Pirkei Avos 2: Lev Tov—The Good Heart That Encompasses Every Middah

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. אמר להם, משנה י״ג: צורו איזה דרך טובה שידבק בה האדם. ידבק — means he should be dovuk in it, not just practice it from time to time, but he should be dovuk, completely immersed, dovuk in this derech tovah. So one man d'amar, Reb Eliezer says, עין טובה, good eye. Reb Yehoshua says it's a chaver tov, a good friend. Reb Yosi says a shachen tov. Reb Shimon אומר הרואה את הנולד. It's a famous Mishnah, rabosai. I'd like to work on the last part of the Mishnah, which seems to be the conclusion of what is the derech tovah sheyidbak ba adam. Reb Eliezer omer, lev tov. Simply translated, a good heart. אמר להם, רואה אני את דברי רבי אליעזר בן ערך מדבריכם, שבכלל דבריו דבריכם. Everything is included in the lev tov, which comes out that the maskanah is the lev tov is the ikar. Mechayech, that's what this Mishnah is telling us, that there's many different derachim tovos, but this is haderech hatovah, the derech, the good one over all other ones. Why? Because it includes all the other derachim. Rabosai, what is a lev tov? What does it mean? Avada, simply translated, a good heart. There's a lot of things that could be included in a lev tov. What does it mean to be a lev tov? So we'll discuss in the beginning what the mefarshim tell us is a lev tov, and then at the end we'll discuss how does one achieve, how does one make himself have a lev tov? Does everyone have a lev tov? Is everyone born with a lev tov? What happens if a person needs to work on it? How does one work on it to become a lev tov, which is also already in the Mishnah, meduyak, as we will soon learn towards the end of the shiur. So let's begin with what a lev tov is. Let's identify what it is, and then we can identify how does one achieve it. The Rav in the Mishnayos says tov is all-inclusive. It's good about everything. It doesn't have to be in a particular thing. It's tov, all-encompassing, everything that's tov. Hakol. Tov includes everything. And why the lev? Because everything results from the lev. All the pe'ulos, na'ivos, they all come from the heart. So if the heart is well, if the heart is healthy, soon we're going to explain ruchni mimics the gashmi. We'll learn with this in a moment or so. But al kol panim, pashut is if the heart is good, so everything is good. Everything that the person will do will be tov, because the heart is drawn to doing only tov. There's a sefer written by R' Yitzi Taliday. He was a kadmon, and many of the mefarshim on Avos quote him k'seder. A very interesting look, very interesting chiddush, as he's explaining the yeshiva's hanteresantne chiddush on all the concepts that we have here in Avos. And he says something interesting. He says the lev, the physical, is just like the spiritual, which is actually a Rambam. The Rambam explains that all the physical eivarim have to do spiritually as well. When a person is gezunt in a physical way, there's gezunt in a spiritual way. And he explains that just like by the lev it pumps the blood to every other eiver, it's the central of everything physical in the body. At the das meidal Mishnah, lev tov shebichlal divreichem dvarav, that if the lev is tov spiritually, ruchniyusdik, it's pumping tov to every other eiver. So all the eivarim are teluyah balev. And the Ribono Shel Olam created, and this is brought down in many sefarim, that the guf, the physical, from that we understand the ruchni. So the way we understand, and the way most have an idea and a concept of what a lev is and what it does, is that...

