Tisha B’Av: Understanding the Kinnos, Mourning the Churban, and Longing for Geulah

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. Many, many kinnes which address many, many different nekudos, many different chalakim of history in Klal Yisrael. Churban, the Churban, Tzara, Tzara. It's all a kiyum of kol hamisabel Yerushalayim. It's all michlal. All the churbanos, all the kinnos that we say is the kiyum of what Chazal told us to be misabel, on the aveil Yerushalayim. This is all going to be the kiyum, how you're misabel Yerushalayim. The kinnos have many different nekudos. A lot of it is zichronos, a lot of it is hekesh, a lot of it is mussar. A lot in the kinnos, a lot. Important to know that we can't obviously read every kinah and explain every line in every kinah. Yirmiyah spent his whole life, so he did his whole life. Yirmiyah's diary, all his hargashah in this kinah, this book of kinos, there's a lot. Yirmiyah spent—he was the ish haChurban. He was the person who called himself, Yirmiyah referred to himself. He was born for Churban. That's what he was born for. Who wrote the kinnos? Reb Leizer Kalir, most of them, most of them were by Reb Leizer Kalir. Reb Leizer Kalir, according to many, was a Rishon. The Rashba brings down he was Reb Leizer ben Reb Shimon. Some say he was Reb Leizer ben Arach. Some say he was a Rishon. But mechol hadeios, everything that he said and wrote is l'diuk, because I've even learned the same way you read a Rashi, you read a Rashba, you medayek in every word, because every word is kolel a lot. That's really the kinus. It could take many, many hours just even to ... sh'tzvei daikinus. Can't do it obviously. So what we'll do is we'll take out a yesod, maybe one or two lines and paragraphs from every kinah, vos vil der kinah. What does the kinah want us to do? What does he want us to feel? What are we being misabel for? What exactly is the aveilus? So yesod b'sheirish avodah brings down an interesting thing, an interesting yesod. Shaar tes, perek yud-beis, he says after seudas hamafsekes, yomar, he has to say, Hareini mekabel al atzmi chamisha inuyim l'his'abel u'l'konen, on four things. He breaks it down to four yesodos. Vos is aveilus, vos is the avodah fun Tishah B'Av? What are we doing today? Four things. Before yesod, there's four things that we're trying to accomplish, and that is to be mesabel al churban Beis Hamikdash. Now we understand. Al galus haShechinah kedoshah. The second thing is for the galus haShechinah. So one is the Beis Hamikdash. The second thing is galus haShechinah. The third thing says, yesod v'shoresh haavodah, galus Am Yisrael, am kadosh. A lot of it is about galus Yisrael. The Rabbeinu Shlom's galus and Klal Yisrael's galus; it's two separate inyanim. The fourth thing is al harigas hatzadikim v'am kadosh. What happens, the hereg, the retzach, the murder of so much yidden during these churbanos. This, according to the yesod v'shoresh haavodah, is what we're trying to address in all the kinos. So the Kedushas Levi is mosif. The Levi explains, there's a sefer called Shivtei Tevah, Pashas Devarim. He says to make up a rule, list of what we're looking for in the kinos, in the aveilus, it's shlosha shehein shisha, three which is six.

What is three? Al churban Beis Hamikdash, al churban Yerushalayim, al galus Yisrael, which is really what the Yesod v'Shoresh HaAvodah said: the churban Beis Hamikdash, churban Yerushalayim, and galus Yisrael. Now, we will continue through the kinos to explain: is it about the Beis Hamikdash? Is it about Yerushalayim? It's a very important nekudah that gets overlooked. Ashtus, we say it's a aveilus on the Beis Hamikdash. In Eicha, most of it is about Yerushalayim. Eicha, yosvah vadad ha'ir, ha'ir, ha'ir, ha'ir rabasi am. Yet in the kinos later, as we read a lot about Yerushalayim much later, is it about Beis Hamikdash? Is it about Yerushalayim? We can talk about it later. But churban Yerushalayim, al galus Yisrael, and what are the six that come from these three? Tzar al chilul Shem Shamayim. Back to the name of the Ribono Shel Olam is nischalel. Fifth thing is tzar al siluk Shechinah, which we spoke about last night. Hester panim, siluk Shechinah to a Yid, that's a tremendous tzaar. That's what we talk a lot about this throughout the kinos, and we miss the Eibishter. It's siluk Shechinah, the hester panim. Vav, the sixth thing is Ribono Shel Olam's tzaar. Don't realize. So, Chassidus shebaher, which is very interesting, I learned this from, says that Rabbeinu is usually baShamayim. We are baaretz. We have to connect to Shamayim. It says that there's a zman during the Kinnos, we can be very close to the Eibishter and ask whatever you want. Why? Because Rabbeinu is sitting on the floor with us, sitting next to you on the floor. Means Reb Pinchas Koritzer says this idea: Amol, the Eibishter is far away. Here the Eibishter seems shivah with us, sitting with us on the floor, so you can turn to the Rabbeinu and say, This is tzarah shechinah. We only understood that the aveilus is a twofold aveilus. We're being misabel, and the Rabbeinu is also being misabel. There's a lot of talk in Acharonim of teshuvah, which gets overlooked, right? We don't realize that today is a day of teshuvah. The Rambam we spoke yesterday, what's the inyan? Thursday is a day of teshuvah, the whole taanis is a teshuvahdikes, an act of teshuvah. So a lot of the things that we talked about today — shas maaseh, tachkin, patach b'zahbasa — we did things wrong, we have to fix the things. Sometimes it gets overlooked when we talk about the churban and the tremendous loss that we have. Pashut teshuva, simple. Sometimes the most simple things is the ikar of all ikar. What's a teshuva talk? If it's about lashon hara, it's about sinas chinam. These are things that we're gorem, things better areas that we have to fix. Pashut, plain and pashut. A lot is zechronos, a lot of memories of the days that were to the days that are now. Hashiveinu Hashem eilecha v'nashuva is also a very big part of the kinos. What do I mean? In the time when we misabel of the avar, a lot of the kinos is about the asid, hope that it's going to be good. I'll show you throughout the kinos, even within the kinos itself, eichah yashiv, eichah mamash, it's terrible and terrible. Yesh tikvah, there's hope, and there's Hashiveinu, echadesh yameinu kekedem, in the same sentence, in the same paragraph. A lot of it is aveilus of avar, which is also the emunah and the tikvah that it will be good in the future.

Because I'll tell us Moshiach, it's going on Tisha B'Av. In the aveilus, in the aveilus, there's a part of it about Moshiach v'kumin, and you put the teg on, so we kumin. That's a lot of the kinos is about that. Aharon HaKohen, what did he want? Aharon HaKohen wanted by the Mikdash. He wanted to be part of the Mishkan, the Chanukas HaMishkan. He felt bad, v'lo yehuv, v'lo shivtei. So the Ribbono Shel Olam promised him, Lecha, what's yours will be kayam l'olam. What I give you in the Mishkan will be forever. What will I give you? I'll give you hadlakas hamenorah. You do, everybody knows this, right? The Ribbono Shel Olam says, Aharon, you'll get to light the menorah. Why is it shelcha gadol and it's kayam l'olam? How is it kayam l'olam? The Ramban says because we have, till today, we have menorah, we have the mitzvah hadlakas menorah in the home. So you see the menorah was l'olam. He once spoke, very interesting, the he'ara. Aharon's—what was Aharon? Aharon was that he wanted, nichsaf, he had a kisuf, the longing to be part, the תשוקה to be part of the Beis Hashem. The avodah of Hashem. Shelcha, taim l'oylam. What do we have in golus? What do we have in golus? We have something which is very big, and that is, as we know, teshuvah. That's kayim l'olam. That chelek of the avodah is l'olam. A lot of the kinus is kisufim, longing for the Beis Hamikdash. There's many ways our person shall do avodah. You could shtell tzu to avodah by doing avodah, and even maybe more so, you could shtell tzu to avodah by a mensch's will, cheshek, longing. There's a beautiful maaseh for Reb Chaim Zonenfeld. Beautiful maaseh. Reb Chaim Zonenfeld went with his rebbe, Rav Ashlag. Rav Ashlag was the rebbe of Reb Chaim Zonenfeld. They went to the Kosel, the first Shabbos. They went to the Kosel when they came to Yerushalayim. And the rebbe started to cry by Kabbalas Shabbos, Mikdash, melech, ir meluchah, kumi, tzei mitoch hafeichah, rav lach sheves, be'emek habacha, v'hu yachmol. So it sounds very big, right? Rav lach sheves, be'emek habacha, v'hu yachmol alayich chemla. He started to dance in the middle. ... He cried by Mikdash Melech, ... ומתוך ... בשמחה. ... ולעולם ... Availus in Klal Yisroel is always with hope. There's no such thing that we say that's miyu'ash. It's a very important nekudah. When you are misabel today, the aveilus is not a yi'ush. The aveilus is not a ... The Rogatchover ... is an interesting shailah: How did Yirmiyah write Eichah? Eichah is binevuah, and we know nevuah is only מתוך שמחה. It's a ... How was Yirmiyah able to write Eichah? אין השכינה שורה אלא מתוך שמחה. Nevuah needs simchah. ... It's behechrech that it wasn't a chisaron in simchah. Even when he wrote it, he wrote it from simchah. You know, there's a pasuk: שישו איתה משוש כל המתאבלים עליה.

