hold the סימן נ״ג on top. Mazel tov. Mazel tov for what, for coming in? Everything. All the all the simchot that I didn't say Mazel tov for. Okay. Good, good, his nephews. Okay, we're holding here that's on top of the page here, page 132. Yeah, רב ברוקא חוזאה, Rav Bruka who came from the city called חוזאי, הוה קאי בשוקא דבי לפט, he was in the marketplace of בי לפט. הוה שכיח אליהו גביה, Eliyahu Hanavi was always with him. אמר ליה, so he said to אליהו הנביא, מי איכא בהאי שוקא בר עלמא דאתי? Do you have in this marketplace somebody who we know will have Olam Haba? Is there somebody that you can tell me? אמר ליה, he said לית. No. At this point there's nobody here like that. אדהכי והכי, meantime, אתא ההוא גברא, came a person, דהוה מסיים מסאני אוכמי, he was wearing black shoes, which was not the custom of the Yidden those days. Different color? ולא רמי חוטא דתכלתא בגלימיה, and he didn't wear tzitzit. Whatever, he didn't wear tzitzit. So he didn't look like too frum basically. אמר ליה, so Eliyahu Hanavi said to Rav Bruka, האי בר עלמא דאתי הוא. This guy is going to have Olam Haba. קרא ליה, so he called him, he wanted to discuss and see what is this guy, what's so special about him. He called him, ולא אתא לגביה, he didn't come. אזל איהו בתריה, he didn't come to him so he went to him.

אמר ליה, he said to him, מאי עובדך? What do you do? He wanted to, you know, hear what is your profession, what do you do, why is it, you want to know why he has Olam Haba? אמר ליה, he said to him, זיל האידנא ותא למחר. Now go, I can't talk to you now, come back tomorrow, I'll talk to you. Okay, next day obviously, אתא למחר, אמר ליה, he said, מאי עובדך? What do you do? אמר ליה, he said, זנדוקנא אנא. I am a guard in jail, in the jails there. ואסרנא גברי לחוד ונשי לחוד, when I arrest people and I put them in jail, I make sure that the men are separate and the women are separate. Doesn't every country do that? I guess those days not. By stories those days not, and he was special. ובליליא רמינא פורייא בין גברי לנשי, they make them separate. At night I put my bed in between the sides of the men and the women, כי היכי דלא לעבדו איסורא. So I'm the guard in between, they shouldn't do any issur. דחזינא בת ישראל דיהבו עכו״ם עינייהו עלה, if I see a Jewish woman that the goyim they put their eyes on her, מסרנא נפשאי, I'm moser nefesh, ומצילינא לה, and I save her. I do everything to get her away from there so the goyim shouldn't do anything to her. זימנא חדא, once happened, אסתכנא נערה מאורסה גבן, there was a engaged, married woman that was here, ויהבו בה עובדי כוכבים, the עכו״ם, the גוים put their eye on, on the, the eyes on her, ובעו למינסבה, למינסה, they wanted to by force do it to her, אסבי דורדיא דחמרא, I brought a a red, a basket or a, of of red wine, שמרים of red wine, שמרים is the, dregs it's called. What what comes at the bottom, what's, dregs, dregs, the bottom of red wine, ושדית לה בשיפולי, and I put it, I spilled it on the bottom of her dress, ואמינא להו, and I said to them, דסתנא היא, she's a nidah. Mimela that protected her. Why, they don't, they care? You're talking about the issur, obviously they cared. No, but still, why? It's ma'us to them. Ma'us. Yeah, it's not a issur. I mean issur, they don't care about issur. Yeah, okay. So this is a great zechut, obviously the zechut of this, doing this is so great that this gave him olam haba. Then he asked him, מאי טעמא סיימת מסאני אוכמי? Why did you wear black shoes? אמר ליה, מתאבל אנא על ירושלים. I'm like a avel, because I feel so bad about the חורבן ירושלים, חורבן בית המקדש. Then he said,

