middle of הלכה ד׳, which is the fourth הלכה, where the רמב״ם describes what משיח is going to be like. And the רמב״ם said this will be a person, king, from the house of דוד, which means a descendant of דוד המלך, who studies תורה and learn and does מצות like דוד his father, the oral תורה, the written תורה, he will force all the יידן to follow in the ways of the תורה, strengthen its cracks, he will fight the wars for השם, then we know that he is assumed to be משיח. If he does that and succeeds, and then he builds the בית המקדש in its proper place, and gathers the exiles, the יידן who are dispersed in the world, then we know he is משיח ודאי, he is definitely משיח. And then he will accomplish his goal, that he will correct, improve the whole world to serve השם together, it means all the nations will serve השם. I just want to say and stress one point that I didn't get a chance last week, when the רמב״ם says here that משיח is going to build the בית המקדש in its place, that is a special point, because there is a special הלכה that the בית המקדש has to be in its proper place. Now, to be

specific, the בית המקדש, we know, has one place. You can't build the בית המקדש any other place in the world. The רמב״ם says in הלכות בית הבחירה, on the laws of the בית המקדש, that originally there were times when people were allowed to make individual מזבחות, altars, wherever it was, to bring קרבנות. That was called a במה. Certain times they were allowed, certain times they were not allowed. But when the בית המקדש was built, when they came to ירושלים and built the בית המקדש, from that moment on, never ever again was and will there ever be a היתר, permission, to bring a קרבן and build an altar anywhere else. So therefore, from that moment on, the place of a house for השם is on the הר הבית, the mountain of the בית המקדש, which is הר המוריה. But nevertheless, it doesn't mean that it has to be exactly the same way it was before. It has to be within the area of the way it was before, the first בית המקדש, the second בית המקדש. But it could be a little bit moved to the side. The

only thing that has to be in the right place, exactly in the right place, is the מזבח. And therefore, when the רמב״ם says here that he will build the בית המקדש in its place, is to show that one of the ways we're going to know that he is משיח, if he is going to know the right place where to build the מזבח, the בית המקדש, and in the בית המקדש itself, the מזבח. Because the רמב״ם writes when they built the second בית המקדש, he writes in the laws of בית המקדש, הלכות בית הבחירה, when עזרא came up from the גלות, and they built the second בית המקדש, one of the things they had to know was where the מזבח belongs. And they didn't know. So it says there, three נביאים עלו עמהם. There were three prophets that came from גלות at that time to ירושלים, and they told them three הלכות. The three נביאים were חגי, זכריה, ומלאכי. And one of the הלכות that the נביאים said was they showed exactly where the place of the מזבח is. And based on their testimony, they built the מזבח in that exact place. Because had the מזבח been moved a little bit, even if it would have been in the general vicinity, it would have been פסול. By the מזבח, specifically, it's exact. The reason for that is because the מזבח is a special place. The רמב״ם says that the מזבח, the place where the מזבח is, that's the place where the עקידה took place, where אברהם אבינו took יצחק to the עקידה, on that exact and that exact place. That's the exact place where נח brought קרבנות after he went out of the תיבה. After the מבול, he brought קרבנות, it says in חומש, it was in that place. That was the place where אדם הראשון brought קרבנות. It doesn't say in חומש, but it says in מדרשים that אדם הראשון, גמרא even it says, that אדם הראשון brought a קרבן. That was the place where אדם הראשון was created. Imagine, what it says in חומש, how was אדם הראשון created? השם took sand, mixed it with water, and He made a form of a human being. And then, ויפח באפיו נשמת חיים, He blew the נפש, the life, into this person, and he got up and he was אדם הראשון. Which part of the world, where did השם dig out and make this form of a human being? It was in that exact place. The reason for that is, that to show that השם made the human being from the same place where later on will be his כפרה. The מזבח is a place where you bring קרבנות to bring a כפרה for the עבירות a person might do. So השם put the כפרה originally into the creation of the human being. So that is the reason why that specific place is exact. So

here, too, the רמב״ם says that after משיח is assumed to be משיח, it's not enough, he's just assumed, he's בחזקת. After he succeeds in that, then there are two more things he has to do in order to be משיח ודאי, definite משיח. in the right place, and we will see, I don't know exactly how we will know, but we will be able to tell from his words that he has found the right place for the מזבח, then we know that this is משיח. This is another one of the qualities of משיח. And then the רמב״ם says, he will finish off the job, he will make the whole world recognize השם. Then we continued, we started a little bit in the next part which in most of the prints was taken out because of the censor, but in the original prints it was there, and now when they reprint the רמב״ם, certainly if they reset, re-typeset, those that are just offset they keep the same as before, but those רמב״םs that are re-typeset, so then they put in from the old versions. So the

