Topic tonight is somewhat connected to this time of the year as far as the פרשיות are concerned, and that is the מעיל. Out of all the garments of the כהן גדול, I chose to talk about the מעיל. Other times we'll talk about the different ones. We know that the כהן גדול, the high priest, had to wear when he ever whenever he did the עבודה, the service in the בית המקדש, he had to wear שמונה בגדים, eight garments. Unlike a כהן הדיוט, an ordinary כהן, who only wear wore ארבעה בגדים, only wore four, wasn't allowed to wear any more than four, that's called מותר בגדים, called extra. He wasn't allowed to serve with less than four, the four that he's supposed to, but not more. The כהן גדול, on the other hand, had eight בגדים, eight garments that he had to wear, four similar to the ones of the כהן הדיוט, and four extra ones. And whenever he did the עבודה, whether it was during the week, or שבת, or יום טוב, or יום כיפור, he had to wear these eight בגדים, eight garments. Except when he went into the קודש הקדשים on יום כיפור, when he went into the Holy of Holies, then he took them off and he wore different בגדים, garments. He didn't wear what we call the בגדי זהב, the golden garments. And the reason is because gold reminds us of the חטא העגל, the golden calf. And when the כהן גדול went into the קודש הקדשים, the Holy of Holies, it was for the purpose of כפרה, forgiveness, and you didn't want to remind השם of the terrible sin that we did with the golden calf. אין קטיגור נעשה סניגור, which means a קטיגור, which is the prosecutor, cannot become the defender. So you can't have the כהן גדול walk into the קודש הקדשים to defend the Jewish people wearing something which is part of the prosecution, part of the עבירה that the אידן did, which is the חטא העגל. And even though we did the חטא העגל many, many, many hundreds, even a half thousand years ago, and at that time it was 2,000 years ago, whatever it was, but still, the חטא העגל was something that השם remembered always. וביום פקדי ופקדתי, השם said that whenever I remember any sin that you do, I will always remember the חטא העגל. רש״י says that השם said I will never punish whenever I punish a איד, or anybody, for something wrong that he did, I will always add a little punishment for the חטא העגל. So therefore, חטא העגל, since it's always, we don't want to have that reminder. But otherwise, the כהן גדול would wear eight בגדים. One of the eight בגדים is the מעיל. The lesser known ones, the ones that are more famous is the חושן and the אפוד. The חושן is the breastplate and the אפוד is like the apron. Those were more special and those are spoken more about. But what we're going to speak about is the מעיל, the מעיל which is the robe. And it's connected generally to this time of the year when we're learning the פרשיות תרומה and תצוה that deals with the משכן and the כלים of the משכן, and the garments of the כהנים, so therefore, I chose to talk about the מעיל. Now, to discuss the מעיל, usually, as you know, the שיעור is more על פי חסידות, על פי דרוש, to go a little bit deeper into the ענינים that we talk about, but first we always talk about it in the simple sense and just to see what it is, and then we go a little bit deeper. Concerning the מעיל, this time, what I'll do, I will read some of the פסוקים that talk about the מעיל. This is in פרשת תצוה, קפיטל כ״ח, פסוק ל״א. The פסוק says, ועשית את מעיל האפוד כליל תכלת, you shall make the robe which was worn under the apron entirely of turquoise wool, which is we call blue wool. והיה פי ראשו בתוכו, its collar at the top should be hemmed inside, שפה יהיה לפיו סביב, the work of a professional weaver, מעשה אורג, like the collar of a coat of armor, כפי תחרא יהיה לו לא יקרע, and you cannot you should never tear it, it must not be torn. So here it says clearly what it was. It was like an apron, and I'll read the רמב״ם soon to tell us exactly what it looked like, but I'm just reading the פסוקים. Then the פסוק says, ועשית על שוליו, on its bottom edge you shall make רימוני תכלת וארגמן ותולעת שני על שוליו סביב, you shall make pomegranate shapes of turquoise, purple, and crimson wool all around the edge, and golden bells among them all around. So on the bottom, you had bells made of gold, and then you had, made of this material, the shape of pomegranates, which in Hebrew are called רימונים. A golden bell, a pomegranate, a golden bell, then a pomegranate on the bottom edge of the robe all around. That's what it's פעמון זהב ורימון פעמון זהב ורימון על שולי המעיל סביב. Then the פסוק says, והיה על אהרן לשרת, it should be on אהרן when he performs the service, ונשמע קולו בבואו אל הקודש לפני ה׳, and its sound should be heard when he enters the holy place before God, ובצאתו when he leaves, ולא ימות so that he shall not die. So the פסוק says that the reason they had the bells and the pomegranates under the מעיל is in order that when the כהן would come inside the קודש into the בית המקדש, it should make noise. And when it'll make noise, it'll be it'll be heard when he comes in, and because of that he will not die. As if saying, if he does not do this which will make the