מאי טעמא לא רמית חוטא ד, חוטא, why don't you put techelet, why don't you put tzitzit? So he said, כי אזילנא ביני עכו״ם, I go amongst the גוים, כי היכי דלא לידעו דהודאה אנא, and I don't want them to know that I'm a ייד, דכי הויא מילתא דצינעא, because they're, if there are private quiet things, they have a private quiet meeting, ובעו למיגזר גזירתא, and they want to make a gezeirah, decree against the יידן, מגלו לי, they tell me. Because they think I'm one of theirs. This guy was a double agent. Double agent, yeah. Dangerous life. Dangerous life, and he did it mesirat nefesh. So they tell me, ו ואמינא להו לרבנן, so what do I do? I tell the חכמים, ובעו רחמי, and they daven to the Eibershter, ומבטלי, they're mevatel. But if I wouldn't know, they wouldn't be able to daven. Then he said to him, מאי טעמא, why כי אמינא לך אנא מאי עובדך, when I asked you the first time, what do you do? אמרת לי, you told me, זילו האידנא ותא למחר, leave now. Go now and come back tomorrow. In other words, why didn't you answer me right away? If you answered me anyway, but if you wouldn't tell me anything, but you told me, so why couldn't you tell me yesterday? אמר ליה, he said, בהאי שעתא הוה גזרי גזירתא. Punct then I knew that the גוים are going to make a decree, ואמינא, and I said to myself, איזיל ברישא ואשמע להו לרבנן. I knew the גזירה, so the first thing I have to do, go tell the חכמים, כי היכי דליבעו רחמי עלוה דהאי מילתא. They should דאווען to the אייבערשטער, ויהא תועלת ומבטלי. And then, after I did that, then I came back to you. So I was going to tell you, but I didn't want to waste time. That's why I told you to come back tomorrow. So this is the guy that is deserving עולם הבא. אדהכי והכי, while they were talking, אתו תרי אחריני. Two more people came.

אמר ליה, so אליהו הנביא said to this רב ברוקא, הני נמי בני עלמא דאתי נינהו. These people, these two also are people going to have עולם הבא. אזל לגבייהו, he went to them, אמר להו, he said to them, מאי עובדייכו? What do you do? אמרו ליה, they said, אינשי בדיחי אנן. We are people Clowns like Clowns, we we are בדחנים. Comedians. כי חזינן אינש דעציבא דעתיה, if we see a person, meaning a ייד, sad, מבדחינן ליה. We make him happy. It's interesting in the Baal Shem Tov and Keter Shem Tov brings this Gemara quite a few times if I remember correctly. To show the maalah of simcha. By chasidut always simcha, simcha. You see, what made him בני עולם הבא, the fact that they make people happy. אי נמי, another things, the other thing is also כי חזינן בי תרי, if I see two people דאית להו מתיגרא בהדי הדדי, that they argue, have a conflict, טרחינן, I work hard, ועבדינן להו שלמא בהדי הדדי. And that's a great zechut. And that's it says a שלום בין איש לאשתו, ובין אדם אדם לחבירו, ובין איש לאשתו is the greatest thing. And I always tell the vort of the Alter Rebbe whenever we learned that such a thing. תלמוד תורה, because someone, once the Alter Rebbe sent a talmid chacham who was sitting and learning, and the Alter Rebbe sent him to make shalom at the someplace. So they asked later the Alter Rebbe, but it says in in we say in the Mishnah It says after it says that the maalah of making shalom, then it says, ותלמוד תורה כנגד כולם. תלמוד תורה is greater. So how could you tell him to waste time from learning in order to do this? So he answered give me like he always simply answered, \"You don't know the peshat here.\" He said like this, and it says, I think, והבאת שלום שבין אדם לחבירו, ובין איש לאשתו, ותלמוד תורה Then it's כנגד כולם. Learning together with making shalom, if you do that also, then it's כנגד כולם. But if you just have תלמוד תורה, and you don't do that, that's not כנגד כולם. So, I

don't think it's a real peshat. It's just like a remez. Because the remez is, when it comes to this שאלה, the din is that when is תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם, that you're not מבטל תורה only if it could be done to somebody else. מצוה שאי אפשר לעשותה על ידי אחרים. Someone else could do the same thing. So, then we don't say you give up your learning and go do it. Let someone else do it, you sit and learn. And there we say תלמוד תורה is greater because lichorah, you could say, \"Why should I learn if I have opportunity to do a mitzvah?