The topic tonight is the first mitzvah in the Torah, and that is the mitzvah of פרו ורבו, be fruitful and multiply. What I plan to do is that today we're going to have the shiur on this first mitzvah of the Torah, and the next one will be on the last mitzvah of the Torah, which is the mitzvah of כתיבת ספר תורה, the mitzvah of writing a Sefer Torah, and as we will learn about it next week. But today we're going to discuss the first mitzvah of the Torah, which means the first mitzvah that is written in the Torah. And that is the mitzvah of פרו ורבו, or as it is known as פריה ורביה, the concept of being fruitful and multiplying. פרו ורבו is the verb, you shall be fruitful and you shall multiply. This is the first mitzvah written in the Torah. People think that this is the פסוק, the verse that we find in פרשת בראשית. In פרשת בראשית, as soon as Hashem created the first human being, Adam HaRishon, he said to him, פרו ורבו ומלאו את הארץ וכבשוה, you shall multiply, be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and conquer it. And people think that this is the פסוק that teaches us the first mitzvah. It is not so. We find a similar פסוק a second time in the Torah, and that is in Parashat Noach. After the מבול, after the flood, and they came out of the תיבה, they came out of the ark, Hashem said to Noach, \"Now go back into the world, into the on the earth, and you shall פרו ורבו, you shall be fruit fruitful and multiply.\" That פסוק is the פסוק which is the mitzvah. The one that was said in פרשת בראשית to אדם הראשון, that wasn't a commandment, that was a berachah, that was a blessing that you will multiply and you will be fruitful. But the one by Noach, that is a commandment. But still, even though it's not in the first פרשה of the Torah, it's in the second parashah of the Torah, it's still the first mitzvah. It's the first mitzvah that is written in the Torah. The fact that this is the first mitzvah written written in the Torah obviously shows that this is the most important mitzvah. Because we know that the seder in Torah is also Torah. The order of the way things are written in the Torah is also part of Torah, is also a lesson, also has a meaning. And the fact that Hashem made this as the first mitzvah written in the Torah, this shows that this is the first. First meaning not only first in time, but first in level, is the highest level, the first and most important, first and foremost and most important mitzvah in the Torah. From one angle, obviously, looking at from one perspective, this is the most important mitzvah. We find when we count the mitzvot, there are different orders that we have. For instance, the Rambam in the beginning of his sefer, of the famous sefer Rambam, he has the list of all the mitzvot. See, the Rambam basically are all the laws of all the mitzvot, but first he has a list of all the mitzvot. And the Rambam writes, המצוה הראשונה, the first mitzvah, is לידע שיש שם מצוי ראשון, to know that there is a God. So, in the order, the way the Rambam puts it, that is considered the first mitzvah. And the Rambam even writes the first מצוה, המצוה הראשונה is this mitzvah. It's interesting that by the second mitzvah on the list, he doesn't say, \"And the second mitzvah is this, and then the third mitzvah is this, and the fourth.\" He just numbers them, ב, ג, ד, like two, three, four, but he doesn't use the word \"and the second mitzvah is,\" \"and the third mitzvah is.\" And the reason is very simple, because by writing that this is the first mitzvah, he doesn't just mean to say that this is the first in a certain order that the Rambam felt is the order of the mitzvot, but this is the first mitzvah, the most important. It is first. And we could understand why. We could understand why the first mitzvah is to believe in God, because if you don't believe in God, then there's no such thing as mitzvot. The whole concept of mitzvot means that they were commanded by a commander. So, you first have to accept the commander, then you could continue having mitzvot. So, obviously, the mitzvah to believe in God or to know that there is a God is the first, the most important mitzvah. Without that mitzvah, you can't continue. That's the first. So, here we see that the fact that this is the first shows that this is the most important. Then we have another order. Rashi in Chumash refers to a certain mitzvah as המצוה הראשונה שנצטוו בה ישראל, the first mitzvah that that the Jews were commanded. We look in the Chumash, the first mitzvah that the Jews were commanded as a nation is the mitzvah of קידוש החודש, the mitzvah of establishing the calendar, establishing the first day of the month, establishing the months, which is a mitzvah upon the בית דין, the Sanhedrin, the whole the court, the high court to establish every month. Nowadays we don't have to do anything because they already established it according to the calculations. But in the time of the בית המקדש, every month the בית דין had to review and have certain ways of establishing what is the day which day is the first day of the month, etc. That is the first mitzvah that was told to the Jews as a nation. Because the mitzvah of פרו ורבו or the mitzvah of מילה or the mitzvah of גיד הנשה, they were written in the Torah, but at that time when this took place, the Jews weren't a nation yet. The first mitzvah that was told to the Jews as a nation is when the Jews were about to leave Egypt, and that's when Hashem said, \"Now you are becoming My nation.