רמב״ם says, and I'll start over again, ואם לא הצליח עד כה, if he did not succeed, if in other words if this person who was assumed to be משיח did part of the things, but he did not succeed in doing it completely, או נהרג, or he got killed, means he didn't manage to finish off because he died or he got killed, בידוע שאינו זה שהבטיחה עליו תורה, so we know that he is not the one that the תורה promised, והרי הוא ככל מלכי בית דוד השלמים והכשרים שמתו. But nevertheless, he's one of the כשר, proper kings of the house of דוד. In other words, as I explained last week at length, it doesn't mean that if we see he started and didn't finish off the job, that חס ושלום he is a false משיח. He is not a false משיח. He is just a person who could have been משיח, and he started off, but for some reason the world wasn't ready, the people weren't ready, the time hasn't come, whatever it could be. But he just didn't finish off the job, but it doesn't mean that he did anything wrong. So the רמב״ם says he is still from the proper kings of the house of דוד, and like many kings before, there were so many kings in that were in the dynasty of דוד, they died, and nevertheless they were they were not משיח, but they were כשר'ע kings. Then the רמב״ם continues, ולא העמידו הקדוש ברוך הוא, the reason why the אייבערשטער put him was אלא לנסות בו רבים, this should be another test. שנאמר, as it says, he quotes a פסוק in דניאל where it says, ומן המשכילים יכשלו, and some of the wise men will stumble, לצרוף בהם, to try them, ולברר וללבן עד עת קץ, to refine and to clarify until the appointed time, כי עוד למועד, because the set time is in the future. So the רמב״ם says here that the reason השם did bring these kings or this king who did not succeed, but nevertheless he started the job, is another test to the people. Now

superficially, it seems that the רמב״ם is telling us that this is a test. A test means השם makes it hard for the people and makes tests them that what could happen, sometimes if this happens, some people could lose their faith. If they see it starting to go and it's following the pattern of what they expect to be משיח, and then it doesn't work out, and they could lose their faith. So השם made this to test us whether we will lose our faith or not. That's the simple פשט in what the רמב״ם is saying, that the reason the רמב״ם that השם put this type of king is a test. And he quotes a פסוק where it says that some wise men will stumble, and this will try them, and this is in order to refine and to clarify until the appointed time will come. Now in truth, this is אמת, this is a פשט, but there is much more to it. We know that the word נסיון, which means a test, comes from the source of the word נס, which means a miracle, which actually comes from the source of the word, נס means a flag, a banner. As a פסוק it says כי ארים נס על ההרים, I will pick up a נס on the mountains, which means I will pick up a flag. So the word נס, miracle, or flag, comes from the root word of נס which means to elevate. When we talk about a נסיון, when someone gets a נסיון, a test, the purpose of the test is also to elevate the person. השם does not just want to put a person through a test just to make it hard on the person. When a person passes a test, so then this person is in a higher מדריגה. This person reaches a higher level. That's why the פסוק says כי מנסה השם אלוקיכם אתכם, השם tests you, לדעת, to know, הישכם אוהבים את השם, to know if you love השם. Now the simple פשט means השם tests us from time to time just to know where we're at, if we're going to still love השם or not. But the מפרשים, I think the רמב״ן asks the question, would השם have to make us go through the test just to know our level? השם doesn't know it? השם looks at us and He knows what we could do, He knows whether we're able to withstand the test or not, so why would He have to do it? If it's just for His knowledge, that He should know where we're at, whether we still love השם, why does He have to do it? So the מפרשים answer and חסידות elaborates on it, that השם just doesn't want to know, השם wants actually us to reach a higher מדרגה. So He makes us go through the test, that by passing the test, we actually reach a higher מדרגה. Now, it means in רוחניות a higher מדרגה, but even in a simpler way, when a person passed a test already, then this, it's easier for the person to continue. There's a expression from the חז״ל, אין חכם כבעל הניסיון. There is no חכם, no one is as wise as the one that passed the test, the one that has experience. But a בעל הניסיון actually means the one that passed the test, because when you pass the test, then you are more refined. And this is the deep פשט in what the רמב״ם says here, that the reason השם would bring a king that would seem to start off the procedure of משיח, and doesn't finish it off, so the רמב״ם says it's in order to test us, what he means is in order to elevate us, in order to prepare us closer to the coming of משיח. Because now we are already a little bit experienced. So, the mistake that we made before in certain things that we thought and then after a while we figured out, so we come to a point already where we're ahead. So when the משיח, real משיח will come, not not that the one before wasn't the real one, but when משיח the the realistic one will come, the one that will actually take out of the גלות, it will be easier for us to accept him. We will have already experienced certain parts of it that by the time we come to it, we are already there. We are already בעל הניסיון. And we are more חכמים than we are before. And since we are the right חכמים, we are able to understand, that will make משיח's coming faster. Like this, when משיח will come, there will be certain things we'll have to first start learning and first start doing and first start figuring out, and certain things will be right, certain things will be wrong, we already passed that stage, because we passed that and now, when משיח will come, we'll be there already. And that's actually what the פסוק means when he says The רמב״ם quotes this פסוק where it says לצרוף בהן ולברר וללבן, which means to refine, to clarify. This refines us. This makes us closer that when משיח will come, we'll be able to understand it. So this is what the רמב״ם says why השם brought a king that would be a beginning of משיח and not work out. Then the רמב״ם continues: This is a good side. So far we're talking about good things that happened that will lead us closer to משיח, will make us have experience. But now, on the other hand, השם made certain negative things take place in the world which also help us out to prepare ourselves to משיח. And he