Tov's the same in ruchniyus. Just like we all understand that the lev is the central part of the body, pumping the blood and the oxygen, un on dem ken es nisht; it can't function. You should know that the same thing is in ruchniyus. And the lev is the ikar, it's the central, and that pumps, so to speak, ruchniyusdike toiv messages to the rest of the body, and all the toiv that comes is a result of the lev. So this is, the Rav, the most pashut pshat, that it encompasses everything. It's not specific. Lev toiv means a healthy ruchniyusdike mensh in all areas, that he is toiv. The Rambam specifically narrows it down to de'osav yesharos unechonos, that the lev toiv has something to do with the way the person sees things, the way he looks at things, his hashkafah. It's de'osav yesharos unechonos, says the Rambam, and it all is rooted in the lev. The lev is the basis of where all the de'os yesharos unechonos come from. We've spoken many times in the past that there's two types of seichel. The goy has sometimes chochmah, chochmah bagoyim taamin. That seichel a goy might have, but there's a different wisdom, a seichel of the lev, a seichel of the heart. It's an entirely different way of seeing things, which is influenced by a lev toiv. The yidishe heart, the yidishe heart is a seicheldike zach eichech. People think you have to separate your mind from your emotion. And if you don't do that, so the lev is giving the gish to the way you see things and the way you do things. For some reason, it doesn't sit well by me. I've always understood that the lev, fakert, the hergeshim of the lev, whatever the lev feels is supposed to be mashpia. It's supposed to influence the way you think. And then together, chachma v'yad. It's a whole different way of thinking. And yes, Chachma bagoyim taamin, Torah bagoyim al taamin. Does that mean that we don't have chachma and that we have a different type of chachma? We have chachma that's influenced by something that's in the lev, that's in the heart. That chachma, nobody could really understand. A goy has no understanding bichlal in that chachma. He could read all the books he wants and do all the research that he wants. But the chachma, Torah bagoyim—not stam Torah, but the chachma, the wisdom that we have because of Torah, and Torah means midas havadah included—it's a different type of a chachma. So the lev, teiv, says the Rambam influences our de'osav, yesharos vnechonos. I explained pshat in the Rambam, and I've spoken to you in the past about this. Darseichel in heart. That's a different type of a seichel. It has to go together with the lev. The Sippurna narrows it down even more. It's not just de'oisoi veyashares and nechainais, but it's actually liboi mechuvan laShamayim. That the lev tov. What is his look? What is his zugang? How does he see things? And the answer is, liboi mechuvan, and Shamayim, obviously it's tov, because his head and his mind and his heart is in the right place, so to speak. It's tov. And there's two ways how we can understand this Sippurna. The first way we can explain the Sippurna, that the heart is himuldik. See, the sefarim speak a lot about this idea, this concept, that the Shamayim, it's boier ad lev haShamayim, a himuldike heart. See, the sefarim, Shem Mishmuel, that the heart looks to Shamayim. You know, the heart desires. The word heart always goes together with desire, a lev chemed. The Yiddishe heart is chemed something different than the rest of the heart. Most heart a chemed...

Then there's another type of a heart. It's a lev tov, a gezunte harts. Der Yidishe harts, der Yidishe harts, is choimed Shamayim. It's choimed himmeldige zachen. It's choimed. It wants Shamayim. It wants something completely different. This, l'choira, is one way we can understand what it means, liboi mechuvan laShamayim means a lev tov. There's another way we could explain it: mechuvan laShamayim, a bisl namusadik. You know, the person is always directed for himself, influenced. Everything that the heart thinks or wants, their zich becomes the central part of that. The Yid has a different mechuvan. The zich is not at the center of it. It's something bigger than him, something greater than him. And that is Shamayim. It's a very big avodah, rabosai, because a human being is created that the heart is about himself. Der zich is the central nerve within the heart. Liboi mechuvan laShamayim means that it's actually lev tov pure. It's a different type of a lev. There's a lev which might function properly, but is it pure intentioned? Liboi mechuvan laShamayim means it's pure intention. So we have two pshatim we could say in the sikum. Der ershte pshat is liboi mechuvan laShamayim. That the lev that's chomed wants shamayim. There's a himmeldige zach. Or actually, we could say, a bisl a mussedik, that libai mechaven laShamayim. It pumps something bigger than him. It's not about zich; it's about Shamayim. He sees something bigger than just himself. So this is the third pshat that we have in Lev Tov. We have the pshat Lev Tov in general, all-encompassing tov, the Rav. We have the Rambam, de'osev yeshares v'nechones. And then we have the Sippurno, which narrows it down to libai mechaven laShamayim, that it has pure intentions. It's pure. Rabbeinu Yonah learns that all the pshatim that he has seen—it's an interesting lashon of Rabbeinu Yonah—in the pshat in Lev Tov, zaka Rabbeinu Yonah, he doesn't feel that those are the pshatim. It doesn't do justice to the translation. Azoi zaka Rabbeinu Yonah, those lashon. He says this pshat. What is Lev Tov? A mensch that's mischarek min hakas. Interesting. Lev Tov means he don't get angry. He's a good person. He's a soft person. He doesn't get angry. Lev Tov is a specific midah. So it's not even encompassing shamayim, himmeldige zachin. It's a specific midah that a Lev Tov is. Now how does that midah become— Michlal divreichem dvarav, bishlayma all the other things, okay, I hear. It's encompassing either your hashkafos, toiv for everything, toiv lashamayim. So then, michlal divreichem dvarav. But how do you have it, kas? That it becomes michlal divreichem dvarav, that everything's included? A person who's not a kois. So the Medrash Shmuel, who also happens to say this pshat, says avada, because why is a person not kois? Because he has anavah, he's humble. Anavah is the yesod of all the good middos. Everything is based, eikev anavah yiras Hashem, because anavah brings to yirah, and yirah brings, of course, all the above things mentioned in the Mishnah. U'mimeila, their kas, zokt Medrash Shmuel, is actually the leiv toiv. Therefore, from this leiv toiv, michlal divreichem dvarav. Zeh zokt the Medrash Shmuel. The Ravan says a fifth pshat, chaveirei. It's an interesting pshat, because it needs to be well defined. And as we continue the shiur, it opens up so much into understanding avos, middos, hashkafah.

