As we do many times, some classes are about the mitzvot, certain mitzvot, some things are connected to the time of the year. So I was looking for a topic for tonight which is connected to the time of the year. We had a shiur on Shavuot, we had a shiur on the days after Shavuot, we had a shiur on ב' Sivan, which is a special day. So now I thought tonight we should discuss ראש חודש סיון. Since tomorrow night is ראש חודש סיון, the first day of the month of Sivan, we'll discuss the specialty of ראש חודש סיון. And after we finish with explaining what ראש חודש סיון is, it'll come out that ראש חודש סיון is such a special day, it's probably the most special day of the year. And I repeat what I say always. You always hear me say that. When I finish talking about Pesach, around Pesach time, Pesach has something which is the most special day of the year, and then Shavuot is the most special day of the year. And when we talk about Chanukah, Chanukah, there's nothing like Chanukah, such a great thing, according to chassidut and Kabbalah and halacha, Chanukah, and Purim, and the truth is, they are all true. They're all very, very special days. Each one of these days is special in its own right. And therefore, when we are celebrating that day or when we're close to that day, we stress the specialty of that day. So we have to look at that, because that's special. So now we're going to stress the specialty of ראש חודש סיון. Now there is nothing special that we do on ראש חודש סיון to say that there is a special minhag or something special. It's Rosh Chodesh, and Rosh Chodesh is a special day every month, and there's a musaf, and the women don't do melacha, certain melachot at certain times, and different minhagim, but it has nothing to do specifically with ראש חודש סיון. But when we look back at the first ראש חודש סיון, the first special ראש חודש סיון, and we will see what took place on ראש חודש סיון, and we know that it says, \"הימים האלה נזכרים ונעשים,\" it says in the Megillah that these days are remembered and done. And the Ari z"l says what it means is, \"כשהם נזכרים, הם נעשים.\" When you remember them and you discuss it and you feel the meaning of the day the way it was the original time, the first time this day was special, so then נעשים, it happens. So every year again, the same thing repeats itself. And therefore, whatever we're going to discuss took place the first ראש חודש ניסן, סיון, when ראש חודש ניסן, סיון was a special day, it happens again this year, too. And since every year it repeats itself with a stronger חיות, stronger light, so it's stronger than ever before. Just like it says concerning Rosh Hashanah, it says every year, it says in Tanya, every year on Rosh Hashanah comes down a new light to give life to the world for that coming year. And he uses the term, he says a new light, שלא היה מעולם, such a strong light, godly, spiritual light that never was, the strongest light ever, and next year will be even stronger. The same thing when we say that a certain event repeats itself spiritually and it has an effect on us, it is stronger than it was last year, and stronger than two years ago, stronger than the year before, stronger than the first time. But what it is, what the meaning of it is, we look back at the first time when it happened. Just like on Pesach, it says Pesach we have to, it's זמן חירותנו, it's the time of our freedom, we have to relive Yetzias Mitzrayim. So how do we know what Yetzias Mitzrayim is, what we have to feel? So we look back, we say the Haggadah, and בכלל we look back at what took place at the time when the Jews went out of Egypt, and when we understand that, then we understand what we have to feel this year of Yetzias Mitzrayim, and it's זמן חירותנו, the time of our freedom, like the freedom then, we feel the freedom now. Comes the Shavuos, זמן מתן תורתנו, the time of the giving of the Torah, when we know what that means, we know what it means to us now. And the same thing with every event or any special day of the year. So now we're talking about ראש חודש סיון. Let's look back in history, what took place on ראש חודש סיון? So we know that it says in Parshas Yisro that on this day, the third month, on this day the Jews came to מדבר סיני, they came to Har Sinai. And on this day the chachamim tell us means, they learn it out from a גזירה שוה, from a way of learning out, but they learn out it means ראש חודש. The first day of the month of סיון the Jews came to Har Sinai, they came to the mountain of Sinai. Har Sinai was the mountain, as we all know, where they received the Torah. So on ראש חודש סיון they came to the mountain, the place where they were going to receive the Torah. They traveled, the last camping, the last time they camped was in a city called Refidim. They traveled from Refidim and they came to מדבר סיני, it says, which means Har Sinai, on ראש חודש סיון. Now The fact that they came to Har Sinai on ראש חודש סיון, on that day, something special took place, something very special took place. We see that from the Haggadah. In the Haggadah, we have 15 Dayenus. We say to Hashem, had you done this and not something more than that, Dayenu, it would have been enough. Had you done that, and not something even more, Dayenu. One of the things we mention in Dayenu is אילו קרבנו לפני הר סיני ולא נתן לנו את התורה, דיינו. Had you taken us close, brought us to Har Sinai, and not given us the Torah, also would have been we would have been satisfied, also would have been something very special. Now that you gave us the Torah, it's even more special, but just for coming to Har Sinai would have been special. And the mefarshim on the Haggadah ask: What's so special about coming to Har Sinai? You see, the other things that we mention, I mean, it makes sense. The first one, for instance: Had you taken us out of Mitzrayim and not destroyed their gods, had you not given had you taken us out of Mitzrayim, not given us their money, would have been enough. Yeah, because taking out of Mitzrayim was something special, so that itself is good enough. But here, you say, had you brought us to the mountain, but not given us the Torah, what purpose would it have been to be brought to the mountain? What's so good about being brought to the mountain? So there were different