Mishpatim and Shekalim: Honesty in Money, Serving Hashem, and Ahavas Yisrael

Transcript

I want, I need, I need to have to wake up. I'm tired. You know what time I wake up? You know that. Not easy, not easy. Okay. In this week's parshiyot, last week in Parshat Yitro, we read Aseret HaDibrot. Two weeks, Aseret HaDibrot. This past week, Shabbat, Mishpatim. This coming week, Truma. You know, Sinai. Unbelievable. Sinai was, Vayachazu et Elokim. They looked with their finger and they pointed. You see? You see? This is Hashem. Vayachazu. They heard Hashem speak directly. It says clearly, the first two dibrot, mipi hagevurah sham'u. They heard it directly from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Ma'amad Har Sinai, unbelievable. Kolot u'vrakim, vayered Hashem al Har Sinai. Hashem came down to Har Sinai. Terumah is all about Binyan HaMikdash, to build the Mishkan. V'asu li Mikdash v'shachanti betocham. Unbelievable, right? In the middle. What's in the middle? Dinei mamonot, shor shenagach et haparah, that if an ox hits... It's like a little out of context. You would come and say, okay, we have the Kabbalat HaTorah, and then we have the building of the Mikdash. Unbelievable. Then at the back, you know, some chapter about dinei mamonot. No, the Torah is teaching us. Rashi even says it. That's the first Rashi. Ma eilu miSinai, af eilu miSinai. You can't come and say dinei mamonot, nah, the main thing is Har Sinai, Kabbalat HaTorah, the main thing is V'asu li Mikdash. No, no, no, no, no. Just as important, and in the middle. That's pshat, the first Rashi that says, Vav mosif, ve'eileh. Ma eilu miSinai, af eilu miSinai. What's the chidush? The chidush is a person would say it's only dinei mamonot. What is it? Dinei mamonot, shor shenagach et haparah. And the answer is, no, no, no, no, no. Dinei mamonot is so crucial. It's part of Anochi Hashem Elokecha. Don't think it's separate. You know, you can have laws and laws, but what does that have to do with the person? You know, the biggest law enforcement, even if you'll say that they're honest, most of them are not even honest. They don't keep the laws. But let's say law enforcement, they keep the laws. The minute they're off the job, what do they do? Who knows what. They take a few drinks, they get drunk, they have, you know, it's kemo behemot. Laws are the laws. It's lenu. The laws, the dinei mamonos, the rules, is miSinai. It's the same thing. It's all about Anochi Hashem Elokecha. It's all continuation of the Aseres HaDibros. And if you want to build a Mishkan, next week's parsha, you better know first what, rabosai, mamonos, that it should be clean. It should be naki. It has to be clean. Dinei mamonos have to be clean. There's a pidgam from the Chafetz Chaim that people say the Chafetz Chaim used to say. It says, when you have a din Torah, v'nikrav baal habayit el haElokim, Elokim beis din, im lo shalach yado b'meleches rei'eihu, to confirm, to make sure that you didn't touch what your friend gave you to watch, tomar shomer, im lo shalach yado, you didn't take what belongs to your friend. So the truth is, it's referring to beis din. Nikrav baal habayit el haElokim is beis din. That's what it means. But l'maaseh it says Elokim. So the Gemara says, melamed, this teaches us, shekerev Elokim yishpot, that when there's judgment, Hashem comes to the beis din. Hashem is found in the beis din.

Chafetz Chaim used to say, no, v'nikrav ba labayit el Elokim. You want to be close to Hashem? V'lo shalach yado b'melechet re'eihu. Be careful, don't take what doesn't belong to you. You hear? It's the pshuto of the pasuk. There's a simple pshat in the pasuk as well. Normally you say the pshat is, bedin, and it's not k'pshuto, Elokim, Elokim. It doesn't mean God, it means bedin. They represent Hashem. Hashem is found over there. Says the Chafetz Chaim, there's a k'pshuto of the pasuk also, literal. You want to be close to Hashem? V'lo shalach yado b'melechet re'eihu. Don't touch what's not yours. Don't touch, don't touch. I'm going to tell you something beautiful. I'll tell you something beautiful. This is an open pasuk that we say and we don't pay attention to. The pasuk says clearly, Mi ya'aleh b'har Hashem, u'mi yakum bimkom kodsho? Hu. Neki kapayim. Neki kapayim. We say it clearly. People don't pay attention to what they say. You would say, Mi ya'aleh b'har Hashem u'mi yakum bimkom kodsho, the first thing would be, Mi sheyoshev v'lomed kol hayom, mi shemitpalel b'hitlahavut. That's not what it says in the pasuk. K'pshuto, simple pshat, simple pshat. Mi ya'aleh b'har Hashem. U'mi yakum bimkom kadosh. It doesn't say somebody that has long peyos or a long beard. It doesn't say that. What does it say? Neki kapayim, the first thing, the first criteria, the first condition is neki kapayim. I also want to point out, what is the second one? U'bar levav, heart, warm heart. Neki kapayim is what? Clean. Doesn't steal. He never took. His hands are clean. He never stole money. He never took what doesn't belong to him. Neki kapayim u'bar levav, yeah? So the first thing is neki kapayim, even before anything else. That's mi ya'aleh b'har Hashem, u'mi yakum bimkom kadosh is neki kapayim. That's what it means when it says, Mi ya'aleh b'har Hashem... says Chafetz Chaim. See, I'm adding and I'm pointing out that this pitgam, this saying from the Chafetz Chaim, is actually an open pasuk, that if you want to be close to Hashem, ... the way to do it is im lo shalach yado b'melechet re'eihu. So Sinai, yes, close to Hashem. You know, they became very, Ilu kervanu lifnei Har Sinai. You know, we say, Ilu kervanu lifnei Har Sinai. Kervanu means He brought us close to who? To Har Sinai? No. Kervanu means He brought us close to Him on Har Sinai. So you want to be close to Hashem on Har Sinai? Eileh hamishpatim asher tasim lifneihem, laws. And you want Mishkan, v'shachanti b'socham. Mishpatim, make sure the money's yours. You could donate the money to the synagogue. Is it your money? So this is the lesson of the parshiyot, kipshuto, it's very simple. Now let's understand it in a deeper sense, that we should try to internalize it. How do we internalize it? Let me tell you how we internalize it. You know, the first parasha, first parasha of Mishpatim is Eved Ivri. The guy stole, he sold, he doesn't want to leave, we pierce his ear. How come you couldn't find a better story to begin Mishpatim with? Start from the beginning, you know, about stealing, what's called stealing. You're talking about after he stole already. You're talking about a guy stole. First tell me what stealing is. Teach me about stealing. Teach me already after he stole and he gets an eved. Second question, rabotai. Not only it's strange why this was chosen as the first parasha in the context of all the Mishpatim, but if you notice, even that we pierce his ear, it doesn't make sense.

