לא נתאוו, הלכות מלכים, לא נתאוו החכמים והנביאים לימות המשיח. The sages did not yearn for the days of משיח, לא כדי שישלטו על כל העולם. They didn't yearn for the time of משיח in order to have control over the entire world, ולא כדי שירדו בעכו"ם, and not in order to rule over the גוים, ולא כדי שינשאו אותם העמים, and not in order that the גוים should keep them in high esteem, ולא כדי לאכול ולשתות ולשמוח, and not in order that they should be able to eat and drink and celebrate and be happy. So why did they wait for משיח? The truth is that all this will come true. At that time, we will control the world and we will be able to eat and drink and be happy, everything is true, but this is not the reason why our sages and our prophets were yearning so much for משיח. So why did they yearn for משיח? אלא, only כדי שיהיו פנויין בתורה וחכמתה, so they should be free to involve themselves in the study of תורה and in the wisdom, ולא יהיה להם נוגש ומבטל, and they will not have any pressure or any disturbances, כדי שיזכו לחיי העולם הבא, so they should merit the world to come. כמו שבארנו בהלכות תשובה, like רמב"ם says, like I explained in הלכות תשובה. So what he's saying here that what the חכמים were waiting for משיח, because at that time we will be free from all problems and there we will be able to learn better. Now, we

have all kinds of problems, everyone has his own different problems, different categories, different levels in different places, but when you have problems, you're not free, your mind is not free to concentrate properly in study of תורה and also performance of the מצוות. And I elaborate on this last week, and therefore the חכמים were waiting for this era, for this משיח's coming, so then we will be free, no problems and we will be able to sit and learn ה''s תורה and the wisdom of ה', fulfill all the מצוות properly, like the רמב"ם said in the beginning, that the whole purpose of משיח's coming is so we should be able to fulfill all the מצוות, and that's the reason they waited for משיח. Now, the same thing the רמב"ם writes here, he writes even at more length in the laws of תשובה, as he refers to it here, he says, כמו שבארנו בהלכות תשובה, like I explained in הלכות תשובה. So I brought specially today some pages of הלכות תשובה and we're going to learn that, too, and then I will explain it. The first page of the three that I bought, which is the second page the second הלכה in the ninth chapter of the laws of תשובה, and I will read it if you have it. ומפני זה נתאוו כל ישראל, and for that reason, meaning, the רמב"ם before that explained how important it is for a person to be fed, not to be hungry, for a person to be healthy, and to have all these things in order to be able to study תורה. That's why the רמב"ם explains ה' promises in חומש אם בחוקותי תלכו, if you're going to follow my מצוות, I will give you rain, I will give you food, I will give you everything. And the רמב"ם had explained that the פסוק does not mean that this is going to be the reward, because the truth is, is this the reward we're waiting for? We're going to do מצוות, which are the מצוות of ה', and we're going to get some food, we're going to get some money. I mean, this is not what we're waiting for. There must be something deeper. This, just by the

way, reminds me of a story, I don't want to spend time on stories, this is a שיעור, but that there was a חסיד of the אלטער רבי, his name was רב שמואל מונקעס. He was a very, very great חסיד, but he was also known for his jokes, and a lot of times he would bring out an idea in the form of a joke. Just to show how great he was, the אלטער רבי, when they came to arrest him, you know, the famous arrest that they, and he was freed later on י"ט כסלו, when they came to arrest him, he said, he said he has to wait, he went out and he hid, and he said he has to discuss the matter with one of his חסידים. So you can imagine which חסיד would he choose, the greatest חסיד, he chose רב שמואל מונקעס. I don't want to go into the details what he said to him, but just to show how, who he was. So even though he is known as a joker, but he wasn't a joker, but a lot of times he would bring out a point through a joke. Once he was traveling in a city where there were no חסידים, and it was right before ראש השנה, it was the שבת before ראש השנה, and these people were not חסידים, so they didn't have the understanding of what the חסידיק philosophy teaches us, the depth of certain ענינים. It was the מוצאי שבת, was the time for סליחות, the first סליחות. First סליחות we wake up in the middle of the night and we go to סליחות. So, שלש סעודות was over, he went to sleep. The host didn't understand. The night of סליחות you go to sleep? Anyway, he went to sleep. Came around one o'clock, close to סליחות time, he goes in and he wakes him up, and he says, 'רב איד, you have to wake up.' So he says, 'Wake up? Middle of the night, why should I wake up?' Have to go to סליחות! Says, "What's סליחות?" "What mean what's סליחות? You have to get up, and you ask השם, you דאווען to Him, you ask Him." Says, "Ask Him for what? What is this all about?" Says, "Well, don't you want food all year round and things like that?" So he turned around and says, "Oy, פה פה! Adults should wake up in the middle of the night and ask for food? Children, I know, get up in the middle of the night and ask for food, but adults, no." He wanted to bring out a point that that's not what סליחות is all about. We don't wake up at night to ask for food. It is because we ask השם that we should be close to Him and He should, then automatically He will give us the food, but that's not what it is. So he wanted to show them. Then they asked him, they realized that there is something deeper here, and they said, "Come on, tell us." Because they knew he wasn't such a big עם הארץ that he didn't know what סליחות was. So the next day, he explained to them what חסידות explains about סליחות, and there's much more to it. And his host and a few more people became חסידים through that joke, so to speak. But what am I trying to bring out? That the מצוות, we don't do מצוות and the reward for the מצוות will be food. That's what the reward is? So