explanations what it means. One explanation is, had you brought us to the mountain and we would have seen the קולות וברקים, it says, before God gave us the Torah, even before, we saw lightning and thunder and there was such a great feeling that the Jews had. Had we come to the mountain and had that feeling, but you wouldn't have actually given us the Torah, that itself is something special, such a great feeling we had. Or another Pshat, it actually means, had you taken us to the mountain and said the עשרת הדיברות, that's what it means. Said the Ten Commandments, but not given us the rest of the Torah, that's what it means, we would have been happy. But then there is another Pshat: Had you brought us to Har Sinai and not even given us the Torah, there was something special that took place. And what is that? That is Achdut, the unity of Yidden. Because when it says that the Yidden camped by Har Sinai, it says, ויחן שם ישראל נגד ההר. It says the Yidden camped, but it says in singular: He camped in front of the mountain. And Rashi asks: It should have said 'they camped', why does it say 'he'? Because when they came to Har Sinai, what happened was they all became כאיש אחד בלב אחד, like one man, like one person with one heart. But till then, all the other times they traveled and camped was בתרעומות ובמחלוקת, was with arguments, with complaints. There was no Ahavat Yisrael, no real Achdut between them. But when they came to Har Sinai, that fact that they came in front of this mountain, where they knew this is the mountain where we are going to receive this great Torah, this great present that we're waiting for so long, that itself brought them to Achdut, and I will explain in detail a little later during the course of the Shiur what it means. So, this brought them to Achdut, that they were all like one person with one heart. And this is what we mean: Had we come to Har Sinai and you wouldn't have given us the Torah, had we come to Har Sinai and accomplished just this, that we would have been כאיש אחד בלב אחד, one man or like one with like one man with one heart, this is already something great, Dayenu, it would have been enough, this is a great accomplishment. Now imagine, we thank Hashem for giving us the Torah. So this is basically what took place on ראש חודש סיון. ראש חודש סיון, they came to the mountain, and they reached this great, great level of such an Achdut that wasn't there before. They became like one human being, like one person with one heart.

But when we go into the details of what took place on ראש חודש סיון, we have to look into the Gemara. The Gemara in Shabbos, in this we call it the Sugya of מתן תורה, the section that deals with מתן תורה, with the giving of the Torah, the Gemara goes through the details of what took place all the days preceding, or before מתן תורה. What took place, what Hashem did, how their preparations to מתן תורה went, based on the pesukim, and the Gemara goes through. The Gemara says like this: Rosh Chodesh Sivan they came to the mountain, but because of חולשא דאורחא, according to the Gemara, because of the weakness of their trip, because they traveled and they reached it after a trip, because they were weak from the trip, לא אמר להו ולא מידי. Moshe Rabbeinu did not tell them a word about מתן תורה. He didn't do anything to them to prepare them, even though they were by the mountain, they're already, you would expect that Moshe Rabbeinu should come and say, \"You're here now.\" They were waiting, give us instructions, what do we do? Because they were tired from the trip, the expression in Gemara is weak, From the trip, Moshe Rabbeinu did not say a word to them. ב' Sivan, the next day of Sivan, second day of Sivan, that's when Hashem told Moshe, Moshe told the Jews, ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש, that you will be to me a nation of kingdom of of of kohanim, a kingdom of kohanim and a גוי קדוש, a holy nation, etc., other words that Hashem said. There was a certain statement Hashem gave, this was the beginning of their preparation for מתן תורה, He told them this. That was ב' Sivan. And because, it's interesting, we once had a class just on ב' Sivan, it's interesting that because of this statement that Hashem made, ב' Sivan has a special name called יום המיוחס. The word יום המיוחס means the special day, that's all, the special day. There's no like this every other Yom Tov has a name. We call it by the date, so this יום המיוחס, this special day. No other day of the year, no other day of the year, Yom Kippur doesn't have a name יום המיוחס, the special day. So ב' Sivan is the greatest day of the year from one angle, and we explained because Hashem said ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים, I once explained what's so special about that statement. But anyway, the second day of Sivan Hashem started the preparation to Matan Torah by saying this paragraph. On the third day of Sivan, Hashem told him the mitzvah of הגבלה, והגבלת את ההר, the mitzvah that they have to surround the mountain and stay away from the mountain, the mountain is holy. Make limits, make a border, that they should a fence around the mountain, they shouldn't be able to go. That's where we get the concept of שלשת ימי הגבלה. We know that the three days before Shavuos are called the three days of הגבלה, because on ג' Sivan, which is from then on, Hashem said now you already cannot go on top of the mountain. Now you have to make a fence around the mountain. Then, and for the next days. ד' Sivan, the fourth of Sivan, Hashem told them the mitzvah of פרישה, that they have to separate themselves from their wives because of the kedushah. Then ה' Sivan, on the fifth of סיון, בנה מזבח, Moshe Rabbeinu built a מזבח and brought korbanot on the מזבח. The fifth of Sivan was the day that the Yidden said the most famous proclamation that the Yidden ever made, נעשה ונשמע. They said this famous proclamation, we will do, and we will hear. First we will do, we accept to do, then we will hear to understand what He said. That was ה' Sivan. And on ו' Sivan, that's when Hashem gave the Torah. So when we look at Rosh Chodesh Sivan, the Gemara says clearly that the Yidden, Moshe didn't tell them anything because of חולשא דאורחא, because they were tired or weak from the trip.

