Tzav: The Eternal Fire, Ahavas Hashem, and Keeping the Fire of Torah Alive

Transcript

Okay. This week's parsha, Parshas Tzav, we have, in the beginning of the parsha, the din of olah. Tzav es Aharon v'es banav, leimor, zos toras ha'olah. And in the parsha of olah, there's a mitzvah, and that is, V'eish al hamizbeach tukad bo, lo sichbeh. That the fire on the mizbeach should burn, lo sichbeh. You're not supposed to extinguish the fire. U'vi'er aleha hakohen eitzim baboker, baboker. So this is to make fire. It's called ma'arachah, to make the fire by putting wood. By putting wood, we make the fire. U'vi'er aleha hakohen eitzim baboker, baboker. Then it says again, Eish tamid tukad al hamizbeach lo sichbeh. Pasuk hei and pasuk vav. Why does it repeat it twice? Repeat it twice. So be'emes, actually it's not repeated twice. It actually says three times. You take a look, it says, Hi ha'olah al mokdah al hamizbeach kol halaylah, in pasuk beis, v'eish hamizbeach tukad bo. So it says it three times. It doesn't say it once, doesn't say it twice. Actually, it says it three times. Shlosha peamim katuv, ha'esh al hamizbeach tukad, that you have to have fire on the mizbeach. Why does it have to say it three times? So the truth is, the Gemara is doresh that there's three ma'arachot. There's three, three fires. There's one for the korban, there's one for the ketores, and there's one, l'shunzi from the Rambam, just a fire for the sake of having a fire. Shlosha ma'arachot. There's three, okay? And this, why it says three times in the Torah, three times it says eish. Good. But if you notice, it says twice lo sichbeh. True, it says eish hamizbeach three times, but lo tichbeh, it says twice. Once in pasuk hei, va'esh hamizbeach tukad bo lo sichbeh, and then it says, eish tamid tukad al hamizbeach lo tichbeh. So why do you have to have twice lo tichbeh? So Rashi learns, l'avor alav bishnei lavin. You get two, two issurim. You see the Rashi? L'avor alav lo tichbeh, hamechabeh eish al hamizbeach, or me'al hamizbeach, over bishnei lavin, because it says twice lo sichbeh. Right? That's how the Sifsei Chachamim explains. Pashut, because it says twice, leisichteh. So the question is, two issurim, two lavin. Why do you need two lavin for the same issur, for the same thing? Why do you—usually, you know, when something is chamur, something is very—an aveirah chamurah, a very strict aveirah, I can hear that there's two lavin. Hadgasha, emphasis. You said it very well, to put emphasis on the issur. Is this so important, esh al hamizbeach lo tichbeh? So now we have to understand what is the esh about. If you see that there's two issurim—now, not all the Rishonim are maskim. The Ramban, the Rambam does not say ya'over twice. He doesn't say ya'over two. But Rashi says ya'over two. So we have to understand why. Why is it such an aveirah? Mah hachomer bazeh, sheyesh shnei lavin, u'kedei lehasbir et zeh tzrichim lavin. We have to understand what's the whole inyan of having the fire. So kipshutoi, it's because you needed it. Since there were korbanos, and you had to burn the korbanot.

Right? So that's why you needed fires. You notice on the gas wrench, there's four pilots. Someone's going to ask, why do you need four pilots? So you know what the answer is? Because you want to make four dishes. The Bucharian... should have ten. They should really have, they should make an oven of ten pilots, because they have ten dishes for Shabbos. Ashkenazi, all you need is one and a milmart. One and milmart, and that's all. But this is just humor to make it exciting. But the she'eilah is peshuta. The she'eilah is very simple. The fires, l'chura, l'chura, are just there for what? Because you needed them. Ayat tzorech. So the truth is, I found the RaLBaG. RaLBaG explains the mitzvah that way. RaLBaG explains the mitzvah. RaLBaG is his name. It's a shem shelo, RaLBaG. It's a sefer mehaRishonim. He was one of the Rishonim. He says like this: Hinei hato'eles b'zois hamitzvah mevu'ar. The to'elet, the point of this mitzvah is self-explanatory. L'tzorech haktaros hatmidios. For the sake of the constant sacrifices. They sacrificed a lot of things on the mizbeach, so you needed a lot of fires. Hanaasos b'chutz u'bifnim, all the different korbanos that were made inside, outside. The mizbeach was busy, so it needed, so it needed—oh, we'll talk about them tonight—so it needed, it needed three fires. Needed it. This is how the Albag explains. So it comes out that it's a technical thing. There's no big inyanim in this. You needed to make korbanos, so you needed fires. There was a lot of korbanos. I guess there was always korbanos, so tamid, eish tamid, because there was always a need. So therefore they had the fire ready. At any given moment, at any given moment, there could be a korban. So therefore, constantly the fire is burnt, eish tamid tukad al hamizbeach. The Chizkuni doesn't learn like this. Chizkuni says it's something more symbolic, something more symbolic why we need eish tamid, constant. Says the Chizkuni on this pasuk, Kavod Shamayim. It's respect for Hashem. It's respect for the Beit Hamikdash. The shulchan, the table of Hashem, is called the shulchan. So what's the mizbeach? It's called the kira. It's the oven of Hashem. Says the Chizkuni, Kavod Shamayim shelo tehei kirato beteilah. Hashem's oven shouldn't be empty. It shouldn't be just sitting there constantly, constant usage. So the fire is always going. Does he mean, Chizkuni, because the korbanos were always going? Or does he mean that even if there were no korbanos, at least the fire was going, that the kira, that the oven should be in constant fire. It's constantly working. Does he mean like the albak, that the korbanos were constant? It's mashma that it's not so much when there's korbanos, even when there's no korbanos, the oven should be constant, right? Working around the clock. Shelo tehei kirato. The kira, the oven of Hashem, the mizbeach is like the oven of Hashem, shelo yeheh beteilah. V'zeh kavod. It's a respect. You come into an Ashkenazi home again, I like the mashal. The oven is not used from one Shabbos to the next. It's empty, right? But if there's kavod, if there's respect for the husband, so the wife constantly, the oven is being used, making more dishes and more, right? Okay. Again, it's just a mashal v'nimshal. And why do I give you that? You should hear the concept of kavod. It's constantly working, which means we're constantly making korbanos. Does it have to mean that every moment there was a korban? No. But the oven is constantly burning, and it looks, it looks, it looks like there's constant usage. ... sheyeh behen korbanot tamid? He doesn't say that. I'm not sure. You see, I'm trying to understand what he means. So again, we see that the fire is very important.

How do we see, lavera lo bishnei lavin, that if you extinguish it, you over two lavin. So that's clear. It's got to be very important, this fire. So is it technical, the fire? Is the importance of it because they had korbanos? The Albag learns simply they had constant usage on the mizbeach to be maktir, so therefore you needed fire. But the Chizkuni is saying something different. The Chizkuni seems to be saying it's more symbolic, kavod. It has to look nice that it's constantly working, constant usage. Does it mean that there were korbanos all the time? Not necessarily. I want to say a third pshat, okay? According to the Ralbag, it's the korbanos, the fire because there was korbanos. According to Chizkuni, it's the mizbeach. It's more about the oven, that the oven should be—it looks like it's constantly being used. I would say, and I believe, and I'm going to prove to you that it's the fire, tachlit is the fire, that the fire should be constant. According to the Ralbag, the ikar is the korbanos should be tamid, and the fire is just needed for the korbanos. According to the Chizkuni, it's that the mizbeach should have fire constantly. According to me, I think it's about the fire itself, and I'll prove it to you. Notice that the third pasuk, the last pasuk, Eish tamid. Eish tamid tukad al hamizbeach lo sichbeh. I'm sorry, right? Eish tamid. Now, if you want to talk about when it should be burning, it should say like this: Eish tukad al hamizbeach tamid. Again, if you want to say that the fire is constantly burning on the mizbeach, and the point is the time, it's about the time, then the right way of writing it is, Eish tukad al hamizbeach tamid. But now that it says eish tamid, so the tamid is a definition of the eish, the type of eish. It's a description of the eish, and that is that the eish is tamid. Hear the difference? אם אני רוצה להגיד זמן, אז אני אומר, אש תוקד על המזבח. When? Tamid. But if I'm coming and defining the type of eish, it's an eish tamid. Eish tamid tukad. It's more about the fire than about the time when the fire burnt. Let me explain to you what I mean, and let me tell you where I got this from. The Yerushalmi in Yuma, perek daled, halacha vav says, Lo tichbeh. You're not supposed to extinguish the fire on the mizbeach. Says the Yerushalmi, Reb Yochanan says, Af b'shaas hamasa'os. You know, they took down the Mishkan. The Mishkan was masa'ot when they were traveling. They took down the Mishkan. Tell me, were they makriv korbanos when the Mishkan was down? No. Even when they were traveling and the Mishkan was down, they had to make sure that the fire continued. Says the Yerushalmi in the name of Rabbi Yochanan, so what did they do? How did they keep a fire? You know, when you travel, it's very hard. Try to put a fire on top of your car. Unless it's electrical, it's not going to work, right? Says the Gemara, psachtor, which is a cover. They put a cover on top, like the menorahs in Eretz Yisrael. When they want to light candles outside, they put like a glass on top. There was a glass on top of the mizbeach that the fire should be eish tamid even when they traveled. Now let's discuss. According to Yuralbag, that it's about the constant need of the korbanos, there's no korbanos now. So you can't come and tell me that it's l'tzorech korban, not tamidiyot. The only question is, what about the reason of the chizuk, that the cover of the mizbeach, that it's always working? Yeah, but if they're not being makriv korbanos, there's no real need.