Sisu oisem, sois means to זיין צופרידן. Kol hamesa'abel, those that—why? Because leather is misa'abel, will be zoche to the simcha. The Mechaber's lashon says, no, you don't understand the pasuk. The pasuk is saying, afilu when there's misa'abel, it has to be sisu oisah l'sos. I'll tell you a pelladige zach. The hergesh of aveilus mitoch simcha, aveilus mitoch simcha. I want to tell you a pelladige zach. It's a Tosfos Rabbeinu... a davar shel pele. Al naharos Bavel, sham yashavnu gam bachinu, talinu kinoroseinu. The end of the perek, the... they hung up their musical instruments, sham talinu kinoroseinu. Eich nashir es shir Hashem. Chazal in Yalkut Shimoni, Tehillim, kuf lamed zayin, explains that the goyim forced the Yidden to play music, to continue with the play shir while they were going into galus. It's interesting how history repeats itself. The Nazis, yimach shemam, used to make the Yidden play music. Now they're doing different tzaros. So they said that they can't. Why? Because katzu, the heinois, they cut off their fingers. Fingers got cut off because they didn't say shirah, they stopped using the kli hamikdash to say shirah in such a time. The neregu, because of that, they got killed because they didn't want to do this shirah. The Medrash says they were choshesh that they're going to use it like they're saying shirah to avodah zarah. States in Medrash that that's when the Ribbono Shel Olam said, ... Yerushalayim. The Ribbono Shel Olam said, ... Yerushalayim. We always think ... Yerushalayim, because we say it. Chazal tell us the Ribbono Shel Olam was the first one to say, ... Yerushalayim, tishkach yemini. Now you understand? All the aveilos that we do, the Ribbono Shel Olam was the first mesabel with these aveilos. It's actually the Ribbono Shel Olam. We're being misabel, and the aveilos, the Eibishter. It's a peledike medrash. Rabosai, it's a peledike medrash. Who said, ... Yerushalayim? We say something. The Ribbono Shel Olam said. When He saw this, when He saw that they refused to sing, to play shirah, to sing for the avodah zarah. There's a Tosafos in Avodah Zarah, Yevamos, Pei Vav amud aleph, that the Bnei Levi, there's a ta'ina on them that they didn't sing shirah at that time. And because of that, the chachamim punished them and took away ma'aser. It's a Tosafos, rabosai, a terrible Tosafos. They were punished because they should have said shirah. At that time, when they were leaving, and the goyim were saying— Say shira, sing, continue singing. The Leviim should have continued singing. And because of that, they lost the ma'aseh. I saw that Chaim Zaitchik, zichrono tzaddik livrachah, explains, where is the taina? I mean, that's the good thing. Takkeh, do you see the Yidden? Because they didn't sing, the Ribono Shel Olam said, Im eshkachech Yerushalayim, tishkach yemini. So it's a good thing what they did, that the Leviim didn't want to say shira. Says Rav Chaim Zaitchik, they should have had emunah and bitachon, and they should have believed that the Yeshua comes. Sing shira. Sing shira. Don't give up, because there's emunah to the last second. Sing shira. Rabosai, in every matzav, the inyan of emunah, of geulah, is a chelek of the avodah. It's a chelek of the avodah. It's a chelek that the geulah is going to come at any moment.

I hear it. I hear it from the Chark, and I hear this from ... See this Yid. The Toiser Rebbe used to stare out the window throughout the Kinnes. Why? Every moment of Shemoneh Esrei. ... It's always with the geulah kumpt. The geulah is going to come. We can read an entire ... Aganz ... Shemeinu Hashem Elokeinu v'ashuvah, chadeish yameinu kikedem. In one minute, it turns around. Yeshuas Hashem k'heref ayin. Yeshuas Hashem k'heref ayin. You know, when a person is in galus and he doesn't realize there's anything wrong, so mimeila nisht tachteg in the churban, or nisht tachteg in the geulah. He doesn't think about either of the two. A mensch is tief, a mensch is tief in the galus. Right away, right away, he's able to have this emunah. I don't know if you look. Let's take a look at the first kinnah. The first kinnah. We're going to explain a lot of nekudos in the first kinnah because if Reb Leizer Kalir chose this to be the opening, this is the opening. Chaz v'shalom, what does Reb Leizer Kalir want? So look at the second paragraph. ונפלה ידינו בצולת גויים. Eini chipsa l'chazon ben Brechi. Nafloi deinu is before we fall into a bitul, chuya. Chuya means a state of real oppression, az eini. Ayiyush. Right away, eini chipsa l'chazon ben Brechi. I look for the nevuah. My eyes look already forward to the chazon, for the nevuah of the ben Brechi, of, like, Mitz Hashem, yeshruz kenim, this is Reb Akiva. Even when the person seems to be, everything is lost, in the beginning of the kinnis, the first thing, huh? It's the first thing. Nafloi deinu, right away, aleph, vav, from the first kinah to the next. Nafloi deinu. Nafloi deinu b'tzel chuya. Before I fall into a chuya, what do you call it, oppressed, an oppression, right? Eini chipsa. I look forward for the geulah. Chazon ben Brechi. Avelus is not atzvus. Avelus is not atzvus. Sisu alav m'sais. Okay, it's m'sais, makes a person happy. I don't know if you know the lashon of the Gemara: kol hamisabel al Yerushalayim, zoche v'roeh nechamah. What's the famous...? Everyone says what? Nechamah. But the Gemara says nechamah. The Gemara says, people in school... a medrash is mashma binyan, right? But pashut, the lashon of the Gemara, you'll be zocheh to the simcha that the Zafsofes says, you do work, it's not yiske b'asid, you'll be zocheh now. So what, you'll be zocheh now b'simchasah. How are you zocheh now b'simchasah? The teretz is, the aveilus alein, abrengt simcha. The aveilus alein, abrengt—it's something which needs to be explained. And the truth is, rabosai, it always doesn't make sense. How could it be that aveilus brings simcha? The teretz is, midaf shtein aveilus, u'midaf shtein simcha. Midaf shtein aveilus, u'midaf shtein simcha. Shavas suru many. What is the word shavas here? So pashut means shavas came to a standstill, and that's how most of the meforshim explain shavas. The world came to a standstill. Mein velt is nisht azoy. There's an expression, life as usual. The velt geit vayter, the velt geit. Nein, the velt geit nisht vayter, and it's not life as usual. Azoi lernen reivig the meforshim on the word shavas, shevita.

Stop. You know, the Gemara tells us, b'etzem, me'az churban HaMikdash, they want to aser everything: eating fish, eating fruit. The Gemara says they would get aser water, so lechem of droyk v'asser. It's a pshat. And the Chazal say they saw that the olam couldn't handle it, but b'etzem that's what they wanted to do. And lechem from mensh was over. The Beis HaMikdash is out there. Shavas means the lechem came to a stop. The Gemara tells us that the Kohanim went up to the gag of the Beis HaMikdash and they returned the key. What did they do? He went and they fell to misah. They committed suicide. It's a big kashya, the Rishonim, how are they allowed to do that? We'll talk about that; the Kinnos addresses the shaylah there. In matzavim of churban, if you're allowed to commit suicide. It's one of the later on kinnos. It's one of the big topics of the Rishonim, mahandle, because it's mashma that it was a good thing throughout. Here the Gemara tells us the story of the boat, the famous Gemara Gittin, that the children, the boys, the girls, so they went and they drowned themselves. Big shaylah what's the heter. It's a big topic; we'll discuss it a little later. But the Kohanim fell to misah. They fell off. They killed themselves. So what's the pshat? They were trying to teach Klal Yisrael, the lechem shinoi. This hechsher, the left. The life is over. We lost the Beis Hamikdash, and life is not... There's no life there. Shavas, people stop. Now, I know it's almost impossible for us to understand what this. It's something very, very schwer because we're so rachok from it. ... some had this explanation: on Torah and mitzvos, not alive. It was not alive. It does say such... Beis Hamikdash. That's the Beis Hamikdash called, Ki hi beis chayeinu. We say, what is beis chayeinu? What does it mean? The translation: this is my life. How? It means that you lived at beis chayeinu. This was his private... That's obviously not what it means, right? ... Beis chayeinu means das... Yid's leben is in Beis Hamikdash. Again, we're far from it. I understand that. ... This is the ideals and hashkafos, what Chazal and the ... are explaining. This is our life with the Beis Hamikdash. Ein li ela... Ani yeshena v'libi er, says Chazal, what's libi? Zeh Beis Hamikdash. My whole heart is the Beis Hamikdash. Lashon of the Medrash. So Shabbos means that the life stopped. The life stopped. There's another pshat in Shabbos, Rebbe. Many learn, which is really more muchach, it's based on the pasuk in Eicha. The pasuk in Eicha says, Shabbos mesos li many, Shabbos mesos libeinu, which means our happiness stopped. So some translate Shabbos, tzaddikus pataitshin Shabbos means my life stopped. From Eicha, the word Shabbos is Shabbos mesos libeinu, our happiness. You know, today, rabosai, we think we're happy, but there's an unhappiness that we don't recognize. U'mfurash stam derech, אי שמחה... Shabbos means that the simcha stopped. Shabbos, the simcha stopped. Even things, even things which are mesameach us, it's not really... because that's not really... You know, every day when we eat, we make a mezonos, we make a bracha, right? What's the bracha?

V'samcheinu b'sikulah. Vareinu b'vinyanay, v'samcheinu b'sikulah. What is v'samcheinu b'sikulah? You see clearly that there's a simcha that he has from the Beis HaMikdash was up. Samcheinu, simcha chatzufan miBeis HaMikdash. I think maybe we could say a pshat. What's the chiluk between simcha and sasson? What's the difference between simcha and sasson? Simcha is on the spot, at the moment, is simcha. Sasson is something that continues. It's a continuous simcha. Hamenshech es basa b'yayin. Ein simcha ela b'basar v'yayin. Sasson is something that continues. I'll tell you where we see this from. There's a very famous pshat. Sasson nochi alimrosecha k'motzei shalal rav. So what's sass? It's a thing, something which is continuously makes you happy, sass. Sasson nochi alimrosecha. You know, when something you have continuous, it loses. V'ilai ken hasasson, how long can something continuously make you happy? And the answer is, okay, wears off. K'motzei shalal rav. The sasson is such a sasson that it's k'motzei. Shalom rav, like ice, for the first moment, that excitement. The lashon is, saason u'simcha, kol hamisabel aleha. It's a continuous simcha. Zocher v'ro'eh b'nechamasah, yes, the simcha, but that simcha continues with the person, kol hamisabel aleha. In many ways, Tisha B'Av, we take it with you. It's a yesod. Right after Tisha B'Av, what do we have? V'hayu yomim tovim l'Yisrael. Right after Tisha B'Av. Uvas hasimcha, chasim kalah. We're mixing so many things, and when there's a chasan kalah, what do we say? ... al rosh simchasam. Uv'gleich mach, Tisha B'Av. ... Yomim tovim l'Yisrael, that they used to make chasan kalah. You see that the simchas, the rosh simchasi. What's the rosh simchasi? Chasan kalah. Das is shayach ... Tisha B'Av. And the answer is, ... the simcha. I want to tell you something that really, today we're going to talk a lot of hergesh, and I'm going to say a lot of interesting stories that I experienced. Maybe they don't talk to you, they talk to me. I learned something very big. You know, sometimes a maaseh, sometimes, not pashut, can teach more than hours of mussar. See, I just spoke to you, and I explained to you the simple penayidus of Beis Hamikdash. I saw in one simple moment in a story. It was Pashut a Yid, my father's shul, he was Mr. Ziegel, a pashute Yid. He had a stroke. He was 38 years old, 38. Half his body was paralyzed. The Yid of Gornisht knew. The emes is, he didn't know very much. Of ein zacher, he was. He used to be the first person in shul, no matter rain, shine, snow. I used to— I was the one to wake up at six o'clock in the morning to open the door for him, because he had to be there 6:30 for a 7 o'clock minyan. He had to be there, and I had to wake up at six to be there to make sure to open the door, because he had to be the first one in the beis medrash. That was his thing. And then everyone had to come and hear bruchos. He used to say bruchos, he had to answer. All right, this was more than this. He knew nothing, just the daf. That was it. Daf yomi, kiyum hamitzvos. When he got sick, I went to visit him in his house.

