Behar: Shemitah, Har Sinai, and the Security of Complete Bitachon

Transcript

This week's parsha, which is actually last week's parsha, we had the parsha of Shemitah. It's not really last week; it's every day of a person's life. Shemitah is all about a person's daily life, and I'll explain to you what I mean. It says, Vayedaber Hashem el Moshe b'Har Sinai. B'Har Sinai. And then it continues with the parsha of Shemitah: V'shavsa ha'aretz Shabbos laShem. What does that have to do with Har Sinai? I mean, Har Sinai is kol haTorah. The whole Torah was given on Har Sinai. Taryag mitzvos was given on Har Sinai. So why does it speak as an introduction to Shemitah, Vayedaber Hashem el Moshe b'Har Sinai? It says, Rashi, famous Chazal: Ma inyan Shemitah eitzel Har Sinai? Halo kol hamitzvos ne'emru miSinai; ela mah Shemitah, ne'emru klaleha u'prateha v'dikdukeha miSinai, af kulan ne'emru klaleihem v'dikdukeihem miSinai. This is Chazal, kach shnuyah b'Toras Kohanim. So they took Shemitah and they say just like Shemitah is b'Har Sinai, with all its... So too all the mitzvahs. So then pick a different mitzvah. Bring tefillin. Tefillin has a lot of mitzvahs. Say, just like tefillin, בהר סיני, שנאמר כל כלליסיהם ודקדוקיהם ופרטיהם מסיני, אף כל המצוות כולן ככה. Could have chosen any mitzvah. What do you think? Only shemitah has a lot of halachos? Everything has a lot of halachos. Everything has telei telim, telei telim. It's an expression, telei telim, tons and tons of halachos. Tell me, you ever tried to learn Hilchos Tefillin? You ever learned the way you're supposed to write tefillin? So many halachos, so many halachos. Tzitzis, klayim, every, every halacha. You look, Masechtes full. Here, Yevamos, a whole Masechtes, one of the hardest Masechtos in Shas. So when the Torah gave us a mitzvah, the Torah should give a different mitzvah בהר סיני and say, just like this mitzvah, כלליסיהם ודקדוקיהם מסיני, אף כל המצוות מסיני. Why does it choose shemitah? Why does it single out shemitah? I want to tell you pshat I was thinking about. Shemitah is all about bitachon, emunah. You have to believe in Hashem, that Hashem is going to give you food. Sometimes you don't plant shviis, shemitah, yovel, a lot of years sometimes, no planting, and you have to yet trust that Hashem is going to give you your food. Emunah, this is all the Rishonim say, that shemitah is all about emunah, bitachon. Har Sinai, Kabbalas HaTorah is all about bitachon. Be careful leaving the milkaspot. Which one? The something, the milkaspot. Okay, you hear? So the question that we're saying is that shemitah is singled out by Har Sinai, and the answer is because shemitah, which is about emunah and bitachon, is the yesod of Har Sinai, Kabbalas HaTorah. You hear? You hear what we're saying? Ma inyan shemitah le'eitzel Har Sinai? What does shemitah have to do with Har Sinai? And the answer is, shemitah nemru klaleihem u'prateihem v'dikdukeihem miSinai. Af kulan nemru klaleihem v'dikdukeihem miSinai, but we chose shemitah.

Because shemitah is connected to Har Sinai, to Kabbalas HaTorah. What do I mean? I'll explain to you. We're going to learn, as we reach closer to Shavuos, Vayichan sham Yisrael neged hahar, k'ish echad b'lev echad, Vayachnu bamidbar, Vayisu merfidim. The Aruch HaChaim says there was three nekudos that was necessary to be mekabel the Torah. That is, achdus, Vayichan sham Yisrael neged hahar; Vayisu merfidim, that they don't have rifyon yadayim in the Torah. And also, he says a third thing that it was necessary, Vayachnu bamidbar, anavah. Midbar is a symbol of anavah; midbar, nothing grows. I'm going to add a fourth thing, and that is shemitah. Shemitah was necessary; it was a necessary mitzvah ingredient for Kabbalas HaTorah. Rabbi Ruchim, the mashgiach, zecher tzaddik livrachah, points out, if you notice when we say Ava Rabah, Avtanu, what do we say? Bavur avoseinu shebatchu Becha, vattelamdeinu chukei chayim. Because of our fathers who trusted in You. You mean zchus avos, right? That's what you're trying to say? So what does that have to do with our fathers who trusted in You? Just say, Bavur avoseinu. But they only trusted in Hashem; they didn't do anything else. They did a lot of things, the avos. You see, bitachon, says Rabbi Ruchim, that Torah is given to us b'zchus avoseinu shebatchu Becha. You say it every day; you ever thought about it? Bavur avoseinu shebatchu Becha. Why is that? Because batchu bcha. Vatelamdeim. You taught them Torah. You know why vatelamdeim chukei chaim? Because they were batchu bcha. They trusted in you. Says Rabbi Yerucham, trust is a very important ingredient in Kabbalas HaTorah, to get Torah. I put this back into this Rashi. Ma in shemitah l'eitzel Har Sinai. Very much connected. Shemitah was necessary in order to have Har Sinai. Let me go further. The Gra clearly states this yesod, and he says in Mishlei, chaves yud tes: Ikar nesinas Torah l'Yisrael, k'dei sheyasimu bitchonam baHashem. Now I'm going to teach you something interesting. If someone asks you, why did Hashem give Torah? Why did Hashem give it? What would you say? So first you think of the Chazal. Hashem chafetz l'maan tzidko, yagdil Torah v'yadir. Hashem wants to give us mitzvahs so we can earn Olam Haba. Was that according to Yisrael, right? Lefichach hirbah lahem Torah u'mitzvos. Or you would say, we're talking about the mitzvahs is the yesod of Yahadus. The Gra gives us an entirely different picture. Ikar. It doesn't say that it's netinas haTorah bishvil hamitzvos. Ikar netinas haTorah. You know what the word ikar means? The main reason. Matthew, you knew this? What would you say? You know what? Let me show you an interesting point. Let me show you. A lot of people here are... Basically, they help people, they treat, they teach people. So what would you say when someone asks you, Why did Hashem give us the Torah? What would you answer? Simple pashut question, very, you know, basic question. You would say ... Okay, what would you say? Huh? To have emunah. Who taught you this? How do you know this? Ooh, where's Ramban say this? By the nisim, you told me that last Ramban, with the nisim, that the ikar is the nisim to emunah. That famous Ramban, the long Ramban. All right, not bad. He knows, he knows good. Look at that, he knew the Ramban. That's something else. Question is why. Why does Hashem want us to have the Torah? What does He— you know, Torah is not an easy thing. What is He giving us the Torah for? What does He want by giving us the Torah? So I read for you again the Gra: Ikar nesinas Torah liYisrael hi kedei sheyaasimu bitchonam baHashem bitachon. Why is the Torah about bitachon? V'hu...