The kavod is, kishetzrichim lavi korbanos, as a kavod, that it's constantly working. But if they're closed for the — example, a guy's gonna leave his oven open when he's closed for business, huh? It should look good that it's constantly working. Yeah, but you're closed. But you're closed. If you're closed for business, right, if you're closed for business, there's no point. You hear? Yaakov, you hear? If you're closed for — you're not being makriv korbanos. So what would be the kavod? Well, natan means natan anyonah, natan. Everybody come closer to the shiur, come. Tishma, katuv, Hakol kol Elov. And Hashem spoke, Hashem spoke, and Moshe heard it because it was supposed to be for Moshe. So whoever hears it, it's a siman that he was supposed to hear that message. You know, that's the way it is. Right, it says only Moshe heard it. Hashem didn't speak only to Moshe. Hashem spoke, and Moshe, since it was nogea to him. The Gemara also says, Kol yom bas kol yotzei me'Chorev, right? So they all ask the question: the bas kol comes out from Chorev. Where is this bas kol? How come I don't hear it? And you know what the answer is? Only certain people hear it. It's meant for certain people, not meant for everybody. And those that have to hear it hear it. Okay, same thing. All right, now. So what do we have from here, rabosai? A question: why when they traveled was it also eis tamid, tukad al hamizbe'ach, lo tichbeh? Why? Why? Why did— For what? There was no need. Kavod chizkuni. Rabbag, first shuna. Rabbag says that they needed because of korbanos; there was no korbanos b'shaas hamasaot. Chizkuni, kavod, maybe, but I don't hear it. It's anyway not the time to be makriv the korbanos. So what would be the reason? What would be the reason to have eish tamid? What would be the reason to have eish tamid? The teretz is, rabosai, it's not about the korbanos; it's about the eish. It's a definition that when they put the fire on the mizbeach, that fire had to be constant. So even when they were traveling, even when there was no tzorech מצד הקורבנות, im zeh definition shel ha'esh, shezeh eish tamidi, that the eish was constant, therefore even b'shaas hamasaot, constant. The fire had to be burning, constant. So constant means even b'shaas hamasaot. Let's discuss another point. Did they— Okay, but make it quick. What? I just said, because they put a psachta, they put a cover on top, a glass. There was like a glass container that was put on top. They do that in the menorah in Israel. In Israel, when they light candles outside, it's with a little hole and they cover it. It's done in a way that it could be— Okay, now. Now, halacha is eish tamid. That you're supposed to make fire on the Mizbeach. Did that fire necessarily burn the korbanos? So let me tell you a little piece of information. Eish yarda min haShamayim, Chazal tell us that actually the fire came from Shamayim. The mitzvah was that you should add, put in a match, put in some wood, but actually the fire came straight from Shamayim. Nadav and Avihu, they died because they were makriv a zar because they were not metzuvah yet to add. So the Shamayim sent down the fire and they added when they weren't supposed to add. And what was their mistake? Because they knew that eventually the mitzvah was to add. So actually Shamayim sends fire, and you, the kohen, the person, adds to the fire. The Rambam brings this lahalacha. This is not just a Gemara aggadata; this is halacha. The Rambam brings it down in Temidim uMusafim, perek beis, halacha aleph. Let's read the Rambam, halacha l'maaseh. Rambam says like this: Mitzvas aseh lihyos eish yekudah tamid, that the fire should burn constantly.

Karbanos mizbeach, shneemar, eish tamid tukad al hamizbeach. Our pasuk, says the Rambam, what does that mean? That means the following: Af al pi sheha'eish yored min hashamayim, that even though actually the fire came from heaven, right, still, mitzvah l'havi eish min hahedyot. There's a mitzvah to add fire from the regular person. Shenemar, v'nasnu bnei Aharon hakohanim eish al hamizbeach. So the eish tamid was a mixture of the shamayim and us. So let's go back to the Rambam. Ra'avad, you said—I'm sorry, let's go back to the Ra'avad. Ra'avad, you said that the point is that the korbanos—yeah, but you anyway have eish min hashamayim. Let's go back to the Chizkuni. Chizkuni, you said that the reason is it shouldn't be without fire. Ah, so I could say like this: when there was a korban, so the fire came down from shamayim. Where there was no korban, there was no reason that the fire should come down. So then, in order it should be continuous, you had to add the fire on your own. In other words, the fire that burnt the korban was really from heaven. The continuous fire, for when there were no korban, not every second of the day there was korbanos, that was your doing of making fire. Okay, let me have a little fresh here, and I'll say it again. I want you to understand, because it's a very, very... Hasha is safe. It's very important to me that you should understand what I'm saying, because I'm learning with you. אני לומד איתכם, פשט, פשט. And then we'll see how it opens up to us to understand the depth of this mitzvah, what this mitzvah is all about. Barur that the korban gets burnt from the heavenly fire. Yet, the Chazal and the Rambam brings the halacha tells us that we have to add to that fire. So I'm asking like this: when you add to that fire, right? So the eish tamid tukad al hamizbeach, and the reason the Rambam gives is because there's constant korbanos. But if there's constant korbanos, there's anyway constant from Hashem, the fire. Yeah, but nevertheless, you have to add the fire. So the same way constantly Hashem would send fire, you have to constantly add fire because korbanos were constant, right? According to the Rambam, it anyway had to be that you added constantly, נכון? שהרי הקדוש ברוך הוא שולח תמיד, because there's תמיד קרבנות, אבל גם אתה צריך להוסיף. You have to add constantly. According to the Chizkuni, that we don't want that the mizbeach should be empty without fire; it should be constantly working. So again, we could say that when did Hashem send the fires? When there was a korban. In order it should be constantly burning, that you had to do. Now the problem with that is the Rambam says not like that. The Rambam says— That the eish tamid was Hashem's fire. This that you added came from the pasuk, V'nasnu Bnei Aharon HaKohenim eish al hamizbeach. So the eish tamid tukad wasn't even you. The eish tamid tukad was who? Was Hashem. I want to be clear with you. Your adding of the fire was not in order it should be constant. Anyway, Hashem sent constant fire. So then what do you add? You can't say the constant fire, it should look, that's not you. So what would be the point of you adding? What would be the— unless you say, Hashem had the fire constant because of the reason of the chizkuni, it should look beteilah. And since the mitzvah was that your fire should be together with His fire, that's why you had to put constantly also. So even in the chizkuni, your adding was necessary because the fire needed to be you and Hashem. Hashem did it constantly because it was shelo tehei kiroflei beteilah, and you had to add constantly because the fires had to be a mixture of you and Hashem. Again, it's not 100%, but that's what it says here. Okay? Kulam hevinu? Muvan? Okay.

Again. You see that, you see clearly, Hashem sent and we had to give. So I'm asking like this: why did we have to give constantly? What's the answer? So the answer could be that since Hashem gave constantly because the korbanos were constant, according to the Rambag, so the eish tamid was constant because of the korbanos, so we had to add because of the korbanos. So that's what it means, constant, okay? According to the Chizkuni, that's about kavod. So the question is, Hashem is sending anyway. Hashem is anyway sending, even without the korban. Right? Because, see, first I wanted to say Hashem sends only with the korban, and we have to give extra the whole time because of kavod. But according to the Rambam, the eish tamid, too, lo tichbeh, is on Hashem. It's going on Hashem. It's going on Hashem. Why did Hashem send constantly, you hear? Why did Hashem send? Because of kavod. So what are we adding for? And the teretz might be is because we have to have with Hashem. It has to be the fire together. Okay, let's move on. Or we could say, the way we're learning, that it's not so much about shelo tehei beteilah. It's not about shelo tehei beteilah, but there's an inyan of eish tamid, and the inyan of eish tamid, that the fire should be constant, is twofold. Hashem's fire on the Mizbeach should be constant, and our giving of the fire should also be constant. It's not the ketores—I'm sorry, it's not the korban, it's not the mizbeach, but there's something about the eish tamid that's very important, and it needed a joint effort. It needed Hashem should put the fire tamid, and that we should put the fire tamid, and together that's called eish tamid. You hear what I just said? Now, of course you like it, but now you're going to see what's behind it. Let's understand what it is, and then we'll understand what's behind it. Eish tamid! Who makes the eish tamid? It's a joint effort. Hashem makes it eish tamid, and the v'nasnu haKohanim bnei Aharon, they have to add. They have to also add to the eish tamid, and together it creates this new phenomenon, this new product, and that is joint effort. Hashem and us create something called an eish tamid, and we'll soon see its significance. Now let's see further. I want to show you something very interesting. The Rambam in Peirush Beis, Halacha Daled, tells us that there was three fires, like I showed you from the pasuk, because it says it three times, right? The first one was b'rosh haMizbeach, and what would be the point of it? I'm sorry, three of them—excuse me—three of them were b'rosh haMizbeach. The first one, aleha makrivin haTamid, was to put the korban tamid with all the karbanos. The second one was a little smaller. Shemimenu loychim eish b'machta l'haktir ketores. It was for the ketores. So the first one was for the korban. The second one was for the ketores. What was the third one for? The third one says, Ein aleha klum. The Rambam says they put nothing there. Nothing. So what was the point of having it? Ela l'kiyum mitzvas ha'eish. It's just there because Hashem said to have fire. Shenemar, Eish tamid tukad. Fire just for the sake of fire. No? ... Eish tamid tukad. Fire because we need fire. We need the fire. Everything was from Shamayim mixed together with us. The question is, what's the point? So if you learn like the Ramban, you know what it is? You needed the karban; you only need the first two for the karban. The third one was not needed for the karban. So then what's the point of it? And the answer is the eish itself was the karban. The fire itself was the korban that you put on the mizbeach. ... No, lefiach cheskuni, ... aval barur, there was a third one, and the third one was—