For sayid, what the Yid expects, what the Torah, excuse me, expects from the Yid, who he is and what he is. Says the Ravan, lev tov means kavanah tov, well-intentioned. Very much like the pshat, one of them that we said in the sipurna, but it seems to be very broad: well-intentioned, kavanah tova. Machzik Vitri Rishon says, with this derech, lev tov means kavanah tova, that the Ribono Shel Olam wants the lev, wants the heart. Der ikar is ha-lev. You give me your heart, says the Machzik Vitri, says the Ribono Shel Olam, I want your heart. That's what I want. Well-intentioned. What does it mean to be well-intentioned? It's interesting. I had a very close relationship with my rebbe, Rav Pam, zecher tzaddik livrachah, and every time I met him, I would remind him of a saying, and it became like an opening hello every time I met him. And I would repeat something he told me: A yid darf ton nisht ufton, which means that a Yid has to do, but it's not necessarily to accomplish. You got to do. It was based on an incident where the yeshiva went mamash all into trying to help another person. The person who was being helped was so— Secure that the Rosh Yeshiva will be matzliach, because he put so much effort into it. He kept on doing and calling and trying, and then... So he says, stam the Rosh Yeshiva sees that he could get me this inyan, and the favor could be taken care of. So I said, I guess. I mean, the Rosh Yeshiva wouldn't put so much time and effort into it. He didn't think it was futile. He didn't think it was going to produce anything. So I went over to Rosh Yeshiva and I tell him, Rosh Yeshiva, no, mistama, it seems like you hold you could get the inyan done. He says, I'll tell you the truth, not really. I don't believe I could get the inyan done. Rosh Yeshiva, you're working on it, כי כאילו as if... He says, let me tell you something. A yid darf ton, and that's what they're going to man him from Shamayim. Uf ton is the Eibishter. It's only the Ribono Shel Olam. You gotta, gotta put in the effort. Every time I met the Rosh Yeshiva, I said, A yid darf ton, nisht uf ton, and he would smile. It was a hashkafah I understood, that when a person's a leib tov, he tries, even where he feels he might not succeed, but the heart is good, and he puts the effort into it, kavonah toivah, the intentions, well intentioned. It doesn't have to do with the result, but the heart is good, and he tries again, and he tries, and he tries, not even being secure that the results will be with hatzlachah. Yet, on the other hand, there's a Rabbeinu Meirdik Rabbeinu Bechaya. Because you know what would come out from this, and many people who learn this Mishnah always say this: Ah, good heart. I'm a Jew at heart. You know, as long as the heart is good, the heart's good. Yeah, everybody's laughing. We've heard this in the past. It's interesting that Rabbeinu Bechaya says, What is a lev tov? A lev tov means that sheyeitiv im kulam, that he goes out of his way to do actions of tov. No, that's a chiddush. What Rabbeinu Bechaya seems to be saying is, it's not enough to say, I'm a lev tov. I have good intentions. We all know the famous expression, right? What's paved with good intentions, right? I don't have to say it b'rap. The point is, not everything is about intentions. Rabbeinu Bechaya is learning, which wasn't a big chiddush to me, but what was yes a chiddush to me: af sheyihyeh loi nezek mizeh, ata dosi da lev tov. It's a whole different ... Rabbeinu Bechaya, meirdik. Even if it causes you loss, oh, that's where the lev tov is. Vas a yid, a tana tovah ... Why would you not do him a favor?

