The topic tonight is something that's davar be'ito that is for this time of the year. This time of the year, we're before Shavuos, so the topic tonight is going to be the significance of Erev Shavuos. Why Erev Shavuos? Because Shavuos itself, we had a shiur once before. On Rosh Chodesh Sivan, we had a shiur once before. On ב' Sivan, we had a shiur once before. So today it's going to be on what Erev Shavuos means. Automatically, we will get to understand also Shavuos, but the topic is going to be the significance of Erev Shavuos. Now first, the simple meaning and significance of Erev Shavuos is very simple. Erev Shavuos is the last chance to prepare yourself to matan Torah. We know that every year, matan Torah happens over again. Just like the first time on the sixth day of Sivan, Hashem gave the Torah, so every year, when the same day comes around, the same thing happens. So we get the Torah again. This is in addition to the fact that every day, Hashem gives the Torah, we call it, again, because when we make a berachah, we don't say ברוך אתה השם נתן התורה, that He gave us the Torah, but נותן התורה, which means He gives us, He constantly gives us the Torah. But, in addition to the fact that every day we get the Torah again from Hashem and therefore it says בכל יום יהיו בעיניך כחדשים, every day it should be like new, but one time a year is the day of matan Torah. When the same day as it happened the first time comes again, then it's again matan Torah. Therefore, on Shavuos, which is the sixth day of Sivan, we say in Shemoneh Esrei and Kiddush, זמן מתן תורתנו, the day that the Torah was given, the time that the Torah was given. Now, in order to be able to receive the Torah properly, we have to make preparations. We have to prepare ourselves. In Chassidut we learn a lot of times that a hachana to a mitzvah, a preparation to a mitzvah, sometimes is even more important than the mitzvah itself. Now, I want to make myself clear: it doesn't mean chas veshalom that a person will make preparations to the mitzvah and then not do the mitzvah, then he was yotzei, that's not true. The main thing is the mitzvah, but as far as the feeling a person has, if you do a mitzvah without preparing yourself for it, then you don't really get the true feeling of what the mitzvah is. When you prepare yourself for it, you learn about it before and you know what it is and you think about it and then you finally, finally go and do the mitzvah, then the mitzvah has a great impression, has a lot of influence, has a lot of meaning because of the preparation. So hachanah to a mitzvah is very important. Just like we find in the opposite, I always when we talk about this, I always mention this because this brings out the point, there was a time when the Baal Shem Tov came to—no, the Bardichever came to a certain place, anyway, the details are not important, and he met this person, and he saw on this person that this person did not behave morally, and he started giving him mussar because there was a certain woman that he had a shaychus to. So he said, \"Rebbe, Rebbe, don't worry, she counted seven days, and then she went to the mikvah.\" So the Bardichever says, \"Vos? Seven days preparing for an aveirah?\" Sometimes you do an aveirah because you have a yetzer hara and the yetzer hara catches you on the spot, then you do the aveirah. But seven days waiting and waiting, waiting, preparing for an aveirah? So that's sometimes even worse than the aveirah itself. Not practically speaking, it's not worse than the aveirah, the aveirah itself is the worst thing, all the preparations is not, but as far as the impression on the person, you do an aveirah, it's a one-time thing, chas v'shalom, God forbid, but but if you wait and prepare, that impression is worse. The same thing and even more is by a mitzvah: when you prepare yourself to a mitzvah, so then that has an impression, that means a lot. So when we get when we are getting going now to מתן תורה, to Shavuos, so we have to prepare ourselves. In order for us to accept the Torah properly, especially after the Rebbe made the minhag that we have to go to shul to hear עשרת הדברות, and that is the time when we receive the Torah, so you have to do things beforehand to prepare yourself. So when do you prepare yourself? Days before, you prepare yourself. The last chance we have is ערב שבועות. So ערב שבועות is the real, real preparation to מתן תורה for Shavuos. Just like the Gemara says, מי שטרח בערב שבת, יאכל בשבת. Somebody who prepared, who worked hard before Shabbos, has what to eat on Shabbos. If you don't prepare yourself before Shabbos, then you have what to eat on Shabbos. Actually, the Gemara says this expression, but not it uses the expression of Shabbos, but it's not talking about real Shabbos. It says on Mashiach come, and the goyim, Hashem is gonna give the Yidden their reward, and the goyim are gonna come, \"We also want to get reward, we also want!\" So Hashem says, \"Why do you deserve it? What did you do all these years to reserve it? To deserve it?\" And he told, he'll tell them, \"מי שטרח בערב שבת יאכל בשבת.\" The Yidden prepared themselves throughout all these years for the coming of Mashiach, so they deserve what will happen. But you, what did you do? So the, but the Gemara uses the expression, \"מי שטרח בערב שבת,\" if you worked and prepared before Shabbos, you have on Shabbos. So, too, we have to work before Shavuos in ourselves and prepare ourselves. Bichlal, all the days of Sefirah, all 49 days of Sefirah are a preparation for Shavuos. But certainly, the last week from Rosh Chodesh Sivan till Shavuos, Rosh Chodesh Sivan is the day that the Yidden came to Har Sinai, that's when the preparations by them started for Shavuos. So by us also, the preparations have to be from Rosh Chodesh Sivan. The last chance and the last preparation that we do is ערב שבועות. So that's the simple meaning of what ערב שבועות is.