\" So, we say Torah is greater than a mitzvah, but if it's a mitzvah that no one could do, then מבטל תלמוד תורה. Actually, the Gemara has the שאלה. One pasuk says, כל חפציה לא ישוו בה. אפילו חפצי שמים. Nothing is equal to Torah. Even חפצי שמים, holy things, mitzvot. Another one says, כל חפצי כל חפצים לא ישוו בה, ולא חפצי שמים. Comes to חפצי שמים, מצוות, that's greater than Torah. So, which one is it? And one answers, that that one is if אי אפשר לעשותה על ידי אחרים. If someone else could do it instead of you, the mitzvah, then don't do it. Let you learn and someone else. Like someone would say, \"Why should I put on tefillin? B'shalma is that I waste time from learning.\" And no one can put on tefillin for you, you got to do it yourself. אי אפשר לעשותה על ידי אחרים, you got to do it. But Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai didn't put on tefillin. Uh, that's an exception, that's uh uh tefillin did it says tefillah he didn't. Once in 30 days, he davent. Did he have did he have tefillin? Tefillin, he had. You mean in the cave? In the cave, he didn't have any mitzvah for 12 years, 13 years, he didn't have matzah, he didn't have shofar, he didn't have anything. But that's that's ones. I the שאלה אונס רחמנא פטריה, כמאן דעביד לא אמרינן. Ones, you're patur, but you didn't do it. But Rabbi Shimon, in his מדרגה, he was able to ממשיך all the המשכות as if he did whatever, but that's an ones. That's a different story. But as someone who could, uh the bottom line is if it's a mitzvah that you cannot do through somebody else, מבטל תלמוד תורה. Yeah. No, right. It's Right. Yeah. Torah And actually the Gemara says there was a machloket whether תלמוד גדול or מעשה גדול. נמנו וגמרו תלמוד גדול, they made a vote and תלמוד גדול. Why? שהיא מביאה לידי מעשה. So you can't rule out, you can get an answer, yeah. No, so Rashi says, what's the מעלה? שנמצא שניהם בידו. If you learn, you're automatically going to have both. But if you're going to only do mitzvah, you're not going to have learning. But if you learn, it'll bring you to do, so by learning you will have both, that's a מעלה. So the מעלה doesn't mean it's greater, but it's going to be something that's going to bring you. A little like the famous story, some say the, different people they tell the same vort and, some say the Chasam Sofer, some the Chafetz Chaim, some this, that somebody came to him, I always heard it on the Chasam Sofer, then I told somebody, heard it on the Chafetz Chaim, I don't know which one is true. So someone came to him and he asked the Chasam Sofer and he said, I have one hour a week to learn. One hour? What should I learn? The way they tell the story, someone has a story about should I learn mussar or should I learn Gemara? And someone else says you should learn chassidut or Gemara, whatever. So he answered, you have one hour? Learn chassidut or learn mussar. Later they asked him, you have one hour, what's more important? The Gemara, that's a... So he said, if you learn one hour Gemara, you'll learn one hour. If you learn one hour mussar or chassidut, you're going to realize that you have another hour to learn Gemara. It's מביא לידי even learning more, mimela that's kedai. Same thing here, anyway let's get back to the Gemara here. It wasn't the Baal Shem Tov? It's a recurring story. It works for everybody. Changes every couple of years. Every couple of years people attach it to other people. Yeah. שנינו, it said in the משנה, מתריעין על החרב מפני שהיא מכה מהלכת, that this is actually Masechet Taanit which talks about when the chachamim, the rabbanan would make a גזירת תענית, would make a תענית ציבור if certain things happened. So

