תורת השם. Huh? I couldn't drink over there. אין מים אלא תורה אין לחם אלא תורה. Doesn't say אין הרינג אלא תורה. אין קמח אין תורה. אין קמח אין תורה, he meant תורה and קמח. How come they get all that herring, man? Huh? How come they eat all that herring? Yiddish. Yeah, we're holding here the story of נחום איש גמזו. So first we told the story why he had a problem with he was blind, and his hands and his feet. Now we're saying, now the story. מאי קרו ליה נחום, the last line here in middle of מ\"ט, סימן מ\"ט, the bottom of the page, ממש here. Now you got this is not in תענית, we're holding this in תענית. So so when he answered though, אם לא אם לא יראיסוני דכך, דכך, the last line, right? He didn't say גם זו לטובה. Huh? He answered them when he said we have to see you like this, he says, well, if you didn't see me, it would be worse. In other words, this is the best. So he said, this is the best for me. If you wouldn't see me like this, I have a problem, this is very good. Why are they called נחום איש גמזו? Why is he called נחום the man of גמזו? What does גמזו mean? גמזו means this also. What does it mean? So the גמרא says, because דכל מילתא דהוה סלקא ליה, anything that happened to him, אמר he would say, גם זו לטובה, this is also for the good. You know what the ראשי תיבות of גם זו לטובה is? גזל. What? גזל. There's a מדרש that says, מדרש פליאה, that הצדיקים אוכלין מן הגזל ואומרים כדלאל עומר. It's a מדרש פליאה, מדרש פליאה means it makes no sense. They eat from גזל, and they say כדרלעומר. כדרלעומר was the the מלכים in חומש, the four or five. So they said the מפרשים say what it means is they eat מן הגזל, they eat whatever they eat is גזל is ראשי תיבות גם זו לטובה. And they keep on saying, כל דעביד רחמנא לטב עביד. That whatever השם does does for the good. Anyway, so everything that happened No, it's a מדרש פליאה. פליאה means wondrous. Yeah, yeah, a מדרש that officially doesn't make sense. No, no, no. There's someone who gathered together so many מדרש פליאה and put it in one book. It's called מדרש פליאה. Yeah, yeah, there is a ספר. And he lived in גמזו, גימזו near לוד it says. גימזו? גימזו, that was the name of the town. So not גמזו? Oh, גימזו, I'm sorry, גימזו. Okay. Maybe they called the town like that because of this, because of him. Anyway, so always he used to say גם זו לטובה.

זימנא חדא, one time, this is a famous story, בעו לשידורי ישראל דורון לבי קיסר, the אידן wanted to send a present to the king, Caesar. Obviously, they needed something from him, and they wanted to send him a present. אמרו, they said, מאן ייזל, who should go? ייזל נחום איש גמזו, let נחום איש גמזו go, דמלומד בניסיו, he's used to miracles. If we'll need to do a miracle, if something might might happen, he's the guy. This is obviously before he met the poor man who died. I guess, otherwise, he couldn't walk, yeah. Yeah. So, he's מלומד בניסים. I guess they were cuz you never know when you come to the king and you ask for something, you could bring him the best presents. You never know, you got to get him in a good mood. If he's in a bad mood you might have to come onto ניסים, he's the guy. שדרו בידיה, and they sent with him מלא ספיתא דאבנים טובות ומרגליות, a box full of jewels and pearls, and that'll be the present. אזל, he went, ובט, and he slept over בההוא דירה, in this house. בליליא, at night, קמו הנהו דדירא, so the guys, the host, the guys who owned the house, came ושקלינהו לספיתא, they took the box, emptied it out, ומלוה עפרא, they filled it up, they took some sand from the backyard and they filled it up with sand. Huh, was, obviously not, yeah. Now in one גירסא in the גמרא is למחר כי חזינהו, the next day when he saw it, אמר, he said גם זו לטובה. According to that גירסא, it's not כי מטא להתם, so when he went there, שרינהו לספיתא, he brought it to the king, they opened up the box, חזינהו דמליא עפרא, so that he brought a box, a present to the king, a box full of sand. בעא מלכא למקטלינהו, so the king wanted to kill him. Here, look at Yeah. למקטלינהו לכולהו, אמר קא מחייכי בי יהודאי, he says, the אידן are making fun of me. Where the parenthesis coming from? Different גירסא, maybe. I see. אמר, he said, גם זו לטובה, it's also for the good. Now it seems like that parenthesis is not really true, Because would imagine if he saw it, he probably wouldn't give it to the king. Even though it was a miracle, but why would he give it to the king? Anyway, whichever way it was. He's risking not just his own life. He's risking the life of all the people. You're right. Right. I doubt he would give the sand. אמר ליהו, so the king wants to kill him. אמר ליהו, אליהו came אדמי ליה כחד מינייהו. He

