says here that the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch מובא, is brought down in the קיצור שולחן ערוך, שנהגו למנותם באמירת הפסוק הושיעה את עמך. שיש בו עשר תיבות. That when you want to count people to see if there's a minyan, so the custom is to count them by using the פסוק הושיעה את עמך. You're not allowed to count Yidden. Says that it's a sakanah, it's dangerous. That's actually the reason why in the desert, when Hashem wanted to count the Yidden, he told Moshe Rabbeinu they should he should collect from each person a מחצית השקל, a half a shekel, and then he counted the half a shekalim, but not to count the people. The pasuk says why? ולא יהיה בהם נגף בפקוד אותם, so there wouldn't be any plague by counting. In other words, if you do count them directly, there is a possibility chas veshalom of a plague. So you're not allowed to count people, Mhm. So why did David HaMelech make that mistake? David HaMelech made that mistake, it says, and that's like what happened, so he thought in his case would be different, but the fact was that it's the same. He thought there's a special zechut, but obviously the din is that you're not allowed to count. So, therefore, when you see people, when you get together for a minyan, and you see the Yidden and you want to know if there's 10 people or not, so you shouldn't count 1 2 3 4 because you're not allowed to count Yidden. This, by the way, makes a whole she'eilah on taking census in Eretz Yisrael. Is a question whether you're allowed to participate, because they're counting the Yidden. Only thing is you could say they're counting the papers later, they're not counting the people, but whatever. So, the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch it says what you should do is, you count by using the פסוק הושיעה את עמך. הושיעה את עמך has 10 words. הושיעה את עמך וברך את נחלתך ורעם ונשאם עד העולם. So, you go on each person, הושיעה את עמך, and you see where you're holding, you'll know how many people you have. So he says, ולכאורה הרי מפורש בספר הפרדס לרש״י, But the question is earlier in a sefer written by one of the students of Rashi, which dates back close to 900 years, there it says שמונים בפסוק, that you should count with another pasuk. Another pasuk which has 10 words, ואני ברב חסדך וגו׳ ואני ברב חסדך אבא ביתך אשתחוה אל היכל קדשך ביראתך. You also have 10 words in that pasuk. So why is it that the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch writes that now we would we count with הושיעה את עמך? There must be some reason. Now it

doesn't mean necessarily that when it was changed, there was somebody consciously that decided, oh, it must there is I have a certain reason, and I'm going to change that from now on we're not going to count with the פסוק ואני ברב חסדך, but I'll count with the פסוק הושיעה את עמך. Could be that it just happened that somebody did it, and somebody else listened, and they just learned it, and slowly it changed, and people started doing it. But still there must be a reason, because everything is hashgachah pratit, so everything is from Hashem. Especially when it comes to inyanim of Torah, so certainly there must be a reason why Hashem made it happen that it changed, that we count now with הושיעה את עמך. There is an expression in the Gemara when a certain she'eilah that came up, so they said, you know what? Let's not look into how to answer it. Let's see what the people will do. Let's just see how the Yidden are going to behave. And you'll see. They'll figure it out, and whatever they do, you'll know it's right. And the Gemara expressed itself הנח להם לישראל, leave it up to the יידן, אם אינם נביאים הן, בני נביאים הן. The Yidden, even if you will not consider all the Yidden as prophets, they're definitely children of prophets. There is a certain level of prophecy that's there within Klal Yisrael. So even if they do something not consciously, but if it's done by Klal Yisrael, we know it's true. Other times you find in the Gemara that one of the chachamim asked another one, \"What is the din in such-and-such a case?\" So he said to him, פוק חזי מאי עמא דבר. Go out and see how the people behave. And that will be to you the halachah, the psak din. So here too, even if we'll say that there was no chacham, no rav or tzaddik who decided that מכאן ולהבא from now on we should start counting by another pasuk. The fact that it was switched by itself shows that min hashamayim there was a certain nevuah within the Yidden that they should change. And the truth is, to go a step further, it's possible that if it was done not consciously, it shows more that it came min hashamayim. When it's done with sevara, so you could say, well, maybe the person who had this idea made a mistake. You never know that that is mamash right. But if it wasn't done consciously, it just happened min hashamayim, that shows that min hashamayim they made it happen, that this is the way it should be done. So

anyway, the question is why is it that in the later latest generations, when you want to count Yidden, you count with the פסוק הושיעה את עמך rather than with the פסוק ואני ברב חסדך? Yesh lomar, so he says the answer could be like this. בדורות האחרונים בעקבתא דמשיחא, in the last generations, which is the time of Ikveta d'Meshicha, you call the steps of Mashiach, the heels of Mashiach, time right before Mashiach. כששורר החושך הכפול והמכופל בזמן הגלות, when the darkness of galut, the doubled and the tripled darkness of galut is strong, הנה כאשר עשרה מישראל נאספים יחד, so when 10 Jews get together, אזיי לכל לראשה, the first thing they do, מבקשים על הגאולה, they ask Hashem for the geulah. And therefore they say, הושיעה את עמך, help your nation, וברך את נחלתך, bless your inheritance, ורעם, feed them, ונשאם, and pick them up, עד העולם, all the way up to the top of the world. So even though this is for a different purpose, it's for the purpose of counting the people, but if you're already starting to count, you're looking for 