\" The first mitzvah He gave to them is קידוש החודש. And Rashi says in the first Rashi of the whole Chumash, Rashi uses the term that המצוה ראשונה שנצטוו בה ישראל, the first mitzvah is קידוש החודש. There there is also a reason, because from a certain angle, that is the most important mitzvah. Why is the mitzvah of קידוש החודש the most important mitzvah? Number one, because many many mitzvot depend on that one. Many mitzvot, a big part of the mitzvot depend on the certain days of the year. The mitzvah of eating matzah is on Pesach, which is the 15th day of the month of Nisan. The prohibition of eating chametz is on the 15th day of Nisan, etc. Many mitzvot in connection to Pesach, many mitzvot are there in connection to Sukkot, many mitzvot for Shavuot, to Rosh Hashanah, many many mitzvot. And all those depend on when the Beit Din will establish the month. In order to know when you have to fast on Yom Kippur, which day is Yom Kippur, you have to know when they established the first day of the month of Tishrei. So that is a very important mitzvah. So that's why is the first, but besides that, there are many more reasons why this is the first from one way of looking at it, from the way it was commanded to the Jews. Another reason, just to be in short, because we know that the purpose of all the mitzvot is to bring kedushah, bring holiness into the physicality of this world. Every mitzvah, most of the mitzvot are to be done with physical objects. And the idea is that you make these physical objects holy, you bring kedushah in these physical objects. Now all physicality of this world are all based on one thing, on two things actually: time and space. Between the two, which is the first is time. Space is already a result of time. So time is the first point of creation. So the mitzvah that has to do with sanctifying time is the foundation of the whole Torah. The whole Torah is to bring kedushah, sanctity to physical objects. So the first mitzvah is bringing kedushah into the first part, the first point of creation, which is bringing kedushah into time, which is the mitzvah of קידוש החודש. That's why this mitzvah is the first mitzvah that was commanded to the Jews as a nation. So too, when we see that the first mitzvah in the Torah, not in the chronicle order of when the Jews were a nation, but in the Torah, the first mitzvah in the Torah is the mitzvah of פרו ורבו, of being fruitful and multiplying, having children, obviously the fact that this is the first shows that this is, from a certain point of view, the most important mitzvah. And that's why this is the first, just like we said those are the most important in their ways, and that's why they're the first.

Now why is the mitzvah of פרו ורבו the most important mitzvah? Very simple: all the mitzvot, the whole Torah were given to the Jewish people. So you have to have a Jewish people. You have to have Yehudim to be the ones to receive the mitzvot. If you won't have Jewish people, then you won't have who the mitzvot will be given to, they won't have anybody that will fulfill the mitzvot. So obviously the first thing is to be fruitful, means to have children. To have children, Jewish children, and therefore you will have a Jewish nation who you will be able to give the mitzvot to. Just like we said the first mitzvah is to believe in God, because if not, you don't have a Commander. If you don't believe in God, then there is no Commander, so then you can't have any commandments. So too, just like you have to have a Commander, you have to have who the commandment was given to. You have to have someone to hear, to receive the command. So you have to have a Jewish nation. That's why that is the first mitzvah, because that is the foundation of all the mitzvot. Without that mitzvah, you can't continue. And we actually see that in the Midrash. There is a Midrash that says that עשרה דברים קדמו לעולם, there are ten things that came before the creation of the world. Hashem, Torah, and the Yidden, בית המקדש, different things that are there. Between the two, between the Torah and the Yidden, the Midrash asks: between the two, which one came first? We know that the Yidden and Torah are before the creation, which of the two came first? And the Midrash answers, the Bnei Yisrael came first, the Jews came first. And it proves it by saying, look in the Torah, and in the Torah it says, דבר אל בני ישראל, speak to the Yidden, צו את בני ישראל, command the Yidden. So obviously, there must be Bnei Yisrael before the Torah. If the Torah says command the Yidden, if the Yidden came after the Torah, then how could the Yidden be mentioned in the Torah? Which means, as we said before, that in order to have a Torah, which is commanded to somebody, you have to have Yidden. And this doesn't mean the greatness of the neshama. You see, Yidden are made up of two parts. We have the neshama, and we have the soul, and we have the body. When it means in the Midrash that the Bnei Yisrael came before the Torah, it doesn't mean only the neshamot, the souls. It means the body, the way the neshamot are in the bodies, because what it says there is that the Torah was commanded to the Bnei Yisrael. To which Bnei Yisrael was the Torah commanded? To the neshamot? A neshama that's in shamayim, in heaven, that doesn't come down to this world, there is no commandment. They don't fulfill a mitzvah, they don't put on tefillin, they don't do any mitzvot. The mitzvot were given to נשמות בגופים, נשמות down here that are in this world. So obviously, the fact that we have Jews, נשמות in bodies, that comes before the Torah. And the mitzvah of being fruitful or having children means bringing down נשמות into a body. The נשמות are there, but bringing down the נשמות into the bodies down here to make human beings, Jewish human beings, physical people. And that mitzvah is more, it comes before the other mitzvah because for them the Torah was given for them. We see it says in the first pasuk: בראשית ברא אלקים, in the beginning Hashem created heaven and earth. Rashi says, Rashi comments right there, that the word בראשית also has another meaning. בראשית is ב' ראשית. ב', the word ב', the letter ב' means