the mikveh at that moment. Spiritually, that means that a person has to learn so much Torah that he is one with the Torah. That you can't even look When you look at the person, it's almost like you don't see the person, all you see is the Torah. The person becomes a living Torah. The person represents the Torah. That's what mikveh represents. That is the reason it says in the end of Rambam, when the Rambam describes the time of Mashiach, which is actually the whole end of Rambam, and it's just השגחה פרטית that this Sunday we're finishing the Rambam, you know the cycle of learning Rambam, this Sunday is the end, is the Siyum HaRambam where the Rambam writes this, it's the end not only for those that learn three chapters a day, which you finish about every year, but even those that learn one chapter a day, so it come out you finish in three years, so now they're also finishing, it's the end of the three-year cycle. So, what does the Rambam write at the end of Rambam, complete end? He says like this: When Mashiach will

come, at that time ״לא יהיה עסק כל העולם אלא לדעת את ה׳ בלבד״. The occupation of the whole world will be only to know Hashem. That's all. Everybody in the world. And when it says everybody in the world, that means everybody, not only Jews, even non-Jews, will be occupied only in one thing, in the knowledge of Hashem. And he quotes a pasuk, shene'emar, the pasuk says, ״ומלאה הארץ דעה את ה׳״, the world will be full of knowledge of השם, ״כמים לים מכסים״, like the ocean covers the sea. Just like the ocean, the water covers that you don't see anything but water, even though there is a bottom, there are walls to the ocean, but when you look at it, all you see is the water. So too, when Mashiach will come, the knowledge of Hashem will cover the world. So there too, he compares the being immersed in knowledge of Hashem to the water covering everything. So the concept of mikveh, which is similar to that, is when you immerse yourself completely in the water, that means you immerse yourself completely in the wisdom of Hashem, which is understanding Hashem, or generally, learning Torah, which is mayim is Torah, learning Torah is the wisdom of Hashem. Says, the Rebbe writes that by the mabul, actually this is what happened: the world was full of water. So on one hand, the mabul was a punishment for those people who were evil, but in truth, it says that the mabul was more like a mikveh. Why did it rain for 40 days and 40 nights? Because a mikveh has a measurement of a minimum measurement of 40 סאה, that's the amount of water, סאה. It comes out to about I don't know, 90 gallons, something I don't know exactly, but in the measurement of the Gemara's time it's 40 סאה. So it rained 40 days. So it says that the מבול was really a cleansing of the world, more than a punishment. And that's why he did it through water, because water is the Torah, and what he did to the world was he immersed the world in the water. And there is

an interesting Midrash. The Midrash says that just like in the beginning of the creation the world was full of water, that's what it says in the beginning of Bereishit, the world was full of water till Hashem separated the water into the oceans, but like this everything was water, so too by the מבול everything was water. In the beginning of creation, when everything was water, it says, why was everything water? For the same reason. In the beginning of creation, there was nothing but Hashem. The whole being was only Hashem. That's why in the first day it says יום אחד, it says ויהי ערב ויהי בקר, was evening, was morning, was one day. Rashi asks, the other days it doesn't say one, it doesn't say two, it says second day, third day. How come here it doesn't say first day, it says one? To show us that on the first day there was only one, there was nothing but Hashem. And that's why right then there was only water, because water, as we're saying, represents the knowledge of Hashem, and the first day of creation, the whole world was water. There was nothing, the whole world felt the truth, which is Hashem. By the מבול, Hashem did the same thing: he brought water back to the world. When

Mashiach will come, that's going to happen again. Not physically, but again it says כמים מלאה הארץ דעה את השם, the world will be full of knowledge of Hashem, כמים לים מכסים, again like the water covers the sea. So again we have water, which explains another Midrash, when it says, some people say this in davenen, וערבה להשם מנחת יהודה וירושלים כימי עולם וכשנים קדמוניות. The pasuk means like this, that Hashem should be happy, should enjoy the present of Yehuda and Yerushalayim, כימי, like the olden times. So the Midrash says, you know what what it means like the olden times? Like in time of Noach. Time of Noach? I mean, we all think of the time of Noach as a bad time. Noach was lived in a time when people were bad and there was a מבול. But the peshat is, in the time of Noach by the מבול, what Hashem did, he brought the water into the world because the water needed the world needed an elevation which was represented in the idea of bringing the water. And when Mashiach will come, the same thing will happen again. That's why it says כימי עולם וכשנים קדמוניות, like the earlier days, like the days of the מבול. So basically, the concept of being immersed in water is good. It represents a something, a positive thing, not a negative thing. So going back here when he says that actually the time of galut is when the Jews are in the ים, in the מים רבים, and he means it here as a negative thing: we are in the ים with the mighty waters, with all the hardships, and therefore it's like a person who is in danger, when you cross the sea you're in danger, and therefore when you come to the other side finally, finally the danger is over, you have to bring a קרבן תודה, or you make a bracha. So we too, when we will finish with the galut, we will have finished with the danger. But in truth, it's a danger on one hand, but that also on the other hand has something positive in it, that by us being in the mighty waters, we are able to utilize it to the other side, that we're able to start thinking that we could immerse ourselves in the mighty waters of the mikveh, which means immerse ourselves in the mighty waters of כמים לים מכסים, that the water covers the sea, of wisdom of Hashem, and then we are able to be close to Hashem. Now in

