him on these things. Yeah, we're holding here סימן ס״ד. I was just way off. I said מ״ג. Ah, now you're way off. This is what? I wasn't learning I wasn't learning the, sorry. Oh, sorry, yeah, I meant this is where it's מ״ד, מ״ד. I said ס״ד? Way off. The truth is, the way I look, I see it here it's a סמך. It's good, the eyes are getting smaller. No, it's not! If you look closer it's מ״ם. From far it looked like a סמך. I saw, yeah, yeah. סמ״ך, yeah. Zogt di Gemara, הא תו ליכא? הא תו ליכא. Quotes a pasuk: היתה ירושלים לנדה ביניהם, it's in the beginning of Eicha. And Eicha tells about Yerushalayim, what happened to Yerushalayim, it became like a niddah amongst them. Now, it's one of the bad things that happened. אמר רב יהודה אמר רב, לברכה. He means to say it's like a berachah. Keniddah, like a niddah. מה נדה יש לה היתר, just like a niddah, eventually after a certain amount of time she's מותר, אף ירושלים יש לה תקנה, Yerushalayim also will be helped, will be a תקנה. That's the way to look at it. How many days, how many years? Well, it's a long time already. Yeah, that's the way to look at it. Better than an agunah. Yeah, better than. היתה כאלמנה. It says that Yerushalayim was like a widow. אמר רב יהודה, רב יהודה said livrachah. It means a berachah. כאלמנה ולא אלמנה ממש. Like an אלמנה, not a real אלמנה. What does that mean? An אלמנה doesn't have a husband. אלא כאשה שהלך בעלה למדינת הים ודעתו לחזור אליה, like a woman her husband left, so she is like an אלמנה, she doesn't have a husband, but she knows that soon, soon he'll come back. Right, he's like at sea, right? Yeah, a guy took on a trip at sea. So כאלמנה, so the same thing here, it's a berachah. רב יהודה מלא חסידות. אה? וגם There's another pasuk. It says that in Malachi it says that the navi is saying that וגם אני נתתי אתכם נבזים ושפלים. The Eibershter will make you go to galut and be like, בזוי, like a low person. That's fine. So again it's a, it's a bad thing. אמר רב יהודה, לברכה.

דלא מוקמינן מינן לא רישי נהרי ולא גזירי, that because of that, they're not going to make you tax collector, they used to have by every bridge a tax collector. They wouldn't make you that, and they won't make you a judge, they won't make you an officer, they won't, because they're going to be low, but for us it's a bracha, we don't need to be judges for them, we don't have to get in there and become for them, collect money for them. Then there's a pasuk that says in מלכים, והכה ה׳ את ישראל כאשר ינוד ה׳ is going to hit the יידן, כאשר ינוד הקנה במים, like a קנה, like a, a It's a job, it's a job. A reed. Just before, it's a job. Yeah, but it's a job that it says that anybody who's that, he's פסול לעדות. Really? Yeah, because you steal, you take money. Yeah, but the government tells you you have to work. Yeah, but then, but they won't though. But if you work, you take, people used to take extra. They collect taxes, but then people didn't used to know, take and So a Yid is not So the Yid, they're not allowed to. A Yid who does it is is פסול לעדות, because we assume he's a גנב. He could be an honest Oh, we'd assume. Yeah. So it says that he's going to be, Hashem will hit you, smite you, כאשר ינוד הקנה במים, like the reed is moving in the water. אמר רב יהודה אמר רב, לברכה. It's a bracha. What's the bracha here? דאמר רב שמואל בר נחמני אמר רבי יונתן, רב שמואל בר נחמני said in the name of רבי יונתן, מאי דכתיב, what is the meaning, there's a pasuk that says, נאמנים פצעי אוהב, the the the the wounds of an of an enemy of a friend, of a friend, is נאמן, is trustworthy, is good. ונעתרות נשיקות שונא, and the kisses of an enemy is is is is is is bad. That's a remez to something. טובה קללה שקילל אחיה השילוני את ישראל יותר מברכה שבירכם בלעם הרשע. We find Achiya Hashiloni, the Navi, cursed the Yidden. Bilaam But he said if you're not going to behave. Bilaam blessed the Yidden. The קללה that he gave is better than his bracha. That's what it means. We don't need the kisses of a שונא, we don't need the brachot of Bilaam. What happened here? אחיה השילוני קיללם בקנה. Achiya Hashiloni cursed the Yidden that they're going to be hit like a wind hits a קנה. אמר להם לישראל, this is what he said to the יידן, והכה ה׳ את ישראל כאשר ינוד הקנה במים. ה׳ is going to hit the Yidden like a קנה moves in water. And it means you're going to be like a קנה. מה