disguised himself as one of the officers. אמר ליהו and he said to the king דילמא maybe, הא עפרא מעפרא דאברהם אבוהון הוא. Maybe it's the kind of sand from their father, אברהם. He had a special kind of sand דכי הוה שדי עפרא, הוה סייפא. When he threw and the the the sand turned into arrows. סייפי גילי And גילי when he threw, someone threw eh straw. הוה גילי turned into swords. This was arrows, this was swords, this was spears. So, this is would we think that this is a נס that אליהו הנביא helped make in the זכות of נחום? דכתיב, it says, יתן כעפר חרבו. He says the sand will turn into swords כקש נדף קשתו, and his arrows will be like the the bow and arrow will be like a- from קש, from straw. So, he said maybe that's that kind of sand. So, it's very very valuable. It's very special. הוה חדא מדינתא, so there was one country, דלא מצו למיכבשה, that the king was at war with and he couldn't conquer it. בדקו מיניה, so they said let's try the sand out. They took the sand, וכבשוה, and they, it helped. They threw the sand and that became spears, that became arrows. Oh, so now they were so happy of the present that he brought. עיילוה לבי גנזיה, they took him to the treasures of the king ומלוה לסיפתיה אבנים טובות ומרגליות. They filled up his box with jewels and pearls ושדרוהו ביקרא רבא. And they sent him back with great כבוד. כי אתא, בייסא בההוא דיורא. When he came, he slept over on the way back. He slept over with the greatest honors in the same house. אמרו ליה, so the people of the house said to him, מאי אמטית לבי מלכא, what did you bring to the king דעבדו לך יקרא כולי האי? They gave such much כבוד. Cuz they knew that it wasn't the box because the box had sand in it. They took away the jewels. אמר להו, so he said, מאי דשקלי מהכא, אמטית להתם. Whatever I took for you, the box, as I took it from here, that's I gave it. Oh, so they said that means that the sand in our house, in our backyard, is the special sand. סתרו לדיורייהו, so they broke down their house and they took the whole sand from the whole area. Filled up truck loads or wagon loads, ואמתו לבי מלכא, and they brought it to the king. אמרו ליה, they said to the king, האי עפרא דאייתי, the sand that this guy brought here, הכא מדידן הוה. Came from us. So, whatever you had a small box of it, we have tons, tons of it and we brought you more. בדקו, they tested those, ולא אשכחו, and it did, wasn't, didn't do the job. וקטלינהו להנהו דיורי. So, the king killed these people. They killed them. So, they got their punishment for what they did and he got his reward and he got. And their house was destroyed. Their house was destroyed. Yeah, but they died anyway.

What was it? And the רבי explains the difference between גם זו לטובה and כל מה דעביד רחמנא לטב עביד. That רבי עקיבא said, רבי עקיבא used to. And the famous story with רבי עקיבא we also learned, when he went and he stayed wanted to stay over in someone's house and didn't stay there and he went out. And what happened there? He had a chicken and a candle and a donkey. רבי עקיבא. So the lion came and ate up the the the donkey and chicken died, and the candle went out, and he So he said, \"כל מה דעביד רחמנא לטב עביד.\" Whatever השם does is for the good. The פועל ממש, that night robbers came and robbed the whole city. And they nothing happened to them. Had they had the candle, the robbers would see them. Had they had the donkey, it would make noise or the chicken. So it saved them as whatever. So the רבי says, what's the difference between these two? And he wants to say He said that נחום איש גם זו, גם זו לטובה is a higher מדרגה than כל מה דעביד רחמנא לטב עביד. כל מה דעביד רחמנא לטב עביד means, whatever השם does is for the good. This is, פקע, no good. When he lost his donkey, it's a loss. It's no good, but because of that, something else good happened. Same thing with the rest of it. But גם זו לטובה means, this itself is good. It's not כל מה דעביד רחמנא לטב עביד, means for the good. This itself and this And he says, the story is like that. Here the story also. The fact that they changed it was good. Not only they did something bad, they actually changed it to something better, because had he brought the jewels, we wouldn't know if the king would accept it. The