Shemos: Galus Closes the Heart—Yaakov’s Brachos, Chinuch, and the Hope of Geulah

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. In this week's parsha, Parsha Shemos, begins Galus Mitzrayim, begins the shibud and the suffering, and then of course, as the parshas continue, the makos, and then the geulah from Mitzrayim. How does the Torah tell us that the galus begins? So in pasuk vav it says, Vayamas Yosef, vechol echav, vechol hador hahu, that Yosef dies, the brothers die, and the whole previous generation, they died. Chazal tell us that this pasuk is the beginning. This is the hatchalah of the galus. It begins over here. Why does it begin over here? Because kol zman, as long as the brothers and Yosef were alive, the Mitzriyim didn't put any shibud on Klal Yisrael. Things started to, so to speak, go downhill when the brothers died, and that's the pasuk: Vayamas Yosef, vechol echav, vechol hador hahu. That's it. Here it begins the trouble, because before... The Mitzrim didn't. It says clearly, Vayakom melech chadash asher lo yada es Yosef. The new king forgets about Yosef, and he starts to torment Bnei Yisrael, rav v'otzum. I mean, it's clearly in the pesukim that after Yosef dies is when everything starts to deteriorate and become a situation of galus. Rabosai, we just read Parshas Vayechi. The beginning of Vayechi, Rashi tells us, is a parshah stumah, which means that normally the parshiyos of the Torah give a break in between one parshah and the other. Here, it's connected. Why? Satum. It's closed. What was closed? So Rashi brings the Medrash, the first Medrash on Parshas Vayechi, that from here begins stimas eineihem v'libam shel Yisrael mipnei tzaras ha-shibud. The tzarah, the affliction of shibud, of galus, begins in the beginning of Parshas Vayechi, and nistemu eineihem. And because of this, their eyes became closed, became dark, their eyes and heart. U'meileh, here, so to speak, is where shibud has an effect on Klal Yisrael. It's a stirah. It's a stirah in the Chazal. It's a contradiction. I thought you said that nothing happened in shibud Mitzrayim till Yosef dies. Chazal teach it to us clearly. The pesukim seem to implicate that clearly, the beginning of Parshas Shemos. Yad Chazal tell us that actually, Nishtmu eineihem v'libam shel Yisrael, when the yetzer hara begins in Parshas Vayechi. The Rishonim ask this for a kashya. The Rishonim ask this for a kashya. You look at the Daas Zekeinim, the Moshev Zekeinim, they all discuss this question. Rishonim give a very nice, interesting pshat. They say that actually there's two types of galus. There's galus physical. There's galus, chomer u'leveinim, where they make you affliction to the guf, and there's spiritual galus. You know, Nishtmu eineihem v'libam isn't a physical galus. The physical galus actually begins in Shemos, and that had to be till Yosef and the brothers passed away, vayakam melech chadash. But the spiritual shibud, the spiritual galus actually begins in Parshas Vayechi. It begins in Parshas Vayechi. What does it mean, Nishtmu eineihem v'libam? Because that obviously...

Metaphorize the spiritual galus. The physical galus, we know, is the guf, inui, affliction. What is the spiritual galus? That's phrased by Rashi as, Nistmu eineihem v'libam, their eyes and their heart. What does it mean, eineihem v'libam? What does that mean? How does the eyes and the heart become closed? How does it become shut down, the eyes and the heart? So the Chasam Sofer explains the heart resembles ahavas Hashem. The eyes are a mashal to yiras Hashem. And I think what he means to say is, you know, V'lo sasuru acharei levavchem v'acharei eineichem. The acharei eineichem is a person, you know, his eyes wander. What stops the eyes from wandering? Yirah, fear. Yir'ah eineinu, v'yismach libeinu, right? There's such a thing called yirah, fear. Yiras Hashem could be the eineiim; it's resembled in the eyes. Ahavas Hashem is v'ahavta es Hashem Elokecha b'chol levavcha. So Nistmu eineihem v'libam, the spiritual galus hit in it, that the yirah of Hashem and the ahavah of Hashem began to close down. That's the spiritual. So it's true that the physical galus begins in Parshas Shemos. But the spiritual, the ruchniyusdikah galus begins with the fact that Yaakov Avinu, Yaakov Avinu was meis in Parshas Vayechi. I would like to explain a different interpretation of Yistimu eineihem v'liba. What does it mean? Why do we discuss the galus, the ruchniyus, the spiritual one, as eineihem v'lev, heart and eyes? And I would say as follows, rabosai. The Medrash, the Medrash gives a second pshat in stima. What does stima mean? Because the truth is Rashi says a little further on in the Parshas Vayechi that was nistam imenu hakeitz, which means Yaakov wanted to reveal when the galus will end, when Mashiach will come, when the geulah will be, and that was nistam. That became shut down. A second pshat the Medrash says is nistam imenu hagalus, that the galus itself became shut down. He didn't know the galus. The Ksav Sofer has many pages of arichus to explain this Medrash, and he says, I don't understand. The implication is that it is a bad thing, the fact that it's sasum. The galus, when it will end, it got closed down, got shut down, so it's bad. It's not good. What about the second part of the Medrash, that the galus itself... Not the geulah, but the golus became closed down. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Says Ksav Sofer, no, it has to be a bad thing. And why is it bad? Because sometimes the worst part of golus is that you don't even realize that you're in golus. The fact that the golus is satum, that the golus is shut down and it's not open in front of you, that itself is even the worst, the worst bechinah of golus. There's golus where you know you're in golus. At least you can save yourself. At least you can daven. At least you can go and make ta'aniyot and tikkunim. But if a person doesn't even know he's in golus, he thinks everything is wonderful, so he can't even move away from the golus. Stimas ha'golus, says the Ksav Sofer, means that the golus itself becomes satum, becomes closed up, which means that you can't even explain that it's golus. You don't even realize that you're in golus. That's even worse golus than having affliction and being in golus. Could be we could say that that's the mashal.