The ikar hakol hu habitachon hashalem. The ikar of everything, ikar of everything is bitachon hashalem. V'hu klal kol hamitzvos, yeah? The rule of all mitzvos, yeah? Just like it says, V'ahavta l'reacha kamocha, zu klal gadol baTorah, bitachon zu klal gadol b'chol hamitzvos, yeah? Now we go back and we say, huh? Shemitah and Har Sinai are very much connected, no? I'll tell you more. There's a Gra in Mishlei, as well as in Aderes Eliyahu, and I quote, there's a pasuk, Banim lo emun, in Devarim. It says that the children didn't follow in the path of their fathers. Didn't follow in the path of their fathers. Says the Gra, what does it mean, lo emun? Lashon kiyum, that they didn't keep like the fathers. Shelo niskaymu Torasan b'yadam. The Torah didn't stay in their hands, machmas chisaron bitachon. Aderes Eliyahu. You hear? The first generation, we're soon going to learn, when they left Mitzrayim, had a lot of bitachon. The next generation, not so much. The first generation that came out of Russia, the Bucharians, everybody went to yeshiva, yeshiva, everybody yeshiva. The next generation, not the same thing anymore, right? Second generation, not the same as the first. When they left Mitzrayim, they had bitachon. They got the Torah, and then they started to slip in bitachon. So the Torah was lo niskayma b'yado. I want to show you something very interesting. You ready? Tell me something. Who was the best farmer in the last hundred years in Eretz Yisroel? Last hundred years? Yeah. Who was the best farmer? Someone asks you, how'd you know that? How'd you know? It doesn't say here. Where'd you get it from? Who was the best farmer? The Chazon Ish, he was. You know, the Chazon Ish knew farming the best. I don't know if there's anybody who knew farming better than him. His expertise was shemitah and shevi'is and hilchos hatluyos ba'aretz and terumos and ma'asros, and zera'im. Zera'im was his expertise. Do you have any idea how much knowledge in farming you have to have to know zera'im? Unbelievable. All the different utensils and the times to plant and so on and so forth. Okay. Tell me something. When you think of a farmer, what comes to mind? You know what comes to mind? What comes to mind is a worker with overalls, right, that he plays a banjo, yeah, right, that he... That's what you think of a farmer, right? A farmer is the lowest form. Rishonim say that people who work with the adamah become part of the adamah, right? Vayachol Noach. What does it say over there? Ish adamah. What do the Rishonim say? There was ish adamah. The closer you are to the earth, the more earthly you become. Yet, at the same time, you can have a person who knows all about farming and is an angel among men, as the Chazon Ish writes about talmidei chachamim. He kovetz igros, the Chazon Ish writes that a talmid chacham, he looks like a man, sounds like a man. And in English they say, if he looks like a man and sounds like a man, he is a man, right? That's the famous line in English. He quacks like a duck and he does like a duck, and... okay, shain, yeah? The Chazon Ish was mechadesh that he can look like a man and sound like a man, and what is he? He's actually an angel. That's how the Chazon Ish describes talmidei chachamim. And it's yadua that everybody says, who is the Chazon Ish referring to? Himself. That's the famous... that they say that the Chazon Ish was actually talking about himself, but he didn't want to write about himself himself. He wrote about talmidei chachamim. Okay. If you look closely, you'd see them. Now, the point being that on one hand, he knew all the earthly, how to plant, okay. On the other hand, you're talking about a person who lived in the...

You know what the answer is? This Rashi. Ma in shmita l'eitzel Har Sinai. What does shmita have to do with Har Sinai? Shmita is farmer stuff. And the answer is, Ma shmita nemru klaleha uprateha vedikdukeha miSinai, af kulan miSinai. Just like we have, Ve'eileh hamishpatim asher tasim lifneihem, vav mosif al inyan rishon. You hear, Reuven? It's gonna get interesting soon. Don't worry about it. Have to wait for the coffee to settle in, because I'm very tired today. You hear? So just like we have dinei mamonos, and Chazal tell us, Ma eilu miSinai, af eilu miSinai, because it's a chiddush. It's a tremendous chiddush, Ma eilu miSinai, yeah? What's what? Shor shenagach es haparah is from Sinai? Yes. Vav mosif. Remember the Rashi, vav mosif al inyan rishon, Ve'eileh hamishpatim. That just like this is miSinai, you'd never know it. You'd think, Oh, shor shenagach es haparah is from Sinai. What does it have to do with Sinai? What does it have to do with Torah? And the answer is, yes, that even shor shenagach haparah is found in the Torah. The same thing over here too. Ma in shmita l'eitzel Har Sinai, I want to say that's the comparison, that shmita, you would say it's about a farmer business. What is shmita about? And the answer is, even in shmita, with all its laws and all its farming rules and regulations, there's Sinai there. Now let's discuss this. I want to explain. You understand what I'm saying? Say something very nice, very... You have to pay attention. Today's shiur needs to form in your mind, and then you'll understand what I want. You know, there's a tale of two worlds. There's two worlds. This world has part of it. You can live it like the rest of the world, thinking that the world is about waking up and going to work and so on and so forth. And then there's people who walk in the streets and they're living in a different world, in a completely different world. The farmer, he's oisek in farming. True. Yet what is he? He's ish ha'adamah. The Chazon Ish could be oisek in the same thing. Maybe he's not actually doing it, but sometimes he's even doing it. You see pictures of the Chazon Ish going to the farms in Eretz Yisrael, inspecting the chadash and the yashan and the matzos, and he's also going over there, you hear? He's describing the plow and the nichush and the ikur, but he's not ish ha'adamah. He's ish Elokim, living in a different world. You understand what I'm telling you? A person could walk the streets, be osek in olam hazeh. A person, another one could walk the streets in the same olam hazeh, and from it he takes out olam haba. Unbelievable, unbelievable thing. Two worlds. Here, I'll give you an example. A guy goes and sees a house, right? He thinks right away the pool in the backyard, yeah? Enough room for the barbecue with his, with his, with his... cabunchas, what do they call them in Italian? What are... cabunchas, what do they call them? Gumbanjas, gumbanjas, with his gumbanjos. Forgot what it's called. All right, all right. A Yid goes, buys the house. You know what he thinks about? Where's the beis knesses? The sukkah. Where's he gonna put the sukkah? The mezuzahs. Same thing. Say a guy's looking at a house. He's thinking, That tree's not good. You know why? Because I can't build my sukkah underneath it. What do I do with that tree? I'm gonna have to cut that tree down. No? Nice. Yitzchak, no? Am I right or wrong? A Yid has a whole different, it's a whole different perspective. Come on, give me the name in Italian. Gumbanchos, what do they call them? Brunchos. No, vas-y, in Italian. Who? Gambinos. Not Gambinos. Brunchos, okay. Amigos. Amigos is Mexican. What's amigos? All right, the point is the same. The point is the same.

Same thing. Two people could go look at the same house. You know, if you're a person that deals in showing houses to people, you'll see. Show it to a guy. The guy's thinking of how to make the pool. Show it to a Yid, he's worried where the shul is, and the sukkah, and this and that and that. What's the difference? The kosher kitchen. That's the first question, the last. The kitchen's kind of... It's a whole different world. Okay, I want you to pay attention. I'm going to tell you a lot of things, and then eventually it's going to all fit into place. So, mai shmita l'eitzel Har Sinai? Avodas karka, with the klalim and the pratim, what does it have to do with Har Sinai? And what does that have to do with bitachon? We'll discuss this now. The Kli Yakar, and before him the Ramban, asks a very nice question. Why is it that if a person doesn't keep shemitah, terrible things happen to him? But it says, Az tirtzeh ha'aretz es shabsoseha, kol yemei ha'shamah, terrible. And it says, grada, that Eretz Yisrael, you get thrown out of Eretz Yisrael for three things. You know what they are? Who knows what? We go to galus for. Does anybody know what they are? The Ramban brings down this Mishnah, no? Arayos, shefichas damim, and shemitah. Asks the Ramban, how could you even compare the two? You don't keep shevi'is is on the same level as shefichas damim, arayos? Ask the Ramban, how could we put them in the same breath and give you the same punishment for it? So the Kli Yakar discusses and discusses, and he says an interesting point. Shemitah is about emunah, and emunah is the ikar of the Torah. What do you want a person should have? Emunah in shemitah? Not just in Hashem, but in the nisei Hashem, in the miracles of Hashem. Because don't forget, there was a tremendous miracle that happens. He doesn't plant and he has food. Chazal say, what is the miracle? Mizbarech b'me'av. He eats and he's full. He eats and he's full. Didn't grow more necessarily. R' Shlomo learns like this. Didn't grow more necessarily. What happened? V'tzivisi es birchasi, that there's bracha in the food. Oichel me'at u'misbarech b'me'av. He gets full from it. So if a person doesn't trust in that, he gets a punishment as if he's a shoifech damim. Does that make sense? Make sense? I would say, you know, and like the Baalei Mussar speak and the mefarshim say, a moiridike thing: Hashem tzilcha. Hashem is your shadow, says the Yerushalmi. The way you behave, that's how Hashem behaves with you. Tzilcha, He's your shadow. It's your Yerushalmi. Yerushalmi says, right, Hashem shomrecha, Hashem tzilcha, He's your shadow. What does it mean He's your shadow? It's a shadow of you. As much emunah and bitachon you have, that's how the Ribono Shel Olam is towards you. It's Yerushalmi. Baalei Mussar explain that the pshat is this nekudah: if a person doesn't have bitachon, you know what his punishment is? Hashem leaves him without Him. Just משהו leaves him go. You have bitachon, you know what your present is? That Hashem's with you. The Brisker Rav says this pshat. The Brisker Rav says— The Brisker Rav says, Kavei el Hashem, chazak vya'ametz libecha, v'kavei el Hashem. What does it mean? Kavei el Hashem, chazak vya'ametz libecha, and v'kavei el Hashem. Says the Brisker Rav, that's the present you get. The present you get if you trust Hashem is kavei el Hashem. Hashem lets you trust in Him. No, he says the biggest bracha, the biggest thing that you have is you can trust in Hashem. The present that Hashem gives you, emunah itself. That's what He gives you. You live your life with bitachon, you're the richest guy in the world. So you know what Hashem gives you? He doesn't give you money, because marbeh nechasim, marbeh da'agah. So whatever He gives you is just going to make it worse, right? So what does He give you? He gives you bitachon. Kavei el Hashem, chazak vya'ametz libecha. You know what you'll get for it? Kavei el Hashem. That's what you'll get. Correct. That's how the Brisker Rav explains. Yeah. I always speak about this because I hold it's such a brilliant insight from the Brisker Rav. Can you imagine, right, that a person has bitachon. A person has bitachon.