But really, really to understand what happened and what is ערב שבועות, what does it mean to us, we have to look into what happened on ערב שבועות the first time, because whatever happens now is only a repeat of the first time. And the way we could repeat what happened the first time is if we talk about it and learn about it. Says in the מגילה, הימים האלה נזכרים ונעשים, these days are remembered and done. So the Arizal says, what does that mean? If they are נזכרים, if they are remembered, then the נעשים, they're done. Whatever was done spiritually the first time, if you talk about it and learn about it again, it'll happen again. And this applies to every Yom Tov. Comes Pesach, in order for all these spiritual things that took place at Yetziat Mitzrayim should happen now again, you have to learn about it, you have to be נזכרים, then it's נעשים. When it comes to Sukkos, comes to Rosh Hashanah, the same thing when it comes to Shavuos. The same thing is concerning ערב שבועות. In order to understand the true meaning of ערב שבועות, we have to look in to see what happened on ערב שבועות the first time when Hashem gave the Torah. So we find in Chumash what happened on ערב שבועות. In Chumash, we know that מתן תורה is in פרשת יתרו, but we do find details about מתן תורה and the days before מתן תורה in the end of פרשת משפטים. So the end of פרשת משפטים, it talks about what happened on ד׳ סיון, on the fourth day of סיון, and also what happened on ה׳ סיון, the fifth of סיון, which is ערב שבועות. So here it says, ולמשה אמר עלה אל השם, השם said to Moshe, \"Come up to Me,\" and this he said, Rashi says this is talking about ד׳ סיון. And it says Moshe came there and he came down, ויבא משה ויספר לעם את כל דברי השם, משה came down and told the Yidden everything that Hashem said, ואת כל המשפטים, everything and the משפטים, ויען כל העם קול אחד ויאמרו כל הדברים אשר דבר השם נעשה. The Yidden said, \"Whatever Hashem said, we'll do.\" This is all on the fourth of סיון. ויכתב משה את כל דברי השם, משה wrote down all the words of Hashem. Then וישכם בבקר, he woke up in the morning, which is the next day, which is ערב שבועות, on ה׳ סיון, ויבן מזבח, he built a מזבח תחת ההר, under the mountain, ושתים עשרה מצבה לשנים עשר שבטי ישראל, and he made twelve מצבות corresponding to the twelve שבטים. וישלח את נערי בני ישראל, and he sent the youngsters, the lads of the יידן, ויעלו עלת, they brought קרבנות, קרבנות עולות, ויזבחו זבחים שלמים, they brought שלמים, להשם, פרים, bulls. ויקח משה חצי הדם וישם באגנת וחצי הדם זרק על המזבח, משה took the blood, divided it, sprinkled here, there. ויקח ספר הברית, משה took the ספר הברית, רש״י says that means Moshe Rabbeinu took what he had written down the day before. He wrote down from Bereishit till פרשת מתן תורה, he had written down, Hashem dictated and he wrote it down. He took it, ויקרא באזני העם, he read it in front of the Yidden. All this is on ערב שבועות. ויאמרו כל אשר דבר השם נעשה ונשמע. And the Yidden then said, \"נעשה ונשמע.\" We know that the Yidden said נעשה ונשמע, which is a major thing, it happened on ה׳ סיון, on ערב שבועות. They said, \"We will do and we will hear.\" And the Gemara says that this was something special, that they first said we will do and then they, we will hear. Usually you say, \"Well, explain it to me, I'll hear, I'll understand, then I'll tell you if I'll do it or not.\" The Yidden said נעשה ונשמע. ויקח משה את הדם ויזרק על העם, Moshe took the blood, sprinkled on them, ויאמר, and he said, הנה דם הברית אשר כרת השם עמכם על כל הדברים האלה. This is the blood of the covenant. Which basically means that on the day of ה׳ סיון Moshe Rabbeinu sprinkled, made, built a mizbeach, they brought korbanot, he taught them some parts of Torah, brought them into the bris bris, that's when he brought them into the covenant, had them promise that they are going to keep Torah, and the Yidden said נעשה ונשמע. This is what happened on ה' Sivan. We look into the Gemara, the Gemara describes what took place. So the Gemara says like this: on ב' Sivan Moshe Rabbeinu went up to Har Sinai, and then came down, עלה וירד. He went up to Har Sinai, Hashem' spoke to him, gave him instructions, Moshe came down. ג' Sivan, again, משה עלה וירד, Moshe went up, again certain instructions, he came down. On ד' Sivan, on the fourth of Sivan, משה עלה וירד, Moshe went up and came down. ה' told him different things. The first day, ב' Sivan, Hashem' told him, אתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש, והייתם לי סגולה. Hashem' told him you're going to be a nation of kings, you're going to be a special nation to Me. And he said it on ב' Sivan, which because of that ב' Sivan has a special name. When we had the shiur on B'' Sivan, I explained B'' Sivan is called יום המיוחס. יום המיוחס has no other meaning but the special day. There is no other day in the year, no other day in the year that's called this special day. Every day has other names. Just this special day is B'' Sivan, because Hashem' said these words. So Moshe went up, came down. On G'' Sivan came up and went down, Moshe Hashem' told him והגבלת את ההר, to surround the mountain, block the mountain. On the other day Hashem' told him פרישה. On D'' Sivan Hashem' told, could you open the air conditioner a little bit? On D'' Sivan Hashem' told him people should separate themselves from the wives, go to the mikveh. So the Gemara says again: on B'' Sivan Moshe went up and down, G'' Sivan Moshe went up to the mountain and came down, on D'' Sivan Moshe came up to the mountain and came down, Hashem' סיון לא עלה, on Hashem' Sivan he didn't go up. What did Moshe do on Hashem' Sivan? So this is what the Gemara says: בנה מזבח והקריב עליו קרבן. He built a mizbeach and sacrificed a korban on the mizbeach. This is what he did on Hashem' Sivan. And it seems from the Gemara that what the Gemara is saying that the reason why he didn't go up to Hashem', to the mountain on Hashem' Sivan, because he was busy. He was busy with making the mizbeach, he built a mizbe'ach. It says in פסוק ויבן, says וישכם בבקר, he woke up in the morning on ה' סיון, ויבן מזבח תחת ההר, he built a mizbe'ach. But the Gemara, when the Gemara says what happened on ה' Sivan, the Gemara says Moshe Rabbeinu did not go not go up to the mountain, he בנה מזבח והקריב עליו קרבן. He built a mizbe'ach and was makriv a korban. And that's all the Gemara says concerning ה' Sivan, Erev Shavuot. And the question is, we just quoted from the pasuk a lot of things that took place on ה' Sivan, besides the