Shavuos: Ameilus BaTorah, Kafah Aleihem Har K’Gigis, and the Love Behind Kabbalas HaTorah

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. As we approach Shavuos, I would like to discuss and talk divrei seudos in preparation to the heilige gevaldige Yom Tov, Shavuos, the Yom Tov of Kabbalas HaTorah. Kabbalas HaTorah. Klal Yisrael is Torah. Kudsha Brich Hu v'Oraysa v'Yisrael chad hu. You can't separate the Yid from Torah. Just like HaKadosh Baruch Hu is part of what a Yid is, the Ribono Shel Olam, and the Yid is one, Torah is the same shutaf. You can't separate it. A person says, I'll be a Jew, I'll be a Yid, I'll be oved HaKadosh Baruch Hu, well, learning, no. Just like it's one with the Ribono Shel Olam, the Yid is one with the Torah. One metzius. You can't say you have one without the other. The Ribono Shel Olam, avodas Hashem, together with Torah, limud haTorah, this is Yid and this is Yahadus. And Shavuos is the Yom Tov of Kabbalas HaTorah, where we celebrate. The Torah chelek of the Yid. What is Torah? What is Torah by a Yid? And what means Kabbalas haTorah? What is the avodah of Shavuos? The past parsha, Torah tells us, Im bechukosai teileichu, v'es mitzvosai tishmeru, va'asisem osam, v'nasati gishmeichem b'itam, aleh brachos. If you are bechukosai teileichu. What does it mean? What does bechukosai teileichu mean? What is the parsha, the Torah referring to? And that in this chus, v'nasati gishmeichem b'itam. Says Rashi, it's referring to ameilus baTorah. Yachol zeh kiyum hamitzvos? I would say maybe it's going on the mitzvos. No. Im bechukosai teileichu, shetihyu ameilim baTorah, not stam learning, but more, ameilus, toiling in Torah. Amel, amel, ameilus baTorah. The mefarshim ask, so why is it bechukosai? Why is learning Torah referred to as chok? Im bechukosai teileichu, ameilus baTorah chok. Why is ameilus? Referred to as chaik. There is many terutzim, many pshatim that the mefarshim say. I'd like to share with the oilam a hergesh, a machshava, that I was noseir to this past week into understanding, Bechukosai teileichu, chaik. Chaik, ameilus baTorah is called a chaik. Why is ameilus baTorah referred to as a chaik? There's an interesting Toras Kohanim on this pasuk. The Toras Kohanim says, Im bechukosai teileichu melamed — this teaches us HaKadosh Baruch Hu misaveh. HaKadosh Baruch Hu is misaveh, taavah. He lusts, taavah — hear a strong language, misaveh — sheYisrael ameilim baTorah, that Klal Yisrael should be ameil baTorah, misaveh. The Raivid on that Toras Kohanim says that's why it says im, im.

Eisai teleichu is a lashon of pleading. Rabbeinu Shlom is begging, like it says in Na matzasi chein b'einecha. Yeah, the Rabbeinu Shlom is saying, If I find favor in your eyes. I'm begging you. I'm begging you. I'm pleading with you. Rabbeinu Shlom, betzach. Betzach. He's begging. Please be ameil baTorah. You hear? Rabbeinu Shlom is mesaveh, and not stam mesaveh. He begs. Yiddish is an expression, betzach rachamim, begging, begging us, please, please learn Torah. Why is the Rabbeinu Shlom mesaveh that we should be ameil baTorah? And why is he begging us so much? So there's a goyen, and the Chofetz Chaim is marech to explain the goyen. We all know the Rabbeinu Shlom is tov u'meitiv, and that's why he created the world, Ramchal. Rabbeinu Shlom wants to do good, so he created a world where he could give the greatest good that one could get could be achieved only through ameilus baTorah. All the brachos and all the good in this world comes through ameilus baTorah, one who's ameil baTorah. As the Mishnah says, Kol ha'omeil baTorah lishmah, zocheh li'dvarim harbeh. All the great good of this world. Pams through ameilus baTorah. And as the goyen says, that's why it says, V'nasati gishmeichem. If you're amel baTorah, you get, you get all the brachos, all the good of the world. Mimeila the Ribono Shel Olam is mis'aveh. Mimeila the Ribono Shel Olam pleads with us, we should be amel baTorah, because the Ribono Shel Olam wants to do good with us. Azeis op der goyen, azeis mazbir the Chofetz Chaim, the goyen, that the Ribono Shel Olam wants to give us a tata vil, a father wants that his child should have all the good, should get all the good of the world. But he has to earn it, and the way to earn is through ameilus baTorah, so he's begging, he's begging, Do this, so you'll get this. There's a chinuch in mitzvah tof lamed that mamish says the same pshat on a Gemara, שהקדוש ברוך הוא מתאוה לתפילתן של צדיקים. The Ribono Shel Olam has a taivah. He also, He lusts. The Ribono Shel Olam's a baal taivah. A baal taivah is allowed? The Gemara says also he's a baal taivah לתפילתן של צדיקים. Why? says the chinuch, because תפילתן של צדיקים brings all the brachos in the world. Mimeila the Ribono Shel Olam wants תפילתן של צדיקים because He wants to give bracha. The chinuch in tof lamed says the same pshat. Interesting. So it comes out that it's not b'etzem that the Ribono Shel Olam wants ameilus baTorah. The Ribono Shel Olam wants the ameilus so He can give us reward. Huh? It's interesting. There's an interesting Rambam, that the Rambam discusses this parsha of ונשאתי גשמיכם בעתם. Frekt the Rambam, I שכר בהאי עלמא ליכא. I mean, אם בחוקותי תלכו, אם בחוקותי תלכו, you'll get reward. There's no reward in this world. The reward is of Yene velt, chadei sa. This world is not a world of very rewarding life. It's not easy. Says the Rambam the pshat, because since it's עמל בתורה, that's בחוקותי תלכו, so the Ribono Shel Olam gives us in order we should be able to be עמל בתורה. You need all these brachos in order it should be easy for you, so to speak, or at least it should be doable, possible to be עמל בתורה, which is an interesting dichotomy. On one hand, we want you to be עמל בתורה.