noise, he will die. This is the פסוקים. In the רמב״ם, the רמב״ם describes it, and we will read the רמב״ם, that's in הלכות כלי המקדש, פרק ט׳, הלכה ג׳. המעיל כולו תכלת, the מעיל, the whole מעיל, the robe, was made of blue wool. וחוטיו כפולין שנים עשר, each thread which it was made from was 12, made up of 12 small threads, thin threads. ופיו ארוג בתחילת אריגתו, and it had it its beginning was woven, that's how it was, like we said before, there was a hem there. ואין לו בית יד, it didn't have any sleeves. Which the רמב״ם says not everyone agrees, some say that it did have sleeves, here it says it didn't have any sleeves. אלא נחלק לשתי כנפים, it was divided in two wings, מסוף הגרון from the end of the throat עד למטה till down, כדרך כל המעילים like all of the robes. ואינו מחובר אלא כנגד כל הגרון בלבד, it was only connected by the throat. In other words, the רמב״ם learns, it wasn't like we imagine a shirt, it was just made of a piece of material on the front, a piece of material on the back. Here they were connected just by the throat, and that's about it. לא יקרע פי המעיל, like it says you're not allowed to tear any part of the מעיל, or the top of the מעיל. Then he says, that's the מעיל, the robe itself. ומביא תכלת וארגמן ותולעת שני, and you would bring these different types of threads, כל מין משלושתן שזור שמונה, each one was made up was שזור is, how do you say שזור, not woven, twisted, that's the word I was looking for, twisted eight. So it comes out, he says, that each thread was, since you had three times eight, you had תכלת, ארגמן, ותולעת שני, it was 24. ועושין מהן, and from this you would make כמין רימונים, like pomegranates, the shape of pomegranates, שלא פתחו פיהן, and they didn't open. Because the גמרא says, you know, when the pomegranates become ripe, they open up at the end, this was made that they weren't open. ותולה אותן במעיל, and he would hang it onto this מעיל, onto this robe. ומביא שנים ושבעים זוגין, 72 bells, ובהן שנים ושבעים ענבלין, the bell, I don't even know the English word, there is the outside part and the inside part. What are the different names for it? You have the outside part of the bell, and then inside, the one that bangs. A clapper? Oh. Inside is called a clapper? Okay, good. In Yiddish it's a קלאפר. So you have the outside part of the bell and you had the clapper. So you had 72 bells with 72 clappers, ענבלין, הכל זהב, all made of gold. ותולה בו ששה ושלשים בשוליו מכנף זה, וששה ושלשים בכנף זה, 36 on one side, 36 on the other. והזוג עם הענבל התלוי בו שניהם כאחד נקרא פעמון, the bell and the clapper and the inside together was called the bell, עד שיהיו שוליו משותתין פעמון ורימון פעמון ורימון, and that's how it was made. There was one pomegranate made of this cloth with the not open, right next to it was a bell, pomegranate and a bell, pomegranate and a bell. This is what the רמב״ם says.

Now, certain things there are arguments, there is a מחלוקת. The רמב״ם just said, and that's how רש״י learns also, that the bell had both parts to it, the outside part and the inside part. Each bell of the 72 had the outside and the inside, had the the outside part and the clapper. And what made the noise? The fact that when he walked and the inside part banged, like any bell, when you shake the bell, it makes noise. תוספות learns, in a different place in קדשים, תוספות learns that they didn't have any parts inside, it didn't have that clapper as we call it inside. And the noise that the תורה says it made was because the bells would bang against the pomegranates. When he walked, the bell made of gold would bang against against that pomegranate, even though I guess it was cloth, but it still made noise. So when the פסוק says ונשמע קולו בבואו אל הקודש לפני השם ובצאתו, that his you should hear it should there should be noise heard when he would come in and out, the noise was heard because it banged against the pomegranates. The רמב״ם says not like that, the רמב״ם says that it was inside and it banged inside itself, and this is how רש״י learns. Also, as רש״י says in חומש, the pomegranates were hollow. They were hollow, they weren't full. It was just like an outside shell made of cloth But they were hollow. The רמב״ן says, he argues and he says, yes, they were hollow, but there was a reason why they were hollow. Because he argues on רש״י and on the רמב״ם. He says that the the way they describe it, that you had one bell, one רימון, one bell, one רימון, it's not true. He says that the bells were inside the רימונים. You had this רימונים, you had this shape of pomegranates, and inside, since it was hollow, and in the hollow area you had the bell. And he says that's the פשט in the פסוק, פעמון זהב ורימון פעמון זהב ורימון, you shall have a golden bell and a רימון, a golden bell and a רימון. So he says, so רש״י and the רמב״ם learn golden bell, רימון next to it, golden bell, רימון next to it. And he learned golden bell and a רימון. That means it goes together, that the golden bell was inside the רימון. And he asks a קושיא on רש״י. He says, it's not clear, but it seems that he's asking two questions, even though he makes it like