I know he suffered terrible. He had tremendous yisurim at the end of his life. I walked into the house. He tells me, Arale, you're not going to believe what the doctor told me. I thought for sure he's going to tell me. You'll learn this today, rabosai. I used to be called Arale. Growing up in my father's shul, I was Arale, okay? So you're going to hear a lot of stories about Arale. So I thought he's going to tell me that the doctor told him, he says, The doctor ... came ... shul Rosh Hashanah. I thought for sure he's going to tell me that the doctor gave him—he told me, Doctor, we get him good news, he tells me. Good refuah this, that. He tells my doctor. I said to him, U'voses miteh bezon? He says, Ach, ... nit azoy gut, he tells me. ... not as good. And he even told me good. He told me, I was able to come Rosh Hashanah to shul. You know, ... we start to understand what Yiddishkeit used to look like. The golus, as they continue, the Yid then, and she changes, revolves. And when you look to the Frierdige doros, you see what was the ... Yid, and possibly the Ribono Shel Olam put that Yid in Holocaust, he knew he could survive it. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. There was an emunah peshutah. It was something very big and special. Not to heed the ramot. What was his ikar simcha? Coming in shul, learning, davening. That's what it was. Today we search for other simchas. So Shabbos, Shabbos means a person has to know that his simcha, that his simcha stops. So this is the first kinnah: Shabbos ... shmuni ... There's all the big things that happened. Naflo ideinu b'tzaltchuyah, and you have to know this in the beginning, that no matter how much we're going to talk about terrible churban, it's with sasson, it's with simcha. The zaktish can pachlen, because it's with an emunah of chevsel hachazayin bein brechi. This is the first kinnah, and we'll continue. Okay, so Shabbos ...

Next kina, Eicha atzta ka'apecha. Atzta means quickly. You got angry at Klal Yisroel. It means about quick. Atzta is the lashon. It's a quick getting angry. You know, when you love somebody, you get angry fast. It's a siman that there's something wrong. There's a very famous Gemara. The Gemara says that one of the reasons a person is allowed to be megaresh his wife is going to one man d'amar if she did tefshilah, she burnt the soup. Rabbi Eliezer... That's a reason to divorce your wife. That's a reason to get rid of a wife, because she burnt the soup. ... Sometimes a ... can say, if this gets you angry, it's a סימן there was no אהבה. We're asking Eibishter, where's the אהבה? This kid is a very shtarke kid. I don't think you realize a lot of ... Who's the Eibishter? It's a very difficult question in the ... in the ... So, איכה. What is איכה? איכה means ... according to many, ayeka, ... It's a ... Even ... What are you worried? In the concentration camps, someone had this question, and they thought, איכה, אַצטו, there's such mehirus. Where is all the אהבה? ... Who is the menachem meishiv nafshi? Who is it? The Ribono Shel Olam. Azoy zogt der Alshich: Virachak mimeni menachem meishiv nafshi. That itself, al eila nivechirah. This is what the sefer, the ... tells us. We're crying about the siluk haShechinah, the hester panim. It's a big part of the aveilus. There's a vort from the Lechem Dimah: Shivchi kamayim libeich, nochach pnei Hashem. Usually Hashem is spelled hei with a dagesh, right? Yud-kei-vav-kei. Here it's spelled out, Adnus. He says, why is it spelled Adnus? He says, it should have been nochach pnei Hashem, the shem Hashem. So he explains that you don't understand what it means. It doesn't mean nochach pnei Hashem, in front of. That's what we're crying about, that we're not nochach pnei Hashem. The Ribono Shel Olam. Vos, vos veiner? The Ribono Shel Olam. That's nochach. Why are we not nochach pnei Hashem? If you look at the kinah.

We speak zecheira Hashem meh hayolanu. Remember what we had. Many patachs, meh hayolanu means what happened to us. What happened? I don't think that's the pshat in meh hayolanu. Meh hayolanu is what we did. Look at the ... everyone is b'loy zacharta. The ... dilug. See, look at each one. B'loy zacharta Bris bein habesarim. The second one, b'loy zacharta dilug. Derech ... the midbar, that You took care of us in the midbar. B'loy zacharta v'esek beser ... is the Sanhedrin where they used to come together. B'loy zacharta chitun, the chasanah of chukei chayir v'shachachtan l'chamelecha. We're talking about the zmanim of ahavah, the times when we were so close to the Ribono Shel Olam. So we ask the Eibishter, ... remember that. Where is that? This is zachor. We're trying to sing, ... that there was tremendous ahavah. Where did that happen? Eicho atzta, how so quickly could you turn? ... is a tremendous bechirah. I keep with me all the time. I don't think it's interesting. I made my son make me a copy of it in the yeshiva ... before Tishah B'Av. He made me a copy, but I keep this with me all the time. It's a piece of a ... a holy piece of a ... When you sing the song, Nishbati eschem, ... you'll hear it tight from the goyim. Nishbati eschem. I make you a promise. I promise, Nishbati eschem b'nois Yerushalayim. Im timtzu es dodi, mah tagidu lo? What are you going to tell him? תגידו לו. What are you going to tell him? So, you know what it is when a person wants—there's so much to say, right? ... Mah tagidu lo? Shecholah ahavah ani. Zogt the goyim, mikol hatzaros shemetzauni. From all the things that I went through, all my tzaros, when you meet the Eibishter, should you tell Him about all this? Al tagidu lo yoser. Don't tell Him. Just tell Him one thing: Shecholah ahavah ani, shezeh kasheh li yoser mikulam, ma shehu nifrad mimeni. Don't tell Him all my tzaros. Tell Him my biggest tzarah. What's my biggest sorrow? Shecholah ahavah. ... It's a peledige goyim. The Ribbono Shel Olam, tell Him about what you went through in all the galus. Don't tell Him. Nishbati, I make you a promise. I don't want you to tell Him anything. I want you to tell Him one thing: Ki cholah ahavah ani, shezeh kasheh li yoser mikulam. All my tzaros, this is my biggest sorrow. Ma shehu niflat. Sounds familiar? I mentioned the last pillar, choylim. What is my biggest choylim? What is my biggest? What is my biggest sorrow? What could the doctor tell me bad news and good news? I said, Ken gein, shul, Hashem gave me a tip. This guy, he said, You don't understand, but you're saying this of vas amal... You have a glimpse of it sometimes. This is zechoyv. We ask the Eibishter to remember all the ahavah. Here is the ahavah, and the nisyonos. Who is the kesher? So, eicha Atzko. Okay, to say eicha Atzko... Ade avchin, ade... ad is all different nisyonos, keeps on going. Ad vehofcha. These are all different nisyonos of cries and screams and thechiyah, because the truth is every emotion...

A person's ... should be what he feels for the Beis HaMikdash. Yeda l'nosa, adveh, havchah, ozda, tzitrim, tzaar. Why? Because without ... every human emotion that a person can have for ... that's this kinah. But there's interesting in the kinah, Adve b'cholev l'hamtzieini. You see it, rabosai? One, two, three, four, the fourth paragraph. Adve b'cholev. My heart is ... Adve b'cholev l'hamtzieini ... to find him. Again, every kinah k'mat is the same nekudah: pester, and I search to find ... Every k'mat, every kinah. Shir haShirim does this, does this, folks, looking and finding. It's hiding, ... machbui. And you're saying, what do I need? My real ... My real ... is to say that children play machbui, hide-and-seek. It's really what's hidden in galus. My real ... Very interesting, my real ... You see, I always think to myself that a lot of the things around us, a lot of the ... is really to teach us this. Yesterday we spoke about the ... Now I want to tell you something. People think babies cry because they're babies. I would say babies cry because they're pure. A child is pure. The pure of the child... A lot of things we think, ah, see, our kleinekeit. Who would imagine that the Iron Go Seek, the maril distin, would learn by yesoid. ... He went to high, and that's shiur, shiur. So let's take a look, one little part of the kinah. Sakosa be'anan me'avor tefilasi. What is sakosa? You covered yourself with an anan, with a cloud, me'avor tefilasi. My tefillah can't go through. So what is that? It's like hidden in a cloud. אמר ה' לשכן בערפל. ... it's hidden. ... וירד ה' בענן ויתיצב עמו שם. Honestly, is it sakosa be'anan me'avor tefilasi? What does it mean? Sakosa be'anan me'avor tefilasi, which means you covered yourself so my tefillah can't go through. וירד ה' בענן ויתיצב... In ... the teretz is, the sakoysa means it's padek from the pnimiyus, but in there, Vayeired Hashem be'anon, vayisyatzev imo. Hashem is there with you. Yes. You know, today they have this famous song, ... gam ani nimtza sham. This is what we see in galus. Sometimes from the sakoys alein, in the onon, Vayeired Hashem, the Ribono Shel Olam comes down, vayisyatzev imo sham. So we'll say the kinah. We'll say the kinah of ... Adat chug haShamayim, am iti shamayim.

ChatGPT. Eichos sifarti, merashoisai hishlichu. So each kinah ends with the chacham. U'kayeim sei leichu, then it's v'nosati gishmeichem b'itam, v'nasati lachem dayesh basir. This is all the brachos: ונתתי גשמיכם, ונָתַתִּי מִשְׁכָּנִי, וְהִתְהַלַּכְתִּי בְּתוֹכְכֶם, וְלֹא תִשְׁמְעוּ, then of course there's the klalos. So, tifarti. You know, a lot of the aveilos is about Ashreichem Yisrael, she'atem oylim, what you were capable of achieving, the gedulah and the geulah that you're able to achieve. Ashreichem Yisrael, she'atem notlim ein umah nofeles lifneichem. So you have the bracha, and then you have the klalah. Tifarti mirashosai hishlichu. A lot of aveilos is, when you understand what could have been, u'vos nidfalarin, u'punzera maaseh. A person, when he loses something because he caused it, there's a pain in that also. Some of the greatest aveilos is built.

