Since yesterday we learned, they explained a pasuk in Daniel, נו, so he's already explaining some pesukim in Daniel. ס״ז? Yes, Daniel ס״ז. The pasuk says: ואני באתי בדבריך ושר מלכות פרס, says, \"I'm coming, who's the one?\" So here is a whole discussion with Malach Michael, Malach Gavriel, and the שר, the malach of Paras. Okay, so he טייטשט like this: מאי, what is the פשט ואני באתי בדבריך? \"I came back for to your words,\" which means as if he was there, he left, this is Malach Gavriel, and he came back. What does it mean? Okay, so he goes into the whole thing. כדכתיב, it says in Yechezkel: ושבעים איש מזקני בית ישראל, 70 people from the זקנים, ויאזניהו בן שפן עמד בתוכם, this יאזניהו בן שפן is amongst them, עמדים בפניהם, they were standing in front of them, ואיש מקטרתו בידו, each person had his his קטורת in his hands, ועתר ענן הקטרת עלה, and smoke was going up. כתיב, it says: וישלח תבנית יד ויקחני בציצת ראשי, and someone, the malach grabbed me, grabbed me by my hair, schlepped, anyway. ויבא אותי אל חצר בית ה׳, it's all a vision that Yechezkel had, and I came to the yard of Hashem's house, inside, אל פתח היכל ה׳ here, by the door of the היכל of ה׳, בין האולם ובין המזבח, between the אולם and the מזבח, כעשרים וחמשה איש, there were 25 people, אחוריהם אל היכל ה׳, he's showing Yechezkel saw how bad the people were, that he came there he was brought to the, and he saw 25 people, their back was to the היכל ה׳, ופניהם קדמה, their face was מזרח, they were standing with their back to the היכל, to the קדשי קדשים, והמה משתחוים קדמה לשמש, and they were

bowing down towards מזרח to the sun. Okay, that's the pasuk. ממשמע שנאמר, since it says: ופניהם קדמה, their face was to מזרח, איני יודע שאחוריהם אל היכל ה׳? Don't they know their back was to the היכל, because if their face was to מזרח, their back was towards the קדשי קדשים. אלא מה תלמוד לומר ואחוריהם אל היכל ה׳? What does it mean that their back was to היכל ה׳? מלמד שהיו מפרעים את עצמן ומפיחים כלפי מטה. They would undress, and they would actually go to the bathroom in front of the היכל. When it says כלפי מטה, it really means כלפי מעלה. It's only בלשון נקיה. אמר ליה הקדוש ברוך הוא למיכאל, so Hashem It was all in his vision. His vision. All in a vision. Hashem said to Michael, to Malach Michael. Michael is the שר of the Yidden, it's called שרם של ישראל. He says to Michael: מיכאל, סרחו אומתך, your nation sinned. אמר לפניו, so he said: רבונו של עולם, דיין לטובים שבהם. Okay, it's enough, we have good ones amongst them too, they they, the Aibershter said, \"I want to punish them.\" אמר ליה: no, הריני שורף אותם ואת הטובים שבהם. \"I'm going to burn them and the good ones.\" The reason is because they weren't mocheh. The good ones did not protest, they didn't say anything.

מיד, right away, ויאמר אל האיש לבוש הבדים, he said Aibershter said to Malach Gavriel, person who is dressed in in in בדים is linen, linen. Cuz, I don't know why למעלה, it must be the, in the machzor when we talk about the עשרה הרוגי מלכות and he said he went up למעלה, Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel to see, Rabbi Yishmael Kohen Gadol גדול to see, so he said he spoke to the איש לבוש הבדים. They try somehow they describe it that way. ויאמר, and he said: בא אל בינות לגלגל אל תחת לכרוב, come to the גלגל under the כרוב, ומלא חפניך גחלי אש, That's to Gavriel, you know? Huh? Gavriel. Yeah. Says, and take your full hands, full of coal. He's speaking to Gavriel? To Gavriel. And he's always the one who's called לבוש הבדים? I don't know if always, I don't know. Just mentioned that over there also, so... In Daniel? I thought it was from Yishmael Kohen Gadol. In Sefer Daniel it's? Okay, so that, if not, maybe the whole thing is Daniel, I don't know. And he said, fill up your hands with גחלי אש, מבינות לכרובים, from amongst the כרובים, וזרוק על העיר, and throw it on the city, which means, I'm going to burn the city. ויבא לעיני, and he came to my eyes, מיד, וישלח הכרוב את ידו מבינות לכרובים, so the כרוב, there's a malach, put his hands amongst the כרובים, אל האש אשר בינות הכרבים, to the fire that's among the כרובים, וישא, he picked it up, ויתן אל חפני, oh, אל חפני לבוש הבדים, and he put it into the hands of the one that was wearing, that was with the בדים, which is Gavriel. ויקח, and he took, ויצא, and he went out. The maaseh goes like this: the Eibershter says, \"Go and take the fire.\" B'foal, what happened? He sent somebody else, a different malach came and took the fire and brought it to him. אמר רב חנא בר, isn't it, Rav Chanah bar Bizna said: אמר רבי שמעון חסידא, if not, אלמלא לא נצטננו גחלים מידו של מיכאל, מיכאל brought it to him, and on the way, I thought so, when he said, ויאמר אל האיש לבוש הבדים, that's, that, no, that's Gavriel. Rashi says לבוש הבדים is Gavriel. But the, but the person, the כרוב that brought him was Michael. A כרוב is a כרוב? He's, yeah, it's malachim, partly. We'll see in a second, we'll get into the end. And