one of the things, if there is a sword, which means if there is a danger of war, of a sword, of an army, you have to fast. Okay, this is the Mishnah. תנו רבנן, the Gemara says like this, the rabbanan say in a beraita: חרב שאמרו, what they said because of a sword you have to fast, אין צריך לומר חרב שאינה של שלום. It doesn't only mean a sword that's not of peace, that means if there's an army coming against you to fight, then obviously farshteyt zich you have to fast, it's a danger. אלא אפילו חרב של שלום. Even if it's a חרב of peace, which is if a nation, an army wants to cross your country and not to fight with you, just pass כדי to fight another country, you also have to fast, because it's already a danger. I mean the Rebbe would refer to when with U.N., it's a חרב של שלום is having the U.N. in Eretz Yisrael they wanted U.N. peacekeepers, this that's חרב של שלום. And when it says ונתתי שלום בארצכם, so Rashi says אפילו חרב של שלום, like what's the pasuk there? אפילו חרב של שלום, that this is not what we want. But here it says if there's a חרב של שלום, you have to fast, it's a danger. I mean today you know their airspace, countries don't let another country... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Even though they're not going to bother you. And he says שאין לך חרב של שלום יותר מפרעה נכה. There was no other חרב של שלום greater than פרעה נכה. פרעה נכה was going to fight with a different country, and he asked יאשיהו המלך to go through Eretz Yisrael. And he wrote him clearly: I want to go through you, I'm not planning to fight you. אף על פי כן נכשל בו יאשיהו המלך. He stumbled and יאשיהו המלך got killed because of that. What? Oh, that's a pasuk. שנאמר, it says: וישלח אליו מלאכים לאמר, this פרעה נכה sent מלאכים, שלוחין to יאשיהו המלך and he said to him: מה לי ולך מלך יהודה, what do I have with you? In other words, I have nothing against you. לא עליך אתה היום, it's not for you that today I'm coming, כי אל בית מלחמתי, I'm going to the place where I want to fight. ואלקים אמר לבהלני, and God told me to rush up. חדל לך מאלקים אשר עמי, stay away, ולא ישחיתך, if you stay away and don't bother me, then we're not going to bother you and that's it. So he asked to go through. And

what happened in the end there? He didn't let him go through, and the Gemara will say why, and they got into he didn't go, and he went out to fight with him, and Josiah got killed. So we see there's a danger. But in the meantime the Gemara asks: מאי אלקים, when he said ואלקים אמר לבהלני, God said to to rush me up and stay away, אמר רב יהודה אמר רב זו עבודה זרה. It wasn't the Eibershter, he meant his god, his avodah zarah. אמר, so Josiah Hamelech said: הואיל וקא בטח בעבודה זרה, since he's relying on עבודה זרה, יכילנא ליה, so I'm not afraid of him, I'll win. Guy worships avodah zarah and he's relying on avodah zarah, I'll win. Yeah, but what prompted him to fight, you know, he could have let him just pass through? Yeah, but he was a No, because the pasuk says וחרב לא תעבור בארצכם. Yeah, he was that says חרב של שלום, right? You don't have to let anybody go. And he and he wanted to go. Then it says וירו היורים למלך יאשיהו, they shot arrows at מלך יאשיהו. ויאמר המלך לעבדיו, so the king said to his עבדים, העבירוני, take me away from here כי החליתי מאד, I'm very sick. מאי כי החליתי מאד? אמר רב מלמד שעשו כל גופו ככברה, they shot so many arrows that they made so many holes it looked like a sieve that that he became. אמר רב אמר רב שמואל בר נחמני אמר רבי יוחנן, he said, מפני מה נענש יאשיהו? Why was he punished? In other words, what was wrong in what he did really? שהיה לו לימלך בירמיהו ולא נמלך. He should have gone to ask the navi and he didn't go. In our shprakh nowadays we'd say, gefragt dem rebben, we didn't ask the Rebbe. He didn't ask the navi. And just for that, he didn't ask the navi, that's he gets he got punished. Mai drash? What was his drash? What was his sevara to fight it? And he said this pasuk, וחרב לא תעבור בארצכם, the pasuk says the berachah that the Eibershter gives is a sword will not pass your land. מאי חרב? What do we mean a sword? אילימא חרב שאינה של שלום, פשיטא, a sword that's not of peace, means a guy an army fighting with you, can't mean that. וכתיב it says right before it says ונתתי שלום בארץ, I'll give shalom, means there's