In the Beis Hamikdash, aveilus part of it is not only what we lost, but the built that we felt, lost, and farvosn. Bechukosai teileichu, we could have had tremendous bracha, tremendous things. Tifarti mirasha'isai hishlichu. Who's hishlichu? They threw. Tifarti mirashai u'keneged kisi hakavod tzelem Elokim, the chalomam t'nai asher chozayin imlachu, namnu bechukosai teileichu. Takele b'tchinah, to the middle. Kumi dafni. Shavi aldon. Pasha chiluchi b'num bimpeltiim. The way we react is the way the Eibishter reacts with us.

After the last ... I will go with you. It's almost like we led the churban. So, kumi dafki. We have to take the first step. Dafki, Shavu, al domi, don't keep quiet. There's a very famous shaila. When Golus ends, when Golus ends, as the Eidus says, okay, I'm going to take you out of Golus, it has to be that we do the first step. Who does the first step to get us out of Golus? In the Eidu we say, Hashiveinu Hashem eilecha v'nashuva. Ribbono Shel Olam, you take us out. You take us out. Yet, the Ribbono Shel Olam says, Shuva eilai, v'ashuva eilecha. You have to take the first step. Who has to? You know, there's two zmanim when the Golus will end. It's b'itah and achishena. What's the chiluk between the b'itah and achishena? That's the chiluk. So the b'itah means, when we will bring Mashiach, b'itah, when it's proper time, then. Achishena means, I awaited, which means when we're not worthy, we don't deserve it, there's two zmanim. When Mashiach is going to come, when the geulah is going to come, there's a b'eitah, a time. And then there's achishenah, a wayus, which means it's not going to come from anything that we do. Kumi dafki, shavi aldami. Sometimes the klap. Here he's saying there's a time, there's midas, to push. It's a big shaila in halacha: are you able to push the time of geulah? If you notice, midavin, meheirah, meheirah u'seichatach, meheirah u'seichatach. I don't think— is it the time to come? It's not the time to come. What's going to be with all the tikkunim of the galus that we're supposed to fix? Yeder galus, there's a reason why we go through galus. Are we able to doiches hasha? We know that one of the shalosh shvuos was that we won't be doiche. We're not going to push your way back into Eretz Yisrael. Why not? Why not? Why is it one of the things— it's one of the shalosh shvuos, cause one of the greatest controversies about coming back to Eretz Yisrael. Why? Is there a thing, sh'lo tidchak? Why not? Push the geulah, push it. The teretz is because the Ribono Shel Olam knows how much galus we need, and therefore midasaken zayn. V'loy b'nisht, we're not ready to go. This Leonard ever once told me something interesting about. Those years that I was in the Y, ... How I ended up in the Y, basically, why I was there, I don't know. It's one of the whys that I have. Williamsburg, today the Spinka shul across the street from the hall, the Spinka shul, right from the wall from the Satmar, across the street, that big building, the Spinka, right? Yeah, across the street from the Satmar hall. From the hall where they, in Williamsburg, that big building, some shul. It used to be the Y. We went there. I have no idea where. In the summers we used to go because there was no charge, no charge, and my father was happy there, so we used to go there. I have no idea why we ended up there. And ein safek, I was zoche to mashen di yonim for the Spinka. The Spinka is right next door there. We needed minyanim; it was very hard. We used to pull us over all the time, tell us things. Remember he told me something very interesting. He said that even though in al pi doiches Hashem, of tefillah, the tefillah negative. Doiches Hashem means you can't—

Kumi davki, shabi al domi. Come on, mench, get up. Okay, we deserved. We deserved. We were over on all the things, the pikudei... The koach hatefillah is able to take us out from galus even if we don't deserve it. Even if we don't deserve. Tefillah. Kumi, get up. Davki. Claping and tears. Shavi al domi. ... me'eretz ... ... v'... ... We'll continue the next... enிலையில். Hello.

Next kinah, Chatzeles HaSharon, Chatzeles HaSharon roses. How did the Chatzeles HaSharon, keiv roses, sharoin, the doma ro'in mipnei nosei orim. Then it goes to all the different mishmoros. This is Bach, sif katan, chamesh esrei, k'nera kohen v'navi b'yom hakippurim. So we lost the mishmorei kehuna because of tzcharya, was killed. Beis Hamikdash, kohen v'navi, killed the kohen v'navi, so mimeila we lost the mishmorei kehuna. You notice the word Chatzeles HaSharon has to do with Shir HaShirim, has to do with the beauty of Klal Yisrael. What is the beauty of Klal Yisrael? So we have the kohanim, this would be the elite, the elite of Klal Yisrael. You notice that the small kohanim, they're called pirchei, pirchei kehuna, meloshon perachim, flowers. The kohanim was part of the sheinkeit of the Beis Hamikdash. But there's another very interesting part of the kinah: Hayu oyvim malivim b'lechem, kibitlu haloi peraos liro'ei lechem. Because we stopped giving food to the aniyim, v'chutz mi'mayim u'milechem, therefore kibitlu shtei halechem mibeis lechem. So we talked about tzedakah. There's a part of the kinyan here, is that tzedakah, we stop with tzedakah. One story from my rebbe, Rav Elsky: Chatzelos HaShorim. What is Chatzelos HaShorim? It's the beauty of Klal Yisroel. One of the most beautiful things about Klal Yisroel is their kayach to give chesed, to do tzedakah. They stand out, sheshanah bein hachochim, in the nekudah of giving chesed. How many times do we see, veldt outside in the world, they talk about Klal Yisroel's ability to do chesed. The goyim don't understand this. Two years, if I told you an interesting story. We were in the hospital. All year we were in the hospital. The people in the shul here used to come all the time, day and night. They used to come to visit. If you remember, it was flu season. They didn't let anyone into the hospital, period. Definitely not after visiting hours. And they used to come. So I once asked one of the people in the shul, I asked him, How were you able to get through? He said, You never heard of a bottle of wine? He didn't know how to do it. We bring the guy a bottle of wine, and he lets us in. The head nurse came to complain. She came to complain to me, and she said to me, It's not right. It's not right for the other, the other chaylim on the floor. Even like constantly coming, constantly coming, and it's not right, and there's rules, and it's not fair. I never heard from her again. Never. So a few weeks later, I asked her, I sent her, Tell me, I see that you don't care. You let everybody. And she says, No. What happened was, we had a meeting of the nurses. The nurses said, If you're going to try to stop them, it's not going to work anyway. Chesed, this thing that they love, you might as well turn a blind eye and leave it alone. Forget it. There's no way to stop. There's no way to stop the chesed of Klal Yisrael. This is something which is called chatzelos Hashoin. We stood out in things that we developed, and this had a lot to do with the fact that we have hashraas hashchina, hashraas hashchina in Klal Yisrael. I don't know if you realize that most of mitzvos hatluyos baaretz—what is mitzvos hatluyos baaretz?

How is davening mitzvah teluyah ba'aretz? What's that? Pashut zach. What's mitzvah? So korbanos, it's not really teluyos ba'aretz, because makriv mafik she'ein ba'aretz. Right? I don't think it's. Eretz, maybe it's Beis HaMikdash. Mitzvas hateluyos ba'aretz is all chesed, giving, paying, ma'aser. It's all about giving and giving and giving. Chavtzeles haSharon, the shevach for Klal Yisrael is the nekudah that Eretz Yisrael means Eretz, it's stuffed with, מלא חסד, and that's mikdushas Eretz Yisrael. Kedushas Eretz Yisrael means the land itself. U'mah was its kedushaso? To be in trumos u'ma'asros. Why is that kedushaso? Because their chesed is really kedushah. So Chavtzeles haSharon, you know, we talk about golsi me'artzo. I want you to know, there's certain parts of ... that touch my soul. Golsi me'artzo, kalo mekushetes, the shevach, Klal Yisrael's kallah, the shevach. Bavosai, it's a miracle. Very ... sorry. Truly, there is a lot of things that should hurt a person, a lot of things. Very ... This touches me tremendously. Golsi me'artzo, kalo mekushetes. This was the kedushah, and it has to do with churban habayis. The bittul of the kedushah, the bittul of the kedushah means let's negate the trumas and maasros together. That's why we call kol ya'avid maligim, v'loychmei lechem, the bittul loy prosah, rav lechem. What's the taam in the kushya? Why is this the toya? You know what a kallah, a kallah is all about? To be for the chassan. Klal Yisroel is called a kallah. It's a inyan of the matanos. A kallah has matanos. She carries. What are her sheva matanos? The answer is, eishes chayil, ... v'titn mikrach. The maalos ruchniyus that the kallah has, the maalos ruchniyus that the kallah has is her sheva. So what's the klal Yisroel's sheva? It's koach hachesed. It's koach of trumas maasros. ... Klal Yisroel among the nations. I don't know, truthfully, I don't know any other country where there's a halacha from the land itself. As we move ... this ... and this ... in the land itself, we give stock to, I don't know, that people give. It's not. It's a chelek of the kedushas Eretz Yisroel, and that's ... by ma'aser ... On the melech Yeshiyahu. Yeshiyahu HaMelech.

From the greatest, the biggest the Klal Yisroel had, the entire kit, the entire fourth part of Eicha is a kinah on Yoshiyahu, and the Ribono Shel Olam told Yirmiyah to make that kinah. Chazal tell us that it was the Ribono Shel Olam who told, and it's the biggest kinah. From all the kinos, from all the eichos, the biggest perek is perek daled. The mefarshim talk a lot how churban has a lot to do with tzaddikim. Churban and tzaddikim, and the churban is the death of tzaddikim, killed. We see the asarah harugei malchus. It's one of the symbols, we're going to learn it later, galus is the asarah harugei malchus. Why? So there's a Gemara. The Gemara says, Misas tzaddikim kisreifas Beis Elokeinu. It's like sreifah, it's like the Beis. So when the Yoshiyahu, tzaddik Yoshiyahu, he was the tzaddik hador, so azoi vi sreifas Beis Elokeinu. So what's the pashut pshat? It's kasher l'Yisroel kisreifas Beis Elokeinu. That's what it means. Hazoivim mefaleirt the Beis Hamikdash, zoivim mefaleirt the Beis Hamikdash, and it's for Klal Yisroel tremendous churban. The tzaddik is a churban for Klal Yisroel. It's the same churban. Beis Hamikdash gave us, the alts, the Yerushamayim. Everything came from the Beis Hamikdash, v'har Hashem yeira, and the tzaddik is the zelbe zach. I think it's a tieferde hera, rabosai, and throughout the future kinus, I'm going to show this to you. Through Borei Shleimah's mashrus Shechinaso on everything in this world. One of the tzinoyres of hashraas haShechinah is through the tzaddik. One of the tzinoyros of hashraas haShechinah is through the... The Beis Hamikdash. What is the yirah that we have for the Beis Hamikdash? The Rambam says it's not the Mikdash. Why do we have fear? Why is the halacha, mora Mikdash? There's halacha, mora Mikdash: lo min haMikdash atah yarei, ela miMi sheshochein b'Bayis hazeh. You know there's a din more Talmud chachamus. Why is there a din more Talmud chachamus? There's a Chidah. Chidah says, Es Hashem Elokecha tira. We all know es is what? L'rabos talmidei chachamim. Zogt the Chidah, the Ramanch has yirah for talmidei chachamim. It's Es Hashem Elokecha tira. It's the same yirah. Then he says something very strong, rabosai: Es Hashem Elokecha tira v'oso sa'avod. It's a miradike Chidah, v'oso sa'avod. So how does it, it pashut, one has nothing to do with the other, with the drasha of Es Hashem Elokecha Tira, of l'rabos talmidei chachamim. Zogt the Chida, v'osei saved. If you have yirah from a talmid chacham, and you're close to a talmid chacham, then it's osei saved, it's as if you ilu hikriv korban. Holding Chida, rabosai, yeah. Es Hashem Elokecha Tira, es l'rabos talmidei chachamim. It's osei saved, because osei means even in l'rabos talmidei chachamim, whoever is close to a talmid chacham, ilu hikriv korban. Zei tavos, iz faran Shechinah by the talmid chacham too. Throughout the kinos, we're going to show how everything had Shechinah, and when the Beis Hamikdash, the siluk haShechinah, it's nistalek from everything, from everywhere. The effects that we have from around us is because of siluk Shechinah. It's all nigram in the Beis. That's the pshat, kisreifas Beis Elokeinu. There's a siluk Shechinah in that also. So yeshiyahu, by Yochanan.