king has millions of jewels. I mean, what what is it needed for? I mean, or it would work or not. Bringing this special sand, that certainly worked. So this was itself The change was a good change, not that was a bad thing that turned out to be. Sometimes, you know, bad things happen, but you miss a plane, that's not in that failed you because of that the plane crashes. So there, I don't know which category that falls in, but sometimes, you know, things happen and later as the story with the guy with the bat that hit him in the head. You know the story of the guy? That yet, yet I saw written someplace there's a guy he was playing and he was a whole It's a whole story. Anyway Somebody, as he was playing baseball, and someone hit him with a bat over the head, ממש cracked his head, and they had to have a serious operation on the spot. When they opened up his head, they saw a tumor. And they fixed, it's a true story, yeah. And they fixed it. Later on, every year he would make a סעודת הודאה on the day that he got hit on the head, not on the day he was cured, cuz that saved his life. So but Rabbi, but there it's a חילוק. I don't know, maybe it's good, could be it's good, but it's a bad thing and turned into good, I don't know. So but Rabbi Akiva, you afterwards you see that it was good. So you say oh. But here also you see, you see it after. It seems like you're saying גם זו לטובה, even though he has to No, what happened now is for the Maybe you don't see it now. Exactly, you don't see it now. You don't see it, but this is good. You have so much faith that you see it now as as You know that this is good, no matter what you see. The fact is The fact this was good, over there the fact it wasn't good. Because of that, something good happened. Right, right. But this itself was a bad thing. To lose to lose your donkey is something bad, אלא מאי? Because of that, something else good happens. זאגט די גמרא ווייטער: Yeah, שויתי ה' It's like one is seeing השגחה פרטית, the other First piece in קיצור שלחן ערוך. One is seeing השגחה פרטית, and then after then, the other is like having אמונה that it's going to work out no matter what. I have no idea, I don't see the השגחה פרטית in it, but it's going to be good. בטחון. בטחון, yeah. The other sees the השגחה פרטית, and you could say it's Doesn't see how. Huh? What did he say after you heard the story? That the guy was cured? That's what the Goy That's for sure. No, he said that already before, that's what he meant. Yeah. What did you say? זאגט די גמרא ווייטער, אמר ליה רב נחמן בר רב חסדא לרב נחמן בר יצחק, רב נחמן בר רב חסדא said to רב נחמן בר יצחק, ליתי מר ליתיב לגבן, \"Why don't you come move to our area? Come near you.\"

אמר ליה, so he said to him, תנינא, \"Didn't we learn that רבי יוסי אומר, רבי יוסי says: לא מקומו של אדם מכבדו, not that the place of a person gives the person honor, אלא הוא מכבד את מקומו, he gives honor to the place.\" In other words, wherever I am, you want to give me honor, so you come to me. This a חשוב'ע place. Says wherever I am, I make the place חשוב. It's not the place wherever the place the place doesn't make me חשוב, I make the place חשוב. שכן מצינו בסיני, we see by הר סיני, שכל זמן שהשכינה שרויה עליו, as long as the שכינה was there, אמרה תורה, the תורה said, גם הצאן והבקר אל ירעו אל מול ההר ההוא. You can't go up to the mountain, even the animals were not allowed to go, anybody went up to the mountain was supposed would die. The mountain was holy. נסתלקה שכינה ממנו, when the שכינה left, אמרה תורה, the תורה says, במשך היובל המה יעלו בהר. That when you'll hear the שופר, you're allowed to go up to on the mountain. And רש\"י says when you'll hear the שופר, סימן לסילוק שכינה. It's a סימן the שכינה left. So it's not the mountain is a חשוב'ע place, because the שכינה is on the mountain became חשוב. The שכינה left, it's not חשוב anymore. You can see the animals would die, that happened, I mean? I don't remember if it I don't know if that happened. I don't know if anybody went up. כן מצינו באהל מועד שבמדבר, we find in the משכן in the מדבר, שכל זמן שאהל מועד נטוי, when the אהל מועד was up, אמרה תורה, the תורה said, ישלחו מן המחנה כל צרוע וכל זב, people who were טמא had to be sent out from the מחנה because that מחנה is called מחנה שכינה and it was a holy place. הוגללו הפרוכת, when they when they took off the פרוכת and they moved the משכן, מיד הותרו זבים ומצורעים ליכנס לשם, now anybody could go there. The קדושה left, there's no קדושה קדושה went away, there's no קדושה left there, because the place was only holy because of the שכינה, because of the אייבערשטער. אמר ליה, so he said, \"Okay, אי הכי, if you're so חשוב, איקום אנא ואיזיל לגבי דמר, oh so I'll go to you. Since you make the place חשוב, so I want to go, so I'll go to he asked him, invited him to come to him, now I'll go to you.