Eineihem v'libam, the eyes and the heart. Why the eyes and the heart? There's a pasuk, V'haya eini v'libi sham kol hayamim. My heart and my eyes will be there. What does there mean? By the Beis Hamikdash in Yerushalayim all the days of my life. Which means a person could be away from Eretz Yisrael. He could be in galus. But the Yid, the Jew, always had that his eye and his heart was in Yerushalayim, was in the Beis Hamikdash. How does it say, Ani b'mizrach v'libi b'maariv? A person could be physically in one place, but where is his heart? His heart is in the Mizrach. His heart is towards Yerushalayim, towards the Beis Hamikdash. Nistamu eineihem v'libam shel Yisrael means the einayim, the lev, which always, even in the galus, which always was looking towards the Beis Hamikdash, towards HaKadosh Baruch Hu, it became closed. It became shut down. We become complacent in the galus that you don't even have the emotion, you don't even have the hergesh, the feeling that I'm missing Yerushalayim, I'm missing the Shechinah, I'm missing the Beis Hamikdash. That is the ultimate galus. You hear, rabosai? A person could have physical torture, but you know what he has? He looks ahead and he says, I'm looking forward that the Ribono Shel Olam will redeem me. You know, when Moshe Rabbeinu tells Klal Yisroel that they're going to get redeemed from Mitzrayim, what does the Ribono Shel Olam say to him? V'zeh lecha ha'os. This is the sign. What is the sign? Ta'avdun es Elokim al hahar hazeh. Ta'avdun es Elokim al hahar hazeh means that you will, you will worship Hashem on this mountain. What is He giving them? He's giving them a hope, what to look forward to. A Yid, a Jew, looks forward to one thing: to the Ribono Shel Olam, to avodas Hashem. That gives him hope. But if you take away that hope, you have nothing. You know, it's interesting. The pasuk says, Vata'al shavasam el haElokim. It says when the Mitzriim worked the Jews, worked the Klal Yisroel with tremendous affliction, Vata'al shavasam, their cry went up el haElokim. What does that mean? Went straight up. Hashem accepted it? What are we trying to say? It was that bad that Hashem heard it? Hashem hears any cry. Vata'al shavatasam, their cry went up el haElokim. What does that mean? When Hashem closes ears and all of a sudden now this cry pierced the skies and Hashem was able to hear it. Baal HaMusar say, Vatal shavosam. You know what a shavah is? Shavah is the inner cry of a person. When a person externally screams, what is that called? Tzo'ek. Tzo'ek is the scream, physical. The louder you scream, it's tzaakot, it's yelling, it's screaming, and that's the external yell. What is the internal? In every cry, there's the external, and then there's the internal. And what is that? What is the word used? Shavah, right? V'shavosi hazinah. You know, shavosi? Shavosi means my inner. Hazinah, Hashem has to put His ear close. Hazinah hashamayim va'adabeirah, v'sishma ha'aretz. We spoke about this many times. The word hazanah means to listen closely, to put your ear to hear it, because it's not easy to hear. Ki atah shomea kol shofar u'ma'azin teruah. We spoke about this many times, that the kol shofar is what? Shomea. But the teruah, the broken, is lahazin, hazinu. You got to put your ear to hear it. Hashem puts His ear close to... shavosi hazinah, because that's the inner. Vatal shavosam. What was the inner cry of Klal Yisrael in the Galus?

Eluha Elikim. They missed the Ribono Shel Olam. They missed HaKadosh Baruch Hu. That was the seiva, that was the inner cry. The external cry was, Oy, it hurts. Galus is painful. But what was the internal cry, the shavasam? The shavasam was, Eluha Elikim. They missed HaKadosh Baruch Hu. It was this eini v'libi sham kol hayamim, the eye and the heart, the feeling, the inner Yid, the inner Jew, was searching for HaKadosh Baruch Hu in Mitzrayim. Hashem says, I heard that inner cry, and now I respond to save them. That's the v'haya eini v'libi sham kol hayamim. Which einayim, which lev? It's the einayim and the lev of the Yid, that his heart and his lev and his eyes always were towards the Beis HaMikdash, towards the Shechinah, and that became satum, that became closed. That's the spiritual part of Galus. There's the physical Galus, there's the spiritual. So the physical actually begins later. The spiritual one begins where? In Parshas Vayechi, where Yaakov Avinu was niftar, where Yaakov Avinu passed away. What is it that brought about this spiritual Galus? What is it? What caused it? The physical, we understand that when Yaakov passed away, and then the children passed away, and Yosef... Who did so much for them passed away. They forgot about him. But why did the spiritual pass away when Yaakov passed away? Why did the spiritual galus begin over there? And the answer, rabosai, is very simple. Galus is complicated. The only way to save ourselves from galus, and the only way to have direction in galus, and to have einayim, eyes that we should see properly, and lev, and the right hergesh in galus, is Torah. We find that when Yaakov Avinu wanted to go down to Mitzrayim, the Ribono Shel Olam promises him, Anochi ered. I'm going to go down with you. Al tira, don't be afraid. What greater guarantee could a person have where Hashem promises him, don't be afraid to go down to galus, I'm going with you. Yet what does Yaakov Avinu do? Yaakov Avinu does hishtadlus. Yaakov Avinu makes sure that he's secure spiritually, and what does he do? No, he built a yeshiva. It says clearly in the pasuk that V'es Yehuda shalach lefanav, that the first thing he went to secure was to make sure that there's a yeshiva, that the boys, so to speak, I call them boys, but the shevatim, his children, should have where to sit and learn with him. This was the one thing that he did to secure himself as he goes down to galus. You see, he was terrified. He was afraid to go to this galus. There wasn't physical fear. He wasn't afraid physically. Yosef was the king. Yosef would protect him physically. He was afraid spiritually. And therefore, he goes out of his way to make sure there's Torah. Now that Yaakov Avinu is going to die, so the Torah is going to go with him. The Torah that he taught, the Torah that he was the semel, the sign of, and the amud was going to stop now. Mimeila nistemu eineihem, the libam shel Yisrael. What keeps the eye seeing straight and the heart to have that hergesh, the feeling, is Torah. Torah, Torah, Torah. Torah, that protects. The learning of Torah protects. I want to tell you over a beautiful Chasam Sofer. The Chasam Sofer says more or less what we spoke at this point, that when Yaakov dies, the yeshiva dies with him, the makom haTorah dies with him, and therefore nistemu eineihem. And he says, beautiful, Chazal tell us that asid, eventually, in the future, all the bati knessios, bati midrashos, and chutz laaretz...