what does the תורה mean when it says אם בחקתי תלכו, if you're going to do the מצוות, השם promises all these physical rewards? So the רמב״ם explained, it's not reward. What it really is, השם says that if you're going to do My מצוות, which means you will cooperate with Me, I will cooperate with you. I will give you enough things that you should be able to do more מצוות. And since the רמב״ם explains, if you're not healthy, you can't do מצוות. If you're poor, you can't do מצוות. If you're poor, you can't buy a nice pair of תפילין, you can't educate your children, you can't give צדקה, I mean, so many things you can't buy, you can't do. If you're sick, you can't. So therefore, השם says, if you will go in My מצוות, I will give you rain, I will give you food. That's not the reward! The reward is עולם הבא, the world to come. This is just, He will make it possible. That's the previous הלכה. Now the רמב״ם starts the next הלכה, that's the one I just started, ומפני זה, for that reason, because you have to be healthy and you have to have free time and you have to be free of all the problems in order to study תורה, therefore נתאוו כל ישראל, all the Jews yearned, נביאיה וחכמיה, and their prophets and their חכמים, their sages, לימות המשיח. That's why they waited for the time of משיח. כדי שינוחו ממלכיות, they should be, they should be free, they should rest from the other nations שאינן מניחות להם לעסוק בתורה ובמצוות כהוגן, that don't allow them to involve themselves in study of תורה and in the doing of מצוות. וימצאו להם מרגוע, and they will find peace, וירבו בחכמה, and they will continue learning more חכמה, כדי שיזכו לחיי העולם הבא, so after they study so much תורה and do so many מצוות, they will merit, in order that they should merit עולם הבא, the world to come. Now let's learn the whole הלכה here.

לפי שבאותן הימים, the רמב״ם says, because in those days תרבה הדעה והחכמה והאמת, the wisdom and understanding and knowledge is going to be plentiful. שנאמר, as it says, כי מלאה הארץ דעה את השם, and the world, the earth will be full of knowledge of השם. ונאמר, another פסוק says, ולא ילמדו עוד איש את רעהו, that no man will have to teach his friend, ואיש את אחיו, and a man his brother, because the פסוק continues, כולם ידעו אותי, everyone will know Me. You won't need teachers, you'll be able to study yourself, because the knowledge of השם will be so much. ונאמר, there is another פסוק that says, והסירותי את לב האבן מבשרכם, השם says, "I'm going to take away your heart of stone from you," and the פסוק continues, "and I will replace it with a heart of flesh." The reason we don't feel so many certain things that we should and we're not sensitive to spiritual matters is because our heart is not ready for it. In other words, we have a heart of stone. השם says, "I will take away those days, משיח will come, the heart of stone, and I will replace it with a heart of flesh." מפני, because, שאותו המלך שיעמוד מזרע דוד, because that king that will come from the descendants of דוד המלך, which is משיח, בעל חכמה יהיה יותר משלמה, he's going to be a scholar greater than שלמה המלך. שלמה המלך, it says in תנ״ך, was the greatest חכם of the whole world. משיח is going to be greater than שלמה. ונביא גדול הוא קרוב למשה רבינו, he'll be a great prophet close to משה. Now, he won't be greater than משה, because the פסוק makes it very clear, ולא קם נביא עוד כמשה בישראל, that no other נביא will ever be as great as משה. But he will be pretty close to משה רבינו. ולפיכך ילמד כל העם, therefore, this person, משיח, will be so smart and such a great prophet, is going to teach the whole nation, ויורה אותם דרך השם, and he's going to guide them in the path of השם. ויבואו כל הגוים לשומעו, and all the גוים, all the nations are going to come to listen to him. שנאמר, it says, there's a פסוק in ישעיהו, it says, והיה באחרית הימים, going to come the end of days, משיח will come, נכון יהיה הר בית השם בראש ההרים, the mount the the The house of השם will be established on top of the mountains and he doesn't bring the end of the פסוק, so the end of the פסוק says, and all the nations

will get together and say קומו ונעלה, let's all go up to the house of השם. So they're going to go to ירושלים, and they're going to listen to the תורה that was that is going to be taught by משיח. וסוף כל השכר כולו, the end of all rewards, והטובה האחרונה שאין לה הפסק וגירעון הוא, and the last good that will not stop, that's going to continue forever, is חיי העולם הבא, that's עולם הבא. And after משיח's time there will be a period called ימות המשיח, days of משיח, afterwards there will be עולם הבא, and that's the end. אבל ימות המשיח, but in the days of משיח, הוא עולם הזה, it's still this world, it's not the world to come. ועולם כמנהגו הולך, and the world is going to continue in its normal way. אלא שהמלכות תחזור לישראל, the only change that will be is that the government, the kingship, the rulership, the control will become will come back to the יידן. וכבר אמרו חכמים הראשונים, the early חכמים already had said, אין בין עולם הזה לימות המשיח, there is no difference between our time and the time of משיח, אלא שיעבוד מלכיות בלבד, only whether we are under the control of the גוים or not. Now we are, then we won't be. Now this is something that the רמב"ם had already said, and we have studied about it before, and I explained it. So this is not The last point is not what I am interested in here. The