How come it doesn't change? We always think to ourselves, how come it doesn't change? I have bitachon. It should have, it should have worked. You know what the Brisker Rav is telling us? It did work. He gives you the situation where you still need to have bitachon in Hashem. Let me ask you a question. If you have to have bitachon that you'll have parnassah, right? So what do you want Hashem to give you parnassah, but then you won't have bitachon anymore because you got it, right? Hashem never gives you in a way that you don't have to have the bitachon, because bitachon is the ikar. Bitachon is the present. I'll give you an example. Brisker Rav gives a very nice story. The Brisker Rav speaks that there were two brothers. There were two brothers. One brother was a lo yutzlach in business, never made any money, and the other brother always made big money. He was good. So what did he do? He took care of his brother. He was a nice guy. So he would always give his brother money. One day he tells his brother, You know, the fact that I give you money is not good. You know why? Because you always rely on me, but in the back of your mind you're afraid, what happens if I lose my money? What happens if I won't be around to give it to you? So I have a better eitzah. I'll give you the money and I'll put it in the bank for you. Like this, you'll have security that what? That you'll always have it, right? Says the Brisker Rav. Pozeh hafuch. Hashem will give you the money, right? Who says you'll last? Who says? He gives you something that you'll always be secure with, and that's what? The bitachon itself. The bitachon itself is the security. So to give him money didn't solve the problem, because you're still always worried, what's going to happen, what's going to happen if... So He gives you something a lot better. That's called security. Kavei el Hashem, chazak v'yaametz libecha, and then what do you get for it? Kavei el Hashem. That's what you get for it. Hashem helps you to have true bitachon. So we've now learned an interesting yesod, and that is that a person in this world can have either bitachon, or he can live through his whole life and not have bitachon. What's the chomer of the galus? Why do you have to go to galus if you don't have bitachon? I'm going to discuss this with you. I believe this very strongly. Eretz Yisrael was created to be the ultimate situation, Gan Eden. Eretz Yisrael was created to be lifnei Hashem. As a matter of fact, I'll prove this to you. Where was Kayin thrown out? It says, Vayigaresh, he threw him out, right? Rafi, where does it say he threw him out? Does anyone remember the pasuk? No, mikedem l'Gan Eden, is Adam. By Kayin, what does it say? What does it say? Milifnei Hashem. Everything was lifnei Hashem. What are you talking about? Everything is lifnei Hashem. Could you throw somebody away from lifnei Hashem? Where was he that he was lifnei Hashem? He wasn't Gan Eden anymore. He was in Yerushalayim. The Kuzari says, Vayetzi milifnei Hashem, he was in Yerushalayim. That's where he was. And he was thrown out from the lifnei Hashem. The Ramban in this week's parsha says, Shabbos laShem. Notice by Shemitah it says Shabbos laShem. Where else does it say the word Shabbos? Shabbos. So Shemitah is like Shabbos, right? Says the Ramban, Shemitah is so, so, so—these are secrets. I'm going to read you the Ramban. It's a very, very interesting Ramban. Yeah? Let me read to you the Ramban. Don't worry, you don't understand yet what I want. It's all going to fall into place. You'll soon see what I want. This coffee tastes unbelievably bad. Should I make new one already? I don't know. Maybe something spoiled here. No, no, just—you know what? You don't have to make it. Just put coffee and water and I'll drink it. So I just have to wake up. I'm exhausted. V'hinei... something doesn't taste good here. V'hinei...

Bekan oiru oisanu, b'sod gadol mi'sodos haTorah, you hear? By Shemitah, says the Ramban, the Torah is telling us, sod gadol mi'sodos haTorah. כבר רמז לנו רב אברהם. The Ibn Ezra already told us about this remez. וטעם שבת לה' כיום השבת. Shemitah is like Shabbos. What does Shemitah have to do with Shabbos? And the answer is, וסוד ימות עולם רמוז במקום הזה. The days of the world, they're merumaz in Shemitah. Says the Ramban, וכוף אוזנך. Put your ear close, like a secret. לשמוע מה שאני רשאי להשמיעך ממנו. What I'm allowed to tell you. He's saying it's very deep stuff. Can't tell you everything. Bend your ear as if I would tell you a secret, and I'll tell you what I'm allowed to tell you. בלשון, in the language, אשר אשמיעך, that you should be able to understand. You ever see a Ramban talk like this? Raffi, you ever saw this Ramban? You ever heard a Ramban talk like this? It sounds like a mekubal, you know. This, I would say, ... would write something like this, you know. Pachad David, Abu Chatzera's sefarim is maybe like this. The Ramban? You ever write? Ramban writes like this, you hear? I read again. וכוף אוזנך לשמוע מה... מה שאני רשאי להשמיע חמימנו בלשון אשר אשמיעך. ... בטעם שבת לשם כי יום השבת, בסוד ימות עולם רמוז במקום הזה, וחוף אזנך, bend your ear, לשמוע מה שאני רשאי להשמיע חמימנו בלשון אשר אשמיעך. ואם פסק, תתבונן. If you're zoche, you'll understand. I guess. You ready? Listen carefully. כבר כוסבתי בשדה בבראשית, כי ששת ימי בראשית הם ימות עולם. The days of the world are in the six days. ששת ימי בראשית is all about what's going to be, ימות עולם, all the days of the world. What about Shabbos, יום השביעי? שבת לה' אלוקיך, כי בו יהיה שבת לשם הגדול. כמו ששנינו בשביעי, מה היו אומרים מזמור שיר ליום השבת. So Shabbos is מזמור שיר ליום השבת, לא ליום שכולו שבת ומנוחה לחיי העולם. So Shabbos is about future, okay? ימים, he says, is רמז למה שנברא במעשה בראשית, what He was created in this world. והשנים ירמוז למה שיהיה בבריאת כל ימי עולם. That's what's in the briah of כל ימי עולם. ועל כן החמיר הכתוב בשמיטה יותר מכל חייבי לאוין. That's why shemitah is much more strict than a regular lav. וחייב הגלות עליה, you're chayav galus for it, כמו שהחמיר בעריות. Just like by arayos you go to galus, v'hichsir inyan pamim rabos, and that's why the Torah writes about it many times, and like it says, Kol yemei haShama tishbois v'aretz tazov. And like he brings the Mishnah in Avos, that galus ba'ah al inui hadin, v'al ivus hadin, v'al shemitas haaretz, mipnei shekol hakoifer bah, whoever is koifer in shemitah, eina modeh b'maaseh Bereishis. If you want, you can walk around to collect from them, but it's milvashi, I don't want to tell you. Yeah, so maybe you can walk around collecting from them if you want. Oh, okay, I'm sorry, I'm trying to help you. Shekol hakoifer bah, eina modeh b'maaseh Bereishis. Whoever is koifer in shemitah is not modeh b'maaseh Bereishis. Why? Koifer in shemitah, yeah? Yeah, if you're koifer in shemitah, you're not modeh b'maaseh Bereishis. Where did you go? What's the connection? What's the shaychus? A person is koifer in shemitah, he's not modeh b'maaseh Bereishis. What does it mean?