Eicha eili, kainu mi'eilav. That's part of the kinus, the churban, the siluk Shechinah from the tzaddikim also. So, Eicha eili, go ahead. Eicha eili, kainu mi'eilav. In Shemoneh Esrei, Eicha lidrosh milikav. Next, ... Ad loi reishes, ... So this is going on the Beis Hamikdash. A ohel is ohel, comes from the loshon ohel moed, the tent where the Ribono Shel Olam met up with Klal Yisroel. This is the ohel asher ta'avta. We had a taiva for, You wanted this. The Ribono Shel Olam wanted an abode tachtonim. Medrashim say that the Ribono Shel Olam created the world, and His kavanah was that there should be a Beis Hamikdash, that one day He will have a dira b'tachtonim, a place, a bayis among the tachtonim. The question is, why ohel? It should say bayis. If you're talking about the Beis Hamikdash, since when is the Beis Hamikdash called an ohel? The Mishkan, you have ohel moed. In the Beis Hamikdash it was suddenly called ohel. Make the question, ahali asher toafto. The second question, all the mefarshei ha... I kind of ask, so why? It's not a hali, it's a halechos. The Rabbeinu Shlolam. It should say, ahalecha asher toafto. It's talking to the Rabbeinu. Yeah? It should say, ahalecha asher toafto. What's a hali? The Torah says, I told this many times, and we mentioned it on Shabbos. Hinei oimed achar koslei nu. Mashgiach min hachalonos, meitzitz min hacharakim. Koslei nu unzer. Not oimed achar kos. You know, people today, they call it the kosel hamaravi. Maybe they should better call it koslei nu. What is kosel? It's mine. Yedid, and the heilige Shechinah, it's mine. It's my ohel. And what's an ohel? First we say, ohel is moed. It's where we meet up with the Ribono Shel Olam. What was the maila of the Mikdash? What did every Yid feel in the Beis HaMikdash? Tzay mitzad him, mitzad, mitzad the Ribono Shel...

It was the makom we was able to meet with the Ribono Shel Olam. Shalosh pa'amim bashanah, you know, ... b'aliros and b'alirois. It was the place where the Yid was miskasher with the Ribono Shel Olam. So, a holi asher to'afto. What is the beis hamikdash? It's the kesher, the mo'ed. Mo'ed. It's the kesher, it's the kesher. We spoke many times that Tishah B'Av is called a mo'ed, and we said, why is it called a mo'ed? Chag, mo'ed is Yom Tov, and the teretz is, mo'ed means chibur. It's connected. Mo'ed is the connection. The kesher that the Yid had with the Ribono Shel Olam was through the Beis Hamikdash. The nituk is churban. Is it shayach to have this mo'ed even without the Beis Hamikdash? So we have something called mo'adim. We have Yom Tov, they're called mo'adim. Mo'adim was aliyah l'regel, because that was mo'ed, that was the inyan of the Yom Tov, the mo'ed. But we, I don't know if you realize it, but we have the nusach on Yom Tov. What niggun do we use in the tefillah? ... b'simchenu b'sikunah. It's the, it's elitziyah. It's the same nusach, it's the same niggun of elitziyah, people didn't realize, it's the same niggun. It's only ... Where is the churban? Churban is in the fact that we don't have this moed. There's a very famous shaila: why do we do Birchas Kohanim on Yom Tov? So, l'choira, we should have Birchas Kohanim all the time. We do Birchas Kohanim all the time. So it's yedua from the Gaon and in Galus, we don't do Birchas Kohanim. We don't do Birchas Kohanim. We try to establish it in a certain place, and the whole city burnt down. So we knew that it wasn't time, it wasn't the place to bring Birchas Kohanim. Yet we do it on Yom Tov. Why do we do it on Yom Tov? So the Ramaz is a very chiddush. Showed it to you once. Ramaz says because you need tremendous simcha to have Birchas Kohanim, you need tremendous simcha. When is a person b'simcha? Yom Tov. And when on Yom Tov? Musaf. And when in Musaf? At the end of Musaf, when he's ready to go home to eat. Zogt the Rambam, the Ner Le'ei Tamatz. I think this is my own reason why Musaf ... What is the Rambam? Yeah. What does the Rambam mean? And why does Birchas Kohanim need simcha? And what does it have to do with Yom Tov? The Teretz is— There's a special birchas kohanim, is Vani Avarchem. What is Vani Avarchem? Nishmo u'shmia bnei Yisrael, Vani Avarchem. It was a tremendous hashraas haShechinah in birchas kohanim. One of the reasons why we don't look at the hands of the kohanim when they duchen, people will tell you it has to do with the Shechinah. The real reason is, rabosai, because of hesech hadaas. We don't want that. That's the real reason why people don't look. The reason that's brought in halacha is because of hesech hadaas. Because when you start looking at the hands of the kohanim, you're not paying attention to birchas kohanim, because halacha, azoi vi it should answer. The Turish meisi a daas. I don't know if you know this also. There's a halacha that you're not supposed to have pictures in a beis medrash. Halacha, seforim beis haknesses. Why? Because you can't have people distracted. There's a special hashraas haShechinah in birchas kohanim. So a chelek of the churban, a chelek of the churban is...

That's part of the galus, and why on Yom Tov do we have it? Because Yom Tov is kavua to tap in to light. It's taka time where there is light. The reason why you need simcha is because ein hashchina shorah ela mitoch simcha. Ein hashchina shorah ela mitoch simcha. Shabbos also has hashraas hashchina. Also, it's one of the things about hashraas hashchina. Told you often the Gemara that one of the reasons why there was churban habayis is because of shebitlu u'mezalzelin Shabbos. Zilzul in Shabbos, churban habayis. What's the connection, the teretz is, there's hashraas hashchina in Shabbos. What is the hashraas hashchina in Shabbos? We know that the whole house in the Rishonim is like the avodas Beis Hamikdash. It's a zoyi di avodas Beis Hamikdash. The kiddush, there's the nesachim and the breads of the lechem hapanim, and that's why according to many you have twelve, and then there's basar and yayin and zmiros and then shirah. Where does Birchas Kohanim come from? Why is there a Birchas Kohanim? We mevarech the children. The parsha asks us for a question: why do we do, where did the minhag come from that we do Birchas Kohanim? What's the teretz, Rebbi Yisrael? Because there there's an hashraas hashchina. Shabbos is hashraas haShechinah. Shevira Moshe always used to say, Shabbos, shmor es mikdashi tira'u. Why is it connected? And the teretz is, because the ikur is hashraas haShechinah in the Beis HaMikdash, but we can live without that. We live without the Beis HaMikdash, but you can't live without Shabbos. So where is the hashraas haShechinah today? Hashraas haShechinah today is in the Shabbos. Hashraas haShechinah today is in the Shabbos. Ois hi l'olam me'at beini u'vein bnei Yisrael. That kesher, that kesher, beini u'vein bnei Yisrael, that itself is a part of hashraah. The Ribbono Shel Olam made that in galus, there are things which is hashraas haShechinah. Tell me, Rabosai, what is the one thing that will bring the geulah? How many Shabbasos? Two Shabbasos. That's the connection. Shabbos is the oifen of hashraas haShechinah. In the galus, the Ribbono Shel Olam made that we can find other things and other mahalchim in how to have hashraas haShechinah. But this is, what's the ikur of the Beis HaMikdash? It's kesher. Ikur is the kesher. It's the kesher. Shegalu me'al shulchan Avihem. The kesher, the kesher. Yedidi Eli asher...

The next Kinei koy brings all the different koys we find in the Torah haftachos. So we're asking, we're learning, the Rabbeinu Shalom, ei koy, where are all these haftachos? Because one line in the beginning of the first part of the kinah, which is very interesting: Ei koy, gash kiseh l'ailah l'ratzeisecha, melchat koy pitui b'eideisecha, hein ata dukaru kutelech rayosecha, yeshan achcha betzaim ayisecha. I'm going to translate it for you and I'll show you. And the emes, rabosai, the truth is, a Tanna or even a Rishon, there's so much chochmah and there's so many different hashkafos and hergeshim that he puts into every sentence, and some of the kinos seem like random things. They're just putting together words, and ei koy, where is koy? Let's see the words. Ei koy, gash kiseh, lailahsecha l'ratzeisecha. Says the korban lailah to be meratzeh. Now who said koy? When do we have a set that there was a koy? And the answer is not Kedo. Melchat koy, he tells the Shema, right? Ani vanar nelcha ad koy. Pitui b'eideisecha. He was mefateh him in your Torah, which means he didn't tell him that he—he told him melchat koy, but really meant what? That he was going to come back. No, he wasn't going to come back. He was planning on coming back, Neilcha koived ha'shuva? No. He plans that he'll never come back. So, pitui b'eidoi secha. In your Torah, this was a pitui; it was a switch. V'hein atah d'karu kepelach ra'yesecha, and today, Klal Yisroel is d'karu, they're stabbed. Kepelach. Yeshar apcha, your anger, smoke, b'tzon marisecha, with your tzon, Klal Yisroel, which is your tzon mirah, your flock. I want to tell you an interesting thing which I think is so... You know, korbanos in Churban needs to be explained. Why in Yiddish we נקרא? The answer is they're korbanos, merutzei korbanos. What is a korbanos? Yidden live with mesiras nefesh. There's two types of mesiras nefesh. Amol, the mesiras nefesh is, I'm not giving them lechem. Amol, the mesiras nefesh is the daily life. Avraham Avinu was makriv Yitzchak, but he wasn't. Shneit, the Rishonim, it's really a Brisker rav. He was makriv him a korban, it's a leben a korban. It's a different type of a korban. As a matter of fact, the Medrash says that he told Sarah that he's going ad koi. This ad koi is not only to Yishmael. He told him, he told, I'm taking Yitzchak ad koh. Mishdales Zachor. She had no question where he was taking the son. We're going and we'll be back. When? Who? What? Where? I'm taking him to the yeshiva. That's what. I'm taking him to a place where we learn by ... The milcha ad koh. It's a medrash, a very interesting medrash here. So when Avraham Avinu said, ואני והנער נלכה עד כה, what did they mean? It meant ad koh till here and not further. Ad koh, which means he's not going to be nishchat. So Avraham Avinu's ad koh was korban ... Pitui b'eidisav. It's really that a mensch can זיין a korban in the Torah. והן אתה דקרו פלח רעותא. למעשה, today we're ... that wasn't the koh. The promise of koh yehyeh zaracha, ad koh was that ... korbanos, and not korban, that it should be to karu.