How could he go to Eretz Yisroel? Chazal also tell us, Yaakov Avinu, Yaakov yoshev b'yeshiva, says Chasam Sofer. Kol zman Yaakov had his yeshiva, the shevatim felt connected to Eretz Yisroel through the yeshiva. Now that Yaakov Avinu dies, so therefore the yeshiva went with him. So they started to feel the galus from Eretz Yisroel, you hear? U'mishameis, v'nistemu ma'ayanos hachochmah, v'nisbatlah yeshivasoi. I don't know why the yeshiva had to be batel when Yaakov died. Why did the kids take over? We won't get into that. Maybe because of otzazeh. Maybe there were ten children. It's one yeshiva with ten roshei yeshivas. All right, anyways, u'mishameis, v'nistemu ma'ayanos hachochmah, nisbatlah yeshivasoi, nivneh lahem, k'ilu hayom galu l'Mitzrayim. So the galus, says the Chasam Sofer, begins in Parshas Vayechi. Notice that the stima, if you want to tell that there was stima, that nistemu eineihem, why does it have to be that in the parsha itself, in the Chumash, in the Torah itself, is nistemu eineihem? Why don't you have as a drashah? Whenever you want to teach something, you make that the parsha, the Chumash itself, should be written in a way that it's satum. Why do you need that? You should just write a word or an ois or a remez that teaches us this to ... that teaches us this to ... And you know what the answer is? Because where was the stima? The stima was in the Torah itself. When Yaakov Avinu was meis, there was a stima in the Torah itself that caused this to ... for Bnei Yisrael. In the Torah itself there was a stima. When Yaakov Avinu was meis, niskatnu; it became less and less with the petirah of Yaakov Avinu. So here, rabosai, we have a tremendous lesson, a tremendous lesson. We have a tremendous lesson that in order to preserve, to preserve the inner Yid, his hergashah, his feelings, there's only one way to do it, and that is through Torah. The less Torah, the less hergashah we have in Yiras Shamayim. You know, I'm not that old, but I remember the songs, just the music that we had 20 years ago. It's a different music. It's a different world. And you guys are laughing because you're much younger than me. You still realize different music. The music that we have today, I listen to, I'm trying to think, what does that have to do with Yiddishkeit? Where does it have to do with Hashem? I don't know what. It happens to me that they borrow the words of the pesukim of the Chumash and they put it into American music. We don't realize sometimes how the galus affects us, and that itself is the biggest galus. A Jew always had a hergesh, a feeling. You know, I'll tell you something interesting. I grew up, even about Eretz Yisroel, there was a certain feeling in my home, Eretz Yisroel. Zeidy was makpid, Zeidy zichrono livracha was makpid that an esrog only came from Eretz Yisroel. The Aruch HaShulchan writes that in those days the best esrog was Janover. Everybody wanted a Janover, a Greek esrog. Why? Because it had a mesorah that that was definitely the esrog, that there's no murkav. The Aruch HaShulchan writes it's a bizayon for Eretz Yisroel not to take an esrog from Eretz Yisroel. And my grandfather was very makpid on it, only Eretz Yisroel. Why? There was a certain love, a certain feeling, Eretz Yisroel. I want to tell you another thing. Years ago I read an article about the Biala Rebbe. Who was the Biala Rebbe? He was a Rebbe in Eretz Yisroel, like any other Rebbe, so to speak, a Rebbe.

Most of the year he was in Eretz Yisrael, but a lot he was also in Switzerland. He had a Chassidus, a whole beis medrash in Lugano, in Switzerland. So when he was niftar, I don't know why, I picked up the ated, and I was reading about him. I didn't know much about him or of him. Something interesting—a rabbi I never heard of, I didn't know much about. But there was something in there which opened up my eyes for the rest of my life, they would say. It left such a roishem on me. When he would travel to Switzerland and then back to Eretz Yisrael, he had an interesting custom. Flying to Switzerland, he would take a ticket to get a seat in the back of the plane. When he flew to Eretz Yisrael back, he would take a seat in the front of the plane. Why? Another second in Eretz Yisrael. When he left Eretz Yisrael, he wanted to be another second. As the plane flies, one more second in Eretz Yisrael. When the plane comes in, he wanted to be the first one there. That's the leib and regesh, the feeling in the heart that a Yid used to have about Eretz Yisrael. He can be in Switzerland, but where was his heart? Where was his eini v'libi? It was in the Beis Hamikdash, it was Yerushalayim. We lost that. Today we come, we fly Israel back, forth, here. It's the first time in years I went to Eretz Yisrael. I was maybe many, like eight years not in Eretz Yisrael. I landed. I couldn't stop crying ... And I saw the people around me. They didn't even know, like, What are you? Like, what's going on? And then when I came down at the airport, at the airplane, I fell to the floor and I kissed the ground. ... The Gemara says that the Tannaim used to kiss the ground. And I saw a regular frum Jew laughing at me, you know, ... And then when I went that first day to Yerushalayim, I walked. I walked to the Kosel. Why? I didn't want to take a bus. I didn't want to take... I was walking. As I'm walking, every step, I was thinking, ... Yerushalayim, right? What's the lashon pasuk? Raglei ... All the pesukim of Dovid HaMelech, where he talks about going to Yerushalayim, to the Makom HaMikdash. So I had a relative who was going with me. He looks at me, he goes, Eh, in a week you won't feel that way, he tells me. It's just the beginning. Wait, wait a week and you'll feel like we feel when we go to the Kosel, you know? All right. This is galus, rabosai. So you can be even in... A person could be even in Yerushalayim and be in galus. And a person could be even chutz laaretz, and he can be not in galus. He could be—his heart, his eini v'libi is in Eretz Yisrael. You know, Yaakov Avinu made it that... Yaakov even stated that even when they were in Mitzrayim, they were in Eretz Yisroel. How? Through the yeshiva. The Radbaz, he lived in Mitzrayim. The Radbaz lived in Mitzrayim. So they asked him, How yitachen you're allowed to live in Mitzrayim? The pasuk says, You’re not allowed to live in Mitzrayim. So there was many answers that are given to this: you're not allowed to return to Mitzrayim. He didn't say that. You know what he said? I don't live in Mitzrayim. I live in my house, where I sit and learn all day, and my house happens to be located in Mitzrayim. I don't live in Mitzrayim at all. Who lives in Mitzrayim? I live in my beis medrash, which is in my house. Granted, my house happens to be located in Mitzrayim. You hear? That's eini v'li. A person can be in Mitzrayim; he has no shaychus to Mitzrayim. It has nothing to do with Mitzrayim. While on the other hand, a person could be living in Eretz Yisroel and still be where? In Mitzrayim. So this is galus. The inyan of galus, that galus takes on two forms. There's the physical, and there's the spiritual galus. Now I want to explain to you.