Shabbos LaShem, whoever is koifer in shemitah is koifer maaseh Bereishis. You hear this? You hear what's going on? Unbelievable. Let me explain to you what this means. A person could live in a situation where it's Olam Haba, and a person could live in a situation where it's Olam Hazeh, like I began in the beginning of the shiur. The Rambam says clearly at the end of Zeraim that Shevet Levi had a tremendous segulah, and that is they stood separate, badul, separated from all the worldly things. Shevet Levi didn't go to work, you hear? Wake him up. Shevet Levi didn't go to work, you hear? Says the Rambam, lo rak Shevet Levi bilvad. It's not only Shevet Levi, ela kol echad miba'ei olam, anybody that wants to be like Shevet Levi, to separate himself and to be like Hashem originally intended, meaning that He made him yashar. Hashem makes the person yashar. But what? Veheima bikshu cheshbonos rabim. They start once, cheshbonot. So this person is going the way Hashem created without those cheshbonos. I'll explain to you what that means. The Gra says that when a person is born, in his childhood he has a lot of bitachon. As he gets older, he loses that bitachon. I'm going to explain it to you in two seconds. The Gra goes as far as to say that that's why in the Mishkan, the ikar hashra'as haShechinah was mibein hakeruvim. Keruvim had a picture of a what? Of a child. Because the children, the inyan of the child, of the bitachon, is the inyan of emunah, bitachon, like a child, bitmimus, and that's ikar kiyum haShechinah. It's unbelievable. Hear, hear, goyen. Wait, I'll explain it to you. There's another Gra. The Gra says that you know what bitachon is? Bitachon is kegam al al imo. What is kegam al al imo? Like a child who takes from the mother to drink. Tell me, does the child have one second of fear or worry that the mother is not there for him? No. The ikar is kegam al al imo. Here, kegam al al imo. Here, the Gra on Divrei Eliyahu, Tehillim, kuf lamed aleph. Yeah, mamish like a child, says the Gra, kegam al al imo. I want to explain this point to you. We are born yashar. We're born yashar. The yetzer hara drags us into big cheshbonos rabim. A child is pure, and part of his purity is the midah of bitachon, trust. Trust. You know, a child is a trusting, trust. Now, I'm explaining to you like this. Man was created healthy. Healthy means, the way the Ribono Shel Olam wanted yashar, yashar means to have bitachon, to trust. But as he gets older, the cheshbonos start to set in. It's not independent. It becomes scared, worried. You start making cheshbonos, not only the what if, the people around you, trust, not trust. That's with the cheshbonos. But as you're born, you're born trusting. I'll tell you an interesting Gra, another piece of Gra. The Gra says, and it says, Ashrei hagever asher yiftach— I'm sorry, now.

That's the Torah. No, no, no, no, I don't want this one. Tov lachsos baShem, mivtoach b'divim. So what does it mean, tov lachsos laShem, mivtoach b'divim? First of all, what's the chiddush? That's a pasuk: Tov lachsos baShem mivtoach b'divim. The Gra, my grandfather, says a very nice pshat. You know when you start realizing it's tov lachsos laShem? Mivtoach b'divim, when you start trusting people, you know. Bracha levatala. You better start trusting Hashem. Tov lachsot baShem, mivtoach b'divim. But the Gra says a different pshat. The Gra says that there's two types of bitachon. One is that I trust Hashem. That's still not the ultimate bitachon. There's a madrega which is bigger, and that is chisayon. Chisayon. Yeah, people don't know this. I'll tell you what I mean, says the Gra. Hashem promises Avraham Avinu riches. He had bitachon that Hashem will give it to him. That's still not that madrega of bitachon. You know why? Because he trusts Hashem after He promised him. Then there's chisayon. Chisayon is that I don't even question, and I don't even need the havtachah. I don't need to be promised. That's called chisayon. It's a higher level. So tov lachsot baShem, without the bitachon, without the havtachah, mivtoach, trusting in people when they promise you. That's how the pasuk works. If a guy says, I'll promise you, I guarantee you, better off with Hashem not promising you. And trust in that, to trust the guy who's promising. Tov lachsot baShem, mivtoach b'nadiv. Yeah, that's the Gra. Okay. So I'm asking a simple question. What is this ma'alah? I mean, if Hashem promises you and I trust, is also good, no? What's so bad? Hashem promises me and I trust. That's the answer. You just hit it on the button. Psychologically, a person feels safe with a havtachah. And sometimes it's not necessarily Hashem, but it's the promise. You know, lo aleinu, chas v'shalom, if someone is sick and he hears that there's some doctor that can... So psychologically, because he's in a bad... there's hope. So you don't necessarily even trust the doctor, but you're trusting in the possibility because you want to have what? Hope. The inyan of havtachah. I want to tell you something, a chiddush. Ready? There's a very famous segulah, and we can talk about segulos today b'arichut. There's a very famous segulah called segulas Rav Chaim Vital. It's a segulah, and that is, ein od milvado. That if a person says Hashem, only You, he can go to sleep at night in a war zone and he has nothing to worry about. Muvtach lo. It's baduk u'menuseh, says the sefer Rav Chaim Vital, in the back, baduk u'menuseh in the Nefesh HaChaim, baduk u'menuseh that this works. And the Brisker Rav used to use it all the time. It's famous. We spoke about this. Rabosai, you know how this segulah works? By not doing it because it's a segulah. Sometimes a person says, Yeah, I'm scared, but I have the segulah of Rav Chaim Volozhin. Uh, uh, uh, uh. You're trusting the segulah. You're trusting the segulah. Psychologically, the kamea. Psychologically, I have something in my pocket. No, don't go that far. But I want to say, yesod of ein od milvado is chisaron. It's not about the havtacha that it works. It's about taka ein od milvado, and I'm going to show you what I mean. A child never thinks to himself, I have nothing to worry about because my father would zicher not do anything to me. Does a child ever think that way? A child doesn't even think about that. You don't see what I'm saying. He doesn't need to think that way. There's nothing to think about. He's safe. It's a different darga. Does the child have to sit and think to himself, My father told me he'll take care of me. Does he need to think about that? It's automatic. What do you have? The word chisaron. You looked up the word chisaron.

Yeah, what is the word? Skula? Let's hear. Oh, Rashi. Okay, leave me alone. I'm telling you something very deep, rabosai. Listen carefully. Listen to what I'm trying to tell you. We don't realize that the right way for a Jew to live is not even to have fear and to answer the fear. Adam poched v'yomeishev et hapachad, sheHaKadosh Baruch Hu ito. No. Lo tzrich leפחד בכלל. There's nothing to. Chisayon is deeper than that. Haynu is only b'aveiros, what are you talking about? Lo ira ra ki Atah imadi. What does that mean? Lo ira ra, I won't have fear from bad, ki Atah imadi. Does it say lo ira mera? Rafi, what does it say? Lo ira from, I won't fear from bad? What does lo ira ra mean? I'm not gonna face. Lo ira. Lo ira doesn't mean see. Ira means fear. Lash yare. I will not fear ra. Does it say, I will not fear from ra, or I will not fear ra? He's not saying I won't be afraid from bad. He's trying to say, I will not be afraid. Bad is approaching, yeah? I won't be afraid. You know why I won't be afraid? Because I have a good gun. Then there's another thing called, he's fearless, not afraid of nothing. Lo ira is not lo ira mera. Lo ira, I don't have that emotion that I'm not afraid. One second, can you get up, Rafi, and help me? I'm very tired today. Why not? You don't see what I mean. Okay. You can have fear approaching. So I'm not afraid from the fear that approaches, right? So that could be a verb. It's a verb. I'm not afraid. I don't have the emotion of fear from the ra. Then there's a noun of lo ira ra. It's not the verb. That's who I am. I'm a person that's not afraid. I'm fearless. A person can have the emotion of fear, but he says to himself, I won't be afraid. You know why? Because I have ki ata imadi. Then there's such a thing called that a person, it's not in case there's danger, he's not afraid. He doesn't have fear. It's not an emotion by him. Huh? Like Superman or Spider-Man. I can't— no, because I know ki ati imadi, and therefore I don't have this emotion of fear ever. I have chisayon, like a child. I'm not afraid. Wait a minute. I'm not finished with you. Wait a second. Tell me, does a child have fear when he gets on the bus that his father's not going to be there, and he's miya'ash, but my father's always there for me? Or he gets on the bus, he doesn't think about it. There's no fear. You still don't understand what I'm saying. No, but he doesn't understand what I'm saying. The what? Yeah, but that's because the child has a problem. It could be possible that there's a child that has a problem and he's afraid that the father's not going to be there because maybe the father wants to show up. One second. I'll ask you a different question. Did you ever see a kid afraid he's not getting lunch? I just want to know, do you ever see a child walk around, What happens if my father doesn't give me lunch today? Oh, but my father always gives me lunch. You ever see a child like that? He knows he's getting lunch. He never thought about it. Does he have to come and say—