10 people, you want to see if 10 people got together, you take the opportunity to ask Hashem to bring Mashiach. And that's what we do when we say הושיעה את עמך. We're asking Hashem, help your nation, that means we're asking Hashem to bring Mashiach. But the other one is also, maybe not. The other one is not specifically to bring Mashiach. The other one is concerning davening, ואני ברוב חסדך אבוא ביתך, I will come to your house, that means I will come to shul, and I will, I will bow down, et cetera, et cetera. It doesn't specifically mention Mashiach, even though it hints for it, because the true place of davening is the Beit HaMikdash. There's a pasuk, it says כי ביתי בית תפילה יקרא לכל העמים, my house, meaning the Beit HaMikdash, is called the house of prayer to all the nations. This was the house of prayer. As a matter of fact, the whole source of prayer comes from the Beit HaMikdash. Prayer is במקום, in place of korbanot, which gave to the Beit HaMikdash. But nevertheless, in the pasuk itself, it doesn't speak of the Beit HaMikdash. Ultimately, it means I will come to your house, meaning eventually it's ultimately the Beit HaMikdash, but superficially, it means coming to the house of prayer. But the פסוק הושיעה את עמך is actually a bakashah. It's actually asking Hashem, help your nation, and וברך את נחלתך, bless your inheritance, which is Eretz Yisrael, and feed us, means support us, give us everything we need, and pick us up to the highest level. When is this going to happen? When will the Yidden be on the highest level? When Mashiach will come. So we take the opportunity at every possible time to ask Hashem for Mashiach. But this happens, this started in the later generations, when we are close to Mashiach, so the feeling for Mashiach is there, so we do this. But before that, when we were further away from Mashiach, so then it wasn't felt so much that we have to have this opportunity, we have to take advantage of every opportunity to ask for Mashiach. Let me explain this a little bit. In truth, this is really something that always had to happen, but for Klal Yisrael to adopt something, it just takes time. So when it got full, that's when they adopted it. But in truth, any opportunity we have, we have to ask Hashem for Mashiach. And I'll explain why. The

Rambam says in the end of Hilchot Melachim, which is the place where he talks about Mashiach, he says, כל מי שאינו מאמין בו ואינו מחכה לביאתו, anybody who doesn't believe in Mashiach or doesn't wait for his coming, in other words, even if he believes in Mashiach, but he doesn't wait for him, לא בנביאים בלבד הוא כופר, he doesn't only deny in the words of the Nevi'im, of the prophets, because as the Rambam says, the words of the prophets are full about the coming of Mashiach. So if you don't believe in Mashiach or don't wait for Mashiach, you definitely deny in the words of the... of the Nevi'im, but more than that, he also denies in the words of the Torah, in the words of Moshe Rabbeinu, because the inyan of Mashiach is mentioned in Chumash, not openly, but the Torah hints to Mashiach. That means it's hinted or written in the words of Moshe Rabbeinu, and therefore if you don't believe in him, you don't believe in Moshe Rabbeinu, you don't believe in the Torah. But as I... as you notice, the Rambam's expression is not only anybody who doesn't believe in him, anybody who doesn't believe in him or doesn't wait for him. That means you could be a person that believes in him, but you just don't wait for him. And that's very possible. As a matter of fact, many Yidden are in that category now. Many Yidden believe in Mashiach, we're talking about frume Yidden, they believe in Mashiach, like the Torah said Mashiach is going to come, they believe in him. But to say they actually wait for him? You'll tell him he'll come tomorrow, fine, he'll come next week is vaiter good, come in five years is also good, I mean, they have nothing, they're not waiting for him. So the Rambam makes it very clear that it's not only if you don't believe in him, even if you do believe in him, but you don't wait for him, you're denying in the words of the Nevi'im certainly, and even in the words of Moshe Rabbeinu and the Torah. So from here we see that it's an obligation. So how do you explain in the Gemara that there's one tanna who said, or amora who said, you know, let him come, but I don't want to be there when he comes? How do you explain that? In other words, let him come right now. He's waiting for him, but he just says, I don't want to be part of the suffering that is going to be in Chavlei Mashiach. But he says, let him come, I want him to come. But he just said, I want him to come and I want to skip that stage. Oh okay, he's not looking forward to that stage. To that stage of the Chavlei Mashiach, which is the suffering before Mashiach. He says he's got to come very soon, but let me just skip it, or jump straight into the time of Mashiach. Did the Rebbe say that was past, the Chavlei Mashiach? Well, the Frierdiker said, in the Second World War, the Holocaust, that this was so. I don't know, all of it, but we certainly hope it is. But this was definitely part of the Chavlei Mashiach. We hope it was all of it. So we see from here clearly that it is an obligation to wait for Mashiach, to hope, מחכה means, מחכה לביאתו means to hope for his coming, wait for his coming, to desire his coming, to want him to come. What does that really mean? That really means not just to say I want him to come, but to feel in your heart that you're waiting for him, you want him to come. When you wait for something and you really want it, the true meaning is that you feel that without it you're missing. Actually, the word want in English means something is being missed. I remember once, not in the sichah, the Rebbe explained the expression, \"We want Mashiach now.