A guy, if you ask him to stop, he won't stop for you. Okay, I got this interesting, just popped into my head, an interesting maiseh. Okay, I'll tell it to you. My son Yitzchak, the second was born erev Rosh Hashanah. At night, I was traveling back, rushing back to make it for Rosh Hashanah home, from Manhattan to Queens. I was in Queens for Yom Tov. There was a pothole on the Queensboro Bridge—not the bridge, the highway. Everybody who went through that pothole, flat tire. There was a line of cars. Now, cell phones—I didn't have a cell phone in those days. But all the chashuve people who had flat tires, they had cell phones. First days, they were all, you know, class with shaina cars, and they're all parked on the side of the Queens highway. I'm not remembering at the moment the name of the highway—the highway new from Queens to Brooklyn, no? The BQE, ah, good. And they're all on the side of the highway there. It would be seven cars. I'm standing without a phone, and they're all on the phone calling, you know. Who do you think was the first one to get out of there? It was me. Why? Two seconds later, a Yid was passing by, him and his friend, and he stopped off, and within two seconds they changed the tire. I was on the way, on a cell phone, on ... The guy with the cell phones, they called a hundred numbers. They were still standing. Everybody was still standing. That's not, that's not. That's a chiddush for a Yid, v'sa tut a toivah? A Yid, you know what I mean. I rather mentioned Rosh Hashanah, that Rosh Hashanah today, I said, Rebbeinu Shleilam, you gotta give him a good yahr, give him a good cookie on ourselves. I know, you know, a Yid doesn't need a cell phone to get help. All right. Doesn't it get chiddush? The chiddush is, it's right before Yom Tov and people are rushing, and who knows how much this guy that was in a rush had. Af in yeralei nezek, that's the chiddush, tana toivah, okay. But even if it comes lidei nezek, which is a chiddush, because there's a din of chayav l'kaidmin. Chayav, why am I chayav l'kaidmin? If there's nezek, to me I have to do you the toivah. Remember, Reb Elsky once told me, Rabbi Reb Elsky once mentioned that there's halacha of tzedakah, and there's a certain amount how much tzedakah you have to give. What happens if you already finished your quota? Tzal chayei patur, yeah. Remember, Reb Elsky told many times this thing. Well, he comes to you and he needs tzedakah. How bad do you give it to him? What, you're gonna make a cheshbon that you finished, and the Gemara states, hamevazeh yoser mi'chomesh. More than you call the shayta, the Gemara talks about how silly you are. So he says that's before the Yid comes to you for needing help. That's a shaila, how much should you give? But when the Yid comes to you for help, how could you not give? I mean, the Yiddishe heart, how could you? How do you give? What's your shaila? Many times I heard this from him, and it opened up my eyes. There's chiyuv, rabosai. And in chiyuv I could discuss, efshar im yagia loi nezek, all right, listen, chayacha kodmin. You don't make these cheshbonos. That's where lev tov comes in. Lev tov comes in that I'm good and I don't make a cheshbon. Efshar, nishmachuyav, nishmachuyav. We're talking about chiyuv, varev. Obviously it's about chiyuvim. Obviously it's about who you are, vos a Yid. A Yid is a lev tov, af im yagia loi nezek, even if a nezek comes from this. This, rabosai, is Rabbeinu Bechaye's pshat. Yechsidish sefarim tell this, Yankiv Yosef. There's a whole avodah called lev tov, and that's to be dan l'kaf zechus yan. A lev tov means to see the good in others. That's called a lev tov. It's such an important yesod, rabosai. And the truth is, being a sign, especially in today's dor, we live in a society where, for some reason, the first look that we look is critical and not tov. It's not. Avada there is yechidim and there's chashuve Yidden, I'm not discussing that.