mizbe'ach, besides the korbanot, he read them the whole the certain parts of the Torah, the Yidden said נעשה ונשמע, he sprinkled the blood. So many special things took place on ה' Sivan. Why does the Gemara pick, out of all the things to describe what happened on ה' Sivan, on Erev Shavuot, was the fact that Moshe built a mizbe'ach and brought a korban on it? Obviously, the Gemara, by doing that, is picking out what really is ה' Sivan. When the Gemara wants to describe to us and pinpoint what is special about Erev Shavuot, what is Erev Shavuot, the Gemara picks בנה מזבח והקריב עליו קרבן, built a mizbe'ach and brought a korban. And the Gemara doesn't mention the rest because obviously that took place, it says in Chumash it took place, but that's not what describes what ערב שבועות is, what took place then on ערב שבועות. And another interesting thing here, it says בנה מזבח והקריב עליו קרבן, he built a mizbeach, and he brought a korban, he was makriv a korban, which is different than it says in the Chumash. In the Chumash, it doesn't say Moshe Rabbeinu brought a korban. It says Moshe built a מזבח, וישלח את נערי בני ישראל ויעלו עולות ויזבחו זבחים שלמים לה' פרים. That the נערי בני ישראל, other people did it. Moshe doesn't mention in the Torah. The Gemara adds that besides the korbanot that they brought, Moshe himself brought a korban on ערב שבועות, something that the Gemara doesn't say, that the pasuk doesn't say, and the Gemara says it. Obviously, the Gemara feels that the specialty of ערב שבועות is the fact that he built a mizbeach, and Moshe brought a korban, and the two things actually go together. Building a mizbeach is not enough, the whole purpose of building a mizbeach is to bring a korban. Bringing korbanot on a mizbeach is the שלמות, this makes the mizbeach complete. We find a halacha called קיץ המזבח, That when the mizbeach was empty, sometimes it happened, all the קרבנות ציבור, the public korbanot were done, there were not too many people, private people coming to bring korbanot, so the mizbeach was empty. So the Gemara says they would buy, they would be מקריב קרבנות just like that, called קיץ המזבח, in order for the mizbeach not to be empty. It's not nice for the מזבח to stay empty. So we see from there that it's a part of the importance of the structure of the מזבח to have קרבנות. So Moshe Rabbeinu built the מזבח, and the Gemara says he himself brought the קרבן. He himself brought the קרבן. Obviously the Gemara is trying to tell us that the the special thing that happened on ה' סיון, on ערב שבועות, was that Moshe built the מזבח and brought a קרבן. The rest of the things are fine, and they took place, but that's not what describes Shavuos. Obviously this is the most important thing, which explains also, before we explain what it is, but explains also why Moshe Rabbeinu built the מזבח. Why did Moshe Rabbeinu himself do it? He didn't have enough workers? He didn't have enough people that would run to do it for him? Why ויבן משה himself had to build the מזבח? The answer is because obviously building this מזבח is something so significant and so special on this day that this is part of what had to happen, that Moshe himself had to do it. Just like all the major things that we learn about by מתן תורה and things like that, it's all done through Moshe, this also had to be done through Moshe. Now we don't know yet what it is, but we do see, I'm just trying to get to the point to see that ויבן מזבח, or as the Gemara says בנה מזבח והקריב עליו קרבן, this is ערב שבועות.

In order to understand what this is and why is this out of all things the ענין of ערב שבועות, so let's understand first what is the ענין of ערב שבועות. But in order to understand what is ערב שבועות, let's understand bichlal, what is ערב שבת, what is ערב יום טוב, and then we'll apply that to ערב שבועות. We know that ערב שבת or ערב יום טוב, which is the day before, and we always already give it a special title, ערב שבת, ערב יום טוב, is the day before the Yom Tov, so it's a special day. So normally we would think, like I said before, it's a special day because that's the day you prepare for the Shabbos or you prepare for the Yom Tov, that's why we give it a title ערב שבת. Basically, it would mean, according to this, it's something that has to do with the person. In order for a person to prepare properly, he has a special there's the day before, and that's your last chance to do it. This is called ערב שבת, ערב יום טוב. It's something that has to do, we'll use the lomdishe expression, with the gavra, with the person. But that's not so, it's more than that. Erev Shabbos and Erev Yom Tov actually has already some kind of המשכה, some kind of, we'll call it גילוי, that comes as a התפשטות, as a spreading out, we'll call it, from Shabbos and from Yom Tov. That means that when Shabbos since Shabbos is holy and Yom Tov is holy, the holiness of Shabbos, the kedushah of Shabbos spreads itself out itself, not only for the person, spreads itself itself out to the time before. And in that we have different levels. The time very close to Shabbos, there the kedushah is very strong. That's why we have a din called Tosefet Shabbat. There's a din that right before Shabbos, a person is obligated to start keeping Shabbos. You can't start keeping Shabbos the second Shabbos starts. You must start keeping Shabbos a little bit before. And this is not only a din that the person, from his side, must be mekabel Shabbos, must accept Shabbos a little bit before Shabbos, and not do any melachah, not do work, but it's more than that. It's because Shabbos itself, it says, spreads itself itself out. The Mekhilta says an expression concerning Tosefet Shabbat, the addition of Shabbos before Shabbos and after Shabbos you have to add a few moments, so it says, מה הזאב, just like a wolf, טורף מלפניו ומלאחריו, it says just like a wolf when it kills animals it goes in front and in back, exactly physically technically I don't know what it means, but that's what it says, מלפניו ומלאחריו, אף שבת is מתפשט מלפניו ומלאחריו. So Shabbos goes before and after. So a few moments before Shabbos has actually the kedushah of Shabbos as a התפשטות, it spreads out from Shabbos. But that's few moments before Shabbos. The truth is, go a little bit before that, from chatzos, from afternoon Erev Shabbos, we already don't say tachanun. Why don't you say tachanun? It's not Shabbos yet! Because there is a hitpashtut of Shabbos, and the same thing by Yom Tov, that goes to the to chatzos. There were people that would not do melachah, would not work on Friday after chatzos, because they really felt the kedushah of Shabbos. You know the maaseh with the Alter Rebbe? The Alter Rebbe would not do מלאכה ערב שבת, when the Alter was taken to jail, famous story when they came and they took him in the black carriage that they would take rebels against the government, and they took him to Petersburg, they were riding, and it came Friday by chatzos, the Alter Rebbe told them, \"I want to stop.