one, but really it seems he's asking two questions. One question is, why was it hollow? In other words, what he means to be saying, according to my פשט, that I hold that the bell was inside, we understand why it was hollow. It was hollow so the bell could go in. But he says to רש״י, according to you, that it was just for decoration, it didn't hold anything, there was nothing inside, then why was it hollow? And then he also says, according to you that the the רימון did not serve any purpose because there was nothing in it, it was just for decoration, and according to רש״י it was just for decoration, it didn't serve a purpose, see, according to תוספות, who also learns the bell was outside, but it served something, it served a purpose that the bell should bang against it, but according to רש״י it was only for decoration, so he says, so why would it be pomegranates? Why shouldn't it be apples? That's what he asks, the רמב״ן. He says, if it would be the way you say, it would have been apples. And therefore he argues, and the רמב״ן says, no, that the pomegranates were hollow and the bells were inside. Now, the רא״ם, one of the commentaries on רש״י, says, I don't understand the רמב״ן's קושיא. Why should it be apples? Why are apples better? Why did he pick apples over pomegranates? Why is why are apples a better decoration than pomegranates? Obviously, the רמב״ן had something in mind here, didn't just ask a question just like that. Well, the truth is the רבי has an answer to this. The רבי says that what the רמב״ן had in mind is, because we find in a different place where there was something, a certain shape of a fruit for decoration, and there it was like apples. And that's what the רמב״ן means, why was this different? Where do we find it? By the מנורה. By the מנורה, we look in חומש, פרשת תרומה, it says that the מנורה had decorations. On the each branch it had a גביע, a beaker, a cup, and it had a flower, and it had a the the the פסוק refer calls it not משוקדים, just the what's the פסוק, here, כפתורים ופרחים and גביעים. כפתור is really means a button, but רש״י says that the shape of this button was the shape of an apple. So here we see that when the תורה wanted to find, to tell that השם wanted to make in the בית המקדש in certain things a shape a decoration of a shape of a fruit, it chose an apple. So that's what probably the רמב״ן means. If רש״י says it was only for decoration, ולנוי he calls it, for beauty, then why pomegranates? Why not an apple? But the question is, okay, so why טאקע? So let's understand now, according to רש״י, why was it a shape of a pomegranate and not an apple? In other words, the question that we're asking according to רש״י, why is it that the decoration on the מנורה the fruit was like an apple, the decoration on the מעיל, which was also supposed to be a fruit for decoration, was the shape of a pomegranate? Why? This is basically what the רמב״ן is trying to ask according to this פשט, and we're also have to answer why was it hollow according to רש״י? What was the purpose? There must have been some reason hollow. So what we're going to go into, like we said before, not so much in the הלכה aspect of it, this was just like an introduction, but more into the דרוש and the חסידות aspect of it, why all this was the way it was. Let's first get to another point here. It says here that the purpose of this all was, so let's get back to the פסוק, ונשמע קולו בבואו אל הקודש לפני ה׳ ובצאתו. That when he went into the קודש, it should be heard. There should be noise. When he goes into the קודש there should be noise.

And the question is, what's the purpose? Why does Why do we need noise here? What's the reason to have the noise? Not only what is the reason for the noise, but we find another place where it seems that noise is not a good idea. It says, לא ברעש ה׳. There's a פסוק, ה׳ doesn't come with noise. כי בקול דממה דקה. A thin, silent voice. Very thin, very small. לא ברעש ה׳, ה׳ doesn't come with noise. And here it says, ונשמע קולו בבואו אל הקודש, that when he comes in, it should be heard, there should be noise. And let's go a step further. The most important day of the year, when his entering into the קודש was in the holiest place where he only entered once a year, on one day, on יום כיפור, the קודש הקדשים, there was no noise! This מעיל he did not wear when he went to the קודש הקדשים, like I said in the beginning. When he went to the קודש הקדשים, the כהן גדול on יום כיפור, he did not wear these eight garments which we call the בגדי זהב, the golden garments. So he did not wear the מעיל. So there was no noise when he went in. If it's so important ונשמע קולו, that when he makes the noise when he comes into the קודש, which was not the קודש הקדשים, any time he would come in to do the עבודה, to do the service, was in the היכל, not in the קודש הקדשים, and it's important ונשמע קולו, it should be heard, then why wasn't it heard? Why was there no noise made when he went to the קודש הקדשים? So we see that it's not so good to have the noise. So why was it important to have the noise here? Well, again, the רמב״ן, he explains