Shavuos: The Three Days of Hagbalah, Self-Restraint, and Preparing for Kabbalas HaTorah

Transcript

Begins the days which are called shloishes yemei hagbalah, the three days of hagbalah. What is hagbalah? Before HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave the Torah at Har Sinai, He commanded Moshe three days before, Lech hagbel es ha'am. Boundary. Make boundaries for the people, d'hainu boundaries that they're not allowed to pass, in order they shouldn't go next to Har Sinai. Because if they would go next to Har Sinai, they'd be chayav misa. They would be chayav misa. Says the pasuk, Lo siga bo yad, you're not allowed even touch it. Ki sakel yisakel or yaro yira. Shmois, Yud Tes, pasuk Yud Beis, Yud Gimmel. Hagbel. V'higbalta es ha'am saviv leimor, hishamru lachem alos בהר וגוע בקצהו. So this was hagbalah, boundary. Give them clear, execute clear boundaries that they're not allowed to pass these boundaries, in order they shouldn't go next to Har Sinai, because that was chayav misa if you did it. So this was three days before. Vayu nechonim, layom hashlishi, as the pasuk says, previous these two pesukim, pasuk Yud Aleph, Vayu nechonim layom hashlishi. Be prepared for the third day. Shloishes yemei hagbalah, three days of boundary. Therefore today, Shavuos, three days before, we have a time period called shloishes yemei hagbalah. Now in the Mishnah Berurah it's not brought, in the Shulchan Aruch it's not mentioned, but it's famous in all the sefarim. I don't know why it's not mentioned in the Mishnah Berurah. I don't know why it's not really mentioned in the sifrei halacha. Maybe because there's no nafka mina. We anyway don't say Tachanun starting from Rosh Chodesh Sivan. So maybe there's no nafka mina lahalacha that it's called shloishes yemei hagbalah. That's why there's no mention of it. I don't know. There's no mention, shloishes yemei... But in the sefarim hakedoshim all over it's mentioned, shloishes yemei hagbalah, starting from three days before Shavuos. Now, boys, let me ask you a question. Pashut question. How is it applicable, and why is it important to have it today? What is shloishes yemei hagbalah? Shloishes yemei hagbalah means that in order you shouldn't go on the mountain, you shouldn't be chayav misa, they made a boundary. So what does it have to do with us today? But what is the time frame called shloishes yemei hagbalah? What is it? It's an unbelievable question. They talk about the tremendous attributes in ruchniyus that you can get during shloishes yemei hagbalah, as we will soon see from the Chida. The Chida discusses the tremendous ma'alot. In ruchniyus, that you could get from shloshim yom hagbalah. I mean, what is it? It's hagbalah. It's to tell the people not to go. Could you imagine we'll make the day of the stop sign. They put up a stop sign in order you should know that if you pass the stop sign, you go off the cliff. So the day that we put up the stop sign is going to be a holiday, the day of the stop sign. I mean, it's hagbalah. It's just making sure that people don't go where they shouldn't be going. You're putting up a stop sign. Till here, ad kan, tizaharu. So why is it that today, in our times, we're not going up on Har Sinai? So what's the negeiah? Shloshes yemei hagbalah. It's a good question, huh? Yeah, I'm sure you heard the word shloshes yemei hagbalah, right? What is it? What are you talking about? What are these days, shloshes yemei hagbalah? What is hagbalah? Now the truth is, I could hear someone say, because the truth is this is how I understood it all the years also, the hagbalah part is not significant. It's the v'hayu nechonim part.

Yemei hachanim, you should be prepared. You should be prepared l'yom hashlishi, the third day. So there was preparation, and part of the preparation was hakbalah. So in order we should prepare today, we took the word hakbalah. It's not that the hakbalah itself is significant. It's the fact that there's a hakbalah, which was in preparation for the great day of Kabbalas HaTorah. So meila, we took the yemei hakbalah, the name, because we must hakbalah prepare ourselves for Kabbalas HaTorah, which is clear in all the mefarshim. We spoke in many years, for many years past, that the hachanah of the Yom Tov by Shavuos is crucial for the Yom Tov itself. That's why the Yom Tov is called Shavuos. Why? Because Sefiras HaOmer is the preparation, like the Rishonim said. I don't want to go into it in great detail because we've done it in the past. So the Yom Tov takes on the name of the preparation, Shavuos, the weeks, the Sefiras HaOmer. So yemei hakbalah just means the days of preparation. You know something, rabosai, I can't accept that, and I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. Why just call it yemei hachanah? You have to call it the name of the hakbalah, where hakbalah is not negea b'zman. I say, yemei hachanim, it's the yamim of hachanah. It should be shloshes yemei hachanah. I want to tell you further. There were actually two preparations that was done for Kabbalas HaTorah. Chazal tell us. Three days before was shloshim hagbalah. Four days before was yemei prisha. That's how we know the halachos of nida, of prisha, of oines, how many oines to kabbalas haTorah. It has to do with this, that the tumah of the Torah, depending on, as Moshe Rabbeinu told them that, You nechonim al tikshu al ishah, the oines l'gabei taharah. And it's taka brought down, many sefarim bring this down l'halacha, that before Shavuos, here, before Shavuos, here, יש מחמירים לפרוש מנשותיהם ג' ימים לפני שבועות. Some people are poirish, Knesses HaGedolah, siman taf tzadi daled. Why? Because it says, היו נכונים לשלשת ימים, al tikshu al ishah. So there was actually yemei prisha and yemei hagbalah. There was two different things. Two things. There was hagbalah, put a boundary around the mountain, and then there was also yemei prisha, that they were supposed to stay away. Now, the yemei prisha is nogea b'zman hazeh. The yemei prisha is applicable b'zman hazeh. Okay. Some say that it's not a minhag takah; we don't have to be choshesh for it. Here, brings over here, וכך כותב בספר ... ומנהגי חסידות הוא, לא מדינא, וכך כתב הכף החיים, that it's not halacha, it's only a chassidus. And according to the Arizal, אין איסור רק בליל שבועות, so you don't have to be makpid. According to the Arizal, there's no hakpadah of yemei prisha. But whatever it is. There's definitely more applicable, zman hazeh, yemei prisha than yemei hagbalah. So it should have been shloishes yemei prisha, not shloishes yemei hagbalah. Eh? Like I say, the question should have been called shloishes yemei hachana, preparation. And even if you're going to want to give it a specific name, so pick prisha. Why hagbalah? And takke, it's nogea lhalacha l'maaseh, the inyan of prisha. Should you be poresh your wife? And even if you're going to say not mamash mechuyav, but the concepts of prisha, we can hear how prisha is applicable and shayach bizman hazeh. Shloishes yemei hagbalah l'chura has no shaychus to today's time. No shaychus. Three days of hagbalah. What hagbalah? What? There's a mountain? What hagbalah are you referring to? You didn't understand my question. He didn't understand it? Excuse me? Hagbalah means gvul, boundary. Grenitz. Grenitz. How do you say it?

In Yiddish they call it a grenitz. מסתמא in Russian it's granitsia, okay? Everything in Yiddish with an aleph is granitsia, you know. It's this, the Yiddish word plus the aleph, then it becomes Russian. How did they put retzicha in Russian? Retzicha with an extra aleph? Retzichaa? Okay. Maybe the word retzicha comes from Russian. All right, anyways, al kol panim, the shloishes yemei hagbalah needs to be understood. What is it? What is it? Where is it? Why is it? What is it all about? Rabosai, let's discuss the hagbalah of Har Sinai. And if we understand the hagbalah of Har Sinai, we'll see maybe how it's applicable bizman hazeh. And what is the concept? What is the limud of shloishes yemei hagbalah that we have today? So let's start with the pasuk. Vayunacheinu l'shloishes yamim, says the pasuk. You should go and be prepared for three days. What? What should you be prepared? V'higbalta es ha'am saviv. You should be magbil the am, the nation, around the mountain. There's a problem. V'higbalta es ha'am? It should be v'higbalta es hahar. You put the stop sign on the person, or you put the stop sign on the mountain? Where do you put a stop sign? In a place. A gvul is for the person, but it's on the what? The har, the mountain. Oh, you know, I'm going to need a Mikraos Gedolos, excuse me. I didn't bring it right here with me, but it's very important that I have one. Ech omrim, vigbalta et hahar. Omrim, vigbalta et hahar. Oh, nice, good. You say good. So first of all, let me tell you a few things. There's an interesting Chizkuni that when he brings this pasuk, he takke is gores, vigbalta es hahar. I don't know, he brings this pasuk, and instead of the word ha'am, he uses the word hahar. Half-l of fellow, okay? Half-l of a fellow, half-l of a fellow. Here. Oh, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo. Here, it says like this. Here, vigbalta es hahar, and the magiah of the new Chumash Me'or, you know what they did? They put that word in brackets, or actually it's called semicolons. I think they're called semicolons, the two round ones, parentheses, and then he put in the word hahar, and he put it in brackets. I have the Chizkuni that Moshe Rabbeinu put out. Right away, on the bottom, they say, Oh, it's got to be a mistake, that the Chizkuni couldn't have wrote hahar, because it says in the pasuk ha'am. So maybe what the Chizkuni did was just explain to me what it means. When it says ha'am, it means by the har. Rashi, v'higbalta, k'valem techumim l'simen shelo yikrvu min hagvul vahala, leimor, hagvul omer lahem, yishameru ma'alos kan. So Rashi doesn't go into the technicality: is it the har or is it the people? Not clear. After you know the information, see, maybe Rashi is going with one mahalach over the other. But the pasuk, the pasuk is mashma v'higbalta es ha'am, and the translation actually is es hahar. So the Chizkuni writes v'higbalta es hahar, as a dibrei ha'maschil, and the next, whoever printed over the Chizkuni, the next word fixed it to what? Ha'am. You see? The Even Ezra says something very sharp. He says it means the har. You must understand, even though it says the—