But that may not. There's a critical, and a leiv tov is not critical. The zeide flegt iberzogn fun Slabodka, a neredige zach. You know, there's such a thing, what we call a krumme kop. Anybody walked into yeshiva knows at least one or two times he's spoken and said, Ah, that krumme kop. A krumme kop. It exists. So he said over from the Alter from Slabodka, and someone told me recently that Rav Nosson Tzvi would say it over all the time in yeshiva. Rav Nosson Tzvi Zech Tzadik Livracha, the Rosh Yeshiva of the Mir, that he heard it from him in the Mir in Yerushalayim. But I heard this from the zeide. Every middah we know could be used for good and for bad. There's a tachlis in everything that the Ribono Shel Olam created. What can a person use a krumme kop? What can he do with that krumme kop? Vos tut men damit? Der Alter Slabodka gezogt, dan zayn emol a kav zchus. That dem ken men nutzen a krumme kop. You see, the guy does something. Ah, it's so obvious, it's so clear. You gotta be crazy to not see how bad. Nutz the krumme kop. Hast doch mimeila a krumme kop. When it comes to your zach and you don't have a krumme kop, hast doch ya a krumme kop. Borrow the krumme kop for a few minutes, and zayn, yeven dan l'kaf zchus. Tate, nice. Atoh dos is leiv tov. When you're good, when you're good, you don't need to see bad. And I'm gonna tell you a maaseh from Chofetz Chaim that I personally heard from the father, Rabbi Yehuda Levenberg. I have very chashuv. Call me a yid, but the truth is he's almost like a rebbe to me, Rabbi Yehuda Levenberg shlita from Lakewood. So we go visit his father here in the courtyard, I think it's called the courtyard. He told me, A mechateke maiseh, haflah shelah. His shver was rabbaksht, a great rav in Europe. He was sitting with the Chofetz Chaim, and the Chofetz Chaim was talking to him. Chofetz Chaim used to talk, he was very talkative. And there was a sefer on the table. Reb Baksht takes the sefer, he looks at it. Ah, it was such a silly thing that was written in that sefer. So he turns to the Chofetz Chaim and he says, Rav Kagan, Chofetz Chaim, give that kup what someone wrote in a sefer. Look what the guy wrote. The Chofetz Chaim turned his head. I heard this from Rav Levenberg's father. I heard this mamash word for word. Turned his head, he closed the sefer, and he pushed it aside. So Reb Baksht asks the question, Rav Kagan, Chofetz Chaim, I don't understand. There's no issur lashon hara. Api tlusa, something that's written to the public, there's lashon hara. He wrote it for the public to read. Where's the lashon hara? It can't be lashon hara. Just look at it. What's the big deal? And you know what he answered? You're right. In hilchos issur lashon hara, there's no problem. But vos darf ich dos? What do I need it for? What do I need to know that this person wrote a silly thing? Vos hob ich from that? But he said, you know what a leiv toiv is? A lev tov goes beyond the Mishnah Berurah and the Chofetz Chaim. A good mensch, a person that's good, doesn't need to see bad. There's another mahalach, habais, I want to share with you. There's a chiddush from the Rim of Talida. You know what's called a lev tov? A happy person is called a lev tov. Interesting. Shemichlal דברי דבריכם, everything is nichlal in a lev that's tov, that's happy. He quotes an interesting pasuk, a story in Nechemya. Nechemya comes to the king, and he has a sour face. Vayomer li hamelech, Nechemya says, the king says to me, this is in perek beis, pasuk beis, Madua panecha ra'im? Why do you have a sour face? Ki atah eincha choleh, you're not sick. Ein ze ki im raa lev. Lev tov, the opposite is raa lev. Sour face. He's unhappy. He's sad. How many times do we read the pasuk, Tachas asher lo avadta es Hashem Elokecha b'simcha? Interesting, huh? He doesn't quote that pasuk. I don't know why he had to go to Nechemya. L'choira it's a pasuk in Devarim, but here it's very obvious, even though the truth...