main thing is the beginning, which is exactly what the רמב"ם said in the הלכות מלכים that we learned, הלכה ד', and but here he goes into more detail, that when משיח will come we will be free to study תורה, and that is the reason the חכמים and the נביאים waited for משיח, not only waited, yearned for משיח. Everything seems to be fine. But since our style of learning is that we try to learn every הלכה and try to look into the wording of the רמב"ם and to see exactly what the רמב"ם means, we're going to do that here, too. In both places, the רמב"ם says something that seems to contradict something that the רמב"ם himself said in a different place. If we look carefully what the רמב"ם says here, he says that the reason the חכמים wanted משיח, they yearned for משיח, so they should be free to study תורה in order to get עולם הבא. And if you study תורה you get the world to come, you merit to the world to come. So he says they were waiting for משיח to be free to study תורה without any hardships, any disturbances, כדי, so that, in order that they should be זוכה, merit the life of עולם הבא. That's what he says here, and when I'm looking back at הלכות תשובה, it again says that they wanted to learn חכמה כדי שיזכו לחיי העולם הבא, so they should be זוכה לחיי עולם הבא. So that's what the רמב"ם says. Learning this הלכה in רמב"ם, it would seem that when we look back and we say, why did all the חכמים want משיח? Why did the נביאים, the prophets want משיח? The ultimate thing is because they were wanted to learn תורה in order to get עולם הבא. So what they were looking for, they wanted their reward for the study of תורה. So now, when we can't study תורה properly, so we don't get really עולם הבא for the study, not as much, when משיח will come, we'll be able to study תורה properly, so ממילא we will get עולם הבא. In other words, their what they what they were waiting for was to study תורה in order to get עולם הבא. Now, let's look back at הלכות תשובה, the the same page, but the next the beginning of the next פרק, פרק עשירי. The רמב"ם makes a statement here, אל יאמר אדם, a person shall not say, הריני עושה מצוות התורה, that I will do the מצוות of the תורה, ועוסק בחכמתה, and I will get involved in the wisdom of the תורה, כדי שאקבל כל הברכות הכתובות בה, in order to get the ברכות of the תורה, או כדי שאזכה לחיי העולם הבא, or in order to get עולם הבא. A person should not do that. A person should not say, I want to study תורה in order to get עולם הבא. Or, he continues, he will say, ואפרוש מן העבירות שהזהירה תורה מהן, and I will stay away from עבירות that the תורה told us not to do, כדי שינצל מן הקללות הכתובות בתורה, so I will be saved from all the curses the תורה says, או כדי שלא יכרת מחיי העולם הבא, or I will not do an עבירה so I will not get cut away from living in עולם הבא. אין ראוי לעבוד את השם על דרך הזה. It's not proper to serve השם in this way. שהעובד על דרך זה, because if you serve השם in this way, הוא עובד מיראה, you're serving Him out of fear. You're afraid of being punished, you're afraid of not getting the proper reward. ואינה מעלת הנביאים, this is not the level of the נביאים, ולא מעלת החכמים, this is not the level of the of the sages. ואין עובדים השם על דרך זה, who serves השם in this form, in this way? עמי הארץ, אלא עמי הארץ, only very simple people that don't know, והנשים, I won't translate it, I'm afraid here. And the women, והקטנים, and the children, שמחנכין אותם לעבוד מיראה, because we train them to serve ה' out of fear, עד שתרבה דעתם, till they will grow in their understanding, ויעבדו מאהבה, and they will serve ה' out of love. So what is the רמב״ם telling us very clearly here? That it's not proper to do learn תורה, to do מצוות, in order to get עולם הבא. And this is not what the חכמים ever did. That's not the way of the חכמים. That's not the way of the נביאים. Now, if we look back to the previous הלכה in the end of the previous פרק, or the הלכה in הלכות מלכים, the רמב״ם makes it very clear that the reason that the חכמים wanted משיח was in order to be free to study תורה properly in order to get עולם הבא. As if we're saying they were looking for the עולם הבא, which the רמב״ם says clearly that they should not do it in order to get reward. Not only he says you shouldn't do it, he says who doesn't do it? חכמים don't do it. נביאים don't do it. And here he says that the חכמים, and he said used the same expression, that מפני זה נתאוו כל ישראל, this is why all the Jews yearned for משיח, but he adds: נביאיהם וחכמיהם, the נביאים and the חכמים. And in הלכות מלכים he says, he doesn't even say all the Jews, because all the Jews you could say, well, maybe not all the Jews are at such a level. But the חכמים and the נביאים are definitely in that level. And here he use just says, like נתאוו החכמים והנביאים לימות המשיח, that the חכמים and נביאים only wanted משיח in order to be free to learn תורה in order to get עולם הבא. How do these two things fit? And not only it's a contradiction between two places, it's one after another. In הלכות תשובה, the last הלכה of the ninth פרק is where he says that they waited for משיח in order to learn תורה in order to get עולם הבא. The next הלכה right after it, which is the beginning of the 10th פרק, he starts off by saying this is not the way חכמים behave, this is not the way נביאים behave. So what the So it's a contradiction. The