It's not yesh an afcha, it's something. It wasn't esh, it was a different type of haklah. The nekudah is saying is that everything that we went through in galus, we could have had it in a different way. All the mailos that we needed, all the tikkunim that we needed in galus. Ken zayn if not now. U'meila, ei kai. Where are all the kais in the Torah? Yes, we have to go through things. The Chagasach, the Sukkah, nisah, all these types of nisos. So this is, ei kai omer kores l'av, the Pesach, the bris bein habesarim, kai yeh, oneetzach. Kai, it could have been different kai, and it ended up, lamah lhimzo nachtu l'netzach. Okay, let's continue. Meaning, what I'm trying to say is everything in the Torah, it could have been used out for the good. The Torah is nitzchis. Whatever the Torah says is going to happen to Klal Yisrael will happen. V'hein atu bolu atzum b'netzach, lamah lhim, so nachtu l'netzach if it's kai yeh l'netzach. It could have been in a different way. Everything could have been different. It could have been ... and what did it end up? Takah ... ei kai ... Next Kinnah speaks about what is churban, what is galus. We always think that galus is an onesh for chataim. Galus is also tikkun. And the biggest raya is that from the beginning of briyah, it was already set in the plan that there should be galus. Heicha eis asher kvar osahu. How did it come about? It was already planned from before. The galus was planned from before. So. Were we able to change that? Were we able to do anything? Chazal tell us, and that's the last thing, v'shalir ramas, the aretz hoysa soyu vavoyu is going on Churb. The two, Chazal, it was already meramez. It could be that's the tohu and vohu, the two batei Mikdash, tohu and vohu. So it was already predestined. So what is exactly the reason for galus if it's before even ...? And the answer is, it's the tipun habriyah. Part of galus, and I think, again, you know, we could say nice Torah on all the ... I know if it's, but I'm not even so sure. I've thought about it. You know that that could be the issue too. I know people say nice ... It's not so pashut that it's mutar. It's simply the ...

Genesis to learn, to understand. So, vas is aveilus, u'vas is churban. We're trained to think that churban is a patch as an oynish. The emes is, kvar so. It was already planned that there's going to be a churban anyway. Reb Chaim MiBrisk always learned that everything that happens in the world was actually from before; the outcome was already there. He says the reason we eat matzah, we think, when we left Mitzrayim. It's the other way around. The Ribono Shel Olam wants we should eat matzah, so He sent us to Mitzrayim. So here's the shaylah: what is galus? Is galus because we did an aveirah, so we go to galus? Or maybe whatever happens is because we need to go to galus. Big Yirmiyah is telling us to understand that galus is not only an oynish. Galus is something—you know, they used to call it the galus Yid. Rishonim tell us that through every galus, Klal Yisroel becomes more Klal Yisroel. The nisyonos of the galus, the yisurim of the galus, makes the Yid. Just like the shemen—how do you have shemen? The more you koitesh it, the more it's motzi shemen. This is what he's trying to say: Eichah eis asher kvar so. This was already planned from before. U'meileh dafke uplah. The lessons. Churben habayis is not just onesh; it's to learn, it's to take, to understand of us, of us. Los מידת מסaken zayn, los l'saken olam b'malchus Shakai. This is part of it is the galus. So, Eicheh is asher, so tama minenu ligvois. Rabbeinu Shlomo's tegeya. Ligvois is chovoi, mameila he was tevea the chov. Tell me, ... zayn the chov? What's the lashon? Tava u'meni, ligvois d'shaya. What does that mean? Because ... could be moichel the chov. ... This is what the Eibishter wanted, because eis asher ... Let's go weiter. Yeah. Oh, no, no, no.

Next kinah is, Asha asa tzar bifnim. This is Titus. This is Titus coming into the Kodesh HaKodashim, and he took his sword and stuck it into the paroches, and bled, was bleeding, and he thought he killed the Ribono Shel Olam. You know, there's something very interesting about this kinah. It puts together so many different things that have no shaychus one to the other. It talks about, Es asha asa tzar bifnim, that he stuck his knife into the Kodesh HaKodashim. Then it goes to the lechem hapanim, Ve'es ketimei lechem hapanim. How did the lechem hapanim—how did the tamid lechem hapanim—how did the lechem hapanim come in here? If you notice in the middle too, it talks about the Koisel HaMa'aravi. We have a reference: Al Pesach Har HaBayis, heicha lavo, biyad avaroshei tavsu lachrivo, al tzad ma'aravi l'zecher hisribo, sag achar kasleinu v'lo yarav ribo. He let us—here it's mashma that he let the fourth wall stand. The drashah mashma that he tried to burn it down and it didn't burn. From here it's mashma that he wanted it up as a memory, that look at the churban, look what you had and now you don't have it. It was supposed to be a memory to remind us that we lost the Beis HaMikdash. And the Ribono Shel Olam was, tzad achar kosleinu, he's standing behind the wall and he doesn't say anything, ולא ענהו. If you look at the end of the kinah, you'll see, Hashiveinu shivim kevod b'nichvei yam, the one before, Ata katzavta reishes lefanais, yeladim asher ein bahem kol mum. This is about the boat. That's the Gemara in Gittin, where the kids threw themselves into the water that they shouldn't become violated by the goyim. What's tzad? So how do we mix all these things together? They say, hold, there's a very deep... It's called Lechem HaPanim. Why is it called Lechem HaPanim? What's panim? Why is it called Lechem HaPanim? The Gemara tells us that it never dried, it never became stale, and on every Yom Tov, again, notice Yom Tov, yeah? Right? Every Yom Tov, they would show, Ruchi baschem lifnei HaMakom, look how the Ribono Shel Olam loves you. Why? You see, it stayed fresh. So what does panim mean? Panim means it showed the face, panim, and had two panim. You see, if you notice, it's called ketimei lechem hapanim, begidah peroches. Why last shtei panim? Why is the פניוכס shtei panim? So a lot of Rishonim learn that it had two faces on it, that the פניוכס itself had a picture of two faces. A lot of Rishonim learn that. It's not—there's no Gemara like this. The Rishonim say that it's hard to find where it's in the Gemara. So I wanted to kind of push this on. You know, there's two sides to פנים פנים. The Beis HaMikdash, when you came, כדרך שבא ליראות, כך בא לראות. The way you came to be seen, that's how the Ribbono Shel Olam saw you. רוחי בקרב לפני המקום. Kumst in Beis HaMikdash, look how the Ribbono Shel Olam loves you. The lechem hapanim. The lechem hapanim was כמים פנים אל פנים. So when he went and he stuck it into the knife, right, so it should have been—it was kares. It should have been against him. And what happened? Nothing. Nothing happened. If you notice, it brings down here even Nadav Avihu. Here, Aviseinu—yeah, look, look, Aviseinu זרה, הכניסו בחור ובחלל אש. That when Nadav Avihu, once they were bachurim, once they were balipte, they went in and the fire burnt them.

What is he trying to say? We went in and we got burned. He went in to burn. It says he went Mitzrayim here. He speaks about how we won the wars in Mitzrayim. He's also part of the kinah over here. He went matzliach, he went to Mitzrayim. Mitzrayim v'chol ha'am, you see? ... he went to Mitzrayim v'chol ha'am. Im bam gavar, ani b'soichivoi, he went to Mitzrayim. This rasha, he walks in and nothing happens. We, ... what happens? They get burned. Where's the divine plan in the pun? That's really what we're asking. In Churban there's not ... Mida oyev has matzliach, and midas tzaddikim ... That's why we bring the story of the children. The children would talk about ... because they had yiras Shamayim, and they died. That stirah of ... is tester. Where is your face? Where is the ...? This is the kinah. Zechor eis asher asah tzar. He came in as a tzar bifnim, shalaf uva, ... Went into the ... and what happened? Nothing. There was a tumah to the ... so the ... didn't work. Bachurim, not the ... they walked in. By the way, punishment. The ... punishment, punishment, is a lot of what we're mekayim about in ... That's the good. Very hard ... and ... This is ... The next ... in ... ... oylei tipuchim, oylei tipuchim. This is one of the things in Churban where you see there's a breakdown. People, anushim, the meileh of nachmanim, how it breaks down that they're able to eat noshim, periyam, tvashelu noshim achmaniyos. You notice it says, al alai li. What's al alai li? Sometimes the Churban, the Menchalein is Churban. Al alai li. What happens to the person? A famous story from Reb Leizer Silver. Reb Leizer Silver said, a Yid came over to him and told him that he doesn't want to have a davening again. This was in the DP camps. Why? He says, he sells a fur. We had no bread. Rationed out small pieces of, and everyone had mamash just to live on. Somebody had a siddur. We asked him if we could use the siddur. He said no. Unless you give me the bread, I'm not giving you the siddur. A Yid could do this? This, to me, is upkefret, upkefret. Reb Leizer Silver...