You, rabosai, what it is that Yaakov Avinu wanted to do when he gathered them together. What was he trying to teach them? Because we just explained that, nistam, he realizes that something is becoming spiritual degradation, a certain yeridah is happening now with his petirah. What is he trying to teach them? V'hikavtzu v'shimu bnei Yaakov, v'shimu el Yisrael avichem, come together. So he wanted to tell them the case. Rashi says clearly he wanted to tell them the case. What's the point of that? What's the point, rabosai, of telling them the case? So pashut pshat is, he wanted to tell them when it's all over, because when a person knows when it's going to end, it's not as painful. It's not as painful. You know when it's going to end. Part of the pain is when you don't know when it ends. L'maaseh, the Gemara says, Tipach ruchan shel mechashvei kitzin, that those who come and say when it's supposed to end, their breath should be taken away, because they're not supposed to do that. So why would Yaakov want to do it? Unless maybe you say that Yaakov thought it's the right thing to do, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu was nistam, took it away from him, and from here we learn, tipach ruchan, that it's not a good thing. Maybe Yaakov l'chatchilah thought it was the right thing to do, and the fact that we say it's not a good thing, we learn it from Yaakov Avinu. Or maybe we could come and say— That he wanted to tell them the keitz, not so much the keitz when, but he wanted to tell them what brings about the keitz, what it is that they could do to bring the keitz, to bring the geulah. And what does he tell them? Hikavtzu v'shimu bnei Yaakov, hikavtzu. Alimuses speak how he told them to come together, because we all know that one of the components of galus is pirud. So if they have kibutz, if they have achdus, then ad rabba, they'll have geulah. So hikavtzu was telling them, keitz. The Baal HaTurim tells us that he looked at their names, and he looked and he saw that there's two letters which aren't in their names: kuf and tzadi, the only two letters of the alphabet which the shevatim don't have in their names, which means, says Baal HaTurim, they don't have keitz. They don't have the word keitz in them. What's a letter game? What is this? You know, from pre-1A we play these games, and we're gonna go look which letter doesn't belong and which letter does belong, and if you can find me this letter, you know. And the answer is, rabosai, it's obviously deeper. The Baal HaTurim is saying, in the makeup of the achdus of the brothers, he saw they were lacking keitz. The one thing that they needed to bring the geulah, and what is that? Keitz. They need to have achdus. You know, how does Yosef reveal himself? When does Yosef reveal himself? Yosef reveals himself when they got together. K'shunu elai, come closer. When he saw that there was a tikun in the achdus, I told you from the sipurna. This is not just a beautiful talk. The Seforno says that everything that happens in Parshas Vayeshev, Vayigash, Vayechi, mi'keitz, Vayigash Vayechi, is a blueprint of what's going to be when Moshiach comes. Yosef resembles Melech HaMashiach. Yosef is one of the Moshiachs, is ben Yosef. So when Yosef says, Ani Yosef, he's revealing himself as Moshiach, melech, as the melech. It's all in the Rishonim. This is not just nice, oh, it's merumaz. The Seforno learns that you read these parshiyos, you're going to get the future when Moshiach comes. So how does Moshiach come? Moshiach comes when they kavtzu, when they come together. There's united, united with the brothers that united, there'll be geulah. So he looks and he sees. Take a look. Let's take a look. There's no keitz between the brothers. I can't put together. When you take their names and I try to put together, I can't put together a kuf and a tzaddik.

In the achdus makeup of the brothers, I don't find cakes. That's the remez. That's not a word game. So he thinks to himself, so how do I teach them the cakes? So Yaakov Avinu looks and he says, I can teach you how to bring about the cakes, maybe. And then I can also teach you a different thing, and that is how to live in galus. There's two parts of galus. One is how to live in galus, and the other part of galus is how to end the galus. The avodah, the work, the work that a Yid has to have in galus is twofold. On one hand, the Jew has to be able to survive in the galus. How? We'll talk about it. The other thing is he has to learn how to end the galus. So how to survive in galus was not nistam. It wasn't satum from Yaakov Avinu. Keitz, meaning when became satum, when the galus is going to end. But how the galus is supposed to end and how one is supposed to live in the galus, that's Hikavtzu v'shimu bnei Yaakov, v'shimu el Yisrael avichem. You know, what is Birchas Yaakov? It's an interesting thing, Birchas Yaakov. Birchas Yaakov, we always think of brachot, brachot, right? The kids come home from school and they talk about Birchot Yaakov. Tell me something. Is everything that it says over there with Yaakov Avinu, was it really brachot? There was a lot of rough mussar there also, a lot of strong words over there. The Gemara says clearly, he took Reuven and he gave it to him over his head. Shimon and Levi, he gave it to them over their head. Everybody started to just—the brothers started to start moving backwards. He says, Now, come, you're going to get brachot. So what's birchas Yaakov? Is it brachot, or was it mussar? Which one was it? Ah, so the truth is it was both. That's the truth. It was really both. And if you look at the pesukim, it's very meduyak in the pesukim. The pesukim tell us, and these are the words: Asher diber lahem avihem, vayevarech osam; ish k'virchaso beirach osam. Remember the lashon of the pasuk? Okay, Tes chaf ches: Kol eileh shivtei Yisrael, v'zois asher diber lahem avihem vayevarech osam. This is what the father spoke to them and he blessed them. So what is the two leshonot? Diber lahem avihem, vayevarech osam. And the answer is, because diber is a lashon of tochachah, right? To daber is kasheh, kegidim. It's talk, strong talk, right? You want the pasuk. V'zois asher diber lahem avihem, that he spoke to them hard, and he also vayevarech osam, he also blessed them. You know, in the beginning of Birchas Yaakov, it also says, Vayikavtzu v'shimu. It says twice, right? You read the pasuk, Vayikavtzu, Mem tes beis. Who's reading the pasuk? Go ahead, Nu. It says, Vayikavtzu. Go ahead, read, read. Mem tes beis. Go ahead, read, read, read, read, read. Nu, nu, schnell, schnell, nu. Vayikavtzu. Yes, Mem tes beis. Vayikavtzu v'shimu bnei Yaakov, v'shimu el Yisrael avichem. It's the same thing twice, no? What do you mean, Vayikavtzu bnei Yaakov v'shimu? It says, it says, listen. What do you think it's like in shivat Ohel Simcha that I have to say, Listen, listen, listen good, listen, listen. A rebbe in kindergarten has to do that. Yaakov Avinu in the Torah doesn't have to go, Listen, listen, shimu, listen good, listen. You have to say it once, shimu. And the answer is that there's two types of shimu. One is shimu bnei Yaakov, musar. The other...