רבי has an explanation to this. The רבי has an explanation to everything. We see that whenever we learn, whether it's a רמב״ם or a גמרא or everything, somehow, someway, something that the רבי has to say about it and has an answer to the question. The רבי explains it as follows, and we have to listen carefully. There are two things when we think of עולם הבא, when we think of the world to come. The world to come is reward. True, it's reward. We did מצוות, we learned תורה, ה' will give us reward. What will happen in עולם הבא? What is the reward? עולם הבא is a time when we will be very, very close to ה'. That's the best reward a person can get. By the way, it's one of the explanations in the משנה. The משנה says in פרקי אבות: שכר מצוה מצוה. The reward of a מצוה is a מצוה. What does that mean? The reward of a Usually, the reward for something is something else. If you get the same thing, then you didn't gain anything. So some say the reward of a מצוה is that if you do one, you will do a second, you will do a third. That's the best thing. מצוה גוררת מצוה, one מצוה pulls another מצוה. But then there's another פשט. The best שכר, the best reward for a מצוה is the fact that through this מצוה we become united with ה'. The word מצוה in Hebrew has another meaning, not only from the word ציווי, which means commandment, but the word מצוה comes from the word צוותא. צוותא וחיבור, connection. So שכר מצוה מצוה means the שכר, the reward of a מצוה is the fact that you are now מצוה, you have the צוותא, you are connected to ה'. The greatest reward we could get for a מצוה is the fact that through that we're close to ה'. Imagine who we are. We are nothing. We are little, simple creatures. We to ה' are, compared to ה' are nothing. I would say further than the cockroaches to us. Imagine if we could get connected to ה'. That's the greatest thing you can think of. So that's the greatest reward. Now the שכר of עולם הבא is that not only will we have the connection, but then, in עולם הבא, the connection will be much greater. The רמב״ם says earlier in הלכות תשובה, and I didn't copy all those pages, he says that in עולם הבא, what happens? צדיקים יושבים, the צדיקים sit, ועטרותיהם בראשיהם, and they have a crown on their head, ונהנים מזיו השכינה, they have they enjoy, they have pleasure from the glory of the שכינה, the glory of ה'. That means that they feel ה'. So עולם הבא is the reward for our מצוות, and what is the reward? The reward is that we will be very close to ה'. Now, some nowadays might say, if that's the reward, I don't need it. That's the truth. People now, when we're so involved in physical matters, and we couldn't care less. The truth is when משיח will come and we will reach עולם הבא, then we will enjoy it. Like you Some people say, I'll give you something, you know, as a give you If you do this, you tell a child sometimes, I'll give you this, I'll give you a reward, I'll give you a certain food. Child says, "Well, I don't like that food." You'll develop a taste to it. We'll develop a taste then, so don't worry, whoever is worried

about it. But it's going to taste good, it's going to be very good. What's going to be good? Our connection to השם, that's really what we are waiting for. But that's the reward. So, but the רמב״ם says here, a person should not do מצות in order to get reward. In order to get עולם הבא, he means don't do מצות in order to get the reward of עולם הבא, because then you're doing the מצות for the purpose of reward. But if a person does a מצוה because he knows this is going to lead him to a higher level than what he's now. Now he is at a level that he's close to השם through the מצוה, but he knows if I do the מצוה and I'm close to השם, I will get even closer. Not as a reward, it's not necessarily interested that he should get paid for what he is doing. A צדיק, חכמים, the נביאים always want to get closer to השם, that's all it is. That's all their life. They know that if I learn more תורה, I will get closer to השם because I will get עולם הבא. They're not interested in the reward, they're interested in עולם הבא per se, what עולם הבא stands for. And that's really what the level of doing a מצוה לשמה. See, the רמב״ם says don't do it in order to get reward. If you do it in order to get reward, that's called שלא לשמה. That's called not in for proper for the proper purpose. That's not called מאהבה, that's not out of love. לשמה, doing it for the proper for the purpose for the right reason is called doing it out of love.

Doing it out of love means because you love השם, you want to be close to Him. I'll read you Right, right, there is a צוותא וחיבור we get right now. Every time you do a מצוה, you are connected. In עולם הבא, because of the מצוה you did now, you will get a much, much stronger connection. That's a reward for what you did now. So that is a reward, but depends why you do the מצוה. If I do the מצוה because I want a reward and the reward happens to be עולם הבא, that's no good, because you're doing it because you want to get paid. The only good thing is that this person who does it knows what good pay is. Some people want to get paid, they want to get money. One person wants to get paid, he wants to get food. This this person who want wants to get paid, he wants עולם הבא. So he's a smart guy and he knows what real pay is, but he's still doing it for pay. He's still doing it not out of love. He's doing it because he wants to get paid, not because he's really doing it לשמה. But if you do it not because you want עולם הבא as a payment, as a reward, you want עולם הבא because you know this this is a stepping stone. Doing a מצוה is a certain level of connection and then, because of the מצוה, you will get עולם הבא, which will be another level, and you do it in order to get to that level, that's no problem. That's called לשמה. I'll read you what what the רמב״ם says further, the next page. If you see, I made a copy of the next page, too. פרק י' הלכה Excuse me a second. Here the רמב״ם says in פרק in פרק י' הלכה א' that if you do it because of a reason, for reward, you're not doing it out of love.