What did he do? He came and he said, Now, instead of looking at the person who didn't want to give up, how many people practically gave up their bread? How many people practically gave up their bread for the siddur? So why are you looking at him? What do you see? Sometimes the maila becomes chara also. The mensh alein. Tziluk Shechinah has an effect in everything. It has an effect even in the meshachachim. But the maila probably is those rachmanius, but the das is klal Yisrael's middah. ... al churban made tziluk Shechinah. If you look at the end of the kinah, there's something very sharp over here. ... So the ... answers. ... What is the answer? ... What happened to them? ... Eis asher asu. But what they did, lo imaidin. A lot of people are like that, right? ... You forgot what you did, right? There's a reason why it happened, right? That they're not ... What? They screamed, ... ... that they don't tell people. ... So ... has to do with ... Why? Why is it techanun nashim, period, with a direct result of tzchayim? Defined by Korach, Moshe Rabbeinu, who wanted to make against Moshe Rabbeinu, stood up against Moshe Rabbeinu. So the Gemara says, you see how big machloikes is, because even yeladim, even small children, because he went against Moshe Rabbeinu. Because they went against Kohen v'navi, Kohen v'navi. I just saw the Chiddushei Shlomo, something very interesting. The Chiddushei Shlomo writes that the new yid in Europe, new yid in Europe, that was convicted by the government to get killed. There's— the Chiddushei Shlomo brings it. He says that he went to visit him, and the person said, He spooked me, and went guilty of the person that slapped Zechariah before they killed him. He says, When I went over to him, I said, Zechariah, dur, dur, zogstu bis hagadol, a navi? Eh, bist nish kein navi. And because I said that, I'm telling you, I saw it, the Chiddushei Shlomo, I was chalish when I saw it. It was a commercial. So they all mobbed against Zechariah to kill him. So because of that patch that I gave to Zechariah, a chikumin, a pummel, now this is my tikun that I have to get burnt. The Chiddushei Shlomo brings it. Im yehavlei b'mikdash Hashem Kohen v'navi. Kinder, the sreifah, the hereg, it has to do with that. I don't know if you know the history of Auschwitz. Does anyone know the history of Auschwitz? Do you know the history, the story of Auschwitz? What was Auschwitz before? Some sefer had a talmid. I checked into this. I asked the ... I spoke with him. He had a talmid. His name was R' Mendel Mizel. I'm trying to remember the name. I think it was R' Mendel. He was a talmid. He was a ... big talmid chacham. And he knew a lot of ... languages, so they were ... lazan him, that he came from reading ... and ... They were ... lazan him. He kept on doing what he had to do. Before Rosh Hashanah, before tekias shofar, somebody got up and told him, told him, We don't need your tekias shofar anyway, because the ... is mevazeh ... on Rosh Hashanah. And because of that, he ran out of town. That was it.

It was an outshitz. It happened. The place where the shul was, it was an outshitz. Many patachim that had to do with that place. This has to do with the harei b'mikdash Hashem konin v'navi, churban. You know, this is one of the chisronos that we have. I don't know if you know even Yirmiyah, b'rodei, b'rodei Yirmiyah, terribly. All the neviim who came and said nevuah, all the neviim, 'Thus גרם חורבן.' These are things that bring churban, afilu ptan. Afilu—this is what you see here. This that they came here and they want to know why is bishvil yeladim, nashim. It's because in the harei, Mikdash Hashem, kohen v'navi lo yimashchu. They don't say what they did to the kohen v'navi, the Mikdash Hashem. V'ata amarta, heitev heitev. Ato Marto, heitev eitiv imach, chinami v'amach, lo amu bnei bliyaal chilul shemach. Ato pidalta v'rimamta, all the tremendous things the Ribono Shel Olam did, all the chasadim the Ribono Shel Olam did. The last paragraph is, V'atah tzaddik al kol haba aleinu, ki Hashem hatzedakah, v'anachnu boshes hapanim. It's an interesting word. You know, there's two types of saying someone's right. Sometimes you say he's right because you're an ish emes. Sometimes you understand that it's really l'tovascha. Part of the churban is that even when not, it's b'chibul. It's a terrible thing. A Yid has a koach with love, not grudgingly and pain, achti avodah, wrongly. V'natzdikcha b'chibul, ki chol zois ba'asnu b'choveinu, ki kulanu foshenu. But this is when the Ribono Shel Olam did all the chasadim and we were wrong, right? We owed. V'cha Hashem hatzedakah. The second one is, V'cha Hashem hatzedakah b'oses asher fleisa. Velanu boishes hapanim, bivchinas asher nitzrachnu v'osanu ta'avto. We were wrong. There's two types of l'cha Hashem hatzedakah, which means whenever you have a hesped, whenever you have—so there's two. Either one party broke, one party broke with the—All of the pshat is, there's so much good from the other side, there's so much hatovah, and we didn't repay it. The two parts of tziduk hadin is not that pshat is that you didn't do; you did your part, and also l'cha Hashem hatzedakah, we didn't do well. There are two parts to the l'cha Hashem hatzedakah. The l'cha Hashem hatzedakah with all the good that you did, and that's bechinah. And then there's the next one, l'cha Hashem hatzedakah, the bad that we did. It's two types of tziduk hadin.

You know, I think to myself all the time, Atoyvah meitiv im hameisim. One of the two brachos, Atoyvah meitiv im hameisim. That's where the chiddush comes in. Sometimes you say Dayan HaEmes. ... pasken right, then you could say something more. You could say, Atoyvah meitiv im hameisim. Part of the churban is beinin a kehilah, to realize we did, we did wrong. We also realize the Ribono Shel Olam did ... mimenu lo yeitzei ... hara'os. The same hara'os? What does it say? ... There's two types of ... And das ... only something that has the chiddush, not stam ... The das is ... Hakadosh Baruch Hu ... The next ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... The next ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... So we're to cry of a bakashos. Where is, where is me, me, Hashem? Where is the Ribono Shel Olam? ... The Ribono Shel Olam doesn't listen to our tefillah. Maybe that's our tefillah that we ask for ourselves. But then there's a different type of tefillah that we ask. ... Chilul shem Shamayim. Chilul, it's a terrible thing. We ask the Eibishter, You're not listening. We're not asking for ourselves. ... That talks against the tzaddikosa, the avos. This is all the chilul shem ... also, something that we mourn in the churban. ... This bothered them even more than their own physical welfare. I have to tell you the story. I don't know if I told you in the past. You know, I have the last letter that the Alter Rebbe wrote. It's printed in ...

This is the last letter that he wrote, and I'm going to tell you the story behind this letter. It's going to take a few minutes, rabosai, and I think it speaks a lot of Churban Europe. What was it like? What was the Yidden, what the Yidden went through, and how they reacted. So I have this last letter. He writes this to my zeide. My zeide survived the war. He went to Shanghai. So he writes like this: Hapaitin b'slichos, it's in the slichos, yekaneh b'ein aruchos av. The meals of the father. What are the meals of the father? Let's see if anyone remembers the analogy. The meals of the father, Shulchan Aviv, right? Beis Hamikdash, Ribono Shel Olam eats from the Beis Hamikdash. He feeds His children. It's called aruchos av, the meals of the father. Oylai, l'banim shegalu me'al shulchan avihem, beten bonim techsar. The Kohen insists that therefore the children's stomachs are empty. You know, when we have hunger in Churban, it's really about hunger. It's an analogy. Ruchniyusdik hunger too. There's no Beis Hamikdash. Kilomar, nechsar haparnassah, va'amud ha'ara azal b'alma. Therefore there's no parnassah. One of the things in galus, sometimes there's no parnassah, and that's Beis Hamikdash also. Very interesting. What I was trying to, in general, bring out from all the kinos, it affects every part of our lives. Churban habayis is not something just bias, korbanos. It affects every detail. It affects our simcha. It affects our parnassah. When there was golus me'al shulchan Avihem, Yid lives in the world of the Beis... Ki hi beis chayeinu. It's a microcosm, really, of the life of the Yid. Whatever happens in the Mikdash, if there's korban in the Mikdash, if there's siluk Shechinah in the Mikdash, there's siluk Shechinah in the person. Golus me'al shulchan Avihem means golus has no food. So he says as follows: K'ilu amar nechserah parnasasam, va'amda ara azla u'medaddula. That's what the mepaitin is all—feels terrible how Yidden don't have food in golus, in churban, in tzares. Ani do'akti lehefech. The Alter says, right, I feel the other way around. I'm not worried about myself. I'm worried about the Ribono Shel Olam's food. The korbanos were called lechem. I'm not worried about my parnassah. I'm worried about the Eibishter, so to speak, parnassah here. Ani do'akti lehefech. Asher beten banim techsar ke'es, ve'ein mazon lamikdash. This is the last letter. This is from Ghetto, maybe concentration camp. Eich tihyeh aruchos ava, binu shebashamayim beyom hare'eh? How does the Eibishter have a Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur? That's what's bothering him. You understand what we're talking about. Rosh Hashanah and Kippur in a concentration camp, what's bothering him is not that there's no... That's not what's bothering me. What's bothering me is the Ribono Shel Olam not listening to tefillos. The Ribono Shel Olam doesn't have what he needs. And he says, Shenoga ani — I personally always, I'm mechabed Hashem, bir'onai, b'drashos, tefillos. There's a big baal tefillah, the big tzaddik. I said drashos, I said tefillos, v'todeh laHashem Yisbarach, v'rachumus, thanking the Ribono Shel Olam, shelo hichsarti shum davar shenahagti bo mishanim kadmoniyos, by Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur exactly the way it always was. The im ken — so you can imagine, nechlash gufi v'tash koichi. That's the koiches. I don't have koiches. Aval l'Torah u'letefillah, learning and davening, give me margish koach chalushim. I have a lot of strength. That I don't have a problem with. Al tebanei al ti'atzmi. Don't feel bad. Don't feel bad. My children don't feel bad for me. Al tidag, don't worry for me. Ki b'tzar yechsa, my own flesh, my own kerper. I see sheb'shaah shehagashmiyus mismates, misgaberes haruchniyus. There's no gashmiyus, there's no ruchniyus. Yachol adam lihyos nizon b'ruchniyus l'vad. A person can live on ruchniyus alone. What do you take out from this lesson?