The word ha'am, it means the heart. And he says if you look further on in pasuk chav-gimmel, there it actually says the word ha'har. Look at pasuk chav-gimmel. So therefore, when it says ha'am, it has to mean ha'har. So speaketh the Eben Ezra. Says the Eben Ezra, you know why I was mearich in this? You know why I spent time explaining it more than I usually? I usually write two words and you're supposed to figure out what I mean, and here I was mearich. Quote, says the Eben Ezra: He'erachti kol kach, bavur she'am hameshuga, because there's a crazy man, that he wrote something different, she'hofach b'sifro divrei Elokim chayim, that what he did was he turned upside down the words of Hashem. Amar, because this crazy person wants to say—he's laughing, that's what Eben Ezra says—ki ratzah Moshe lomar hagbalas ha'am. Moshe actually wanted to say hagbalas ha'am. V'yatza mi'pi v'har b'makom am. And the second pasuk, he was a stutterer, Moshe Rabbeinu, so he stuttered and he made a mistake. Eben Ezra. He says there's a guy, a meshugeneh, that writes like this. What are you laughing? I could find these meshugaim as Rabbanim today in certain places. There are meshugaim like this that write stuff like this. That's what I'm realizing. Go ahead, פה. You know what the problem is, rabosai? The word ha'or. Are you being magbil et hahar, or are you being magbil et ha'am, the nation? Says the Siforno, it means sim gvul bahar. And I show you the Chizkuni. He writes both words there, or the new translation, meaning the new printing of the Chizkuni. I don't know where it—somewhere along the line, the word hahar comes into this pasuk in the text of the Chizkuni, and it needed to be fixed. It can't mean hahar. It has to mean ha'am, because the pasuk says ha'am. It says to Avenezer, ha'am, but it means hahar. It means hahar. The proof is because later on it says hahar. And you have to say that the meshugena, the meshugena who wrote that Moshe Rabbeinu stuttered and by mistake said hahar, he's a crazy person, and therefore ani ma'arich b'zeh. What's the kasha pshat? Why is it that one time it says hahar and one time it says ha'am? Taka a gute kasha. Taka a gute kasha, yeah. Taka a gute kasha. Man nafshach, if you mean hahar, so say both times hahar. If you mean ha'am, so say both times ha'am. And if you meant the mountain, why say ha'am? Says the Netziv a very big chidush. Yesh shtei hagbalot. Yesh hagbalah מצד ההר, v'yesh hagbalah מצד העם. The Netziv. Ve'einam oto hagbalah. It's not the same thing. I read to you: לא יאמר והגבלת את ההר. Ithak it doesn't say et hahar, ki lashon hamikra chav-gimmel. So don't say like the mishugener that it was a stutter and it was a mistake, you hear? But rather it was on purpose. What is it? Elah hu davka lifnei Atzmai, because it's a separate hakbalah, you hear? Shehu gvulois la'am. It's a gvulois to the nation, taka. It's boundaries of the people. Bema'amadam svivos hahar, as they stood around the mountain. Harin, first harin, right? Makehanim, and each one was l'fi orchah. Each one was according to their status. U'gedolei Yisrael achareihem, the gedolei Yisrael after them. U'beinonim achareihem, and the beinonim, the middle ones, after. V'nashim mitaf achareihem, you hear? There was a system. He wants that—we're talking about, I'll tell you what we're talking about. Because I love you so all, and my chiyuv is to teach you Torah. That's what my chiyuv is. You have to let me be happy. I have to live. I'm not doing it for you. I'm doing it for me. Probably doing it for you also a little bit, but all right. I'm discussing Shloishes Yemei Hagbalah. In the sefarim it's full, the greatness of Shloishes Yemei Hagbalah. In Shulchan Aruch it's not brought. What is it, Shloishes Yemei Hagbalah? Hagbalah was nothing. It was just around the mountain that they put a stop sign, that you shouldn't walk somewhere. How can it be called Shloishes Yemei Hagbalah? What is it?

So that's a negeb b'zman hazeh. Also, if you want to call the preparations to teshuvah a name, right, maybe it's Yemei Hachanah. Call Yemei Prishah; there was prishah also. And many dinim might come from that. The Kaf HaChaim discusses should a person be poresh from his wife three days before because of Yemei Prishah. So call it Yemei Prishah or Yemei Hachanah. What is shloshah yemei hagbalah? I explained to you, you have to know hagbalah; you have to know what it is first. And then we can see how it's shayach b'zman hazeh, and why do we call these days shloshah yemei hagbalah. So I explained to you first of all, what is hagbalah? Hagbalah is a am. Is it a am? Is it a har? Which one is it? So I tell you it's not so pashut. Even Ezra writes, there's a meshugeneh that writes out there that actually it's a am, and Moshe Rabbeinu made a mistake because he slipped and he was stuttering. You missed it. It wasn't Even Ezra like this. Rav Urshara: I saw a crazy man writing crazy things. Therefore I had to show you how crazy it is, and I wrote that it means what? Hahar and not ha'am. But why does it say taka am and har? Comes along the Netziv and he says it's dafka. You know what's dafka? Because one is a hagbalah for the har, and the other one is a hagbalah of the am. Oh, you don't say. So now we're starting to see already that maybe it's not necessarily about the what, shloshes yemei hagbalah of the har. Maybe it's the shloshes yemei hagbalah of the am, which we celebrate, quote unquote, b'zman hazeh, shloshes yemei hagbalah. Which hagbalah is commemorated is— Is, what we've been ... is teaching us in the shloishes yemei hagbalah, is it the hagbalahs hahar or is it the hagbalahs ha'am? If we understand properly the hagbalahs ha'am and as well the hagbalahs hahar, then we can go further to understand how the hagbalas ha'am may be, is yes applicable, and is yes noheigah, and yesodi for Kabbalas HaTorah b'zman hazeh. The Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh has a me'oredike kasha. When was the hagbalah negea for? For the day of Ma'amad Har Sinai and Kabbalas HaTorah, right? Because till then it's not really ... what's it nogea? It's not nogea anything. How many days before was it given and commanded? It was given and commanded three days before. ... three days before. The Ohr HaChaim questions, is it true? And he brings a raya, yes, from a Mechilta that it's so. asks the Ohr HaChaim, I don't understand, what's the point of doing it? It's just a stop sign so you put it up when it's nogea. Make boundaries the day that it's applicable. Why do we make it three days before? Quote, I read to you the Ohr HaChaim because it's very interesting, Ohr HaChaim: נראה שאין מצוות הגבלה זו אלא ליום השלישי. The actual mitzvah was only l'yom ha'shlishi. It wasn't nogea three days before. ואף על פי כן הקדימה מעטה. But still, they were noheg in the hagbalah three days before. The mitzvah was only when it's nogea, when it's not nogea three days before; it was nogea the day that Hashem was going to come on Har Sinai. U'vechol zot, they would do it three days before, k'dei sheyihyeh gubo kavod me'achshav, in order that they should get a kavod, build up a respect already three days in advance, gam yargilu atzmam, and as well that they should train themselves, l'histrachek mimenu bishlosha yamim. Training! When you go do something, you need three days' training in advance. So this was a training, three days. Don't go near the mountain. Let's drill, a drill, a fire drill, okay? Hagbalah drill, quickly. Let's see, to listen to the hagbalah. And they did this for three days. The ein lomar sheyihyeh chiyuv hanegiah bahar miyom Tzavasai, and it doesn't make sense to say that they were already technically not allowed to touch it from that day, from three days before. It doesn't make sense. Why? Zeh, zeh einoi. It's not true. Ki hu davar rachok. It doesn't make sense sheyiskadesh hahar, that the mountain should become holy three days earlier. V'yischayev alav kodem redes Shechinaso yisbarach, before Hashem even comes down the mount, three days before, already you weren't allowed to touch Har Sinai?