continues, אף ישוע הנוצרי, which is actually means יושקע. Jesus the Christ, that's what the words mean. שדימה שיהיה משיח, he thought he was משיח. He thought he'll be משיח. ונהרג בבית דין, and he got killed in the בית דין. Actually, the בית דין killed him. What that means is it doesn't the way we know in history, it doesn't mean that the Jewish בית דין killed him, means that the Jewish בית דין, they פסקנ'ד that he deserves to die. I don't want to go through the story, the history of יושקע, especially this time of the year. But the way we we have a certain קונטרס, a certain pamphlet which is called תולדות ישו הנוצרי, the history about him from the Jewish perspective, from the truth. They don't know who the author of this is, but they do know that it was originally it originally started circulating I would say about a thousand years ago. At one point, it was even combined, connected to the גמרות. Some of the גמרות, they had in the back this תולדות ישו הנוצרי. And later, they took it out because the the governments of the places where they printed the גמרות would not allow it. And there it tells the whole story what happened, that the truth is he claimed he was משיח. He was originally a great scholar, he was a ממזר, that's true, cuz his mother who was already מאורסת, she was a נערה המאורסה, she was already engaged to a person, and in those days, engaged meant she already received the קידושין, she already was considered married. And then she lived with another man and then had this child, but nevertheless, he was very smart and he was a great student, but then he went off his mind, he went off to the wrong direction and he felt that he wanted to, he was a big philosopher, and he wanted to start a new philosophy. But how would he get the people? So, truth is, he wanted to perform miracles, to show them that he's a great person. So what he did was he went into the בית המקדש, and in the בית המקדש there was a place where you could have השם's name written, and if you know that name, with that you can perform miracles. The only thing is anybody would go in and find it, on the way out would forget, so no one ever was able to know it. What he did was he went in and he wrote it down. And the truth is anybody who would write it down, when they went out, they searched pockets to just make sure he doesn't take it out, he cut his skin open and he stuck it in and sewed it up. So when he came out, they didn't see it, and he opened it up and he used it to perform miracles. And later the חכמים let one of the תנאים go in to do the same and allowed him to remember, be able to fight him back. Anyway, they fought him and he lost the whole whole power that he had from this name, he ran away to Egypt, and there he learned black magic, and he came back and started performing miracles. And again he started, he had a whole following. יום טוב פסח he came to ירושלים disguised with a whole group of followers, and he tried to get to mingle with the Jews in order to convince them to become his followers. The חכמים found out, and that's when they judged him, and they פסקנד that he deserves to die. Now it was already after the time when בית דין had the right to judge capital cases, because 40 years before the חורבן בית המקדש they had no right anymore, because one of the conditions that the בית דין has a right is only if the סנהדרין has its place in the לשכת הגזית. לשכת הגזית was a an area in the בית המקדש, and that's where the סנהדרין, the Supreme Court sat. If they don't have their office there for some reason, then you cannot judge capital punishment. And 40 years before the חורבן they had to leave, because they had already problems under with the government, so they had to leave, and they couldn't. He died, he came this happened within those last 40 years. Nevertheless, it was a הוראת שעה, it was a special case where the בית דין has a right in special circumstances, הוראת שעה allowed to do this. So they judged him and they פסקנד that he has to die, and the government, the Roman government killed him. But it was because the אידן asked for it. So the רמב״ם says here that he thought he was משיח, and he got killed by a בית דין. So here we have a person who came as a false משיח. He was a false משיח. Now, we know that even though every person has free choice, and when he did what he did it was out of his free choice, no one forced him to do it, השם didn't force him to do it, but nevertheless, when we look into the whole cycle of history, everything has a purpose. Everything has plays a role in history. What was the purpose, as when we look in the broader sense, of his coming and his claiming he's משיח? So the רמב״ם says, first of all, כבר נתנבא בו דניאל. דניאל already years before had prophesied about his his what he was going to do. שנאמר, as it says, ובני פריצי עמך, means the the children or the people, the vulgar people amongst you, ינשאו להעמיד חזון ונכשלו. They will exalt themselves in the attempt to fulfill the vision of משיח, but they shall stumble. So he attempted and stumbled, but not like the רמב״ם said before considering the good kings, that they also attempted, but in a good way, and they were דוקא possible to be משיח, it's just the time hasn't come. He stumbled. In other words, the נביא said that he did the wrong thing. And am I going the wrong way here? And he continues: וכי יש מכשול גדול מזה, is there a greater stumbling block than what he did? שכל הנביאים דיברו שמשיח גואל ישראל ומושיעם, all the נביאים spoke that what's משיח gonna do? He's gonna come and redeem the אידן and help the אידן. ומקבץ נדחיהם, he's gonna gather the אידן from where they're dispersed. ומחזק מצותן, and they're gonna strengthen the מצות. So when we know about משיח, as the רמב״ם had said earlier, what's משיח's coming gonna do? It'll strengthen the מצות, bring us back to ארץ ישראל, strengthen the מצות. וזה, and he, this person, גורם לאבד ישראל בחרב, he caused the Jews to be slain by the sword, ולפזר שאריתם ולהשפילם, and the remnants to be scattered and humbled. That's what really we know throughout history, that the Christian Church caused all the different שחיטות and all the שמדות as we call them, all the executions and all the צרות we had is based on that. ולהחליף התורה, also they came to change the תורה. ולהטעות רוב העולם לעבוד אלוה מבלעדי השם, and it came to trick the whole world, cheat them into serving a god other than השם. So ממילא this is the best proof that he has no connection to משיח. He was a false משיח. אבל מחשבות בורא עולם אין כח באדם להשיגם. But the