קנה זה עומד במקום מים, just like a kaneh is in the place of water. It's one good thing. It always has water, so they could always, you know, like this, if it's a place no water, sometimes it's missing. Number two, גזעו מחליף, a kaneh, if you cut off a branch, it regrows. ושרשיו מרובים, has very, a lot of roots. ואפילו כל הרוחות שבעולם באות ונושבות בו, even if all the winds in the world come and blow at it, אין מזיזין אותו ממקומו אלא הולך ובא עמהם, they don't knock it down. What happens is it moves with it, it's soft, so it bends along. דממו הרוחות, so when the winds stop, עמד הקנה במקומו, במקומו, so the reed stays in its own place. כך ישראל, the same by yidden. This is in parentheses, but עומדים במים, which is our Torah, first of all there's like a kaneh that we're always we always will have Torah. He gave like he's saying, a yid will yidden will never be lacking Torah. עמם גולים, and if they go to galut, which is like I said before, like you cut off a piece and they're going away, so piece is taken away, גזעם מחליפין, it regrows, ve'oskim baTorah, and they still learn תורה, שרשיהם מרובין, and they have very strong, a lot of roots. ואפילו כל גליות שבארבע רוחות השמים אין מזיזין אותו מכח התורה. All the galut from all over the world does not move them away from the Torah. Like the reed, all the winds doesn't take it away. Where does that parentheses come from? Is it another girsa or another Gemara? נע, mistama it's a peshat. It's the peshat in So he made the peshat to get the Yeah, yeah, many times like that. Not many, but sometimes. אבל

בלעם הרשע, בלעם ברכם בארז, he blessed them that they're like a cedar tree, but the ברכה, שנאמר it says כארזים, and he had meant farkert. מה ארז זה אינו עומד במקום מים, just like a cedar tree is not in a place of water, ואין גזעו מחליף, if you cut off a piece it won't grow back, ואין שרשיו מרובין, it doesn't have a lot of roots, ואפילו כל הרוחות שבעולם נושבות בו, אינו הולך ובא עמהם, if any wind in the world blows, it's very strong, so it doesn't move with it. כיוון שנשבה רוח דרומית, and when the רוח דרומית, which is a very strong wind, comes, עוקרתו, knocks it down, והופכתו על פניו, and turns it over on its face. So we see here that this is not a good thing. So he, Bilaam, blessed them with the with the with the erez, it's bad. And he cursed them like a kaneh, and that's good. So I thought Bilaam could not curse, and he did Hashem would not allow him. No, he טאקע לפועל יוצא it was a beracha, but in his beracha In a different place, the Gemara says in a different place, מברכתו של אותו רשע אתה יודע מה היה בלבו. From a rasha's heart. No, from what he said, the beracha he gave, we know what he really wanted to say. He wanted to curse them, and Hashem just turned his words, but the same inyan. And this is one of the things. That was kavanah but I suppose his The words are actually Yeah, the words are a beracha, but the beracha ligt in dem, ligt in dem a kelalah.