two. The letter ב' also is an abbreviation of the word בשביל, because the whole world was created בשביל ב' ראשית, because of two things which are called ראשית. And Rashi quotes different pesukim where we see that the Torah is called ראשית, ראשית means the beginning, the first, and the בני ישראל, the Yidden are called ראשית. And the world was created for the Torah to be fulfilled, to be kept by the בני ישראל, that's why we have a world. Now between the two, which of the two is first? The בני ישראל are first. Which בני ישראל? Not the נשמות, the נשמות the way they are in the bodies, because we're talking here about a reason why the physical world was created. And we're saying the reason the physical world was created so the Torah should be able to be fulfilled by the Jews. So we're not talking about the נשמה of the Jews, because we're talking about the physical world, so we're talking about the way the נשמות of the Jews are down here in a physical body. And the Torah is there, the world was created so the Torah should be able to be fulfilled by the Jews, meaning the Jews in this physical world. So therefore we see how important it is to bring down neshamot into the physical body, to create physical Jews, not just the neshama, but physical Jews, a neshama in a body. And we see that that is more important than Torah, that's why this is the first mitzvah before the rest of the mitzvot of Torah. We see it from a clear halacha. There is a halacha that פיקוח נפש דוחה כל התורה כולה. If a Yid's life is in danger, you are allowed to transgress all the aveirot. To save a Yiddishe life, you could eat chametz on Pesach, you could eat on Yom Kippur, you could do everything, except the famous three aveirot which is עבודה זרה, idol worship, adultery, and murder. The reason is because those three are completely against the whole essence of what Hashem wants, but otherwise we could transgress any aveirah for the sake of a Jewish life. Now what do we mean here? Is it for the sake of the Jewish neshama? No, we're speaking here about a Jewish life being in danger. What does that mean? That if you don't, let's say If we're not מחלל שבת, the person might die. If chas v'shalom the person dies, it doesn't affect his neshama. The neshama doesn't die; his neshama goes up to shamayim. What it will affect is his neshama will not be in the body anymore. And for that, we say it's worth to do all the aveirot to save a Jew that his neshama should not leave his body. Which means that the fact that there is a Yid, a physical person down here in this world, is more important than keeping of the mitzvot. That's why you transgress, you go against all the mitzvot, most almost all except those three which are exceptions, you go against the whole Torah in order to save the Jewish body. So this all shows the importance of a Jew being a physical human being down here. And that's why the mitzvah of creating, of bringing a Jewish person into this physical world is the first! That means it comes even before the rest of the Torah, because this is before the Torah, yes, this is what you have to have. And besides, we know Chassidut and Kabbalah explains that גוף ישראל קדוש הוא, that the body of a Jew is holy. Not only, as people think, the greatness of a Jew is that his neshama is holy—that is true, definitely true—but גוף ישראל קדוש, the body is holy. When the neshama is in the body, that body is holy. That's why there are so many halachot even concerning the body. Chas v'shalom after a person passes away, so many halachot what to do with the body because the body is holy. In Tanya, the Alter Rebbe says something very special. He says that when we say in דאווענען, ובנו בחרת מכל עם ולשון, that you he chose us from all nations, now if you stop a person and say, \"What do we mean? What did Hashem choose?\" Everyone will answer, \"What did he choose? He chose us because we have neshamot! A goy doesn't have a holy neshamah. He doesn't have a Godly soul. We do, and therefore he chose us.\" So in Tanya he says, \"No! When it says Hashem chose us, it means he chose the body, the Jewish body, that's who the choice of Hashem is.\" And he explains it very simply: choice means when you have two things which are similar and you choose one of the two. If they're not similar, there is no choice. If a person likes an apple and he has an apple and an orange in front of him, he didn't choose the apple! There's only one apple there. Choice is when you have two the same and you choose one of the two. When Hashem chose our neshamah, you can't use the word \"choice\"—a goy doesn't have a neshamah! So certainly he's taking us. When we say he chose us, it means he chose our bodies! The guf, the body of a Jew is what is chose because our body looks similar to the body of the goy, and Hashem chose us. And when we say Hashem chose, you can imagine what kind of greatness, kedushah this puts into the body. So all I'm trying to bring out here is this point: that the kedushah of a Jew is not just his neshamah, but it's neshamah that's in the body, meaning a human being, a living Jewish human being. And that's what the mitzvah of peru u-revu is, to bring more Jewish human beings into this world. And that is the first mitzvah, because that is before any other mitzvah, because the first thing you have to do is have the Jew. And one Jew, and other Jews, and you have a Jewish nation. If we wouldn't do the mitzvah of peru u-revu, the next generation we wouldn't have any Jews, and therefore there wouldn't be for whom to give the Torah. So the first thing, before the mitzvot, the idea is to have a Jewish nation, which is the mitzvah of peru u-revu. That, the first mitzvah in the Torah, meaning the highest level of all mitzvot, and then we can go on to the rest of the mitzvot. This is just a general idea why this is the first.