It was Shimu El Yisrael Avichem, bracha. There were two messages in Yaakov's, in Yaakov's birchas Yaakov. You know, whenever we talk about Yaakov's children in a lower madrega, we call them what? Bnei Yaakov. Whenever we talk about them in a higher madrega, what do we talk about them? Bnei Yisrael. So Shimu Bnei Yaakov. And also, Shimu El Yisrael Avichem. There was two things that were happening here. He spoke to them two messages: one message as the Bnei Yaakov, and one message as what? As the Bnei Yisrael. Kach hanirah k'pshuto, pashut pshat in the pesukim. But why did he do it that way? Why does he take the bracha and the mussar and put it together? Say it separately. Give mussar separately and bracha separately. You know, there was once a very big talmud chacham that used to mix halacha and drush together. So a certain gadol said about his halacha and drush, he said, His halacha is drush, and his drush is halacha. Halacha should be halacha, drush should be drush. Don't take mussar and make it bracha. Is it bracha or mussar? He mixes it together. What's he mixing together? Bracha and drush. Sometimes you take drush and you make it into halacha, and sometimes you take halacha and you make it drush, and guess what you have? You have nothing. Because halacha is supposed to be halacha, drush is supposed to be drush. So why does he go and he take the mussar and the halacha and the bracha and put it together? So there's a beautiful Aruch HaChaim that explains, because the biggest bracha that you could give to a person is to set him right in his path and give him mussar. Biggest bracha. You know, rabboisai, I really believe that this is what we begin the shiur with. Sometimes the worst galus is to not even realize you're in galus. How you don't realize? There's so much galus within. There's so much a person's fatumlt. He doesn't even realize how fatumlt he is. And the greatest bracha you could give is guidance, hadrachah, how a person could see the light and see tov and find the Ribono Shel Olam. That itself is bracha. And don't forget, in the context of what we're speaking, this was the beginning of galus of nistamu eineihem v'libam shel Yisrael. That's what they were missing with Yaakov's petirah. They were missing the guidance. They were missing their einayim and their lev. So what is the greatest bracha? The opposite. Even if it's divrei kintur, even if it's words, strong words, but it's guiding words. It's teaching them how to survive in the galus. Mimeila, that can be the biggest bracha. I believe that the words of the Aruch HaChaim are so profound, they're so me'uridike verter, it's pelldike. We think that mussar, ah, it's a bad thing, farkert. This is the greatest thing sometimes, you know. They say over a nice story. They say over that the Ger Rebbe was a chronel of bracha, I think it was the Imrei Emes. He stood up all night learning, and because of that he woke up late for Shachris. So the Sfas Emes asked him, Where were you for davening? So he didn't say. So the Sfas Emes took his stick—you know, the Rebbes used to carry a stick—and he gave him a good tzetz, he gave him a good bang. So the friends of the Imrei Emes said to him, Why didn't you tell your father you were up all night learning, and he would have mercy, he would have a little bit rachmanes on you? He says, Are you kidding me? And then I wouldn't have gotten the whack. I wanted it. I wanted it. I wanted the mussar. I would have lost out on a good tzetz, a good bang from my father, a good klopper from cup. You know, the old days they used to look at it as a good thing, not a bad thing. Tell somebody mussar today, Ooh, what are you starting up with me for? Hecheyach, techiach es amisecha.

What does it say? Hecher techiach. What does the word amisecha mean? You know what the word amisecha means? Emet, no. Amisecha. No, amisecha doesn't mean emet. Oh, am. Amisecha, right? Amisecha means close, together, right? Amisecha. You want to say somebody, you know, you say, you say, Ploni. You say, hocheach tochiach es amitecha, the other guy. What's amitecha? Amitecha means am, we're together, right? You think that when you give a person mussar, you're giving him mussar, it's distant. The opposite. When you're giving him mussar is because amitecha, we're so connected that we're one people, we're one person. So what you're doing, it's nogea to me. Amitecha doesn't mean distance somebody else. The opposite. If you feel distant, you shouldn't be giving him mussar. Mussar is amitecha because it's, as a matter of fact, this is the yechiv of mussar. The Rishonim tell us that the reason why we have to give mussar is because arvus. In Klal Yisrael, we accepted, Kol Yisrael areivim zeh lazeh, I'm mechuyav. As a matter of fact, if somebody does an aveirah and I don't give him mussar, it's as if I did the aveirah. Why? What does it have to do with me? And the answer is, we're in this together. The opposite. The closer you are to somebody, the more you tell them, the more you tell them. I was thinking of a gevaldige vort. You know, it says, V'shimu el Yisrael avicha. Why does it say avicha? But they didn't know who their father was. Oh, so that's what he meant to say. He meant to say Avichem, that at Musi, father. I mean, I wouldn't know that. I mean, if Yaakov Avinu would have said, I would have never known. I would have. Okay, maybe that's a pretty good pshat. Not my svara. My svara doesn't make sense of some pshat. What are you talking about? ... Avoteichem. It says Avichem. What Avoteichem? I'm asking a simple question: V'shimu el Yisrael avichem. Why did you think it was? You thought it was his grandfather, his great-grandfather? Listen to Yisrael, me, your father. Who else is it? And you know what the answer is, rabosai, I'll tell you. ... Yeah. I want you to listen to me not as a baal mussar. I want you to listen to me as Yisrael avichem. Ki kavtzu v'shimu bnei Yaakov. Did you ever speak to your children and call them bnei Yaakov? Would you talk to your children that way? I want you to listen. Shimon, go listen. The children of—what's your first name again? I forgot. Rabbi Baruch. Could the children of Baruch please listen to me? And everybody's gonna look around the room. You mean me? You're talking to me? I'm your child? To say you, you. The children of—Shimu bnei Yaakov. V'shimu, I want you to listen to Yisrael, your father. How about saying, Why don't you listen to me? I'm your father. Who's everyone, bnei Yaakov? It's bnei Yaakov. No. V'shimu el Yisrael avichem. I think he's saying a very deep vort. I want you to listen as banim, and I want you to listen to me as your av. It's a unique position, which means I don't want you to take the mussar on its words. I want you to take the mussar on who's delivering it. Yeah? It's a very deep vort. You know, you can say the same thing. A person can say the same thing as another person, but who's it come from? I don't want you to take the words, literally the words for what they are, but I want you to take it as who's delivering it to who. It's the words of an av l'ben. The ultimate ahavah, the ultimate love is ahavah, av l'ben. I want to talk to you about this a little bit, then you'll understand what I want. I was thinking to myself, why does he mix together the bracha and the mussar? So we said because that itself is the biggest bracha. I would like to offer a little more insight into this. You know, Yaakov Avinu was a tremendous mechanech. Tremendous.