Makes sense. V'chein mashvim masnisa b'sifri, that's what it's mashma in the Mechilta, ki lo hischil lachiyev ela miyom ha'shlishi, kaftarev berech. Or Chaim, thank you. A female that she'lamadet ha'sugya po. The hagbalah was, v'hayu nechonim l'yom ha'shlishi. The hagbalah itself was in order they should prepare themselves for yom ha'shlishi, to be magbil themselves. Can I ask you a question? What do you need training for? You need training what? That if you see a boundary and you know that you're chayav misa if you pass that boundary, what's the training exactly? So the truth is, he says an interesting word. One of it is kavod. Well, that I could hear. You want to build up a kavod, so three days in advance, ooh, don't go near Har Sinai, don't go, ooh, and then it penetrates, because, you know, everything by a person takes three days to penetrate. You tell him once, two, by the third day it starts to, you know, start to sink in a little bit. But k'dei lisragel. What's lisragel? It is what it is. You're not allowed to go here, and you put up a sign that from here and on you're not allowed to go. Why would anybody want to go there? What do you need a training for? Bishloi mekavod. Yeah, kavod, you need to build it up. Gradually you build up kavod. But lisragel, to train yourself not to do—I mean, why would you want to do it that you need a training? The answer is, all the sefarim hakedoshim write this. Oh, the Shem Mishmuel is pages and pages about this. Klal Yisrael is mishtokek, mishtokek, for Hashem. Hashem comes down on Har Sinai. Who's to say one could control himself? I want, I want. Nafshi chashka, tzamah lecha nafshi, kamah lecha b'sari. I won't be able to control myself. Therefore, they needed three days of training to control themselves. Be prepared that the moment—how many times when you see something, you get so moved you lose yourself. Training, train yourself. Don't lose yourself. I'm coming down on Har Sinai. Let's see how you're going to react. Don't break through, because of a moment, you'll have a moment of itur. I want to be close to Hashem. What happens? You're going to be chayav misa. But how do I make sure that you don't fall in that? And the answer is—come, come, sit down here. The answer is training. If you train yourself, if you train yourself—no, but it was a training. They had to have drills to get it into their system. Hashem is here. I'm not going. I'm standing still. I'm not going to jump. You know, there's a very nice maaseh. How would you react if you were told that Mashiach is here? I once thought about it. Daniel, Mashiach is here. On CNN first? I don't know, but how would the guy react? It's interesting. Each person, think about it. How would you react? Think about it. Would I react? Yeah, yeah, I'm running in the streets. Or, it's true, skeptical. Or he would start thinking to himself, Oh no, I have a big business deal ahead of me tomorrow. What? No, think about it. How would you react? There's no more problems. Shh. Why am I telling you this? Why am I telling you? I'll tell you why I'm telling you. I learned in the yeshiva of Lakewood. In the yeshiva of Lakewood, the mashgiach for many years, who niftar recently, passed away recently, was Rav Nosson Wachtfogel. I loved him. He was a tzaddik nistar. He was really a hidden tzaddik. He was very hidden. But one thing, it was out in the open with him: his waiting for Mashiach. He had a special suit, and he had a special briefcase with his Shabbos clothing and his sefarim that he needed when Mashiach comes. He's ready. So the story goes, I wasn't in Lakewood when it happened. I don't know if it's true, that a prankster played a trick on him, that in the middle of the night he went over to his window and he blew shofar. The mashgiach got up with a second — Mashiach is here! — and he took his coat, his special clothes.

Holding in his briefcase, and he ran in the streets. Moshiach is here. It was a prank, and the way I heard the story was they threw the guy out of yeshiva. Hanhalah took him and got rid of him. What am I trying to bring out with this anecdote? What is your reaction? Hashem is here. Moshiach is here. Jews, Yidden, would drop everything and jump. Maybe it took a training to undo that. Hagbalah. Shloishes yomim of hagbalah. Train yourself. Stand. Don't jump. Hashem is here. Good, very good. You're not allowed to jump ahead to grab. You'll get the ruchniyus that you're supposed to be getting when Hashem gives it to you, the way Hashem gives it to you. You want Hashem? Avadeh. Nafshi kamah lecha. That's all I look for. Hagbalah. Train yourself. Keep it, as they say, under wraps. Relax. There's a time and a place, and there's a way of doing things. Let's go a little further. There's a very nice question. I saw that the Shem Mishmuel says he asked his father, Avnei Nezer. Very nice question. Shem Mishmuel's father was the Avnei Nezer, the heilige goyen, the goyen, the Avnei Nezer. You know what kind of goyen he was? Forget about Tzachachov, Avnei Nezer. Forget Tzachachov; it's a town in Europe. Avnei Nezer. You know what the Shailos teshuvos of Avnei Nezer is? He asked him the following question. Why did we need hagbalah, that we shouldn't come to grab and touch and jump where we're not supposed to go? Chazal tell us clearly that when Hashem said the Aseres HaDibros, Klal Yisrael, from fear, was taken back twelve mil. You know that? Twelve mil. So what's it make? Anyway, they couldn't come there. Hashem didn't know they couldn't come there? It's a great question. It's a she'eilah, yafah meod. It's such a good question. Hashem knows the fact. The fact is they couldn't even go near it. Slowly. If Hashem knew that it's not nogea, what's the whole hagbalah? What are you doing? Don't go there, because you might—something might happen to you. Nothing will happen, because it never happens. Why stam writes things which are not nogea lemaaseh? Very, very. Now his teretz—laani daati, I don't like it. I have to be modeh al haemes; I just don't like it. The question is so good that I got deflated by the answer. But I'll say it anyway, because dafnei neis. Shh. Dafnei Neizer says a teretz as follows. You hear what Dafnei Neizer says? Klal Yisrael was offered the Torah, but they weren't the first ones to be offered. You know who else was offered? The whole world, all the umos. So what did Hashem do? Hashem took a mitzvah which is against their nature, and He offered them. You know, there's a Torah. What does it say there? It says, for example, by the Arabs, He told them, it says, lo tirtzach. What? That's our bread and butter, at least. What are you talking about, huh? We love to murder and maim and kill. We bomb and then suicidals. We love this stuff. This is not for us, and so on and so forth. Each uma, he came, he went to Esav. No arayos, no arayos. What are we gonna do with all the movies and all the industry? There's no arayos. The whole thing is arayos. This was not for us. Finished. Says the Avnei Nezer that the goyim are gonna come with a taina: What did you offer Klal Yisrael which was against their nature that they accepted? It's not fair. How come you didn't come and tell them maybe you shouldn't play with mud? Just kidding. Which thing which was against the nature that you made them test them? Says the Avnei Nezer, this thing, hakbalah. A Yid in nature likes to jump. I'm a paziza. I'm a paziza. We jump. We hear, naaseh v'nishma. We jump. Yeah. Speak to an Eretz Yisraeli guy, he's in two seconds, he's everywhere. Here, there. Speak to a Bucharian, yeah, I'm buying it tomorrow. Paziza. When it comes to ruchniyus, you notice how many people donate money to the shul. The question is, they bring it. That's a different story. I heard that from...