\" Now imagine, the prisoner is dictating to the guards what to do. They laughed at him. But after a few moments, an axle broke. So they had to stop. They sent to the city, this was the middle of the of of the forest, they sent a messenger to the city. Finally, took a long time, they fixed the axle. Fixed the axle, they started going, a horse died. So they waited again, they brought a new horse. They brought a new horse, and they started going, the horses wouldn't budge. So they saw whom they're dealing with, and they said to the Alter Rebbe, \"We see, so please maybe we just turn turn off into the just into town, not to be left in the forest.\" The Alter Rebbe says, \"No.\" So they asked him permission just to turn off the road to turn under a tree. He gave them permission, and that the horses went, and they went and they stopped there. Chasidim later would point on the tree that the Alter Rebbe stood under, and they said they would see all the trees in the area were all already rotten and and and dried out, and this tree was blossoming. So the Alter Rebbe was. Later, huh? They stayed there outside in the forest the whole Shabbos, and after Shabbos they started going again. And later the Alter Rebbe made a joke and he said s'frakhn af aksn, we say it in the there is af aksn, aksn, the axles that it broke. Anyway, because the Alter Rebbe didn't do melachah after chatzos. Now, the reason is why? Because Shabbos spreads itself out to before. So from chatzos already. Right before Shabbos, which is תוספת שבת, is a real halachah. This is not a real halachah, but it spreads out. Some people feel it. Tzadikim feel it, so they don't do melachah. But we also, we don't say tachanun. מנחה ערב שבת, as soon as you daven mincha after chatzos you don't say tachanun, because already there is the kedushah of Shabbos. The same thing with Erev Yom Tov. The truth is, if we go even earlier, even to the beginning of the day, even the beginning of the day of Erev Shabbos, it's already ערב Shabbat. We say Tachanun, but it's called Erev Shabbat. It has a name. על פי הלכה, על פי תורה it's called Erev Shabbat. We don't call it Friday, we don't call it יום הששי, we do, but besides it, it has a name Erev Shabbat, so obviously this has to do with Shabbat, because there is the התפשטות of Shabbat and Yom Tov to then. Actually, it's interesting, the Abudraham writes that the reason we say we don't say Tachanun on Erev Yom Tov a whole day, every Erev Yom Tov we don't say Tachanun, because Yom Tov spreads itself to to the whole day of Erev Yom Tov. And he says Shabbat, really we shouldn't say Erev Shabbat we also shouldn't say Tachanun in the morning, but he says in that case with half a year we wouldn't say Tachanun. All the Erev Shabbat'en and all the Erev Yom Tov'en and all the Shabbatot we wouldn't say, so that's why he says we do, but be'emet, really we shouldn't. So this is the ענין of Erev Shabbat. If we want to use the expression of chasidut, chasidut says that the גילויים of Shabbat and Yom Tov are נמשך to Erev Shabbat and Erev Yom Tov, because the kedushah goes backwards, so to speak. What's going to happen later, that kedushah comes before. This applies not only nowadays when we celebrate Yom Tov, because we already know now what Yom Tov is. Now we know already when Yom Tov comes, we know now that there is going to be a Yom Tov, and the Yom Tov is יציאת מצרים, so before that we already have a feeling of יציאת מצרים. But the first time, before it happened, is the same thing. Before something special happened, before there was a special event that took place בנוגע to the Yidden, which automatically means there is a special spiritual גילוי that's going to take place, before that, that גילוי was there already to a certain extent, like now on ערב שבת. We see that clearly by Pesach. By Pesach we see that the Yidden did not leave מצרים till Pesach, which is the fifteenth day of Nissan. On ערב פסח, he told them to bring the קרבן פסח. And what did he say, why should you bring the קרבן פסח? ואמרתם זבח פסח הוא לה', this is a קרבן פסח אשר פסח ה' על בתי בני ישראל, because Hashem' passed over the houses of the Yidden. It didn't happen yet! It was first going to happen later at night! But already before, on ערב פסח, already Hashem' said bring the קרבן פסח and you call it קרבן פסח because of what going to happen later, because the המשכה is נמשך to before. So whatever takes place on a certain that took place the first time even on a certain day, a special thing, the ערב of it already had the המשכה, the השפעה, the גילוי, whatever expression we're going to use, already had it before. So according to that, the מזבח or whatever happened on ערב שבועות is already a מעין of Shavuos itself. Since ערב שבועות is the day before, so whatever המשכה was gonna take place on Shavuos, in essence, it already was נמשך and started already on ערב שבועות. And this is the inyan of the building of the מזבח, and before I explain, I'm still gonna explain what it is, the inyan of building the מזבח represents what Matan Torah is, and therefore the day before, which is already a המשכה of Matan Torah, already this took place, because on ערב שבועות this took place, which answers a shailah, a different question. It says a פסוק concerning the קרבן תמיד that we bring every that they used to bring every day, it says העשויה בהר סיני, that this is the קרבן that was done in Har Sinai. When did they bring this קרבן תמיד in Har Sinai? We say it in davenen: עולת תמיד העשויה בהר When we talk about the קרבן תמיד, we say in Vayidaber here that you should bring a קרבן תמיד, עולת תמיד העשויה בהר סיני לריח ניחוח אשה לה׳, which was made in Har Sinai. Which קרבן תמיד is it? So it refers to these קרבנות that the Yidden brought on ערב שבועות. That this, according to one opinion in Gemara, was the first of the קרבנות that later on turned into a halacha that every day you have to bring it. So the קרבן תמיד relates to the קרבנות that were brought on ערב שבועות. That's the peshat: עולת תמיד העשויה בהר