As a matter of fact, Chazal tell us that he saved this mussar till the time he died. Why? Because he was afraid that if he gives this mussar earlier, Reuven is going to go to Esav. So he was very careful on how he delivered the mussar. Not now, afterwards. I'll answer you afterwards. What do we see from here? That he was extremely careful, extremely careful on how he gave the mussar, right? Because if he would give the same mussar earlier, which is a chiddush. I mean, Esav was, we think Esav was this big rasha and the Hitler. Obviously, Reuven would have went after him if it was that. So kan nireh that Esav had a pretty big following and he made a lot of sense. Just within the Esav, you had to be careful because you never know what could be in there, right? Al kol panim, you see that he was very careful. One of the biggest kochot and the biggest chochmot is how to give mussar. You give mussar in the wrong way, the person is boged, the person rebels, and you lost everything you could have wanted and worse. You could have made it much worse. Yaakov Avinu learns and teaches how to give mussar to a child, and that is to take the bracha and the kintur and mix it together. I saw Reb Simcha Zissel in Kelm, in the Chochmah Mussar, chelek beis, brings down the following: There's two ways to give mussar, either to point out the chisronot or to point out the ma'alot. The Chachamim says, the wise one, arevevam yachad, mixes them together. The Rachaim says, Reuven bechori atah. Did he give a bracha to Reuven? If you notice, there's very— Rashi even points it out. Rashi says, Ba'aloi loi beirach; he wasn't being bench Reuven and not Shimon and Levi, right? He says, no. Rashi says, Vayevarech osam, kulam kulam yachad. He put them all together, which means he actually gave a bracha to everybody in general, okay? The Rachaim says, no, he gave a bracha. You know what he told him? Reuven bechori atah. You're the firstborn, yeah. Because of that, it's a lot of taanos on you. Because of that, it's a lot of teviah. But also at the same time, it's a lot of what? It's a lot of maalah. It's tremendous ma'alot that you have. He says, Sham tzivah habrachah, which means within the words of Kintur of Mussar, he spoke it out in a way that was a tremendous maalah. I want you to know something. My bubby is a chrony of bracha, okay? Taught us a lot. We learned a lot. Forget my grandfather; even from my grandmother we learned a lot. A relative of mine stayed by my grandmother, yeah, and he read a book that he shouldn't have read. It wasn't— it wasn't— what happened? My bubby caught him, and she gave him mussar. But the mussar she gave him made such an impact on me. She meant him. It was a tremendous— And I was thinking to myself, you see clearly that he spoke them all together. Why did he put them all together? He says, He kavtzu v'shimu bnei Yaakov. Did he do it separately? Did he take them in separately? Smashly put them all together, and when they started hearing each other's mussar, why would he do that? And the answer is, he was giving each one mussar, but actually, in truth, it was for everybody, okay? Tell you what my bubby said. You know what my bubby said to them? My bubby said to this relative of mine, How could you read this book? It's a lo matim bishlucha. Yiddish is pas nisht, which means it doesn't befit you, for someone like you to read a book like this. And I couldn't get over the brilliance. You couldn't have said something more stronger in a more positive way. Precisely the book. But more than that, but picking him up. How could someone like you—I mean, how do you read a thing? You're such a good—you're such a... Within the ta'ana, what did you have? You had tremendous ma'alah, tremendous uplifting. This is Reuven, bechori atah. Reuven, you're my bechor. On one hand, it was strict mussar, and on the other hand, he was lifting him up. You know, I think that's the pshat in Rashi. You know, Rashi says something very interesting. Rashi says, Ish ki bechoraso, becheraso. What is—

Ish ki birchaso, birach osam. Don't worry, soon you get a nice bais. Hang in there if you're bored. Those are getting bored. We still have another hour to go. We still have a few more topics to touch on, and we'll get a good story in a minute or two. Go ahead, read the Rashi. So what does Rashi say? Ish ki birchaso, habrachah asidah, the bracha that will end up happening. Mem tes, let's go. Mem tes, chaf ches. Yes, what does Rashi say? The bracha that will be. What do you mean, the bracha that will be? Al kol echad. What, does a hava amina that it wasn't going to happen? What's the chiddush of Rashi, that the bracha that Yaakov gave them will happen? Is that what Rashi's teaching me? You thought it wouldn't happen? You need a special Rashi to teach me it's going to happen? No, unbelievable question. Rashi says he gave them a bracha, ish ki birchato. What is ish ki birchato? Like the bracha that will happen to them. That's not what Rashi says. That's what you say, baby. I don't mind if you say that, but that's not what Rashi says. Rashi says, ish ki birchato, bracha atidah, the bracha that will happen, that will come to them. But what's the chiddush? You have a chiddush that it'll happen? What does Rashi mean? The pasuk has to teach me that the bracha will happen to them? I mean, if Yaakov gave, it will happen, no? You know what? I'll answer you very simple. If you look at the Siforno, Siforno has a nice question. It says, Vayevarech otam. It says again he blessed them. So it says, how many times does it say he blessed them, right? Ishki birchato, berach otam. But then it says, Vayevarech otam. The pasuk starts off he blessed them, ishki birchato. Oh, see, he says a very nice pshat, the Siforno. Besides the original brachot, he gave them again another bracha. There was two brachot he gave them. First he gave them in the Birchas Yaakov a bracha. And then within that, again, Vayevarech otam separately. So that's what Rashi is trying to say. There was two brachos: avar and the bracha atidah that will happen. What was the bracha of the avar? And the answer is, Brachot vataot vhodaot lshimcha hagadol. Tell me, do we bless Hashem? When we say, we're giving You bracha, Hashem. Yeah, are we blessing Hashem? Is that true? We bless Hashem? So true, we find, Yishmael, Beni, barcheni. Hashem needs brachos from Klal Yisrael, maybe. But the real pshat is, rabosai, brachos means praises. Birchas Yaakov wasn't only bracha, blessings, but Birchas Yaakov was also praise, praise, praise. There's two brachos. There's bracha and there's bracha atidah, the bracha that will happen. Birchas Yaakov included mussar, true. It also included bracha, praise. If you give mussar without praise, rabosai, nothing. And if you give mussar and praise without hope, without guidance for the future, it's also nothing. We learn three lessons from Bichas Yaakov. A father must give mussar. A father must give praise. And a father must give bracha atidah, to give him for the future. Show him in the future what can be good. Opportunity, guidance for the future. That's the pshat in Bichas Yaakov. And all three things fell away when Yaakov Avinu passed away, and in galus they didn't realize who they were. They didn't realize their kochos. They didn't realize that they were being belittled in the galus. It's getting hard to sit, huh? I'll tell you a story. So let me tell you a good story, okay? Like this, those that have to leave now, they'll at least walk away with a good story, okay? The Mikhtav MeEliyahu, famous Baal Mussar, Mikhtav MeEliyahu, never gave direct mussar. He would never get up and say, You did this. He would never do that. When he didn't like something, he would speak about it in mashal, in story, and you would sit there, listen, and live.