Rashi just asks a she'eilah: how do we say that ארזים are not by water when his beracha was כארזים עלי מים, like ארזים on the water? So Rashi, usually Rashi doesn't ask she'eilah's, kushya, that is for Tosafos, but Rashi says, yeah, אף על גב דכתיב בקרא כארזים עלי מים, ההוא לאו בלעם קאמר ליה. That's The word עלי מים is not from Bilam. דבלעם אמר כארזים. Bilam said, 'You should be like ארזים.' המלאך השיבו, and the malach answered him, 'You know what? It'll be עלי מים.' The same thing, when it says כנחלים, it says כנחלים נטיו. So נחלים is a נחל is a river, is a stream that could dry up. He davka wanted to say נחל, that you could dry up, and the malach said נטיו, that נטיו means that it'll never get dried up. So that's the pshat it says in פסוק, ויהפך השם אלקיך לך את הקללה לברכה. Hashem turned around, כי כתיב ויהפך השם אלקיך לך את הקללה לברכה. So he says that's what happened. He started off saying something bad, and the malach changed. So when he said nechalim, I mean, when he said arazim, he meant bad, and he actually cursed the Yidden, and in the curse ligt a brachah. What's written in Chumash? Not what the malach said? Well, both words. Oh, both words? כארזים עלי מים, so half the pasuk he said, and half the pasuk the malach said. So this is the maalah of a kaneh. Velo od, a kaneh has even more. That's the only place where we see a pasuk was half said by somebody and half by malach? No, we just learned last week's parashah. That Reuven said, 'Don't do it. Put him in the pit,' and then the second half of the pasuk says, למען הציל אותו. So Rashi says that רוח הקודש אומרת. That that that It's not what he said. He said, 'Take him back.' The pasuk continues, it in order that he had in mind to, cause he didn't say that. ונראה No. That again, that's it's a different pasuk. They they said, 'Let's kill him. ועתה לכו ונהרגהו.' ונראה מה יהיו חלומותיו, it says. 'Let's kill him and throw him in a pit, and we'll see what'll happen to his dreams.' What does Rashi say? Doesn't make any sense. If we'll kill him, obviously nothing will happen to his dreams. They said the first part of the פסוק, שמעון ולוי, 'Let's kill him and throw him in the pit.' The Oibershter said, 'We'll see what'll happen.' So we see a lot of times like that. So another thing what they say, זכה קנה ליטול הימנו קולמוס, a kaneh became a zechut that you could make a pen out of it לכתוב בו ספר תורה, נביאים וכתובים, that you can write ספר תורה, you can write נביאים כתובים. So kaneh is good thing, so when Achiyah HaShiloni said he'll be like a kaneh, he was giving him really a brachah. Kaneh is where the Romans started from. Yes? That's where Rome started from. Yeah, but that's a hard kaneh, not a soft. Now what did that Yaakov plant? Yaakov plant ש... שעה... בשעה ש... בוא בי... שלמה נשא בת פרעה, בא גבריאל, קנה בים, it says לשון קנה. What? Yaakov planted trees in the desert years before so they could what what for the walls of the Mishkan. So here we have a ארזים, the מעלה of a ארז. ארזים is very good in some cases, but the The reed quills, the reeds. Yeah, the chesronot. Chaser, all these chesronot. זאגט די Gemara ווייטער, תנו רבנן, די רבנן האבן געלערנט, לעולם יהא אדם רך כקנה. נו, אז מען רעדט שוין וועגן א קנה, לאז שוין זיין קנה. ווי דער סיפור מיט קרח. דאס איז דער המשך, yeah. Like the story with the guy, know, he only know one derasha, there was a Rabbi, so he used to travel to different cities, but he only knew one derasha in פרשת קרח, but it wasn't always Korach. So he made sure that when he started speaking, made sure that his handkerchief would fall down, make a drop. Oy vey! געפאלן! זאל ער איינגעזונקען ווערן ווי קרח! Let him get sunk, sinking like Korach. נו, we're talking about Korach already, let's discuss Korach. Here also, we're talking about קנה. In Gemara it's a lot of times like that. Sometimes not even the ענין, the person, we bring a few things that the person said in certain ענין. Oh, and you know what else he said? And we bring more. Anyway, לעולם יהא אדם רך כקנה ואל יהא קשה כארז, a person should always be soft like a קנה, like a reed, and not hard like a ארז. ומעשה, this is a famous, famous, famous story. It's not a משלי? It doesn't say here? No. לעולם יהא, that's what he meant, pasuk. I don't think so. Okay, it's a ברייתא. Yeah, תנו רבנן.

מעשה שבא רבי אלעזר ברבי שמעון ממגדל גדור מבית רבו, there was a time Rabbi Elazar bar Rabbi Shimon was travelling from a place Migdal Gedor coming from his rebbi's house, והוא רוכב על חמור, he was riding a donkey, ומטייל על שפת הנהר, and he was riding slowly taking a a walk or a not a walk, walking was driving, but it's called a טיול, taking a stroll, stroll, that's the word I was looking for. ושמח שמחה גדולה, he was very happy, he learned תורה, והיתה דעתו גסה עליו, מפני שלמד תורה הרבה, נו, he felt a gaavah, he was you know he felt I learned so well. Rabbi Elazar. Rabbi Elazar, so it reminds me of this part of Rabbi Elazar Rabbi Elazar ben Shimon Rabbi Elazar, yeah. When there's מעשה with when Rav Men... אה? See, there's another girsa, another girsa is Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar, not Rabbi Elazar ben Shimon, that's a different person, but according to this girsa Rabbi Elazar bar Rabbi Shimon, yeah. מעשה with with Rav Mendele Horodoker, Rav Mendele Horodoker when he was a kid, he was a talmid of the Mezeritcher Maggid, interesting. The Mezeritcher Maggid was not shayach to the Baal Shem Tov yet, when the Mezeritcher Maggid was was a younger time, so he was a teacher and Rav Mendele was his talmid, as a kid. Rav Mendele, a gevaldike head, so he was learning and after he finished up his three דף גמרא in one day, he walked around so happy, and because he was happy, his hat was a little bit on the side, you know, it was a So the Maggid says to him, \"If on three דף גמרא your hat's on the side, how much Gemara do you have to learn to take your hat off completely?\" He said to him. He wanted to show that to take gaavah from him, and he took that as a lesson. Later he became a talmid years, years later he became a talmid as a chasid, but here it was Anyway, so here also, he was ready and דעתו גסה עליו, his mind was you know he was like a gaavah, he learned a lot of Torah.