סיני, which was done at Har Sinai. But the question is, why would we relate the קרבן תמיד that the Yidden brought throughout all the years to the קרבן that they brought by Har Sinai the day before מתן תורה? We know one thing, that whatever we do now does not relate to anything before before מתן תורה. The Rambam says very clearly, any mitzvah that we do now, even though these are some of them are mitzvot that were done before the Torah was given, we don't do it because of that. He says, for instance, milah, he says. Avraham Avinu was commanded to do the mitzvah of milah. The fact that we do milah nowadays is not because Avraham Avinu did it, is because by מתן תורה, Hashem said that the Yidden have to do מצות מילה. When we do the גיד הנשה, we don't eat the גיד הנשה because by Yaakov Avinu he was told גיד הנשה, because by מתן תורה it was told. The seven mitzvot that were given before מתן תורה to the goyim, which we have those mitzvot too, we have those plus, we don't do them because they were given to Noach or to Adam, we do them because they were given by מתן תורה. That's what the Rambam says. So the question is, why would we say that the קרבן תמיד that the Yidden brought throughout all the years is because it started by הר סיני, which was the day before מתן תורה, when we the Rambam says clearly we should not relate anything to before מתן תורה? The answer is, anything done before we can't relate to, but what was done on ערב שבועות we could relate to. Because ערב שבועות, as much as it was the day before מתן תורה, but ערב שבועות is already a beginning of מתן תורה. In other words, the המשכה of מתן תורה came to the day before. In order to describe The pasuk, the Gemara should describe what was it on ערב שבועות which represented already the concept of what was by מתן תורה, so the Gemara says, what was it? The fact that he built a mizbeach and brought korbanot. Not the rest. The rest of the things that they did on that day, the fact that the Yidden said נעשה ונשמע, the fact that they brought them into the brit, in the covenant, those were all preparations that they did to מתן תורה. But on ערב שבועות, already there was the concept of מתן תורה as a beginning of מתן תורה. That was the specialty of ערב שבועות, and that's described through the the mizbeach, as I'll explain in a moment. In other words, there are two things that happened on ערב שבועות: Erev Shavuot is a day before Shavuot, a day before מתן תורה, so therefore there had to be certain preparations they had to do as preparations to מתן תורה, like they had to do the day before, ב׳ סיון and ג׳ סיון and ד׳ סיון. ה׳ סיון, the day before מתן תורה, they had to do some preparations. What were the preparations they did on ה׳ סיון as a preparation to מתן תורה? They went They said נעשה ונשמע, they went into the covenant, he sprinkled the blood, certain things he did to them. The fact that he built a mizbeach, that's the second thing. That's not a preparation to matan Torah, that's already the beginning of matan Torah that took place on that day.

Now, why is bringing making a מזבח and bringing a korban on it considered already the concept of matan Torah? It is because making a מזבח and bringing a korban on the מזבח actually contains the whole purpose of matan Torah. The whole concept of what took place at matan Torah is put in a nutshell in making a מזבח and building, bringing a korban. How is the whole matan Torah put in a nutshell in making a מזבח and bringing a korban? Making a מזבח and bringing a korban is a mitzvah. It was one of the mitzvot. Why is that the whole matan Torah? So, in order to understand that, let's understand what's so special about matan Torah, what took place at matan Torah, so we'll understand how all this fits to the concept of making a מזבח and bringing a korban. We know that before matan Torah, the Avot also kept the mitzvot. The Gemara says, קימו האבות כל התורה כולה עד שלא נתנה. The Avot kept the Torah before it was given. Learning of Torah, we know, was done much before matan Torah. Adam Harishon learned Torah, Noach learned Torah, Rashi in Chumash says נח למד תורה. Noach learned, how did he know which were kosher animals, which were not kosher animals? This he had to take in seven, non-kosher, two. Beit Midrash Shem V'Ever, they had a yeshiva, they learned Torah. Then it says, אברהם זקן ויושב בישיבה, Avraham learned Torah, and יצחק זקן ויושב בישיבה, and יעקב זקן יושב בישיבה. מעולם לא פסקה ישיבה מאבותינו במצרים. In Mitzrayim, they never stopped having yeshiva, they learned Torah. So they learned Torah, they did mitzvot, so what did we make a big fuss of מתן תורה? מתן תורה, השם came down on הר סיני and made a big fuss! There was something new that took place at מתן תורה, that for that Hashem made a whole fuss, when they already knew the mitzvot. They knew what the mitzvot are going to be because many of them kept them before. They learned Torah already. The difference is like this. It says that before, this is based on a Midrash, it's a famous Midrash brought down in the chasidut, in the sichot of the Rebbe many times. It's famous, everyone knows this, but it's, we talk about the inyan, we have to repeat it. The famous Midrash where the Midrash gives a mashal, a mashal of a king who had two countries. And he gives them the names: one was called Rome, one was called Syria. And the melech made a gezeirah: בני רומי לא ירדו לסוריא, ובני סוריא לא ירדו, לא יעלו לרומי. People from Rome should not go down to Syria, people from Syria should not go up to Rome. Made a gezeirah, no communication, no contact between the two. Then, one day, עמד המלך ובטל הגזירה. Then the melech changed his mind, he said, you know what? From now on, בני רומי ירדו לסוריא, ובני סוריא יעלו, you could go up, you could go down. כך, says before מתן תורה, there was a gezeirah: עליונים לא ירדו לתחתונים, תחתונים לא יעלו לעליונים. עליונים means things from above, spirituality, things in the spiritual realm should not come down to the gashmiyut, to the physical realm. תחתונים לא יעלו, the physical realm should not go up. As it says in the pasuk, actually a clear pasuk: השמים שמים להשם והארץ נתן לבני אדם. The shamayim is for Hashem, the eretz is for people. Now, it doesn't mean like people think shamayim means pashut you look at the sky, you see the planets, that's part of eretz, that's. Shamayim means spiritual things. So, spiritual things is for Hashem, eretz is for people. There's a gezeirah, you can't mix the two. Actually, the Rebbe always taytsh that the