And then he would tell you, Don't laugh, because it might be you, so don't laugh so much. That's how he would give mussar. They say that, like, he didn't like ... soccer. He couldn't take the soccer, ten grown men running after a ball. Lo azafim. He also didn't like the licking of the ice cream. He couldn't take the fact that they licked ice creams. And also he hated the straws. It was a big thing by him, the straws, the ... Instead of bending down, you know, to drink, you know, like a straw, you know, a person is able to sit back. You know, the big in the balgaiva, you know, you never see those long straws that they have. It's like, it's almost like a tube, you know, what do you call that, a hose, a hose for watering the garden. He's gardening himself, you know what I mean? You ever saw those big ... able to sit back on a beach chair, on a beach chair, you can sit back and ... You know, he couldn't take that, okay? You looked in the ... sefarim on the history, with the books that they write about the Kitzur. So he had these things that he would bring about how silly it looks, and he would laugh. So they went to tell the Chazon Ish, and they told the Chazon Ish that this was the derech of the new mashgiach in Ponevezh. He became mashgiach in Ponevezh, that he wouldn't knock, but he would, you know, try to get the people to, you know, grow on their own. So the Chazon Ish said, Very good, very good. Kinyan meshichah is a much stronger kinyan than kinyan chazakah. The kinyan of moshech, to draw the person close, is a lot stronger than kinyan chazakah strength. I would throw into the mix, if I may, you have to know what kinyan hagbaah is — uplifting the person. Might be also a very, very good kinyan. So these are the points. The first point is, don't hit him over the head. Moshech otan. That's kinyan. That's how you koneh, that's how you give mussar. And the second point is hagbaah — you lift the person. And with this, you have tremendous hatzlachah. Now what does that mean? I'll explain to you what that means. You know, it's interesting, if you have to go, you go. Okay, I want to tell you something very interesting. Could you imagine you call over your son and tell him, You know, you are a chamor. You, you're a snake. You think you'd like that? Is that good stuff? Yaakov Avinu did that. Yissachar chamor. Hey, he took his best kid, his best kid. Yissachar is the Torah. You, you are chamor. You're a sus yezev. That's right, sus and ze'ev, and that snake. Imagine telling a guy kid, You're a real snake. Yeah, what's wrong? Yaakov told that to Dan. And not only that, you look at the Aron HaKodesh, you'll see the snake and the... that's, what is it, the zu, the Bronx Zoo of the Aron Kodesh. Well, what happened over there? So I'll tell you, rabosai, we have to discuss this a little bit. You know, in Shulchan Aruch it says, Havaaz kanehner... Ratz katzvi, gibor ka'ari, right? These are behot chayot, the wildest animals that we have, right? Yet the Shulchan Aruch tells us we should be like them. Imagine you teach a kid, I want you to be a wild animal, huh? Yeah. Shulchan Aruch, it says that. You're going to have to teach a kid to be a wild animal? Got to be careful. It says in the Shulchan Aruch, I want you to be a wild this and a wild... What are you laughing for? It says in the Shulchan Aruch, az kanamer, ratz katzvi, gibor ka'ari. Tell me something, is that a guzma? Is that—maybe it's an exaggeration. Who's going to be like a gibor ka'ari? Az kanamer. Most people can't even walk down a block, can't walk down a flight of steps. You tell them to be az kanamer. What are you talking about? You know what the answer, rabosai, is? It's not a guzma. If the Shulchan Aruch tells us the halacha, it's a true thing. In potential, a person has the potential to be az kanamer, ratz katzvi. He has it in potential. Zohar HaKadosh writes, Rabbi Chanin brings it down in Kovetz Oros in the back, Naaseh adam. Who is he talking to, Hashem? Naaseh. So Rashi brings he's talking to the malachim. The Zohar writes, who's he talking to? The animals. Naaseh adam.