\" A kashya is, yeah, \"We want,\" and he said that in English you have want and you have will. And he says if you look it up in the dictionary, will is just ratzon, something that you have a will to. Want means not only you want it the way it's simply used, but it also means that without it you feel that you are missing something. And that's why the the words were chosen, even though the Rebbe didn't choose these words, it was chosen actually by little children by the rally. In front of the Rebbe, they used to scream, \"We want Moshiach now!\" Then later they turned it into a song, so the little children did it. So here it certainly came min hashamayim, because they have no understanding to choose it consciously, it just came into their mouths. So definitely it was special, and the Rebbe explained. He also connected it to the word now, \"We want Moshiach now\", and the word now in Hebrew is written נון אלף ואו. נון אלף ואו is the gematria 57. In Kabbalah it says that there is a שם called הזן, the שם of הזן. זון, זין נון, which is 57. And it's a שם that has to do with השפעה, all the things that come min hashamayim, that's why זון, הזן ומפרנס, הזן את העולם. So he says the word now is connected to the idea of זון, so we want Moshiach now, we want it, we're missing it, and the Aibershter should be ממשיך it like the ענין of זון, which is ממשיך. But anyway, so the ענין of Moshiach is something that we feel that we're missing. The

halacha of tefillah, the clear halacha of davenen is the way it was set up מדאורייתא from the Torah. There is no נוסח, there was no special form for davenen. Now we have a siddur, and there are exact words that we're supposed to say. It was set up by the חכמים, by the Anshei Knesset Hagedolah, the חכמים that lived before the second Beit Hamikdash yet. But that's מדרבנן, that the חכמים said. But the way the מצות תפלה is מדאורייתא from the Torah, the mitzvah is like this: anytime a person feels that he is missing something, he needs something, he is מחויב, he's obligated to ask Hashem for it. And there is no time limit. It's not every day, it's not three times a day. Could be that you have to say it ten times a day, and sometimes if there is nothing that you need, so מדאורייתא you could do it once in five days, whenever you come to a need. The idea of tefillah is בקשת צרכיו, asking Hashem for your needs. And if you feel you need something, you have to ask. If a person actually fulfills the obligation that the Rambam says, that you always have to hope and wait for Mashiach, and want Mashiach, what does that mean? That a person is always supposed to feel that he is missing Mashiach. Since you feel that you're missing it, automatically it falls under the category that you're obligated to daven for it. So it's not just it's a good thing to daven for it, and it shows your belief in Mashiach, that's true. That's if you look at it from the angle of the Mashiach angle. Let's look at it from the halacha of tefillah angle. There's another דין. There is a דין that if you're missing food, you have to ask Hashem for food. If you feel that you have a need of food and you don't have it, there's a mitzvah, a mitzvah of the Torah to ask Hashem, give me food. If a person is sick and you need health, so when you ask Hashem for health, because you feel that's something that you are missing, you fulfill the מצות עשה מדאורייתא of tefillah. And if you don't ask Hashem for it, you are not keeping the mitzvah of tefillah the way it's מדאורייתא. But nowadays, we don't really have to do it because we daven three times a day anyway. So anytime we have a need, it's included in any of the tefillot. Because when the חכמים established the 18 ברכות, which later turned into 19 by Shemoneh Esrei, they said that they put these ברכות that includes all possible needs a person might have. They're very general, but in all these words, everything is included. Once somebody asked, I think the Rabbi Rashab, that there's something that he needs and he wants to daven, make up his own tefillah, to ask Hashem for it. So he said that you don't have to. It's all included. Now it does say sometimes that it's good for a person to be specific when you daven. Therefore, if you have something specific, you should ask Hashem. for it. But as far as the mitzvah of tefillah, we are yotzei by just saying the Shemoneh Esrei, because that includes everything. But one of the things, that's מדרבנן now, but the original דין of de'oraita is there was no nusach, no special wording. Everyone could use his own words, but the mitzvah was that when you feel you need something, you must ask Hashem for it. So if a person fulfills the mitzvah of hoping for, waiting for Mashiach, then obviously whenever you get a chance you have to ask for it. So when he says here that we take an opportunity when we come into shul and we have a few people and want to know if we have ten, so might as well take the opportunity and ask Hashem for Mashiach. It's an obligation, it's not just stam, it's a nice thing to do, it's an obligation. And the truth is this should have been done always, cuz that obligation didn't start now. It started from when the חורבן בית המקדש came, and then now we have to wait for Mashiach and ask for it. It's interesting, we see in the Rambam an interesting thing. The Rambam has a section, like I said before, which deals with Mashiach, that's the end of Hilchot Melachim. But then, the Rambam mentions Mashiach different times concerning other halachot. In one halachah that happens to be in the halachah of פרה אדומה. The laws that deal with the פרה אדומה, the red heifer, they would take a red cow and have to make a certain korban out of it and then burn it, and the ashes would be mixed with water and it would be sprinkled on a person who became unclean by touching a dead body. So there are all kinds of halachot. One of the halachot the Rambam says like this: altogether up till now there were nine פרה אדומות made. They would make a פרה אדומה, and as long as the ashes lasted they used it, and then when it was getting used up already and they see they need more they would go through the process to make another one. So altogether all the years of the בית המקדש and the Mishkan they only had nine. He says the first one was made by Moshe Rabbeinu. The second one was made by Ezra. Pretty long time in between. Ezra was the one that built the second בית המקדש. Moshe Rabbeinu made it right in the beginning when they put up the Mishkan. So if you want to calculate the years, somebody has a math head, let's go through the years. It was 40 years in the desert, what? Yeah, well let's see if he's correct. 