What is called doing out of love? העובד מאהבה, doing out of love, עוסק בתורה ומצות, you do תורה ומצות for no reason. But that's and we'll get to that a second later. Look at הלכה ג': כיצד היא האהבה הראויה? What is the right love, proper love you should have to השם? הוא שיאהב את השם אהבה גדולה יתירה עזה מאד. You should love השם great love, very strong. עד שתהא נפשו קשורה באהבת השם. Your נפש, your soul should be tied with the love to השם. ונמצא שוגה בה תמיד. And you will always think about it. כאילו חולי חולי האהבה, like you're sick from love. When a person is sick from love, he get he actually feels it, and he gives an example of things that we understand: שאין דעתו פנויה פנויה מאהבת אותה אשה. A person is in love with a woman, that's the example the רמב״ם gives. What is the פשט? His mind is never free from the love of this woman. והוא שוגה בה תמיד, he always thinks about her, בין בשבתו, whether he is sitting, even if he's going to sleep, בין בקומו, whether he is waking up, בין בשעה שהוא אוכל ושותה, when he eats and he drinks. So יתר מזה, and more than that, תהיה אהבת השם בלבות אוהביו שוגים בה תמיד. So the love that people have to השם, the צדיקים have, is even more than that. כמו שצונו, like it says, בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך, that you should love השם with all your heart, ואהבת את השם אלקיך, with all your heart, with all your soul, more even than the example of the love a person might have to to his wife. הוא ששלמה אמר דרך משל, this is what שלמה המלך said in the form of a parable: כי חולת אהבה אני. I am sick out of love to You. וכל שיר השירים משל לענין זה. שיר השירים, the Song of Songs, deals with a man and a a woman and expression of love from one to the other. Really, it's not חס ושלום a man and a woman, it's a משל, a parable to the love between השם and and the יידן. That's what love is. So going back here, so when we say צדיקים, when the רמב״ם said here that a person should not say "I will do a מצוה so I will get שכר, get עולם הבא", because then you don't do it out of love. Doing that out of love means, like he explains now, that you do it because you love השם, you really think about him, you always want to be close to him. If that's what love means, so wouldn't a חכם or a נביא want עולם הבא? If he has love to השם, and that's why he does the מצות, not for a reward, he does out of love, which means he does it because he feels close, wouldn't he want to be even closer, that's as close as you could get? So if the חכם or the נביא know that there is a stage called עולם הבא, and there I will be even closer, that's what they're waiting for. So now we get a better understanding in what the רמב״ם meant when he said that the חכמים did not yearn for משיח in order to eat or to drink or to control or to rule, whatever it is. They only waited in order to learn תורה freely, without interruptions, without disturbances, in order to get עולם הבא. That means that they were wanted to get even closer to השם, in order to get עולם הבא not as a reward, because that is not what the חכמים do, that's not what the נביאים do. But what they do do is they did have in mind עולם הבא, but not as a reward. That's what the רמב״ם means in הלכות תשובה, that's what the רמב״ם means in הלכות מלכים. But there is even more to it. We look that's why I skipped הלכה ב׳. If we go back to הלכות תשובה הלכה ב׳, I started reading it, but I'll read it now. העובד מאהבה, when someone loves, serves השם out of love, what does he do? How how how does he behave? עוסק בתורה ומצות, he's involved in תורה and מצות, והולך בנתיבות החכמה, and he goes in the path of wisdom, לא מפני דבר בעולם, not for anything in the world, for no reason, לא מפני יראת הרע, not because he's afraid of the bad, ולא כדי לירש הטובה, not in order to inherit the good. It seems as if what he said before: if you do it out of love, you don't do it in order to get something. אלא עושה האמת מפני שהיא אמת. He does the truth for one simple reason, not for any other reason, for nothing, because it's true. This is the right thing, that's all. This is אמת, this is true, תורה is true, מצות are true, you have to do it, that's why he does it. וסוף הטובה לבא בגללה. The end will be the good will come. We're not telling him "Don't worry, the end won't come because you could do it just for this purpose of doing." The end will come, but he has no He doesn't have this anything in mind. ומעלה זו היא מעלה גדולה מאד. This is a very great מעלה, a very great level. ואין כל חכם זוכה לה. Listen to this. The רמב״ם says: and not every חכם gets this level. והיא מעלת אברהם אבינו. This was special by אברהם אבינו שקראו הקדוש ברוך הוא אוהבי. השם called him "my beloved", לפי שלא עבד אלא מאהבה, because he served השם from love. So what is the רמב״ם saying here? That not every חכם could reach that level. Now isn't this again a contradiction? The רמב״ם said in the previous הלכה that you shouldn't do a מצוה and learn תורה in order to get reward, you should do it out of love, and that is the way of the חכמים. And then he continues, he says, "How do you do out of love? You do it just because it's true, for no other reason. But not every חכם can get there." A minute ago he said that that is the way of the חכמים and of the נביאים. How come here he says that not every חכם gets to it? Not only that, if we look back in the previous הלכה he says that that's that's the level of the נביאים and the חכמים is doing it out of love. Who does it out of fear? Let's repeat again: the עמי הארצים, the women, and children. And he says why: because you have to train them in the beginning till they will reach the higher level. But he's telling you that even the people who are not on that level are able to reach the higher level. He says that's how you start till you get to the higher level. So obviously everybody could reach the higher level, and