And part of עמל בתורה is כנגד the nisyonos, the difficulties of life. Unless maybe עמל בתורה means in the actual learning, the toil in the learning, and then the Ribono Shel Olam takes away the side problems, the nisyonos, the difficulties. Maybe. I got most mefarshim learn that the ameilus in Torah is against all the difficulties of life, of chayim. But this, l'choira, is the Rambam, that the Rambam learns, ונשאתי גשמיכם בעתם, in order you should be able to be עמל בתורה. I mean, here the Gaon is saying the opposite. The Gaon is saying that we want to give you the ונשאתי גשמיכם בעתם so we want you to be עמל בתורה. The Rambam is telling us that in order you should be עמל בתורה, we give you ונשאתי גשמיכם בעתם. So which is the ikker and which is the tafel? Which is the point, that the Ribono Shel Olam wants the ameilus or He wants to give you the brachos? I never understood this properly. I always had a hard time understanding this Gaon. Does the Ribono Shel Olam want to give us the brachos, and this is a heichi timtza to get the brachos, the ameilus baTorah, or the other way around? The Ribono Shel Olam wants us to have the ameilus baTorah, and in order that we should be able to be עמל בתורה, He gives us the brachos. Here's the kasha, rabosai, a gute kasha. According to the Gaon, the way the Chofetz Chaim learns with the Gaon. Peikuderboruch wants us to give us brachos. It's not the ameilus baTorah that the Ribono Shel Olam is mesaveh for. It's only in order so we can get the bracha. I saw a beautiful pshat from Reb Shmuel Rozovsky, zecher tzaddik livrachah, panovich Rosh Yeshiva, v'ro'im hadvarim l'mi she'amram. He says, be'etzem, the Ribono Shel Olam wants to give us bracha because He's a toiv u'meitiv. And the only way to get it is through ameilus baTorah, but not the bracha of v'nasati gishmeichem b'itam, the bracha of ameilus baTorah itself. That's the pshat. Ribono Shel Olam knows that the biggest bracha, the greatest good that one could get in this world is to be ameil baTorah. So He's a toiv u'meitiv, better zach rachamim, we should be ameil baTorah. It's not the side hatovos of the world that the Ribono Shel Olam is trying to, and is mesaveh, and because He's a toiv u'meitiv, He wants to give it to us for charity. The ameilus baTorah is what He wants us to have, because He's a toiv u'meitiv and He knows that that's the greatest hatov in the world. There's a beautiful Aruch HaChaim. In the parashah of Bikurim, it says, v'samachta b'chol hatov. You bring bikurim, you should be happy b'chol, b'chol hatov. Asher nasan lecha Hashem Elokecha l'beisecha. So pashut, it's referring to the bikurim. The bikurim is the first fruit. Person's matzliach, his business, sign a business, good. Geit ihm on good, it's going good for him. First fruit is coming, reishis pri ha'adamah. He's on his way to becoming a big, big rich oisher in Eretz Yisroel. V'samachta b'chol hatov. Zogt the Aruch HaChaim that it's not referring to the money and the riches and the business that he's making. What's it referring to? He says either it's referring to the Eibishter, v'samachta b'chol hatov, the Ribono Shel Olam is tov. He says, davar hakol tov ein ze Ela HaKadosh Baruch Hu, shehu mekor hatov. And then he says another pshat: Gam yir'mez b'ma'amar b'chol hatov el haTorah, ki ha'omer zalvin tov, ela tovah. The greatest good, Torah, to learn Torah. Sheim hayu Bnei Adam margishim b'mesikus v'arivus tov haTorah, if a person would taste, he would get a, a taste of the sweetness, the beauty of Torah, hayu mishtag'im u'mislahatim achareha. They would run after Torah, like, ah.

If you only get a taste of it, you have to taste it. Tamu u're'u ki tov Hashem. If you taste it. V'lo yechashev b'einav ali olam kesef v'zahav, l'mumus... ki haTorah koleles kol hatovos shebeolam. So what's the pshat? Chaim is saying that when a person is happy in business, that he's matzliach, he's bringing his bikurim, remember really what's tov. You have to remember v'samachta b'chol hatov. What's really going to make you happy. You know, rabosai, we live in a world that we search for happiness. We search, we search, and we look. Books and speaking, there's so many speeches about happiness. To be me'oirer, what do they call that, the speakers, the great, you know, to bring out happiness. Ein tov ela Torah. If you want to be happy, learn. If you're a Yid, that's the only thing that's going to make you happy. Ein tov ela Torah. Searching, people search forever, and the answer is so simple. It's right in front of you. Sit and learn. Sit and learn. Learn Torah. Be amal baTorah. That brings happiness. So that's the pshat that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is mesaveh. Here, Reb Shmuel Rozovsky is saying, of course it's the Ribono Shel Olam is a tov u'meitiv, and He wants the people should have good. So He's begging them, be amal baTorah. Just be amal baTorah and you'll have good. V'samachta b'chol hatov, you'll be very happy with all the good. You know, for years I thought that why does the Ribono Shel Olam want so much that we should be ameil baTorah? Because that's the tachlis habriyah. It's one of the reasons why we were created. Adam was created to be ameil baTorah. How do I know this? It's a Gemara. The Gemara says, Adam, the pasuk, Adam la'amal yulad. I didn't know what it means, la'amal. Is it la'amal melachah? Are we created to do hard work in business? No. La'amal peh, which is interesting, amal peh. A lot of times people sit and think iyun of Torah. Seems like you got to speak it out, amal peh. It seems like you have to—ameilus, yeah, amal peh, you have to speak it out. Now, when a person is completely involved, when a person has complete love for something, he talks about it all day. He speaks it out. He'll speak about it and speak about it wherever he goes. I know people who are involved and they're excited about a certain thing. Wherever they go, they talk about it, and they'll say it over, You heard this and this. You see, Torah is also la'amal peh. One said a pshat, meisher Rabbeinu was a kvad peh. He was a kvad peh. He couldn't talk. He had a hard time talking. We all know it started with Paroi. Paroi put the coals in front of him with the keser, with the crown. He went for the crown. The malach pushed it to the coals. He put it in his mouth. L'maaseh, he was a kvad peh. Moshe Rabbeinu was a kvad peh. Why? Why does Moshe Rabbeinu have to be a kvad peh? Don't forget, Moshe Rabbeinu had no mumim whatsoever. When he was niftar, when Moshe Rabbeinu went up to Har Nevo, he went complete. He was complete. So why this thing that he was a kvad peh? So the Ran in the drashes says, we shouldn't come and think that maybe Moshe Rabbeinu convinced everyone of the Torah and Hashem. He was an orator. Maybe he was a tremendous speaker. The goyim were going to say, Yeah, of course, yeah, he convinced a few. He convinced a certain amount of people. It's all talk. Well said, it's all talk. So he was a kvad peh. What are you going to say? He was a good speaker? He was not.