And the question that comes up here is, is this a good enough reason why Moshe Rabbeinu should not tell them anything, do anything to them as a preparation to Matan Torah? Let's analyze the situation. We know that the Jews were waiting, anticipating the day of Matan Torah. From the day they left מצרים, they were told that you're leaving מצרים to come to Matan Torah, and they were told how many days it's going to be. They counted the days. It says in the Midrash, the Ran brings it down, that's where the mitzvah of Sefirat HaOmer comes from. The mitzvah of Sefirat HaOmer is counting the days between Pesach and Shavuos, because when the Jews left Mitzrayim, they counted on their own, they weren't told, there was no mitzvah then, they on their own pashut counted the days, they couldn't wait. Like when someone waits for something, anticipates something, so you count you count the days. Oh there's one day passed already, it's another day. Sometimes you count, well there are five more days left, four more days left. Sometimes people count, well one day, another day passed, another day, I'm getting closer. Anyway, that's the way they counted. And because of that, Hashem said to Moshe later on, you know, they counted the days, I'll give them a mitzvah every year to count the days between Pesach and Shavuos. But obviously, but the point here is that they counted the days. When they counted the days, they were waiting for it. You could imagine as it got closer and closer, the excitement gets stronger. Imagine, taka, when you imagine a person knows at a certain date, in 49 days, I'm going to get 50 million dollars. Imagine, 50 million dollars. I'm just taking a number, could have said a hundred million, might as well a billion. In 50 days, and you start counting, as it gets closer and closer, your heart starts pounding, you know, and you you can't wait. It's another, you can't wait, here's something so special. Here, it was already a few days before Matan Torah, you could imagine their excitement. Imagine how they felt. Not only that, they actually already reached the place where it's going to take place. So you can imagine the excitement that they had, the anticipation. Now, the nature of a human being is that when you're waiting for something really, really hard, and you really, really want it, and you know there are things you have to do to get ready for it, whether you're tired or not, you're going to do it, because you know this is standing by the mountain, they actually with their physical eyes saw, \"This is the mountain where we're going to receive the Torah.\" Something, it's the greatest present, something more than a 50 million dollars. You can't imagine, we can't put into words, billions of dollars, it's more than anything. And here they're standing, you could imagine they came to the Har Sinai, they would wait. Now now what? Moshe Rabbeinu says, \"No, nothing, I'm not telling you.\" Why? Because they're tired. Makes no sense. Because they're tired, that's why? You wouldn't If you wait for a million a billion dollars and you know that you have a certain preparation, you wouldn't Whether you're tired or not, you wouldn't sleep nights, who cares? And not only that, if Moshe had pity on them and said, \"Well, Hashem had pity, they're tired,\" they themselves should have said to Moshe, \"Please tell us something. What do we do?\" And the way the Gemara puts it: ולא אמר להו ולא מידי. They didn't say one word, not he said, \"Okay, you know, we'll talk about it a little bit, I'll tell you generally. Tomorrow we'll talk more.\" ולא אמר להו ולא מידי means he didn't say a word. And the Yidden didn't complain. Why didn't they complain? What what was it? So there must be something more, especially that if you look into it, the trip wasn't such a terrible trip to be so so tired. They traveled from Rephidim, and the way most mefarshim learn, Rephidim is not so far from Har Sinai. Actually, there are Ibn Ezra in one place says it was a far trip, but most mefarshim learn that it was a short trip. So it was a short trip, they weren't even that tired. And especially, it wasn't a hard trip. See, usually when you go and there are, especially in a desert, there are bumps and, you know, it's very hard. Here, Hashem made that everything was smoothed out. It says he had ענני הכבוד, the clouds went in front of them, and any place that was a little mound, it smoothed it out, if there was a pit, it's picked it up, it made it very, very easy to walk. It wasn't hot. Desert, it's hot, but this was this time of the year, we know it's hot, no? Because that the clouds that blocked out the sun. It didn't rain, it wasn't cold, the weather, best weather you could imagine. So how far was their trip? How hard was their trip? Especially, their trip, they came to Har Sinai on Rosh Chodesh Sivan, which, according to two, one opinion it was on Sunday, one opinion was on Monday. Whichever way, it was close to Shabbos. They were already given Shabbos before, that you can't work on Shabbos, so they had a whole Shabbos to rest before the trip. So, I'm sure they took a nap, and they rested up a whole Shabbos, and then they took the trip. So how tired can they have been with a short trip on a nice paved road with beautiful weather? So, so they were that tired that Moshe couldn't say anything, preparation for Matan Torah? Very, very strange. So, guess who has a good explanation? I give you only one guess and not more, only one guess.