I'm not afraid that I'm not going to get lunch, ki ato imadi, because I know my father. What, what? It's not because he got used to it. That's right. If he misses his lunch a few times, because he developed a chush hapachad for it. When a child walks in the street, when a child walks in the street, he doesn't know there's anything to be afraid of. I don't understand. Does he walk around thinking, a terrible thing that might happen to me, but l'maaseh my father's standing here watching me? That's right. That's right. So this is what the Gra says. The Gra is saying a ma'amar dike vort. The Gra is saying a ma'amar dike vort, that kegamal alei imoi, it has to be like the child who gets the milk from the mother. He's not afraid and has to come and say, you know what? Like that. That's what the Gaon is saying. The Gaon is saying, that's what I'm trying to explain to you. Lo yira ra is not the verb. Lo yira ra means I don't have fear. I don't have it. There's nothing to be afraid of. I'm not afraid. It's not שאני afraid, and I say to myself, don't be afraid because I have protection. Let me ask you a question. I'll give you a perfect example, and this you'll understand. You ready? One guy leaves his doors open, not afraid. The other guy puts up an alarm system. Both guys are not afraid. What guy's worried, but he has an alarm system. What guy's not afraid? He's not afraid. This guy's just not afraid. What do you want? What would you rather be, the guy who's not afraid, or the guy that's afraid but he put up an alarm system? Right? Now you got it? Still not. Still not. Okay, I'm going to show you something very interesting. I'll tell you what. The truth is, I'm tired, and I don't know if I'm explaining myself properly. I'm tired. You can tell I'm tired. You can tell from what I look like. Okay, I can't help it. It's not my fault this time. I fell asleep at 4:30 in the morning. Very sorry. And I woke up at 6. Okay, and then I traveled. Okay, so let me tell you the next part of the shiur, and then we'll tie it all together. You'll see what I want. What is a segulah? So the Rashba in siman reish pei vav in his teshuvot speaks that there's no real explanation behind segulot, but it works. And Chazal gave us that in the Briah that there's such inyanim called segulah. He gives the example on the water, the rocks, the minerals. He says it doesn't make sense, the whole thing, even though, mistama, today they have explanation in science. The Rashba says that that doesn't—it doesn't klap. It doesn't make sense. Okay, I want to show you something very interesting. In Yuma, perek ches, Mishnah vav, the Mishnah says that if a dog, a kelev shota... The person, there's a refuah. You know what the refuah is? To feed him from that kelev, the kaved, the liver. So the machlokes in the Mishnah is, could you feed the person that, the liver? So the Chachamim say no. Rav Masya says yes. Machlokes. What are they arguing? I mean, l'maaseh, he's being bitten by a dog, could die, pikuach nefesh. Says the Ramban—I'm sorry, the Rambam in the peirush haMishnayos—that the reason for this, taam hamatirin, for those that are matir, is because this is a davar refu'i, which is omed b'nisayon, which means it went through tests, and it's davar sichli, it's something which makes sense, makes sense. Which means it's not a wild—what do they call that?—something which is unconventional, an unconventional medicine. So an unconventional medicine, which is treif, says the Rambam, you would not be allowed to feed the person. But since this is conventional, it's an accepted method, and people know that it works, you hear? So if you have any kelev—halacha l'maaseh, if a kelev—on a conventional medicine, if you have a conventional therapy, sure, you never—

I got bitten by a kelef shaita. I get bitten by them all the time in the yeshiva. I'm a ratzon. No, I'm just kidding. So, b'kitzur, the Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim says that even a segulah has the same criteria. A segulah is only mutar if it's something which is amad b'nisayon, because if not, if not, then it's not a refuah, then it's just darkei Emori. It's just stam dvarim chitzonim, and you're not allowed to do it. This is the Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim. The Chasam Sofer uses this lahalacha, and he says, for example, if you have a kohen, yeah, that was very sick, yeah, a kohen that was very sick, and they said that the refuah for the kohen was to touch the hand of a dead goyishe baby. Says the Chasam Sofer, you're allowed to. You're allowed to, because since it's a refuah that's going to work, and ein davar omed bifnei pikuach nefesh, so the Chasam Sofer paskens you could do it. Okay, so if you know anybody who needs to go to a beis hakvaros to touch a dead person, a goy, yeah, even though he's a kohen, Chasam Sofer, it's a famous teshuva. Yoreh Deah siman lamed tes. I don't know how it worked, but they said that he was told that it worked, so he's told the kohen that he should go do it. You're not allowed to touch a dead goyishe baby. You're allowed to go to a cemetery because there's no tumas ohel, but there's tumas maga. You're not allowed to touch. Of course, you're not allowed to go to the ohel, you're allowed to. That's why they have a problem with the kohanim with the milah, if they want to make a bris milah on goyishe babies, you're not allowed to touch dead, dead baby. You're not allowed to touch. He's allowed to go to the ohel, but he's not allowed to, right? Atah metamim b'ohel, but magi'a even a goy is metameh. Okay. The Tosfos Yom HaKippurim, very classic sefer, wants to be mechalek between an issur d'Rabbanan and an issur d'Oraisa. For an issur d'Rabbanan, you're allowed to do it. For an issur d'Oraisa, you're not allowed to do it, yeah? So, for example, if it's neveilos utreifos, that would be issur d'Oraisa, so you're not allowed to do it. Okay. Rebbi Yosef deChida, Rebbi Yosef deChida says you're not allowed. You're not allowed. He says, Asru chachamim—it's a very famous Rebbi Yosef, siman shin aleph—Asru chachamim, the chachamim forbade all types of refuah b'issur. That's it. No issurim, you can't do it, which means he's paskening like the shita of the chachamim, that you're not allowed to use issurim, issurim to heal yourself. Okay. Who discussed this? There's a sefer, Bacharta Bachayim, which is Reb Shlomo Kluger. He wrote many teshuvot on this inyan, and let me tell you what happened. There was once a dayan. They came to him with this very sick person on Shabbos. So he went, and he had a goy write a letter and bring it to the Belzer Rebbe, Reb Aharon of Belz—no, I'm sorry, not Reb Aharon, the Sar Shalom. Wait, no, that he should go and be mispallel for him. A dayan, a dayan in the city, had a goy write a letter that he should be mispallel. So they decided, Reb Shlomo Kluger and the Marsham, to get rid of this dayan. Shabbos? On Shabbos you go and you make a letter to a rebbe that you should daven? And the Rishleima Kluger comes out l'maskana, afilu b'derech nisi, with tefillah, even if it's about a prayer, yeah. V'afilu mispallel k'Chananya ben Dosa. Chazal tell us Chananya ben Dosa was guaranteed with his tefillah. So even him, you wouldn't be allowed on Shabbos, l'chalel Shabbos, to ask him to daven. And that's it. This is not a refuah, beduk u'menusah. Not every tefillah gets answered. It's not tefillah beduk u'menusah. L'maaseh, not always does a tefillah, a segulah work, right? Sometimes, if a person's a rasha, the Zohar says it doesn't work. You could do all the segulos in the world; it's not going to work. I told you the story with the lottery, right? The guy was sitting in the lottery over there, and he bought 500 tickets. I told you over here in Queens, I went in to buy the yahrzeit for my wife, and there was a guy without a yarmulke sitting there buying 500 tickets. So I look at him. He tells me, Ani vadai, you know, I'm definitely going to win. I said, How do you know you're going to win? So he says, I called Eretz Yisrael, I'm mekubal, and the mekubal gave me the winning numbers, and I'm definitely going to win. So I asked him, because it was 500 numbers, and the mekubal probably charged him for every...