Chazal tell us, why do we pierce his ears? Because ozen sheshama, the ear that heard on Har Sinai, Lo tignov, not to steal, and he didn't listen. He heard it, but he didn't listen. So we pierce the ears. You know, your ear didn't listen. Rashi brings it down from the Gemara. Famous question, everybody asks it. So then why are we piercing it after seven years when he wants to leave? Or, sorry, when he doesn't want to leave? Let's pierce it right away when he stole. Any guy that steals, we should pierce his ear. Tremendous question. Question number two. Chazal say that there's another reason to pierce his ears. He doesn't want to leave. One second. On Har Sinai we said, Ki li Bnei Yisrael avadim, they're My slaves. And this guy is looking to be under an adon, under a different master, the balabat that he's working for. Hashem said, You're Mine. I'm your adon. How could you go and be koneh and obtain for yourself a new adon? That's why we pierce the ear. You didn't hear on Har Sinai. You weren't listening. Okay. Tell me something. This person that doesn't want to leave, do you know that his lifestyle is tremendous? He's got a tremendous lifestyle. Do you know he's mechuyav in all the mitzvot? He keeps all the mitzvot. I even question, mistama if he comes and says, I want to learn Torah. If he wants to learn Torah, I'm sure he's allowed to. I'm sure he could tell the adon he wants to go to seder rishon and tefillah and shiurim. I can imagine he's mechuyav to learn Torah. No? It's a mitzvah. Just like the baal, it's a beautiful lifestyle, no? Tremendous. The baal habayis wakes up in the morning and he takes his eved with him to Shacharit. Then they go and sit by the shiur of the Rav. Sunday morning they sit by Rabbi Wolkin's shiur. At night they sit by Rabbi Chaimov's shiur. Wonderful. What do you want, boy? Great. Feeding, he gets fed. Tremendous. You're not—are you allowed to make him work like a real slave? No, you have to treat him. Why would he not want to leave? What's so bad? He doesn't want to leave. What do you want from the poor guy? It's great. Because it adds a siman that he doesn't want to be under Hashem. Maybe he feels it's better off in the house of the adon to serve Hashem. He has more time to learn. He has more time to do mitzvot. Goes out into the real world, he's going to be busy and he's going to have to wake up at five o'clock in the morning, and he doesn't have time to pray because his—maybe he's doing it l'shem Shamayim. What are you blaming him for? So these are the three questions. Why is eved Ivri the first parashah? B, why is it that the ozen that didn't hear lo tignov, we pierce after seven years? Why don't we should do it right away? The moment when he stole, we should pierce his ears. Why do we wait till after he doesn't want to leave? And question number three, why do we pierce it that he—adon? He wants maybe to have a wonderful ruchniyut, wonderful life of ruchniyut. It's a tremendous thing to be an eved. What are you talking about? No problem. Why are you excusing yourself? It's not true. What do you mean? You then talk Torah because the owner. Yeah, but what's the difference? But he's—what I mean, he's keeping the mitzvot, the mitzvot are his. The olam haba has become for the— No, the olam haba is, that's not true. That's not true. That's not true. Good question. Yeah. Why the Torah in the first place? So that's the question. That's—could be that we'll answer that question as well. That's also a good question. The coffee, a little bit of coffee. We'll answer that question as well. Maybe from here the coffee's good. No, no, no, no. Okay. So maybe we'll answer that question as well. If that's not good to be an eved, so why use that solution? So he gives us a very nice pshat. Chafetz Chaim, Maran HaChafetz Chaim used to say, You see from here how bad it is, somebody else's money is by you. For no other mitzvah do we say you're supposed to sell yourself. For no other mitzvah you're supposed to sell yourself. If you don't have money for tefillin, do you sell yourself? Nothing. You don't sell yourself for nothing. You don't put tefillin. You don't have, you don't have. The only thing you might have to sell yourself for is pirsumei nisa, Chanukah.

The Gemara says, mocher atzmo, mocher k'suto, only one mitzvah, maybe. One mitzvah? Chanukah, huh? Also maybe because of pirsumei nisa. The point is, the point, the Rambam brings it down, lahalacha, but here we sell you. Why? Says the Chafetz Chaim, now you see how bad it is. Geneivah. You owe somebody money. For that, for that we sell you. The only thing in the Torah. Why by geneivah only? Why if, let's say, you punch somebody, why you don't...? So we're going to answer all this. That's what I said. Let's discuss. That was the question: why by geneivah and why now? These are all the questions. We're going to answer all these questions that you had all the years. That's why you came to the shiur today, yeah? You see, you missed the beginning. We were trying to bring out that Ela mishpatim is miSinai. Ela mishpatim is Anochi Hashem Elokecha. Don't think it's just laws about money. It's a lot deeper than laws about money, okay? What is it? Take a look at the every... the first parsha. We teach you every... So why do we even make an eved? Good question. Let us say it's a terrible thing to be an eved. You're supposed to be eved of Hashem. What are you doing? Why geneivah? Why after seven years? All these good questions. Okay, the answer is very simple. You know, a Jew is supposed to wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night thinking one thing: I'm not avda d'Kudsha Brich Hu. I only have one person that I answer to. I'm only meshubad to one, Hashem Echad, only to Hashem. Even if his behavior is no different, he keeps all the mitzvot. Everything is tremendous. He keeps everything. Yet, sof sof, he wakes up in the morning, I have an eved. I'm sorry, I have an adon. I have an adon. What does Rashi say? V'halach zeh v'kana adon l'atzmo. That's already noted. A Jew in his mind has to know, יש לו רק אדון אחד, אדון עולם, ה' מלך, בטרם כל יציר נברא. So even though in poel, in lamaaseh, it doesn't change his daily activity. The daily activity might be even better in the house of the master. But he knows that he has to answer to a human being. That's already not. כי לי בני ישראל עבדים, they're my slaves. So what does it have to do with geneivah? I'll tell you what it has to do with geneivah. I'll answer you. When a person steals, why does he steal? Why does a person steal money? You know what a person thinks? I'm going to make a quick dollar. I'll create my good situation. Wait a minute. There's a boss. You're not the boss. There's an adon. There's a master. There's a boss. If the boss gives it to you, then you can take it. If the boss didn't give it to you, why are you taking it? Stealing means that you don't understand that Hashem is the boss. But sometimes a person steals because he doesn't realize he's in a bad situation. He's stuck, and he had a moment of weakness. You know what the Torah says? You're right. That still doesn't teach me that he doesn't accept Hashem as the Adon. You know when I realize that he doesn't accept Hashem as the Adon? Seven years later, he paid up his chov, he paid up his dues. Now why don't you want to leave? Now you accept that he's your adon and not Hashem. Retroactively, we go back and say, Oh, when you stole, you were missing this point: Hashem is the Adon and not... You see? In the beginning when he steals, maybe, you know what, moment of weakness. He was stuck to pay his bills. It still doesn't tell me that deep down in his mind, he doesn't understand that in this world, yesh Adon, Hashem. There's Hashem is the master. Seven years later, the bill is paid. Why don't you want to leave now? Hashem is Adon, not the guy who you work for. So now I see that obviously, originally, he didn't understand that a Jew only has one Adon, Adon Hashem. But he feels good in the Adon. You're right. Just because you feel good...