Now let's go on to the mitzvah itself. The mitzvah is that a person, a Yid, a person should have In order to fulfill the mitzvah, you have to have a boy and a girl, a son and a daughter, and they, in turn, have to have children. If you have a son and a daughter and they don't have children, you didn't happen to fulfill the mitzvah. Unfortunately, this is one of those mitzvot that not always is it in the hands of the person; it's in the hands of Hashem. The person has to do everything in his ability, and if Hashem doesn't give, that's Hashem's Hashem has his reasons, that we can't know. But we have to do everything in our ability, and in our ability, we're able to and if what we have to try to do is to have that's the mitzvah of peru u-revu is to have a son and a daughter, and then they should, in turn, have children. There is an argument actually in the Gemara between different chachamim, but the halacha is it's a son and a daughter. This is the mitzvah. Because of this mitzvah, there is another mitzvah which precedes it, which is the mitzvah of getting married. The mitzvah when you get married, you also fulfill a mitzvah, the mitzvah of marriage itself. When you give kiddushin, when a person gets married and he gives the ring, gives kiddushin, that is a mitzvah. The Torah says כי יקח איש אשה, which means that you'll take a wife, and that is the mitzvah of how to marry, so you perform that mitzvah. But that mitzvah, in truth, is only an introduction, it's a preparation to the ultimate level part of the mitzvah, which is the mitzvah of having children, which is a son and a daughter. Now this mitzvah of פרו ורבו, that one must have, do everything in his possibility, in his ability, to have a son and a daughter, the commandment was only given to the men, not to the women. The Mishnah says, it's a Mishnah, this is the halacha: האיש מצווה על פריה ורביה ואין האשה מצווה על פריה ורביה. A man is commanded to keep this command this mitzvah of being fruitful and multiplying, but a woman is not commanded to do it. So one might think in that case, maybe the women, they have no obligation, they don't fulfill any mitzvah by having children. So let me explain this in detail. Number one, besides the mitzvah that is known with the title פרו ורבו, פריה ורביה, there's another aspect to this mitzvah, and that is called the mitzvah of Shabbos. Shabbos comes from a pasuk where it says: לא תהו בראה, אלא לשבת יצרה. Hashem did not create the world to be empty, but He created it to be inhabited. That is a separate pasuk, and that is a commandment that we have to inhabit the world. We have to fill the world with people. This mitzvah is not limited to men. The mitzvah of פרו ורבו was only given to men, but the mitzvah of Shabbos was not given only to men. As a matter of fact, the mitzvah of Shabbos also applies to goyim, lehavdil. Certainly it applies to women. So woman is obligated because of the mitzvah of Shabbos. So when she has children, she fulfills the mitzvah of Shabbos. But besides that, when a woman has children, because she is doing her share to make it possible for her husband to fulfill the mitzvah of Peru u'Revu, she also has a share in that mitzvah. Again, because it is impossible for the men to do his part to have children unless the wife has her share, so automatically she takes part and has a share in his mitzvah, in the mitzvah of Peru u'Revu. Actually, the Ran, the a Ran, one of the famous commentators on the Gemara, the Rishonim, lived about 600 years ago, he writes this as an answer to a question. And I'll explain it. There is a Mishnah that says: האיש מקדש בו ובשלוחו, האישה מתקדשת בה ובשלוחה. Which means a man, when he gives the kiddushin to marry, he could do it himself, or he could do it through a messenger, through an agent. A woman, when she receives the kiddushin, she could receive it for herself, or through an agent. And the Gemara asks the question: why does the Mishnah have to tell us that the man could do it himself or through an agent? If he could do it through an agent, he certainly could do it himself. Why does it have to mention himself? And the Gemara answers, to teach you: מצוה בו יותר מבשלוחו. It's a bigger mitzvah if he does it himself, more than if he does it through an agent. Then the Gemara continues: why does it have to mention that a woman could receive the kiddushin herself or through an agent? If she could do it through an agent, certainly she could do it herself. And the Gemara gives the same answer, to tell us: מצוה בה יותר מבשלוחה. It's a greater mitzvah if she does it herself than through a shaliach. Comes the Ran, and the Ran asks: I don't understand, how can we say it's a bigger mitzvah if she does it herself when she has no mitzvah at all? A woman doesn't have a mitzvah of having children, so she doesn't have a mitzvah of getting married. So what does it mean that there's a bigger mitzvah if she does it herself than if she does it through an agent? And the Ran answers: she's not commanded to do it, but if she when she does have children, she has a share in the mitzvah of Peru u'Revu, which is besides Shabbos, she has that a share in this mitzvah of Peru u'Revu, in the mitzvah of having children. And it's not only the peshat, the meaning that she has a share like if you help someone do a mitzvah, you also have a mitzvah, but you don't necessarily have that specific mitzvah. Let's say, if I help someone put on tefillin, a guy can't put on tefillin, I'll help him put on tefillin, I'm definitely doing a mitzvah. What's my mitzvah that I'm doing? I'm not doing the mitzvah of tefillin, I'm doing the mitzvah of chesed, the mitzvah of Ahavat Yisrael, helping somebody, but I don't do the mitzvah of tefillin. So one might think that the same here, when she helps her husband fulfill the mitzvah of פריה ורביה, she has a a mitzvah. What mitzvah? The mitzvah of helping a Jew. So the Rebbe says that's not the peshat. The meaning here is, because she helps him do the mitzvah of having children, she has a share in his mitzvah. And she has fulfilled the mitzvah of פרו ורבו. Similar