all of a sudden here the רמב״ם says not every חכם gets that. So here again the רבי explains, and the רבי says the פשט is that there is even a third thing. Before I mentioned there are two things: one is doing the מצות, learning תורה in order to get reward, which could be עולם הבא as reward, that's the lower level. Then we have a higher level, that you do it, you learn תורה, do מצות in order not to get the reward of עולם הבא, but in order to reach the level of עולם הבא, which is a great connection to השם. But in truth, even that's not the higher level, because after all, you are doing the מצות for a purpose: in order to reach a higher level, in order to get closer to השם, which is fine, but that's not the ultimate. The ultimate level is when you do it for no reason, just because השם said so. You couldn't care less if it makes you closer to השם or it doesn't make you closer to השם. That's what the רמב״ם says here, that's a new thing, that if you do it מפני ה לא מפני דבר בעולם, for no reason. There is no In Hebrew the word be מבוקש. How would you say in English? There's no nothing that you're looking for. Nothing, not only that you're demanding, but here there's nothing that you're striving to. That's already, even though it's a good thing you're striving to, and you want to get closer to השם, but, and that's a very high level, but a higher level than that, which not every חכם could get to, is that you do it not even for that. You do it just האמת מפני שהוא אמת. אמת because it's אמת. You couldn't care. No ulterior motive, not even an ulterior motive of wanting to be close to השם, because it's, it's still an ulterior motive. And that's a very high level. It's similar to what it says in, ליקוטי תורה it's brought down from ספרים, an expression: אילו נצטווינו לחטוב עצים, had we been commanded by השם to chop wood, we would do it with the same way we do any other מצוה. In other words, if we were told to chop wood for no reason, and it doesn't mean if it would be a מצוה to chop wood then it would have accomplished something, then just like we put on תפילין every morning we certainly would have chopped wood, but what he means to say is, even if השם would tell us chop wood, and He would say clearly there is nothing that you accomplish, just like today when we chop wood now there is no spiritual accomplishment, השם would say, "I want you to chop wood, and I'm telling you that you will not get any spiritual accomplishment," we would say to השם, "הנני." That's a very high level. And that's what the רמב"ם says here. Now even though the רמב"ם says that the חכמים and the נביאים, all the חכמים and נביאים were waiting for משיח in order to learn תורה, in order to get עולם הבא, so it shows that they, not all the חכמים and נביאים actually reached that highest level of actually doing it for no ulterior motive whatsoever, but that's only now. When משיח will come, it says definitely in חסידות, when משיח will come we all will reach that level that we will not have any ulterior motives, but השם Himself, that השם said so, that's all we need. Because whatever עולם הבא is, as high as we go, it's not השם Himself, it's getting closer to Him, closer to Him. There is only one thing that is השם Himself, and that's the מצוות. And now we don't feel it, but then we're going to feel, when we do a מצוה, it says that we will feel this is השם. There is a מדרש that says, "כבדו את המצוות שהן שלוחי, honor the מצוות because they are my שלוחין." The מצוות themselves are the שלוחין of השם. When we do a מצוה we grasp השם. The זוהר says this expression: לית מחשבה תפיסא ביה. No thought, no mind, which includes no heart, could grasp השם. Whatever we grasp, and as high as we'll go, and all the things that we could think of, doesn't really grasp Him. In חסידות we call it the עצם, the essence of השם. But when we do a מצוה which is השם's will, just because השם said so, that's השם Himself. And that's what the אלטר רבי used to say, it's a, the צמח צדק writes in a מאמר that he overheard many times the אלטר רבי when he was in the highest level of דביקות of connection, of feeling close to השם, he heard him rolling on the floor out of excitement, not even knowing what he's doing, and he would say like this: איך וויל ניט דיין גן עדן, איך וויל ניט דיין עולם הבא. I don't need your גן עדן. I don't need your עולם הבא. איך וויל נאר דיר אליין. I want You. I want You, You, that's all. You told me to do this, and that's a very high, and he used to say this at certain special times, not always did he feel that way. I don't want your גן עדן, I don't want your עולם הבא, your world, I want You. And he connected this to a פסוק. There is a פסוק that says: מי לי בשמים ועמך לא חפצתי בארץ. מי לי בשמים, what do I have in שמים? Now שמים, heaven, represents a very high level. ועמך, anything that's with You, לא חפצתי בארץ. I don't want anything that's with You, that's next to You, that's an extension of You. I want You. And that's the level that the יידן are going to reach then. In, before משיח, there were צדיקים that reached it, there were some חכמים, but the רמב"ם says clearly: ולא כל חכם זכה, not every חכם. You can't say that not, non-חכם, but not every חכם. The נביאים maybe all of them did, but not all חכמים. That's why the רמב"ם says the נביאים and the חכמים, they wanted משיח, and they did have an ulterior motive. A good one, an ulterior motive of being close to השם, which is not called שלא לשמה, it's not called that it's not for the proper reason, but it's still an ulterior motive. When משיח will come, we will all reach a higher מדרגה. So, even though the רמב"ם says here it was done כדי in order to get עולם הבא, it means, first of all, not as a שכר, not they were cared about reward, they couldn't care about reward, they just wanted to get closer, and when משיח will come they'll get even closer, that they're