Moshe Rabbeinu was not a good speaker. You know, if you had to, you know, today people pay for speakers, you know. Torah anytime, they don't put me on because I'm a talmid chacham. They say I'm a good speaker. All right, tackenat. Moshe Rabbeinu was the opposite. Moshe Rabbeinu was not a good speaker. He had good toichen. It wasn't because he was a good speaker, yeah. Azoi lernt the Ran in the derashos. I always tained that could be the pshat is a malpeh. Part of the ameilus haTorah is a malpeh, being able to be omel. So while Moshe said the shiur, it was hard for him. It was difficult. Every time he spoke, it was k'dei l'kayem adam la'amal yulad, a malpeh. And I said over to another gadol in Eretz Yisrael, and he was so happy with the vort. It's a beautiful deher maybe. Ameilus, everything had to be hard. You think Moshe Rabbeinu went to Shamayim, mayim lo shasa, he didn't eat, he didn't drink. Pas b'melach tochal, mayim b'mesurah tishteh, v'al ha'aretz tishan, v'chayei tzaar. What's the chayei tzaar? Even when he gave over the Torah, it was hard. Torah is ameilus. To work hard. Torah is not easy, never easy, but you work hard. Ameili was a k'lat peh. Zeh b'chalomo fatacht. But there's a beautiful vort from Rav Chaim Brisker. Rav Chaim Brisker says, why is it adam la'amal yulad? He says, Be'etzem, Torah, we got in the malachs, in the malach in the mother's stomach. Person knows kol haTorah kula; the malach taught it to him, right? So then why do we have to be born? What's the point of being born? If a person already has the Torah in the mother's stomach, vos darf men kumen af der velt? Adam la'amal yulad, because in the malachs, in the stomach, get it easy. It's taught to you. So then we only come to this world for what? Ameilus, ameilus. Adam la'amal yulad, amal peh. There's a famous machlokes between the Gaon and the Beis Yosef. The Beis Yosef, we know, had a maggid that would come to him and teach him the Torah. The Gaon didn't want this. The Gra did not want, and he said because a zchus k'malach—he's not looking for a malach to teach him Torah. It has to come from ameilus. It has to come from toiling, to be given, to be spoon-fed by a malach, evilas nisht. Now, I don't want to get into what did the Beis Yosef hold, what did the Gaon hold, what was the side of the machlokes, why the Beis Yosef yes was maskim to it, ichleis nisht. I'm not going to get in. These are gedolim much greater than I could even understand. But the Gaon didn't want that it should be malach; he wanted ameilus. And that's this Gemara: Adam la'amal yulad. Can't be with a malach. So with this I understand why the Ribono Shel Olam is mitzaveh, we should be amal baTorah, because that's the tachlis of Odom. Why did the Ribono Shel Olam create Odom? You know, Chazal tell us that originally the malachim tainted when Moshe Rabbeinu came to accept the Torah. What are you giving it to Odom for? What are you giving it to Odom? Tenu hodcha laShamayim, give it to a malach. Give it to a malach, give it to the malachim. Mistama when a malach learns a Tosafos, it's fire, it's unbelievable, right? Malachim, mistama, could say a lot better Torah than we could say. Maybe, maybe not. We could discuss that, we could argue about it, but al kol panim the malachim were saying, Torah is kadosh, keep it by us. What's the lashon? Yelud ishah, yelud ishah. Mah li yelud ishah beineinu? What are you bringing a person who was born from an ishah? What are you bringing that? And what was the teretz to the kasha? The teretz to the kasha is, malachim are able to learn, but do malachim have ameilus baTorah? Is it difficult?