For every number. B'kitzur, I asked him, you really think you're gonna win if you walk around with a yarmulke? Expect to win that way? You expect that, that, that... you're gonna win? The Zohar writes clearly, for an adam rasha, all the segulos in the world is not gonna help you. Segulah only works if you're a tzaddik, if you have yiras Shamayim. Okay, so segulah doesn't always work. So it comes out that even for tefillah, even for tefillah, even for nisim, ma'aseh nisim, you can't be mechalel Shabbos. Okay, so I went through the little bit of halacha over here, you know, yeah. Who? Tefillah is one thing, segulos is another thing. It's a different sugya. What I'm trying to say is that since nothing is clear-cut, so a person is not allowed to be somech to say, I'll be mechalel Shabbos for this. Okay. The Rashba and the Ramban are matir. The Rashba and the Ramban say no. For example, kamea. Are you allowed to write a kamea on Shabbos, right? Sheimos. So there's a Rabbeinu Peretz that wrote kamea on Shabbos. He used to do it on Shabbos. The Torah Temimah brings down, very interesting, in the Korban Baruch, that the mekubal, the Rashash, a girl once came to him, she drank poison. She drank poison, so he wanted to save her. So on Shabbos he wrote for her sheimos, a kamea, and the Mekor Baruch brings down that she was saved from it. So you see clearly that you're allowed to write, you know, tzaddikim mekubalim are like on Shabbos, even on Shabbos. If you look at the Kaf HaChaim, Shin Vav. You know what? Take it out. Kaf HaChaim, Shin Vav. Let me show you. I'll show you halacha l'maaseh. Are you allowed on Shabbos to write segulos and these things on Shabbos? All right, so let's see the halacha l'maaseh. It's a machlokes, halacha l'maaseh. The me'ah is when you take a piece of parchment and you write the shemot of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. You write the shemot of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Ah, so that's the question. Many Rishonim say we don't have any more the people who know how to do it, and therefore you can't, you don't have. But let's see halacha l'maaseh. I want to show you the halacha l'maaseh. Shin Vav, os ayin zayin. Pay close attention, soon you're going to see how we tie it all together. Go ahead. Shin Vav, os ayin zayin. Yeah? Okay, so it says, ... maaseh shehira bizman hamageifah. Ah, a story that happened at the time of Kaf HaChaim. You guys love the Kaf HaChaim, no? So you can listen to him. Okay, pay attention, Kaf HaChaim, yeah? Shnat ha-tav kuf ayin daled, shenikef b'Yom Shabbat Kodesh betoch ha'ir. There was a plague on Shabbos, so what do you do? V'shimon achiv haya b'kfar, v'hacholeh haya mitzta'er harbeh, shelo nimtza achiv etzlo, v'ein lo yedi'ah mecholyo, sheretzono haya sheyitpalel al refuato. Oh, he wanted they should daven for him, you hear? Go ahead, yeah. V'gam haya rotze... לצוות על בניו הקטנים, וקראות גיסו של הניגוף, צרת נפשו, קרא לסופר טובר וציווהו שיכתוב כתב בלשון תוגרמה לשמעון הנזכר, העומד בכפר לאודיו, כי נשבע אחיו וניגף, ושיעשה לו שם בכפר איזה לימוד, בצדקה. He wrote him on Shabbos a letter. You hear what we're talking about? On Shabbos, a letter that he should daven for him. Yeah, go ahead. והצדקה מבטלין הגזרה, כן עשה התוגר, והגיע הכתב בשבת ליד שמעון. דהן בזה ניתנו איסור. Why? ומה שיביא סמוכות לזה, עיין שם. Okay, so the Kaf HaChaim paskens, halacha l'maaseh. So for example, chas v'shalom, someone's sick on Shabbos, are you allowed to send out a text message, a fax, a text message to people, daven for him? And the answer is—nobody's gonna get it. Okay, nobody checks their phone. If someone can read the message, right? If someone can read it, if someone can read it, halacha l'maaseh...

You know what I would tell you? Reb Shlomo Zalman writes that since it's a machlokes haposkim, better not to do it. That's how Reb Shlomo Zalman writes. The Eshel Avraham says you could. I'm sorry, you can't. The Kaf HaChaim says you could. The Eshel Avraham says you can't. Okay, what do I want from all this? So what do I want? You hear? To send, to send on Shabbos, that someone should daven for you. Not only you should make a segulah, but to daven for you, that you're not allowed to do on Shabbos, machlokes haposkim. Now I'm going to tell you a story that's brought down in a leinung l'shabeach about Reb Zilber, Reb Yoshev, Reb Chaim Kanievsky. You ready? Benny Fisher is the person who takes care of all the cholim in Eretz Yisrael. Benny Fisher, he gets them the doctors. So he once went with Reb Elyashiv—I'm sorry, once went with Reb Elyashiv, sorry—he once went with a woman whose husband was dying to Reb Elyashiv. And they went to Reb Elyashiv, what do we do? Reb Elyashiv said, I hear, ani yitpalel, I'll pray for him. I'll pray for him. Okay. The lady turns around to Reb Elyashiv and says, What happens if my children ask me, Mother, did you do everything you could to make that the father should have a refuah shleimah? Can I honestly say that I tried everything? I tried everything. Why? Because in America they say there's a doctor who knows, so maybe this is my chiyuv. My chiyuv is... Trust in Hashem, and to know that the doctor in America maybe will help my husband. Reb Elyashiv told Benny Fisher to make a ticket right now to leave this morning, Friday morning, to America. She told him, Alal, fly a different airline. She tells him, But why on Shabbos? You know the story? You heard the story? Why on Shabbos? Now on Shabbos go. Now on Shabbos go. They left on Friday, they flew on Shabbos. They came here. It says over there that the therapy worked and the person was nitzal and everything. So they went to Reb Chaim Kanievsky, ztzal, the one that writes the sefarim, and he says, Why originally did Reb Elyashiv say I need to palel? There's nothing you could do. Then afterwards he changed his mind that right now go and be mechalel Shabbos. What happened? You know what he said? Originally she was telling me the story, al pi derech hateva there was nothing you could do. But then I heard in her words that she has emunah and bitachon in Hashem, something will happen good, she'll have a refuah shleimah in the emunah, and on Shabbos you go. Go on Shabbos. You hear what we're saying? Did you hear what he said? Pikuach nefashos. Sakanat nefashot. Sakanat nefashot, with emunah and bitachon, yeah. So what do we learn from here, boys? Skulah, it can't be mechal Shabbos. Emunah and bitachon, you can be mechal Shabbos, yeah? Now let's go back to the original point. It's unbelievable. You hear what we're saying? A person with a segulah and a tefillah, you can't go make chilul Shabbos, say, let's write a letter, even al yedei goy. What's the story? Amira l'akum. You can't ask a goy—this is what Reb Shlomo Kluger paskened—you can't even ask a goy. Could you ask a goy to bring a letter to someone to daven for you on Shabbos? And the answer is no. But if you have emunah and bitachon, go be mechal Shabbos. Go. What are you trying to—before, what are you trying to—it's interesting, interesting how you say it. What am I trying to get at? Let me tell you what I want. The biggest power in this world is bitachon and emunah. Biggest power in this world is bitachon.