why it's important to have the noise. רבינו בחיי talks about it, other מפרשים. Says that it's not proper for somebody to go visit the king without first sending a notification. You don't just suddenly walk in to the king. You have to send a שליח, a messenger, first, or you do something to notify that you're coming. So therefore, when you start walking and make noise, that was like a bang on the door, like a knock on the door to tell ה׳ that we're coming in. And the מפרשים say this is the reason why on יום כיפור you didn't need it. Cuz on יום כיפור, all the doors are open. יום כיפור, you don't have to knock on the door to ה׳. יום כיפור is a time when ה׳'s doors are open to everybody, so יום כיפור you didn't need noise. So according to this it comes out that the making the noise that the כהן גדול had to with this מעיל was not part of the service. This was just an introduction and the service started when you walked in. This was just to introduce him into the service. But according to חסידות, it's deeper than that. This is part of the service. This is part of what he was supposed to do. And the question is, why? If serving ה׳, we know it says לא ברעש ה׳, לא ברעש הוי״ה it says, ה׳, which says the name הוי״ה there, doesn't come with noise, so how come here he had noise and why on יום כיפור he didn't have noise? And the answer given in חסידות is like this: The כהן גדול when he went in to the בית המקדש to do the עבודה, whenever it was, he didn't go in as an individual. He went in as a representative of כלל ישראל, of all the אידן. And he had to represent all types of אידן: צדיקים, צדיקים גמורים, great צדיקים, and even אידן who were in a very, very low level. He was the שליח ציבור, the שליח, the messenger, the agent of the ציבור. And you know what the word ציבור means? We know ציבור means a community, but you know it says in ספרים, ציבור is an abbreviation: צדיקים, בינונים, ורשעים. All three categories of אידן, that's ציבור. When he went in as a שליח ציבור, he had to represent everybody. And it even says in שולחן ערוך, when a חזן goes to the עמוד as a שליח ציבור, he has to be מרוצה לכל, he has to be accepted by everybody because he represents the whole community that he's דאווענינג for. So the כהן גדול who was the כהן גדול, the one כהן גדול of the whole Jewish community, he represents all the אידן, from the top to the bottom. When we're talking about the bottom of the מעיל, the bottom of his garment, that represents the people who are on the lower level. The people that are on a lower level are people who serve ה׳ with noise. Why? Because people who have to battle with evil, people who did something wrong and now are trying to get away from it and have to battle with evil, this is not a צדיק, a צדיק doesn't battle with evil, but a person who still has to battle with evil comes along with noise. Says חסידות a משל, that when you're battling, there is noise always. When you're fighting, there's noise. When, it says, when you're burning a piece of wood, if if it's a thick piece of wood, it'll crackle. It'll make noise because you're burning it. If it's thinner and not that strong, not that coarse, it'll make less noise. The more coarse it is, the more noise it makes. So, when these people, when you represent the people that are on a low level, it's it's with noise. It represents with noise because the way they're doing their working is fighting the יצר הרע, fighting that evil that they did before. And even the person that is not a רשע that did עבירות, that he has to fight his past, and that's like running away from evil that he has done. And when you run away from evil, you know, you run, you make noise. A people who are, let's say a person is in danger and something that he's trying to run away, you run and you scream. So, these people are screaming. But even a person that's not like that, but he still has to fight with the יצר הרע, most people, not רשעים, but בינונים, still have to fight with their יצר הרע. And when you fight with their יצר הרע, you have to it makes noise. You fight, you do all kinds of motions, and there is noise that comes out. There's a famous ווארט of the בעל שם טוב, when חסידות just started, and the people who did not become חסידים yet, and they saw the behavior of the חסידים, they couldn't understand it. They saw the חסידים would דאווען and make all kinds of noises and make with their hands and with their feet, and they were laughing at it, what kind of crazy thing is this? So, the בעל שם טוב said, gave a משל, when a person is drowning, and you watch him drown when you see he's drowning and he's trying to save himself, he makes all kinds of motions trying to grab and trying to do and makes all kinds of screams and noise. Is anybody going to laugh at him? Won't laugh at him. He's fighting for his life, and that's how you fight for your life. When you דאווען, really you're fighting for your life, unless you're a very big צדיק, then you're not fighting. But most people, but average people, lower-level people, not צדיקים, fight, and therefore, it comes along with noise. And the mere fact that we are