If you look at the Malbim, and that's not exactly the pashut pshat, the story there. The real story is that the melech thought that ein ze raya lalev that there was a plot against him. The fact that he looked like that, with such an angry face, the melech felt that there's probably, raya lalev, there was a bid in his heart, a plot against him. But azoi lernen, to read mit a lev, raya lalev means that it's bad. A person who's good does not have poneh ra'ah. We all know the Rabbi Salanter. Rabbi Salanter speaks so much about how a person externally is supposed to walk around b'simcha, smile, make happy. Un to Rabbi Yisroel Salanter, this was called mamish a chiyuv almost. He would say that the panim is the charushas harabim; a person's face is a reshus harabim. Because when you look at him and he's in a sad state and he's not smiling, you feel bad. You start thinking maybe he's angry at me, like we see the story, ein ze raya lalev, that the melech started to think. And that becomes your responsibility. I was always thinking to myself, Rabbi Yisroel Salanter, it's my responsibility to make that the other guy should feel good. Where does this—vu ligt es? You know, when another guy, tacht, is completely insane: I'm in a bad mood, go away from me. Why don't you—punkt farkert. Maybe bidami lekav zchus. You know what? It's a raya lalev on your part. The Torah says, a lev tov. The Torah goes and says to a Yid, no. Tracht nish vegn zich. Tracht how you make the other guy feel. And that becomes what, rabosai? A lev tov. T'chameirdike chiddush, t'chapeleh. There's another way how to learn this Remeh Telidai. We'll discuss maybe a different time, that be'etzem, when a person is be'atzvus, when be'etzem a person isn't lev tov, it's raya lev, something wrong inside. Sometimes, if a person's eino choleh and he has no reason to be angry or upset, and he is upset, it's a raya lev be'etzem, there's something. But if we could, we could say it, so to speak, רבי ישראל סלנטר always taught us the inyan of raya lev, ponecha ra'im, but it's a raya lev for the other person. So either it's a raya lev for you, which a person should look into himself, what's going on? Why am I walking around with an angry face? Raya lev, maybe something's wrong with me inside, my inyanim, or raya lev tzelib yen. There's two ways how I understood this Remeh Telidai. Al kol panim, the mussar from it is pretty obvious, and that is, ... not saying people have difficult matzavim, so they're excused. ... Lagutte Yid, geit mit hashmechel, lagutte Yid, geit mit chizuk. I see the time, one more minute, chavere. I'm almost done. What am I saying? You're right, he has a zacher. The time is the time. Rabosai, think about this. Ein ze ki im re'ah lev. How you greet people, either there's something inside which is re'ah lev. But that's not leiv, that's re'ah lev. That's a schlechte mentch. Why not greet the other guy with a tashmeach? It's a big sugya, rabosai. But I want to get to the end and the final conclusion of what I really mentioned in the beginning of this year. How does one achieve? How does one get this lev tov? Rabosai, a lev tov, the Sfas Emes says, l'choira, what's the difference between an ayin tov and a lev tov? Zogt the hameir dike zach: an ayin tov is when the other person has, and you fargin, you want that he should have what he has. That's called ayin tov. A lev tov is when the other person doesn't have, you wish you could be able to give it to him, that he should have it. Ayin tov is when the other guy has it, you're satisfied. And the lev tov is when the other guy doesn't have it, bis nisht tzufriden. It's another darga, rabosai. Zogt the chibur, that Reb Chaim Volozhiner...