no war. אלא אפילו חרב של שלום, means even a חרב של שלום. U'mimeila here he saw a חרב של שלום coming through, he said that's not good, u'mimeila that's not I shouldn't let it. The Aibershter doesn't want it, Aibershter promises us, I shouldn't let it. That's why he went to war. But then the Gemara, but he didn't know שאין דורו דומה יפה. He didn't know that his generation is not worth it. Not always the Aibershter says that's the the ultimate is that there should be a שלום בארץ and חרב לא תעבור, even חרב של שלום. But he should have known that's not so pashut, his the country at that, Yidden at that time were not in that high madreiga, u'mimeila it wasn't so good. And, had he asked Yirmiyahu, Yirmiyahu would tell him. That's the thing. If he would ask Yirmiyahu, Yirmiyahu would say, \"Don't no, don't start up, let them go through.\" Ai the berachah would not, not being mekuyam, ein hachi nami, you're not zocheh for this berachah, but he didn't ask, so he didn't ask. Yeah, good, I don't mean them, but the the matzav was that time they were not zocheh. A מלחמת רשות? Huh? A מלחמת שלום is a מלחמת רשות? You mean a חרב של שלום, to fight it? If you, no, if you're afraid that they're going to start up with you, then it's a מלחמת מצוה, because מלחמת מצוה is is to to protect יידן מצר הבא עליהם. No, no, they would have told him no. No, don't don't go, don't fight! Let them go through. Ai, the berachah is not mitkayem, ein hachi nami. No, technically. So, the mefarshim take us, why what if he thought that this is the right thing, why did he have to ask? Since he thought it's the right thing. If you would say he didn't have a derash, he just decided like a king, say how do you decide yourself, go ask. But the Gemara said מאי דרש? So, he darshened a a pasuk, so he thought it was right, so why do we expect him to ask? So, what do we answer? Afilu if you think it's the right thing, you got to ask. You got to ask the Rebbe, and there's no question about it, even in things that you know.

Famous story with Rabbi Nachum Chernobler, yeah? Rabbi Nachum Chernobler once was sitting in the beit midrash at night late, himself, and all of a sudden a malach appeared to him, some and he said, \"I want to teach you. I want to teach you Torah, I want to teach you פנימיות התורה.\" So, he said to the מלאך or to this, he said, \"I have to ask my Rebbe.\" And he went, and he went to the Maggid, and he asked the Maggid. So, the Maggid asked him, \"Did you, by any chance, learn anything from him?\" He said, \"No.\" He said, \"Very good. This was somebody from סטרא אחרא to come and try to test you.\" But then they asked him, \"What made you say to ask? If a you see a מלאך appeared to you, like the the Beis Yosef had a Maggid, the מלאך teaches him, so why did you ask?\" So, he said, \"I'll tell you what happened. When I was a kid, I was a יתום, and my father remarried, and I had a stepmother, very cruel. She had other children, and she was very cruel to me. She hit me. One of the things she I should never she she always used to divide the portions of the food, she gave me the least, and she never let me take anything myself. Once I was very hungry, and there was no one home, and there was The story goes with two גירסאות. One גירסא, it's a זויער מילך, was like milk that they were supposed to drink, and no one was home, and he was very thirsty, very hungry. Some say it was a פאנקאכן, which was a scrambled egg. So, it was there, and he knew that his share is going to be a little this little piece, so he took it. He didn't take any more. When the mother, the stepmother, came home, she saw it's made, 'Who took it?' 'I took it.' She started beating him, saying So, he says, 'What did I do? I didn't take more, I only took my' 'Yeah, but how do you take and how do you do something without asking?' So, to my mind mind that said, this is a, it's a lesson. And the lesson is don't do anything without asking the authority. And that's why when this guy came, I said I'm not doing it till I ask. He went to ask the Maggid, and that saved him. Had he said had you had learned one thing from him, he would have schlepped you to the סטרא אחרא, and then who knows what would happen. So, you got to ask. כי הוה ניחא נפשיה, when he was dying, אתא ירמיה לשיוליה, ירמיה הנביא came to see him. חזייה דהוה קא מרחישן