word gezeirah in the Midrash comes from the word גזר, to cut. There was a cut in between, they couldn't mix, gashmiyut and ruchniyut couldn't mix. But by מתן תורה, עמד הקדוש ברוך הוא ובטל הגזירה, השם got up and nullified the decree, and Hashem said: עליונים ירדו לתחתונים, תחתונים יעלו לעליונים, ואני המתחיל! I'll be the first. What did He say? I'll come down, וירד השם על הר סיני, that's עליונים coming down, ולמשה אמר עלה אל השם, משה, you go up, and there's communication. What does that mean? What it means, in simple words, is before מתן תורה, it was impossible to bring down spirituality, elokut, Godliness into a physical object. It was impossible. And it makes sense why it was impossible, because they're two different worlds, gashmiyut and ruchniyut don't mix. And I always use this mashal, and I'll use it again. You cannot try to bring sechel into a table. Try to explain an idea to the table, and if he doesn't understand it, explain it to him better. Give him a better mashal, another sevara, a better sevara, explain it, it won't work, never! Why? Because they're two worlds. Now, the table, gashmiyut, and the sevara, they're both part of this physical world, just one is tangible, one is not, and still it's impossible to mix the two. Now imagine Godliness and the physical thing? Can't mix. So if you have a physical object, it can't become holy, it can't contain Godliness. So normally it didn't happen. By מתן תורה, Hashem said, I'm giving you a special koach that you're able to bring elokut, Godliness into gashmiyut. And that's the whole purpose: Hashem wanted that we should combine gashmiyut and ruchniyut. Before מתן תורה, when the Avot did a mitzvah, their physical object with which they did the mitzvah had no kedushah. Avraham Avinu put on tefillin, right? Says he kept all the mitzvot. His tefillin, when he put them on, he did something good. When he finished davenen, or whatever he did, he took off the tefillin, you could throw them in the garbage. They had no kedushah whatsoever. Why? Because it's impossible for kedushah, which means Godliness, to come into a physical piece of tefillin. Tefillin is leather. אלקות, Godliness, is Godliness, it can't come in. And the same with everything. His tzitzit he wore, he did all the mitzvot, but they didn't come. By us, after Matan Torah, Hashem made that when you take a piece of leather and you make it into a pair of tefillin and you do a mitzvah with it, it becomes holy. There is אלקות in it, in every object that you use. That's what the Midrash says on the פסוק, לריח שמניך טובים שמן תורק שמך, a pasuk in Shir HaShirim. So the Midrash says, כל מה שעשו לפניך האבות ריחות היו, אבל אנו שמן תורק שמך, כמריק מכלי לכלי, which means like this: Whatever the Avot did was like a smell. And what we do, we actually have the oil, which means like this: When you have perfume, let's say, and you want some of it, there are two ways to get it. Or you take a smell of it, or you a little take a little bit, pour it into your bottle and you take it home. The difference is, you take a smell, the second you have the smell, you have it, and that's it, you don't have any more. But if you pour a little bit and you walk away with it, you have it! That's what it says in the Midrash: What the Avot did was like a smell. When they did it, they did it, that's it, it left afterwards. We, when we do a mitzvah, we take the oil itself, we take the perfume, we have it, because this is the whole חידוש of Matan Torah. Not that he told them the mitzvot that are told in the Torah, they knew that before. He caused, Hashem caused there should be able to be a combination of גשמיות and רוחניות. This explains, and this is simple things, explains that why when Avraham Avinu wanted Eliezer to swear, he told him שים נא ידך תחת ירכי. He said, \"Hold me close to the mitzvah of milah.\" Rashi says, why did he say the mitzvah of milah? Because when you swear, you have to hold a חפץ של קדושה. You have to hold an object which is holy. And at that time, the only mitzvah they had was the mitzvah of milah, so the only thing that he could do was mitzvah of milah. The question is: What do you mean that's the only thing they had? Avraham Avinu had a pair of tefillin! So why didn't he say, \"Hold my tefillin\"? He kept all mitzvot! Especially to do something like this which is not צניעותדיק, but he had no choice. What do you mean he had no choice? He had choice! He could have given the tefillin! The answer is you have to hold a holy object. Avraham Avinu's tefillin was not holy. He weared tefillin, but they were not holy. The tzitzit were not holies. If he had a Sefer Torah, the Sefer Torah was not holy. There was no such thing as a physical holy object. By מתן תורה, Hashem, what he did, he gave us the koach to combine gashmiyut and ruchniyut, that now we take physical world, and in the physical world we bring Elokut. And that's the whole purpose of מתן תורה. Basically, that's the whole purpose of the creation of the world. Hashem created the world for this reason. What does the Midrash say that Chassidut, half of Chassidut is based on this מדרש, נתאוה הקדוש ברוך הוא להיות לו יתברך דירה בתחתונים. Hashem wanted a dwelling place in this low world. And the Alter Rebbe in Tanya explains, what does that mean? In a world which is very, very low, we should bring Hashem into it. Make a dirah, make Hashem live in this low world. Till מתן תורה it didn't happen. Hashem didn't live here, because gashmiyut was a world... ארץ נתן לבני אדם. השם, השמים שמים להשם. By מתן תורה, this is when Hashem fulfilled his desire. He had a desire that there should be a low world, and the Alter Rebbe uses the lashon, תחתון שאין תחתון למטה הימנו, the lowest of the lowest, this physical, physical world. There are so many spiritual worlds, no, this physical world, and here we should combine it with kedusha, with Elokut, with the Oibershter. This is what Hashem wanted with the creation, and it happened by מתן תורה. He gave us the koach to do it. When we will finish with this, we will bring all the Elokut into all the physical objects that we need, that's when Mashiach will come, he will have fulfilled his desire. But our job is to combine the two. Now, out of all the mitzvot, every mitzvah, that happens. Every time you do a mitzvah, you bring Godliness into a physical object. In the tefillin, when you give even money for tzedakah, the money doesn't become holy, emes, but you're bringing kedushah into that money. What's the whole idea you take a dollar from the Rebbe? People, you know, people who don't understand laugh, \"What's it? It's a dollar. What? The Rebbe, so the Rebbe held it. So big deal.