Help for them. Do they have the nisyonos hachayim? Torah was meant that Adam should learn Torah. That's what Torah was meant. Torah was meant that a man, with all his difficulties and his nisyonos, ought to doseh Torah, ought to doseh Torah. That's what it is. Moshe Rabbeinu, when he speaks about his experience in Shamayim, he says, Lechem lo achalti u'mayim lo shasisi. What's he saying? He's saying, azoi hob ich mekabel Torah geven, with the Mishnah of pas bamelech tochal u'mayim b'msurah tishteh, v'al haaretz tishan, v'chayei tzaar tichyeh, v'chayei tzaar tichyeh. This is what the malachim were trying to give it to us. The Ribbono Shel Olam is saying, it's not. It's meant for this. It's meant for Adam. Torah needs ameilus baTorah. Torah needs ameilus baTorah. And what's ameilus baTorah? V'chayei tzaar tichyeh. It's hard. Not easy. No one has it easy. Learning Torah is difficult. But this is what the Ribbono Shel Olam wants, as we soon will explain why. Soon we'll explain why. Why does the Ribbono Shel Olam want it to be so hard? Why does it have to be? Vos iz shlecht if it goes easy? We can discuss it. I'll show you a beautiful medrash in a few moments. But this is the tachlis, that Chayei Sarah, Tichyeh, Fakert, yelud isha, yelud isha, with all his nisyonos and all his shortcomings. And fakert, what's a yelud isha? He starts from very low down. He's a yelud isha. He's a baby. He's a child. He has to shtayg. He has to grow. He has to overcome. He has to live life, experience life, and learn Torah, because that's what Torah is all about. So azoi bechalal mufrashtanin, this is the way I always understood the inyan of HaKadosh Baruch Hu mis'aveh, the Ribono Shel Olam looks, He's taiva, He searches that we should be amal baTorah, because He gave it davka to yelud isha. He gave it davka to an adam that has nisyonos. That's the tachlis of briah, adam, Torah. Mameila, He's mis'aveh. Tafkid habriah, tafkid hachayim, tachlis ha'olam. This is what it's all about, right? Bereishis bara Elokim es hashamayim v'es haaretz, bishvil haTorah shenikreis reishis, u'bishvil Yisrael shenikreis reishis. This is the tafkid, the tachlis. This is what the Eibishter wants. I recently thought of an interesting yesod, rabosai. Pshatim from Hirsch and other mefarshim that deal with language are mechalek. There's two leshonos of wanting. There's taiva. There's cheshek. Taiva and cheshek. What's the difference between taiva and cheshek? You know, by Torah it says, Nafshi choshka baTorah. When we refer to taivas, it usually means a person. There's a personal... a person has a taiva. He wants it. What's the chiluk between taiva and cheshek? You know, it's interesting. By Dinah, by Yankiv, it says, Shechem beni choshka. So l'choira it should have said taiva, misaveh. What's choshka? And the teretz, of course, is, I think, that Shechem, the father, Chamor, was trying to say, Fakert, choshka, fakert, no, it's not personal, it's not taiva, fakert, it's something he thinks it's a special thing. Cheshek connotates when it's not so much me, it's more the importance of the thing. That's cheshek. Nafshi choshka baTorah. Here, the lashon is HaKadosh Baruch Hu mis'aveh, mis'aveh.

What's misaviv? Misaviv means the Eibishter has from it. It's like a personal. What's the personal in it? Why is it personal? Rabosai, choshek — you should have cheshek. The same way we have cheshek to learn, the Ribono Shel Olam should have cheshek that we should learn, right? Why is it taiva? Rabosai, let me tell you what I came up with, an interesting deher. I saw a Medrash Tanchuma, and the more I read it, the more it speaks to me, and the more it brings out the Yidden Torah. What is the relationship between the Yidden Torah? Says the Medrash like this. Medrash Tanchuma, Parshas Noach: ואמר רבי דימי בר חמא אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא לישראל, מכאן אתם מסתארים, מוטב, ואם לאו, שם תהא קבורתכם. It's very, very harsh. You know, rabosai, we're going to discuss this a little bit more in great length. You know, the chuppah that we learn today, that we have today, the chuppah that we have by a marriage, is learned from the כפה עליהם הר כגיגית. The Ribono Shel Olam made like a chuppah on top of us. I don't understand that that's a chuppah. That was שם תהא קבורתכם. I would refer to it as a shotgun wedding, that that's called a chuppah? We got chuppah because the Ribono Shel Olam took a mountain, put it on top of our heads, and said, שם תהא קבורתכם. What does it mean? That's from the ge'arah. Why do we have a chuppah today? And the answer is, we see from matan Torah, the Ribono Shel Olam made a chuppah. That wasn't a chuppah; that was a death threat. Kaf aleihem har k'gigis, im lav, sham tehei kevuraschem. So let's learn a little bit. Medrash Tanchuma. Medrash Tanchuma says, V'im taimar, Torah shebiksav kaf aleihem? Did the Ribono Shel Olam kaf aleihem har k'gigis for the Torah shebiksav? He says, no, it can't be. Why? Because Klal Yisrael already said, Naaseh v'nishma. So Tosfos in Pei Ches in Shabbos answers that it's true they said naaseh v'nishma, but then when they came to Ma'amad Har Sinai and they saw the eish hagdolah, the fires, got terrified. Nafshi yotza bedabram. They passed out. They needed techiyas hameisim. They got terrified. Maybe they'll change their minds. Meileh, kaf aleihem har k'gigis. Azoi learns Tosfos in Shabbos Pei Ches, that it's true originally they were excited, but then when they saw what it entails, they started having cold feet. You know, they say a lot of people get very excited the first time that they're introduced to learning, or the first time they hear a good shiur. Yeah, I was excited. But then when they see what it entails, it's not easy. Every day I got to come and I got to learn, and this nisayon and that parnassah, you lose cheshek. So then the kaf aleihem har k'gigis sets in. I, frekt a kasha. So then we're forced, and the teretz is the Rambam. It's just to help us a little bit, really. We want, right? Every Yid wants by korban, it says, l'ratzonai. I, you can force in the teretz because really you want, right? Good? The Medrash gives a different teretz. The Medrash says that on Torah shebiksav they said, naaseh v'nishma. It's on Torah shebaal peh they needed the kaf aleihem har k'gigis. Yeah? Why? Zogt der Medrash, mipnei she'ein bo yegi'ah v'tzaar v'himat. Torah shebiksav is easy. You know, a lot of times people come to yeshiva, yeah, they want to learn Chumash, and they want to learn mamloyos. It's very nice, beautiful. I'm not saying there's anything wrong. Beautiful. And I look at them, you got to learn Gemara, Tosafos, Rishonim, you got to work hard. This is easy. That everyone said naaseh v'nishma, says the Medrash Tanchuma. It's easy. What's wrong? Nice stories. You notice that people like to learn Bereishis. When it comes to Vayikra, it starts to—Maseches becomes a little more difficult when it gets to Vayikra. Why? Because that's so interesting.