since it from when he took it from there and he gave it over to him, it's like a kli sheini, like it cooled off. So if it wouldn't have cooled off from the hand of Michael to the hand of גבריאל, לא נשתייר משונאיהם של ישראל שריד ופליט. There wouldn't have been left anything, the fire would have been so strong, it would have burned up the whole city. Cooled it off. And that cooled it off. Ksiv, another pasuk says, והנה האיש לבוש הבדים אשר הקסת במתניו משיב דבר לאמר. This איש לבוש הבדים, that had the קסת, like a pen or whatever in his hand, answered, saying to the אייבערשטער, עשיתי ככל אשר צויתני. I did everything you told me. אמר רבי יוחנן, Rabbi Yochanan says, this was wrong, he didn't do it. בההיא שעתא אפקוהו לגבריאל מאחורי הפרגוד, they took that time Gavriel away from outside behind the curtain, ומחיוהו שיתין פולסי דנורא, and they gave him makot, they gave him 60 lashes of fire. Why? אמרו ליה, they said to him, אי לא עבדת לא עבדת. Who's the they? Well, the בית דין של מעלה, yeah. Had you not listened, it would have been okay. Why? Had you not listened means that you would have been מלמד זכות, and you would have felt that the Yidden don't deserve this, we would have understand it. אי עבדת, אמאי לא עבדת כדפקדוך? If you did it, why didn't you do it like what we told you? And you were told to take it yourself, and lemaaseh you went and you didn't. ועוד, אי עבדת, לית לך, if you did do it already, don't you know, don't you hold אין משיבין על הקלקלה? So if you don't When you send to do something bad, you don't come back like this is a shaliach, when you send a shelichut, you have to come back to the meshaleach and say, עשיתי שליחותך. But not קלקלה, not when it's something bad, then you just stay. And why did you come back and he said, עשיתי ככל אשר צויתני, I did what you told me. So mimela they got upset at Gavriel, so they gave him first of all מכות, ואתויי לדובאל שרא דפרסאי, they

brought a different malach. Because he didn't do his full avodah? In other words, he let it cool off, is that what you're saying? Yeah, that's what So really he was He should have either he should have not done it at all or he should have done it fully. You mean he was supposed to fight with the other malachim to get out of my way and let me do it. He didn't have to pass the coal. Yeah, he didn't have to He should have gone himself and got it. Right, so it seems like he even acted with sechel. Then all of the Yidden would be destroyed. True, but they told him, but you were told, you were told. How could he not do it? I mean, it was a No, you find a לימוד זכות, that's what the mefarshim say, you could have found a לימוד זכות, we understand. So they brought Doviel, Doval, שרא דפרסאי, the שר of the פרסיים, ואוקמוה בדוכתיה, they put it in his place. And they put him, they gave him the job of Gavriel. They kicked him out. They kicked him out. ושימש עשרין וחד יומין, for 21 days he served in his place. Then the כתיב, that's why it says in דניאל, ושר מלכות פרס עומד לנגדי עשרים ואחד יום, that the שר of מלכות פרס was there for 21 days. והנה it says מיכאל אחד השרים הראשונים בא לעזרי, then it says Michael came to help him. Which is worse? I mean, Doviel is a rasha, the שר of פרס, he's a terrible guy. Yeah, but Gavriel was also trying was also there No, but but this guy is the שר of the goyim, of the פרסיים, not good. Which is worse than Gavriel being No, you see we'll see in a little bit. Says, ואני נותרתי שם אצל מלכי פרס. He says what he says. Michael came to help him, and Gavriel had to stay over there in the side. עשרין וחד מלאכי ואפרכסי דמשך, they gave him 21 malachim, and he was in control of the But the פרסיים were in control of the יידן of making up who should pay taxes, who should not pay taxes, which is all from the t zaros that the יידן