a יש, even if a person is not so low, higher a little bit, the fact that we are a יש, we are a something, is already something we have to fight with. Really, we have to be completely close to השם, and we have to be united with השם, and we are something, we have to fight it, and then when you fight, there is noise. And this is the reason why the כהן גדול had to have, on the bottom of his מעיל, had to have these bells to make the noise, because he also represented the people who are not in the level of צדיקים, but they serve השם with noise, because that's if you're fighting against something, you make noise, and these are people who do that. But we have the פסוק where it says, לא ברעש השם. השם doesn't come with noise. So, חסידות says the פשט is like this: In that פסוק, if you look, which name of השם does it use? לא ברעש הוי׳. That's שם הוי׳, י-ה-ו-ה. A person who is on a higher level, who's able to communicate or to relate to the high level of שם הוי׳, which is higher than the world, because we all know that אלקים is the גימטריא, numerical value of אלקים is הטבע, because that represents השם the way he is within the nature. הוי׳ is היה הוה ויהיה כאחד. It represents three words, past, present, and future, one word together, it's beyond the world. A person that's on a high level, who is able to reach that level, לא ברעש, that person doesn't fight. That person is with ביטול, with complete ביטול, self-nullification, and there is no noise there. So, when a person that wants to reach הוי׳, not who wants to reach, who is on that level, who connects himself to that level, yes, לא ברעש. That doesn't come with רעש, with noise. But other people who could merely connect themselves to שם אלקים, there it comes with noise. Or even to שם הוי׳, but if he can't get to the י of שם הוי׳, it says in תיקוני זוהר that the main part of שם הוי׳ is the י, and that's the highest level. A person who can't get to that level, so if he's not there, then that comes with רעש, that comes with noise. And this is the reason why the כהן גדול had to wear this with the bells, to make that noise, to represent these people. And this was so important that the פסוק says, ולא ימותו, ולא ימות, he shouldn't die. In other words, this was important for his life. Had he not done this, this could cause him his life, cost cost him his life. We know רש״י says many times, wherever it says, if you do this you won't die, מכלל הן אתה שומע לאו. From the from the negative we know the positive, from the positive we know the negative. It says, do this and don't die, we know if you don't do it, you will die. In other words, the כהן גדול would die could die just by not having this. Why? Because If the כהן גדול would not have this, that means he's not ready to represent all of כלל ישראל, even those people that are on the bottom who make noise, then he's not doing his service, he's not doing his job. And it's not a פשט, okay, so he's representing 50% of כלל ישראל. So, 50% is also good. No such thing. You can't represent 50%. It's or all, or nobody. כלל ישראל is one unit. We're all like one גוף, like one body. And a body has many parts to it. The body has the eyes, the brains, the heart, and then it has the feet, or it says in the in the expression, ציפורניים, it has the toenails, which is the least, least of the body. It says the nails are so low as far as the the חיות, the life of the body has no life at all. It's part of the body, the best proof it's part of the body is that it grows, but when you cut it, it doesn't hurt. And that's the nails of the fingers, but the toenails certainly it's the bottom. It's still part of the same body. If a person goes to the מקוה and just his toenail was sticking out, it's not a פשט that his toenail was not טהור, his toenail did not become clean, but the rest of the body which immersed is clean. No, it's all one unit. So, he didn't do anything. A ספר תורה, ספר תורה has many words, 305,000 letters, more important or less important ones. You have שמע ישראל, imagine, the פסוק שמע ישראל, שמע ישראל ה' אלקינו ה' אחד, most important, אנכי ה' אלקיך. Then you have a פסוק, as the רמב״ם uses an example, which is not so important, אחות לוטן תמנע. That לוטן, one of the אלופי עשו, one of the officers of עשו, he had a sister, her name was תמנע. Believe me, I couldn't care less if her name was תמנע or her name was something else, but it's a פסוק in the תורה! And the רמב״ם says, it's as holy and as important as אנכי ה' אלקיך. And he says if someone doesn't believe that that פסוק is part of תורה, doesn't believe in the whole תורה. If in the ספר תורה, the למד of לוטן is פסול, you can't read you can't read אנכי ה' אלקיך, because the lowest and highest, it's all one unit. כלל ישראל is one unit. צדיקים, בינונים, and רשעים are one unit. We have to help them, and these people who are רשעים are not doing the right thing, they will be punished if they deserve to be punished, but they're still part of כלל ישראל. That's what the גמרא says, ישראל אף על פי שחטא ישראל הוא. A ייד, even if he sins, he's still a ייד, it's part of כלל ישראל. And therefore, if the כהן גדול would