The Rebbe explains it like this, and the Rebbe says that when we say they were tired from the trip, it doesn't only mean the physical trip, that pashut that they traveled and they became weak. It also means, and mainly it means, a spiritual trip. Just like when a person moves from one place to another physically, that's called a trip, when a person moves from one level to another, that's also called a trip. You go from one place in your matzav, in your situation, to another place. Whether it is in seichel, you're on one level of understanding and then you go higher, you know, reach another level of understanding, or in middot, in feeling, you know, one level of feeling and then you you work on whatever happens, and then you change and you go to another level. In ahavah or yirah, you travel, you go from one midah, from one emotion that you have, to another emotion, that's all. Or in any other form of spiritual levels that one might go, it's called a trip. Lehavdil lehavdil, even by the goyim, they there is an expression when a person is on is on a high, whether, chas veshalom, he took drugs or whatever, they say he took a trip. They call it a trip, because his mind went from one level to another. So that's also called a trip. So here when it says that they were tired, weak, because of the trip, it doesn't only mean the physical trip, that's the least of it. No, it means a spiritual trip. What was the spiritual trip that made them tired? So I'll explain what I mean. When the Yidden traveled from Mitzrayim, and they took trips, we call it, went from one station to another, from one מחנה to another, one camp to another, one city to another, they went physically closer to Har Sinai, but it also means spiritually. They went from one level to another. As we know, that when the Yidden went out of Mitzrayim, they were very, very low. It says that they were in the 49th gate of tumah, of impurity, very low. And what they had to do is get out and go up to the 49 gates of kedushah, till they'll be able to reach Har Sinai. That's one of the reasons of Sefirah that we purify ourselves. So when we say that the Yidden traveled from Mitzrayim to Raamses, to Sukkot, to Raamses, all the different, each trip represents a spiritual trip. But all the trips that the Yidden took were all, we would call it, a סדר מסודר, they went with a normal order. It was orderly, meant from level to level, like normally. A person works on himself when you're on one level, then by working on yourself you reach a next level, and next level. That's a normal thing. So that's called going, traveling spiritually, בהדרגה. בהדרגה means step-by-step, in a normal way. The trip that they took from Refidim to Har Sinai, spiritually, was such a trip that it wasn't that they went from one level to the next level. It was such a jump, such a change of level that needed so much effort, so much koachot within them, it needed so much work within them, so much strain to accomplish that that actually made them tired. They were so stressed out from such a change in the מצב הנפש, in their in their their mental state, their state of mind that they had that took from one level to another, that there they really, really were so drained that they couldn't do anything. What was so special about this trip? Why, where do we see that this trip was more than the before? It's what I said before: when they went from Refidim to Har Sinai, that's when they reached the level of, as we said before, כאיש אחד בלב אחד, they became like one person with one heart, while before in all the trips, it says, they were בתרעומות ובמחלוקת, with complaints and with arguments. Now what does that mean? Let's understand what that means. They were with complaints and arguments. So we think it's very simple, and people who don't, we say, mazal tov. Mazal tov. So we learn it very pashut, very simple, that till then they argued. What do they argue? Like Yidden, people argued and complained and argued, and they a lack of of unity, a lack of Ahavat Yisrael. Hard to say that that's what it means. Yidden went out of Mitzrayim, saw the greatest miracles, saw Keriat Yam Suf, going to Matan Torah, Yidden waiting for Matan Torah knowing getting ready for this great kedushah, and they should constantly fight? Hard to say this. What it really means is the nature is the way Hashem created human beings, the Gemara says, אין דעותיהם שוות. Naturally, it's not anyone's fault. The minds of people are different. People have different natures, different minds. And it's not wrong. Actually, it's healthy, you have different opinions. And even in Torah, we find, the Torah, the Midrash, Yerushalmi says that the Torah, specifically Hashem did not give it חתוכה. חתוכה means clear-cut. There are מ״ט פנים טהור, מ״ט פנים טמא. In when it comes to questions in Torah, you have 49 ways of looking at one side, then you have 49 ways of explaining the other side. And the Gemara says, אלו ואלו דברי אלקים חיים, they're both true. There are different ways and all kinds of different approaches in Torah. So there is such a thing as we would call machloket l'shem shamayim. You can argue in Torah and it's a machloket which is l'shem shamayim, for the sake of Hashem. And there are machloket in different approaches, but it's all based not on being bad or evil, it's based on good, on learning. And you learn, and your mind understands one way, the other person's mind understands another way. And it's supposed to be that way. I'm supposed to understand the way I understand, and he's supposed to understand the way he understands. And that could bring out