to another din. There's a din that a woman is not obligated to learn Torah. And if a woman does learn Torah, she's only doing it as an אינו מצווה ועושה, as somebody who's not commanded. A woman who puts on who who would בענטש אתרוג, she's not commanded, but if she does it she gets reward. But it's not the same. We know that reward for a mitzvah that you're commanded to do is greater than reward for a mitzvah you're not commanded. So she doesn't get reward as being commanded because she never was commanded to learn Torah. But the Gemara says, if a woman helps her husband learn, meaning not teach him, she stays up for him when he comes late home from a shiur and she makes sure that his supper is ready, and she waits up for her children when they come from school, and she sends them to yeshiva to learn, and they are obligated, the Gemara says she shares in their mitzvah. And the Alter Rebbe explains that means that when she does that, she has reward as if she fulfilled a mitzvah that she was commanded to do. Because since he was commanded to do it, and she is part of it, she shares it. And the same thing is here. She shares in his mitzvah. So if a woman helps her has children so her husband is able to fulfill the mitzvah, she also, at that time, has a share and fulfills the mitzvah. So even though a woman is not actually told that she has to do it, nevertheless, she does fulfill this mitzvah. But let me add something even more important. When we say a woman was not commanded to do the mitzvah of having children, it's different than a woman that's not commanded to do other mitzvot. We know the rule, I don't want to sound complicated, but we'll try to explain it. We know there's a rule that many mitzvot women are exempt. The rule is מצות עשה שהזמן גרמא, any mitzvah that has a time, women are exempt. And there is a reason given because she has other obligations. We can't put these obligations on her when she has obligations to her husband, obligations to her family, which is to her even more important. But the bottom line is that she is exempt from those mitzvot. In other words, the mitzvot were not given to her. She doesn't have those mitzvot, for a very good reason, but the fact is she doesn't have she does not have the מצוה of tefillin. She doesn't. It's not her fault, it's because she has other things to do, but she doesn't have the מצוה. Because it's not for her. When we say a woman does not have the מצוה of having children, it's just the opposite. You know why Hashem didn't command a woman to have children? Because she doesn't need to be commanded. She will do it on her own. The Rebbe explains that the reason is because a woman, if you don't tell her, she will do it on her own. A man, if you don't command him to have children, he might not do it. A woman will do it on her own, so she doesn't need the commandment. Not because she's missing the commandment like other מצות, she doesn't need this commandment because she will do it on her own. Similar to what the Maharal of Prague explains. We know that when Hashem gave the Torah, He sent Moshe Rabbeinu and He said to him, כה תאמר לבית יעקב ותגיד לבני ישראל. Go speak to the Jews first, tell them they should be ready for receiving the Torah. And He said, go speak to the women, but to the women, speak to them first, speak to them very delicately, very quietly. Don't speak to them harshly. But when you go to the men, whew, to them you should speak very harshly. Now, simple pshat, the way everyone thinks the pshat is, why speak to the women very delicately? Because they're delicate people, that's a delicate nature, and you can't, you know, you can't allow yourself to be too harsh with them, they're not capable of receiving harsh words. That's what people think. The Maharal of Prague says it's just the opposite. To them, you don't have to speak harsh. They'll accept it just just a little, if you speak softly, they'll already do it. See, the men might not. See, to the men, you have to speak harshly because if you speak softly, they might not get the point, they might still not do it. You tell them very strongly, they'll do it. But the women, it's not needed. And if it's not needed, why speak to them harshly if you could speak to them softly and they'll do it just as well? The same the Rebbe says is concerning the מצוה of פריה ורביה. Don't command them Hashem didn't command them not because they don't need that מצוה, because they don't need the commandment, because they are going to do it. It's actually the woman is the one that gives birth to the child. The woman is the one that raises the child. How is it possible to say that there is no מצוה? The man has the מצוה, and she is the one that really gets involved physically and emotionally, and she doesn't have the מצוה? What kind of sense is this? The answer is she has the מצוה more than him. But she doesn't have to be told. She'll do it on her own. ובכלל we know women have a lot of things that the men don't have, the אמונה and things like that, there is more by the women than by the men. And this also, this feeling they have more. But one might ask, but the bottom line is they'd be missing the reward for a commandment? So we said before that's not true, because they will have the reward of the commandment anyway, because they helped their husbands, and their husband was commanded. So they share in the commandment anyway. And at the same time they didn't need to be commanded because they will do it on their own, that's why they weren't commanded. So here we come out to the bottom line just in short, that the women, that there's a מצוה of having children, this is the first מצוה of the Torah, the מצוה is to have a son and a daughter, and this מצוה is for the men, certainly for the women, they weren't told, but they certainly will and they will even keep it better and they will have the sechar. But as we said, the minimum that a child a person has to have to fulfill this מצוה is the מצוה of is is a son and a daughter. After a person has a a man, a family has a son and a daughter, what about further?