From donating to bringing is two different things. But they donate. Why? Because I'm a pziza, which means I want, I need to ... mitzvah, so I jump into it. יש לי הכסף, אין לי הכסף, I'll borrow it from my neighbor, I'll steal it from my neighbor, I'll get you the money. I want the mitzvah, yeah? I'm a pziza, right? So the Rabbeinu said, Hagbalah. Wait a minute. Part of the Torah is to make hagbalah. Part of the Torah is hagbalah. Stop. Don't jump. And with this, Rabbeinu tested them to see, are you maskim? Ah, you went against your nature and you wanted anyway. So goyim, don't come and tell me that I didn't give them something which was against their nature and they accepted it anyway. No, no. I have to be modeh al ha'emes. I'm not so taken by the teretz. But like I said, if the Avnei Nezer said it, by me it's Torah. You know what I would say? I would say as follows. I don't believe that the mitzvahs hagbalah was for that generation. I think Kabbalas HaTorah is eternal, and the mitzvahs hagbalah was given for all the generations. You're right. In that generation, nobody was going to go on Har Sinai because they couldn't even survive the first dibra. Anochi Hashem, they all died, so they're not going on Har Sinai. It's more about, in general, what is ma'aseh Har Sinai, and the answer is hagbalah. I want to just add, Maimer Har Sinai is eternal. You know how I know this? Because the Arizal says it, and all the mefarshim say it. Moshe yedaber — lo katuv Moshe diber, katuv Moshe yedaber. Future. Moshe yedaber, vElokim ya'anenu b'kol. Kabbalas haTorah is eternal. Let's go further. If you notice, if you notice, im tikablu es haTorah — Hashem picked up the mountain and He said to them, If you accept the Torah, mutav, v'im lav — and if not, what's the lashon? Sham tehei kevuraschem. It should have said פה. And the answer, of course, is — my grandfather brings it in a sefer, but מסתמא others say it already also — either they say it after they saw it by him, or they said it before, I don't really care, but it's a nice vort either way. And the answer is, it's not פה, it's שם. It's any — whenever. It's not just for this generation. Whenever, lo tikablu es haTorah, שם. Wherever it is, שם תהא קבורתכם. These are just two of the many proofs that Kabbalas haTorah is eternal. I've spoken to you in the past, and I brought you many raayos to this. In the eternal Kabbalas haTorah, you're not going to come and say, We're so scared that we can't go near it. Hagbalah. This was supposed to set up what is Har Sinai supposed to look like and sound like when you mekabel the Torah, and the answer is hagbalah. Now we're starting to see that the hagbalah wasn't just a technical, What, rabosai, you're afraid to go on the mountain because maybe you'll die. That wouldn't take three days. You don't need three days of that. You don't need drills. You don't need preparation for that. You know what it's about, rabosai? Hagbalah in general, the concept of hagbalah is needed for Kabbalas HaTorah. And that's not only for then; it was for doros doros, which already answers our other question: why is you may hagbalah today, if it's not נוגע today? It's something to do with the mountain. We're not sitting on a mountain today that we're going to get killed if we go on the mountain. And the answer is, if you understand properly, shloshes yemei hagbalah, you'll understand that it was eternal. It was about future generations as well as that generation, not only just for the mountain and in case something might happen to you. And therefore, properly and precisely and specifically, we call it shloshes yemei hagbalah. You'll understand that it was eternal. I've left you with a seed. Now I have to explain to you, to bring it into a tree. I got to build it up for you now to understand how and why is hagbalah necessary in Kabbalas HaTorah, and how is it applicable b'zman hazeh. What is shloshes yemei hagbalah? This I prove to you: shloshes yemei hagbalah is not just the mountain, in order you shouldn't go where you're not supposed to go. It's about the people also.

Hagbel es ha'am. It's about the people. And the reason for the hagbalah es ha'am might be not only for them, but in general for Kabbalas HaTorah. And ad kedei kach that whatever hagbalah stands for, it would need three days of preparation, because it's not an easy thing, hagbalah. Like the Shem Mishmuel learns, because one wants to jump. He's looking to jump to get Hashem and ruchniyus, and we teach him what? Hagbalah. My grandfather used to say over, ... What do we teach the chacham? Ein maftirin achar haPesach afikoman. So everybody, yeah, that's all you teach him? So the famous teretz is, ad ein. You got to teach him all the hilchos Pesach till ein maftirin achar ha- ... no, till the final halacha of the afikoman. It doesn't say, it says, it doesn't say ad, it says ein maftirin achar... So my grandfather used to say, al pi mussar, ... You know, the seder is beautiful. You eat and you drink and you're eating matzos, and it's all wonderful. Which part of the night takes prishus? And the answer is, you're just finishing the afikoman, yeah? Then you go to sleep, you wake up, which I don't want to discuss if you go to sleep, you still have the din of ein maftirin achar haPesach, but whatever it is, the halacha of not something. Control yourself. Ein maftirin achar... That's what we teach the chacham. We teach the chacham, listen to me, it's all very good, to eat matzos and to drink wine and to eat kneidlach and to eat charoses, it's all eating. How about not eating? How about controlling oneself? How about restricting oneself? Ein maftirin achar haPesach. That's what we teach the chach. My grandfather, zecher tzaddik livracha, once said a nice vort, nice vort. And the sefarim lach, the Likutim, they quote him on this vort. You know, there are two animals which get reward in the Torah. Actually, one is in the Torah once, not, but there are two animals that get reward: the kelev. The kelev is clearly in the Torah. What? Lakelev tashlichun oso, we give him neveilah. Why do we give the kelev neveilah? Because he didn't bark in Mitzrayim, yeah? What about the bird? You know, the bird also gets a shtickel reward. You ever hear something called the meaning of Shabbos shirah that we feed the birds? Does anybody know what the meaning of Shabbos shirah that we feed the birds? And the answer is because they went and they ate up the mon. Dasan v'Aviram came and they tried to disprove Moshe Rabbeinu, and they put the mon over there. So therefore the birds came and ate it up, and by the morning there was no mon. They looked like idiots, right? They were claiming there's going to be mon in the street on Shabbos, and there was no mon on Shabbos. Let me ask you a question. Why does the dog get his reward in the Torah, you hear, and why do we give it? We give him steak. Steak. Mash'ein kein, the bird, it's a minhag, it's a custom. If they did such a great thing, their reward should be in the Torah, and it shouldn't just be a few pieces of old bread. Let's find a good, you know, we should go into the store and look for bird food which has meat in it or something, I don't know, whatever. I'm not into the pet scene, but anybody who's into the pet scene probably knows that there's certain foods that a bird can be called a Shabbos meal, okay? So we should think of a Shabbos meal for Shabbos shir. A kugel, achsidishe bird needs a missing kugel. Why do you give him a piece of bread? What, are you crazy? And the answer is, says my zeide, is a cheiner, beautiful. What did the dog do? The dog controlled himself by not barking. It's an amazing thing. He went against his nature. A dog needs to bark. For him to control himself and not bark, he deserves a steak in the Torah. The bird did what he ate. Big deal. It's not an easy thing. There's certain mitzvahs which are so easy: eating Shabbos food. How about not eating? That's a hard thing. That's not easy. Ein maftirin achar Pesach afikoman. We teach the chacham, Ein maftirin. It's a famous litvish shalor. You like it, good; you don't like it, it's also, it makes no difference. The mussar sheboi is evus, that we teach a chacham self-control. Self-control is a true sign of strength, greatness, wisdom. The greatest chacham is one who knows how to contain himself, control himself. Now we're starting to have a...

Hagbalah, right? Mugbal. I remember Yonatan, at the beginning of the shiur, said a good word: Ani margish mugbal. You don't even know how beautiful. Niba v'lo yada mah sheniba. That's the yesod of today's shiur. Hagbalah can be in a stop sign, but you want to know what a stop sign could be? That I could go right over it whenever I want. I gotta take it maybe. Then there's certain stop signs that I can't go through. You know why? Because the stop sign is here. It's about me, not about the sign. You can be magbil the har, and you can be magbil the people. Constraint, constraint. Shlosha sheyemei hagbalah. Let's talk about it, okay? Yeah, Rafi, you with me? So far we're sowing a beautiful painting, rabosai. Follow with me. The Chizkuni writes, Hagbel es hahar. Remember I told you he says, Hahar, ha'am. Says the Chizkuni, you know what this is supposed to teach us? The entire har, the entire mountain. Yeah? Why? Because shemei ani lemizrachai. I would think that only from the mizrach side of the mountain I should stay away. L'oso ruach sheShechinah baah kenegdo. The Shechinah is coming from one direction. I'm a stam a mizrach, right? We daven to mizrach, I don't know, we got this information from, but the ta'ina is—I'm not going to argue with the Chizkuni on the facts, right? Certain things that a smart person doesn't do. He doesn't argue with Rishonim about facts, right? You don't do that. That's a losing business, okay? So he writes over here, it's mimizrach. Maybe he's quoting the Chilta, I don't know. Whatever it is, says the Chizkuni, Hashem is coming, right? What does it say over there? Mimizrach. It says the lashon mimizrach. Maybe that's where it comes from. Al kol panim, har Sinai mizrach, okay? Hashem is coming from mizrach. So therefore it should only be aser. To go on the mizrach side of the... The answer is, says the Chizkuni, k'dichsiv. Oh, he says how he brings the pasuk. Mizrach meser lamah, afiyah marparan. Mizrach meser lamah, afiyah marparan. ... Okay. Kitzur. So, b'kitzur, Talmud lomar, saviv. That's why it says in the pasuk the entire perimeter of the mountain. So I ask you, so why takkeh is it so? If the Shechinah is coming from one angle, so then why takkeh is it misaviv? So the truth is, I could say, because just because Hashem is on one side of the mountain, then the whole mountain becomes kodesh somehow. Who said that if Hashem is in the mizrach, then the ma'arav, it's one mountain? No. You know, maybe a guy's gonna come and say only the mizrach side of the Beis Knesses is kodesh, because on the mizrach is the Shechinah and Hashem. I'll give you another example. A guy walks into a chayl. You know, you have to have a special derech eretz. You know why? Because Shechinah l'maalah me'ra'shoso, He's on top of the head of the chayl. So what? By the feet of the chayl, you don't have to behave because Hashem is only on the top of the head? The answer is, He's in the presence of the room. So maybe that's what the Chizkuni means, the saviv. I would think only mizrach, because that's where Hashem is, kamashma lan saviv. I dilma rabosai, which I'm going to prove to you, there was part of the hagbalah was takkeh because Hashem was there. Part of the hagbalah was because you weren't allowed to go where Hashem was. And the other part of the hagbalah was hagbalah l'shem hagbalah. Hagbalah for the sake of learning the yesod called, I told you no. I told you not here. You go where you're told to go, don't go anywhere else. I'm going to prove it to you soon, in a brilliant way. Saviv, everywhere. Don't go even near the mountain. Yeah? Can I prove it to you? Tell me, how far was the hagbalah from the mountain? Does anybody know? So there's a Rabbeinu Bechaye that says it was yud beis mil. Ten gvul la'am, keshir alpayim amah. Hein chaser, hein yoser. A little more, a little less, but two thousand amah. K'dei shelo ya'alu bahar, u'k'dei shelo yiga b'katzeihu.