\" No, if it belonged to the Rebbe, it belonged to a tzaddik, so he brought kedushah into this dollar. That's what the Gemara says, כל הנוטל פרוטה מאיוב נתברך. By Iyov, someone would get a coin from Iyov would bring him a brachah. Gemara says this. Why? Because Iyov was a tzaddik. And this was his money and he used it for the right things, so he was mamshich, he brought kedushah, he brought Elokus into his money. The Rebbe's dollar has kedushah. But the truth is, anytime we do a mitzvah with a dollar, we're mamshich kedushah into the dollar. Now, it's not holy that you can't throw it away, it's not that type, there are different levels in kedushah, but you're mamshich kedushah. So every mitzvah does it. The problem is, in all mitzvot we don't see it. We believe it, we learn in Torah, we learn in Chassidus, so we know. So when we put on tefillin, before you made this leather into tefillin, this wasn't holy. Now that it became tefillin and you put it on and you did a mitzvah with it, now it's holy. Only a great tzaddik could look at it and could see it, and could feel it, because the kedushah is there. You have to be sensitive to feel it because we don't see it, a tzaddik feels it. I'll repeat this story that they say that somebody once was selling artifacts from the Baal Shem Tov or from different tzaddikim. And R'' Shmuel Gurary, I think, one of the rich chasidim, wanted to give it as a present to the Rebbe Rashab. So he took them all and brought it to the Rebbe, and the Rebbe should choose to see what he thinks is authentic, what is not authentic. So how the story goes that before he managed to go into the Rebbe Rashab, he was waiting to go in, the Frierdiker Rebbe, who was then not a Rebbe, he was then just the son, was there. So he said, \"What are you here for?\" So he said. So the Frierdiker Rebbe says, \"Let me look at it, just.\" So the Frierdiker Rebbe looked at the things and he put some things to one side and some things to another, just like that. Then when he went into the Rebbe Rashab, he told the Rebbe Rashab, \"This is what I brought.\" The Rebbe Rashab looked. So one thing, a few things he put away, he said, \"This is authentic. This belongs to the tzadik. This came. And this is fake, this is not.\" It was exactly the same as the Frierdiker Rebbe did. So he came out and told the Frierdiker Rebbe, and no one knew the Frierdiker Rebbe's such a big tzadik, I mean he was the Rebbe's son, but so he said, \"Oh, I see you...\" He said, \"Nah, don't, it's nothing, it's nothing. A chafetz, an object of a tzadik has kedushah in it. The reason we don't feel it, because we're not sensitive to it. So if you're מהרהר בתשובה, if you think teshuvah in your mind, so you become more sensitive, so that's all I did, I was מהרהר בתשובה, and no no big deal here, it's nothing, it's not.\" But that's the point, the point it's there. The kedushah is there, but you have to be a tzadik to feel it. So when you do a mitzvah with something, we don't see the transformation of the object. There is one mitzvah where the transformation is physical, and that is the mitzvah of korbanot. What's a korban? A korban, you take a mizbeach, which is made of physical rocks, stones, you put a fire on it, and you take a korban and you burn the korban, and the korban is consumed by the fire. So here we see the transformation of the physical piece of meat that turns into food, so to speak, up to Hashem. What is this? Called לחמי לאשי. Korbanot are called food for Hashem. So in the Beit Hamikdash or in the mishkan, actually a fire came down from heaven. So this was a fire of Hashem that actually burned up the korban, transformed the physical animal into food for Hashem. So what you don't see by other things, you see by korbanot. So it comes out that the point of all mitzvot which happened through מתן תורה is seen mainly in the inyan of a mizbeach and bringing a korban. That's the That's why in the Beit Hamikdash the korbanot was the main avodah, because that's what happened. When you look at it you see, what are you doing here? You ask, what are you doing? You take the korban, the meat, and it's burned up by the fire which came from Hashem, in this case, I don't know if it actually came from Hashem, but it represents Hashem, and the fire which represents השם, כי ה' אלקיך אש אוכלה, the fire consumes it. Be'emet, the tefillin is the same. When you put on tefillin, the fire of Hashem consumes this physical object and it turns into a holy object. But you look at it, you don't see a fire, you don't see a consumption, you don't see anything. We believe it, but by mizbe'ach it happens. And that's why making a mizbe'ach and bringing korbanot represents the whole chidush of what מתן תורה is. And therefore the Gemara says that on Erev Shavuot, on ה' Sivan, ערב שבועות, which is already the time when the concept of מתן תורה already was nimshach, was me'ir, was nitpashet, what does the Gemara pick happened on that day to show the specialty of the day? Doesn't say that the Yidden said נעשה ונשמע, which is true, because that's a preparation. The Gemara picks something which is an expression of מתן תורה itself, and that is the idea of making a korban, making a mizbe'ach and bringing a korban, that's why the Gemara picks it. And that's why, interesting, the Gemara says this is a reason why Moshe didn't go up to the mountain on that day. It says Moshe went up to the mountain on ב', on ג', on ד', on ה' he didn't because he made a mizbe'ach. Now, what does that really mean? There was plenty of time for He could have made a mizbe'ach and bring a korban and go up. There was plenty of time. If you look what he did the day before, what did he do on fourth? He went up and then he wrote the whole Torah, then and then he spoke to the Yidden. He could do a lot of things. He was busy, for sure it took him a long time and he was busy, but he could have- this is a reason not to go up? The pshat is, the whole inyan of מתן תורה is not to go up. The מתן תורה is to come to bring down. מתן תורה is not to go to Elokus, to go up to the mountain, to Hashem. The whole ענין of מתן תורה is to combine Godliness with the world, to bring it down. So that's what the Gemara says, ערב שבועות already, he brought- made a מזבח and מקריב קרבנות and didn't go away from the world to go up. Contrary, he came down.