Eish, shein eish. So someone asks, give me the names of all the korbanos. You'll say, korban tamid, olah, mincha, chatos, and eish. Tell them there's another korban, people don't know this. The Rambam says that the third, the last fire had no purpose. It was just there because we had to put a fire on the mizbeach. Eish l'shem eish. So I'm telling you the concept, my yesod. It was also a type of korban. You had to put on the mizbeach eish tamid tukad al hamizbeach. Now I want to point out something. One of them it says, tukad boi. If you notice, the pasuk says, tukad boi. Then it says, eish tamid tukad. Does it say boi? No. Al. There was a fire in the oven. Then there was a fire that was put on, like a korban. Eish tamid tukad al hamizbeach. No? What are you talking, beautiful, huh? Of course it's very nice. You're not going to hear this anywhere else. It's beautiful. Beautiful. Is this working? You sure? Yeah, yeah, okay. You hear? There's one fire. You see the difference? Tukad boi. One fire was the fire of the mizbeach. Then there was a mitzvah to put eish tamid tukad, Yaakov tukad, al, like a korban. They put a korban called eish fire. I always thought, see the significance. There's something interesting about that fire on the mizbeach, the eish tamid. What is it? What is this eish tamid, this fire that we put, yeah, just for the sake of having fire? If you take a look in the Netziv, we have a Netziv here, we have it? Hemek She'eilah, Hemek Davar. Let me see. In the Netziv, eish tamid tukad al hamizbeach. Says the Netziv, very big chiddush. The Rambam paskens in Temidim UMusafim, perek beis, halacha vav. Very big chiddush. Now I'm stalling a little bit because I'm skipping a little bit. I'm trying to take away the nitty-gritty. In my mind, I go back and forth, back and forth, the chizkuni, the... I don't think it's that necessary. I think the point is self-understood here, so I'm trying to... I'm looking through my notes. We're going to skip a little bit, but all right. Perek beis, halacha vav. Listen to here. Hamechabeh eish hamizbeach, lokeh. Not twice, but once. I told you, Rashi holds twice. The Rambam, the Ramban, and other Rishonim hold, how many times do you get malkus? Once. Okay. Afilu gacheles achas. Even if you just undo one coal, the fire's going, but I undo a little bit, take away one coal, I'm already over. You ready? V'afilu horidah me'al hamizbeach. And even if I took it off the mizbeach, vikavah, and I extinguish it off the mizbeach, still, like, I still get malkus. Tell me something, did you ever try taking a piece of fire? Did I ever try to take a piece of fire? What's the difference? The fire's still going. What's the difference? And you know what the answer, rabosai, is? So the Netziv learns that that's the chiddush of these pesukim. Says the Netziv, the chiddush of the pesukim, v'eish al hamizbeach tukad bo, meaning even when it's off the mizbeach, even when it's off. Here, I'm going to read it to you. It says like this. Here. Says the Netziv. Okay, here. One second. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Here. Okay, it says like this. Eish tamid...

So, afilu b'sha'ah v'eish al hamizbeach, afilu b'shaas hotzaas hadeshen, lo tichbeh legamrei. And, oi lilamdeinu, d'b'shaas hotzaas hadeshen asur lechabes hagechales, which means even when I take off the deshen, I'm taking out the scrap, and there's fire in it. Make sure it doesn't extinguish. Why not? If the whole idea is that the mizbeach needs to have—this doesn't take anything away from the mizbeach. Ani merim hadeshen. I'm taking off the— not the coals, the deshen, the ashes. I'm taking off the ashes, right? And there's fire in the ashes. So it's not taking away the fire of the mizbeach. I'm anyway taking it off the mizbeach. Still there's halacha of lo tichbeh. What do we see from here? It's about the eish. That the eish has to be tamid. You're not allowed to extinguish that eish. It's not about the korbanos anymore. It's not about the mizbeach anymore. It's about—no, you clean it, and if it extinguishes, it extinguishes on its own. But you can't go and extinguish it. You can't be mechabeh. Why not? Why not? And the answer is because it's not about the mizbeach. It's about the eish. There's something special about that eish that the halacha is lo tichbeh. Why? Why? Why? So I think the pshat is that the fire itself is kodesh. There's something very special. Just like you have a korban, right? A korban, you know you can't destroy a korban. Could you destroy a korban? Chas v'shalom. Don't look at the fire as a hechatimtza. To burn the karbon, but that itself is a chelek of the karbon. And just like I can't take and destroy a piece of a karbon, I can't destroy the al hamizbeach, the eish that I put there. Pshat. Now we have to start thinking, what's so special about this fire? What is it? What kind of a karbon could a fire be? It doesn't cost anything. It's more or less air. You look at the Medrash. We're going to soon see a marsha that the fire from Shamayim doesn't extinguish. Me'atzmo lo nichbah. Lama? Ze metzi'uti. The fire that man makes isn't tangible. There's nothing there, and therefore it can extinguish on its own. You notice if you leave a fire, it's not going to last. It needs outer fuel to ignite it, but on its own it goes out. The fire of Shamayim, says the Medrash, we're going to soon see this in a marsha, does not go out. You know why? Because it's metzi'uti. So what am I giving? I'm giving fire. Can you imagine a guy donates, I'll give some fire. Could you give something more a little more tangible? Maybe give a little cash or something. I'll donate fire. What are you donating fire? It's nothing. Fire is air. What is fire? So what's so special about fire? Could you imagine a person says, I'll bring, I'll donate karbon. Okay, I'll donate etzim, and I'll donate fresh air. It needs air, because without the air you can't have the fire. So I'll donate the air. I'll say that with a fan, and I'll blow air into the... You can't donate something which is very untangible, like fire. So what's so special? What's so special? Hey, hey, ... what is it? Let me read to you Zohar Kadosh. Zohar Kadosh writes, Chelek Gimmel, Raya Mehemna: Esh al hamizbeach, do oraisa. It's referring to the fire of Torah. Esh al hamizbeach lo tichbeh, do oraisa. This is Torah. Why? Because by Torah it says, Halo ko dvari ka'esh. My words are like fire. Ne'um Hashem, so says Hashem. Lo tichbeh, so you're not supposed to extinguish it. Says the Zohar, Vadai d'aveira eino mechabeh Torah. A person does an aveira, it doesn't extinguish Torah. But, aval aveira mechabeh mitzvah. But an aveira could destroy a mitzvah. A person does a mitzvah and then he does an aveira, so he's destroying what he just did. Extinguished.

Lechabot. Aval, gabi me'orei Torah, but the light, the fire of Torah, les lei kviai olamos. There's no way to extinguish it, and that's what this pasuk means. Eish tamid, the fire of Torah lo tichbeh will not extinguish. Doesn't mean lo tichbeh, you shouldn't extinguish, but lo tichbeh will not extinguish. Ki lo yamush mipicha u'mipi zareinu ad olam. There's a havtacha that Torah will never extinguish among Klal Yisrael. How do we know it? says the Zohar, this pasuk, Eish tamid, two karal mizbeach, lo tichbeh. It's a guarantee that it can't be, not that you shouldn't extinguish it. Lo tichbeh, that what? You shouldn't extinguish it. No, lo tichbeh is it can't be extinguished, because fire of Torah cannot be extinguished. So now we see what the eish is referring to. The eish is referring to something more than just simple fire. It's referring to the eish of Torah. That's what's special, unique about this eish tamid. There's a lot of midrashim that can be explained with this. I want to show you some of the midrashim. Midrash says like this. Says the Midrash. ... samach ayin gimel. Oh, says like this in the Midrash. Oh, Midrash says like this. Omar Kadosh Baruch Hu, b'schus hamizbeach she'eish bo'eres bo bayom uvalailah, ani nifra min Malchus Edom b'eish. U'tehei nisrefes bayom uvalailah, shene'emar, Lailah v'yomim lo tichbeh l'olam. That the way to combat Edom is through the fact that yom v'lailah, day and night, we have the eish al hamizbeach lo tichbeh. That's what it says in Medrash Tanchuma. What's the connection, Edom, the fire on the mizbeach, yom v'lailah? Boys, I'm going to tell you a gevaldige, gevaldige pshat. Edom is Esav. You hear the question? Because eish tamid tukad al hamizbeach, mimeila Edom, that's the combat to Edom. Medrash Tanchuma, I didn't make it up. Medrash. Yom v'lailah, therefore we can destroy Edom. What's he referring to? Haboysai, rabosai, gevaldig, b'ezras Hashem yisbarach, I think the pshat is as follows. Edom is Esav. Who is the person that combats Esav? And the answer is sarei shel Yaakov. Who is the war between? It's Yaakov against Esav, right? That was the, Vaye'avek ish imo ad alos hashachar, the war, the war of Yaakov. And what does Esav—Esav tries to go and hit the thigh of Yaakov. So Chazal tell us, the toimchei haTorah, he's trying to get those that support, the leg, the leg support of Torah. That's how Esav comes. So it's Torah that combats Yaakov. Eish tamid, the Zohar tells us, is about Torah, so b'schus the eish tamid, we're gonna combat Edom. Anachnu yecholim lilchom v'lanatzeach es Edom. Hold it, hold it. You hear what I'm telling you? What is it? Because there's a fire in the mizbeach constantly, so we'll be able to win against Edom. So that's shayach, chad la'sheni, and the pasuk says, Yom v'layla. V'hagisa bo yomam valayla. Look at the lashon of the Medrash. Amar HaKadosh Baruch Hu, b'schus hamizbeach she'eish bo bo'eres bo bayom. Mr. Kaikov, bayom. U'valayla. Bayom u'valayla. V'nifra mi'malchus Edom b'eish. Eish haTorah destroys Edom. Eish haTorah destroys Edom. Yaakov combats Edom, yom v'layla, and that's eish tamid, which is Torah. And I'll prove this to you. I'll tell you over another Medrash. The Medrash says, Amar HaKadosh Baruch Hu, yavo b'schus hamizbeach she'eish...