going to want השם Himself. I was thinking that since we're looking into the הלכות תשובה which is a whole הלכה here about משיח, let's look into those words which is, and see what the רמב"ם says here. A few points that are important to make here. First of all, I want to just point out something interesting. לפי שבאותן הימים the רמב"ם says, "those days", תרבה הדעה והחכמה והאמת. Those days there will be a lot of דעה, a lot of חכמה, and a lot of אמת, which is basically חכמה, בינה, and דעת. Now, אמת sometimes for some reason is exchanged for בינה, and that's what the רמב״ם means. So then there will be a lot of חב״ד. So he says תרבה, there will be a lot. Then it says ולא ילמדו, and he quotes the פסוק that we will not have to teach each other because everyone is going to know. Then he quotes a פסוק, he says השם says I will take away your heart of stone and I will give you a heart of flesh. I want to tell you that once the אלטער רבי's brother asked the אלטער רבי a very simple question. He says you teach חסידות, you say מאמרים, you teach us a lot about all these mystical, high levels. Who understands it all? Who reaches that level? Most people don't, even in the אלטער רבי's time, this 200 years ago, you can imagine our time. We learn about it, we say the words, we hear, who really understands it? And since we don't understand it anyway, really, what's the purpose? What's the use of learning it? So the אלטער רבי said like this, when משיח will come, he's going to teach us all these mystical things, then we'll understand it. Now, at what stage will משיח have to start? If we study it now, so we're familiar with the terms, we know all about it, when משיח will come, all we'll have to do is put our mind to it, we'll understand it. But imagine if we didn't study it now, where will משיח have to start? From the אלף בית. He'll have to start off in the beginning and start telling us, you know, there is such a thing as אצילות. So a person who never learned קבלה or חסידות will say, what? What's that? משיח will have to first start explaining. But if he'll tell me אצילות, I'll say oh, I know what it is. All he'll have to do is show me what it is or make me feel it. So the אלטער רבי said this is what's going to happen. He quoted this פסוק. השם says I will take away your heart of stone and I will give you a heart of flesh. We, the reason we don't feel it all now and don't understand it now, is because we have a heart of stone. When משיח will come, we're going to have a heart of flesh. So all the things that we have learned all these years that we didn't understand, automatically will be absorbed and it'll penetrate into our mind. And this is what the פסוק means. The פסוק is not only saying that from then on you'll have a a heart of flesh, so any new thing that you will be taught you will understand better, you will feel better. It's more than that. What we are taught now will be appreciated much more then when משיח will come, because our heart will be a heart of flesh that whatever is put into our heart now will change and as soon as it changes our heart will change, we'll be able to understand it. Then I'm just trying to point out a few words and trying to explain it. Then he says that this man, this מלך, this king, will be a בעל חכמה more than שלמה, a נביא close to משה רבינו, and therefore ילמד כל העם, he's going to teach the whole nation, ויורה אותם דרך השם, and he's going to show them the way of השם. From here we see that משיח is going to have two jobs. Till now we always know, we call him מלך המשיח. מלך, the king, the king משיח. The king has a certain function. Here we see that משיח is going to be a great teacher. ילמד כל העם, he's going to teach all the people. And when it says he's going to teach all the people, it's not only us that he'll come now and teach us. When all the צדיקים and all the big people from the previous generation are going to get up, he's going to teach them תורה. It says משה רבינו, אברהם אבינו, all these who are sitting in גן עדן for 3,000 years and studying תורה will come and listen to the תורה from משיח. He will be a teacher in addition to being a מלך. A מלך is a ruler, a king. He controls the country, he runs everything. A teacher is a different thing. In the time of of דוד המלך, for instance, there were two separate people. דוד המלך was the king. Then you had the head of the סנהדרין, the head of the court, he was the person that was in the seat of משה רבינו. So you had so to speak the What would we call the king? The leader, the Monarch? Yeah, but the the גשמיותדיקע leader, the leader the the ruler in physical matters. And then you had the נביא or the the the רבי who was the spiritual one. משיח is going to be made up of both of these. He's going to be a מלך and he's going to be a רב. And he's going to teach תורה to everybody. The only question that might come up is, how will he be able to teach תורה to so many people, even without תחיית המתים? Because first of all, תחיית המתים will be later. Ay, I said that he'll teach משה and and אברהם, etc., because it says that these צדיקים, they're going to get up right away. Even though normally תחיית המתים could be up to 40 years after משיח will come, but משה רבינו, it says, will get up right away. אהרן, these people, מרים, the women we don't the the women by us are just as important. מרים will get up. All the צדיקים, it says the great צדיקים will get up, אברהם. So, right away משיח will teach everybody. The question is, how will he be able to teach everybody? I mean, can use a microphone, I guess, but still. What? No, so it says more than that. You have we're we're more sophisticated. No. He's going to put it on a screen. It says that משיח is going to teach the תורה in a form of ראייה, of seeing. And