had. אמר להו, and he said to them, כתובו לי ישראל בכרגא, write down, make the bad גזירה, write down in the גזירה that they have to pay taxes, heavy taxes. Then you hear another thing, כתובו ליה, כתבו ליה, they wrote. Then he said, כתובו לי רבנן בכרגא, write down even that the talmidei chachamim have to pay taxes, because usually it says talmidei chachamim are patur from taxes. Even here, I don't know how it's now, but it used to be that the clergy was exempt from taxes, certain sales taxes. Not now, I don't think. No? The church? You could, you didn't No, it's a long story. It belongs to the parsonage. It's not for the clergy, to the to the shul. A variation, yeah. In general, but if for clergy, a member of clergy would buy, if you showed that you're a rabbi or lehavdil a גלח, you don't pay taxes. You don't pay sales tax? No. You buy gifts too? Huh? I don't think so. I don't think so. It says you connect yourself with parsonage. In general, parsonage you have to, yeah, that's that's that's that's not, no, that's income tax. So if it's for your living expenses, for your house as a tax-free, that yeah. Yeah, but not on But some of the taxes you have to pay, income tax you have to pay. Because it goes off the income tax to go for you, but not for I remember all sales tax, I remember even as a kid in Cleveland, so oh, my father showed the had to show letter that dressed him rabbi. And they wouldn't charge him tax. I don't think it exists now. I don't think it's like that. Anyway, so he said, first it exists for organizations. I mean organizations, a tax-exempt organization. But you know where the whole thing of a clergy being exempt of taxes comes from? From Yosef. Yosef. Yeah. Anyway, so first he says, write down that they pay taxes. They wrote down. They wrote down that the talmidei chachamim pay taxes. כתבו ליה. בעידן דבעו למיחתם ליה, when they wanted to sign it, אמר גבריאל מאחורי הפרגוד, גבריאל was behind the curtains. אמר, he said, he quoted the פסוק, שוא לכם משכימי קום מאחרי שבת אכלי לחם העצבים כן יתן לידידו שנא. What he's saying is that is it right for the גוים that the חכמים should be given over to their hands? If the Torah says how great these are people who get up in the morning, and even says more, כן יתן לידידו שנא, מאי כן יתן לידידו שנא? אמר רבי יצחק: אלו נשיהם של תלמידי חכמים. Even, there are, there is exemptions? You can get exempt from self-employment tax. Yeah. Not real estate, not sales tax. Not real estate. Okay. So even the wives, מנדדות שינה מעיניהם, they don't sleep at night בעולם הזה. Why? Because they wait for their husbands, and what is that saying? Yeah. Sheinah is לשון sleeping. Sleeping. ידידו is a ידיד, that means the one, the friend of the of the man, the wife. And they don't sleep at night, and because they wait for the husbands to come home from, and they help him go to the שיעור, וזוכות לחיי עולם הבא, and they get עולם הבא. So he said, how could you tax talmidei chachamim? לא אשגחו ביה. They didn't care about what he said. הדר