40 years in the desert, 14 years in Gilgal, 369 years in Shiloh, 57 years in Nov v'Givon, and then 410 years the בית המקדש, and then 70 years of גלות בבל. Okay, he says it was about 1200. 410 and 369 already is almost 800 years. Then you have another 40, and another 57, and another 14, and another 70. Anyways, it's about 1100 years, something like that, I didn't calculate it. So they had one פרה אדומה. One פרה אדומה lasted for so many years. Then by the time they build the second בית המקדש they needed another one. So Ezra Hasofer made the second one. The second בית המקדש stood for 420 years. There were seven more within those 420 years. Because people were tamei so often, that's the whole thing. It's just to show. In the first thousand years not too many people got tamei, people were careful, and therefore one parah adumah was enough. In the next 420 years they needed eight parah adumot. Ezra made one, and then seven more. Anyway, that's not what I'm trying to bring, I'm just mentioning the halachah. And then he says at the end, the tenth one will be made by Mashiach, and he adds these words: מהרה יגלה אמן כן יהי רצון. Let him reveal himself soon, אמן כן יהי רצון, let that actually happen. Well, some said, tzadikim said that, yeah, that's an interesting lashon. Mikol makom he says יגלה, he should be revealed, it doesn't say he should come. The interesting thing is the Rambam is a sefer of halachah. The Rambam is not a sefer of, you know, telling us tefillot and things like that. Why would he all of a sudden in his sefer put in a tefillah? When he mentions Mashiach he puts in a tefillah. The tefillah is that let him come, אמן כן יהי רצון, let it happen. That's a tefillah, that's not halachah, why did he put it in? Must be that the Rambam wanted to teach us a halachah with these words too. What halachah did he want to teach us? I'll tell you what halachah. That every time we get a chance we mention Mashiach we have to start feeling that we're missing, and therefore we have to ask Hashem for it! That's what the Rambam did! He mentioned Mashiach, so he says, \"Oh, let him come. Hashem, please make him come.\" Why did he mention him? Why did he say it? Because as soon as you mention Mashiach, he's teaching us a din, that automatically, since you feel, like the Rambam says at the

end, that you're waiting for him, that means that you feel that this is your צרכך, your needs. And you mention him, you remind yourself, oh yeah, I need it. So what comes up right away comes in הלכות תפילה. הלכות תפילה is that you have to ask for him. So right away the Rambam asks. So he did a special, he put it in here, not in הלכות, in הלכות משיח. See, the question is the Rambam, if he wanted to mention that please Hashem bring Mashiach, he should have mentioned it in הלכות מלכים, because there you would say, well, that's the part about Mashiach, so he's dealing with Mashiach. He wanted to tell us more than that, that even when you're not talking about it, even when you're dealing with another subject, but if Mashiach comes into your mind, you're obligated right away to say, please, let him come. Hashem, please bring him. אמן כן יהי רצון, and give that, it's a tefillah with a berachah. So he's teaching us this din that you have to always feel that Mashiach is something that you're missing and you need it, and therefore you're always obligated to ask for it. So this is the meaning we say here, that the reason we, especially the later years, count with הושיעה את עמך, because this is the pasuk that we ask Hashem for Mashiach. The pasuk actually, the, the... In Shemoneh Esreh we say, כי לישועתך קוינו כל היום. We're hoping, awaiting for your salvation, which is Mashiach, all day. It means it's constantly on our mind, it's supposed to be, and it's constantly something that we feel we're missing. So here, when we get a chance, so we count with the הושיעה את עמך. And these words actually mean that. הושיעה את עמך means help your nation, which is the best help, to bring Mashiach. And

here, especially, it stresses the inyan of Mashiach because it says, וברך את נחלתך, and You shall bless Your inheritance. What does that refer to? Now it refers to the Yidden, because the Yidden are called the nachalah of Hashem. But it also refers to Eretz Yisrael. Eretz Yisrael is the inheritance. So in this pasuk we mention not stam to help the, help the Yidden could mean, well, Yidden have problems, Hashem help them, give them parnasah, give them money, give them health. But then it connects it to Eretz Yisrael, which is connected to Mashiach. And then it says, ורעם, ורעם means from the expression of a ro'eh, of a shepherd, feed them. And then, ונשאם, and pick them up עד העולם. Pick them up עד העולם. When will we be picked up עד העולם, which means picked up to the top of the world? That will happen when Mashiach will come. Till Mashiach we're not in gashmiyut on top of the world. It never happened. Even at times when the Yidden had, time of Mordechai, when a yid was the top of the government, but he was a משנה למלך. He was second. He wasn't the מלך. Even with Yosef it was משנה למלך. Yeah, but there, but later on yidden were on top, Shlomo Hamelech's time yidden were on top. But now, after the time of the בית המקדש it never happened. When Mashiach will come, that's when we'll be all the way on top. So this pasuk actually means Mashiach. Plus, and