HaKorbanos boyarus bo yoymam v'layla. The eish tamid on the mizbeach helps me. You know what it helps me? It helps me that it's mechaper al Yisrael she'oskin baTorah yoymam v'layla, shene'emar, v'hagisa bo yoymam v'layla. Medrash aggadah, so you see the connection of yoym v'layla in Torah and the inyan of eish tamid, that the fire on the mizbeach is mochel, mechaper on Klal Yisrael, that they are oskin baTorah yoymam v'layla. And then we know the famous Medrash, Nechama Rabasi brings it here too, but it's a famous Medrash, spoke about it: Ilu zachisem, Hashem says, had you been zoche, hayisem korin baTorah eish tamid, tukad al hamizbeach lo tichbeh. Had you been zoche, you could have read eish tamid. V'achshav shelo zachisem, and now that you aren't zoche, הרי אתם קורין ממוראם של האש בעצמו. Hashem sends fire in our bones. Ilu zachitem—what's hayitem koreh baTorah? You would read in the Torah. What does that mean? It should say, ilu zachitem, you would have had the mizbeach, which was eish tamid, and now you have the tukad in you. What does that have to do with you reading in the Torah? Famous— we spoke about this. If you were zoche Klal Yisrael, if you were zoche, hayitem korin, you would read in the Torah, eish tamid, tukad al hamizbeach. What does that have to do with reading? You know that—what does that have to do with reading? What does it mean? It would say, ilu zachitem, you would have eish tamid, you would have the mizbeach. And now that you didn't, so Hashem take the fire and puts it eish b'atzmotai. What does this have to do with reading of the Torah? And the answer is, it's about Torah, eish tamid. You would have been mitkayem the eish Torah through the learning of Torah, because eish tamid is about learning of Torah. אילו זכיתם הייתם קוראים בתורה. In the Torah you would have had the eish tamid, and if you don't learn Torah, what happens? Fire. You know, the Gemara says that any house, any house—we're going to speak about this—any house that doesn't have Torah at night, what happens? Fire comes. והיתה בית יעקב לאש ובית יוסף להבה. What happens? There's something called eish haTorah. It's a nice yeshiva and it's also true. Who wins against Edom? It says in the pasuk, Esav. Who wins? והיתה בית יעקב לאש ובית יוסף להבה. That through the Torah person, Yaakov could be fire. And if not, what happens? It's שלח אש בעצמותי, and the fire comes to me. Either I go out and win the fire over with my fire, or the fire comes and what? Consumes me. Esav, Esav, Esav, Esav. והיתה בית יעקב לאש. כל בית שאין בו תורה, there will be fire. Eish haTorah takes away the fire. Take away the eish haTorah, comes the fire. אילו קריתם, if you would read in the Torah, if you would have read in the Torah, if you would have read in the Torah, eish tamid. Through the reading of Torah you would have had eish tamid. Because the fire of Torah is the learning. And that's what the Zohar HaKadosh is saying. The Zohar HaKadosh writes, Doraisa, it's referring to the Torah, eish al hamizbeach lo tichbeh. Yeah? The fire, the fire is referring to what? The Torah, and lo tichbeh. Agav, I don't want to be, I don't want to cover over and fool you. The wording of these midrashim is mashma that it has more to do about the mizbeach than it has to do with the fire. You see, I was learning that it's the fire more than it was the mizbeach, you hear? Actually, the words of the Midrash is, bischus, in the zechus of hamizbeach she'eish hakorbanos bo'aros bo. Yeah? He talks about the zechus hamizbeach she'eish bo'eres bo bayom uvalayla. It's a little bit, you hear, Rafi, Rafi, I could have cheated, I could have made believe in this. Well, the words, this is mashma a little bit that it's not so.

Not so much the eish, but it's the discussion of the beis that has the eish. The way I'm learning, it's more the eish, all right, but the Midrashim are mevuar. The Midrashim are clear that it's what? That it's about eish haTorah. Okay. I'm going to say a little bit different. Hagam, I proved to you the chashivut of the eish is the chashivut of Torah, and that's why it had to be eish tamid, because tamid, Torah has to be constant. Eish tamid, the Torah has to be tamid, constant. Lo tichbeh. I'm going to, al derech avodah, to explain it also al derech avodah. There's one way to explain the eish tamid in Torah, and now we're going to explain it through avodah. You know, every Jew has a nitzutz of fire in him. As a matter of fact, let's start. We spoke about this a long time ago. A person is made up of four yesodot, right? There's afar, mayim, ruach, then there's eish, the highest level, and that's where the ruchniyus, the spirituality of a person comes from, the eish. In every Jew, we say there's a nitzutz. We're going to explain that nitzutz. Nitzutz. We're going to explain what it is, okay? But it has to do with eish. It's about fire. So there's an inyan of eish tamid lo tichbeh. You have to make sure not to extinguish. The eish tamid. And what do I mean by this? So first of all, you're saying, where I get this from, it's so wild. Let me begin by telling you the Chinuch says more or less what I'm saying. The Chinuch explains that the inyan of eish tamid tukad, he begins with a question: Why do I have to put fire? Hashem anyway sends the fire, so why do I have to add? Says the Chinuch in mitzvah kuf lamed beis, says the Chinuch, because Hashem wants that we should cover over the miracle. Hashem wants, ki nisim gedolim asher ya'aso Kel, le'olam ya'aseh derech seiter. It shouldn't be so obvious. So Hashem wants us to cover it over. He's sending fire. It's a miracle, unbelievable miracle. So we put fire like this, it covers it over. Chinuch, Chinuch in mitzvah kuf lamed beis. Lehastir hanes. Then the Chinuch says, I'll ask you another question. V'adai anu tzrichin lomar, I still have to explain the mitzvah. Why? Because the question is—one second—lefi hadomeh, okay, ma she'amarnu, ma hu inyan hamitzvah? Milvad ha'eish hatzarich sham l'karban. But why do we have to have a separate fire, besides for what's for the korban, which is what I was asking you with the Rambam? Why do we need a special fire if it's for the korban? Fine. But what's not for the korban, what do you need it for? He says an interesting chiddush. He says like this: Teva ha'adam, ki min ha'arba yesodos sheba'adam, hu ha'eish v'hu rosh l'arba'asam. One of the four is fire. And fire is the top, yeah? Ki bo yischazek ha'adam v'yisna'eh v'yif'al. That makes him function, the fire, the eish in the person. Al kein tzricha habrachah, borei eish. So he needs it should be blessed. So you take the fire and you put it on the mizbeach. So the Chinuch says. So you thought I was going to come from like, wow, some kabbalistic, you know, fire with person and eish. No, the Chinuch says it openly. It has to do with the fire of the person, which is one of the four yesodos, and it's the main one, and that's the highest level. Okay, I want to explain what this is all about, to take the fire and put it on the mizbeach. What is it all about? So let me tell you pshat like this. Says the Seforno HaKadosh, beautiful. Every Jew has fire, has a ניצוץ, spark of fire, and you're supposed to be makriv that. You're supposed to give it to the mizbeach. Just like we find that on the mizbeach hachitzon, the outer, the regular physical mizbeach, there was an issur of lo tichbeh, that you weren't allowed to extinguish it. This is to teach the person that the inner fire, lo tichbeh.

And, and, and, listen to what it says. Just like you're supposed to add wood to bring up the fire, so a person on his own is supposed to add things that will help by learning Torah and mussar. He's supposed to keep the fire going, says the sefarim hakedoshim. Very interesting, huh? We're starting to dwell step by step deeper into the world of Eish Tamid. What is it all about? What is the eish tamid? What is it? Tashma, Shmuli, kifsadeta mashu meyuchad. Okay, okay, all right. Tishma, Shmuli, tishma. Dibarnu eish tamid, sheyesh mashu meyuchad. What is it? Torah. Okay, and I proved you from Chazal after Chazal that eish tamid is about Torah. Ilu zachitem, you would read in the Torah eish tamid, right? It helps us combat Esav. Yaakov is Torah, and Torah combats Esav. We spoke about this. All right. Now I'm going to discuss with you gevaldig, gevaldig, gevaldig al derech avodah. You know, there's two types—I want to teach you this—there's two mahalchim hamachshavah, in machshavah. One is the yeshivisha, which is all about Torah and mitzvahs, and then there's Chassidus, and that's about derech avodah. It's a whole field of understanding Torah for avodah, how to worship Hashem. So I want to explain al derech avodah. I just explained al derech haTorah. I want to say al derech avodah, pshat. That there's a fire within every Jew. We're going to explain what that is. We're going to explain, because, you know me, I'm not going to just tell you about fire and tell you go have a nice day with it. I'm going to teach you what it is. But first let's go by drush. Fire, that is talking about the inner person. So first I have to prove to you, who said, where do you get this from? Chinuch, eh? Chinuch talks about the fire with the inner person, and he takes that and he's makriv it on the mizbeach. So he talks about bracha, that like this it becomes blessed, the person, because that's his inner soul. Okay. Chinuch. Not... I'm not going to be brash, even though that's also good, but Chinuch, open Rishonim, open. It has to do with eish, the fire within the person. Okay. Now I say like this: the fire within the person, lo tichbeh. You have to make sure not to extinguish it. Say the sefarim, it's supposed to be a lesson from the mizbeach, just like on the mizbeach, hachitzon, the outer mizbeach, you're not supposed to extinguish the fire, so the mizbeach hapnimi, which has an eish. Now I want to explain mizbeach hapnimi. The Chareidim says, A person's like a mizbeach. A person's a miniature, a miniature Beis Hamikdash. As a matter of fact, the Nefesh Hachaim explains that the Beis Hamikdash resembled a person with hands and legs and a heart. Kodesh Hakadoshim is his heart, right? We know the Nefesh Hachaim, and it was in the tzurah of a person. Veshachanti besocho, so where does Hashem rest? Not in the Mishkan, but where does Hashem rest? Betocho, in the person. Nefesh Chaim, thanks, right? And what the lessons from the external, which was the Mishkan, was supposed to be lessons for the internal. He was supposed to take the lessons and learn it, yehir Yaakov, to the person inside him. So in his mizbeach, there's an eish. You hear, Eliyahu, there's an eish. So that eish lo tichbeh, and that was supposed to be learned from where? From the mizbeach hachitzon, from the outer mizbeach, okay. And just like on the mizbeach hachitzon, the outer, which means the mizbeach in the Mishkan, you were supposed to add wood, right? You were supposed to do things that would keep the flame going. So too in the mizbeach hapnimi, you have to do things that will what? That will make the fire add, okay. Now, notice, grada, the Torah is called eitz chayim hi lamachazikim bah. Eitz chayim, a live wood. Uvir aleha hakohen eitz. You were supposed to add wood to what? To bring the fire, to bring out, to keep the fire going.