Doesn't mean it is good. Just because you like doing something doesn't mean it's good. I don't have an answer to that. That doesn't bother me because sometimes six is a very lucky number in Torah. The Torah Temimah brings a whole bunch of list of things that are six, and he says that six is symbolic. And he says that there's six thousand years and then Mashiach comes. So he says it has to do with this: the six years we work, and the seventh year, Yetzei lachofshi chinam. It's symbolic. The Torah Temimah in his sefer Tosefes Bracha brings this down. He says we always find that there's symbolic in six, and the seventh is six days we work and the seventh day Shabbos. Okay, but that wasn't the point of the shiur. You just asked me, so I threw it out there just to answer your question. Now we understand, ozen shishama al Har Sinai. I explained to you what is Sinai. Sinai is Anochi Hashem Elokecha is Sinai. So you heard Anochi Hashem Elokecha. What is that supposed to teach you? Lo tignov. It's supposed to teach you Hashem is Adon, Hashem is the master. Ve'eila mishpatim asher tasim. That's why we begin with Eved Ivri. Eved Ivri is the techilah, it's the hakdamah, it's the introduction to all dinei mamonos. Ki li Bnei Yisrael avadai, they're my slaves. Don't try to touch money that doesn't belong to you. You know, in yeshivot, the custom is— That little children, when they begin Gemara, they begin with eilu metziot. That's what they begin. Mesechta Bava Metzia, the second perek. Moshe Feinstein, zicher tzaddik livracha, said why. Why do we start with eilu metziot? Because it's easy? Yes, it is easy. It's true. It's an easy piece of Gemara. But there's another reason. To teach a child, it's yours is yours; what's not yours is not. Now go learn the rest of Masechet Nezikin. Go learn Bava Kama, Bava Metzia, Bava... eilu metziot shelo, v'eilu metziot chayav lachriz. Not everything that you find, and not everything that comes to your hand is yours. Wait a minute. Mine is mine? No. This might be his. Is it mine? Is it his? Is it mine? Is it his? Oh, now you're ready. Same thing here too. Ve'eila hamishpatim asher tasim lifneihem. The first thing I want to teach you: li Bnei Yisrael avadim. Who is the Adon? Who is the master of the world? Hashem is master. You're not your own master to take and to steal money. No, no, no. We sell you. We're teaching you a lesson here. V'halech zeh v'kana adon l'atzmo. You went and you stole. Okay. You're an eved. Let's see how you behave. Let's see. Now we give you a chance to pay back the chov, yeah? You pay back the chov, and now let's see if you still want to be under the adon. You still want to be under the adon? You don't understand what Sinai was there to teach you. Make home. Sinai was supposed to teach you, ki li Bnei Yisrael avadai. You know, I want to tell you something interesting. One time in the Torah do we find the word Adon referring to Hashem, you know that? It's an interesting observation. Shabbat, I was thinking about it on Shabbat. Someone asked me, someone was ma'orer it to me, and I was thinking about it. You know where it is? Where do we say the word Hashem is Adon? You know, in the tefillah we say, Adon olam, Adon hakol, Adon, Adon. In the Torah it says it only one place. When you go oleh regel, you should go up lirot et pnei Adon, Hashem Elokecha. It says Adon only by oleh regel. Why? I thought about it on Shabbat. Why? Why only by oleh regel? I'll tell you. You know, the Gemara tells us that when oleh regel, people were afraid to go. You know why? Because you leave your house, you leave your belongings, the goyim are going to come and just take it over. Empty. People are all in Jerusalem in the Beit HaMikdash. They could just walk and take everything over. So Hashem says, Don't worry, I'll take care of it. Hashem would send snakes and animals that they'd be afraid to touch your house. He's saying, Hashem, you know what He's telling us? Come to oleh regel, I'm Adon. What are you afraid of? I'm the Adon of the world. Who's boss? What, you're afraid of the goyim to take...

Your money. I'm the boss. Come, v'ole regel. The boss tells you to jump, what do you do? You jump. You're not afraid. What are you afraid of? In mamonos, your house, I'm the boss. I'm the one who gave it to you. You see the word adon. Adon in mamonos. Adon olam asher malach is telling a person, money, money, house, my car. Hashem is adon. That's the word adon. So when you come ole regel, go lirot adon. Hashem Elokecha. Don't be afraid, because I was the one who gave you the house in the first place. I was the one who gave you the car in the first place. You hear? You listening? It's unbelievable, yeah? Yeah, you listening to this? Unbelievable. That's the pshat, lo tignov. Money is a sign: do you accept Hashem as adon, or do you not accept Hashem as adon? All for the boss. You know, we read the book All for the Boss. Everybody reads it. You know, people read the story, but they don't take away the lesson. The lesson is Hashem is literally the boss. He's adon. You hear? And that's what the limud is: Ve'eileh hamishpatim asher tasim lifneihem. Hashem is adon. Hashem is the boss. Okay. Now I want to show you a few more lessons that we learn from these parshiyot. Beautiful lessons. You ready? Beautiful lessons that we learn. If you look— This week's parasha, we find there's a halacha: v'ger lo tilchatz. You're not supposed to oppress the ger, ki gerim hayisem b'eretz Mitzrayim, because you yourself was a ger in Eretz Mitzrayim. Okay. So simply you learn that he's trying to say, you know what it feels like, so don't do it to the other guy. You know it hurts, so why would you hurt the other guy? Chasaba Kadisha mislabatka used to say that's not the pshat in the pasuk, and if you learn like that, you miss the mitzvah. You don't understand the mitzvah. The mitzvah is: put yourself in his shoes. It doesn't mean you know what it feels like, so don't do it to him. No. Ki atem yedatem. You're supposed to sit and think, wait a minute, could you imagine if it was me? Ooh, it would hurt, so I would definitely not do it to the other guy. You're supposed to put yourself into the other guy's situation. No, the first way is, it hurts, and you know. You know that it hurts, so I'm giving you good advice. You see how you could overcome. Let's say a person has the urge to hurt a guy. He's a ger, he's a strange guy. Yeah, but you know what it feels like, don't do it. No, no, no, no. You're mechuyav to say, imagine me. Imagine if this was me. I'm putting myself in his situation, and I won't do it. I'll give you a good example. You ready? They say often in the Chafetz Chaim that he went collecting for an almana that didn't have heat. She didn't have wood for the heat in the house. So he knocked on the door of an osher, of a rich person. Person said, ... come inside, we'll sit down. What is the ...? No, no, no, no, I want to talk to you here by the door. It's a cold, wintry night. He says, Rebbe, come inside, we'll sit down, we'll coffee, hot tea, we'll talk. Chai, chai, I'll give you some chai. Come, sit down. What do they call those big cake umbrellas, umbrella matzahs, what do you call them? Huh? Dorgi? Who? Talki with chai. Sit down, come, I'll give you—what? No. Over here I want to talk to you. You know why? You know why he didn't? It was freezing out here. ... says, I want you to feel what it's like to be cold. Now I want to ask you money for an almana that has no heat. If you put yourself in the same situation here, then it's different. I'll give you another example. You ready? Rav Hutner zecher tzaddik livracha was the Rosh Yeshiva in Chaim Berlin, very wise, very brilliant man. Smart, leadership. He showed a lot of leadership. So there was a parent that came to complain to him that somebody in his son's...

