My zayde, R'' Zalman Vilnkin, told me that he was once by a farbrengen or a מסיבה that the Rebbe's father was there in Katrinoslav, and someone asked him peshat in this Midrash Pele'ah, and this is what he answered. The Midrash Pele'ah says like this: One תנא said to the other, \"מה שמו של הקדוש ברוך הוא? What is the name of השם?\" אמר ליה, so he said to him, \"רחמנא ליבא בעי.\" It's an expression in the Gemara that the Torah, the אייבערשטער, wants the heart. That's what he answered him. אמר ליה, so he said to him, \"מפני מה כולם סדורים וזו הפוכה? Why are they all straight and this one is upside down, backwards?\" אמר ליה, so he said to him, \"חותמו של הקדוש ברוך הוא אמת. The seal of השם is אמת.\" Then he added, \"הדא הוא דכתיב,\" this is what it says, a pasuk in Kohelet ד' ח', \"יש אחד ואין שני גם בן ואח אין לו. There's one and not a second, and a son and a sister and a brother he doesn't have. A son has a a son and a brother he doesn't have.\" So this seemingly doesn't make any sense, the question, the answer, what's the question, what's the answer? So he said the peshat is like this: The תנא who asked him what the name of Hashem, he answered him, \"רחמנא ליבא בעי.\" רחמנא ליבא בעי is a ראשי תיבות ר-ל-ב. ר-ל-ב is 232. Now, we know in

Kabbalah it says that there are four names to Hashem: שם מ״ה, מ-ה, which is 45; שם ב״ן, ב-נ, which is 52; שם ס״ג, ס-ג, which is 63; and שם ע״ג and שם ע״ב, I mean ע-ב, which is 72. And this is all based on שם הוי״ה. שם הוי״ה is י-ק-ו-ק, בגימטריא 26. But each letter has a מילוי, has a filling that you fill up, and there are different ways to make the מילוי, and depending on which way, that's how you come out. One way to make the מילוי is comes up to 45, one comes to 52, one comes to 63, one comes to 72. So when he asked him, \"מה שמו של הקדוש ברוך הוא?\" What's Hashem's name? What he really answered him was these four names. These four names, 45 and 52 and 63 and 72, add up to 232. So really what he what he answered him was ר-ל-ב, all these four names, and the way he said it was רחמנא ליבא בעי, the roshei teivot is ר-ל-ב. אמר ליה, so then he answered him, \"מפני מה כולם סדורים וזו הפוכה? Why are they all straight and this one is backwards or upside down?\" He

meant to ask: We see by the מ״ה, מ-ה, 45, the four is before the five, the big number, the 40, is before the small number, the five. By ס״ג, 63 is also ס-ג, first the 60, then the three. By ע״ב is also ע is 70 and ב is two, first the big number, then the small one. How come when it comes to the second שם, which is ב״ן, we say ב-נ, first the ב and then the נ, first the small number, then the נ, the 50? That's what he asked him. אמר ליה, so he answered him the reason is because חותמו של הקדוש ברוך הוא אמת, the seal of Hashem is emes. And the pshat is, or that's not the pshat, it says in sefarim that we see takeh that emes in מספר קטן is a gematria nine. מספר קטן means when you count the big numbers as one, like 40 would be four, 400 would be, again, four, you count them as four. So if you count א-מ-ת, א is one, מ is 40, ת is 400. So really, במספר קטן, it's one and four and four is nine. The number nine represents the truth, because the truth is something that never changes from all sides. That's why emes is made up of three letters, א-מ-ת: א is the first letter of the אלף בית, מ the middle one, and ת the last one, that means that it goes through and through from beginning to end. And that's connected to the number nine, because nine is the same way: however you're going to multiply nine, it'll come up to nine. Three times nine is 27, so two and seven is nine. Seven times nine is 63, six and three is nine. Whichever number you're going to say, twice times nine is 18, one and eight is nine. That's how you go on. So nine represents the emes, and that's what he answered him: You know why this one is mixed up, that first the ב, then the נ? Because the seal of הקדוש ברוך הוא is emes, and we want them all to add up to nine. So 45, מ״ה, adds up to nine: four and five is nine. ס״ג, 63, ס is 60, but ס is six and three is nine. ע״ב, 72, the seven and two is nine, adds up to nine. But if we'd make the second one נ״ב, נ-ב, it would be seven: נ is 50, which is five, and ב is two, so it's seven. But in order to that also should add up to nine, we changed it to ב''ן, ב' נ'. Why? Because we know that even though the numbers, the gematria of the numbers goes like this: Go all the way up to ת', ת' is 400. ש' is 300, ר' is 200, and ת' is the last letter, that's 400. Now

usually nowadays what we do when we want to write 500, 600, we would write ת' ק' 400, and ק' which is 100, is 500. ת' ר' is 400 and 200 is 600. But really there is another way. It says in sefarim that after you finish with the ת' being 400, you go to the additional letters. There is an additional letter to the כ', the לאנגער כ'. There's an additional letters, letter to the מ', לאנגע מ', the שלאסענע מ' I mean, the end מ'. Then you have additional letter to the נ', the long נ', the the לאנגער נ'. And then you go out to the other letters that you have. So comes out that ת' is 400. Now לאנגער כ' is 500, and and the מ' is 600, and נ', the לאנגער נ' is 700. So if you write ב' נ', you have two, and then 700, which is מספר קטן seven, so it comes out to nine. And that's what he answered him. When he asked him why the ב''ן is first the ב' then the נ', so he said, because the seal of Hashem is אמת, אמת is nine. So we wanted this also to add up to nine, so by changing it to ב' and the לאנגער נ', it also adds up to nine. And then he

said this is the רמז in the פסוק where it says יש אחד ואין שני. There is one, that goes on the Oybershter, there is one, there is no other one like him. And that's hinted in the fact that his seal is emes. Emes is one, from all sides it's emes, so it's one. But then the pasuk continues, גם בן, what about ב''ן? בן is ב' לאנגער נ'. Why do we count it, why do we write it as a לאנגע, ב' לאנגער נ', why don't you write it נ' ב'? It's as if the pasuk is asking, גם בן, and the answer is ואח אין לו, it doesn't have אח. א', אח is א' ח', which is nine. So the answer why בן is ב' נ', not נ' ב', because if you'd make it ב' נ', if you make it נ' ב', it wouldn't have the nine. So that's what the pasuk says: יש אחד ואין שני, גם בן, בן, ב''ן, why is the second one ב''ן not נ''ב? The answer is ואח אין לו, because it doesn't have the nine. א' ח' is nine, so it doesn't have the nine. אח אין לו, it doesn't have the nine, that's why we changed it to ב''ן, and then it has the ב' and the לאנגער נ' which is 700 is together nine.