machloket. So it's machloket, argument, in a very, very high level. It's not arguments, simple arguments. Similar to what we, Chasidut explains, by the talmidim of Rabbi Akiva, that לא נהגו כבוד זה בזה, that they didn't have respect for each other, doesn't mean pashut they were bad people and they didn't like each other and they fought. It means that they, since they were so great in Torah, they each one had his own opinion and tried to convince the other, etc., etc., whatever it means, but it means in a higher level. So here also, it means on a higher level. Imagine to reach a point that even the machloket in such a high level should not be there. It should be that they should all have unity to overlook the nature of each person having his own mind and the fact that Torah could be learned different ways and different things could happen the ways, to reach such a level is something that's almost impossible. And nevertheless, the Yidden, after all that, when they came to Har Sinai, the fact they were standing by Har Sinai brought out within them such a jump. This is not a change: before it was a lower level, now they're on a higher level. It's a jump, we call it b'ein aruch, with no comparison, to jump this madrega. And when we say that Rashi uses the expression כאיש אחד בלב אחד, like one person with one heart, like one person could mean you can have a lot of people arguing, having differences of opinions, and then we come to decide, you know what? Let's all do the same thing. Let's all, you know, as much as I hold this way, you hold this way, we'll come to a conclusion, we're all unite to do the same thing. That's called כאיש אחד, like one person. But it doesn't mean in your heart you actually are one with the other person, because I still have my feeling and my opinion, and you have your feeling and your opinion. Here it wasn't like that. Here the achdut was so strong that it was כאיש אחד בלב אחד, actually became one heart. They all became one. Now, because of this jump, which is so great, the spiritual jump in the level that they were, so this drained them so much that there was nothing else they could do. And therefore, לא אמר להו מידי, he couldn't say anything to them. This is not enough. And you would understand that this terutz is not 100% good enough, not only because there's still 15 minutes left and I have, need more to say, because after all, as much as we explain that they were so drained spiritually from this great effort that they put in in their mental state of mind, still it's hard to understand that as tired as they were and as drained they were, to not hear and want anything about מתן תורה. Cuz after all, this that they reached such a high level and the effort that they put in, and the fact that they were drained, was all because of מתן תורה, because they reached the mountain already. That's what brought them to this level, and still they should not at all want anything of מתן תורה? It's still hard, it needs a deeper an explanation. And the emet is the Rebbe goes deeper and he explains this idea deeper. That this that the Gemara says that they were tired, they were weak, and they, Moshe didn't tell them anything, is not because since they were weak, so Moshe had no choice not to tell them anything, it's more than that. The weakness itself, and the fact that Moshe did not tell them anything, this itself is a preparation to מתן תורה. This jump that they had in level to reach this level of such a great אחדות in their heart, and therefore being weak, this itself is not, because of this they couldn't prepare, because they were tired or something else, this itself is a preparation, and a great, the greatest preparation. And when the Gemara says that because of that Moshe Rabbeinu didn't say a word to them about Matan Torah, that not saying anything is the preparation to Matan Torah. Now, what does that mean? Now we'll explain this. We said that the level that they reached was that כאיש אחד בלב אחד, they're all like one. The question is how is that possible? How is it possible that they should all really be like one? As we said, the nature is that people are different, and that is good, and it's Hashem, Hashem created it that way. So how is it possible that we should, all the people, meaning all levels from the top to the bottom, from the highest to the lowest, and there is such a מרחק, such a great space between them, so far away from Moshe Rabbeinu till the פשוט שבפשוטים, the simplest Jew, and they should all be like one? Obviously, there is something in a Yid that all Yidden have in common, and it's all the same in everyone. And when you reach the point of feeling that common denominator, of feeling that level, automatically it brings that all the Yidden become one, because when that is felt and that is revealed, and that every single Yid has the same, automatically they're all one. And what is that? We all understand, that is the עצם הנשמה, the essence of the neshama. And I use the word עצם because in the neshama itself, not the essence of it, but in the revealed part of the neshama there are differences. Some people are higher, some people are lower. They say there are neshamot from אצילות, נשמות from בריאה, נשמות from יצירה, different levels. But in the עצם of the neshama, all Yidden are equal. So what happened here was, here there was the revelation of the עצם of the neshama. That's what happened. When they came to Har Sinai, the עצם of the neshama was revealed. And I'll explain more in detail. We're talking here about the Yidden coming to Har Sinai getting ready to receive the Torah, Matan Torah.