Class, one of the kids in his son's class, they say he's ruining the whole class. The whole class is getting ruined by one boy, and the Rosh Yeshiva is mechuyav to find out who it is and to throw him out of the class. You know the story? Okay. The Rosh Yeshiva said, I'll tell you the truth. I'm afraid to throw this boy out. He comes from a good home, from a lineage of rabbanim. He comes from a chashuvah home. It's a bizayon for the family if I throw the child out. Says the father, What? If he comes from a good home, so the ta'anah, the complaint becomes even stronger now. He comes from a good home, and yet he does this and this and this. You must throw him out. You know, I don't really want to throw him out because the father of this boy is an older person, and it might cause him agmas nefesh and he'll get sick from it. What? The father of this boy, it's his responsibility. How come he didn't take care of his son? He's ruining the class. You know, the boy himself, if I throw him out, he might go off the derech. I don't know what's going to be. He's still Yiddish boy. What? He's ruining the whole class. He deserves to get thrown out. So I turn around to this person and he says, Tell me, you know who this boy is? He goes, No. He says, It's your son. The guy goes, But he comes from such a chashuvah home. I'm not going to be able to take it, and then my son, and what if you throw him out? You hear the difference? When a person takes it... That it's him. Says the Alter of Slabodka, it says in the pasuk, V'ahavta l'reacha kamocha. What does kamocha mean? Should like him like you like yourself? No. Kamocha, put yourself in his shoes. That's what kamocha means. Kamocha. Imagine it was you. Imagine it was you. Would you say the same thing? Ah, it's a whole different story. You know, Rav Shalom Schwadron, zicher tzaddik livrachah, used to say a very nice story. He would say over the same limud, the same lesson, in a different story. Once a child that fell in the streets of Yerushalayim. You know the story? The child falls, you hear, and he starts to yell, Ima, ima, you know, it hurts me. B'kitzur, one lady sticks her head out, and she hears the commotion. What happened? A child fell and he hurt himself. All right, all right, big deal. Yashem yazor. Yashem yazor, so what? You know, fell, so what's the big deal? As it gets a little closer, you hear, you hear, she notices that it's her child. Mata leh! Ma karait? So the neighbors turn around, Oh, titaki, Hashem yazor. Says the shalom, talui eizeh—who's mataleh eizeh. Hamotzi chay shel mi zeh, you know. If it's the other guy's mataleh, Hashem yazor. If it's your mataleh, it becomes a famous, a big story. Says the Alter from Slabodka here, that when a person is mishtatef b'tzaar and b'simcha of the other person, you have to put yourself in his situation like it's you. Put yourself in the situation like it's you. You hear? Tell me, when we go to a simcha, are we mesameach as if it's me? Or do we say, Ah, mazal tov, mazal tov, eh, let a minute later, okay, when am I going home? When, when, when? I'm busy, okay, I have to run away, okay, let me see how much the doggy bags I can take home, you know? No. A person has to be mesameach as if it's him. That's called Klal Yisrael. You know, rabosai, what is Klal Yisrael? Now I want to show you something interesting. You know, we just learned Shekalim. We just had Shekalim. You know what the lesson of Shekalim is? Machatzit hashekel. Everybody knows this, right? You know who says this? The Alshich, the famous Alshich, his famous yesod: half and half, me and you, together we make one shekel. Do you know that if not for this shekel, we would not be alive today? The Gemara says, Medrash Aggadah, that when Klal Yisrael did the eigel, chayav...

Mita. They were chayav mita. Hashem says, What do I do? I'm trying to save Klal Yisrael. V'natan ish kofer nafsho. We just read it, right? Shekalim is kofer. What is kofer nefesh? So Rashi says kofer nefesh, because if you count them, they'll get killed, right? If you count Jews, it's a mageifah, it's sakanah, right? The Medrash says because of the eigel. So kofer nafsho was the eigel. As the Medrash points out, that Klal Yisrael said, Oh, take a look. We just got bizas hayam, and Hashem wants us to redeem ourselves with money. We're gonna have to give back all the money. We'll have to give back all the money now. Says the Medrash, Hashem says, Not true. You won't have to give back all the money. You know what you have to give? Nothing, just a half a shekel. Tell me, is that kofer nefesh? Half a shekel? When you read the Chazal, you say, Could you imagine that you come and you go, Okay, he has to get a fine. Okay, judge, how much do I pay? Take the penny and cut it in half, and you'll give us a half and make it out to the finance department. You're kidding me. I cut a penny in half? Let's say a shekel is a dollar. Fifty cents, that's what it is. Mechatzit ha-shekel. What are you talking about? And this is what kofer nefesh. I want to tell you more. Chazal say— Rebbe, Hashem Yisbarach, Hashem, You give me to open up my eyes to understand things. I think a lot about these things. What does the Torah talk about? Could do magic kofer nefesh, fifty cents. Who pays fifty cents kofer nefesh? I'll tell you more. Chazal say that Haman gave shekalim, so Hashem made, right, to destroy the Jew. Hashem made that we should give shekalim before his shekalim. Hikdim our shekalim to the shekalim of Haman. So what does it come out? Our shekalim, what's the connection? What's the shaychus? What's the connection? Shekalim, shekalim, because it's money, it's money, Hashem, money. What does it mean? I'll tell you what it means. You know what the ikar ta'anah of Haman, we're coming close to Purim, you know what the ikar ta'anah of Haman was? Yeshno am echad mefuzar u'meforad bein ha'amim. They were separate, divided. There was no achdut in Klal Yisrael, say the mefarshim. Mefuzar u'meforad, lo b'yachad. So what was the tikkun, takkeh, when we were saved from Haman? Mishloach manot ish l're'eihu, matanot la'evyonim. Hashem gave us mitzvot, friends, ish re'eihu, man and his friend, friendship, friendship. Purim is a time to be marbeh achvah v'reiut, dancing and happy together with your friend. That's why we give presents, right? Where was the yesod of this? The machatzit hashekel. The machatzit hashekel that we gave was the introduction. That it's not mefuzar u'meforad. Me and you make a whole sheker, like the ... Ben Achnat. We become one. Yehi, yehi, rabosai, you like it. Everybody's writing. This is good stuff. This you're not going to hear anywhere else. This is classic Rabbi Wolkin's Torah. Beautiful. It's true. It's true stuff. You know, there's a very famous ... My grandfather brings it down in his sefer. Soneh matanos yichyeh. Why do we accept matanos on Purim, matanos la'evyonim, shalach manos? Soneh matanos yichyeh. It's better not to have. You're not supposed to accept presents. Says my zeide, my grandfather, zichrono livracha, what's the reason? Because you owe him. So yichyeh means a person has a life, because if he owes everybody money, every guy says, Oh, don't forget, you owe me. I gave you, I gave you. You owe me, you owe me. But since over here each guy gives back right away, how does matanos la'evyonim work? How does mishloach manos work? I said, You, and you send me back. Ah, so there's no problem. So there's no problem of soneh matanos yichyeh. Chazal made it in a way, kulo re'ut. There's no... So, rabosai, if you have shalach manos, you give, one guy gives you a smaller and you gave back a bigger, what do you say? Take a look. Look at the shalach...