The word schooler doesn't apply. That's what I meant. It's not a schooler. And you know what it is? Because you're living in an entirely different world, an entirely different briyah. It's completely not this sheishes yemei bereishit, and there's yemos olam. And then there's something called me'ein olam haba, a different Gan Eden, lifnei Hashem. It's something completely different. It's something which is not yemei bereishit. It's Shabbos LaShem. Shemitah is the pshat that a person lives, and planting is part of that world. Planting, nichush, ikur, these are things which are avodas ha'adamah. But your avodas ha'adamah could be in such a way that it's not if the Eibishter. I'll tell you a beautiful story, and like this maybe you'll understand what I want. They say over from the Kapishnitzer Rebbe, zichrono livrachah. He was in the war. The Nazis went and forced him to wash the streets of Czechoslovakia, whichever place he was, okay? Why did they do it? It was to degrade. It was to degrade the person. It was al zelbo. Here, go, sweeting, wash, to mop the streets, okay? Kitzer, as the Nazi yells at him to do it, he's sochek, he's laughing, he's laughing. So they asked him, What are you laughing about? He says, Ata choshev, you think that you're being mevazeh me that I should clean the streets of Poland. What I'm really doing is, I'm cleaning the streets of the Ribono Shel Olam. I'm cleaning the streets of the Ribono Shel Olam. A person could plant or not plant ish adama as a farmer in this world. Then there's another person that lives Shabbos LaShem. He lives in a whole different world. It's a different planet. He's menachesh and he's me'aker, and what is it? It's LaShem. It's Hashem's karka. Hashem, it's your Eretz Yisrael. It's your Eretz Yisrael. Eretz Yisrael was meant for that. So if you don't keep the shemitah, which means that you're— so then go somewhere else and do that. That's not what Eretz Yisrael was meant for. The Alter from Navardik has a tremendous question. You want to hear a tremendous question from the Alter from Navardik? Listen to the question. If a person doesn't plant on shemittah, he gets a prize. What's his prize? It'sivisi's brachah and it grows, right? Okay, triple. Does it say anywhere that if you do plant, Hashem punishes you and doesn't let it grow? It doesn't say that anywhere, says the Alter from Navardik. Beautiful. So he says, Imagine a person plants, right? So you know what you tell him? If you didn't plant, you would have had a brachah. So he says, I planted. I have the same thing. What do you want from me? That's— imagine you pass a guy in a test. If he behaves or he doesn't behave, if he studies or doesn't study, both of them pass, right? So then the guy who doesn't study can't come and say, Look at the guy who studied. I didn't study and I also passed. I'm asking you a question. Does it say anywhere that if you plant on shemitah it won't grow? It doesn't say it anywhere. It's a moirdik. You don't even understand how beautiful the ha'arah is. The ha'arah is so beautiful. Now the only thing is, the pshat is that the person who didn't do also got, right? Yeah, but he had to work on his bitachon. But he had to work on his bitachon. What's easier? It's easier for a guy to wake up in the morning and make money, or it's easier for a guy to wake up in the morning and say, You know what? I'm not going to do any work, and Hashem, and Hashem, and then he ends up getting the money. The person would rather work and make his money. He knows it's guaranteed, right? So the way to get to the person, says the Alter from Navardik, is to make that when he works, he doesn't get his money. Right? That's the right way to get it. If you don't work, I'll give you. If you do work, I'll take it away from you. That's what should have been, says the Alter from Navardik. Beautiful. The Ribbono Shel Olam never stops.

You work, it'll grow. Narfos. The Riboino Shel Olam says, You don't want me in the picture? Fine. You're on your own now. I won't help you. Let's see how good it comes out. Let's see how beautiful your tomatoes come out. It's going to grow tomatoes. You'll see the difference between if I'm growing the tomatoes or you're growing the tomatoes. That's how the Alter Rebbe explains. Hashem says, I'll leave you in your teva. You know, in the haftorah we say something very interesting. The haftorah, it says, right? You saw the haftorah? Kiroya... It says the Eibishter—it's all about bitachon, right? And then it says over there that Hashem judges inside, choker, bochein, valei—He's choker—la'asos la'adam kifri ma'alalav. Go ahead, read it inside. Read the lashon. Hashem uzi... right? Go ahead. Here it is, like this: Akov halev mikol, ve'anush hu mi yedaenu. The heart is very complicated, which means, here, Ani Hashem choker lev, bochen klayos, v'la'ses l'ish kidrachav, kifri ma'alalav. To give him according to his ways and according to the pri of his doing. What does that mean? What does the double lashon over here mean? I thought about it during the haftorah. Lasis le'ish kidrachav, kipri, like the fruits of my labor. You know what the answer is? I'll tell you what the answer is. Hashem takes the person and acts with him the way he behaves, right? Lasis le'ish kidrachav, which means if he has bitachon, then Hashem acts with him tzilcha that way as well. Then there's a time where Hashem gives kipri, the fruits of his labor. If you don't have bitachon, you know what Hashem says? I'll give you the fruits of your labor, but you can't do anything. What are you, just a single guy, right? The Alter of Vardiger is saying this yesod, that sometimes we take a person, we say, you know what? Hashem won't help you. Im Hashem lo yivneh bayis, shav amlu bonav bo. You can work, you can try, you don't have anything from it. You also read the haftorah here. What does it say? Baruch hagever asher yivtach baShem, vehaya Hashem mivtacho. What's the double lashon? Baruch hagever asher yivtach baShem, vehaya Hashem mivtacho. When you trust Hashem, you know what your reward is? Hashem is mivtacho. That's your reward. That itself is your reward. You trust Hashem. It's not the pshat that you'll get and the other guy's not getting. That itself is what you're getting. Vehaya ke'eitz shasul al mayim, v'al yuval yishal shoresh, v'lo yira ki yavo chom. What is bitachon? That the chom is there and you don't have to worry about it. What is v'lo yira ki yavo chom? He won't even see that the chayim is there. The Eibishter takes care of the problem as if it's not there. U'vishnas batzoros lo yidei, v'lo yomush ma'asos perei. This is all the inyan of bitachon. That's what Daf Teirah is trying to say, an unbelievable nekudah. Lo yira chayim. He won't even see that it's hot. He doesn't even know that it's there. The idea of the bitachon is, the Ribono Shel Olam takes care of the thing as if it's not there. Pshat, it's there and you have to work on yourself, oh, I have to worry about it. This is the pshat that a person lives in a different world. He thinks, I'm cleaning whose world? His world. And the truth is, what am I doing? I'm living in a different world. It's the Eibishter's world. And in the Eibishter's world, kegamal al yehima, there's no room for fear. There's no room for fear in that world. A Yid can live in that world. This is what the Ribono Shel Olam wants. Torah was given to us to put us in an entirely different world. Entirely different world. That's what the Gaon means. You know what the Gaon is saying? Iker nesinas haTorah, that we should have bitachon. What does that mean? How does Torah tell me to have bitachon? You ever think about it?

It's more than that. Let me explain to you what I mean. I began with an interesting Gra. The iker nesinas haTorah, they should be boteach baShem. What does that mean? How do we want to get there? When you learn Torah, you're in a different world, my friends. It's a different world. You don't have the same daagos. You don't have the same issues. It's like a baby. It's like a baby. It's like a whole different world. You know, I want to tell you something. I was zocheh, really, I was zocheh to see my father learn in the most difficult times. I was zocheh. You know what I saw in him? I'll tell you what I saw. I was thinking about it the whole Shabbos. People who know my father said, I don't even mean simcha. The Torah, when he starts to learn, it's an escape from all the problems of this world. He learned Torah as an escape. He's in a different planet. It's a different place. It's an entirely different place. Torah makes a person not live in the olam hazeh with all its problems. Torah makes a person... That's shat iker nesinas haTorah liYisrael, and that's the klal kol hamitzvos. The klal of kol hamitzvos. How is bitachon the klal of kol hamitzvos? Because the yesod of bitachon means you're not here. You're in the olam, as the Ramban says, Gan Eden. Isn't that what Torah is? Tzadikim yoshvin... Right? In the helem meziv haShechinah, tell me something, Rafi, answer for me this Rambam: that the tzaddikim didn't want Olam Haba, loy bifnei what? No? It's the lashon of the Rambam, remember, in Hilchos Teshuvah? What? Bring the Rambam. Let's learn together a Rambam. Tell me, what's the ma'alah of Olam Haba? That we bask in Hashem's glory and... Guess what? I do that here also. No worries. What did you just say? No worries. Okay, no worries, but... I have a different question for you. On Shabbos, I was thinking about it on Shabbos a little bit. Okay, read the Rambam, read. Very, very tired. Read the Rambam, yeah? Ein bo lo achilah v'lo shetiyah. So why did they want it? No? And the Hilchos Teshuvah, the last Rambam is Hilchos Teshuvah. So why did tzaddikim want Olam Haba? What did they have from it? Lo nis'avu hatzaddikim... Here. Here it is. Umipnei zeh savu kol Yisrael, v'nevi'im v'chachamim, yemos haMoshiach, k'dei sheyanuchu mimalchos harishah, she'eina manachas l'Yisrael la'asok baTorah uv'mitzvos k'hogen, v'yimtza'u mergoa, v'yirbu b'chochmah, k'dei sheyizku l'chayei haba. לפי שבעולם תרבת דעת וחכמה ואמת, ... כלם יורש דם, וסוף ... משיח, ... חכמים ... מלכיות. Okay. וימצאו להם מרגוע. What does the word מרגוע mean? Ragua. Shalva. Yeah. What is Olam Haba? Olam Haba is, Olam Haba is, here, here it is. וכל אותם הדברים בעולם הזה, כגון שובע, רעב, מלחמה, שלום, מלכות, שפלות, גלות, all this, כל אותם הדברים אמת היו ויהיו. Okay, this is all true. Here it is. נמצא, okay, these are the brachos. Okay, here. שבזמן שאדם טרוד בעולם הזה, בחולי ובמלחמה ורעבון, אינו מתעסק לא בחכמה ולא במצוה שבם זוכין לחיי העולם הבא. The Rambam writes clearly that all the yissurim of this world fall away, lost it. Shmita, shmita was meant to take—