not have this noise which represents them, then what's going to happen? He could die. Because then he didn't do the service. A כהן גדול doesn't do the service in the בית המקדש properly, or or at all, he didn't do this עבודה because he missed out one point of this and this missed out the whole thing, the cost could cost him his life. But this is only during the year. When it came to יום כיפור, he didn't need the bells, because when it came to יום כיפור, all יידן on יום כיפור are in a higher level. All יידן on יום כיפור are in this level of שם הויה, or as a matter of fact, all יידן on יום כיפור are higher than שם הויה. חסידות says in the in the on the פסוק, it says, בנוגע יום כיפור, כי ביום הזה יכפר עליכם לטהר אתכם מכל חטאתיכם לפני ה' תטהרו. On this day, השם will forgive you on all your sins. לפני ה' תטהרו, in front of השם, you will be purified. And חסידות says that the word לפני ה' means before הויה, higher than הויה. But what does it mean higher than הויה? Where do we find something higher than הויה? We find אלקים, then we find הויה. Yes, we do! In the פסוק I just mentioned: אנכי ה' אלקיך. So we have three expressions השם uses on Himself: אנכי, I, and הויה, and אלקיך, or אלקים. So the זוהר says, אלקים is מדת הטבע, השם the way He puts Himself in nature; הויה is השם the way He says before, higher than nature; but the moment you use a name, it's already a description of השם in a certain manifestation. אנכי is I, and the זוהר says, I דלא יתרמיז לא בשום אות ולא בשום קוץ ולא בשום שם כלל. השם the way you can't even can't talk to, just השם is I. Or when we speak to Him, we also use the same term: ברוך אתה ה' אלקינו. So we also use these three terms. אלקינו is אלקים, ה' is הויה, and אתה is You, when we talk to Him directly, higher than a name. So on יום כיפור, it says all the יידן are לפני ה'. So when the יידן are לפני ה', then you don't need this ונשמע קולו. The reason we need ונשמע קולו to hear it, is because we're supposed he's supposed to represent the יידן who are in the bottom, who make the noise in their service of השם because they're still low and they still have to fight with this evil. But on כיפור, the שטן isn't there, we all know. The גמרא says that the word השטן is בגמטריא, the word השטן, ה ש ט ן, 300 and 64. There are 365 days a year. One day a year, the שטן has no say, which on כיפור. 364 days he could, but not 365 days, one day, day not. השטן is בגמטריא 364. So on כיפור, the שטן is out, so then there is no need for this. But during the year, the כהן גדול has to do this.

Based on this, we'll understand why רש״י, according to רש״י, this was decoration under, on the bottom of the מעיל, was made of pomegranates, not of apples, of the מעיל represents the people who are on the bottom. We find that the אידן in different places in מדרשים, גמרא, the אידן are compared to apples. גמרא says אידן are compared to apples, and אידן are compared to pomegranates. There's a פסוק in שיר השירים: כפלח כפלח הרמון רקתך. There we compare the Jews to a רימון, to a pomegranate. And the גמרא says, this is what it means: רקתך comes from the word ריק, ריק means empty. And the גמרא says: אפילו ריקנים שבך, even the empty ones amongst the Jews, מלאים מצות כרמון, are full of מצות like a pomegranate. Just like a pomegranate is full of seeds, they say it has 613 seeds, I don't know if it's true or not. Someone told me he counted and it had much more. Someone, someone took the time, opened one up and counted and it was more than 613. I don't know, maybe it was a big one, I don't know. But anyway, it says in the גמרא that these represent the מצות. And what it means is that even the low people, the empty Jews, the word רקתך comes from ריק, empty, ריקנים שבך, or the גמרא refers to them as פושעי ישראל, פושעי ישראל, well פושעי ישראל means a, I don't know how you translate a פושעי ישראל, 'kay? פושע is an intentional sinner, but the expression פושעי ישראל means the bad Jews, I don't know, in simple words, are full, full of מצות כרמון. In other words, when we compare the אידן to a רימון, it refers to the empty Jews. That's what the, the מדרש, the גמרא says. Says that when the Jews are compared to an apple, that refers to the Jews in the higher level, an apple. Obviously, I think I imagine because an apple is I guess a special fruit and it's a, a good fruit, so the Jews are compared to an apple, but that refers to the Jews in the higher level. But when we compare the Jews to a רימון, it's a lower level. And here we have our answer. The question was: why is it a רימון, not an apple? Just like we have by the מנורה, the decoration was an apple, because we're talking here about representing those people who are in a low level, and the Jews in the low level are represented by the רימון, not by the תפוח, not by the apple. You see by the מנורה, there it was an apple, because the מנורה does not represent the simple Jews. Again the way it says in חסידות and in קבלה, and in דרוש ספרים, that the מנורה which was the light represents Jews who serve השם properly, who bring light into the world. That's why we have seven branches, it says, because generally speaking