question is: so why did השם make history take its course that he should come and do what he did? So he says: The thoughts of the Creator of the world we can't understand. כי לא דרכינו דרכיו, because our ways are not His ways, ולא מחשבותינו מחשבותיו, and our thoughts are not His thoughts. So in other words, the רמב״ם says, generally speaking, we can't have, we don't have an explanation to why השם made him come. But on the other hand, the רמב״ם says, nevertheless, וכל הדברים האלו של ישוע הנוצרי ושל זה הישמעאלי שעמד אחריו, nevertheless, when we look back, we do see that all the things that he did, and also the things that the second one, the Arab did, this includes, this not include, this refers to Mohammed, אינם אלא ליישר דרך למלך המשיח. They did pave the way for מלך המשיח. What they did did help out for משיח's coming. Like I said before, not only positive things help pave the way for משיח and prepare us for משיח, but even this, which was a negative things also helped pave the way, ולתקן העולם כולו לעבוד את השם ביחד. And this helped, and eventually when משיח will come, the whole world

will get together and serve השם. שנאמר, and he quotes the same פסוק we quoted before, כי אז אהפוך אל עמים שפה ברורה, I will make all the people pure of their speech, that they will all call upon לקרוא כולם בשם השם, they will call the name of השם, לעבדו שכם אחד, to all put us one shoulder to serve השם. כיצד? But how is it? How is it that what he did, which was terrible, paved the way that משיח should come and we'll be able to prepare the world to serve השם? So he says, because כבר נתמלא העולם כולו מדברי המשיח, the entire world has already become full with the mention of משיח. One good thing he did: he came and spoke about משיח, and because of him, the whole world is speaking about משיח. ומדברי התורה, and they talk about the תורה, ומדברי המצוות, they talk about the מצוות. ופשטו דברים אלו באיים רחוקים, and these things, the idea of משיח and the idea of תורה, מצוות, spread to all far islands, ובעמים רבים ערלי לב, and in many other nations who are, you say, stuffed hearts. והם נושאים ונותנים בדברים אלו ובמצוות התורה, they discuss these things, and they discuss the תורה. I'll explain it more in a moment. אלו אומרים, some say, מצוות אלו אמת היו, the מצוות that we know about were used to be true, וכבר בטלו בזמן הזה, and now they don't exist anymore, ולא היו נוהגות לדורות, and they don't they don't exist in for later generations. ואלו אומרים, others say, דברים נסתרים יש בהם ואינם כפשוטן, the מצוות don't mean in a simple sense, there are hidden things there, וכבר בא משיח וגילה מסתריהם, משיח came already and revealed what it is. This is all referring to him. So what he did was one thing: people talk about משיח and people talk talk about the תורה. They're talking the wrong things. They're talking about the wrong משיח, and they're talking about the תורה in a wrong way.

Some say the תורה stopped, that's exactly what he did. רמב״ם in an earlier place refers to him as a נביא השקר, as a false נביא. Why? Because he came to say he was a prophet, and one of the things he said is you don't have to keep the מצוות anymore. The מצוות that השם said were till his time, and from now on, God forbid, there is a New Testament and there is a new תורה. So he was wrong, but nevertheless, they're talking about the תורה. In other words, the Bible is studied. They have the wrong פשט in the Bible, but at least there is a recognition that there is a Bible. And also, there is a recognition about השם. Till his time, most of the world worshipped idols, physical idols. They did not believe in a superior being which is spiritual. They believed in spiritual powers within the physical objects. From him, from his time on, there was an understanding that there is a spiritual power which is beyond, which is something that's not tangible, it's something that's completely beyond. Now, they have it wrong, but that concept, that we have to look for something spiritual, is true. They just have the wrong spirit. What they have, the רמב״ם, see, there is an argument in the פוסקים whether Christianity is עבודה זרה or not, whether it's עבודה זרה or שיתוף. Really it's not נוגע to משיח, but we're learning the רמב״ם elaborates on this, so let's elaborate a little bit on this. We know there are two concepts: there is אחדות השם, believing in the unity of השם, and then there is the concept of שיתוף. שיתוף means partnership. The word שיתוף comes from the word שותף; שותף means a partner. The idea of believing in one השם and not believing in any partnership, according to many פוסקים, was only said to the Jews. The