Do you know any guy's hand that's about 2,000 amos? You know of such a thing? Unless he means to say is that even if he broke through and he started to run, maybe you'll be able to catch him before he reaches. I don't know. You know what it is? Nobody studies information like me. Meaning, I just try to process the information. You know, let's read it. You need al payim amah between you and the mountain in order what? That you should just put up a fence, and that's it. I don't know. Or just tell people, ten amos, twenty, I don't know, I mean, what's the— Yeah, but I'm asking you, what do you need techum Shabbos to protect what? Because in case you start running like this, we could shoot you down, which, by the way, is a whole shailah in halacha. What happens if a guy starts running? According to the Even Ezra, lo siga bo yad. Notice the pasuk says, lo siga bo yad. Why? So pashut means you're not allowed to touch the mountain. But it says already, nagea biktzeihu, that you're not allowed to touch the mountain. Hishameru lachem al alot bahar u'nega biktzeihu, so you weren't allowed to touch. So what's lo siga bo yad? The next pasuk: you're not allowed to touch the guy. Lo siga bo yad. I'll read it to you. It's a very famous Even Ezra. Yeah, while he's running, you're not allowed to touch him. Here, let me show you what the Even Ezra—let's show you what it says. Yeah, yeah, you have to read the information. All I do is I do the research and I process the information. Sometimes I have time to do it, sometimes like last Shabbos I didn't have time to do it, so you stand from three, four o'clock in the morning and you do it, and that's all. And then they worry about the next day, the next day. Ephraim, Ephraim, where you go? I'm afraid that you're... Okay, let's read the Ibn Ezra. Lo yasiga bayad. Here, lo yasiga bayad, yud-gimmel, Ibn Ezra. Mi las boi. You hear? Who's boi? Who's boi referring to? El ha'adam hanogea bahar. It's referring to the person, not the har. You hear? Vatam. What does it mean? Lo yikanes adam acharav l'tafso. You don't try to protect him. He's running, you let him run. Rak yisaklu haro'im mimakom amadim. Yeah, but you just kill him. Don't, don't, don't stop him. He wants to run? Just take him out with a sniper shooter. Don't come in and... what do you call that when they... no, when they take it over the... no... no, when they run in together, what's it called? What, taser when they run? Tackle. Don't... what did you say? Apprehend him. Shoot him and kill him, that's all. Lo yasiga bayad. Ibn Ezra said, like the Kohen Gadol on Kodesh Kodashim. Exactly. It's learned from here. It's learned from over here. Here. Well, now, bimrachok. And what happens if he's far away? We can't throw stones. How much? It's not a baseball play. You can't throw a hundred miles a ball, right? You can't throw a rock for a hundred miles. What do you do? SWAT team. Yorehu b'chitzim. You go and you have a sharp shooter. Why are you laughing? I'm just quoting an Ibn Ezra. Lo yasiga bayad. Lo ysiga boyad, lo ysiga boyad. Moiridik. But I'm going to prove to you from all this, maybe another pshat, because the Even Ezra is a chiddush nifla. Not everybody says like this Even Ezra, kedarkoi. And I'm going to try to prove to you a yesod, yeah? I'm going to try to prove to you a yesod, that there's two things in the hakbalah. There's the hakbalah that you shouldn't touch the mountain. That's clear. But that's about the mountain and you not touching the mountain. And then there was a hakbalah in the people: distance. Keep a distance. Learn to keep distance. And I'll show you where I saw this in the Rishonim, but before we get to those Rishonim, I want to just add a few more points. Like I said, the Rabbeinu Bachya is pretty clear. You don't need 2,000 amos to keep distance, that you shouldn't touch the mountain. You won't touch it anyway, unless you learn like the Even Ezra. Right? Because if you let the guy run, he might come. So therefore we give him two thousand. How much can he run? He'll run and run and he'll get tired. We shoot him and we kill him and finished. Kiddush nifla, huh? I don't know. I don't have a clear consensus on this, but I have interesting information. Let me show you another point. You ready? I'll show you another point. Let me show you another point.

Shomer alois bahar, u'nogea b'kotzeihu. Nogea b'kotzeihu. What does kotzeihu mean? Kotzeihu means the edges, the cuts, the edges. Says Rashi, what is the chiddush of b'kotzeihu? Afilu b'kotzeihu. Because don't say you can't touch the edges and the har itself you're allowed. And the answer is, even the edges you're not allowed to touch. Afilu. Says the Rav, I mean, what's the chiddush? What's the— afilu the kotzei, I mean, if you're not allowed to touch the mountain, you're not allowed to touch— it's like a little child: Don't touch it. Maybe if I just touch a little bit, if I touch the side of it. You ever notice when you tell a child not to do something, so what he does? He touches just like on the side. You ever notice? It's a great thing. You know where it comes from? It comes from, I have to do the opposite of what you told me, but I'm scared, so I touch a little. How about this? How about that? Is that what's going on in Rashi, afilu b'kotzeihu? How come all the fathers are laughing? That's what's so funny. And the answer is, because we used to do it also. Now our children are doing what we used to do. It's funny. It's very funny. It's sad and funny. Al kol panim, you hear? So I ask you a question: what's the chiddush, afilu b'kotzeihu, even, even, even? Of course even. You're not allowed to touch the mountain. You know who asked this kasha? Very few people know that the Rav on the Mishnah used to— Bartenura wrote a peirush on Chumash, which is classic. And he works on the Rashi's a lot. The Bartenura works a lot on the Rashi's, and he speaks about this Rashi, afilu. So I saw he asked the kasha: what's the chiddush? What do you want? Says Rabbeinu the Chayei Gevaldik. Says the Rav, the partnur Gevaldik. You think Hashem is coming to the bottom of the mountain? Hashem is only on the top of the mountain. He was yored al Har Sinai. It wasn't yored to the bottom of the mountain, right? It was yored to the bottom of the mountain. At the end, the bottom, that's where Hashem is? No, Hashem is on the top. So you would say, I can touch the corners. And the answer is, afilu b'katzei, you're not allowed to. So I clear the same shaila: is it because Hashem is on the top, therefore you can't touch the bottom? Or there's two halachos here. There's one halacha, shomru lalois bahar u'ligea b'katzeihu. Then there's a second halacha called lo siga bo yad. It's two separate halachos. One is for lo siga bo yad because it's kodesh, it's holy. And the other one is because hagbalah. I told you to stop. I gave you perimeters. I gave you boundaries. Hagbalah, that's the am. And hagbalah is from here. Efes b'katzeihu. Don't touch even the corner. Don't even touch the bottom of the mountain. Ah, Hashem is not there. Not your business. You do what you're told. What is lo siga bo yad? Bo yad. I'll tell you an interesting chiddush. You want an interesting chiddush? What does it mean, lo siga bo yad? How about if I'm not going to put my hand there, I'll put my elbow. How about— no, because you're not allowed to go up. But let's say I put another eiver, a different eiver. Feet, but not going up. How about if I wear gloves? You're laughing with these shailas, right? How about if I took a stick, like a little child, you know? You told me not to touch it. I'm not touching it. The stick is touching it. I didn't innovate these questions. The אחרונים המפרשים שואלים שאלות אלו. So first of all, I see Rav Shteiman, in his sefer, answers these questions. He says, wait a minute, you're not allowed to touch it. It says that evenezer, lo siga bo yad, begufo. Evenezer sticks in the word. What does yad mean? Bad, begufo. No, this is not the evenezer. Here's the evenezer. Here, lo siga bo yad, yeah? He, hanogea bahar, begufo. Hanogea bahar, begufo. What, what? Begufo? There's another way, not to be nogea bahar. What do you mean? So if you take a look at the Shaarei Aharon, he brings up from a certain acharon, I don't know which one, from the early acharonim, on Rashi's: מה שאין כן במקל, מותר, because mashma begufo is asur, but bemakel be mutar. Stick. You're allowed to put a stick there. You're not allowed to touch the sefer Torah, but maybe with something else you're allowed to touch it, right? You're not allowed to put your finger into the watch, into the koisel, right, according to certain shitos. So I'll do it with a stick.