The Rambam says that even if a person has fulfilled the מצוה, which is the מצוה of the Torah, it's a מצוה in chumash, it's one of the מצות מדאורייתא, from the Torah, of having a son and a daughter, there is a מצוה מדברי סופרים, there is a מצוה מדרבנן. We know that many מצות that we do were commandments given to us by the חכמים. So the Rambam says that mi-derabbanan, the Rabbanan said that you should still continue having more children as much as possible. Which actually, as we said before, the mitzvah of Shabbos, which is an additional aspect to the mitzvah of having children, besides פרו ורבו, doesn't have a limit. Shabbos is, any child you have, you've fulfilled the mitzvah of Shabbos. But even besides Shabbos, the Rambam says that the Rabbanan said that you have to continue having children mi-derabbanan, it's a mitzvah mi-derabbanan. And if you look into the words פרו ורבו, פרו means to be fruitful, ורבו means to multiply. Multiply means a lot. So there is a mitzvah mi-derabbanan to have more children than just a son and a daughter. Now, in that itself, again I don't want to sound complicated, but there are two ways one might learn. You might learn that the Rabbanan added a separate mitzvah. The Torah says you have a mitzvah of having a son and a daughter. Came the Rabbanan, we made a new mitzvah, you should have many children. But there's another way to learn, and that's the right way to learn, that the Rabbanan didn't make a separate new mitzvah, they attached it to the mitzvah of the Torah of פרו ורבו. In other words, they said that we mi-derabbanan extend the mitzvah of the Torah. So when you have more children, you're fulfilling the mitzvah of פרו ורבו that the Rabbanan extended. So it's not like a new mitzvah they gave, they have a right to extend the mitzvah of the Torah. And it's even possible even more, that when a person has more than son and a daughter, he actually fulfills a mitzvah of the Torah, even though he doesn't have to, in other words if he stops there, he has fulfilled the minimum. But if you have more, you are still continuing to fulfill the mitzvah of the Torah. I'll give an example. There is a a minimum amount of tzedakah that you have to give. Let's say a person gives 10%, a person gives 20%, you've gave as much as you have to. When a person decides he wants to give more tzedakah, if you don't give it, you're you're not doing anything wrong, you don't have to, you gave your your amount. But if a person does give it, he has he is fulfilling at that moment the mitzvah of the Torah of tzedakah. In other words, there is an obligation, and then there is which is not an obligation, but nevertheless if you do it, you fulfill the mitzvah of the Torah. The mitzvah of the Torah leaves place to go further. Another example, Pesach night, as we say every everyone says in the Haggadah, there's a mitzvah to speak about Yetziat Mitzrayim, to tell the story of the exodus of Mitzrayim. We say in the הגדה, כל המרבה לספר ביציאת מצרים הרי זה משובח. The more you talk about Yetziat Mitzrayim, the better it is. Now, if a person will talk about Yetziat Mitzrayim for 10 minutes, he has fulfilled his obligation. You did your mitzvah, the mitzvah is to talk and he spoke about it. If a person will talk for another hour, he's not obligated to do it, but if he does it, he is continuing to fulfill the mitzvah of the Torah, because the mitzvah of the Torah has no limit how much you should go, till the morning. Same here, the minimum of the Torah is to have a son and a daughter. Now, if you go further, you also have you are fulfilling the mitzvah of the Torah. Besides that, the Gemara says that you never know which child that you have is going to be the gadol. You never know which one is going to be the one that's going to be so great. So how could you stop and say, well, I had enough? You never know, maybe the next child that you're going to have is going to be so great. And the Rambam uses the term כל המוסיף, if you anybody you any child you add to the world, any Jewish child you add to the world, כאילו בנה בנין עולם, as if you built a whole world. Every child is a whole world, so every child you add, you added a whole new world to the world. בנה, he said you built the world. And it's interesting, I said in the beginning that where is the Torah tell us this mitzvah of having children? Not by Adam HaRishon, by Noach. Interesting thing is, Adam HaRishon, when he was told פרו ורבו, he had no children yet. Noach, when he was told פרו ורבו, already had children. He didn't have any daughters, but he had children. And nevertheless, Hashem told him פרו ורבו, which indicates that the mitzvah of פרו ורבו, even if you have children, the Torah still wants you to extend and continue and have the mitzvah of פרו ורבו even more. There's an interesting Gemara. The truth is, the Gemara really needs a lot of explanation, but I'll just tell you what it says. The Gemara says that one of the chachamim said we suffer so much, we Jews suffer the most of all people in the world. He says, I have a way of stopping our suffering. He said if we stop having children, then there will be no more Jewish nation, so there will be no more trouble. And they continue and the the discussion goes on. Tosafot, one of the commentaries, asks the question: How could he even say such a word of stop having children and there won't be any more Jewish nation? There's a mitzvah, you must have a son and a daughter. So how could he say we could stop having children? So Tosafot says that's exactly what he means. He means let's only have the minimum. And what did he say? If we'd only have the minimum, he refers to it as that the Jewish nation will stop. If the people, the Yidden, would only stick to having the minimum of what is required from the Torah, the Gemara calls that that you know what'll happen, we will not have no more Jewish nation. So obviously, part of what we're supposed to do is to bring more and more children into the world, and that is part of פרו ורבו, and that is the continuation of the Jewish nation. Now the truth is we know that there are all kinds of excuses that people have. For instance, one excuse is that we live in such a world that you never know, afraid to raise children in such a world. I myself am not such a big tzadik, to raise children, I don't know how they will be. Usually, we know that the generations go lower, so I don't know if they'll be the way they're supposed to. Why take a risk? So why bring more Jewish people and Jewish children into the world? You know who had such a fear? Noach himself. Rashi says in Chumash that Noach, when