Let's understand We make such a big fuss of Matan Torah. Matan Torah, the Torah the Torah was given, and Shavuos, and the קולות וברקים, the noises and thunder and lightning and Hashem, all kinds of things. Chassidut asks the question: What's so special about Matan Torah? We know that before the Torah was given, the אבות already learned the Torah. It says Noach learned Torah, מתושלח learned Torah, שם ועבר learned Torah. It says אברהם זקן ויושב בישיבה, so Avraham learned in yeshivah, and Yitzchak learned Torah, and Yaakov learned Torah, and it says מעולם לא פסקה תורה מאבותינו במצרים. The Torah, the yeshivah, learning the Torah never stopped in Mitzrayim. So before Matan Torah, the Yidden had the Torah. They even knew all about all the mitzvot. Says Avraham Avinu kept all the mitzvot, even מצוות מדרבנן, אפילו עירוב תבשילין he kept. So when they came to Matan Torah, they make a big fuss. What's the big deal? They had it all and they knew it and they finished it. What is the big deal? The answer is Chassidut says that when they came to, by Matan Torah, what it says is ונתן לנו את תורתו. Says Hashem gave us his Torah. The difference between before is before it wasn't given to us by Hashem. The Torah, somehow it was revealed to them, they knew the Torah, but the Torah was not given to them by Hashem. They took the Torah themselves. They learned Torah and they understood Torah. Human beings are limited. The greatest human being with the greatest mind, with the greatest heart is still limited. You could take whatever you're taking as much as you're able to take. Greater, you could take more, but you take only as much as you're able to take. Beyond that, you cannot take. So till then, the the expression in Chassidut is that the Avot learned Torah and they reached up to שורש הנבראים. שורש הנבראים means the source of creation. Since they're part of creation, the creatures, part of creation, so they reached a level, a spiritual level which is the source of creation. But beyond creation, which is beyond their framework, you couldn't reach. Like the mashal is you can't pick yourself up by pulling yourself by your own ears. If you do, whatever you do, it's all within you, you can't go beyond it. By Matan Torah it says ונתן לנו את תורתו. Hashem gave us, but he gave us. Hashem who is beyond the framework of creation, so he is that he could give us more than that, so he gave us the Torah not limited to the creation, but he gave us the Torah beyond creation. If we take the Torah ourselves, we take it with our mind, as much as our mind could take. Avraham Avinu was a great mind. He took it as much as his mind could take. But when Hashem gave us the Torah, there is something there that's beyond what one's mind could take. And what is it? It's the essence of Hashem that's in the Torah. Hashem put himself into the Torah, and when we learned Torah, when we got the Torah, he gave it to us, see there are two things: there is קבלת התורה, receiving the Torah, and there is Matan Torah, the giving of the Torah. Giving, he gave us. And when he gave us the Torah, he gave us בלי גבול, himself, beyond the limitations of a human being. It says Hashem says when you learn תורה, אותי אתם לוקחים, you take me. On the פסוק, ויקחו לי תרומה, it says ויקחו לי, you shall take for me. So the Zohar says ויקחו לי, you take me. When you give Terumah, you mean you give a mitzvah, or you learn Torah, you take me. The word אנכי, the first word of the עשרת הדברות, is an abbreviation which means אנא נפש... אנכי, אלף נון כף יוד, אנא נפשי כתבית יהבית, which means, simple פשט means I myself wrote it and gave it, but Chassidus says it means I wrote myself in and gave myself over through the Torah. So when Hashem gave us the Torah, he gave us himself. So we take in the Torah more than just the שכל of the Torah. When we take the Torah, we take Hashem in the Torah. When it says, we say in the ראש השנה דאווענען, אתה נגלית בענן כבודך, you revealed yourself, it's not just that this was a higher level revelation than before. There are different levels and then there is a higher level. This is a level that is beyond anything else because all other levels that they reached, you reach a level and then a higher level, a higher level, that's all still within the framework of creation. Here, there was a jump, באין ערוך, without any comparison, a jump without any link. Like this you have a chain and each chain has a link, and there's another link, another link, and they're all connected. And then there's sometimes that you just jump, there is no link, you jump, Hashem made us go, received us, gave to us, received, gave us something that is much completely beyond. That's what he gave us by Matan Torah. In order to receive that, to be able to get the Torah that is beyond the limitations of a human being. We have to be כלים for it. We have to be vessels to be able to receive it. What can we do as a vessel to receive it? What can we do to prepare ourselves to receive such a thing which is beyond any limit that we have? What can it be? Whatever we do, whatever we do is still part of our limitations. We do it with ourselves. Whatever שכל, whatever thinking we'll do, whatever speaking we'll do, whatever understanding we'll do, it's all going to be limited. That all can't contain the בלי גבול, the infinity of Hashem that put Himself into the Torah. So what is the keli for it? So Chassidus says the keli is bitul, self-nullification. When you do something yourself, you do it, it's limited. You're doing it a certain way, the best way possible, it's still a limited way. But when you completely self-nullification, you nullify yourself, you're completely battel to Hashem, that is the vessel to receive this essence of the Torah. That's the real keli for receiving the essence of the Torah. And the truth is, it's not only by מתן תורה, but even nowadays. It says that before we learn Torah, we have to make a ברכה, ברכו בתורה תחילה, we have to make a berachah. It says, why was the בית המקדש destroyed? Because they didn't make a berachah. What does that mean? Why didn't they make a berachah? What did they care to make a berachah? Takes a second to make a berachah. So the Bach, the Rabbeinu Yonah and the Bach explain, it doesn't mean physically didn't make a berachah. Maybe it does, but that's not the point. Making a berachah before you learn, what is the berachah? ברוך אתה השם אלקינו מלך העולם אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו, you made us holy with your mitzvot and you commanded