I just threw it out because I don't know if it's true, yes true, not true, and it's a whole discussion, ... It's a whole shiur for itself. I don't even want to go there. I'm just telling you interesting shailos over here. It's interesting. Yeah, yeah, I'll touch, okay. What about if I have a stick? Says Reb ... What happens if I'm wearing gloves? Here. Here. He goes and he has a handkerchief, gloves, ... he has gloves, it's no problem. Then he writes. It's gloves. I'd rather ... I want to just add something here that he writes here too, which is interesting. He discusses why would someone want to do something which he's going to be chayav misa for. Like what would be the urge to do it? I told you from the Shem Mishmuel, right? Slavus. But that's Chassidic, right? Chassidic Torah is like that. Chassidic Torah is like that. But Litvisha has to say a little different, and Litvisha Torah is because it's asur, that's why you'd want to do it. Because I said no, you'd want to do it. There's really no reason why a person—again, Shem Mishmuel is the Chassidish mahalach—he's saying technically why would a guy want to do it? And the answer is, because I told you no, that's why you want to do it. Shem nu, Hashem nu, Hashem nu, you hear? One minute, one minute. He had another chiddush, makel. He had another chiddush. We had another chiddush, makel. There was one more chiddush that he had, one more chiddush. What'd I tell you? Makel, I told you gloves. And what else? Eivarim, derech eivarim. I saw it here somewhere also, the same shaila, that maybe if a person doesn't put... I don't see it right here, but I saw it here somewhere. Okay, al kol panim, the point—yeah, the point is all the same. When it says, lo siga bo yad, what about some other way? Let me ask you a question. Why would it be mutar, ידי מקל? If you're not supposed to go somewhere, so you're allowed to tell me I'm allowed to go there with a stick? You know what I think the pshat is? Because the lo siga bo yad is not about you going somewhere, but it's about you touching kodesh. So if it's done al yedei shinui, then it's mutar. Ma she'ein kein, alois bahor nogea b'katzeihu, that's taka you are not allowed to go there, and you're not allowed to even touch it because that's called a little bit going there. Stay completely away. There's one thing called stay completely away, and could be for that you wouldn't be able to touch it with a makel. But al lo siga bo yad, on that we could come and say, you're not allowed to touch it. But I'm allowed to touch it through what? Through a makel. I had a shtikel raya for this, and just bear with me one more minute because it's bnei Torah, I have to just bring in a little bit Torah also. I had a shtikel raya for this, and then we'll get back to the drush pshat. Be'emes, the mechilta... In this parsha, learns out, lo siga bo yad, not Har Sinai, not Shiloh, not Ohel Moed, not Beis HaMikdash, that lo siga bo yad is not only a din in the what, in Har Sinai. It's a din in all makom kadosh. And the Zohar explains on the bottom, the pshat is because whatever there's hashra'as haShechinah, אין עליו touch. That's hashra'as haShechinah. Lo siga bo yad is hashra'as haShechinah. HaLois bahar and Gevul katzeihu, like I show you, is not necessarily Shechinah in Sefer Torah. It's not what it's about. It's about something else. It's about hagbalah, just for the concept, lihyot mugbal, boundaries. We're going to discuss this. The yesod of the Torah is to give a person hagbalah, boundaries. A goy lives hefker. A goy lives, I go where I want, when I want. You don't tell me what to do. You ever see a goy screams all the time? Don't tell me what to do. Why not? Where does it say I can't tell you what to do? You're right. A stranger can't tell. A father can tell you what to do. The Torah can tell you what to do. Hashem, who created you, can tell you what to do. But out of my business, don't tell me what to do. Hagbalah. אני מרגיש מוגבל. You said very good, Yonatan. It's about boundaries.

The person has to learn these boundaries. Let me explain to you what I want. You notice it says in the pasuk, V'higbalta es ha'am leimor. What is leimor? V'higbalta es ha'am, put boundaries and they'll be mukbal. What is the word leimor? It's a very strange word, leimor. So pashut pshat is that the stop sign is telling you to stop. That's how you would say it, right? How would you say it? A stop sign אומר, stop. Let's see the Rashi. Says Rashi, what's the leimor? You see that Rashi was bothered by this question. Hagvul omer lahem, hishamru mea'lot mikan vahala. What's bothering Rashi? No, the word leimor. Ma ze leimor? Leimor, you know, whenever we say, Vayedaber Hashem el Moshe leimor, and everybody explains, what is leimor? Leimor la'acherim. What is the leimor? It should be, hagbel es ha'am, put boundaries. Says Rashi, omer lahem means it's telling you to stop. Says Rav Shteiman, I don't think so. I think it's telling you more. Hayah nes shahar atzmo, would speak and tell them, Be careful. You know, you ever have these cars that talk to you when they back up? Careful, there's someone in the driveway, right? Be careful, you're making a bad turn, right? With a computer? Har Sinai was a computerized thing, and it told them, Stop! You're coming too close. Rav Shteiman learns like that. I was shocked. How does a Lutzker Rosh Yeshiva write stuff like this? It's very interesting. What are you laughing? It's interesting. Here. פירש רשי, הגבול אומר להם, הישמרו מלעלות כאן. הנה, אם כוונת רשי כפשוטו — you see how he learned the pshuto — שהגבול דיבר? Maybe the gvul spoke. It was a talking, you know, whether they have the thing that talks, has a word for it, that GPS. It was a thing called GPS, you hear? YPS — not Y, CNICE, SPS, CNIPS, right? הרי זה נס גדול, he says. It comes out a tremendous miracle. And it's even more than the osein that spoke. And everybody makes a big deal, he says, about the osein. Look at Rashi, the Har Sinai spoke, the gvulim, the stop signs that say, Stop now. I don't know, for some reason my mind, it reminds me of a Sesame Street, that the stop signs talk. There's such a thing. You guys are בקיאים in Sesame Street, no? You don't do that? You don't listen to that anymore? Oh, okay. I think there was one of the things was that the stop signs would tell you to stop, to go, to sit. That's how they teach how to... Okay. I see nobody's shaking their heads. Okay, I guess in Tashkent they didn't have Sesame Street. Okay, let's go weiter now. Okay. על כל פנים, rabosai, say, this is just to keep you entertained. What do I want? I want to say a me'oredike vort. We don't mean that the har spoke. אומר להם doesn't have to mean literally that it spoke. But the gvulim on the har was telling them something. That's what לֵאמֹר means. You know what the word וידבר ה' אל משה לאמר — what does leimor mean? Leimor l'doros, you know, that's what the word leimor means. It's not just, I spoke to you, but I spoke to you, leimor, so to say it in the future. Hagbalah l'ha'am leimor. Hagvulim omer lahem. The gevulim are telling them something. It doesn't mean leimor literally, it's telling you, it's telling you, stop. Of course it's telling you to stop. You don't need the leimor then. It's telling you, leimor. It doesn't mean that literally he said the words, Stop here, don't go here. It's exactly like, where are you going? Vayedaber Hashem el Moshe leimor. Leimor, to teach. Leimor, to tell you, not just do this. It's teaching you hagbalah. What's the pshat? Okay, so let's get to the pshat now. The inyan of hagbalah is leimor, teaching you something, teaching you gevulim. Now what do I mean? Let's discuss now a little bit, gevulim for what? If you mean the mountain, all right, so then it's the mountain that you shouldn't be chayav misah. But if you mean there's something deeper behind the gevulim, behind boundary, don't go where you're not supposed to go, don't learn to constrict yourself.