Avdah b'megazta na'aseh v'nishma. Zei shteit in Medrash Tanchuma, yeah. Ela amar lahem, al haTorah sheba'al peh. So what's the kavalei mar kigigis? That was for the Torah sheba'al peh, sheyesh bah dikdukei mitzvos kalos v'chamuros, v'yazeh kamavos, mikasheh k'shel kinasa. To learn Torah, to learn Gemara with Rishonim is hard. Takes a lot of yegiah, takes discipline, ameilus, says the Tanchuma, and this is the key: lefi she'ein lomed osa ela mi she'ohav HaKadosh Baruch Hu. So I'm going to learn Torah, it's because he loves the Eibishter. Only if you love the Eibishter, you can learn Torah, Torah sheba'al peh. That's a person who is ohev HaKadosh Baruch Hu b'chol libo, b'chol nafsho, b'chol me'odo, shene'emar, V'ahavta es Hashem Elokecha b'chol levavcha uvchol nafshecha uvchol me'odecha. U'menayin hatalmud she'ein ahavah zu ela lashon talmud? Here, v'ahavta means learning. V'ahavta es Hashem Elokecha means learn Torah, love Hashem, learn His Torah. V'eimah ksiv achrav, V'hayu hadvarim haeleh asher anochi metzavcha hayom al levavecha. V'eizeh ze talmid? She'al al lev. V'haoymesh lamed v'neechez, hu talmid shetzarich shinun. Yeah, rabosai, only someone who loves the Eibishter learns Torah. Matan Torah. There was so much love. Ribono Shel Olam poured love on Klal Yisroel, and Klal Yisroel in return showed love to the Eibishter. Bayom simchas liboi, tzena v'rena b'nos Yerushalayim. The pasuk in Shir HaShirim says, Go out and see. What? Bayom simchas liboi. What is simchas liboi? It's the marriage. Bayom simchas liboi, says Chazal, zu Matan Torah. There was so much love. Why? What does Torah have to do with love? What's up with Torah, love, love, Torah? Torah is Torah and love is love. Our loving the Eibishter. And the teretz is, she'ein mi sheloi meiTorah. Limud haTorah has to be, ela mi she'ohev HaKadosh Baruch Hu, kaf aleihem har k'gigis, because it was hard. Kaf aleihem har k'gigis because you need a tremendous ahavas Hashem to learn Torah. If you notice, rabosai, we have something called Birchas Ahavah Rabbah, and we can mekayem birchas haTorah, and halachos were brought, that's also birchas haTorah, yeah? So we have Ahavah Rabbah in the morning and Ahavas Olam at night, the second bracha. When we talk about Torah, Ahavah Rabbah, v'ahavta Hashem Elokecha b'chol levavcha uv'chol nafshecha uv'chol me'odecha. Ahavah. Yeah. Torah is a ahavah. Ahavah is Torah, Torah is ahavah. It's clear. Every day we say ahavah. Ahavah rabbah ahavtanu, Hashem, ahavah rabbah. You love us so much, and we ask the Eibishter, v'ahavascha al ta'asir mimenu l'olamim. From a Torah. My need, a Yid needs Torah. That's v'ahavto. The love of a Yid is Torah. Loving the Eibishter is with Torah. You can't separate it. V'ahavascha, Yom simchas libi. You know, there's a beautiful Maharal. There's a beautiful Maharal. Tafaleihem harkei gigis. Doesn't sound like love, no. Sounds like threat. Says the Maharal, you're not understanding the Chazal. It wasn't a threat. There was so much love that we couldn't say no. Moshcheini acharecha narutzah. The Ribono Shel Olam flooded us, such a hashpa'ah v'ahavah by Matan Torah, that we just couldn't say no. Couldn't say no. The kfiyah. That's—

The pshat, shom teikfuraschem. That's, that's your—when a person isn't loved, when a person is missing a ahavah, he gets so broken, he can't exist. A person can't survive without it. I wanted to say that's the pshat Chazal, kaf aleihem har kegigis. Rashi says, what's a gigis? Why you should put the mountain on us like a gigis? What's a gigis? Says Rashi, sheichar. A barrel of beer. What, what, a barrel of beer, and if it's something else? What's wrong if it's a barrel of wheat, a barrel—unless maybe that's the only thing that in the times of Chazal they put in barrels. I don't believe that. It's very difficult to say, and that Rashi has to point out gigis, gigis. What a barrel? No, gigis shel sheichar. Sheichar is intoxicating. Sheichar is addictive. Sheichar is one of the strongest moshcheini acharecha. Hashem made it, it's yayin. It was yayin ha-tov, like wine, that a person is drawn to it, intoxicated. We were intoxicated with ahavah at Har Sinai, that we couldn't control ourselves, like the lashon of the Aruch HaChaim, hayu mishtag'im u'mislahatim achareha. They were running like a shikker, like a drunk. They couldn't control themselves. If you hate tasted the sweetness of it. Sheichar is that. It's addictive. It's intoxicating. A person... Here we see when a person is addicted to alcohol, to wine, it's also kafah. Kafah aleihem har k'gigis. Kafah aleihem har k'gigis. But this, I think we can understand, what's the pshat taiva? Why does Hashem have a taiva? Taiva. We should be ameil baTorah. Why does the... why does Hashem have a taiva? Taiva. We should be ameil baTorah. And the teretz is, the Ribono Shel Olam wants the ahavah of Klal Yisrael. It's a taiva. Shir haShirim, it's love of Klal Yisrael to the Ribono Shel Olam, the Ribono Shel Olam to Klal Yisrael. Yes, the Ribono Shel Olam has from it, because ameilus baTorah is the ultimate ahavah, the ultimate kesher between Klal Yisrael and the Ribono Shel Olam. That's, Ribono Shel Olam has a taiva. It's a taiva the Ribono Shel Olam has, that we should be ameilim baTorah, ameilim baTorah. Now let's go back, Rabosai, and say maybe that's why it's called b'chukosai teileichu. Why is it called a chok? And the answer is, ameilus baTorah is a chok. Why does Ribono Shel Olam need that it should be yegiah? What do you need the yegiah for? And the teretz is, because Torah needs to be with love. And the only way it could be love, if it's difficult, if it's enjoyable, it's not love. Well, you learn it, it's enjoyable, of course. Ahavah means, ahavah means that it's hard. Mayim rabim lo yuchlu lechabot es ha'ahavah, u'neharos lo yishtefuha. You meet a nisyonos, kol hayom, beisai, beisai, no money, no mayim rabim, all the difficulties. Yidden went through generations of nisyonos, where they buried us and where they drowned us with all the tzaros. They tried to uproot this love. You can't uproot love. It's the strongest force in the world. Mayim rabim lo yuchlu lechabot es ha'ahavah, u'neharos lo yishtefuha. One said a pshat: what does it mean when they'll see the eish hagdolah, they're going to retract? What does it mean? What is the eish hagdolah, the big fire? So pashut means by Matan Torah, there was a lot of fire, there was eish u'brokim, it was...