there are seven ways of serving השם. So there are seven types of people who serve השם, but they're all talking about the higher level people who really, really serve השם with light. And why seven? Well we all understand why, because there are seven מדות. A person has seven emotions: חסד, גבורה, תפארת, נצח, הוד, יסוד and מלכות. And here is not the time to explain what they are, we have that other times. So since there are seven emotions, there are different people who serve השם with different type of emotions. It doesn't mean you don't serve with everything, but the main, the עיקר. For instance, for example, אברהם אבינו, we know it says אברהם אבינו served השם with חסד. And חסד, he did חסד to other Jews. His מדה was חסד, his מדה was אהבה, he loved השם, and that's חסד, אהבה and חסד go together. He's called, השם says to אברהם, אברהם אוהבי, אברהם, my beloved, or the one that loves me. Doesn't mean אברהם did not serve השם with יראה, אברהם didn't have יראת שמים, didn't have fear of השם, but out of all seven, his main thing was חסד. יצחק, his main thing was יראת השם, which is גבורה, like the פסוק says, פחד יצחק היה לי. יצחק is connected to פחד. פחד means fear. יצחק didn't serve השם with אהבה, didn't have אהבת השם? No question he did. His main עבודה was was יראה. And the same with the different we have, בכלל seven צדיקים, different categories, sometimes the seven אושפיזין that we have on סוכות, or we have the seven shepherds, the גמרא, but there are seven. It's all because there are seven ways of serving השם. The מנורה represents the seven ways of serving השם: one is חסד, one is גבורה, אהבה, יראה, תפארת, נצח, seven ways. So when we're talking about the מנורה, which represents אידן serving השם, it's an apple, the decoration is an apple, because the apple represents people on the higher level. But when it comes to the מעיל, which is supposed to represent the way the כהן גדול brings into the קודש, into the בית המקדש, into the היכל, even the people on lower level, those people who make the noise, there it was a רימון. There it was a pomegranate because a pomegranate represents the people that are lower level as the גמרא says. And that's why, according to רש\"י, it was hollow, because it represents those Jews who are empty, those Jews who are hollow. We said the גמרא refers to them based on the פסוק, כפלח הרימון רקתך, רקתך, ריקנים שבך, the empty ones of you are like a רימון. So to represent the empty ones, it had to be empty, it had to be hollow. And that's why רש\"י says that that that's why according to רש\"י it was hollow. And all this is not the simple פשט, this is all according to חסידות and קבלה. This also explains why the רמב\"ן doesn't agree with this. And the רמב\"ן says, 'I would, if it would be like you say for decoration, I would say it should be decorated with apples.' רש\"י we said holds it's decorated with pomegranates because these Jews are also a decoration of השם, every Jew is a decoration of השם, but it represents these Jews. But the רמב\"ן, what he says is like this: he says every Jew is like an apple. Even the lower Jews who are represented by a רימון, deep, deep, deep down every Jew is like the apple, which represents the greatness, represents the deep connection to השם. And why does the רמב\"ן say that? I'll tell you why. The difference between the פירוש of the רמב\"ן on חומש and רש\"י, רש\"י wrote his commentary according to פשט, simple פשט. The רמב\"ן writes in his introduction that he wrote his commentary based on קבלה, which means פנימיות התורה, from the inner part of תורה. When you look at a Jew from the eyes of the רמב\"ן, from the eyes of פנימיות התורה, the way the רמב\"ן wrote his commentary, then you look a little bit deeper. You look according to פנימיות התורה, what does the word פנימיות התורה mean? The inner part of תורה. When you look with the inner part of תורה, you look into the inner part of the Jew. And the inner part of the Jew is always, always like a תפוח, is always the most beautiful thing which is represented as we said before, the highest level through a a תפוח, through an apple. That's if you look deeper. Like we know the Rebbe once said, the גמרא says a person, לעולם יעסוק אדם בתורה ומצות שלא לשמה, a person should always do מצות, תורה, even if he does it not for the right intentions. Why? שמתוך שלא לשמה בא לשמה, because through doing it not לשמה, he will eventually get to do it לשמה. That's the פשוט פשט in the גמרא. And the Rebbe says what it means is מתוך שלא לשמה, the תוך, the inside, if you look deep, deep down in every איד, even if he does it שלא לשמה, the inner part of the שלא לשמה is לשמה. Every איד does it לשמה, he might not even know about it, but he does it לשמה. The truth is it's all based on the רמב\"ם. Even though in קבלה, in פנימיות התורה we look at it and that's very stressed very much, and it's the whole way of life, not the way it is without קבלה and חסידות, but it's a רמב\"ם. The רמב\"ם says clearly in the end of the second פרק of הלכות גירושין, he talks there about a גט. He says that we know the הלכה that you're not allowed to force a husband to give a גט. If