was crying. It's in the aveil yeshiva, this is brought down. And they walked in, they asked him, Why are you crying? He said, Yenet mir gebet na toivah. I couldn't do it. Veinich, I feel very bad. I wish I could do him that favor. I said, You understand what lev tov is, what Yidden are? I'm here today because of a lev tov. What does that mean? My zeide's shidduch was because of this Mishnah. Yes. If you want, you can read it. It's already documented in all the Radin ma'aseh bichlal. Surely Radin has this ma'aseh already. Why was my zeide chosen from all the bachurim? There were so many bachurim that didn't have shidduchim. You know, I don't want to go into it; it's not the right time. I already saw everybody looking at their watches. They're right. But I want you to know, for every one available girl, there was thirty bachurim fighting, not like today, ... It's the other way around. I see everybody smiling. Okay, so then you're moichel me for the extra minute or two because of that? All right. Okay. One day we'll discuss it, and I'll tell you more about this topic. Al kol panim, my bubbie told it to me. I heard it from her, but it's already printed in the bichl, but I heard it from her. She asked this she'eilah to her zeide, R' Meirshal, and Dinsky, who was the Rosh Yeshiva in Radin. Why him? I mean, why was he chosen? Why did you say that this is my shidduch? That's in a ... This is the bachur you're going to marry. She married him, right? Why him? There were a few answers, but among the answers, one of them was a ma'aseh. That Chameish Landinski heard from Reb Motchel Landinski, his son, a maise about mys. In the old days, they used to wear a coat to the chuppah. Now we still do it today, and I'm sure nobody knows why. Does anybody know why? Unless it's a symbol that he's gone on a long journey. I don't know. What's the reason for wearing the coat, rabosai? Anybody knows? Because in Europe—I'm going to tell you the reason. It's a rhetorical question. And the reason is because in Europe the chuppahs were in the field. They used to have it in the forest, and it was freezing. They wore a coat. No, that's the reason. That's the reason to wear the coat. Sigmara minhag. Thus is the Sigmara minhag. Check. Sigmara minhag. Good, so it's still nogea b'zman hazeh, but I have news for you. When they make the chuppahs outside, they have a mahalach with the coat. There's a mahalach today with the coat. In those days, even in the winter, summer, it was freezing. Ketzas klapanim, you hear? Coat. Who had a coat? There was one coat in shtetl, and they would borrow the coat. That got from mantel far chasan to mantel. So one would borrow it from the other. What happens if there was two chasanim in the same night in the city? What do you do? And that's what happened to one of the bachurim, and the bachur lost out because one of the balabatim in Radin, his daughter was making a chasunah, so the coat went to the balabas, and the yeshiva guy was stuck without his coat. Nope, on a mantel. Was took. Zei, a doch geven a pinsker rav's azun. And he was all over Europe. He had his own coat. He had a coat. So the bachur walks over to him and tells him, Vos tu ich, chamish ken mantel far de chasan? Had zeide gezogt, I'm not really going to be here for the next month. I have to go to my father. He needs my help. I'm going to be in Pinsk for about a month, a month and a half, in the middle of the winter. But you know what? Take my coat. ... dafkes far de chasan, nem de mantel. And he gave him his coat. Literally took the coat off his back. Rav Moshe Landinsky said, daf is der shetach, bal shteit in Mishnah, that if a person has a lev tov, michlal divreichem dvarav. Chazal tell it to us. It's all encompassing in the lev tov. So how does one achieve this lev tov? One more minute, rabosai, and the answer is, there's a ... That says over from the chiddushei haRim, haMeire dika zach. Avraham Avinu, we say this every day in davening, v'charos imai habris, u'matzasa es levavoi. What does that mean, matzasa? You found it. What, the Eibishter found this? The Eibishter knows, no?

I want you to know, rabosai, sometimes a vort has such an impact. This vort has such impact on my understanding of what Yiddishkeit is all about, of Yiddish. U'matzasa. A Yid has deep, deep, deep levels of the emunah, of toiv. Sometimes only the Eibishter is able to get that deep to see what's in the Yiddishe heart. U'matzasa has levavoi. Bnei Shleimah was able to go deep and find deep where no one else was able to tap into or see it, al kaponim. Avraham Avinu was ... Every Yid has ... in his heart. There's toiv, there's chesed. U'matzasa, we got to look and search by not ruining it. It's all there. And when he ends with a ... I don't know if the oilam knows, we say, Atah yodea razei olam, u'salumos ... There's actually a piyut that has a different nusach. Some of the machzorim have it. Atah meivin talumos lev. Look in some of the sefarim, they have this nusach. Gerer, they say it. Atah yodea talumos lev. What does that mean? Meivin talumos. What's helem? It's deep hidden in the heart. The Ribono Shel Olam understands that. So even if we do aveiros, the Ribono Shel Olam knows what's really deep. U'matzasa levavoi. The Ribono Shel Olam searches out that. Atah yodea. Lev toiv, ha'Borei is there. We're born with it. That's the Yiddishe heart. The Rambam speaks about it a lot, Arichus, libo menachein. We can't ruin it with kinah, sinah. And then what comes out is layers and layers, deep layers of lev toiv. This is vas Yiddishkeit will, from lev toiv shebichlal divreichem. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.