So now we see what it means, u'bira la'kohen eitzim, that you're supposed to add wood to help the ma'aracha, the fire, to go, okay? So I'm all putting together Chazal in to give you a picture, but the yesod is already brought in the Sefarim HaKedoshim, that the inner fire of a Jew, the inner fire of a Jew, you hear, should not be extinguished, and that's what we learn from this. And I'm just adding to give you, explain the nefesh hachayim, that a person resembles the Mishkan, and from the Mishkan you're supposed to take lessons from the in, and Hashem actually rests in the person, and that there's an inyan of a fire, and adding the wood, and wood is gematria Torah, eitz chayim l'machazikim bah. I'm giving you a picture of the resemblance, the mizbeach and the fire to the person and his inner soul, his fire, okay? Tamid, right? So we know that it should be tamid, right? It should be constant, this eish shouldn't extinguish it. Now what is this nitzotz? What is it, this fire? What is it about? So if you look at the Sefarim HaKedoshim, once saw a bar panel like this, but either way, it's good. It's good either, whoever said it, it's good. Love of Hashem is resembled, it's referring to the fire. When we talk about the nitzotz, the spark, it's the love of Hashem. You want to know where I got this from? V'Shlomo HaMelech be good enough for you? Is that a good enough address for you? I'm not even saying Rishonim, because I think Shlomo HaMelech was before the Rishonim. I'm not even saying Gemara, because Shlomo HaMelech was before that. You know, Shlomo HaMelech was ruach hakodesh, so I guess we could trace it all back to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. In Shir HaShirim, perek ches, Ki azah kamaves ahavah. The love, referring to the love of Hashem, is so strong, it's like death. Kashe kish'ol kinah. It's like attack, kish'ol kinah. Rishpeha, rishpei eish, shalhevet Kah. It says clearly in the pasuk, the love of Hashem is resembled to a fire, shalhevet Kah, the fire of Hashem. No? You want to find it? Go find the pasuk. Go ahead, perek ches. No, ata Sefardi, az tasbir li את הפסוק, אתה אומר שיר השירים כל שבוע, no? Ki azah... huh? אתם לא אומרים? אני ספרדי, אני אגיד את זה, go. Ki azah... what? Rishpei... eish shalhevet Kah. Yeah, because we say, we don't say Shem Hashem, Yah. It's, okay. So you see clearly that the ahavah, the love that burns in the heart of a Jew for Hashem is Hashem's fire. So the nitzutz is interesting: Hashem, shalhevet Yah, it's the fire of Hashem. Wait a minute. Is it my fire or is it Hashem's fire? Or is it like on the mizbeach that it's a mixture of both? We just said the ahavah that I have, the love of Hashem that I have, is fire. What type of fire? Like the fire of shalhevet... Wait a minute. So is it mine or Hashem's? Whose fire is it? And what's the answer? But it's going on the ahavah; it's referring to. Yeah, but he's trying to define the ahavah. No, it's not. It's going all back on the ahavah. The ahavah is such. Right, so therefore he can't control himself. He's saying it's an uncontrollable ahavah. Like what? Reisha... it says. There's nothing to argue; it's going back on the ahavah. Okay, now please, you're asking questions on the metzius. The fact is, this is the pasuk. The pasuk is talking about ahavas Hashem. Okay, good. Let's go further. Yonatan, afterwards. That's what the pasuk is referring to. Going ahavas Hashem. Okay, now, here. Just here, it's going ahavas Hashem. Rafi, you hear it? It, it, it says it. Look at the Rishonim. It's pashut. That's what it's referring to. Et shelhevet ka. Okay, now, I know the English... I need the English. That's what it means. That's the pasuk. You want to say different pshat, okay, write a sefer, but that's not what the pasuk is. The pasuk is going ahavas Hashem. Okay, now, let's discuss. Now we...

Finish discussing the fire, the fire, the fire, the fire, the fire. Now let's discuss, now let's discover. Ve'esh hamizbeach tukad boi. So I asked you why does it say, Ve'esh hamizbeach tukad boi? It should say, Ve'esh hamizbeach tukad alav, on it. What does boi mean? So I told you, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. There's two types of fires. There's one fire of, and there's one fire on, like a korban. Lemaaseh, the Rashbam learns a little differently. The Rashbam says, boi is not going on the mizbeach; it's going on the night. It says you should have it all night, Ve'esh hamizbeach tukad boi balayla. It's going back on the—it's not going back on the mizbeach at all. It says, in the morning, and at night you may, right, you may have a fire. So Ve'esh hamizbeach tukad boi, it's going back—the context of the pasuk is by night. It says here, V'hoitzei es hadeshen el michutz lamachaneh, it's by night. That's the story of the pasuk. It says here, Kol halayla, moktar al hamizbeach, the olah was all night. So Ve'esh hamizbeach tukad boi doesn't mean boi the mizbeach; it means boi the night. That's how the Rashbam learns. My great uncle, the Nesayim LaTorah, says a very nice pshat. He says like this. You know, there was two fires. There was the fire from above, and then there was the fire that we put. How could the mizbeach not burn? It should have burnt up. Shh. It's made out of what? What are you talking about? Made out of wood. What kind of earthenware? What are you talking about? It's made out of wood with a little copper on it. It's made from a plate of copper, but in the middle of it was wood. It's made out of wood. What are you talking about, huh? How come it didn't burn? What are you talking about? Okay, of course it burns. What are you talking about? Go make a fire on a wooden thing. Let's see how long it stays. So the Medrash asks this for a question. So the Medrash says, and that's what I told you before, since it was a fire from Hashem, it was miraculous. It didn't have to burn. It didn't have to burn up things, just like the sneh, right? The sneh had a fire, didn't burn. Why didn't it burn? Because it was Hashem's fire. Hashem's fire doesn't destroy things. It fixes things, doesn't destroy things. So the Medrash says, says my great uncle, Givaldik, Eish haMizbeach tukad boi. What was the fire in? That was Hashem. Ay, you last, but you added physical fire. He says, but which was sholet? And the answer is the fire of Shamayim was sholet. So the eish haMizbeach tukad boi. So therefore, even if you added eish tamid, it didn't destroy the mizbeach. That's what he says, a pshat. Okay. You look over there, you like it, you do it, you don't, I don't really care. That's my own personal thing. It's my uncle, I like. Okay, maybe I have negius. But let me tell you over, gevaldik, gevaldik, gevaldik. They brought down from the Sfas Emes that when he was a little boy, he went to ask his father, Imrei Emes — not the Imrei Emes, the R' Shimon, I guess. Who was the father? So who's the father? Whoever it was, he went to ask his father, why does it say, V'eish hamizbeach tukad boi? It should say, V'eish hamizbeach tukad olam. What's boi? So the father said, What do you say? Obviously, if you're asking the question, you want to give an answer. So as a little boy, he said the following, and this went down in history as the most gevaldige, gevaldige pshat. Boi is not referring to the mizbeach; it's referring to the kohen. V'eish hamizbeach tukad boi — in the kohen. In the kohen itself. The fire of the mizbeach should burn inside the kohen. No? I saw my uncle brings it down from a different sefer, b'shem gadol echad. Obviously it's a common vort. You hear? V'eish hamizbeach tukad boi. I want to say gevaldik. You hear? You hear? I'm trying.