you force him, the גט is not valid. What happens, the רמב\"ם says, if the תורה requires him to give a גט? It's a case where the תורה require, let's say it's a כהן who married a divorcee and then תורה says you have to give a גט. Then you're allowed to force him. And the רמב״ם asks, but after all, the גט shouldn't be valid because you forced him. So the רמב״ם says, I'll tell you. Since this is a requirement of the תורה, every Jew wants to do it. The fact that he screams, \"I don't wanna do it\", is because his יצר הרע forces him to go against his own will. His real will is to do what the תורה wants, is to divorce, in this case. The יצר הרע is forcing him against his own will. So when we force him to give the גט, we're forcing away the force of the יצר הרע. And what are we doing? We're coming back to his real, real self. And his real self, he wants to give the גט, because he wants to do what the תורה says. So it's not called force, it's just taking away the outer layer that forces him, which is the יצר הרע that forces him to go against the תורה. So we see in this רמב״ם very clearly that he says in הלכה, this is not in קבלה, חסידות, in הלכה, that every single Jew essentially is good. He could be a רשע and he's screaming, \"I don't wanna do what the תורה says\", and the רמב״ם says, you think so, that's not really what you want. I'm telling you, you really want. And we always have a hard time, we talk to non-religious Jews, this guy said, \"I don't wanna put on תפילין\". So some people say, \"Well, you should try, you should this\". And what we answer him, \"You don't wanna put on תפילין, you're lying, you really want to\". They say, \"What are you talking about? I'm telling you I don't want\". \"No, no, you really want\". And they can't understand what you're talking about, \"You tell me I want, how can you tell me what I want? I know what I want, I'm telling you I don't wanna put on תפילין\". Telling you, \"No, you don't know yourself what you want. You think you want not to put on תפילין. You want to put on תפילין, because that's really you\". But that, if you go with the approach of the way חסידות shows what a נשמה really is and what a connection a נשמה has to השם, and how holy it is, that it's impossible to be different. If a נשמה is part of השם, it says in תניא חלק אלוקה ממעל, part of השם is, how could it be different? How could you say this person has a נשמה, which is his essence, and he really doesn't wanna do a מצוה? Can't be! That means that he essentially doesn't wanna do a מצוה? His essence is השם. השם doesn't wanna do the right thing? So it's obvious. So חסידות explains it and goes at length. But the רמב״ן who writes everything according to, he says חכמת החן he calls it, חכמת האמת, so he says that, in my eyes, if it's the decoration even of the lowest people, the decoration should be an apple, because they're all, all Jews are like apple, which is a higher level. But in simple פשט, רש״י says, we look at the way we look from simple eyes, these Jews are not apples, these Jews are pomegranates. They're still full of מצוות, but they're empty, the empty Jews are still full of, like a pomegranate. And that's what the כהן גדול did. So this was what the מעיל was. So on one hand, we think of the מעיל as being a very simple garment, it wasn't the חושן, it wasn't the אפוד, but it had this, that it represented the יידן who, on one hand, are empty, that's why we call them ריקנים, so it was an empty רימון, and at the same time we say this רימון is full of מצוות, full of seeds, which is full of מצוות, and the empty ones, as empty as they are, they're really full. They're full of מצוות. That's what the גמרא says. The גמרא calls them ריקנים, the empty ones, are מלאים מצוות, are full of מצוות. Are they empty or are they full? As empty as they are, they're really full. But to represent that, we have empty, hollow רימונים, but it's a רימון, which a רימון always has a lot of seeds, even though this one didn't, has a lot of seeds. So this goes together with the ונשמע קולו, with making the noise, because it represents these people who make the noise. But all this was all year round. When it came to יום כיפור, it didn't have this, because יום כיפור, every ייד is in a higher מדרגה, and every ייד is by שם הוי׳ה, למעלה משם הוי׳ה, we don't have to do this. So here we see how it's a simple garment, the מעיל only, nothing special, and this has so much in it, and certainly the other garments had so much in it, according to הלכה, according to פשט, and certainly according to דרוש, and according to חסידות and קבלה. But we don't really see it. When משיח will come, then we'll be able to see the inner things of everything that happens, every מצוה, like רש״י says in the beginning of שיר השירים on the פסוק ישקני מנשיקות פיהו, רש״י said that משיח will come, he will reveal טעמי תורה, the טעמים, the reasons, the deeper reasons of the תורה. So we will look at the מעיל and we will see in the מעיל all these special things that this is, this shows, and in the חושן and אפוד and in everything else of the בית המקדש. Let's already see it במהרה בימינו ממש.