ונזדמן לו אדם אחד שהיה מכוער ביותר, he happened to meet a guy who was ugly, very ugly. אמר לו, he said to, the ugly man said to him, \"שלום עליך, רבי! שלום עליך, רבי!\" The he wouldn't even answer him. אמר לו, and this what he said to him, he didn't answer him שלום, but he said to him, \"ריקא, you empty-head, כמה מכוער אותו האיש! Look how ugly you are! שמא כל בני עירך מכוערין כמותך? Are all the people in your city as ugly as you are?\" Insulted him. He's lucky he didn't say back, \"Look how fat you are!\" אמר לו, he said, yeah, \"איני יודע, I don't know, I don't know how how other people are. אלא לך ואמור לאומן שעשאני, go to the one that made me, the craftsman that made me, the Eibershter, and tell Him, כמה מכוער כלי זה שעשית! Look what kind of bad look what an ugly כלי you made!\" כיוון שידע בעצמו שחטא, he realized that he made a mistake by saying what he said, when he realized that he sinned, ירד מן החמור, he got off the donkey, ונשתטח לפניו, he bent like he he bent down, bowed down to him, or it actually means prostrated, prostrated, ואמר לו, and he said, \"נעניתי לך, מחול לי. I understand you, you are right. נעניתי לך, you I'm answering you, you're right. But be mochel for what I said.\" אמר לו, \"איני מוחל לך, I'm not mochel you, עד שתלך לאומן שעשאני, until you go to the one that made me, basically till you die,\" you go to the Oibershter and tell him, כמה מכוער כלי זה שעשית, look how ugly a כלי you made.\" Wait, so how does it look like in ruchniyus? But that's the רבי'ס פשט. I mean פשוט פשט, he meant כפשוטו. I mean, mefarshim all say it's ruchniyus, but rebbe would go and insult the guy just for nothing because he looked ugly? But that's a פשוט פשט. so badly. But we'll see in a second, I'll tell you what the Rebbe says here. והיה מטייל אחריו, so he was following him. He guy went ahead, and he was following him. עד שהגיע לעירו, till he came to his city. יצאו בני עירו לקראתו, so all the people from town came to greet him. והיו אומרים לו, and they said to him, \"שלום עליך, רבי, רבי, מורי, מורי, שלום עליך our Rebbe.\" אמר להם, he said to the city, the people, למי אתם קורין רבי, רבי? \"Who're you calling Rebbe?\" אמרו לו, לזה שמטייל אחריך, \"The guy that's behind you.\" אמר להם, \"Yeah? אם זה רבי, if that guy is called a רבי, אל ירבו כמותו בישראל, shouldn't be too many of such Rebbe's if that's a Rebbe.\" אמרו לו, they said to him, \"למה? Why? What did he do to you?\" אמר להם, he said, \"כך וכך עשה לי.\" He told him the whole story, this what he did to me. אמרו לו, they said to him, \"אף על פי כן מחול לו, you should be mochel him, שאדם גדול הוא בתורה, because he's a great talmid chacham.\" אמר להם, he said to them, \"בשבילכם הריני מוחל לו, because of you're begging me, you're asking me, I'll be מוחל, ובלבד שלא יהא רגיל לעשות כן, as long as he's not going to continue doing this.\" מיד נכנס רבי אלעזר בן רבי שמעון ודרש, that's when Elazar went in, and he סטארשנד,