Gevaldig, we're talking about the inner of the kohein, the inside. We're not talking about outer fires. We're talking about spiritual inner fires in the person, the eish hamizbeach tukad boi, in the kohein, not bamizbeach, ba'adam, bakohein. With this, I want to answer gevaldig, gevaldig, gevaldig pshat. You know, in Shir HaShirim, we say there's a pasuk the following: Mayim rabim lo yuchlu lechabot es haahavah, uneharot lo yishtefuha. Many waters can't extinguish this love, and rivers, naharot, lo yishtefuha, can't swamp it, okay? Can't be such a... What is the pasuk referring to? The love. Let me tell you what I think the pasuk is referring to, yeah? Huh? It's in Shir HaShirim. What's the pasuk? The next pasuk, right? See, mamash talking about the next pasuk. There's a fire, and this fire none of the waters can extinguish, yeah? And we explained that this fire is the nitzutz of ahavas Hashem, the eish tamid in the person. Let's go to the next pasuk. You ready, Raffi? The Gemara in Yoma says, daf chaf alef amud alef, that there were ten miracles in the Beis HaMikdash, in the Mishkan. What was one of the ten nisim? Mi'olam lo kiveh geshamim etzem harachah. The rains didn't extinguish. It rained, it was open roof. Imagine if you have a snowstorm, you have a rain, a rain... How can the fire, how can the fire keep on going? Says Talmud, says that it had to go kaz. How does it go kaz? Wind. Winter. Nes, like kibu, it didn't extinguish. Says the Maharsha, which fire didn't extinguish? The heavenly fire. Of course, the heavenly fire. I need a pasuk, I need a Gemara. It can't extinguish anyway, the heavenly fire, because that was anyway beyond human component. It's referring to the fire, even the one that we put. Afilu ha'esh she'anachnu samim, that we put, yeah, the one that we put couldn't extinguish. Mayim rabim lo yuchlu lechabot, says ahavah, because since the fire is which fire? The fire of ahavah, the fire of love, the fire that's within the heart of every Yid, so water can't extinguish it. Mayim rabim, that's what the pasuk's referring to. Like love, rishpei eish, it's like fire, and this fire cannot get extinguished, this fire. Why? Because it doesn't surrender. I want to tell you something. How could it be that a Jew, no matter what happens, still believes in Hashem and loves Him? How could it be? Gotta be crazy. The Gemara says, Ama pazizi, you're crazy. The Gemara said he came to the Tanna and he told him, You're crazy. You said naaseh v'nishma, why didn't you look into it? First, before you say you want the Torah, look into it. So what did he answer? He answered that you would never understand naaseh v'nishma. It's not for you, okay? What's the pshat? It came from ahavah. It came from love, blind love, right? I want to show you even more. The Gemara says—yeah, I'll tell you a nice maaseh. Years ago, I bought a sefer when I was a bachur. The name of the sefer was called Ayalah Shelucha. I told it to you a few times in the past. You remember the story? Ayalah Shelucha. It's a sefer—the first one that came out was on Bava Basra, on Cheskas HaBatim. I wasn't learning Cheskas HaBatim at the time, and I really didn't need the sefer. Type of sefer, it wasn't no geh to me. Why did I buy it? I opened it up and I saw the introduction, and the introduction moved me so much that I said, I have to buy it. What was the introduction? The introduction was as follows: the person writing the sefer says, instead of writing a whole introduction, I'm just going to print over a letter that was found in a concentration camp. You hear? A concentration camp in the walls. Yeah, a letter. And this letter is going to be my introduction to the sefer. What was the letter? He writes like this: My rebbe, my admor, told me a story of a Jew who went on a boat with his entire family to escape where they were torturing the religious, where you weren't allowed to have freedom of religion, persecution of religion. So he tried to escape, and he was moser nefesh.

A boat with his kids, and it was dangerous, and a storm came and wrecked the boat, and the kids and the wife died, and he dragged himself ashore. And he looks and he thinks, Why did I get into this? For you, Hashem. I did it for you, yeah? You couldn't save me? I did it because I'm trying to serve you. And yet, you had to bring a storm that the last minute before I arrived, that I should lose my whole family. He says, But it's not going to work. You're not going to push me away from you, because I love you. No matter what, I'm still going to worship you. No matter what you do, it's not going to work. And he took this note, and he put it into a bottle, and he threw it to the sea. And years later, someone picked it up, and he saw this note. So this Jew is writing that no matter what, in the concentration camp, you're going to do to me, it's not going to work, because I have ahavah. I love you. I love you, Hashem. And since I love you, no matter what, it can't get destroyed. It can't take away the love. And he put it into the walls of the concentration camp, and this person printed over this letter in the book as an introduction. Hit'orerut, something that will... I bought the book. Keep it. It's very dear to me, this book, only because of this introduction. You know what this introduction is? What we're saying over here: the eish, the fire, lo tichbeh. There's no way to extinguish it. And that's what the pasuk is saying: Mayim rabim lo yuchlu lechabot et ha'ahavah. No matter all the waters of the world, no matter all the storms that a person goes through in his life, naharos lo yishtefuha, all the storms of the world. Will not extinguish, will not extinguish the love. Okay. With this, rabosai, I don't know why, it looks like they're getting ready to leave. We still have another good half hour to go. I just started. I still want to talk to you about Purim. We just started. Just getting into it. We're just getting into it. We have Purim, we have a lot of things to talk about. Okay. With this, we can explain the lashon of the pasuk. With this, we can explain the lashon of the pasuk. If you have to go, you can go. Whatever is good for you. Okay. You know the first pasuk says, Va'esh al hamizbeach tukad bo. The second one says the reverse. I don't know if you noticed. The second one is the exact opposite. Esh tamid tukad al hamizbeach. Here, esh al hamizbeach tukad, and here it's esh tukad al hamizbeach. What's the pshat? Rabosai, I hold the pshat is like I told you. It's a joint effort, this nitzotz. You know how the nitzotz works? There should be an esh al hamizbeach here. That's from Hashem. I'm sorry, the other way around, right? Esh al hamizbeach. The esh, the mizbeach, tukad bo in the kohen. Then there's another thing, esh tamid tukad bo, that you have to put fire, joint effort. If you want to make the nitzotz grow, the spark should come to a whole fire, it takes joint effort. One, that the fire of the mizbeach should burn in you. On the opposite, that you should burn the fire on the mizbeach. Hashem is going to help you. Hashem comes inside you, but you have to come to Hashem too. It's a joint effort. The pasuk is read differently. The first pasuk is, Eish al hamizbeach, tukad bo. And the second one is, Eish tamid, you, tukad al hamizbeach. You and the Eibishter. With this, rabosai, I want to say pshat, you heard? Growth, growth is a joint effort. Pesach, chudoi shel machat. The Yaftach aleichem Pesach, kechudo shel ulam, the biggest doors. It's a joint effort. You have to work on it, want it, work on it, and Hashem comes and helps. Oizer, Hashem helps you. But you have to put yourself into the avodah, and then the avodah to put... You understand? You have to put yourself into the avodah and the avodah into yourself. It's a joint effort. Atah tzarich lekanes lalimud, ulachnis halimud letoch atzmecha. Lachnis es atzmecha balimud, velachnis es halimud b'atzmecha. It takes two things. You know they say over, I learned Shas.

Yeah, but what did Shas learn you? What did it teach you? A person could learn Shas, but the Shas didn't teach him anything. You could do the learning, but now you have to take the learning and bring it inside, internalize it into you. That's the eish hamizbeach. The eish hamizbeach is two kad boi, and also that you should go and make the fire, a joint effort between Hashem and you. You go to the Torah and then bring the Torah inside you. Now I want to explain to you another nekudah. The word eish, okay, and tamid has another implication in avodah, and that is one constant. Tamid. Constant. Tamid could also mean always prepared. Always prepared, ready for the job. Tamid. That the fire should always be—remember we spoke about this—that the fire should always be there, ready for when it's needed. They didn't need it all day. Did they need the fire on the mizbeach all day? No. But it was burning for the moment that was needed. Omed muchan. And I'll prove it to you. My great-uncle, zayn almah Torah, proves it beautiful. The fire was needed for when, actually? What was the night fire needed for? Do you know what it was needed for? Huh? No. No. What was the night one? It says for the ketores. The second ma'aracha was what? It was for the—when were they maktir the ketores? The first one was olah, and the chelvia olah was by night. But what about the ketores? It was in the morning, it was the day, right? It was a day thing. So why would it have to be kol halayla? Why did it have to be all night? Eisamizbe'ach tukad bo, the Rashbam says that they had to do it at night, but the actual need for it was when? It was by day. So what was the point of having it by night? And the answer is, tamid, ready, always ready. The fire should always be ready to be, when it's needed, for the moment that it's needed. Understand? Ready. Zrizus. Rav Kook explains it beautifully, that there's a lesson, that there's a lesson of zrizus, okay, in this whole... Now I want to tell you over a ma'aseh. You ready? I want to tell you over a ma'aseh. Gevaldik. You ready? The Baal HaTurim, if you have a Chumash, I'd appreciate if you could read the Baal HaTurim. The Baal HaTurim writes, Eish tamid tukad, that this is the sulam, the ladder, sheboi hamalachim olim, that the malachim go up. Baal HaTurim, I'm the Chumash, in the Mikraos Gedolos. I'm not making it. You have Mikraos Gedolos over there? I have a... here, you'll read it. It's unbelievable. Here, just like this. Eish tamid, says the Baal HaTurim. No, where's the Baal HaTurim here in this Chumash? No, no, no, no, no. Yeah, Baal HaTurim, here it is. Shehu, this fire is kemo sulam lamalachim, like a ladder for the malachim la'alos, k'inyan shene'emar, Vaya'al malach Hashem b'lahav hamizbe'ach, that the fire... The torch of the fire of the mizbeach brings up the malachim. Malachim, where, what? What's he talking about? Where did this come in here? What's he talking about? Make a fire in the mizbeach. It's a ladder for malachim. The mekubalim probably have a field day with this. This is real right material for the mekubalim. They love this type, right? Let me tell you what he needs. Lalos. The fire. In Yiddish we call it the bren, the enthusiasm, the zerizus. Enthusiasm. Yes, I want it all the time. I don't slack off. That's the sulam, lalos. The spiritual ladder is based on the eish tamid tukad, the fire that you put. Esh, atah machnis. You know what esh means? Fire. In English we have an expression, He's on fire. What does that mean? He's matmid, eish tamid. He's excited to learn. He's excited to do avodah. He's constantly doing it. That's the sulam, lalos. That's the ladder that brings a person up. A person can be makriv a korban. He's lazy. He's not interested. It ain't going anywhere. This korban is not going to have...