us to learn Torah. We're telling Hashem that when we're going to learn Torah, we are now taking your kedushah. See, some people learn Torah, unfortunately, because there's such depth in it, it's such a smart, deep subject. That's not Torah. That's chochmah. Torah has chochmah too. But there is the kedushah, the holiness of Torah, which is Hashem that's in Torah. And that we express before we learn, by making the berachah and saying to Hashem, we're nothing, it's your Torah, you made us holy, it's your kedushah. That's what it is. We say in Shemoneh Esreh, at the end, very end of Shemoneh Esreh, we say ונפשי כעפר לכל תהיה פתח לבי בתורתך. I will be like dust to everybody, open my heart to Torah. It's taken from the Gemara. What is the connection between the two? One thing is, I'm saying to Hashem I'm nothing, I'm like dust, anybody could step on me. Then there's another thing, as a request, we say to Hashem, please open my heart to Torah. Why did we mix the two in one statement? The answer is, in order to have an open heart to Torah, you have to be mevatel, you have to have bitul. You have to have self-nullification and say to that's what you say to Hashem. See, in order to open your mind to Torah, you don't need it. You could be a big baal gaavah, arrogant person, big shot, and think of yourself and hold of yourself and be a whole metziut, a whole being, and sit down and learn. As a matter of fact, you know you have a mind and you learn, you'll get the chochmah of Torah, your mind will understand the Torah, להבדיל you have goyim who learn Torah. But פתח לבי, to open the heart, which means to open the feeling to Torah, that the Torah that we're learning is Hashem, for that you have to have bitul. For that, you have to have self-nullification. That's why we say פתח we say here, ונפשי כעפר לכל תהיה, I'm nothing. And when you're nothing, then you're not limited. When you do something positive, you know, but if you say I'm nothing because of You, Hashem, obviously not nothing just for for no reason, but nothing because of You, that's the keli, that's the vessel that you're able to receive the Torah. So therefore, before Hashem gave the Yidden the Torah, in order for them to receive the Torah, the preparation that they really, really needed was a preparation not of doing something or saying something or hearing something, a preparation of self-nullification, the bitul to Hashem. That's what the Gemara means. When they came Rosh Chodesh Sivan, and they came to the mountain, they were weak. They took a trip, they reached a level which made them weak. Weakness of metziut represents the fact that their metziut, their being, was not strong. That means that there was a bitul here. And the fact that משה רבינו לא אמר להו ולא מידי, said nothing, is part of the preparation. The first preparation you have to have to Torah is don't say anything. ולא אמר ולא מידי, don't say. Had he said something, words are limits, and it would be a preparation according to these this level. The next day would be words other words, a preparation on another level. Do this preparation in this limited way. So the first level of preparation, as soon as they came to Har Sinai, was the level of bitul. And that's what the Gemara says, חולשא, they were weak, they had the the trip caused them this weakness of their metziut. The metziut wasn't strong, they were batel, and Hashem didn't say anything to them because this was the real bitul. And this is what the Gemara means, this is connected to what the Rashi says and the Gemara, that they were came to Har Sinai they had like כאיש אחד בלב אחד, like one person and one heart. Because how is it possible we said to be one, all be like one and we're all different? And the answer we said before is because of your עצם הנשמה. If you all your own personal things are set aside, and all that there is your עצם הנשמה, then you're able to have the true achdut. Not only כאיש אחד, it's a question of the heart. If in your heart, you are mevatel yourself completely, and you don't feel your own metziut as a separate entity, and what comes out is only your עצם הנשמה, then you're able to have the achdut. And that's exactly what happened here on Rosh Chodesh Sivan. Rosh Chodesh Sivan, they came to Har Sinai. And when they came to Har Sinai, there was this trip that they took that made them completely batel to Hashem. And because they were completely batel to Hashem, that's why at that point they became כאיש אחד בלב אחד, they became like one man, one person with one heart, because that bitul was if not for that bitul, it's impossible to have this great achdut, they had that bitul. And because that had that great bitul, this was a trip that they took to reach this bitul, they became weak. Their metziut became weak, which is positive, it's a good a good thing it happened. And because of that, Moshe said, \"Today I'm not telling you, their bitul is the preparation.\" This was the greatest preparation. But we know that as much as we say that the preparation to Torah is the bitul and then you have the kedushah of the Torah, you can't stop there. We have to learn Torah. This is the preparation to learn Torah. And when it comes to learn Torah, then we do see the differences between one person and another. Each one has to learn Torah with his seichel, and has to understand it according to his capability, according to his seichel, to his how much his mind could take. So there's another type of preparation you have to have to מתן תורה: a preparation of doing things to make yourself able to learn Torah. And when you actually learn Torah in your mind, and you think and understand Torah, there is something there that the bitul doesn't have either. It says when a person learns something, the concept, the idea that he learns in it's in his mind, becomes one with his brain. When you learn Torah and you understand it with your seichel, with your head, with your brain, our brain is the Torah. When a person understands an idea, at that moment your brain is the idea that you understand. Imagine when we understand Torah. So at that moment, the brain, my brain is Torah. And it says in Tanya, there is no greater unity a person could have with Hashem than when his brain understands Torah, because this is one. All other kinds of unity is two things stick together, but they're still two separate things together, but here, it becomes one and the same. So not only for the sake of understanding Torah, each one has to use his individual abilities and