when you see, you could have a million people see the same thing, and you don't even have to explain it. Like this, when you have to say something and explain it, there are different levels. One person will understand, one person not. And if you explain it too much so that the simple people understand, then the חכמים are bored. I don't know, you know, a class, I teach, you give a שיעור, if it's too high for the higher level, then the younger ones or the ones on the lower level don't understand. If you go down to them, then the higher. משיח is not going to have a problem, because he's going to show it, and we're going to see. Whatever things he's going to show he's going to teach, we will see. Similar to the time of מתן תורה, it says, וכל העם רואים את הקולות, they saw. These are spiritual matters he's going to teach us. He's not going to teach us just גמרא. That's very little. רש״י says in שיר השירים he's going to teach us the secrets of the תורה. That means the spiritual, mystical things which are not tangible, which, as we understand now, you can't see them. They're beyond sight. But he's going to do it. Can't tell you how. I don't know. If I'd know, I'd be pretty good off. But that's what it says he's going to And when he teaches, when you teach with seeing, so then everyone takes according to his level when you show something. Everyone could see whatever their their שייכות to see. And you know how much time that saves? If you have to explain something, if I would want to explain just what this wall looks like, every detail, I could talk for three hours. I could go into every detail. It's white, and here you have a frame, and you have white here, and you have a picture, and you have this, and you could go through every The more details and There's enough here to to to If I'm going to go through every detail of that picture, could go hours and hours. But when you show something, here's one look and one second, and you have everything. So, you know how much משיח is going to accomplish? They

bring down in ספרים the story with the אריז״ל to to demonstrate this point. Once רב חיים ויטאל, who was the greatest תלמיד of the אריז״ל Actually, all the writings of the אריז״ל were written by רב חיים ויטאל. Once came into the the אריז״ל's house on שבת afternoon. The אריז״ל was laying laying down on the couch, I think it says, and he was sleeping, שבת afternoon. It wasn't like we sleep. I mean, he had רב חיים ויטאל looked at him, and he saw his mouth moving. So, he was saying something. After the אריז״ל got up after an hour he was sleeping for an hour חיים ויטאל says, what were you saying? He says, well, while I was sleeping, I had great visions of many spiritual things. The אריז״ל, he was the biggest מקובל, I mean, he had all these visions. He said, I had visions in the פרשה of חוקת of בלק and בלעם. So that פרשה, פרשת בלק, spiritual things about that פרשה. And that's what I was saying, certain things I was saying. So רב חיים ויטאל says to him, can you repeat them to me? So he said like this, if I was going to repeat to you what I saw in this hour, it would take me 70 to 80 years, 70 to 80 years. Because when you see something, there are so many details, but if you actually have a good eye, you could catch all the details in a second. Someone, let's say, an artist sees a picture, catches all the details in a second. The אריז״ל caught all the details of all those higher worlds in seconds. So when he saw it in an hour, he had to explain it, 70, 80 years. So when משיח will come, you could imagine what's going to happen. משיח will be teaching us all the spiritual matters, and he's going to teach hours and hours and hours, and he's going to do it all through ראייה, through seeing, that he's going to show it and on a screen. So the קושיא is not how could he do it to so many people? Well, why not? Just like 3 million people saw the revelation of השם by הר סיני, so it could be 3 million, you could have the same thing, 20 million. You can have We'll have 20 million, 100 million or more after everyone gets up. There's no problem. It's probably connected, I can't say for sure, connected, that the light that will be when משיח will come will be such a strong light. The reason now that we don't see things properly because the light is not so good. When the light will be very strong, we will see things more, physical light and the spiritual light. It

says, אור חדש על ציון תאיר. You're going to make a new light shine on ציון, which means to the אידן. That light is Gonna be then. It says like this, it says when, when השם created the world, first day He created light. So it says that the light that השם created the first day, אדם היה מביט בו or צופה בו מסוף העולם ועד סופו. It was so strong a person could see from one end of the world to the other. And it says in קבלה and in חסידות, it doesn't only mean physically you could פשוט see to the end of the world. To the end of the world spiritually! You could go to the end, you could see so many spiritual things. ראה הקדוש ברוך הוא, and I'm quoting the מדרש, ראה הקדוש ברוך הוא שאין העולם כדאי לו or ראוי להשתמש בו. He said the world is not deserving of using such a strong light. עמד וגנזו, He hid it. He hid it לצדיקים לעתיד לבוא. לעתיד לבוא, when משיח will come, the צדיקים should be able to use this light. That's the light that's going to be revealed then, and therefore משיח will use this light and be able to reveal to us all the תורה. Now, just by the way, I just want to say that even before משיח, it says there are צדיקים that already have the taste of the way it's going to be then, and they have the light, because when it says השם hid this light for the צדיקים, so the מדרש asks: Where did He hide it? Let me go find the hiding place! Where did He hide it? So, I think a מדרש says: גנזו בתורה. He hid it in the תורה. So, if a

person learns תורה properly, you are able to draw that light out of the תורה.