You ever see when a person hears a thunder and he wakes, he's terrified, yeah? Eish hagadol maybe is not just right there and then by Har Sinai. Throughout the doros there was eish gedolah. You notice it says, Sham tehei kevuraschem. The meforshim tell us, my zeide speaks about it in his sefarim, but it's a famous thing, it doesn't refer sham now. Matan Torah was eternal. It kept on going. Every year, the sefarim speak that we have Matan Torah every year, anew. Sham, in the future, sham tehei kevuraschem. Wherever it is that the Yidden are mekabel Torah, it's sham tehei kevuraschem. The eish hagadol is also through the generations. It threw us into fires. There's a lot of burning of Yidden on the stake for this Torah that we accepted. And maybe we'll get scared and we'll retract. That's what the Ribono Shel Olam was afraid. Not necessarily the eish hagadol at that moment, but the eish hagadol through the doros. Fire. Torah is eish, be'eish u'vamayim. He didn't learn Torah through fire and water. Mayim rabim lo yuchlu lechabot, says ahavah. But what wins? The ahavah, the force of love that's in the Torah that we have for the Ribono Shel Olam, that overtakes every force that comes against us. The eish and the mayim, eish u'mayim. Nothing overdoes this. Our zeides and the alte zeides, our grandfathers, went through a akeidus, burnt on the crematorium for Torah, and it survives. How and why? And the answer is, Mayim rabim lo yuchlu lechabot. It's a ahavah. Mayim rabim lo yuchlu lechabot. It's a ahavah. Torah. Torah is ahavah. Chamlah gedolah, Ribono Shel Olam rachmanus on us, and He gave us Torah because He knows it's the ultimate tov, it's the ultimate good. So He had rachmanus on us. Imagine a life without Torah, shem teikfu raschem. But how does that happen? Why is it that way? And the answer is, it's chok. Just like the briah is chok. Chukah chakakti. The Ribono Shel Olam created a world, and He put it into a format. Part of the format of the briah is that a Yid is attached to His Torah, that a Yid has ahavas haTorah, and that a Yid has ahavas Hashem because and through his ahavas haTorah. That's chok. Bechukosai teileichu. Can you explain it? You can't explain it. It's a chok. This ahavah, this love that a Yid has for Torah, it's a chok. That itself is a chok. There's no explanation to it, no way to explain it. We've mentioned many times in the past. The leibel yahu, Reb Elyah Lopian. He says the Mishnah doesn't make sense. Mishnah says, Kach hi darkah shel Torah. This is the way of Torah. Yeah, this is the way of Torah. What's the way of Torah? Pas bamelach tochal, u'mayim b'mesurah tishteh, v'al ha'aretz tishan, v'chayei tzaar tichyeh. Ashrecha v'tov lach. This is good for you. Ashrecha. Bishlaima you tell the person, Ashrecha ba'olam haba. Okay, you know what? You had a hard life in this world. It was rough, but at least, you know, you're coming to... But Ashrecha ba'olam hazeh? So Reb Elyah Lopian said the pshat. Yeah, listen to the pshat, Reb Elyah Lopian. Shemata'aseh, the Mishnah says if you do this, ashrecha. I mean, of course, that's what it means, right? Pas bamelach tochal, u'mayim b'mesurah tishteh, ashrecha ba'olam hazeh. No. Im ata oseh כן, ashrecha ba'olam hazeh. Do it. Do it, and you'll see ashrecha, because there's no way to explain it. There's no way to explain. There's no way to give you an understanding in how this works. How does a person have nothing and have chayei tzaar, but he's baTorah to'amel and he's happy? How do you explain it? And the answer is, it's a chok. It is what it is. And if you...