\" אמר ליה, so he said, \"No, I'd rather go to you, because מוטב שיבא מנה בן פרס אצל מנה בן מנה, better that a מנה is a hundred, פרס is a half. So it's a hundred dollars and a פרס a half. The father of the other one was a חשוב'ע greater than his father. So it's better than he's a מנה, מנה means a hundred, he's perfect, he's a צדיק. My father is a half a צדיק. You are a big צדיק and your father was a big צדיק, so it's better that a מנה the son of a half should go, which means me, I should go אצל מנה בן מנה to the one that is a hundred and a hundred percent the son of a hundred percent. ולא יבא מנה בן מנה אצל מנה בן פרס, not that you who are a מנה בן מנה, you are a hundred the son of a hundred, you are complete and your father is complete, you should have to come to me.\" In other words, he's saying, \"I make the place חשוב, but you also make the place חשוב, and you are even חשוב'ער, so it's better for me to go to you, that I should go to you than you should come to me.\" Who are these two that were talking? רב נחמן בר רב חסדא and רב נחמן בר יצחק. Oh, so one had Rav, one was Rav and the other, Yitzchak, was not Rav. He's bar Yitzchak, not Rav. The father of רב נחמן בר רב חסדא was greater? Yeah, cause he was רב חסדא and the other was just בר יצחק. That's how we see it. That's how I see it. רש\"י says he's called בר רב חסדא and the other one is called רב נחמן בר יצחק. Even though the word בר is sometimes ראשי תיבות בן רב. But also בר means a son. בר in ארמית, like say בר מצוה, בר מצוה means בן מצוה. רב is different than רב, right? רב goes on, yeah, but if it's a ראשי תיבות, you don't know if it's רב or רב. It could be either. But if they do in the גמרא, that's אמורא versus תנא, no? Not exactly. It's whether you had סמיכה or not. One that had סמיכה was called רב, the one that didn't have was called רב, and then there's another place in מסכת סופרים. Yeah, and in מסכת סופרים, it says if a person had תלמידים, he was called רב רבי with a י', רב. And if he didn't have תלמידים, was called רב. The most didn't have תלמידים? Huh? The תנאים had, אמוראים not all. No. No. And we're starting the next piece, just a few lines. בסורא הוה דברה. In

סורא, there was a דבר, there was a plague. בשבבותיה דרב לא הוה דברה. In רב's neighborhood, was no plague. סברו מינה, they thought, the people saw this thought משום דזכותיה דרב דנפישי, because רב's זכות is so great, and that protects. אתחזי להו בחלמא, so they saw in the dream, רב נפישא זכותיה טובא. רב's זכות is so great. But הא מילתא זוטרא. Look at that, this to say this miracle, that's that's not. You don't need רב's זכות for that. רב's זכות is too big, that you use for bigger things. You don't need רב's זכות for that. But what is the זכות? אלא משום ההוא גברא דקא מושיל מרא וזבילא לבי קבורה. There was this man there that lived in the neighborhood who would lend out shovels and a זבילא is a is a a hatchet, like this was... A hoe? Huh? What's a hoe? A hoe is like an instrument for gardening. Anyway, just to to dig. He would lend it out to make קברים. He specially had this, and he would lend it out to people to help them bury their dead. And that זכות was the זכות that helped that that neighborhood did not have any could any plague. Sounds like a really big זכות. Why? So, it's that not everyone had it and people didn't give it, and he specially bought it, probably spent money to buy it. Quite probably put an effort into it. יישר כח. And you said that dead people weren't laying around. Maybe that's why there wasn't like a... Like when they had the black plague they weren't clean. There was germs going... Well, this was actually before the plague. Why did it... When the plague started, it didn't go there. Right. It didn't go there because... Because that's what he used to do. They had more hygiene. Well, that's the זכות. That's the רוחניות, but the גשמיות is they didn't have dead people laying around. Because the other places couldn't bury them. Winter, this. Well, they had dead people laying around, so it caused it caused the