In reference to what? So I see the Malbim talks about it. Says the Malbim, from here is a lesson we're supposed to learn. Says the Malbim, b'zeh romaz, with the hagbalah, the Torah is teaching us, shelo yareis adam l'haafil lalos har haElyon binyanei Elokus. Don't search what's beyond your comprehension. You're going to start Hashem and Hashem and where and what. Stop it. Shomer lecha al tais bahar. Don't go up on the mountain. Hashem is on that mountain. You stay away from the mountain. Don't touch the mountain. You're not going to get anywhere. And he brings from the Gemara with Pardes, that you're not allowed to learn Pardes. Four went in and they didn't come out, the Gemara Chagigah. The Gemara says that one of them went up on the mountain. That's the lashon of the Gemara. That's what it means. Don't go up on the mountain. Stay away from the mountain. Says the Malbim, it's constraint in hashkafah, in emunah. Constrain yourself. Hagbalah. There's certain limits to where you can go and where you can't go. Peirush Me'or HaAfeilah, which is a Rishon, and it's brought down in the Otzar Rishonim Chumash, gives another angle for the hagbalah. Hisharu mivoi el hahar. Don't come to the mountain and don't touch it. Lefi shehadvarim hanechbadim ein lemaher harleihem. Remember the Or HaChaim's lashon, to give it a certain kavod, to give it a certain honor. Here too, he's going with that nekudah. It's unique. Don't make it into, I come, I run. Stay away. Certain chashivus to it. V'chein ma'aman hamalachim, so too by the kings. You can't just run up to a king and, Shalom aleichem, I'm here. Wait, keep your distance. Keep your distance. I'm a king; you're a peasant, right? Torah is teaching that for Torah, for Hashem, there has to be a distance. U'porshim heim k'dei sheyichbadim v'yikar b'eineihem, v'chein hamadoyim ein nimsarim l'hamon b'kalus. And so too, the knowledge of Torah is not just given to people easily, easily, but rather k'dei shelo yizalzlu b'eineihem v'yima'it arkam, it's given to them with a distance. Not everybody is zocheh l'kisra shel Torah. It's not with a distance. It's work, work necessary. We're going to talk about this a little. You're going to soon see the theme of shloshes yemei hagbalah and Kabbalas HaTorah. We're just going to talk about this a little bit more. I'd like to just add a third thing that I saw, and then we'll put it all together. The Chasam Sofer writes, l'shem the hafla'ah, something very, very interesting. V'yadua ki hahagbalah hayah gam ba'anashim atzmam. Hagbalah wasn't the mountain, but it was the people themselves. Kol echad l'fi madregaso. They grouped peoples according to their—now, I don't know if he means even within the Yisraelim they grouped people, but you saw that they had the beinonim and the nashim, the taf; we learned this. And that's pshat, v'hibdalta es ha'am. V'hinei kvar kosavti b'makom acher. Now, anybody who bought the Rabbi Blumenkrantz book— On Pesach, we'll see this Yaavetz. He quotes the Yaavetz there. He brings the whole thing, the way the Roman, the Roman soldier gives a detailed history of what he saw when he saw Klal Yisrael bring the Korban Pesach. He quotes it here. It's very interesting. Hinei kvar kasavti b'makom acher, ma shehutak b'seder mehaRa'avitz, eidus l'tzivroni. One of the soldiers, one of the guardsmen in Rome, said a testimony that k'shehaYisrael holchim likach Pesach l'karban, when they brought the Korban Pesach, hayu holchim b'rvuvya. They would go as a group, mixed all together. V'lo nahagu kavod b'melech. And they did not, everybody went equal. They weren't broken up into groups. Yeah? V'amru hatam, and they said the reason, why don't you have a special, the Kohen Gadol first and then the melech? No, everybody together. Why? Al tedel lifnei melech malchei hamelachim HaKadosh Baruch Hu b'asiyas mitzvosav. Because when it comes to doing mitzvos, we're all equal. There's no such a thing as a melech when it comes to being mekayem a mitzvah. We're all the same, we're all the same, you know? Okay. Lo nikar shua lifnei dal. Yeah, the rich and the poor, it makes no difference. V'hainu taama. And this is the pshat, ki Moshe Rabbeinu הציע דברי ה' לפני זקני עם גדולים, as it says in the pasuk, v'lo...

About teshuvas ha-skenim, they didn't wait. He didn't wait for the teshuvas ha-skenim at Sinai, ela vayanu kol ha'am yachdav. They all answered together, kol asher diber Hashem na'aseh. How can the zekeinim—everybody answered? Let the zekeinim answer. Kol asher diber Hashem na'aseh v'nishma. What do you mean, kol asher? Who said this? Vayanu kol ha'am. Since when does the am talk? It should be the leaders. And you know what the answer is? There's no such thing as leaders when it comes to mitzvahs. What leaders? We're all in this together. What leaders? Unbelievable chasam sofer. Very interesting stuff. Yeah? V'heishiv laKadosh Baruch Hu, zeh b'chelek na'aseh. Hashem said, wait a minute, that's only on the chelek of na'aseh. You're right. Na'aseh, together. But when it comes to nishma, which means when you're being taught, then there's such a thing as gevulim. There's the chachamim, and then there's the simple people, the nashim, and the taf. Hagbalas ha'am. What a Chasam Sofer. V'zois haTorah asher sam Moshe. Chasam Sofer was Moshe. It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable stuff, the Chasam Sofer, in his few words, the beauty, the truth in everything that he said. It's so apparent over here. Because if you notice, there's a whole conversation. Moshe tells Hashem, and Hashem tells—go back down, lech, reed, make sure they don't go in, and Moshe says, any way they can't because they put up a fence. What is the conversation? It's about this. Should they come with hagbalah to Matan Torah, boundaries? Should they come in groups, or they should what? Everybody birvuvya, we're all in this together, kol ha'am yachdav, na'aseh v'nishma. Okay. Let us now put everything together. You know, there's a moiredike Shem MiShmuel I once saw. Vechulam mekablim aleihen ol malchus Shamayim zeh mizeh. Noisnim b'ahavah reshus zeh lazeh. What is ol malchus Shamayim? What kind of ol malchus Shamayim? Malachim don't have anything. They're anyway... Sha'alti davar zeh, says the Shem MiShmuel. I asked this question of the Avnei Nezer, and this, his teretz—greatness of the Avnei Nezer comes through this teretz. You ready? How could malachim have ol malchus Shamayim? They have a choice. We could go to the movies or we learn Torah, so we have ol malchus Shamayim and we do what's difficult. They don't have a yetzer hara. What's the ol of malchus Shamayim? Says the Shem MiShmuel, it's the opposite. They want so much to do the ratzon Hashem, but they're guarded. Noisnim reshus zeh lazeh. Each one has its special time to say shirah. Each one has its place. Gavriel is Gavriel, Michael is Michael. Venoisnim reshus zeh lazeh, l'hakdish l'Yotzram b'nachas. What does nachas mean? He doesn't say it, but I think it means—what is nachas? Harmony. It's not birvuvya. The malachim say shirah in front of the King with perfect harmony, b'nachas. Oynin b'eimah, v'omrim b'yirah. It's moiredik. Vechulam mekablim aleihem ol... You don't, rabosai, I wish you could feel the beauty of this pshat. It's so beautiful, it's so amok. Malachim have an ohel. You know what the ohel is? The opposite. Stop. There's a geder, there's gvulim, there's turns, there's seder. Everything has a seder. You know, it's interesting, when they all answered naaseh v'nishma, what did Hashem say? Mi gilah she... she... malachei hashares mishtamshim. Very interesting. Very, very interesting. It's a lot about the malachim in Kabbalas HaTorah. You know, it's very interesting. Even the literal literature has to be modeled to the malachim in Kabbalas HaTorah, because the Gemara is a full... the malachim, malachim... You know what the pshat is? It's very, very deep. It's very deep, rabosai, but it's true. We envy the malachim. Chazal told... I taught this to you last week Sunday, that when Hashem came down at Har Sinai, Klal Yisrael saw the kitos of malachim. Remember the Medrash? They saw the groups, the degalim. His'avu l'dgalim. They had a taiva. What's the pshat?

They wanted to worship Hashem like the malachim. Wanted to worship Hashem like the malachim. Hisavu lidgol. They wanted, they wanted the same thing as the malachim. They envied. They were mekaneh the malachim that they could sit by a Shemayim, and that's the hislavus that the Shem Mishmuel is talking about. We want it by Har Sinai. We were like malachim. You know, the malachim came down and gave us so much about the malachim. One connected naaseh, one connected nishma. There's so much in Kabbalas HaTorah. Where are we going? There's so much about Kabbalas HaTorah, about the malachim, and the taiches. It's about malachim. And part of the lesson, the malachim is galus. And part of it is that it's an olam malchus Shamayim. V'noisnim b'havor rishus zeh lo zeh. There's a seder, l'hakdish ליוצרם b'nachas ruach. Nachas. Oil. Malachim. Beautiful. Hagbalah. This, rabosai, I want to answer a ... thing. I, maybe I missed it. I wanted to say it before. We'll just say it now. I saw the son of the Rambam, Rabbeinu Avraham, asks, why do I have to have it, sivuv v'higbalta es ha'am, and then afterwards, lo siga bo yad? How do you expect lo siga bo yad? How do you want it to happen? If there's any way hagbalah, if there's any way not near, like the Rabbeinu Bechaye says, two thousand amah, so I told you, he'll run. If I remember correctly, Rabbi Raman Ramb talks about the running. That's where I got the thing with the running. The way we're learning, the pshat is it's about future. It's not about then and there. It's about the lesson of hagbalah. I just noticed, I didn't tell it to you before, I'm telling you now. What is the lesson of hagbalah? What is it? Let me teach you something, rabboisai, and I think it's very, very crucial that you should learn this. Very important. I'm telling you, really, really important. The Mishnah tells us that one of the kinyanei haTorah is makir es mekomo. Makir es mekomo. There's another Mishnah. Mishnah says, Eizehu chacham? Who is a wise man? Hamakir es mekomo. So this I understand. A wise man knows his place. Good. But why is makir mekomo so important in kinyanei haTorah? Why is it so important in kinyanei haTorah? And I want to teach you this. Torah was given in a way that the level you're on is the level you're supposed to be on. It's very important to be makir mekomo. You have to know your capabilities. You have to know where you're holding. If you're going to try to jump and swallow madreges, things in learning which you're not up to, you're going to be over the inyan of hagbalah. There is hagbalah. You want to know where I think it comes from? I'll tell you where I think it comes from. From the Me'or HaFela, I just told you, from the Ohr HaChaim, that it's for the kavod of the thing. Something that you don't have to work on to get. You leave go. It's not respected by you. Something that you had to work hard, diligently, day by day to get, then there's a harachah for it. Chazal tell us that what is the reason that such a thing called shichchas haTorah? Why does a person have to forget learning? Why couldn't we just remember? It's a very famous medrash. The medrash says, because then otherwise a person would learn the whole Torah, and he would be poresh because he would learn it already. So pashut you learn that Hashem wants us to constantly learn, so therefore we may constantly forget, so we should constantly learn. I don't believe that's the pshat. You know what? That's cruel. You know who used to do that piece of a ...? The Mitzrim came up with that plan. You build, we'll destroy, and then you have to build it again. Now, when I say I don't believe, I'm not 100% sure. I didn't go through it with all the mekoros, but bashkafah rishonah I would say it means something else. You know what I would say it means? Then it becomes important to you. It becomes chashuv because it took you a long time and hard work to get to it. If you would get it easy, how does he say the lashon? ... hanichbadim ein lema'ayer aleihem. Don't get it quickly. V'lo lidroch aleihem. You can't run, just pick it up and get it.