the kingdom of the כוזרים? First of all, it's a small nation. There it was a מלך בכיפה, אחשורוש, who was the מלך of the whole world. Had Mordechai been that, then it was like Mashiach's's time. Means a yid is the control, controls the whole world. But Shlomo Hamelech was controlling the whole... Shlomo Hamelech controlled the whole world. He was the מלך בכיפה. He in his time, he was the superpower of the world. The כוזרי or other countries when you had sometimes yidden, there were certain nations, certain small countries that they had their own government, it happened. But not like that. So why, why it was not revealed in the time of Shlomo Hamelech? Uh? Why it was not revealed in the time of Shlomo Hamelech? The Mashiach? It says that the similarity, the closest time period in history of yidden to Mashiach is the time of Shlomo Hamelech, side by גשמיות, side by רוחניות. The yidden were safe, the yidden had only peace. It says everyone was איש תחת גפנו ואיש תחת תאנתו, everyone sat in their yard and had, were sitting under their trees, and they sat and learned Torah all day. And it says even ברוחניות, when Mashiach will come, it says we will not have to go out to be מברר the ניצוצות, we will not have to go and collect all the holy sparks. But what will happen? They will come to us. They will be drawn automatically, the קדושה will be so strong they will be drawn. In the time of Shlomo Hamelech the same thing happened. It says people came to Shlomo, they brought him presents. Even Malkat Sheva heard from a faraway country the חכמה of Shlomo and she came to Shlomo. So it says that this was a way of בירור הניצוצות. So on one hand you are right. So in the time of Shlomo, so why wasn't that the time of Moshiach? And we see it wasn't. The proof is that it didn't last forever. In the time of Moshiach, it's going to last forever. That's why, by the way, before I get back to the, when we say ונשאם עד העולם, העולם also means forever, not only olam is on top of the world, forever. So when we say the Yidden will be on top forever, it only means the time of Moshiach. So this pasuk means Moshiach. Why wasn't it in the time of Shlomo Hamelech? Because in order to have this great aliyah of the way it will be in the time of Moshiach, you have to have a yeridah first. So without a חורבן בית המקדש, which means we go low, we cannot go high. There has to be, as the pasuk says, שבע יפול צדיק וקם. In order to get up to a very high level, there has to be שבע יפול צדיק. Actually, in sefarim of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, it talks about it, that he himself behaved to a certain degree in that way, that it says in order to go higher you have to go lower. I want to mention that the Rebbe once told someone in יחידות, he asked about something, so the Rebbe said, \"You have to go back sometimes in order to go forward.\" This was the first years of the nesiut, so the Rebbe got up from his, his chair, he said, \"You see, if I would want to jump over this table, I couldn't do it. The only way is if I step back, then I can jump over and go forward. But if I wouldn't step back, I can't.\" So he says sometimes, not sometimes, there has to be a yeridah in order to have an aliyah. So Shlomo Hamelech's time that came directly from מתן תורה, and it came that was the first בית המקדש, that reached the climax, the very high level, but still not the level of Moshiach. And then after it went down, and then all these times passed, then when Moshiach will come, we will have the same thing, but in a much higher level, the level of נצחיות etc., etc. And this is what this pasuk is all about: ורעם ונשאם עד העולם, this is the pasuk of Moshiach. And there's another point here, when it says ורעם ונשאם עד העולם, that he will elevate, we, he should elevate them, meaning the אידן, עד העולם, till the world. Till which world? We know in other places we say מן העולם ועד העולם. ברוך ה' מן העולם ועד העולם, we bless Hashem' from the world to the world. So in Chassidut and Kabbalah it explains that it means like this: generally speaking we learn about two types of worlds. If you learn Chassidut we're familiar with these terms, there is alma d'itkasya and alma d'itgalya. There are the revealed worlds and the hidden worlds. The revealed worlds means that's where the light of Hashem' is revealed. Then you have the hidden worlds where the light of Hashem' is hidden, but not hidden because it's lower. The עלמא דאתכסיא is a higher level. That's a place, spiritual place, where the light of Hashem' is so strong that that's beyond revelation. So we, who are lower, can never have any revelation from it. But the lower worlds, since their light is not that strong, it could, some of it could come down and be revealed to us, too. So

when we say the expression ברוך ה' אלקי ישראל מן העולם ועד העולם, thank Hashem' the God of the Yidden, from the world to the world, what we mean is from עלמא דאתגליא to עלמא דאתכסיא, from עלמא דאתכסיא to עלמא דאתגליא. It means that the revelation should come from down here, and it should trace itself back all the way עד העולם, to the world which is the highest world, עלמא דאתכסיא. And when we say Baruch, it means to bring it down. The word Baruch means bless, Baruch also means המשכה, to bring down. So ברוך ה', when we say, blessed Hashem' means bring down from Hashem', מן העולם, starting from this lower world, עד העולם, all the way, bring it down all the way from the highest world. So עד העולם refers to the highest spiritual world, the highest godly places, which is עלמא דאתכסיא. So when we say here, ונשאם עד העולם, we mean the same thing, the same עד העולם as we mean over there. So what we mean here is that we're asking Hashem', help the Yidden, bless Your inheritance, feed them and pick them up till the highest level, world, level of עלמא דאתכסיא. When is that going to happen? During the time of גלות, as much as Hashem' will help us, and give us food, whatever it is, we are not at the level of these high עולמות of עלמא דאתכסיא. Mashiach will come, it says, there will be the גילוי העצמות, the revelation of the essence of Hashem'. So obviously this פסוק definitely means the time of Mashiach. And that's what he says, that's why they chose this פסוק to use when you want to count a מנין, because anytime you get together, the first thing you do you ask Hashem' for Mashiach, and this is a פסוק that talks about Mashiach. Let's go to the next piece