גוים are allowed to believe in שיתוף. What's it based on? A פסוק. The פסוק says שמע ישראל השם אלוקינו השם אחד. השם our God, השם is one. So this פסוק tells us השם is one. No partners, one. But how does the פסוק start? שמע ישראל, listen, יידן. So this is a דין given to the יידן, that the יידן must know that השם is one and there is nothing else. The גוים, one of the seven מצוות to the גוים is not to worship idols. They're also not allowed to worship idols, one of the שבע מצוות בני נח. What it means is that they have to believe in God, but they're allowed to believe in שיתוף, a partnership. If they believe in God, but if they believe there is something else that also has a power, for them it's not forbidden. The question is, is Christianity considered שיתוף, or is considered עבודה זרה? Is it a partnership, or is it is called an idol worshipping. Now, according to the רמב״ם, Christianity is considered idol worshipping, not שיתוף. In other words, it is forbidden for a גוי, according to the רמב״ם, to to be a Christian, to to believe in Christianity. Why? What's their belief? And I'm not going to I'm not familiar, and I'm not going to get into a study of the belief of the Christians. But the basic point is, שיתוף, when we say partnership is allowed to a גוי, it doesn't mean that a גוי will believe that there are two gods: there is God, and there is somebody else that helps Him. That's not called שיתוף. That's called עבודה זרה. שיתוף means if they believe in אלקא דאלקיא. They believe like this: there is one God. He's the top. This one God gave something else, another being, the power to control. Let's say if they would believe, and there was, it used to be a time people used to believe that the sun has its own power. We know that the sun doesn't have its own power. The sun gives us heat and gives us light and gives us all kinds of good things, but it's only כגרזן ביד החוצב. It's only, expression in פוסקים is, like the ax in the hand of the of the person who chops the tree. So who chopped the tree? The ax. But it's only a tool. The sun is a tool in the hands of השם. It has not its own power at all. השם wants, He gives; He doesn't want, He doesn't give. The sun has no say. What happens if someone will believe, \"No, the sun does have a say. השם gave the sun power, and said, 'You know, you now on your own, can do what you want. You could give light, you could give heat, you could do what you want.'\" And there were people who believed. And that's where it started, that people used to pray to the sun, because they thought the sun has the power to choose whom to give and when to give. So they would pray to the sun and say, \"Sun, please give me.\" And when they would have a good day, they would tell the sun, \"Thank you,\" because they believed it has its own power. That's called שיתוף. Because even these people believed that השם is the top. השם, if He wants, He could stop the sun from doing what it does. But השם decided to give the sun its own power. Yes. So, I'm getting to. So,

believing in שיתוף would mean believing that the sun or any other being has its own power, but השם is the top. השם is the top, He has control, but He decided to leave. If you believe that there is somebody else or something else that has an equal power to השם, that's not שיתוף. And that's Trinity. It's not שיתוף, that's עבודה זרה. So Christianity is actually עבודה זרה. Yeah, and most פוסקים follow... Yeah. The רמב״ן - no. רבנו תם. רבנו תם holds not, but most פוסקים follow the רמב״ם and say it is עבודה זרה. What are you saying here? Well, because he holds שיתוף means that if you As long as you believe in השם, it's called שיתוף. Doesn't matter if the other one is also equal, so to speak. Even if it's physical. If they believe that there is something else that has the power equal to השם, together with השם, then it's only שיתוף because they still believe in השם. But the רמב״ם holds, and most פוסקים follow the other opinion, that if you believe that they're equal, even though you believe in השם, but he has a son, or whatever it is, and he's equal to Him, that's עבודה זרה. So the רמב״ם, according to his שיטה, Christianity is עבודה