seichel, etc., but even for the kedushah of Torah to connect yourself to Hashem, so you have to study Torah and have your mind understand, but it has to come after the bitul. So in order to prepare ourselves for matan Torah, you need two things: you have to have the first preparation, which is the bitul. Then you have to have the preparation of your individual kelim, vessels, that you have according to your level, and you have to work on it to prepare. That's what happened here. Rosh Chodesh Sivan they came, that was the bitul. That was the first preparation. That's the bitul and that's why it brought them all like one, because when you're batel, it's all like one, and that was a day that they didn't do any preparation in the form of doing because there was an unlimited thing, it was the bitul. The next day started the second type of preparation. Since they have to receive the Torah to learn, so you have to do things to be able to. So Hashem said this and Hashem said that. These are specific things that they had to do. So this is the complete preparation to matan Torah. So here we understand what is special about Rosh Chodesh Sivan. Rosh Chodesh Sivan is the true, true preparation to matan Torah. That's the yesod, the foundation of learning, of receiving the Torah and learning, this foundation. Without this, you can't go any further, because if you don't have this bitul before, then the Torah is not the real Torah. It's Torah, you have the words, but you don't have the kedushah of Torah. It's one of the reasons it says why the Torah starts with a beis. Famous kushya, should start with an aleph, why does it start with a beis? So one of the reasons given is because we have to realize that when we sit down to learn the Torah, that's the second step already. There's a step before There's an aleph before that. What is the aleph before? This bitul that you have to have, this feeling, bond with Hashem that you want to grab, get the kedushah of Hashem, the kedushah of the Torah before you even start thinking about the meaning of the Torah, before your mind starts working. So the mind starts working, that's the bayit. So Rosh Chodesh Sivan represents that preparation. Since מתן תורה is the greatest day of the year and in order to have the Torah you have to prepare, the real preparation starts with Rosh Chodesh Sivan. This is what happened then when the Idan, three and a half thousand years ago about, stood before Har Sinai, the year 2448 from creation. Every year, as I started in the beginning, ימים האלה נזכרים ונעשים, it repeats itself. So when it comes Rosh Chodesh Sivan, we have to think: today is the day that we start our preparation to מתן תורה, and what level of preparation? Of our greatest bitul, realizing that the Torah that we're going to get is not just something a very nice chokhmah and something very deep, something very great, but it's Hashem, it's Hashem Himself, and the mitzvot that Hashem give gave us at מתן תורה is Hashem Himself, and we have to just focus on that on Rosh Chodesh Sivan. After we focus on that, then we can start focusing on actually doing things to receive the Torah, and then we will reach the day of שבועות, מתן תורה, and we will receive the Torah, as the Rebbe always used the expression of the berakhah, besimchah uvepnimiut. Yes. Connected to מתן תורה. The עצם הנשמה the Idan had wasn't begilui even before. If Hashem chose us, He chose the אידן בעצם. When we say by מתן תורה He chose us, it means by מתן תורה He was megaleh the fact that we are chosen by Hashem. The fact that we are one with Hashem is nitgaleh by מתן תורה, was revealed. And this revelation is called this עצם הנשמה, the revelation of the עצם הנשמה, and that started on the day of of Rosh Chodesh Sivan, this revelation. We say it all happened by מתן תורה, but it didn't happen all on the day of ו' Sivan. It's all around Matan Torah. To a certain degree, certain steps happened already by Yetziat Mitzrayim, because Yetziat Mitzrayim is also a beginning of Matan Torah. Some things happened at קריעת ים סוף, but it's all called by Matan Torah. It says we became a nation by Matan Torah. Actually it says we became a nation by Yetziat Mitzrayim. It says what Hashem, what He did to us was, it says He took לקחת גוי מקרב גוי, He took out a nation from among the nations, but we weren't a nation yet. It's the beginning of becoming a nation at Matan Torah. By Yetziat Mitzrayim we became, so the same thing here. What did they do in ראש חודש סיון? Well, at this point, I don't know if they did anything. The fact that they came to Har Sinai, they came to Har Sinai, so the kedushah that was coming from Har Sinai, because this is going to be the place of Matan Torah, shined upon them, and this brought them to that feeling. That's why it says נגד ההר. It says because they were standing נגד ההר, because they were standing in front of the mountain. This mountain is the place of Matan Torah, so the kedushah already was there, and that kedushah affected them, that they started feeling completely different and they started feeling the original and they started, that's why they had the אחדות, and they had this bitul to Hashem. מלמעלה? מלמעלה, yeah. Well, it probably came as a המשך to the days of Sefirah that they counted and the trip before. That's what made that it's possible that the גילוי מלמעלה should work. If they wouldn't have done the days before, they wouldn't have been keilim even for that giluy. So you did what they could, and then this giluy came, but this brought them to such a feeling and such a drain, such a strain and and to this level of bitul. The night before they went to sleep? Well, Hashem, that night Hashem made them sleep. It says Hashem gave made them sleep, gave helped them sleep. It says that Hashem made that not even a mosquito was around to make noise, because they meant it for a good reason, so Hashem helped them, even though really they should have... Despite, yeah. Yeah, because Hashem made that, closed their ears, I guess. When they were awake, I guess they felt it. So thunder and lightning brought, you know, the fear. The Gemara says even nowadays, normally when you see thunder and lightning, the purpose of it is לפשט עקמומית שבלב, to straighten out the crookedness of your heart, or to scare you. And there, certainly it scared them. So, I guess they were awake, but when they slept they slept, they didn't hear it. Thank It's an essential part of the concept of the chuppah. The word chuppah actually means the wedding canopy.