\"לעולם יהא אדם רך כקנה, ואל יהא קשה כארז, be soft, don't be so harsh, and don't and like קשה כארז.\" But the Rabbi, the Rabbi asks, obviously, how could Elazar ben Shimon is going to do some things? So he says, he meant ברוחניות. He saw a guy. Was Eliyahu HaNavi. That's That's a side, but Rashi says and mefarshim say. No, but besides, he he saw this guy who he saw on him that beruchniyus, he saw ugly. He has no רוחניותדיקע מעלה whatsoever. He does He doesn't even have the מעלה of being a creation. Like this, it says in Tanya, פרק ל\"ב, it says by אהרן הכהן, אוהב את הבריות ומקרבן לתורה, you should love the briyot. What's the mean briyot? To love Yidden? What's the briyot? So, Tanya explains that you could have a person that has no מעלה. His only מעלה is that the Oybershter created him. That's all. Even a guy like that, you have to love. So, there is a even that. Don't we all say that he had a nice picture? Yeah, but that's inside what he felt, מתך בגילא. But his avodah, he was so low, he didn't even feel the fact that he's created by the Oybershter. Empty of mitzvot, like a Empty of everything, and that's why he called him ריקא. כרימון. ריקא, you empty head, you have nothing. And when he said that, why did he say it? It's This a whole אריכות. The Rabbi is מסביר that sometimes when you try to explain something to people, and you talk to him, and you give him, and it just doesn't go. It just doesn't go. Not because you didn't do the right thing, sometimes there's a certain block that blocks out from your ideas that you tell him, and normally it should go to him, טמטום הלב, טמטום and whatever we call it, es geht nicht arein. So what's the עצה in such a case? The עצה there is you got to Yeah, you have to break him. You got to You got to break the shell. The moment you break the shell, everything that you said to him is going to kriech arein, but you got to break the shell. This what happened here. He saw this guy, and he said this guy is so low. He wanted to break his shell. How do you break a shell? By telling him כמה מכוער, and it's like cursing cursing him out, telling him, \"You're nothing.\" It broke him. \"Ah, that's first when he realized לילך לאומן שעשאני. Go to the one that made me. He started first now that he broke, he started realizing that there was an אומן that made him. And then he started realizing, and that's how he brought him further, and and he brought him back to The Rabbi brings it לגבי Avraham Avinu, you know, he asked for a שאלה, Avraham Avinu, those used to have a place, and bring people to eat, and he told them, when they asked thanked him, he said, \"Thank the thank the Eibershter.\" Those that didn't want, it says he made him all kinds of tzaros. He made him a bill, and he didn't and he till they had no choice, and they said. So the Rebbe asked, and mefarshim ask He forced him. Why would that forced him? So they said it. He wanted they should say words? He wanted it. So the Rebbe explained that differently. When people used to come, do you think he just said to them to bentsch the Eibershter? He spoke to them. They were there for a week in his house, and he talked to them and convinced them until they realized. There were some people that couldn't convince. They didn't really And he realized, not because they don't have heads, or they don't epes something there. So he had to break the shell. How do you break the shell? So he told them. Made them hard. Made the trouble that broke the shell. Now that he broke the shell, all the explanation that he gave all the time went into their head. So now when he said baruch and then they thanked the Eibershter, they

back remember. Same thing here. Only thing, how does the end fit, where the where he said from that he learned out, לעולם רך כקנה, ואל יהא קשה כארז. In sof, kol sof, it's not a nice thing to do. Oh, but he it's not for, but the sof he said it because, \"I saw the mistake I made.\" So according to this, you have to learn a different pshat. But this is something that you have to do very seldom. See, this is another shita of Chabad, and amol, amol, you got to, you know, work so so fast. He saw, he just meets the guy and he's is right away on him? Yeah, well, he saw, he saw, spoke to him a word and... Yeah, good, R'' Elazar ben R'' Shimon could see. So the Rebbe too brings a story with the Rebbe Rashab, no? That says the same thing. Right in the beginning of the נשיאות, there was a guy went in to the Rebbe Rashab and asked for a bracha that he needed. And the Rebbe Rashab said, \"I'm sorry, I can't help you.\" So he went out, he was crying. So he met up the Rebbe Rashab's brother, and he said, \"Why are you crying?\" So he told him what happened. So he says, \"Let me see what I could do.\" He walks into his brother, says, \"ברודער, אזוי טוט מען? א ייד comes in and asks for a bracha, you tell him that? What you should have done that, even if you can't help him, tell him give him, he say that is, give him chizuk, why tell him that?\" So the Rebbe Rashab said, \"Okay, call him back.\" He called him back, I think he put on his gartel or this, and he gave him a bracha and that helped. So the Rebbe has a she'eilah, so why couldn't he do lechatchila? So he said farkert, he saw that he's a guy not ראוי for a bracha. And the only way to do it, to break something. So he made him feel bad and he walked out and started crying, that made him a kli, now he said, \"Come back and I'll give you a bracha.\" Yeah.

There was one more line to that story, it became a זכה לקנה. Huh? I think there's one more line to that, it became a זכה לקנה. Which one? I believe there's one more line to that. That's why the reed has a to be able to write tefillin and... Oh, the reed is the קנה. It's זוכה that was became... He said that? Oh yeah? Oh.