זרה. Nevertheless, he says here that by by him coming, by by Christianity starting, this made the world ready, closer to a place, to a point where we will prepare for משיח, because they're talking about משיח, and also prepare the world to believing in one השם. Which means, like I said, he, טאקע it's עבודה זרה, it's forbidden, and everything is, even for the גוים, it's forbidden. But at the same time, he brought Christianity has a certain understanding in a spiritual being which is not connected דוקא to physical. They believe in the physical too, but they also believe that there is a God who is spiritual. So they brought to the people who till then would only believe in physical gods, and had no understanding in a spiritual God who is beyond our grasp and beyond being tangible, so it made them closer to that. Now, they got the wrong thing, they got a wrong philosophy, but the same people, when משיח will come, that's what he's going to continue now, וכשיעמוד המלך המשיח באמת, when the real משיח will come, ויצליח, and he will succeed, וירם וינשא, and be exalted and uplifted, מיד הם כולם חוזרים, right away they will all turn back, ויודעים, and they will know, ששקר נחלו אבותיהם, that their parents made them inherit lies, ואבותיהם הטעום, and their parents tricked them. They will know that. that. But they will know it very fast. Had this not happened, had this negative thing of Christianity and Islam, רחמנא ליצלן, happened in the world, had this not happened, it would be a there would be a bigger job for משיח. Because משיח would come, and he would have to first start getting trying to explain to them that there is a תורה and there are מצוות, and they would have no idea because, till him, they didn't believe in the תורה at all. Then he came and he started believing in the תורה. They have a wrong פשט in the תורה, they feel that the תורה changed and there are changes, but they're discussing the תורה. So משיח will come and show them, but then it'll be very fast. משיח will say, well, you know what the תורה is, right? You know what the מצוות are, right? You just think that it was it stopped or it means spiritual, he'll show them that it's not, finished. He's going to tell them, you know that there is a spiritual God. You believe there is something with Him, he'll show them that that's false. So even this negative thing, this false משיח also helped the way. First thing, it's ממש, right, עבודה זרה, and it caused all the all the, yeah, all the גזירות and everything. Right, right. And that all the אידן were that were led astray after that, right? And he and the חכמים got up and they חייב מיתה. So it's ממש, I mean, it's bad. Right, right, right. On the other hand, the רמב״ם's saying that it it it was meant for the good. Careful, see, he doesn't say it was meant. The רמב״ם when he say why it was meant, he said, we don't know. No, not in their intentions. He says מחשבות הבורא אלו, why השם allowed that to happen we don't know, that's what he said before. אין כח באדם להשיגם, לא מחשבותי מחשבותיכם, we don't know. But nevertheless, that it did happen, everything in the world is for a les- is a to take a lesson for the good. There has to be something. So we do have to take the good out of it, even though in itself it's a bad thing, but a bad thing could also have a a teaching for the good. I'll give you an example. This is just a story that comes it's not נוגע to this ענין, a little bit disconnected, but just the

בעל שם טוב taught everybody that whatever we see is a lesson for the good, always to to learn something. Nothing comes to us that we see or we hear that is not meant to teach us a lesson. So when he taught that the תלמידים, to them it was new because they knew that some things are bad! Everyone know that some things are not good and there's no good thing about it. And the בעל שם טוב said, no, everything in the world is for the good. So the תלמידים thought about it and they try to bring it out into their daily life. So the one of the big תלמידים of the of the בעל שם טוב, his name was רבי יעקב יוסף, the תולדות, he wrote a ספר, the תולדות. And he came home after he heard this from the בעל שם טוב and he studied it. He sat in his house and it was this time of the year when, in his city, he lived in the city of פולנאה, they had a custom that during this holiday season, their holidays, middle of the winter, at a river which froze, and what they used to do is, they used to have a parade on that day, I guess it was on their Christmas Day, they would have a parade. And the style of the parade was that they would walk to the river and they would chop out a cross from the ice. And they would hold the cross and walk throughout through the city or at least through some streets following this cross.