truth, when Mashiach will come, that'll be easier, we'll all be at that level. In time of galut it's hard, but nevertheless, we are able even in the time of galut to live a life which is similar to the way Jews are going to live when Mashiach will come. Like we said, Noach in the middle of the mighty waters lived a life like Mashiach, we are able to live that way too. That means a Yid is able to feel in the time of galut that he is close to Hashem, and recognize Hashem, and immerse himself in being close to Hashem. I remember once on yechidut, when I personally went in, used to go into the Rebbe for private audience, so every year used to go in, so once the

Rebbe Who are these people?

David HaMelech was going to be the king after King Saul. Saul was the first king, and his son Jonathan should have succeeded the throne. But Jonathan knew that David, the son of Yishai from the House of David, would be the next in line. He knew that he was going to be the king. Shouldn't he have been angry, jealous? Shouldn't he have tried to win and to get the throne? After all, his father is king, and if the father is king, the son is king after the father. Yet it says that Saul the king came to his son Jonathan and said to him, \"Jonathan, as long as David the son of Yishai is alive, you don't have a throne, you have no majesty. You're just the son of a king.\" And Jonathan answered him, \"I love him, and I will pray for him to be king, and I will be his assistant. He is the king.\" What kind of a love is that? In the Torah, it tells us that when a man is ready to marry, it says that he should leave the house of his father and his mother and cleave to his wife. And that's all it says. A man, when he gets married, does not give up his independent being, he does not give up his material wealth, he doesn't give up anything. All he does is, he transfers that passionate and deep joy and love for his parents, he now transfers it to his wife. And the Torah says that the love between Jonathan and David was greater than—David said to Jonathan, \"My love for you is greater than the love that a man has for his wife.\" What would that be the difference? Whenever the Torah talks about the relationship between God and man, it talks about the marriage of a man and a woman, because the greatest love that exists should be the love between a husband and wife. Yet here David says to Jonathan, \"I love you more—my love for you is greater than the love of a man to a woman.\" What is the difference? What was the difference? between their love. Again, when a man marries, he leaves his mother and father, and he transfers all of the affection to his wife, but he still remains who he is. When David and Yonatan had their relationship, which was a love relationship, that God forbid, nobody should misconstrue and think that it was anything on the physical level, because there have been Bible critics who would come along and say that there must have been an intimacy there, and they would try to lend some of the ugliness that society has and put it into the Torah. The love that they had was beyond words, it was a feeling that one did not could not exist without the other, giving of himself totally. That that excuse me, Yonatan said, \"I don't want the throne! You, David, are the king!\" which means he gave up his identity as a king, he gave up power, he gave up wealth, he gave it all up. More than a husband, a man gives up when he marries a woman. A man doesn't give up all the glory, doesn't give up his name and his fame and money. He doesn't, he just transfers the love from one individual to another individual. Yonatan gave it all up. He didn't want a throne, he didn't want anything. His loyalty and his deep love that he had for David was this unconditional love. And that's why it lasted forever, and it could never be taken away. But then there was a conditional love in the Torah. It talks about David had had a son, his name was Amnon. And he had a daughter from another wife, cuz he had 18 wives, and her name was Tamar. This is not the Tamar that we know, Tamar veDavid, another Tamar. And this Amnon lusted for his half-sister. And the Torah says he was so crazed by her that he actually forced her to have a a relationship with him. But after his passion was spent, he started to hate her, because he realized that he had done something that was terribly wrong, and she was sort of the cause of it, although she was an innocent person, nevertheless he threw her out of the house, cuz he couldn't look at her. Every time he looked at her, he would remember the terrible sin that he had committed. So did he have a real love for this woman? Forget about it! He just had a lust feeling cuz she was so beautiful he had to have her. Once his passion was spent, the love was gone. And so that is a love that is dependent, that is conditional. A Jew has a love for the Torah that is unconditional, and a Jew has a love for God that is unconditional. How do we get this unconditional love to God? It says in the when we when