He gave me, look what I'm giving you back, right? The whole reason. Defeat all purpose. Defeat all purpose. Today is ... I need a ... Oh my. I gave him a big one, he gave me a small one. Defeat all purpose. It defeats all purpose. All purpose was, ... Shalom ... This is the chatzi tashakel. Now you'll come and ask me, how come we can't do it? How come we can't do it? You see, we're learning, v'ahavta l'reacha kamocha means me and you is one. That if you have simcha, then I have a simcha. That's what we're learning, that the Torah is mechayev that I should be like you, kamocha mamash, like one unit. So you ask the question, how could I do it? How come it's so difficult? How does a person do a thing like that? You know, I once told you over the pshat that Hillel with the ger, everybody knows the story that the ger wanted to learn the Torah on one foot. So he tells him, v'ahavta l'reacha kamocha, that's the whole Torah. Hillel, right? First he came to Shammai and then he came to Hillel. So Hillel told him, on one foot, v'ahavta l'reacha kamocha, the rest is just peirush, so go learn the rest. But now you have the whole Torah on one foot, v'ahavta l'reacha kamocha. The truth is that's not what he said. What he did say was, Ma d'alach sani l'chavrach lo taavid. That's the Gemara's lashon. What you don't want to do for yourself means you don't like it for you, don't do it to the other guy. The mefarshim ask, why did he just say it straight, v'ahavta l'reacha kamocha? Why does he tell him, you know, be kufim? Ma d'sani lach, what you don't want to do for you, don't do to your friend. Say straight, the mitzvah v'ahavta. Don't say it in the shlili, what you don't want. Just say what you do. You want to have v'ahavta l'reacha kamocha, that you should love your friend like yourself. So the mefarshim explain that a goy, he was not a Jew yet, a goy can never understand v'ahavta l'reacha kamocha. It's crazy to him. Kamocha? I like you. I like you that you like me? What are you talking about? I like you, but let's not get carried away over here. You know what I mean, kamocha? What are you out of your mind? What are you talking about? So he had to say it in a way that the goy should understand, ma d'alach sani, what you don't want to be done for you, you don't want to hurt yourself, don't hurt the other guy. That makes sense to a goy, possibly. He's a good goy, if he wants to become a Jew. But to teach him v'ahavta l'reacha kamocha, me and you is one, what one? We're one. Get away from me. What are you talking about? At the end, come on, take it easy. You know, when I went to England, once went to England, so I came off in Manchester, Manchester Airport. Okay, it's good. No, it's all right. I went off in Manchester Airport, and we flew from— no, I'm sorry, I went off, yeah, I flew from Manchester to Heathrow, from Heathrow to Manchester, London. Right, Heathrow is London, right? So, kitzur, we got off on the bus, whatever. My jacket, the thing was, the lapel was up. You know, I got quickly, you know, the jacket, and we went on to the bus from the plane. So somebody went to help me. A guy, a guy went to help to put my... I jumped. I got scared. I don't... So the guy says to me, Oh, you must be from New York. Yeah. You like it, huh? They always used to say, America, they teach you a big lesson: mind your own business. Mind... he said when he was in Europe, he never heard such expression, mind your own business. Why? People care about one the other. Here it's, mind your own business. Look the other way, mind your own business. Boker tov? No, mind your own... No, no, leave me alone. Don't bother me. Mind your own business. Yeah. This havah amina: mind your own business. Mind your own business. So how can it be that a guy, a guy doesn't understand? He says, mind your own business. After, Kamocha, you love me, I love you. What are you crazy? Go away from me. Mind your own... Kamocha. I'm I, and you are you, and you, let's keep a distance, you know? Okay. So how do you get this madrigah that you taka feel kamocha? So I want to tell you a beautiful Chasam Sofer. Gemara says...

That in the shekel, Moshe nitkasheh. Moshe couldn't understand the shekel. So what happened? Hashem showed him a shekel shel eish, a fire. And where did he get that shekel shel eish? The Gemara says he got it מתחת כסא הכבוד, from under his chair. Says the Chasam Sofer, I guess this is what he means to ask: what's so hard to understand about a shekel? I don't know, it's a good question, right? As a matter of fact, any cab driver knows what a shekel is, right? You know, machatzit. I'll tell you what, take a dollar and cut it in half. It sounds retarded. What do you mean, what shekel? And Hashem shows him shekel shel eish, and what are you talking about? Something needs biur over here, right? Moshe Rabbeinu nitkasheh, yeah, very hard time. You know, it reminds me of Ben Gurion. Ben Gurion, you know, Eisenhower went to meet with Ben Gurion, so he gave him the leben. In Eretz Yisrael, they feed leben, you know, the food that they don't have in America because it's spoiled. Now they have it, but in those days, leben, spoiled milk. What's leben? Okay, בקיצור, they gave him the leben, right? So Ben Gurion ate it. He never tasted it, you know, some spoiled food in his life. So Eisenhower, he liked it. He asked Ben Gurion, what's the secret ingredient behind it? So Ben Gurion was a Yiddishe kop. He says, if you give me the secret of the atomic bomb, I'll give you the secret of the leben. We'll trade. We'll make a trade, yeah. What's the joke? The secret of the leaven. So you don't have to be a scientist to know the secret of the leaven, right? It's not a big... So too, the machatzit hashekel is not that much of a... I'm also very cold. Machatzit hashekel, you don't got to be a brain scientist to know what a machatzit hashekel is. So what does it mean? So what does it mean that Moshe nitkasheh? Says the heilige Chasam Sofer, the Chasam Sofer HaKadosh says, we knew that, like the Alshich, it's supposed to bring achdut. If I give a half a shekel and you give a half a shekel, you think it's going to make achdut? Moshe Rabbeinu was nitkasheh. How could the...? He was nitkasheh, says the Chasam Sofer. Who are you fooling? Achdut? How? How can it be achdut? Every guy wants what he wants, and every guy wants to get what the other guy wants. Every guy thinks shli shli v'shelcha shli. What are you talking about? How do you expect them achdut? What are you talking about? Chasam Sofer says that's what Moshe Rabbeinu was nitkasheh. You can understand. So that's it, just Har Sinai. Har Sinai, one time in history, okay? Says the Chasam Sofer, so what did Hashem do? Hashem took mizbeach shel esh mitachat kisei hakavod. You know what else is tachat kisei hakavod? The nefashot shel Yisrael. The Gemara in Rishonim tell us, nefesh. Where does Hashem take the nefashot? The neshamot, He takes them mitachat kisei hakavod. He says that's pshat, madbeya shel eish, not physical. The ruchni, the nefesh. He's showing you, if you talk תחת כסא הכבוד, if you talk nefesh with nefesh, then there's achdus. Gashmi with gashmi, if I'm the neshama, Jew has to know, my neshama and your neshama is one neshama. My nefesh and your nefesh. Beautiful Chasam Sofer, such a holy, such a holy understanding. Yes, I do it. I do it. No, I like the hands. Yeah, of course I do, what I do. I don't love you, I don't love—I love everybody. What are you talking about? I would do anything for anybody. What are you talking about? I live my life for other people. I don't live my life for myself. I don't even know what you're talking about. I ask anything from anybody? I bother anybody? Chas v'shalom. I'm like, I come to teach, to help, to do—what are you talking about? Take, put on the steam, it's cold. It's freezing, very cold. Very cold, I'm shaking. You hear? Nefesh b'nefesh, what are you talking about? So if it's guf b'guf, if it's gashmi, you're right, then there's kinah.