רבי יעקב יוסף, the תולדות, was sitting in his house and he happened to see through the window, he saw this parade. He saw them walking with the cross. The בעל שם טוב had just said that anything that you see or you hear is a lesson a good a lesson for bettering your service to השם, must be something good behind it. What good can there be in him seeing walking with a cross? He couldn't figure it out. So he ran to the בעל שם טוב. Came to the בעל שם טוב and he told the בעל שם טוב the whole story that I saw them chop out the cross, they chopped out the cross from the river, from the ice. What's the lesson? The בעל שם טוב says, the lesson is that if you freeze, you could turn into a cross. That means that you have to have התלהבות, you have to have warmth. And if you are cold, that's the worst thing in the world. It's so bad that you could freeze and you could even turn to a צלם. And this is a a strong lesson. I don't want to get into this point. It's The רבי has a שיחה we're in this week's פרשה, וארא, that deal deals with this subject. The רבי explains, why was the first מכה דם, blood? It changed water to blood. So the רבי says water, the nature of water is to be cold. Blood, the heat of the person is the blood. So the first thing to break מצרים is to change the cold to warm. The worst צרה is if a person is cold. If a person has warmth, even if he's not doing the right thing, you could expect the person to change. If a person, if it bothers him and he has warmth, but if a person is just cold, couldn't care less, then this person will never change. They say a story, once the בעל שם טוב came to a city and there were a lot of people who were against him at that time. And when he was rode through the city, one person picked up a rock and threw it at the בעל שם טוב's wagon. One of the חסידים wanted to jump up and, you know, who knows what he was going to do. The בעל שם טוב stopped him and he said, \"See, he is going to become a חסיד.\" The others, who didn't do anything, they didn't care. They were cold about it. You can't do anything about them. This guy, it bothered him. This guy has some kind of excitement about it. Yeah, yeah, and he could he'll turn and the אמת is that person later turned into a חסיד. Which reminds me another story. I don't want to get into this subject, it's not נוגע to the רמב״ם here, but I remember this is 770, in my time, there's a professor that now, you see, years ago, I'm going back 30 years, his name is חניכא. Professor חניכא, I don't know if you know him, he lives in Boston and he does the פגישות, and he does a lot for הפצת המעיינות. I remember how it started with him. Berel Baumgarten went to a university to speak for a weekend. This was 20, 35 maybe, yeah, 35, 30-35 years ago when this was just new. Anyway, he came there and he spoke to them and there was one person who didn't let him alone, who bothered him and screamed at him, and that was this person. Sunday, they had a דאווענען session, and he asked people to put on תפילין, and some people did, some people didn't want. He was the one that didn't screamed, \"Don't put on תפילין, this משוגעת, don't put on תפילין.\" And he had all kinds of צרות from him. Came back and he said, well, he was partially successful, but there was one guy who didn't allow him to to to help. A few weeks later, there's a phone call in 770. This guy calls, he wants to speak to Rabbi Baumgarten. They got him in touch with Rabbi Baumgarten. He wants to come. He came. It was before they had הדר התורה yet, which is the ישיבה for בעלי תשובה. It was all before that. He wants to learn in ישיבה. He came and he became a תלמיד in 770. He's just a בעל תשובה, didn't know אלף בית. And not only that, he turned out to be one of, you know, he's a professor in universities now, but he does a lot for for אידישקייט. But it was this guy. Why? Because he wasn't cold about it. So anyway, getting back to that, so there's in the cross the other lesson is that you could become a cross if you're cold. So that's what the that's what the בעל שם טוב said to him. I'm saying the same idea here is definitely making the cross is definitely שלש קליפות הטמאות לגמרי, if you use the the the term of חסידות, it's קליפה. Nevertheless, if it's a thing that happens in the world and a person saw it, or in this case, the whole world, we constantly see this happen, there must be something good. Not that this itself is good, but that it will lead to something

good. There is a rule, אין טוב בלא רע ואין רע בלא טוב. In the world, the way השם set it up, since the חטא עץ הדעת, since the sin of אדם הראשון, עץ הדעת טוב ורע, the tree of knowledge of good or bad, that there is no nothing in the world that's good doesn't have a little bit of bad in it, except the תורה. I mean that's pure good. And אין רע בלא טוב, there's nothing bad in the world doesn't have some good in it. The proof for it is if it wouldn't have some good in it, it couldn't exist. It פשוט couldn't exist. The the source of the קיום is קדושה. Nothing could exist without קדושה. But it's very, very covered up. But there has to be some kind of good in it, otherwise it couldn't exist. So that good in this case is that סוף כל סוף, what it what happened, it's a bad thing, but what happened is it turned out that it made people more aware of משיח. This is why when the רבי started with משיח campaign just a case a few years ago, we're talking you know we have to go out strong with this, and people were saying, \"But if you go out too strong, you'll have מנגדים, people will go out against it.\" So my answer was, \"Good! Doesn't matter. That's part of what we want. We want אז די וועלט זאל זיך קאכן וועגן משיח. The world should talk and get to koch, koch about משיח.\" In fact the רמב״ם says some will say yes, this is משיח, some say this isn't, some say it's the right thing to do to awaken the people to משיח, and some people will say, \"No, you shouldn't do it, you shouldn't bring it out into the open,\" like we had other people. But what, for a long time the newspapers were full about משיח. The אלטער רבי said, they asked him once, \"How will we know משיח is here?\" So he answered, \"ס'וועט שטיין אין די גאזעטן.\" He said, \"In the newspapers.\" So we saw, in the newspapers we're talking about משיח. Now that doesn't mean everything that's said was good, and definitely those that wrote negative, it's negative, it's bad. If someone writes against the ענין of משיח, it's קליפה. It's bad, it's evil, there's no question. But there is something good in it. The fact that they speak, they're he's talking about משיח, and he's trying to say it is or isn't. So when but when משיח will come, it won't be a new subject. And the same thing and what he did. So that's what the רמב״ם says, he was a false משיח. He wasn't, see, this is, remember he writes it right after he says there are some people who didn't succeed, but they still remain כשר kings. And as I explained, not only they were good kings, but they were, potentially they were משיח. And that's what the רמב״ם says, but don't confuse it with him. He was a false משיח, and he did the opposite of what משיח was supposed to do, but nevertheless, even that had something השם took, used it for the good, that it should prepare the world for משיח. Now we'll go a little further starting the next פרק. Then the רמב״ם says, and this is the רמב״ם's שיטה, אל יעלה על הלב, do not think שבימות המשיח, that means in the days of משיח means in the messianic era, יבטל דבר ממנהגו של עולם. That means that the nature of the world will change. מנהגו של עולם means the custom of the world will change. איהיה שם חידוש במעשה בראשית, or there will be a new type of