Too much of an aliyah, yeah? Lalos. The aliyah is based on the eish tamid, which is the fire that you put into it. And with this I'll end with something that my grandfather says: U'bi'er aleha hakohen eitzim baboker baboker, yeah? The kohen puts fire, woods. What is the word u'bi'er? Very interesting word, u'bi'er. Destroy. It's a destroying through fire. The Targum translates it yalfi, which is a lashon of learning. U'bi'er — learning, yalfi. Look at the Targum: U'bi'er aleha hakohen eitzim baboker baboker, yalfi, learning. What's the pshat? So my grandfather says this yesod: u'bi'er, it's about the learning. It's about fire. It's about the hislahavut that a person puts, and it's about the eish haTorah, the fire of Torah. It has to do with fire. A person learns, he has to learn like fire. Huh? The Targum, the Targum Yerushalmi here. Yeah. You have the Targum Yerushalmi? No? What? You have it? You have the Targum Yerushalmi? No. So let's read it here. Okay, here. Targum says like this: U'bi'er aleha hakohen eitzim, v'yalfei alah kahana oyin. V'yalfei. What does v'yalfei mean? Shteigen, learning. It's a lashon of learning. Eish haTorah, fire of Torah, and it has to be with u'bi'er aleha, fire. Okay. So the lessons are pretty clear, that in order to grow in ruchniyus, in order to supply ammunition and food to the neshama, the nitzotz, maintain the nitzotz. What do you have to do? You have to toil. It's rezus, with fire. You should really want to learn and through toil. Okay. Now let's talk five minutes about Purim. And then I'll tell you over about the Eitz Hadas, and then I'll send you off on your way, b'ezras Hashem, to see you again next Sunday. Okay? Purim. I want to tell you a pshat. I say it over every year, but, you know, I want to add and subtract, because people come to talk to me in Lakewood, and they ask me very good kashas. The guys are learning shtark, and they're really, you know, they're trying to catch you with mistakes, so they ask you all these type of questions. Baruch Hashem, I learned how to field them good and answer very good. So listen carefully. I want to tie in a yesod. What is Purim about? Purim, part of Purim—I can't say all, there's a lot of parts to Purim—but one of the parts of Purim is a lesson in yeshuas Hashem, how the miracle of Hashem happens. From one moment it was evel, sak va'efer yutza la'rabim, the most darkest situation, yeah? And then the next minute, v'nahafoch hu, turned around a complete, a complete 360 degree v'nahafoch, 360 degree turnaround. Okay. How does that happen? So I want to tell you what I think. The entire Megillah, there is no hishtadlus whatsoever. There is no hishtadlus whatsoever till the yeshuah comes. And I'll explain to you what I mean. Sumu alai, v'al toichlu v'al tishtu shloshes yamim. They davened. What was the plan? The plan was to send Esther, that she should go, lavo u'leschanen lifnei hamelech, ulevakeish al עמה. Did they contradict what Haman said? Haman came and said it's kedai to kill the Jews. Why is it kedai to kill the Jews? Because ישנו עם אחד מפוזר ומפורד בין העמים, ודתיהם שונות, ודתי המלך אינם עושים. They're worthless. Does Esther officially come, the way Mordechai sends her, to dispute that? It does not say in the pasuk. All it says in the pasuk: לבוא ולבקש ולתחנן. Beg. Beg not to do it. You know, someone would say, Beg not to do it. It doesn't make sense. Why don't you come up with a whole explanation why it's wrong?

Morally, economically, I don't know. Could you imagine a person puts out a zar din because it's not good for him, and you come and say, Please, please, please. Please what? What are you talking about? Come and come up with the mahalach. Come up, you know. I told you this story once, that Rabbi Shomfeld told me the following story. In 1960, or '59, '60, a Jew who worked on Shabbos was able to lose his job. Now it's the law that you can't fire a guy for not working on Shabbos. A Jew who did not want to work on Shabbos in those days lost his job. You were able to fire him. He didn't show up. He didn't show up on Saturday, you're gone. What was it called? It was called the Blue Zone law, which means it's religion, and therefore you can't fire a guy for Shabbos. Who instituted it? The rabbanim from New York went to the governor, in those days I don't know who he was, of New York State, and they were going to make a whole mishlachat to explain that it's not right to fire people for keeping their religion. My grandfather was Berosh. He was the spear that went to, to, to again the whole thing, and he used Rabbi Shomfeld. Rabbi Shomfeld was with him, and they got together a group of rabbanim, big, strong, intelligent rabbanim, and a group of lawyers that they worked on for an entire year. Almost an entire year they worked on putting together to come to the governor with a, that it's not right legally and morally, again a whole... I don't remember. You can ask Rabbi Shomfeld. I heard it from him many times. I don't remember the governor. Kitzur, so what they did was— That at the allotted time when they were supposed to go, my grandfather asks Rabbi Schonfeld, How am I getting there? How am I getting to Albany? So Rabbi Schonfeld says, Why would you need to go? You don't need to go. You don't even speak English. I mean, what would be the point of you going? I mean, I'll go. I mean, I'm professional. Rabbi Schonfeld is a very professional rabbi, and he has his lawyers. So my grandfather tells him, What do you mean? It's my thing. Of course I'm going. I spent my whole—I spent the year on this. What, I'm not going to go? He says, Yeah, but there's no reason. There's no point. I mean, I'd love to help. I mean, I'd love to. You should go, but why? Why travel to Albany for nothing? He says, Don't worry about it. I want to go. Rabbi Schonfeld told me that when they came and they had the meeting with the governor, right before the meeting, my grandfather asks Rabbi Schonfeld, And who's going to do the talking? Rabbi Schonfeld says, What do you mean, who's going to do the talking? We have it all prepared. I'll start, and then the lawyers are going to take over, and they have a whole system they have. So my grandfather says to him, What are you talking about? I'm going to do the talking. So Rabbi Schonfeld told me, he said, But you don't even speak English. What are you talking about? He says, Don't worry, I know what to say. Rabbi Schonfeld told me that his heart sank. He says, We worked on this for a year. It was a year of work. He couldn't believe what he was listening to. You had to see the way Rabbi Schonfeld says it always. He says, My heart sank. My heart sank. And that's funny. You know what's interesting? Maybe it's min haShamayim. Rabbi Schonfeld told this to me on Purim. It's very interesting. You know, I like to find in life why everything happens. What happened was I visited Rabbi Kellmer. I had the seudah by my uncle, Rabbi Kellmer. And Rabbi Schonfeld, I guess has children there. He has some family there, I don't know. And he was also there for Purim. And Mincha Purim, we daven Mincha together in the shul in the Young Israel, and that's when he told me this story. So it's interesting that it has a shaykhes to Purim, and I got tied into Purim, so maybe Hashem sent me the message, Purim to tie it into Purim. Okay. What ended up happening? What ended up happening was that my grandfather was the boss, it was his thing. He comes in there, and everybody's sitting there, the governor and the lieutenant governor, and, you know, the stammy wasn't the same low life that we had the governor now. Stammy was a little more ben adam, whatever. Bekitzer, my grandfather begins in Yiddish, Yiddish. He starts talking and talking, and then he starts to cry, and Rabbi Schonfeld says, I couldn't believe it. I was listening. I thought, what is going on here? The governor looks and looks, and he goes, Rabbi, don't cry, don't cry. Calm down. I understand, I understand. We'll meet about it again later, but the initial was, I hear, I hear. I'm moved. Okay. I know.

You know what my grandfather said? It was printed in the newspaper. I have the newspaper clipping that they reprinted over in English what he said in Yiddish. And what he said was that America is a country that respects even the body of the human being, because you see that in America they'll do anything to bring back a soldier. It's like a chok v'lo ya'avor, anything. Like in Israel, it's chok v'lo ya'avor, the body, you know, you bring back the guf, right? Even if it means that they have to send in soldiers to die. No, they do. I'm saying, they'll send in soldiers; you might get killed to save the guf of—what's the pshat? Because there's a chashivus of adam. He says, what about the pnim, the neshama? You for surely respect, right? If you respect the guf, Shabbos is the neshama of the Jew. So if you don't let us keep the Shabbos, you're going against the spiritual essence of the human being of the Jew. Okay, that was basically what he said, okay? I have it. I have the newspaper clipping. As my grandfather walks out, Rabbi Schonfeld told me that he was very sharp, my grandfather. He looks at him, he goes, You see? I told you I know what to say. He says, You see? Truthfully, he stole this. This was a stolen bit. Where did he get this from? You know who used to do this? The Chofetz Chaim used to do this. Chofetz Chaim, when he went—there were bachurim in Radin that they told that they were spies. They came and said that they were spies. So in the court case, the Chofetz Chaim went to be me'id, to say testimony on behalf of the talmid. He got up in front of the judge and he began to cry. And they were so moved that she said, Don't cry, and she— There's another part to the story. The story also was that the lawyer for the boy, for the bachur in the yeshiva, came and said, the rabbi said, the Chofetz Chaim said that the boy is not a spy. She goes, Of course he says it's his student. Of course. Why should I believe him? So she said over the story about them. The lawyer said over a story about the Chofetz Chaim. What was the story? That there was somebody who came, a Jew who was a poor guy. He stole a silver spoon, a gold spoon from the Chofetz Chaim's house. I guess he had a few silverware which was expensive. He stole a spoon. They noticed right away the spoon was missing, so the Chofetz Chaim ran after the guy. So normally you run after the guy, Ganef, you stole my thing. The Chofetz Chaim ran after the guy, Amoich ya, amoich ya, I don't want you to have that it should be a geneivah. No, I don't want it to be a geneivah. Tikach et zeh. Chat ganav mimenu. Az hu רץ אחרי הגנב, אני מוחל לך. So the judge came and said, Yeah, you think I believe that story? You think I'm going to believe you? It's a sipurei safta. Who's going to believe it? So the lawyer said, Let me tell you something. They don't say these stories about me and you. They only say it about him. There's a reason why. The fact that they do not saying stuff like this about you. Right. But that was the story. The Chofetz Chaim cried. So my grandfather obviously got it from there. Okay, what's the point I'm trying to bring out? לבוא להתחנן על ... Sometimes the yeshuas Hashem comes without having to say anything. Just to come there and beg. שלושה ימים, for three days they cried. That was it. That was the yeshuah, and I'll prove it. And I'll prove it to you. They made a seudah for Haman, yeah? What was Esther thinking that the outcome of this is going to be? What was she thinking? Nothing, I mean. What is Haman doing there? Can you explain to me? Hashem did that. How would she know all that? She had no clue. I'll tell you even more. I was thinking about two things. She made a second seudah. Why'd she make a second seudah? Do it on the first seudah. I'll tell you even more. You ready? She made two seudos. What was the two? I'll tell you even more. Chazal tell us that when Achashverosh asked her, Mi hu zeh v'eizehu, who is the person that's doing this bad thing? She actually pointed at Achashverosh, you know that? Chazal say clear. She pointed to Achashverosh. Malach came and moved her finger to Haman. Gemara, Gemara Megillah. Gemara says, Mi hu zeh hu? Who's the rasha who did this? She points at Achashverosh. Malach came. What was she thinking? What did she want, to commit suicide? What exactly was she trying to do? I'll tell you. Her point was to be lavo letchanen al hamalach. So when she came in front of the king, so what, she came to what, to tell, Vai, you're the rasha, you're the bad guy? What? What was she thinking? And you know what the teretz is? There was no thinking.