If it's ruchni, I look at you as a nefesh miYisrael. What are you talking about? What are you talking about? That's mitachat kisei hakavod. Mitachat kisei hakavod. No, that's healthy kinah. You know what kinah ruchniut is? You have it, and I want it, and I hope you have it, and I hope I have it. That's called kinah ruchniut. Let's say somebody has a child, a tzaddik. So you want that the other guy should have a child. You don't want that the other guy shouldn't have it. He also should have it. That's good. That's normal. No, that's good. I should have it. Usually we should both have it. Halavai sheyirbu kamocha b'Yisrael. Wonderful, wonderful. Kinah is, why does he have it? I wish he doesn't have it and I have it. What are you talking about? I want to show you what kinah does to a person. This week's parashah we learned that Hashem tells Moshe Rabbeinu with the shivim zekeinim to go up, to go up. Aleh elai. This was the end of Har Sinai, the end of Kabbalat HaTorah is in Mishpatim. It starts in Yitro, it ends in Mishpatim, at the end of Mishpatim. He tells him, Come up, you, Nadav and Avihu and the seventy zekeinim. The Gemara says that in that situation, Nadav and Avihu hitchayvu mitah. So either because histaklu bifnei haShechinah, that's one reason. The Gemara also says, the Midrash brings it down as well, that they walked behind Moshe and Aharon, Nadav and Avihu, and they said, Matai yamutu shnei zekeinim halalu? One of these two old fogies, they're going to die, v'ani v'ata, me and you, manhig et hador. We'll be the manhigim. Because they said that Hashem said, We'll see who dies first. Let's see if these two old fogies die first or you, not the Navi will die first. Can I ask you a question? Not the Navi. You think they were some Bowery bums? They were tzaddikim. They were great. They were giants, right? Okay. You know Moshe was their uncle, the gadol hador. Even that doesn't make sense. But let's say, Aaron was their father. You know a person that talks about his father, the old fogey, the old fogey, I can't wait till he dies so I can take over his business. You know anybody who talks like that? It's bizarre. It's something which is... maybe it was spiritual kinah. Whatever it is, it was kinah. The point is, it was not healthy kinah. Something was not healthy. The Maharsha explains, the Maharsha in Sanhedrin explains, haya chet shel kinah. There was something there, kinah. What do we see from here? Look what kinah does. Look what it does, that a person can say about his own father. It says own father, his own father. Matai yamutu shnei zekeinim halalu. Kinah, kinah, kinah, kinah, kinah. You're listening to what we're saying. It's unbelievable. Gedolei olam, when there's a nekudah of kinah, makes a person blind. Instead of saying, Ve'ahavta l'reacha kamocha, achi, my brother. Ve'ahavta l'reacha kamocha, you're my brother, you're my brother. Ve'ahavta l'reacha kamocha, you're my brother. I'll tell you a good vort. You know, I saw on Shabbos a very interesting pshat. You see, ve'ahavta l'reacha kamocha, on the other hand, it's brought down, Reb Aharon of Baks was a very big darshan. He was a big darshan from the big darshanim of Europe. He said a very interesting ha'arah. We find, right, Ve'ahavta l'reacha kamocha. But then when it comes to a brother, Lo tisna et achicha. Don't hate him. From loving your friend, don't hate your brother. And then when it speaks about a rav and a manhig, it says, Lo ta'or. Don't curse him. Lo ta'or. He says, Why? He says, Beautiful, yeah, it's beautiful. He says, the answer is, to love your brother, well, it's a little difficult, you know. You say, Look what he did to me. Okay, so at least you don't hate him. Your friend, you could at least love. So, Ve'ahavta l'reacha is kamocha. Achicha, lo tisna. A rav, lo ta'or. Is that much you can ask of you? Don't curse him. Mishulchan gavoah brings down this pshat, the Maharal of Bach. Drush, יפה מאוד, yeah? Keep it in mind. The rav, what, he's like to like him? How can you like him? He gives you mussar all day. What do you expect, not to hate him? You're probably going to hate him. How can you not hate? He makes you crazy. At least do me a favor, don't curse him. Lo ta'or.

Don't curse, don't curse. V'nasiv amcha lo tahor. Don't curse the nasi, don't curse the rav. It's cute. Yafta? Reyachas is ahava. Achicha. The woman's a little tznius, achicha a little. Nasiv amcha lo tahor. Don't be... I can't actually like him and not hate him, but don't curse him. Cute. Okay. Point being, rabosai, achicha, it's your brother. Why? If everybody's your brother, after v'ahavta kamocha, why? And the answer is, kinah, kinah, kinah makes a person blind. Oh, ma'osi, ma'osi. Chazal tell us, rabosai, ayin tovah. One of the main yesodos is ayin tovah. You know what an ayin tovah—I'll explain to you. Baruch Hashem, everybody has children, Baruch Hashem. Do you know what it means to have a child? You know the wealth, the wealth a person has by having a child. One child. What a house is wealth, money is wealth, and I'll prove it to you. I'll prove it to you. This week's parsha, it says, this week's parsha it says that, V'natzun anashim v'nakfu ishah hara, v'yatzu yeladeha. And her children will come out. You hit her, and the children came out. Tell me something, how many children does she have in the stomach? Who says she has more than one? Why would the pasuk talk about— It should say, v'ladeha, vladah, her child. What do you mean, yeladeha, her children? U'sel means they got a rechem. That's not what the story. The story is that the child had a miscarriage. That's all means. Huh? They heard her so much. But that's not what the pasuk means. The pasuk means that the child died. Kol sheken echad. What's the difference? No, two, in kol sheken echad. What's the difference? You say yeled, you wouldn't learn two. Yeah, but why? What does that mean? Why? Yeah, but that's not the case. No, I'm saying, you're saying that it means you're damaged to the child. That's not what it means. The child came out, so you have to pay for the child. How am I supposed to say? Vlad. Vlad shelah, not yeladeha. Yeladeha means plural of children. It's an unbelievable question. You know who? Rav Shimon Schwab in his Ein Beis Tashuvah asks this question. It's a tremendous question. You know, all the years I read it, I never thought about it. And then when he asked the question, I go, hey, he's right. What does it mean? V'yatzu yeladeha, her children will come out. So he gives a teirutz that maybe Hashem is giving a bracha to the Jewish women, many children, you know, it's a remez, many children. I don't know what it means exactly. I would say like this. Let me tell you what I would say. That's what I'm going to say. Ready? I'm going to say it a little differently. Let me tell you what I'm going to say. My Zaydie told me, and my Bubby told me, they both told me the story different times, that when they became chatan v'kallah, my father's parents, when they became chatan v'kallah, my grandmother was not seen by my grandfather's mother, just the father saw, which means they made a shidduch in Branovitch. The shidduch was in Branovitch, and the Bubby, which means my grandfather's mother... was in Pinsk, so she never saw yet the kallah. So after they became chatan v'kallah, they traveled to Pinsk to show the kallah to the mother. As they traveled to Pinsk, they passed by Vilna. Vilna was Reb Chaim Ozer was the gadol hador. He was the Rav Shach of Europe, and he lived in Vilna. So they— and my grandfather was very close to Reb Chaim Ozer. He used to talk to him all the time. So they decided to stop off by Reb Chaim Ozer to show, you know, to make a l'chaim, make a mazel tov that they are shidduch, husband and wife, kachatan and kallah. Reb Chaim Ozer went— he was very warm. Reb Chaim Ozer was a very warm person, very sweet. He took out the mashke, you know, made a l'chaim, and he was talking to them. Now Reb Chaim Ozer's wife passed away, and Reb Chaim Ozer had one daughter, and that daughter became very sick, very, very sick. She passed away also afterwards. Reb Chaim Ozer was left alone. At the end of his life, he was alone. Reb Chaim Ozer had nothing in his life. But the point is, he used to take care of that daughter after his wife passed away, that sick daughter. So the daughter started to cry from her room, from her bed. So Reb Chaim Ozer got up and he said, I'm sorry, I have to go now. You wait, I'll be back.