new things will happen in the work of creation. Don't think so, it's not true. אלא עולם כמנהגו נוהג, the world is going to continue according to its own pattern as it is till now. Simple come it will not happen. וזה שנאמר בישעיה The רמב\"ם says, \"But I have a קשיא. It says in ישעיה, when he speaks about the coming of משיח, it says, וגר זאב עם כבש, that the wolf will dwell with the lamb, ונמר עם גדי ירבץ, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat. Now, this is against nature. Naturally, this cannot happen. And he prophesies that it's going to happen. So, obviously, we see that when משיח will come, there will be a change in the nature of the world.\" The רמב\"ם says, \"ענין הדבר, the meaning of these words are as follows. שיהי, or I skipped a word. משל וחידה, oh, this is only,\" the רמב\"ם says, \"only a parable.\" It doesn't

mean it in a simple sense. ענין הדבר, the meaning is, שיהיו ישראל יושבין לבטח עם רשעי עכו\"ם, that the יידן will live securely with the wicked גוים. המשולים כזאב ונמר, who are likened to a wolf and a leopard. That's what it means. When it says that the sheep is going to live together with the wolf, it means the יידן will live together with the גוים. And where do we see that the גוים are compared to a wolf and a leopard? שנאמר, as it says, זאב ערבות ישדדם, the wolf from the wilderness shall spoil them, ונמר שוקד על עריהם, and a leopard shall stalk their cities. Now, this refers to the גוים. So, we see from here that the גוים are compared to wolves and leopards, and that's what the פסוק means. ויחזרו כולם לדת האמת, and they will all return to the true faith, ולא יגזלו ולא ישחיתו, and they will not steal, and they will not do any harm, they will not destroy. By this way, before I even explain the whole thing here, we're going to mention just one word. When the רמב\"ם says they will all return to the true faith, it does not mean they're all going to convert. It doesn't say anywhere that משיח will come, all the גוים will convert and become Jews. From the expression, it might seem so. They're going to turn to the true religion, the true faith, it doesn't mean that. It means that they're going to believe in השם in the right way. They will drop their other religions, they will keep the מצות, the seven מצות that they have to keep. They will believe in השם in the proper way. And ממילא, they're going to live live with the יידן peacefully, because they're going to do what they are supposed to do. השם gave us a mission, and gave them a mission. We have a special mission. They have a right, a lower level mission, but they also have a mission. Otherwise, השם wouldn't put them here. When they will return to do what they're supposed to do, that means that they are doing the right religion. To them, it's a right religion, that's what they're supposed to do. And they will not steal, they will not destroy, אלא יאכלו דבר המותר בנחת עם ישראל, they

will eat permitted food at peace with the יידן, שנאמר, like it says, ואריה כבקר יאכל תבן. It says the lion is going to eat straw like an ox. So, this, again, sounds like a miracle, a change in the nature of the world. So, again, it doesn't mean that. It means that the גוים, who are compared to lions, are going to eat the right food together with the יידן. וכן כל כיוצא באלו הדברים, and the same applies to all other things בענין המשיח, all prophecies concerning משיח, הם משלים, they're all parables. ובימות המלך המשיח יודע לכל, when משיח will come, that's when we will find out לאיזה דבר היה משל, what the משל was for, what it was a parable for, what does it it alludes for, what is going to be. So, certain things we understand what it means, like the one that the רמב\"ם says. When it says that a lamb is going to sit together with the wolf, we understand, that means the יידן with the גוים. Many other things that the that ישעיה says, we can't we don't know what exactly it means, but when משיח will come, we will know.

So, here we have the רמב\"ם's famous רמב\"ם's opinion that when משיח will come, there will be no change in the nature of the world. Everything is going to continue the way it is. In the גמרא, there is a big argument. שמואל, this person שמואל, דאמר שמואל, he's the one that says, אין בין עולם הזה לימות המשיח, which will be the next הלכה, אין בין עולם הזה לימות המשיח אלא שעבוד מלכיות בלבד. There is no difference in the behavior of the world between now and the time of משיח, the only thing is שעבוד מלכיות. That's that the whether we will be we are under the control of the גוים or not. Now we are, and then we won't be. Then we will be independent. Matter of fact, We will control them, but that's about it. But as far as the nature of the world will not be. There are others that hold, no, that there will be a change in the nature of the world. The רמב״ם פסקנס, as we see, that there will be no change in the nature of the world. The only problem with this is that this contradicts many, many things that we find in the גמרא and in the מדרשים. We find in the גמרא that says that משיח will come, for instance, it says