Do it. L'maaseh, you'll see it's true. Ashrecha ba'olam hazeh. Reb Shalom Schwadron, zichrono tzaddik livracha, used to explain with a mashal, this vort from Reb Elia Lopian. He used to say, imagine you pick up a brochure. What is the brochure? A vacation resort, a tremendous vacation. Ooh, I'm interested. I'm tired. Me, my wife, we want to go on a vacation. Let's see what they're... all right. And on the front page it says, This will be the best vacation you had in your life. All right, let's—I'm game, as they say in English. Let's go. Let me see what. You open up the first page, right? And you want to see cuisine, right? The first thing is food, right? Everybody knows. Essen mit tach, eten mit essen. Food. So let's see, you know, five-course meals, mit entrees, mit shmorgasbords, chveizvas, right? You look at the front page: pas b'melech teichal. We'll give you some dry bread. We'll throw in a side dish, a bissel salt. Where is the whole, all the different desserts? Salt. We'll give you salt. No good? Okay, it's got to be a mistake. Let's turn to page two. The bar, the drinks. You think the piña coladas, mit the chveiz... I'm not very good at this stuff, so you'll fill in whatever your fantasies of your drinking habits are, yeah? The bar, man. Mayim b'msurah tisht. We'll give you water. But not just water. We'll measure it. I'm sure it means we'll measure the water. I'm not going to give you a full cup of water. If you need a full cup of water, why am I going to give you a full cup of water for? Three-quarters of a cup. That's got to be a joke, right? It's got to make sense, right? This is the big vacation. You know what? Let's see the lodging, where, you know, the room, double beds, ... whatever the beds that they have today, I don't know, with water in it. I don't know, some sugar and ... that people have today, I don't know. With mattresses, with ... with cushions, ... On the ארץ תישן. Beds? Who beds? Who's going to give you a bed? Sleep on the floor. It's got to be kidding. You got to be joking, right? How about activities? Must be good sports, golfing, ... tennis. Next page, ... Well, you think you're going to have a hard time. And then on the last page it says, We hope you'll enjoy your vacation. It's going to be the best vacation you ever had in your life. אשריך בעולם הזה וטוב לך לעולם הבא. As Reb Shalom used to say, Crazy! You think the guy's crazy. Throw it out. It's a joke, right? And the Torah says, ... I can't explain it to you. There's no way for me to explain to you, to excite you about the agenda that I'm selling you. This? ... If you do it, you'll see. ... Why did the Rabbeinu Shalom make that they should die by Matan Torah? Why? What's wrong? We know, right, ... a person can't see the Eibishter and live. Maybe he can't hear the Eibishter and live. Like it says in the pasuk, Hashama am Elokim vayechi? You heard Hashem and you lived. Maybe it's not shayach. Only Moshe Rabbeinu could hear Hashem and live. But Moshe did so many nisim. He had to make that they died and then that they survived with techiyas hameisim. Why? And the teretz is, the Rabbeinu Sholem instilled in Matan Torah, Yid and Torah. And that is nafshi yatza bedabro, that the Yid gives his neshama to Torah, gives up his life for Torah, and that through Torah he lives, he's mechayeh. It gives him sustenance and life. Oy, ... mechayeh, it gives life. A Yid on Torah is meis, and with Torah he's chai, he's alive. Rabbeinu Sholem established that. Rabbeinu Sholem created the chaykus of a Yid by Matan Torah. This week, Yehuda came to the hospital to visit. I was in the hospital for a week. Yehuda with other talmidim of the yeshiva, they came. They want to share, they want to learn Torah. Mechadik, unbelievable. Cannot know yeshiva in the world you'll find a thing like this, that the yeshiva is sick and the talmidim...

Even come to yeshiva, to a hospital, to hear shiur. It's unbelievable, yeah? Not stop. Wasn't over here in Queens. They went to Columbia Presbyterian, Columbia. They went to Manhattan. Here, nit pashut, ah? You know, a lot of times when a yeshiva is sick, you know, the talmidim really thinking—habochrim have vacation today. Yeshiva's not saying shiur. You're laughing? I want to tell you something. The Alter from Kelm was about emes. He loved emes. The Talmud Torah, which was the keil, the keil was called Talmud Torah in Kelm. It burned down. The building burned down. So the Alter went over to Yungerman while the building was burning and everybody was running around in frantic, and he asked, What are you thinking about? So he said, I'm thinking, ah, nebach, churban habayis. The keil, the building of the beis medrash, it's burning to the ground. The tzaar, the yagon. He said, You're a liar. You're also thinking, now you have a week vacation. You have a week for deep down, you're also thinking, All right, I know it's rough mussar for the oilam to take. It's rough mussar. But in Kelm, they wanted we should be honest with our feelings. There's somewhere in the feeling, you hear, okay, when things are happening, it's interesting, exciting, the building burned down. Yeah, of course, avada, avada you have to say you feel very bad. You probably do feel bad. But somewhere in it, you know, there's— We don't have to come to Kelm now for a week. Came back, cook. I was gone for a week, and they came to the— So the Alter Rebbe can be very proud of you. Could have came with an excuse: You're not mechuyiv, you didn't have to. Okay. Yehuda, what did we see in the room over there? My roommate in the hospital room was an alter Yid, an old Yid, pious Yid, a very chashuv Yid. Not going to say his name in public, but Yehuda, you know who it is. He was a little bit off, Alzheimer's, you know. The minute we began the shiur, he woke up alive, and he was talking and learning and he was explaining. And the entire day after the shiur, all he talked about, he has to leave the hospital because he needs to go now to Rabbi Erp's shiur. He has to go now back to the shiur, to his shiur in his shul, and he needs to go. And his son was pushing him down and saying, Tata, you can't go. You have to be— No, I need to go learn. I need to go learn. You were there, Yehuda. You saw it. I'm not making this up. And what did the daughter say? Not— It's been a while since she saw her father like this. He's not well. He's old. He heard the Torah, he woke up. What is that? It's not calculated. It's chok. It's פנימיות, Rabbi Yisrael. פנימיות אהבת התורה. A Yid loves Torah. A Yid loves... This is, Kudsha Brich Hu v'Oraysa v'Yisrael chad. That's what you are. Torah is not what we do. Torah is what we are. That's the difference. Torah is not what we do. Torah is what we are. Torah is not what we learn. Torah is who we are. It's kucha bricha v'Yisrael. A person can be old. A person cannot know even what's going on around him. But the minute he is Torah, it's mechayeh him. He wakes up. His pnim is neshama. This is the chok, and that's the pshat, b'chukosai teileichu, derech. Teileichu is a derech. Kach hi darko shel Torah. It's the derech of Torah. It's the chok of Torah. It's what it is. B'chukosai teileichu, shetihu ameilim baTorah. Like the end with the following yesod: Shavuos is called Shavuos. Why is it called Shavuos? In the Torah, we don't even have a Yom Tov of Shavuos. It doesn't even exist. It just says, Atzeres. We don't even know what it is, what it is, where it is. Many say that the word Shavuos—many mefarshim learn it's lashon shvuah. It's a promise. We promise to keep the Torah, and the Ribbono Shel Olam promised to keep us as Klal Yisrael. We've spoken about it in the past, Shavuos, the double shvuah. Most mefarshim learn that it has to do with Sefiras HaOmer. Sefartem lachem... shiva shavuos. So the counting of the weeks, the Yom Tov is Shavuos.