Yeah, v'chein hamada'im, eino nimsar lamoin b'kalus, k'dei shelo yezalzelu b'eineihem v'yema'et arkam. You hear it? You hear it? Rafi, you maskim with me? That word is havanah, not ... so much. Huh? What I'm saying is, it shouldn't be meivin so quickly. Right, so I'm saying it the other way also. I'm saying in this Chazal. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying the pshat l'Chazal might be this as well, that since you forget about it, therefore it's a lot of work to attain it. It's not easy. It's not, I learned it, I know it. You know, I once noticed something very interesting. You don't forget math. You know that? In other words, no one ever forgets times tables when he gets into division. When he gets to division, he doesn't forget when he's by the next thing. No one ever forgets how to divide. You divide, right? Once you're koneh certain yedios, you don't forget. By Torah it's not that way. So pashut pshat is Hashem wants you to be involved in Torah. That's not what—I don't think that's what it means. I think it means this: it should be hard to get, shelo yema'ir aleihem b'kalus. You don't wake up one morning and take a pill. Everybody in America wants a special pill, you know, a miracle pill. Today they have it on computer, a disk. You know, it's psychological, you know that? This disk, to have all the sefarim and everything, and all this—deep down there's a psychological fake, right? Now they mean well. I'm not saying they don't mean well, the people who sell it, but the buyers have a psychological thing. You know what it is? Yeah, yesh li et ze b'yad. Kol haTorah kulah yesh li b'yad. I remember once there was an advertisement years ago. I have the whole world in my hand, and you have a picture of a guy holding a globe, right? Huh? It was a song. I know. I have the whole—I remember such a thing in the '40s when we were together, you know. Thirties, but we were... I have the whole world. I remember the advertisement was a picture of holding a globe. That you don't remember. Maybe it was a joke. They were making chizuk of the song, I don't know, but that was the vort. I remember then thinking, Yeah, the guy thinks it's the whole world in his hand, holding. Yeah, but it's a globe. It's not the real whole world, right? I have the whole Torah in my hand. Here it is. Yeah, but it's a disk of a computer, but you feel. Certain inyan called pil. You take a pill, and, I got it. Certain things have hagbalah, limitations, restraints, system. Nashim, chashuvim, ta'am. Hagbalah is makir es mekorah, which is a chelek of Kinyanei HaTorah, which is part of shloishes yemei hagbalah. You know where I got all this from, more or less? Because I studied the words of the Chiddah. I read every word that he said. I'm going to read you the Chiddah. In Nitei Gavriel, he quotes a very interesting Chiddah. He talks about yemei hagbalah. He doesn't really say too much, but he just brings this Chiddah, which I thought was very eye-opening. You ready? U'minahu v'hala, says the Chiddah in his sefer Lev David, u'minahu v'hala, from that day, which means shloshim yemei hagbalah, from the start of it, hayam malo l'kodesh heim. Shloshim yemei hagbalah is very holy days, very, very. We're holding now mamash extremely holy days, says the Chiddah. U'mesugalim litaher. It's a segulah to become pure in these days. V'af gam zois, yamim tovim liknos anavah, achdus in Yisrael. Very interesting. כאשר היו הימים הראשונים במעמד המופלא ונורא לפני הר סיני. Just like what happened on Har Sinai. These are the, the segulas hayamim of the shloshes yemei hagbalah. V'af gam lehavin ulhaskil b'Torah. These are days that you could have haskel, haskel of Torah. By the way, makoros mekoimos, which one of the kinyanei haTorah? Just, I'd like to... which one of the numbers? How many are there after that? Okay, next. This just came to my mind, something. וזאת מצאנו לאחד מקמאי, רבינו בעל המכתב. You hear? כי אין ספק שבימי הפרישה, days of prishah, נמצאו להם סודות ועניינים נפלאים, שהיו מועילים מאוד ליחידי...

Very interesting. Says the Chida, it's good for anavah. Anavah? You see something in Shloshim Yagbol anavah? Strait. Anav, restraint. Place. Know yourself. It's not a beautiful ha'arah. I just read. You know what it is? I try to understand. You know, it's very easy to say, yeah, like the rebbes. It says, shiflus, ... What are you talking? Obviously you meant. The Chida doesn't talk like that. He knows what he's saying, right? What'd he say? It's a segulah for anavah and achdus. Okay. Anavah and achdus. Tell me, makom is what? Tell me, what is it? Anav and achdus, that's what it is. Everybody knows his place. Everybody knows where he fits into a group. Makir es mekomo, hagbalah. Shloshes yemei hagbalah. Segulas hayamim. Hagbeil es ha'am. It's not for now. It's for future generations. And it takes three days of preparation. It's not an easy thing. A lot of preparation is needed for it. And this is mikinyanei haTorah. This is, you'll have what? Lahavin ul'haskil baTorah. I just learned up a Chida for you like I learned a perush. I do that. I learn everything. Every word from every tzaddik, every... I listen. I listen to the words. He's saying something. He's saying the shiur that I said here in short words, in short terms. Anavah, achdus, hachana, lahavin ul'haskil baTorah. And that's the segulas hayamim, yemei hagbalah. Hagbalah. Makom mekomecha, know your place. Don't jump. Ah, I want the Eibishter. Yeah, but you're a simple person. You'll get there maybe, slowly, baderech. There's levels. You want to finish Hilchos Niddah. That's all great, rabosai. Takes time, takes time. You'll get there. It takes time. Know your place, know your capabilities. Step by step. Patience, day by day, you'll get there. This is the pshat. This is the kaikup. Harav Kaikup. Hagid li b'milah echad, mah lamadeta hayom. No, bemet, אני רוצה לשמוע איך שזה נשמע שיעור. You see, because I don't want it to be that I gave a shiur for yeshiva bnei Torah, that they should be hadraga ruchniyus. I don't want that. I wanted something else. What did I want? You know what I wanted? What is the hachanah of hagbalah? It's about constraint. It's about lihyot mugbal. It's about prishus and protecting the dargas that you're in. A person can be on a certain level, and he just ruins it by jumping to levels he's not holding by, or by throwing out levels. That's what I mean. To the yeshiva person, it has one meaning, but it's the same yesod. We're not shomer on the dargas that we've achieved. That's what I'm talking about. Don't be mafsid where you reach. You reach a certain level on a ladder. And then you run up the rest of the ladder. You know what's going to happen? You're going to fall. And at the same time, if you start going backwards down the ladder, you also fell. And the gebel is to constrain yourself and protect the mamad, mamadam, mamad that you have in Torah. And this is one of the kinyanei haTorah. We do go up and down, but you don't have to fall all the way down when you go up and down. You go down one, you go up two. But don't slip all the way down. Be shomer. There is such a thing as nefilah alavatzorech aliyah. It's all to go back up again. But if you're noifel and you keep on falling, or you're running ahead, you can't run up a ladder. You got to walk up a ladder. That's the yesod. Got to walk up the ladder. Makir mekomo. Efes, alois bahar. Again, בקיצור, don't go way, way above. This, rabboisai, is the yesod l'aniyas daati of shloishes yemei hagbalah. Rabboisai, I wish you all a wonderful, chag kabbalas haTorah. Like I said to you, it's not only then, it's sham, wherever it is. It's Moshe yidaber.

The baal of Torah is eternal. It's taka bezoche to utilize the shleishes yemei hagbalah to mekabel the Torah properly. Amen.