we begin to read in the siddur, it says: שמע ישראל ה׳ אלוקינו ה׳ אחד. Then it says: ואהבת את ה׳ אלוקיך. You must love your God בכל לבבך, with your heart, ובכל נפשך, your soul, ובכל מאדך. מאדך is translated many different ways: with your whole being, with your whole vibrancy, with your wealth, you are ready to give up your life for God, ובכל מאדך, with everything that you have. And the word מאד also comes from the word מדה, which means measure, that we shouldn't we should love God in a way that we shouldn't measure and say, \"If you will show me kindness and goodness, I will love you, measure for measure.\" In other words, \"If you will show me love, I will give you love. If you will show me an angry face, then I will show you an angry face and I don't love you, God.\" So he says, \"No, that's not the way you love God. You must love God ובכל מאדך, with all of your being, regardless of what God metes out. Whatever our lot in life is, whatever God has chosen with His infinite wisdom and goodness to give us as our lot in life, we need to love Him in spite of the fact that we may not think that what He has given us is rightful, is fair, because we think we're better and we deserve more. So that is the way a Jew needs to love God. And when you love a fellow human being, we also should love unconditional. Do we love ourselves conditionally? Is there a conditional feeling in the way we love ourselves? No. Even when we're naughty, and even when we're nasty, and even when we're not so nice and so right, we love ourselves! That's the way we have to love another. So that if says: ואהבת לרעך כמוך, love your friend as you love yourself, it means, do you really sit there and weigh out all the pros and cons of your own personality before you love yourself? No! You rationalize away all the negativity, and you love yourself, because you're close to yourself and you love yourself. That's the way we're taught that we have to love another person. You know why? Because we look and we say maybe the reason this person is acting this way is they had a hard day, they're in a lot of pain, they're in a lot of they're angry, and that's why they're doing it. Instead of becoming angry and hostile, that's the way we should be to ourselves when we do something wrong. Let's be accepting. So

all of that we're doing that we're studying here just works hand in hand with what the first topic that we were talking about, which is the positive energy. Let's be positive people that give off positive, loving energy in this universe. We'll fill the world with joy and with goodness, And God surely will bestow all of His bountiful blessings upon us, and Mashiach will come now. Thank you very much. Now I have to go so quickly. To try to prevent it. He said, \"What are you doing? Don't do that.\" So he went to try to prevent him. And he came to Reb' Boruch'l, and he said, \"I'm going to ask you a question.\" He said, \"Ask me a question.\" He said, \"Why does everybody hate your grandfather, the Baal Shem Tov?\" He said, \"There were so many מתנגדים to him.\" So he said, \"I'll tell you why they hated him,\" Reb' Boruch'l says, \"because my grandfather was the neshama of the entire generation. And when a person has an illness in a part of his body, the person who's sick doesn't feel it, the limb doesn't feel it, the neshama feels it. The soul is what experiences the pain of the whole body. The limb itself, if it had no soul, you could cut it off, it wouldn't hurt. It's the soul that feels the whole body. So my grandfather was the soul of the Jewish people, and the מתנגדים were cut off limbs. And they resented my grandfather because he made them feel their pain, the deadness of themselves. So they, in other words, the anger against him was really an anger against the soul.\" Then the Berditchever says, \"Reb' Boruch'l, the Baal HaTanya is the neshama of this generation, and you're the cut off limb.\" That's a good one. He told him right to his face, he said, \"And you're the one that's hurting, and that's why you're upset at him, right?\" So I tell the story to this woman, and she goes, \"You just told me my entire life. I'm the soul of this family. I have four brothers and sisters and my father and my mother, and they all hate me. And I could never figure out why. And the reason they hate me is that I have a life and a purpose and an understanding and a commitment. And when I'm around, they just feel how dead they are. So they can't stand to be near me. They can't bear looking in the mirror. They can't stand who they are when I'm around. So they don't invite me, and they do everything they can to kick me out.\" And this was a woman in her 50s who, for the first time in her life, realized that she wasn't a monster. She thought she was a monster. \"Why does my own family hate me? My brothers and sisters won't let me talk to their children. They treat me like a pariah. They cut me out of my mother's will. My mother cut me out of the will. And they hate me because of who I am.\" And this is a famous thing about narcissists. If you want to understand how a narcissist relates to the world, remember that they're a bottomless pit of emptiness. They have a void inside of themselves. That void must be covered up. It must be ignored. Because if they feel the void, it's horrifying. It feels like they're dying. So they cannot allow anybody to show them the void. And anybody who threatens their illusion that they're okay is the enemy. You're trying to destroy them. And that's why they become aggressive. That's why they attack. That's why they try to cancel people. That's why they undermine people. They're defending themselves. In their mind, it's self-defense. \"You are attacking me. By having a soul, by being real, by having values, you're attacking me. You're showing me what I don't have, and I have to destroy you before you destroy me.\" And the victim always thinks, \"What did I do wrong? Why are they so mean to me? What did I say?\" Nothing. You exist. Your existence is an offense to them. That's it. And until you understand that, you can't be free. Because you'll keep trying to appease them, you'll keep trying to fix it, you'll keep trying to explain yourself, and you'll never win, because what they hate is not what you do, it's who you are. And you can't stop being who you are. And so the only choice is to walk away. And that's a hard realization, especially when it's your own family, to realize that the people who were supposed to love you the most are the ones who can't stand you the most, not because of your flaws, but because of your strengths, because of your light, because of your goodness. And this is the secret of the עקבתא דמשיחא. In the end of days, the Gemara says, חוצפא יסגא, truth will be absent, and the people who are real, who have a soul, will be despised. The people who fear sin will be rejected. And the chutzpah will reign, because the empty people will be in charge. And they will do everything they can to suppress the people who remind them of what they're missing. So when you see this happening in the world today, when you see the attacks on truth, the attacks on morality, the attacks on goodness, don't be surprised. It's the same mechanism. It's the empty, soulless system fighting for its life against the light. And our job is simply to hold on to the light, not to get dragged down into the darkness. [Non-speech audio]