אמר: רבונו של עולם. Then he said like this, רבונו של עולם, אם יהיו כל חכמי עובדי כוכבים בכף מאזנים, if you'll have all the גוים, all the חכמי גוים on one side of the scale, ודניאל איש חמודות בכף שניה, and Daniel himself on the other side, לא נמצא מכריע את כולם? Wouldn't he overweigh them, wouldn't he tip the scale? In other words, how could you look at like this at a chacham? So he tried to show that you should not pay taxes. אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא: מי הוא זה שמלמד זכות על בני? And who is this guy who is מלמד זכות on my children? אמרו ליה: גבריאל. אמר: הואיל ואתא, ניעול. He kicked him out before. For 21 days he was kicked out. He's doing such a good thing, bring him back. עיילוהו. They brought him back. והיינו דכתיב, that's what it means, ואני באתי בדבריך. I came because of your words. It's all to explain this whole המשך, because he started explaining the pasuk of Daniel where it says that the malach said to him, I came back. So he asked, what do you mean he came back? Where was he till now? What happened he came back? So there goes the whole story, that he was kicked out and this, and finally when he was מלמד זכות on the יידן, the Eibershter said, bring him back. So he was behind the curtain, meaning Hashem couldn't hear him or Hashem had to ask, who is this that's saying this? Behind the curtain meaning he's disconnected somehow? No, I don't know about that. I don't think so. No, the Eibershter, that's the way the Eibershter says, who is this great guy? It's not asking, what's it called, a rhetorical question. A rhetorical, okay. כי אתא, so when he came, אשכחיה, he found דוביאל דהוה נקיט פיתקא בידיה. דוביאל, remember דוביאל? He saw came and he was holding this shtar that they wrote about the talmidei chachamim giving taxes, he saw him holding it. בעו למימר מיניה, they wanted to take it away from him. Wanted to chap it out of his hand. בלע, he swallowed it. So, איכא דאמרי, some say: מיכתב הוה כתיב, מיחתם לא הוה כתיב, it was written, but it wasn't signed yet. איכא דאמרי, some say: מיכתב נמי חתם, it was signed already, but איידי דבלע, since he swallowed it, אימחיק ליה, the signature was erased. It swallowed. No, it means, no, but this was there, the thing is there, but the signature isn't there, that means it's partially written and not written at the same time. And והיינו, therefore, איכא במלכותא דפרסאי, היינו איכא דיהב כרגא, איכא דלא יהב. In the מלכות, some places you pay taxes, some places because it's both true. They did write that they should pay taxes, that's what came true, but on the other hand it wasn't signed or the signature was faded, mimela it's both. It's funny, swallowing it and then, because at first he really didn't swallow it. Right. It's sort of a metaphorical. Well, I mean, there's no gashmiyut there, but as well as So and then, but then it erased because gashmiyut, it would seem that it would smile Just like gashmiyut, you know, when you swallow it's wet, it gets wet, it erased. Then he quoted the pasuk in Daniel, ואני יוצא והנה שר יון בא. He says, I was going out and the שר יון came. In other words, the time has come already that Paras should be over and the שר of יון should take over. So that's when he said Gabriel: אבי אבי, ולא אשגחו ביה. Gabriel started screaming. He didn't want that Yavan should be in control of the Yidden. But he tried to avoid it, stop it. אבי אבי I guess is an expression expression of Oy vey or something, and ולא אשגח בי, he didn't listen, and Yavan took over. They were worse? Yes, they were worse, yeah. Than Persians? Says, is this part of where he throws, throws the stick in the Rome, in Rome? He used to stick the stick in the mud and then Rome was Italy was... No, that's by Shlomo Hamelech's time. Much much earlier. Yeah. There's a pasuk that we're discussing here, ס״ח. מאי דכתיב, what is the pshat in the pasuk,

מנעי רגלך מיחף? Hold back your feet from being without shoes, barefoot. וגרונך מצמא, and hold back your throat from being thirsty. What does that mean? מנעי עצמך מחטא, hold yourself back from sinning כדי שלא יעברו רגליך ליחף, that your feet should not have to walk barefoot. What does that mean? Don't, that you shouldn't, don't do aveirot so you won't have to go to galut. That you shouldn't have to walk with your feet to galut. מנעי, the second part where it says hold back your throat from thirst, מנעי לשונך מדברים בטלים, hold back your throat from דברים בטלים כדי שלא יעבור גרונך לצמא, so your your your throat should not become thirsty. In other words, if you speak דברים בטלים, then you get punished. Okay. And another... and we will stop here. Time is to go. Time to go, yeah. No, it says מנעי. Oh, stay away. Don't do aveirot. That's the best, don't do aveirot. It's a good lesson. Not good to do aveirot. It might be geshmak. Right? I thought you know, how would he know? It says in Torah. That's why it says in Shulchan Aruch that save last עבירה קלה לפני יום כיפור so that we could do teshuvah, kidding. Just you should do a small aveirah because we do aveirot, to do a small aveirah so we should have to do teshuvah on. That's the joke they make. Some people think so. It was like Berdichever, Berdichever met a guy in the... big baal, in Berdichever there was a big בעל עבירה, known, he met him in the street. He says to him, do teshuvah, you know, you have so many aveirot. If you do teshuvah, they'll all become mitzvot. You know how many mitzvot you will have? So he says, Rabbi, I don't want to do teshuvah now, I'm waiting for next year, I'll do more aveirot, so then I'll be able to have more mitzvot. Yashar koach. I would be telling, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Better do it now before it's too late.