here. There is a דין in Shulchan Aruch, it says אין מטפחין להכות כף אל כף. You shouldn't patsh, what's it called, clap! Clap on Shabbos. ולא מרקדין, you're not allowed to dance on Shabbos. Shabbos you're not allowed to clap when you sing, and you're not allowed to dance. But then it continues, והאידנא מספקין ומרקדין, and why nowadays we see people clap and dance on Shabbos? So one reason he says, משום מוטב שיהיו שוגגין. The reason we do it and we don't tell them anything, because if we'll tell them, they won't listen, better don't tell them. And that's a rule, that let people who you assume are going to do the aveirah anyway, don't tell them. Because if you don't tell them, then they're doing it b'shogeg. But if you tell them and they won't listen, it'll be b'mezid. Now, it is not so simple, we can't, I would never stop at this point, because to make it clear, this law is only said by an issur derabbanan. If the prohibition is only derabbanan. If it's an issur from the Torah, if it's a prohibition from the Torah, this doesn't apply. There is a mitzvah of הוכח תוכיח את עמיתך, you must tell them. If you see someone do something wrong, you must tell them. And it says הוכח תוכיח את עמיתך, the Gemara says, אפילו מאה פעמים, a hundred times. Unless he's going to give you a patch, it says, otherwise you have to tell him over and over again. And the Gemara, there's a question, there's a contradiction: here it says better don't tell them, and there it says you must tell them. So that's the difference: by an issur de'oraita, you must tell them; an issur derabbanan, you don't. Now, not to clap or not to and not to dance on Shabbos is only issur derabbanan. So So one answer why we see people do it and we don't say anything to them, because what should we do, we can't help it, and since they won't listen, and since it's only issur derabbanan, we don't say anything. But the yesh omrim, then there's another opinion, דבזמן הזה הכל שרי, that nowadays it is allowed. That nowadays it's allowed. What's the reason it's allowed nowadays? And I'll explain it. What was the reason the chachamim said that you're not allowed to clap and dance on Shabbos? Because they were afraid that if you'll do that, you might come to make a כלי שיר, to make a musical instrument. Now, to make actually a musical instrument is a issur de'oraita, that's from the Torah. So the Rabbanan, they did many things like that. They would say, don't do certain things which from the Torah you would be allowed, but don't do it because you might come to do a issur de'oraita, so the same thing here. Nowadays, very few people know how to make a musical instrument. Those days, people were familiar, they would take a small thing and put together a few pieces of wood and it became an instrument. Now we don't know how to do it. So now the chashash is much less, there is no real real don't suspect it'll happen. So nowadays this gezeirah doesn't apply, and therefore we're allowed. So he says here like this, אצל חסידים נהוג, by Chassidim it's a custom, וכן ראינו אצל נשיאי חב\"ד, and that's how we saw by all the Liubavitcher rebbes, למחוא כף, they would clap, ולרקוד, and they would dance b'Shabbos u'vYom Tov, Shabbos and Yom Tov. יש לומר הטעם פנימי לכך, so you could say the deeper reason, the simple reason obviously they accept the opinion that nowadays it's allowed, but he says there's a deeper reason: אנו הולכים ומתקרבים לביאת משיח צדקנו, is getting closer to משיח, לכן נוהגים, and therefore we behave k'mo David Malka Meshicha, like David Hamelech, who is Mashiach, because David is the father of Mashiach, and he himself is called Mashiach. וכן נאמר, by David Hamelech it says, ודוד מכרכר בכל עוז לפני ה', that David sang, danced and sang in all his might in front of Hashem'. When David took the aron, the holy ark was hidden in someone's house, and then a time came when they took it out from there and they brought it to עיר דוד. It was a great simcha, they were carrying the aron, you could imagine carrying the holy ark. So it says in Tanach that all the way outside of the city, it says David Hamelech, he was wearing an אפוד בד, a a white חלאט, a a robe, a a white linen robe, and he was singing in front of the aron. And then as they entered the city, עיר דוד, it says he was dancing and singing in front of the aron. And it says there that Michal, the daughter of Shaul, asked him, \"Listen here, you're making yourself meshuga, you're making yourself crazy like like what like what it says, כאחד הריקים, like one of the maids.\" And he said to her, \"Well, I'm doing it for the sake of Hashem', and since Hashem' chose me and not your father, I'm doing this.\" This is what it says in Tanach. And I'll explain the details in a moment. But what he says here is, so we see that the behavior of David Hamelech, who is Mashiach, David Malka Meshicha, was to dance and to sing. And therefore, now that we got closer to the time of Mashiach, we are we do it even on Shabbos, we rely obviously on the heter that's there because we want to copy and be like David Hamelech, which is really to be like Mashiach. Now, there are a few details here that I have to explain, whether there's the halacha aspect or other aspects. First, I want to mention an interesting story, that in the first years by the Rebbe, one Shabbos, this was told over by this chassid, his name was R'' Eli'' Shmuel Kahano, I don't know if any of you know knew him, an older chassid. So