The whole world together will make the brias olam. It's all together, which means in a person is all the kochos. He has the koach to be an ani and a zaev. He has all the kochos. Unbelievable, huh? A person b'etzem has the koach to be all the animals. What's the pshat? Birachotam, Rashi says, birachotam, that he was kollam kulam yachad. So even though Yehuda is ari, but I can also. Every shevet, everybody could be everything, all right? So what's the pshat that we don't see it today? So I once asked Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, nitkatnu hadorot, right? We have Ashkenazer today, we don't have it. Gibor k'ari. You know, they say over that, that if you... from the Beis HaTalmud Rosh Yeshiva, so I'll give you in a second his name, Reb Leizer Horodetsky. Reb Leizer Horodetsky was one of the roshei yeshiva, he was very strong. So they once put a water cooler in the beis medrash, meaning in the hallway, in the yeshiva. He came, he saw the water cooler, he ripped it out of the floor. He ripped it from the ground because they cemented it to the ground. He ripped it out. A beis medrash is not a park. In a park you have a water cooler, but a yeshiva has a water cooler? What is it, a park over here? How can you rip it out? They used to call Reb Leizer a gadol. That's how strong he was. And the answer is, we're weak. Just a generation before us, the people were much stronger. What happened? Niskatnu hadorot. What does that mean? So I asked Reb Shlomo Zalman, physically niskatnu hadorot, or maybe niskatnu hadorot, koach, ratzon. Both. So he told me both. That's what Reb Shlomo Zalman told me. He says a little bit of both. He says, you know, those days people were twenty feet tall, twenty amos. What happened? Niskatnu hadorot physically, and maybe the yesod of it is because the ratzon. The ratzon is smaller. The water's much here. But Yaakov Avinu is telling them, Gibor k'ari. If you have ratzon, you can be like an ari. You can be tremendously strong. I want to explain with this. The Gemara tells us that when the meyaldot, when the meyaldot were told by Paro to kill the children before they are born, they said, I can't kill them. Why? Ki chayot henah, that the Jewish women are like animals, that before the meyaledes comes to them, they give birth. And this is a Gemara Sotah, daf aleph. Tell me something: you think Paro was a madman? He was a meshugener? He was a stupid idiot? I tell him, what do you want, the Jewish women are like animals. They take it to psychiatry. The guy comes and tells you that, you take him right away to a therapist. What's he talking about? What's he talking about? You think he's stupid, Paro? Paro was the king of the world. You tell him, you know something, I couldn't do it because the minute I came there, all of a sudden I saw on the face a picture of a lion. Are you crazy? Take them away. Put on the orange jumpsuit and take them away. What are you talking about? And the answer, rabosai, is— Why do you need a miyaledes? You know why you need a miyaledes? A miyaledes teaches the person self-control, breathing, concentration. You know why we need a miyaledes? It takes one week. In those days, they were strong. They had tremendous gevuras hanefesh and gevuras halev. They were strong. You know, I remember in Russia they used to cut off their fingers to show how strong they are. You know, in Russia there was a thing. You never heard this? Maybe they say it in America. There's stories they say in the Japanese, they cut their finger to show that they're strong. Obviously he knows. Okay, he was in Japan. ... was the king ... during the war with Bar Kokhba. Bar Kokhba, he cut off the finger. He used to cut the finger. I'm not making it up. Why? It shows, doesn't bother me. Doesn't bother me. Yes, how strong I am. A person has gevuras halev, hamoach; he's able to withstand. So the fact that you need a miyaledes comes from what? From lack of strength. That's what he meant to tell Pari. They don't need a miyaledes because they're chayos; they have the koiches of gevuras ari. That's what he means. They don't need us. They give birth; it's nothing to them. By the time we come to them, they already gave birth. That's the pshat in the Gemara in Sotah, daf yud aleph. Emes, the pshat, rabosai. Okay.

With this, I want to tell you over a mayridike thing. You know, we talk about gevurah. You know what the greatest gevurah, the greatest gevurah is? El gibor, hakoveish es yitzro. So the Alter of Slabodka says, true, we're nimshal l'chayot with gevurah, but we have even a gevurah bigger than the chayot, and that is yetzir kapav shel HaKadosh Baruch Hu, that we're naaseh b'tzalmeinu kidmuseinu, in the tzelem Elokim, and therefore we can do things that even animals can't do. This is a mayridike chiddush. He says, Mah hu rachum, af atah rachum. Is kocho ta'adam that even animals don't have. It's gevuras ha'adam that even animals don't have. Az kan, all this is true, but then there's something even bigger and greater and stronger, bichochot ha'adam above, and that is the middot tovot, the gevurah of the yetzer hara. It's tremendous koach that we have. He says an unbelievable chiddush. He says an unbelievable chiddush there. He says, you know, Moshe Rabbeinu went up to the sky, to the shamayim. Eliyahu went up to the shamayim. Chanoch went up to the shamayim. So we always thought, the way I always learned, that how did they go up to shamayim? HaKadosh Baruch Hu took them. He learns not like that. They went up bkochot atzmam, he says. They had tremendous koach. He brings a medrash that before the mabul, a man was able to jump miyichsof olam ad sof olam. He brings a medrash from the bottom. Man was able to jump from one side of the world to the other before the mabul. He says it's a medrash. The medrash says that when they looked at the chayot, they were able to jump. This is like the malat to me. It's like an anatomy. Or hatzafun, or hatzafun, the aleph is labotka. The kochot ha'adam is so strong. So what is it? This koach is greater. It's greater, greater than the koach of the chayot. This is bracha. Bracha means when you're able to give a person to understand the shiflut of the galut, the shiflut, and the shiflut of what the galut does to a person, to rob the kochot that he has, to be ma'avir al hamidot, to be mitgaber on the yetzer hara. You know, galut gives us weakness. That's what I'm trying to bring out. Nistemo einayim v'libo, we became weak in the galut. Now you understand what nistemo means. It shuts down the tremendous eye and the heart, the kochot hanefesh that we have. That becomes shut down in the galut. Yeah, yeah, it's unbelievable, unbelievable nekudah. Galut weakens us. What does it weaken us? It weakens us in the kochot hanefesh, in the hiskatnut hadorot. And this is the ma'alah, the ma'alah of understanding what galut is and how we can be mitgaber, how we can uplift ourselves stronger against all the weaknesses that the galut has to offer, because we're able to be a tzir kapol of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. This is lesson, lesson, galus. And this is what Yaakov Avinu—Yaakov Avinu was teaching. He kavtzu v'shimu bnei Yaakov. Don't let the galus affect you. Don't let the galus weaken you. Let me give you how to survive the galus, and that is to know your kochos. Because what galus attacks—you know, there's something called an immune deficiency disorder. You know what an immune deficiency disorder is? Remember I taught this to you. Immune deficiency is when the body attacks itself. The cells attack themselves. It's called autoimmune deficiency. A lot of diseases—lupus and these type of machlos, rachmana litzlan—are autoimmune. Lugeric, they say, is an autoimmune disease, which means the body attacks itself because it doesn't recognize its own self. It looks at the own cells as zar, outside, and therefore it attacks. Galus is an autoimmune disease, rabosai. It doesn't let you recognize who you are, and meila you attack yourself. You don't let yourself grow, and you don't let yourself be healthy. It's called an autoimmune spiritual disease.

The anecdote for it is to recognize who you are and what you are, that you're a Yid, and you have a nefesh and lev, and that you have koiches to be misgaber on these weaknesses of the yetzer hara, of the galus. And that is how you combat, and that's how you destroy the disease called galus. And with this, we're takkeh zoiche, Moshiach sheyavo, and physically, not only spiritually, but physically as well, redeem us from the galus. You've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.