It's interesting. How many days do we have to count Sefiras HaOmer? It says sheva shavuos, which is 49 days. But then it says, Tispor chamishim yom, which is 50 days. So take off your shoes and your stuff and whatever, however you count, however you do it. I don't know, and count. No, talk to me, huh? Fingers and toenails. 49 is not 50, and 50 is not 49, right? Sheva shavuos. So the Rosh in Maseches Pesachim says, not a kasha. The Torah rounds everything off to the nearest ten. So 49 is Tispor chamishim yom. The Rokeach says no. The Rokeach says that by saying Tenai Shvuos, Kiddush, Kiddush, we are saying it's the 50th day. There is 50 days. There's 49 days of counting. Tispor chamishim yom, there's another day that we count. We don't count hayom chamishim; we say hayom Shavuos, because Shavuos is the culmination of Sefiras HaOmer, and that's why it's called Shavuos. So what is it? The Yontif takes on the yesod of the counting, which is the preparation, hachanah, to the Yontif, right? In preparation, hachanah to the Yontif, right, we have Sefiras HaOmer. So Sefiras HaOmer is, at the end of that sefirah, becomes Shavuos, to the point that the name of the Yontif is Shavuos. The mefarshim talk that Shavuos, the Yontif, is all about Shavuos. Because the ikar is the hachana. In preparation to the Yontif, Shavuos is all about, because Torah is all about how much hachana you put into it. Pesach is whatever the mitzvos hayom of Pesach is. Shavuos is in the preparation; the culmination of the preparation turns into Shavuos, Kabbalas HaTorah. If you notice, when we actually mekabel the Torah was not on Vav Sivan. When were we mekabel the Torah? On Zayin. Hosif Moshe yom echad mida'ato. Moshe added one more day, so it was Zayin. So how could we have Yontif Shavuos for Kabbalas HaTorah? What? Vav. You notice we don't say it's Yom Matan Toraseinu. What do we say? It's Zman. It's in time. Nogahn Avraham speaks about in Shulchan Aruch. The point being, the mefarshim explain, the preparation at the end becomes the Shavuos. So in those days, meaning in the times of Matan Torah, they need an extra day. We do it in 49 days. Okay, so you understand that what is Shavuos? Shavuos is the end of the hachana of Sefiras HaOmer. And as the mefarshim explain, there's 49 days, there's 48 kinyanei haTorah. So every day you do another kinyan. Why do we have a 49th day? And the teretz is either to have all 48 together is day 49, or a chazarah, one day for chazarah. Okay, this nice, my grandfather speaks about it. The point being, the hachana is, is the Yontif. Because it's all in the hachanah, it's all in the preparation. Do you know we actually counted Sefiras HaOmer in the Midbar? Nothing to do with the Korban Omer. The Ramban in the end of Pesachim says that in the Midbar they counted two Matan Torah. Over the years I've come to understand something interesting. Maybe it's true there's a part of the Yom Tov which is the hachanah, the preparation, which is the Kinyanim and the 48 and the 49 and the chazarah of the Kinyanim. I got it. But you notice, when we count to something, it's in longing. When you long, when you look forward to something, you're excited for something. When it's chaviv, you count. A chasunah, you count down the days to the wedding. How many more days is it to the wedding? How many more days? How many more days is it to the wedding? Like money. When it's chaviv, yeah? You know what Kabbalas HaTorah is about? Minui, the counting to Kabbalas HaTorah. It's how much you're longing, waiting, the yomim shel chaslibo, the love, the amount of love you put into Torah.

That's Kabbalas HaTorah. When you're excited and you look forward. Now, of course, ... enjoy your cheesecake. Enjoy all the goodies of Yom Tov, but it's not what the Yom Tov is about. Yom Tov is about, you know, and I don't mean it in a bad way. I would rather not hear that someone should come to shul and say, Oh, I loved the cheesecake that my wife served yesterday. You know what he should say? I love the Torah. I love the Torah that I was mekabel. It's true, the hachanah, the sefirah, yes, in Acharonim it's brought that the hachanah creates the shvuos. But I would also like to bring out the sefirah is the look, the countdown, the longing, the kisuf, the waiting, the waiting, the yom simchas libo, the ahavah of Torah, because that is Kabbalas HaTorah. Kabbalas HaTorah is love, love, love, love. And love is when it's hard, when it's difficult. If the Ribono Shel Olam just wanted a good pshat in a Tosfos, malachim could have done the same thing. Malachim could have done the same thing, because malachim מסתמא have a much better head than we would ever have. The Ribono Shel Olam wants ameilus, because the Ribono Shel Olam wants ahavah, and that's the pshat, HaKadosh Baruch Hu mis'aveh. He wants us to have a taavah for ameilus baTorah, and He Himself, the Ribono Shel Olam, has a taavah that we should be עמל בתורה, because it's the ultimate expression of ahavah between HaKadosh Baruch Hu and Klal Yisrael. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.