he came out of the teivah, he was afraid to get involved in having more children because he didn't know what's going to be with them. Now, he was promised by Hashem there will not be another מבול, Hashem will not bring another flood. So he knew they will not be wiped out. It doesn't mean that he was afraid I'll have more children and eventually they'll all be wiped out by God again. He knew it wouldn't happen. But he was afraid, I don't know, they might not grow up to be the way they're supposed to. And Hashem said to him, no, that's not your business. I want you to continue having children, and בהדי כבשי דרחמנא למה לך, it's not your business to worry what's going to be. You have to fulfill the commandment. We find in the Gemara a story with Chizkiyahu Hamelech. Chizkiyahu Hamelech was a great tzadik, but he didn't get married, he didn't want to have any children. And the navi came to he got sick and the navi said to him, you're going to die. And he said, why? He said you're going to die because you're not having any children. You're not getting married, so you don't have children. And he said to the navi he was a tzadik, I see with ruach hakodesh, I see with my holy spirit that I'm going to have a rasha as a child. So how could I have children? So he answered him, that's none of your business. בהדי כבשי דרחמנא למה לך, don't get involved in Hashem's business. You have to do what you're supposed to do. So he agreed and he said, yes, I take it upon myself, and he was cured and he lived for another 22 years. And he takeh had a child which is a rasha, but he had three children more which tzadikim. Three tzadikim. Yeshayahu, Yoshiyahu, he had three tzadikim. So this excuse is not acceptable because this is exactly what the Torah says. You can't have such an excuse. Now some people have an excuse, can't afford it. Costs money. Well, a person who thinks that way definitely is מקטני אמנה, is lacking in emunah. If a person thinks that he is the one that's in control of getting parnasah, of bringing a livelihood, then it's a good A good excuse. But we know it's not true. הזן את העולם כולו בטובו. Who feeds the world, who supports the world? Hashem. So Hashem is able to support if you have two children, and he's able to support if you have five children or ten children. Or now, Baruch Hashem, we have families now that have 17 children. You have, and Hashem will find a way to support them all. So there's no excuse unless you don't have emunah. And besides, everyone knows there's a a a state a saying by Yidden, az mit yeder kind kumt noch a mazel. With every child that's born, another mazal, another tzinor, another pipe of hashpaah, of great influence from Hashem comes on into this world. And look at it the other way: you never know what which child is going to bring you that mazal that you're going to be you're going to make enough money to make a living. As long as a child isn't born, your mazal might not be so good, and that child will bring you the mazal. And then some people claim, who has the koach? Who has the strength? How could I, you know, bring more children into the world? Well, if Hashem says that that's what you should do, he could give koach. See, if we don't believe in Hashem or don't have the proper trust, then all these excuses are good. But like this, we know, it says in מדרש, the Gemara says also, אין הקדוש ברוך הוא בא בטרוניא עם בריותיו. Hashem does not come, make it put a burden on people that can't take. איני מבקש, Hashem says, איני מבקש לפי כוחי אלא לפי כוחן. I don't ask you to do things according to my ability, but according to your ability. If Hashem asks us to do something, then he gives the koach to be able to do it. Now, if a person doesn't believe that, well, that's a different story. We can't help it. But we who know the truth, so Hashem gives us the koach. So someone who'll say, I don't have the koach, that's not an excuse. Besides that, there's another thing here. When did Hashem say to Noach he should have children, פרו ורבו? Said to him after the מבול. And it means to say, now that there was a מבול and all humans, all people were wiped out, you have even a stronger obligation to bring more people into the world. We live not so long after this great מבול, the Holocaust, that wiped out six million Yidden. So we have an obligation to bring back the נשמות, to fill up the void that was there, just like נח, Hashem told Noach. So we have to bring back the children into the world so that we should make up for what ימח שמם וזכרם the Nazis took away from us. So that's an additional obligation, not from a from a halacha point of view, but from a hashkafa of Yiddishkeit point of view. Then there's another point. The Gemara says, אין בן דוד בא עד שיכלו כל הנשמות שבגוף. Mashiach will not come till all the נשמות that are there in שמים in the special section called גוף, that's the name of it. גוף doesn't mean body, there here there's a name of a section called גוף. A certain, Rashi says אוצר הנשמות, it's the treasure treasury where the נשמות are found. As long as all the נשמות will not come down into this world, Mashiach will not come. So every time we bring down another נשמה into this world, it makes the coming of Mashiach closer. It says in Tana D'Bei Eliyahu, interesting things, it says, just like the Yidden were redeemed from Mitzrayim in the zechut of פרין ורבין, in the zechut that they had so many children, it says, ובני ישראל פרו וישרצו וירבו ויעצמו במאד מאד, they had so many children, and that was the zechut why they went out of galut, out of exile. So too from this exile we will go out in the zechut that פרין ורבין that we'll bring so many children into the world, we will multiply. So besides everything else, besides all the halachot and all the hashkafot, is the idea of this brings Mashiach, this makes the coming of Mashiach closer. And therefore we have to do whatever is in our power. I don't want to get into the another aspect of it, which is concerning the concept of birth control, which automatically touches upon other she'elot in halachah, whether you're allowed to or not, and for that you have to ask a Rav in certain cases if it's נוגע to health, there are So this is not the place and not the this is not the the type of shiur that we have in these halachot, that's a separate thing, and every individual person who has a problem with that has to go and ask a she'eilah if when it's allowed, when it's not, which methods, which things, that's not what we're getting into. We're talking about the hashkafah aspect of it, of what it means and the importance of what it means, the mitzvah of priyah urviyah.