Emes. They went with the truth. If this is what Hashem is going to be mesader, mesovev the whole matzav, which He did. Could you imagine, Hashem goes and brings malachim to cut down his trees. Who in his wildest dreams would have thought that a malach is going to come start cutting down the trees in the garden of Achashverosh? I mean, that's part of the story. And that Chavoynish should be standing there. I mean, who? The way it worked out, it could have been pre-planned. There was no way anyone could have thought, and that's why I think the two seudos are about. She went to the first seudah, nothing happened, so she said, We'll try again. I mean, she was waiting for— she was waiting for something. She didn't know. She was waiting for something. Hashem, You're going to take care of it. I don't know how You're going to take care of it, but You're going to take care of it. I tiny even more. Let's make a cheshbon. If a melech makes a party, you don't go? Of course you go. What did Mordechai want? You want to explain to me what Mordechai wanted? He knew that Vashti's going to come like this. They didn't know. I don't believe— and it's not mashma there was any other pritzus besides Vashti. I looked. I couldn't find the Chazal that there was anything wrong with the seudah besides Vashti. Then there was the kelim, but again, there was no way for them to know all this. How would they know? So what exactly did Mordechai want? What did he care? You want to explain what Mordechai wanted? And you know what the answer is? Seudah shel oisah rasha. A ben Torah doesn't go to such a seudah. So they told him, But you're committing suicide. What are you talking about? How's it the melech invites you to a party. Let's say if Bush invites someone to the White House, could you imagine a guy says— I'm sorry, I can't go. You're a rasha, and I don't want to come to your party. I mean, what, what, what? It's not yeshivish to go. What did you say? I'll make it kosher, and I'll bring a rabbi. You want? I'll bring a Rosh Yeshiva, Mordechai. I'll bring Mordechai to stand there, keep the kashrus, right? Now, I also don't believe that they were in the same place where Achashverosh was. I don't believe the Jews got into the main ballroom. They got into some... they made them a special... what do you call that? The rose castle. They gave them a little rose castle, you know what I mean? They put them up somewhere. And yet, don't go. Why not? Where is pikuach nefesh? I don't see. Where is pikuach nefesh? If a king invites you, why would you not go? Why? La'asos kirtzon ish va'ish. I have another question. You know, Mordechai stands there. He's not going to bow down to this guy Haman. First of all, was Haman an avodah zarah? Look in the Acharonim. He wasn't. Haman did not... he had a medallion maybe. He made himself into a sar vachashuv, yeah? Wasn't an avodah zarah. There's a whole shailah. Pashut, he wasn't an avodah zarah, yeah? Mordechai, lo kam v'lo zaz mimenu. Is there any reason why Mordechai sits b'shaar hamelech? Go away, and that's all. What are you doing over there? Tell me, if you know that by you not standing up for Haman makes a problem, so that hour go to yeshiva. But what are you doing over there? No, I don't believe a question. Don't show. Don't show. At that hour, you have to be the hour that he's there. Yeah. You know what the answer is? Shh. You know what the answer is? Morechai had a shita. Hashem, You run the world. I'm not afraid of nothing. I'm not scared. I do what I have to do. I do what I have to do. You hear? I do what I have to do. Coming to the seudah, I'm not—I don't have to show HaKadosh Baruch Hu I'm coming to the seudah. But what do you mean? That's cheshbonot. I don't make cheshbonot. I trust You, Hashem. I trust You. I trust You, Hashem. This is what You—it's not good for me to go to the seudah, I don't go to the seudah. I sit b'shaar hamelech. That's my seat. That's where I'm located. I was put b'shaar hamelech. I'm gonna get up out of my chair and walk away when he comes? I'm a yoshev sham. I'll sit over there. And when he comes by, I'm not gonna move. Bug? There's no bug. Hashem, You run the world. I don't have a bug. I don't have a bug. As a matter of fact, the seudah with Haman, Chazal say was to tell Klal Yisrael that she's on Haman's side. Hashem was mesavev the story with Haman by the seudah that people should say, Oh no, look, Esther's on the side with Achashverosh together with Haman, huh? To see if there'd still be tachanun to Hashem.

Bitochon in Hashem. If they trust, now they say, Oh, we have somebody on the inside. We have a—what they used to say over there, what was the guy there from Connecticut? What was his name? Lieberman. We have Lieberman. We're going to be good now, because Lieberman. Now they're afraid, Oh, Obama, Obama. Obama, Lieberman. Hashem runs the world. That's what it is. If Hashem wants, Obama can be good to the Jews, and Lieberman, it has nothing to do with anything. This was, Hashem made, says clearly Chazal, that they should think Ahamanst is now together with Esther, and it's not going to work out. Bitochon in HaKadosh Baruch Hu. This, rabosai, is the lesson. Huh? I'm explaining to you, I'm explaining to you, by the first mesibah she had no direction. By the second mesibah, it popped into her head, Now ask. Okay, now I ask. עכשיו, what's wrong? Huh? What's wrong? Huh? Okay, the last thing, oh, ישועת ה' comes without any pe'ulah, רק לבוא להתחנן, להתפלל. That's it. That's how the yeshuah of Purim came. That's how it came. There was no big story. The yeshuah came, v'nahafoch hu, from one minute to the next. Last two things I want to tell you. Mazel dagim. Purim is about mazel dagim, right? Adar is dagim, and Pesach is טלה. The sheep. What is the fish and the sheep? Okay, so someone in Lakewood asked me, and I answered him the following. You know, a taleh, the sheep, has two things. It has dero'eh... That's take care of the sheep, and then it has the sheep that's being led by the ro'eh. The goyim worshipped the taleh also. It was also their avodah zarah. Which part of it? Mitzrayim was the mazin. It was the, what do you call it, the two care of the world. Give me a good word in English. Huh? The parnass. They were takkeh supplying and then running the world. That's what they worshipped. They worshipped the obedience over the taleh. Klal Yisrael took the taleh, and they made it that we're the taleh and Hashem is the ro'eh. That's the inyan of taleh, korban, Hashem. Huh? Toleh. It's called toleh? Toleh. I don't know. In yeshiva, people say taleh, that's all. You don't like it, then go to, go to, go to... Dag. You know, Haman was about kinah. It was about ayin hara. He wanted to put an ayin hara into Klal Yisrael. He looked at Klal Yisrael with an evil eye, and that's why he couldn't try to destroy them. Huh? Ayin hara. It's all about ayin hara. So the mazal of dagim, because dagim is keneged ayin hara, that's the mazal of Adar. Finally, last but not least, someone asked me the following question, and therefore I'd like to get it out also. Very nice pshat. Vayom achalchim imenu v'yodea tov v'ra. Okay. Was the nachash telling the truth or he was lying? So there's a medrash. The medrash says, gimel. There were three people that said the truth, and the nachash is one of them. He was telling the truth. So he asked me, what do you mean? It says you'll be like Elokim, v'chai l'olam, you'll live forever. Yeah. So how come, how come the nachash didn't tell the truth, the opposite? So I said, Abosai, you have to learn the pasuk. I'm sorry. He never said v'chai l'olam. It says Hashem said that. Hashem said that if you eat from the eitz hadaas, so you'll be chai l'olam, and therefore I assered it, okay? What did the nachash say? The nachash only said he'll be yodea tov v'ra. He'll know the difference between good and bad. Ah, that's true. The moment they ate from the eitz hadaas, all of a sudden a new world opened up for them, because they only knew tov. Now they started to know tov v'ra, a whole world of ra. And it has to be Elokim, because Hashem created all this. Hashem has the balance of tov and ra. That balance of tov and ra came that even Adam knew it from the moment. That's why the minute he took zivug, marriage, which is tov, right? Ki tov, it was marriage. And what had happened? He saw the ra in it, and therefore that he had to be covered. But ein hachanami, if he ate from the eitz hadaas, eating would have been k'Elokim, to know good and bad. But Hashem said not to; that's why he died. Niknas, it was a punishment for eating keneged Hashem. But actually the eating of the eitz hadaas should have what? Should have been chai l'olam.

Hashem then punished him. Hashem had to punish him for eating when he wasn't. And because he went against His word. But the nachash was telling the truth, and I said that the yesod of the nachash is that he always tells the truth. When he comes to you, the nachash, the yetzer hara, you know what he tells you? He tells you, you need taavos, and you tacka are taavah, you need parnassah, you tacka do need parnassah. It's all true. But that's pshat, the nachash tells the truth, but it's yedei taivah ra. Rabosai, have a gevaldige Purim. We'll see a Mitzvas Hashem next Sunday. Baruch Hashem. Where's Danny?