So, he went to take care of the daughter. He went over a half an hour, he left. So when he came back, he wanted to excuse himself that he left my grandfather sitting there for a half an hour waiting. So he tells my grandfather, Tell me, how many brothers and sisters do you have? So he said, I have nine brothers and sisters, and I'm the tenth. Which means, says Reb Chaim Ozer, your father had ten children, right? I want you to understand that this daughter of mine is my tenth child. And he stuck his hands up and he showed with his ten fingers that this daughter of mine, these are my ten children. He says, You can imagine if all of my ten children are crying at the same time, I'm busy. So you have to be mochel, you have to excuse me. What did I take out from this? Every child, it's not a yachid, it's not an echad to a parent. Every child is his family. It's his whole family. It's not one child. Not yeled echad. Each child is all my—it's like a whole family of my children. That's the yachas, the feeling that a father has for a child. Yatzu yeladeha. Oh, it's one child. No, no, no, no. To a mother, it's like you took ten children from her. Yatzu yeladeha. I want to show you something interesting, rabosai. The Gemara said, you know, Shabbos before we start the meal, we make Birchas HaBanim. The Sefardim also make Birchas HaBanim? Okay. We make Birchas HaBanim. We bless the children. Tell me, so why do we bless the children? What does blessing the children before the Shabbos meal, what does that have to do with? You ever think about it? People imply, you know, certain things I think about, nobody else thinks about. What's the reason? But why? Think about it. Maybe I should bless my hat that it should be a long... What does that have to do with the Shabbos? Again, but why am I blessing the children? What's the significance, Shabbos blessing the children? What happened? It's got to be some... Before Yom Kippur, the custom is to bless the children. Okay, it's Yom HaDin. Hashem is going to judge them. So, here, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, we bless the children. But what does Shabbos have to do with blessing the children? I hear you say because the malachim come to give a bracha, maybe. Something needs more explanation. So I'll tell you what I thought on Shabbos, a beautiful, beautiful answer, and I told it to the people in Lakewood. Every person was mamash in seventh heaven. Beautiful, beautiful pshat. The Gemara says, and also not only that, if you want to bless the children, bless them in the synagogue. What are you blessing them before the meal for? Bless them by the Torah. I know that's like a strange thing. Before you start Kiddush, you bless your children. What happened? The answer, Rabosai, is as follows. You ready? But you have an answer? He's looking for the answer. I once spoke about it. Oh, he wants a piece of paper. Maybe I once spoke. He has one. He says everything I ever spoke, he has. You know how much he has from what I... He has all the shiurim from day one, you know that? Okay, so I'll tell you what the answer is. You ready for the answer? I'll tell you the answer. The Gemara in Shabbat kuf yud ches says... Whoever is me'aneg es haShabbat, notnim lo nachalah bli metzarim. We give him nachalah, an inheritance without any boundaries. Says the Gemara, what is this inheritance without boundaries? Like it says, V'achalticha nachalat Yaakov. I will feed you the nachalah of Yaakov. What is the nachalah of Yaakov? Says the Gemara, it says in the pasuk, Vayatzazarcha kafar haaretz, v'nivrchu ufaratzta yamah vakeidmah vatzafonah vanegbah. So we see that this bli metzarim, yamah vakeidmah vatzafonah vanegbah. You listening? Yamah vakeidmah vatzafonah vanegbah, right? So what do you see from here? Nachalah bli metzarim. Now tell me something, what are we referring to? Referring to the children. Vayatzazarcha kafar haaretz. The Gemara says, Kol hame'aneg es haShabbat notnim lo nachalah bli metzarim. Now people say it over, but they don't know what it means. Read the Gemara. The Gemara continues, like it says, V'achalticha nachalat Yaakov, the nachalah of Yaakov. I'll give it to you to eat. And what am I giving you to eat, nachalat Yaakov? That you'll have, it says in the pasuk, Vayatzazarcha kafar haaretz.

Ufaratzta yamah vakeidmah, tzafonah vanegbah. So we're referring to the children. And then it says clearly, V'nivrechu v'cha kol mishpechot ha'adamah u'vezar'echa. So therefore, before I sit down to be mehaneg at the Shabbat, I say, the children, birchot habanim. This is the nachalah banim mitzarim, my children. This is what it is. If I sit and I'm mehaneg at the Shabbat, what do I have? Nachalah? What's wrong? Of course amazing. You want to know something? When it hit me, I can't answer anything about it till now. I don't know, it's so simple, the pshat, because the Gemara says it clearly, that it's going on, Vayitazarcha ka'afar haaretz, v'nivrechu, and it says clearly, we'll bless the children, u'vezar'echa. So what do we say? Because this is the nachalah before we sit down to be mehaneg at the Shabbat. Before we sit down to pleasure on Shabbos, what's the present that we got for this? The children. This is it. Shamru bnei Yisrael la'asot et haShabbat l'dorotam. What is it? Shamru. They kept the children. That's the pshat, the children. So that's why we're blessing them so they know, so... Shmirat haShabbat. I come and I hear, the Shabbat, it's the children, l'dorotam. You want to have good children? Be mehaneg at the Shabbat. Make Shabbos holy. Children will be good. People come home and make the Shabbat that they talk about, you saw what that guy did, you saw what he did, you saw what happened in the synagogue, you saw what the rabbi... you see this, you heard about this guy's money, you heard about... your kids will come out not that good. The kids sit at the Shabbos table. They see the father, sixty years old, and he's maneig את השבת. Your nachla v'li mitzarim is your children, l'dorotam. You know, Friday night, what do we say? Shamor v'zachor b'dibur echad, right? What comes first? But I thought zachor came first. It says— no, but it says zachor was in this week's parsha, and Shamor is in— huh? What do we say l'cha dodi? You know what we say in Lecha Dodi? No? Shamor is Friday night. The Ramban says it clearly. The Ramban says, sod— he's going to tell you a big secret. Shamor is for Friday night. Zachor is for Shabbos day. It's Ramban. You look at Ramban on the pasuk. I know, but he says, the Ramban, 'Aitzes Shamor et yom haShabbat' in the second dibrot. Shamor is for Friday night. What should call this for Shabbos day? Now the opposite. Shamor is the— it's a good question. It's a tremendous question. I always said the pshat is— I'll tell you how I learned the pshat. A person thinks that where is lakatsho? Where is the kodesh of Shabbos? You would say the kodesh of Shabbos is that he keeps the lamed-tes melachos. No. The kodesh of Shabbos is the eating and the drinking, and that's pshat b'dibur echad. You need them both together. You can't have the zachor without the shamor, and the shamor without the zachor, l'katchila. You want to be mekadesh, you want to make holy? On Shabbos it's through the eating. Normally, what is kodesh? Kodesh is, I stay away, I eat less, right? Kodesh, Yom Kippur kadosh, yeah? Shabbos, there's a special kadosh. Shamor, but it needs zachor. The dibur echad nemru, that it should be l'katchila. It has to come together, the shamor and the zachor. Al kol panim, the shamor is Friday night. The zachor is Shabbos day. So it should be the opposite, no? I'll tell you what I think. A person eats Friday by night. You know what you have from that? He's maneg et haShabbat, because he enjoys. The whole week he works hard, and he comes Friday night to be maneg et haShabbat. He enjoys the Friday night meal. Then he comes in the morning, enjoys the Shabbos meal. But as Shabbos goes on, he gets tired of the food, right? He gets to by shalosh seudos already finished. Yeah, how much could you eat already, you know? So that...