Now let me just finish off for one moment. Just like we have all the מצוות בגשמיות, physical this is a physical mitzvah, that we have to do everything in our power physically to get married and have children, physical people. The mitzvot also have their spiritual counterpart. There is a spiritual meaning in the mitzvah of pru urvu. Pru urvu to multiply. Just like there's a mitzvah to bring another Jew into the world, there is a mitzvah to bring another Jew into the fold. Not chas ve-shalom to go out and look for converts, but the mitzvah is to multiply, that there should be more Yidden within Yiddishkeit, to be mekarev more Yidden. When you're mekarev a Yid, the Frierdiker Rebbe says in the sichah, when you're mekarev a Yid, you fulfill the mitzvah of pru urvu. Which, by the way, is for those people who for whatever reason Hashem has, we have no idea, made that בגשמיות they don't have any children, like what do we need more than the Rebbe himself? So, ג׳ תמוז there was I forgot, I think it was Rabbi Lau from the Chief Rabbi of Israel when he made by the shloshim or something he said that the Rebbe didn't have one child, but he had 12 million children. Why? Because he influenced every single Jew in the world. Many people admit it, some people don't, some people don't even know, but the way the Rebbe worked, every single Yid was influenced. So, all 12 million Yidden, because they were influenced by the Rebbe, so the Rebbe fulfilled the mitzvah of פרו ורבו. For the Rebbe, בגשמיות השם didn't give him the ability to fulfill this mitzvah, just like Moshe Rabbeinu himself didn't fulfill the mitzvah. He had two sons, he didn't have a daughter, he didn't fulfill this mitzvah. Hashem has his reasons why, but by doing פרו ורבו ברוחניות, he has fulfilled the mitzvah. And those people who Hashem put in this position are able to fulfill the mitzvah through the רוחניות of being mekarev Yidden, bringing them back, to fulfill the mitzvah of פרו ורבו. But even those who also fulfill it בגשמיות, also have the obligation to do it ברוחניות, by bringing more Yidden into every time you're mekarev another Yid, you brought him in, you brought the neshamah more into Yiddishkeit, so you brought him down more into what Hashem wants, so you'll fulfill the mitzvah of פרו ורבו. And when we do it בגשמיות, and we bring down the neshamot from that area called guf, and we do it ברוחניות, together, definitely this will be the stepping stone that Mashiach will come very, very soon, and then all the problems will go off, and then we'll see the truth in everything, and we'll see the great light that this all brings, and we hope it's going to be במהרה בימינו ממש. Amen. Yes. You mentioned before how important it is to save the life of a Jew and how everything, in order to do this does violate just about all the halachot. Yeah. So what about creating? And not only is the life, all these things involved in that? Hashem didn't allow that. Well isn't it still important just to say Yeah, but if you're bringing but if but if you're creating a Jew in the wrong way, then that's not the right the real creation of a Jew. Because you're doing it through a wrong way. It's like any מצוה הבאה בעבירה. It's like a very important, but you're doing an aveirah. And not only that, what you're creating is not going to be a 100% what Hashem wants. No, no, here the the type of person you're creating is created in the wrong way. Here the person is a Yid from before. You're not affecting his being a Yid. You're mechalel Shabbos, but the Torah says you should mechalel Shabbos for the Yid. But here the the actual creation of the person will be in the wrong way. That's a worse case. Yes. You said that the goyim don't have a neshamah? Right. What about the righteous Gentiles? They have a different type. See, they they're different than the other goyim, but they don't have that neshamah that we Yidden have. That נפש אלקית, that Godly soul which is part of Hashem, that they don't have. That they don't have. A ger is a Yid. A ger is not a goy. A ger is a Yid. Right, but a ger can convert. Well, he gets a neshamah, but it says that that neshamah was connected to him even before, that's why he converted. In Yiddish there's a saying: אַ ייד שמד׳ט זיך נישט, און אַ גוי זיך נישט מגייר. If a goy is megayer, it shows that he had that neshamah within him, but it wasn't revealed, and by doing this you reveal it.