שפוותיה, so he saw his lips were moving, he was saying something. אמר, so ירמיה said, דילמא חס ושלום אגב צעריה קאמר מילתא כלפי שמיא? Maybe out of pain, he's complaining, saying something bad against the Aibershter. גחין עילויה, he bent down, שמעיה, he heard, דהוה קא מצדיק דינא על נפשיה, that he was, מצדיק דין means saying to himself that he deserved it. וקאמר, he was saying this פסוק, צדיק ה', צדיק הוא ה', השם is right, כי פיהו מריתי, because I did not listen to him, I did something wrong. פתח עליה ירמיה ואמר, so that's where ירמיה said, רוח אפינו משיח ה', ירמיה in in איכה, that he called him משיח ה'. He was the מלך, he was משיח, but he said רוח אפינו משיח ה'. Why? After he heard that even in his when at the end, at his deathbed, he could have, so to speak, complained and he didn't. זאגט די Gemara weiter: רבי יוסי אומר, רבי יוסי says: אין היחיד רשאי לסגף עצמו בתענית. A person should not fast too much. Why? שמא יצטרך לבריות, maybe if you do that, you will become very weak, and if you become weak you won't be able to work, you won't be able to work you won't be able to make a living, and if you don't make a living you're going to need to come and collect tzedakah. ואין הבריות מרחמות עליו, maybe the people will not have rachmanut on you. U'mimela you have to be careful. So as much as there's a inyan in fasting, but if it could have some negative effect, you shouldn't fast.

אמר רב יהודה אמר רב, Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav: מאי טעמא דרבי יוסי? What's the reason? What's the reason, where is the makor that Rabbi Yosi gets this? So if it says, ויהי האדם לנפש חיה, the אדם, the person was a נפש חיה, he taytsh: נשמה שנתתי בך החייה. Means, the נשמה that I gave you, you have to do everything that you should make and make it alive, don't fight it. This actually fits to the דרך הבעל שם טוב, you know, the difference between דרך המוסר and דרך הבעל שם טוב. The דרך המוסר from the Chovot Halevavot and that they did, all that was before was a lot of fasting and sigufim and breaking your body. The Baal Shem Tov said no, you have to serve Hashem with your body, not against you, don't fight your body. עזב תעזב עמו. Okay, so there's some other things similar to chasidut. Taytsh the pasuk: כי תראה חמור שנאך רבץ תחת משאו וחדלת מעזב לו עזב תעזב עמו. So taytsh: כי תראה, when you're going to look, you'll see that חמור, your chomer, your body, שנאך, is your enemy. Look into it, you'll see your body is fighting is your enemy. What is it? רבץ תחת משאו, there's a משא that you have, you have a load, תורה u'mitzvot, and it's laying under, doesn't want to do it. So what's going to be your first reaction? וחדלת מעזב לו, you're going to stop helping him, you're going to fight him. Zogt der pasuk no: עזב תעזב עמו, you have to work with him, you have to eat and drink and do everything l'shem shamayim. That's what chasidim said, 's is gringer, it's easier to fast l'shem shamayim than to eat l'shem shamayim. And the

famous vort from the from the the the Belzer, Rabbi Shalom Belzer, Yom Tov it says you should have חציו לכם וחציו לה', half to you to eat and drink and this, and half to the Eibershter, so half day you daven. He was once in shul davening till very long, and on the way home, everyone left already, he was on the way home with his gabbai, and he turns around to his gabbai, he says, \"Ah! The חציו לכם we did already, now we're going to do the חציו לה', we're going to go eat.\" To him eating is a greater service of Hashem than davening, because that's a harder avodah, and that's a higher darga.