Take away all the Olam Hazeh and its problems for one year, just like Olam Haba. That's what the Ramban is saying. It's an escape into a world. Tell me something, I was thinking, on Shabbos, are you allowed to have tzaar on Shabbos? Are you allowed to have tzaar? You look at all these mitzvos: oneg, Yom Tov v'anochah. What kind of Yom Tov and anochah are we talking about? From what, only from parnassah? Well, what Yom Tov and anochah are we referring to? So you're not allowed to feel any Yom Tov and anochah on Shabbos. Why not? You're not allowed to feel any yagon v'anachah. Because it's not this world. Me'ein Olam Haba. It takes away from the yesod of Olam Haba. Olam Haba is that there's no yagon v'anachah. That's what it is. Shmita was supposed to be this yesod, and Torah was given for that. What am I trying to get? I'll tell you what I'm trying to get. Tzadikim, because they live in a different world, and frum Jews really aren't affected by what's around them. They're not affected. They daven to HaKadosh Baruch Hu no matter if they have parnassah or they don't have parnassah. It doesn't affect them whatsoever. Because in the real world that they're supposed to live in, that world is not subject. It's not subject to the me'uros hazman. It's not subject to the me'uros hazman. Things that happen is just this world. A Yid, a Jew, lives in an entirely different world. Shemitah is shayach to Har Sinai. Kabbalas HaTorah is about living in the world of shemitah. That's what it means. Shemitah is to live in Eretz Yisrael and not to work on the field, and that the Eibishter is going to give you what you need. This is the inyan of shemitah, Eretzel Har Sinai. So even the avodas karka, all these things which are meant for parnassah, if you turn it into klal Yisrael, into Sinai, it's all about Hashem's Torah and His halacha, then you become shemitah. That's what shemitah is. But then you could be shemitah like a farmer, so it's all about farming and making parnassah, so then you don't belong in Eretz Yisrael. Eretz Yisrael was not meant for that. Eretz Yisrael was meant for an entirely different lifestyle, an entirely different lifestyle. You know, it's interesting, the Chazon Ish, when he came to Eretz Yisrael, the first thing that he put himself into was the inyan of shemitah and zeraim and all. It's the first thing that he put himself into. What happened? Eretz Yisrael flourished in the beginning. Now, Eretz Yisrael, piece by piece, they want to take it away from us. With all its might and all its strength, they say Israel is the strongest country in that part of the world. From within, it's disintegrating. From within, it's disintegrating because it's not meant to live the life of Dinzigov. It isn't meant for that. The life of Dinzigov was not meant for Eretz Yisrael, for Yerushalayim. It's not meant for that. You don't understand what I'm trying to bring out. Eretz Yisrael is meant for a different lifestyle. So I don't mean only shemitah. I mean the Shabbos LaShem. It's meant for something completely different. So if you come and you institute in Eretz Yisrael things which are like the rest of the world, you want to make Eretz Yisrael like America? Okay, so it gets taken away from you. Imagine you have a country that's set up, let's say the Swiss Alps, right? Would you want to make a highway out of the Swiss Alps? It's not meant for that, right? To take a land which is meant for beauty and mountains, Eretz Yisrael is meant for Shabbos LaShem. That's what it's meant for. That's what it's cut out for. You want to take it and use it. You know, the parnassah in Eretz Yisrael is very weak, you know that? Very, very weak.

Tough over there. It's not meant for. America is meant for making money. ... wants a, you know, a place, money, here. You try to make there here, it's not gonna, it just doesn't work. It doesn't work. Where does it flourish? It flourishes Shabbos LaShem, when you use it for its proper purpose. It was meant to be a place where it's different than the rest of the world, where it's chayei olam haba, then ein hachanami, then there's no daagas. You know, the people who live in Geulah, do they have daagas? Do they worry? The people who learn in Ponevezh and Bnei Brak, do they worry? That's not where the worry is. The worry is not in those two places. The worry is by the, what do you call that, vulim. That's different. It wasn't meant for the lifestyle that they're pushing in Eretz Yisrael. That's this yesod. Now, I know that I went long, and I know that I'm bringing a lot of ideas together, but I think we can work on it. Yes, what's your question? ... you want something out of it. Okay, so that's what I'm trying to explain to you. So I explained to you, I spoke about this in the beginning. The idea of bitachon is not to get. No. The idea of bitachon is to live, to live in security. The idea of bitachon is not to receive; it's to live in security. And the more you have bitachon, you know what you get? More bitachon, that you should be able to live with security. That itself is what the Eibishter gives you. It doesn't say that you're going to get. If you're not going to get, you're not going to be bitachon. You're not secure. Oh, so that's what I'm trying to explain to you. You didn't understand the Brisker Rav. The greatest security, the greatest security is to have the bitachon. The Brisker Rav used to say, you know what the greatest, the richest person in the world? Someone that has the chovos halevavos. You ever see the rich people? You ever see, when a guy is rich, what does he do all day? You know what he does all day? Looking for more. He's constantly under stress and pressure, constantly. He's ready to explode. A whole day running from one meeting to the next, to the next, and the next deal. What happens if I lose? And he's afraid someone's going to steal and going to take him over. You ever lived the life of a businessman? Who is rich is happy with his lot. Happy with his lot. I'm telling you, it's a whole different oysher. The oysher of life is the security. You don't have to worry about it. It's a tremendous thing. Hashem put in a person this mechanism that he worries and worries, and to fill that worry, he doesn't stop working. You know, I'd rather want to tell you an interesting thing. A lot of things went through my mind for Shabbos. You know, it says, רפאני ה' וארפא, הושיעני ואושעה, yeah? How did this come into this haftorah? You have any idea what this haftorah is about? Hashem, heal me from what? What are you talking about? What's it talking about? It's so beautiful. Let me see what he says. Refa'eni Hashem v'eerafeh, heal me. Heal me from what? Does he say over there one word that he's sick? I don't see it. So pashut, you have to say it has to do with the bitachon, meaning, I have bitachon in You, Hashem, that You'll heal me, and it's kind of random pesukim about bitachon. You know what I learned the pshat is? When a person doesn't have bitachon, he's sick. He's sick. He's sick with worry. Refa'eni Hashem, heal me, Hashem. You know, they even speak about it in science. You know what makes the sickness? Worry. Physical stress of worry. It's a peldike thing. Huh? You see what the pasuk is? Refa'eni Hashem, what does that have to do with this? You have anything to do with this? Right, I have bitachon in You that You'll heal me, right? So l'choira, that's what I said, it's random ideas of bitachon. I want to say it's deeper. The person who does not have bitachon, he's sick. He's sick from worry, and worry makes sick. Bitachon, Refa'eni Hashem v'eerafeh, I have You in my life, Hashem, I'm healed. You know, the scientists can't be modeh this. What do they do? They say if you have a positive attitude...

Positive attitude, that's gonna help you, you know. It's not the stress, it's the bitachon, rabosai. It's not the stress, it's the bitachon. If eini Hashem, ... idea of secure, secure. You'll see, you can train yourself. We're born with it. That's what I want to bring out. We're actually born with it, but we ruin it. As we get older, we ruin it, we ruin it. And as we get deeper into the business, we ruin it more and more. We run and we say more, ... the opposite. Try to go back to cultivate bitachon from a child. Think of how a child. You know, every person looks back to his childhood memories, unless he had a major problem. What is it in your childhood that you liked? Think about it. No worries. Toys. Think about it. What are you talking about, my childhood? What was so about your childhood? And this is this nekudah, that there was no worry. I had security. Security, rabosai, is the biggest bracha a person can have. To be able to go to sleep and not have to worry. Guess what? It's doable in one second. And you know what the answer is? Bitachon. Bitachon. Bitachon. That's what it is. We have it in us to be able to be innocently secure. We want. This is the yesod of shemitah and Eretz Yisrael and Shabbos laHashem. Rabosai, have a wonderful week, and I'm sorry the ideas weren't so...