one of the farbrengens on Shabbos, the Rebbe got up, stood up from his seat, they were singing and the Rebbe was clapping. And he says he was standing there amongst the people, in the crowd, looking at the Rebbe, but what went through his mind was, but it's clapping on Shabbos, you're not allowed to, it's not right. So he says, while he was standing and thinking, the Rebbe just stopped for a second and said, \"ר' אלי' שמואל,\" he called him by his name, \"ר' אלי' שמואל, דער מנחת אלעזר איז מתיר!\" The Minchat Elazar is one of the poskim that has a whole long teshuvah and explains that it's no problem, that it's not just a she'eilah and and you could find a heter, he explains that it's to you that you could without any she'eilot. So the Rebbe said to him, \"ר' אלי' שמואל, דער מנחת אלעזר איז מתיר!\" He said he was shocked, because that just was going through his mind, that it's asur, and the Rebbe, \"דער מנחת אלעזר איז מתיר!\" Let me explain this halachah a little bit. Usually, we know—this discussion now will not be concerning Mashiach, but it's going to be concerning this inyan, but it's noga to know—we know that when the chachamim said that something is forbidden and they had a reason why they did it, why they made a prohibition, and that reason doesn't apply anymore, nevertheless, it's still forbidden unless the chachamim would of their own have come and taken off that issur. The לשון Gemara is, דבר שבמנין צריך מנין אחר להתירו. If someone something was made up by the חכמים במנין, means by counting the would get together and they would take a vote, that's really what it was. And it came out that this is asur, you need again the same chachamim or greater ones to get together and and matir it. The לשון is: you need גדול ממנו בחכמה ובמנין, meaning people who are greater than before, and therefore, a lot of prohibitions that the chachamim said for certain reasons, they still apply. The best example is, let's use the example of חלב עכו״ם, that you could say, well, חלב עכו״ם, the reason was, why did the chachamim say you can't buy milk that a איד didn't watch the milking? Because we're afraid that maybe the goy will mix in non-kosher milk. But when that reason doesn't apply anymore, we still say that the prohibition is there, we don't say, well, automatically it's off. Why? Because the chachamim said. Not to confuse this with the heter of Rav Moshe, who is matir it if you can't get chalav Yisrael, there he says because that was never our situation, he says, was never part of the issur, not because the reason doesn't apply so the issur falls off. He says that when the chachamim said, they never said that you must have a Yid watching it, they said you must have proof that there is no other milk mixed in. Whatever proof. And he claims we have proof now from government inspection. But not that he says chas v'shalom that, well, the חכמים טאקע said this way and now the reason isn't there so we take it off, we can't take off an issur. Because that's a din. So the question is, how does it apply here? Here we're saying that the chachamim said you're not allowed to dance, you're not allowed to clap on Shabbos. The reason was because you might make a כלי שיר. So we say now the reason doesn't apply, because people can't do it, so automatically the issur falls off? It shouldn't fall off. The reason isn't there, but the issur should still exist. But I just want to make it clear, it depends how the chachamim worded their issur. If the chachamim put the reason within to the issur, then if the reason falls off, then the issur falls off. If they had a reason separately, and the reason was just a reason for the issur, but it wasn't put into the issur, then even if the reason falls off, the issur is still there. So, if the chachamim would come out with a statement, you should say from now on we want at the time they did it, let's say, 2,500 years ago, they said, from now on we want people we we don't allow dancing and clapping on Shabbos. If that's all they would say. Now, amongst themselves they know the reason is because they might make a כלי שיר. In that case, even if the reason falls off, the issur would stay. This was one of those takanot that the chachamim came out with the reason. They said: we don't want you to dance on Shabbos because you might make a כלי שיר! So they put this making כלי שיר part of it. The moment that we can't do it, there is no possibility for it, automatically they never made such a issur in the first place in such a case. There are other examples. I think I once mentioned this. The chachamim said, you're not allowed to drink, people aren't even aware of it, they don't even know there was ever such a issur. The chachamim said that if you have water or any liquid, and you leave it uncovered, and you don't watch it, you walk away, you come back, you can't drink it. Has nothing to do with staying overnight like something in a metal keli, different dinim, you're not allowed to. That's called מים מגולים. You ever hear of anybody following that din, that you have a glass of water, you turn away, you came back, you can't drink it? Never heard of it. No, no, I said no. Nothing to do with taking off a drop, nothing to do with staying overnight, it's a different din. I'm saying people don't even know it ever was asur. The reason was, they said, because you never know, a snake might have just popped up and drank from it and left some poison in. Then it says in the Shulchan Aruch that nowadays this issur doesn't apply, because where we live we have no snakes around, so there's no reason. So here the mefarshim ask the same question: but they said it's asur, so who cares that the reason doesn't apply? The answer is the same: when they said this issur, they didn't say, we don't want you to drink water if it was left unguarded. They said, we don't want you to eat drink water left unguarded because of the snake. So the part of the snake is part of the issur itself. The moment there is no chashash of snakes, there is no part no issur.