But this, just just to end off, says usually Parashat Bamidbar is the Shabbos before Shavuos. So it says it's the Shabbos before מתן תורה. So it's a lot of רמזים, what's the connection between מדבר and מתן תורה? The Gemara says one thing is that to tell us, just like a מדבר everyone steps on it, the only way you could acquire Torah is if you become בטל, that you don't care if people step on you. Another thing it says, just like a מדבר is הפקר, מדבר is open for everybody, Torah is for everybody. No one should say, \"Can't learn Torah, it belongs to him.\" Doesn't belong to anybody, everybody could come and learn Torah. But besides that, there's another thing: מדבר, it says in Chassidut, represents the lowest of the lowest, ברוחניות. Why? Says what's a מדבר? What's a desert? A desert is אשר לא ישב אדם שם. It's a place where a person doesn't live. So it says in Chassidut, what it means is אדם is אדם העליון. אדם represents Hashem. It represents a place אשר לא ישב אדם שם, that Hashem isn't there. That means it represents a place which is very, very low. If you want to look at it, the whole of Olam Hazeh, the whole of this world is a מדבר. It's a place where it's a העלם והסתר, it's a cover-up on Hashem. Hashem is not here. I mean, He is here, but we don't see Him, like a מדבר. לא ישב אדם שם. It says a עיר, a city, is a place אשר ישב אדם שם, but this is a place that לא ישב. And the whole kavana of מתן תורה is to bring השם, דירה בתחתונים into the מדבר, into olam hazeh, into this world. And this world is a מדבר, this world is an עולם השקר. Says it's called עלמא דשקרא, an עולם of שקר, not like people think. See, people think when it says this world is עולם השקר, it means that people are not honest, people lie. That's not what it means. The world lies! The whole metzius of the world is a lie! It's one big, fat lie! It looks like it's a world and it's a whole metzius, it's a big, fat lie! There's nothing but Hashem, but the world is a metzius that the Aibershter made, that's a one big lie. It looks like a desert ברוחניות, and the kavanah is to change that lie and to bring Elokus into the world. So the Shabbos before, we read Bamidbar because the whole tachlis of matan Torah is to bring Elokus into the מדבר. But already on Erev Shavuos, so besides the הכנות we have to make, our הכנות to matan Torah, we already should start feeling matan Torah. That means that when it comes now to Erev Shavuos, this is every year, so not only we should think, \"Oh, tomorrow we're going to receive the Torah, so tomorrow we're going to do things.\" It starts already on Erev Shavuos, and Erev Shavuos already, if we feel anyway behaving a little bit better because it's matan Torah, don't leave it for Shavuos. It starts on Erev Shavuos. Then we already have matan Torah, and if we have a good Erev Shavuos, then we have a good Shavuos, and we're mekabel the תורה בשמחה ובפנימיות. Amen. Yes? The the mitzvot, these korbanot only, the rest of the korbanot were given together with other mitzvot. Told him, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Hashem commanded him to bring these korbanot. And ו' סיון? No, before, on ה'. But we consider it as part of מתן תורה, because עולת תמיד העשויה בהר סיני is already called מתן תורה. No, no, it says בהר סיני. Only with Hashem said בהר סיני, by מתן תורה. This is already beginning of מתן תורה. Oh, you're asking another question: What was said? What was that on ו' סיון? Given was nothing. Hashem said עשרת הדברות. This is- yeah, this is just this is good to know the facts. People think that Moshe Rabbeinu came down on ו' סיון with the לוחות. I mean, you always see pictures, what took at Shavuos, Moshe holding the לוחות. It's not true! Hashem said עשרת הדברות on Shavuos, and that's all. What happened after עשרת הדברות? Nothing. The next day, Moshe Rabbeinu went up, went up to Hashem. Then he came down, 40 days later he came down with the לוחות. Broke them, שבעה עשר בתמוז. Went up again, was there for 40 days, davened, came down again. Went up then Rosh Chodesh Elul, came down on Yom Kippur, when Hashem said, \"סלחתי כדברך,\" came down with the two לוחות. While he was up there for 40 days and 40 nights, Hashem taught him the Torah. Hashem dictate to him תורה שבכתב... and taught him the כללים, the rules of how to learn תורה שבעל פה. That's what happened during those times. And there's a machloket between Rabbi' Yishmael and Rabbi' Akiva whether he told him כללים ופרטים or just כללותיה ופרטותיה נאמרו מסיני or just כללותיה נאמרו מסיני, פרטותיה later on באוהל מועד. That's a machloket whether the only the general ideas were told by Har Sinai in the 40 days, and the details were told taught to him throughout the 40 years, or even the details were told, all the details were told in this during this 40 days. But on ו' Sivan, nothing happened besides עשרת הדיברות. There was days before there was קולות וברקים, there was all these lightnings and things, and the Yidden were waiting, and on that day also a lot of things happened, but what Hashem said, ימי הגבלה, but on on Shavuot itself, the Aibershter said עשרת הדיברות. Right. Well, there were more things that he said before, he told them on that day the mitzvot of Marah, he repeated to them, but as far as the See, those things was told him כיבוד אב ואם, and he told them the mitzvot which came from Marah, פרה אדומה, certain mitzvot he told before, but we don't do it because of that, we don't do it because of Marah. But the קרבן תמיד we do because of this, because Hashem' Sivan was an exception right because it was the beginning of it. Okay.