That's where the avodah becomes zachor, Yom HaShabbos l'kadsho, which is the oneg Shabbos. Friday night, you know what the main avodah is? The shamor, because the zachor part is easy. Of course, who doesn't want to come Friday night? It feels good. You take a shower, you're eating, wine, there, food, hey, it feels great. Shamor is the avodah of Friday night. The avodah of day is the opposite, is the zachor. I know it's very nice. Let me tell you, I have so much, I can talk till tomorrow, but all right. So this is the pshat, shamor, and that's the pshat, v'shamru bnei Yisrael. You know where your children are going to see it? Not in the zachor, but they see you eat, you see you drink. Friday night, if he sees mirot. What's this? This mirot is, I take the Shabbos meal, which is the oneg, and I say, you know something? It's not about food. It's about Hashem. Shamor. V'shamru bnei Yisrael la'asot es haShabbos l'dorotam. That's where the children will see. If they see you eating on Shabbos, all right, as usual. If they see you shamor on Yom HaShabbos, that's going to be what? L'dorotam. This is the pshat, rabosai, you hear? Okay, so what are we learning? We're learning like this, rabosai. Kina is a killer. Kina makes people not see what they're supposed to see. What is the solution? The solution is, be happy with what you have. Be happy with what you have. Nachla bli metzarim. You have a wife, you have a child. Nachla bli metzarim. What are you talking about? This is nachla bli metzarim. Zaracha, the children, the children, the children, the children. You have parents, yeah? This is the nachla bli metzarim. You should be in the Shabbat, you gotta push more. In the zach, and Friday night you gotta push more, the Shabbos. It shouldn't be a badah, I have a good time, I'm drinking good wines. But after Shabbos, the Shabbos gets longer and longer, then it becomes very difficult. You want to know something? I even think there's a mechilta. Mechilta says, Shamor erev Shabbat, zachor motzaei Shabbat. Erev and motzaei, this same point, okay? This word is against the child. It's not against the child. No, the child makes the people sleep. Okay, okay, but that's the point. The point is that once you have the child, then it becomes avodah, it's a different avodah. Give me a few minutes to finish this shiur. I'll be with you in a minute. Okay, rabosai, so this is the point that I want to bring out from this week's parashah. This is the point that, oh, I'm just going to tell you one more thing I heard over Shabbat, which I thought was very beautiful. You know, we take what Hashem gives us, chesed, and we don't properly use it. Hashem gave us a home, a wife, a child. And we don't properly appreciate it. You know, there's a halacha called basar b'chalav, to take the milk and to cook the meat together with the milk. So the mefarshim give different reasons what's wrong with basar b'chalav, why is it so bad. So some say that if Hashem separated the basar from the chalav, don't go and put it back. Rambam speaks like this. Someone told me a very nice pshat. He said like this: you know, the milk the cow gives is a chesed. It's a tremendous chesed for people. It gives off milk. We enjoy the milk: eretz zavat chalav u'dvash. Chalav is a tremendous... Even though today they believe it's not healthy to drink milk, okay, but they... you don't have to pay attention to all the mishugaim. They know nothing. They're crazy. One minute it's like this, the next it's the opposite. Global warming and the middle of a snowstorm. The coldest winter in the last twenty years, but they're global warming. See? All right, only in America you can get up and scream about global warming in the middle of a snowstorm. Okay, ... you hear? Only in America you eat the waffle and you drink diet Coke. That's right, that's right. Together with the pizza you drink the Diet Coke. Skim milk, skim milk. Okay, listen carefully, you hear? So the milk was given as a chesed. The cow gave it to you, so you take the milk...

And you cook it. You kill and cook the cow together with its own milk. It's a nice idea. How could you take the milk, the chesed, and take the meat and cook it? Cook the cow with its own milk. It's יפה מאוד, huh? יפה מאוד. He told me another—there's no problem with chicken. Really, originally. It doesn't give milk. It doesn't give milk. It's beautiful. Chicken. What about chicken? Yeah, chicken's noisser. Chicken's only derabanan. Good. It doesn't belong to the cow, that's why. You're hearing a pshat, you're hearing another pshat. יפה מאוד, huh? The milk is chesed from the cow. The cow gave you milk. Now you want to cook the cow in its own milk? So you gave—did you a favor, gave you milk. You take that favor and you burn him in his own chesed? Unbelievable pshat. He said over, this guy told me also another very nice pshat. He said, What is shiluach haken? Shiluach haken—it's a beautiful pshat, really beautiful. I was listening, I was going, wow, these are such beautiful raayonot. Shiluach haken, you're not supposed to take— Male voice: Male animal should also be derabanan. Male animal should also be derabanan. Male— Male animal should also be derabanan. The maaseh, the cow. It doesn't have to be you yourself gave the milk. The cow gave it. The idea is the min gives milk. Don't take that—you cook the husband with the mother's milk. You cook the husband with the wife's milk, it's also. Okay, point B, point. You ready? The bird, shiluach haken. You're not allowed to what? You're not allowed to— Mother with the child. The only reason why you could catch the mother is because she has the rachmanus on the child. She's sitting there over the chickens, over the אפרוחים. If you had to go catch this bird, you would have to hunt. You would have to be a skilled huntsman, right? Who can hunt the bird? The bird's flying all over the place. So to take advantage of the rachmanus of the mother, because it's protecting the child, the Torah says. So you should do that. No, you should send it away. Send the mother. That's why you have to send the mother away, not take the children, because she has rachmanus. You see, Gemara says it's not the pshat that the Eibishter— Gemara says it's not that the Eibishter has rachmanus on the bird. The Eibishter is teaching you rachmanus. How's the Eibishter teaching you? It could be this and the— Because the only reason why you could catch the mother and the bird, you're getting the whole package. Why? Because the mother doesn't want to leave the children. That's achsarius. Because take advantage of the mother's rachmanus, that's an achsarius. Yafeh me'od. Yafeh, yafeh me'od, huh? What's the reason you're able to take the mother? Because the mother doesn't want to leave the bird, the eggs. So you're taking advantage of the fact that the mother has rachmanus on the child to catch the mother and the child. So let the mother go. Okay, you want to catch her? Go try to catch her now. Let's see if you can catch her. Enjoy. To take advantage of the rachmanus of the mother. This, rabosai, is the yesod. Learn to take the chesed of the Eibishter. He gave you children. He gives you. Take advantage of it. Appreciate it. Look at what you have. Then you won't have kinah. You don't have kinah, and you can payer the after ... hamocha. On top of everything, you won't want to steal or take from the other guy. You'll be happy with what you have. And then you can be mekayem, Ma elu miSinai, and truma, v'shachanti b'socham. You can build a Mikdash. Your own home will be a Beis HaMikdash. Amen.