Had they said it in another way, we don't want you to drink water uncovered, and then if you would come to them and say, hey, what was the reason you did it? Well, they would give the reason, but the reason was a separate thing, but the issur became as an issur in itself, so then it would be forbidden. So, in this case, about dancing and singing, and and clapping on Shabbos, they put the reason into the issur, and that's why it is mutar now. But on the other hand, why are we now medayek to do it, especially that we make sure to sing and to dance and clap on Shabbos? So he says, because we're getting close to Mashiach, and Mashiach did it, meaning David Hamelech did it. But let me explain a little bit, we just have a few more moments, to what took place there, the way Chassidus explains it. Like I said before, it says there that when they were traveling outside of the city, he was singing. He was dressed with a with a אפוד בד, and they were, that he was singing. When they got to the city, it says he was singing and dancing. And he said to her, Hashem chose me, not your father, so therefore I could do it. We see like this: when he was outside of the city, it doesn't say he danced, it just said he sang. Inside the city, it says he danced. When he was outside of the city, it says that he was wearing a white robe. Outside of the, when it says he got into, it doesn't mention that he wore a white robe. What's the difference? Also, why did he have to tell her that Hashem chose me, not your father? I mean, what's the, why is he trying to insult her? He should have said to her, you know, I'm a king and I still feel it's important for the kavod of the Torah, for the mitzvah, simcha shel mitzvah it's important. But why mention that Hashem chose me, not your father? As if trying to shtech her back, you know, she said something to him so oh, trying to shtech her back.

The pshat is like this: the Rambam says that in those years, in the time of the Tanach, a lot of people used to wear white robes. Which people? The Nevi'im, the prophets used to wear white robes. Why? Because really an אפוד, that type of robe, was one of the בגדי כהונה, one of the garments of the כהן גדול. These people would wear the white, the robes, the אפוד'ס, to show that they are to a certain degree similar to the כהן גדול. The כהן גדול had one special, one of the special things was he was able to communicate with Hashem. With the אורים ותומים, he wore the אורים ותומים, and through that he would get answers from Hashem. It's a type of nevuah. So the Nevi'im used to wear also אפוד to show, that's what the Rambam says, to show that they are in the same category, similar to the כהן גדול. When David Hamelech wore that אפוד on the outside of the city, it was because he was a navi too, and this was supposed to show that he is ready to receive nevuah. It says in the Rambam that by the Nevi'im, the way to receive to get the nevuah had to be through התבודדות, that means to being isolated, to being alone, and constantly thinking about Hashem, not having any other side obstacle, side things, you know, taking them away from their thoughts, then you could be a navi. Where did you usually do that? Outside of the city. So when David was outside of the city, his singing to Hashem was mainly in order to receive nevuah. So at least there was a goal in why he was so happy.

When he came into the city, it wasn't for the nevuah. There was no goal why he did it. There the simchah was plain simchah shel mitzvah. Now the goal of receiving nevuah is not a bad goal. I mean, not bad. But still, it's a limited thing. When you do something for a purpose, it's limited to whatever you're doing. So it was a limited type of simchah. When the simchah was inside the city, it wasn't for that reason. There it doesn't mention that he wore the robe, because that has nothing to do with nevuah. He just did it plain for the simchah of the Torah, simchah of the mitzvah, simchah of the aron. And that's why there it says he danced. What's the inyan of dancing? Why do people, when you're happy, you dance? So Chassidus explains, depends how happy you are. Not every time when you're happy you start dancing. If the joy is so deep that it penetrates into every part of the person, every part of the person, כל עצמותי תאמרנה, your hands are participate in the simchah, your feet participate, you start jumping up and down because this is also If the simchah is very, is just limited, then it's limited. Sometimes you don't even say anything, it's in your heart. Sometimes you start singing to show that it's more. But not necessarily you would make start making with your hands and with your feet and jumping up and down. But when the simchah is unlimited, then you there is no limit, then you jump and you makhst meshuga, why? Because it's a bli gevul, a simchah shel bli gevul. David Hamelech, when he was in the city with the aron, that's his when his simchah was unlimited, because it had no limit even of nevuah. And that's why when she said, what are you doing? So he said to her, Hashem chose me, not your father. The

problem of Shaul Hamelech was, the Gemara says שאול הלך אחר הטעם. Shaul went after reasoning. That's why when Shmuel told him to wipe out Amalek, he left over Agag, he left over all the animals. And he gave a good reason: after all, you could use all this for korbanot. But Shmuel told him: the best sevara, the best idea, but you didn't listen to Hashem! Who cares what ideas you have?