I wasn't worried about myself. I was worried about the Ribbono Shel Olam. That's what he was worried. It's something unbelievable. Don't even feel bad for me. I'm okay. My body, my body is going out, but I have a lot of strength, a tired feeling, and that's it. And I realized it's a miracle. It's something that—it's unbelievable. I want to tell you the story. Now, of course, I'm not saying that's how we have the letter, because they had a letter, but I can tell you I understand the details behind this letter. When I came to Eretz Yisrael, so I had a policy, which is not a bad policy; people should take the policy: no running around. Stay in yeshiva. Sit in yeshiva. Zech to learn Eretz Yisrael. I never left the Mir. I parked myself in the Mir, and I didn't even leave to eat in the [unclear] or the restaurant. I was in yeshiva. Yeshiva was zech to get in and to be there. The Rosh used to give shiur in the [unclear] dorm room. I was there. We used to sit there together in the dorm room, forty guys in a room, three by three, ללמוד, and it was the best days of our lives, okay? To walk to the Mir, you have to pass Shikun Avuchat. So sometimes you take a bus, and sometimes I would walk through Shunat Avuchat. One such morning that I'm walking to yeshiva, and out through... It's outside. I don't know if you know the walls of the street in Bichnat HaBucharim is really the walls of homes. It looks like, what do you call it, stone walls in the street. It looks like it's the street. It's not. It's really the beginning. It's the opening in there. They open up the thing and they go into the houses. He is standing there, kents the helfen, yengeman kents me helfen. I wasn't a man, I was a bachur, but I can't help him. I come into the house, and on the bed is laying a woman. She was very big, extremely big, and they had a hard time taking her from the bed to the wheelchair. She needed to be put onto a wheelchair. Now I know halachos, but I was in yeshiva bachur. I figured, elder Yid, a bard, he looks like a talmid chacham. He's telling me to do it, I did it. So it actually took three of us, because the older man couldn't do it. His son was there, an Yid with a bard, and we put him into the chair. Now, who is this lady? Found out a few minutes later, it was Reb Tzvi Pesach Frank's daughter. The husband was the chashuve dayan, Rav Yosef, and the son that I was helping with was, no, Reb David Cohen, shivah cheren, the famous Rosh Yeshiva today, Rav David Cohen. Okay, so that, to me, very chashuv people. Rav Yosef Cohen asks me, What's your name? I was out in, ... Nature'll be on my way. He says, I don't. You need to come to my shul tomorrow morning. Tomorrow morning, you need to come for Shacharis to my shul. He was the rabbi in Harry Fishel. This medrash was called Harry Fischel. It's a famous, they had a big library there. He tells me that I need to come Shacharis. I'm thinking to myself, somebody probably does have minyan. I was talking mitzvahs. I asked him, what time is Shacharis? He tells me, it's not like here, that Shacharis is nine and we don't start till... six o'clock in the morning, six fifteen. So I had to take a bus from Sanhedria. So I remember saying to myself, say no. What do you need to... Don't. You know, yes came out. I didn't know how to say no. So I said yes, and I'm thinking to myself, what did I get myself into? I think I'll do it one morning, help him out with the minyan, never again. That's it. Arap ala maises. I woke up at, it was a quarter to six. I don't know, I took the bus from Sanhedria. It was bad. It was early, early. It was dark out. I walk into Harry Fischel shul. There was seven people.

I said, it's about a minyan. I knew it. I knew it. I shouldn't have said yes. I knew it. And he's going to ask me again tomorrow and that. All of a sudden, Rav Kahn walks in and pulls me over. He says, Come, I want to introduce you to someone. I want to introduce you to someone. I start the chaburah. It wasn't about a minyan. He wanted really to meet somebody. He brings me over to the mizrach where the yid is standing. The yid was a clean-shaven yid, round glasses, נראה aristocratic. And he tells me, in front of this yid, Tell him your name. I should tell this yid my name. He says, Zog im dayn nomen. Tell him who you are. Aaron Balkin. I saw his whole facial change, the whole demeanor. Aaron Balkin. Aaron Balkin, mein rov. I'm a Pinsker. Pinsker. Ich hob gevent the Letzter tzu zayn the rov. I was the last person to see him. You saw he changed in a second, his whole... like a different person. The person, Grada, was a Hebrew University, was one of the professors at Hebrew University, a chashuve professor. It brought him to a different place. I saw he was so nisragesht. He sits me down and he tells me that Alte Zeide was in hiding for six months before the Nazis even came to Pinsk, before they took over the town. For six months he was in hiding. Why was he in hiding? So he explained to me, the Nazis would come into a city, they would take over the Russian, the Russian police, all the files. They would take the files, and whoever was, so to speak, a troublemaker, or a rov, or a rosh hakohol, they'd be the first ones to be shipped out. How did they know? How did the Nazis know who? They got them from the Russian, from the documents. So he said to me, the zeyde knew that he was always in trouble. He was תמיד sat in prison. You don't know that he sat in Beis Haron, sat. He wrote a sefer from Rabbi Kamen. He writes in Zhitomir. He spoke against communism. The Mirimalek tormented him for an entire year. One, to get him out of the jail, was to get a rebbe, and Reb Chaim Ozer petitioned to get him out. I'll tell you a whole history. Tzadikim, he wrote down from the Yeruchas Rabbeinu, a stikel paskens that סיפורי צדיקים are mutar on Tisha B'Av. Stikel paskens. I don't understand really why. I don't understand what's the pshat that סיפורי צדיקים are mutar on Tisha B'Av. You can't stop reading things. It's interesting, they argue if you're allowed to learn mussar on Tisha B'Av. Reb Chaim Kanievsky paskens you're not allowed to learn mussar on Tisha B'Av. Rav Yoshevel, you're allowed to learn mussar on Tisha B'Av. I always was taich, what's the machlokes? Reb Chaim Kanievsky's mussar is the Chazon Ish's mussar, it's the Gemaras. Yashiv was talking about mussar. Mussar, tikkun hamiddos, that's it. So it could be Sippurei Tzadikim, tikkun hamiddos. Learn, learn how to know the tzaddikim. And the truth is, rabosai, I used to say more on the kinnes, and I almost feel year after year it talks less and less to me. I can't even tell you because you're still young, rabosai, and I'm not that old. I see the way it talks less and less every year. You know, the Chofetz Chaim used to count the years. How many years it's from the churban. You know that, look at the drashos. He would get up, ספרתם לכם this minute, he would clap. מאה רבון רבוסאי, it's one thousand since the churban, every year. And the truth is, it's one of the kinnes, בימים ימימה. It's one of the kinnes every year. What's the taich?

Just note the taiches, and by the way, if I get off on a tangent, you'll bring me back, okay? This you're getting is from here. Right? So you have to remind me where I'm holding in the story. But I want to tell you, what's the taich? So either you could come and say that the taich is, we don't stop year after year. ... It's not one year more. It's to the number. It's because ... the ... get more. Year after year after year, it's not so much that we do it every year, which is also a chiddush. It's one of the things also we say in the kinnos, eda kol shanah, which means every year, mispek chadash, I'll do a new mispek. It's one of the kinnos. Years past, I was ... we spoke about this kinnah, because it's mispek chadash. It's a new part of the galus. It's a different angle of the galus. What was galus ten years ago is a different galus today. So the ... I asked the ... what's the mekor, the reason for this minhag? Is it because we're trying to be me'orer the zechus, or is it we're trying to come and say, right, that we're still doing it? That it's still living on, still doing it. Could it pshat as pas yanai of Galus, or I said a third pshat. I said it could be the reason why we keep on counting and we say that it's another year from the Galus and another year from the Galus, because that's pshat zoiche v'ro'eh that it's still alive. But we're trying to show—could you imagine, mizbashel achvas? It doesn't exist. It doesn't—it's not there. It's not. And the answer is, if it wasn't something real, we could be misabel on it thousands of years later, left us, which is really one of the pshatim they say in the zoiche v'ro'eh b'nechamas, it's a lie. It's left because it's a lie by us. It doesn't go away after thousands—something. Does anybody know anything about Romans? Who cares? Right? Thus, left, young, nachyan, nachyan. So I remember that Reb Chaim Scheiber told me, Give me two days to think about it. No, I never thought of it. Two days later, I came to him and he says to me, The third pshat is the pshat I like the best. The reason why we keep on counting is to come and bring out az iz left noch. Rabosai, tayere, it's left noch, it's left noch, it's geit noch. So, getting back to the seforim tzaddikim. I said, could be this might be the ikur, the way that tzaddikim were mesaper, how they behaved during churban. To us, maybe it's really what we can ללמוד the churban. No, Yibei Sarn sat in Tur, sat in jail. Why? Because he spoke against communism. Who got him out? Chaimoize again. In jail, he wrote a sefer on Bava Kamma. He only had a Gemara. They gave him a Gemara with papers. You notice that the Bava Kamma is a lot different than Kesubos. It's a different sefer, a lot less ma'amarim. Had to be done by heart. The sefer was written by heart. It's something shocking. Most people, in a jail, he writes. He was continuing ... ... ... and ... ... ... and he's still talking. He comes out of jail after a year, get a rebbe, Reb Chaimoize tells him to lay low. Reb Chaimoize told him not to talk against communism anymore. The Alter Zeide said, What? What are you talking about? If you hold that I'm a rav, ... I have to keep on talking against communism. Communism was a—

It was a form of apikursus. It was all about the government and everything, all the history. And the meileh was makhish the eidus. He believed in the Medina and the government, etc. That's why they didn't let. That's why Russia didn't let any religion. So if you held on a rav, Moshe was out. And if you held, I'm not a rav, then I had no right to say it in the first place. So I belong in jail, so you shouldn't have gotten me out. That same Shabbos, that same Shabbos that he got out, he got up in the Vilna shul, which is where he said the drasha in the first place, and he said over the exact same drasha word for word: I'll show you. Don't come and tell me. I'll show you. This was shimcha gadol. You understand what this is? In the sefer, meitzacharin, the drashas he writes, Drush echad hu shmat lifnei tama yedua. He took out one of the drashas. Why? Because he was scared to print it, right? He was scared to print it because the goyim could get a hand and hold of it. You know, today there's no— then there was no tapes, right? So he said, he said to Yidden, he printed Chatas HaKol. He writes it was the lifnei tama yedua, Chatas HaKol. He ended printing that drasha. Meitzacharin chelek beis, which came out during the war from the ghettos, I have that, which is interesting. This Yid got me this professor, got me the meitzacharin chelek sheini. I found it. Why? He took me to Hebrew University as a student. I was able to go down with him, following him as a student. I was able to go to the basement where they had all the archives. Nowadays already they had the discs, all the sefarim were on the discs. So we searched for sefarim in the beis aron, and they got lost. Later on, I'll tell you, a lot of churban Torah gets lost. This sreifas haTorah, sreifas of Chumashim. It's one of the kinos later, special Sha'ali serufa ba'esh. Again, I wish, honestly, I wish I was able to give you the full gamut of all the kinos, of how churban affects everything in life, even sifrei Torah and sefarim. That's also Sha'ali serufa ba'esh. It's also churban. But the Alter Zeide lost sefarim in Europe was more than we had printed. He was mechaber many, many sefarim. More that was lost than what he has. Even the one on Kiddushin, he had one on Kiddushin, right? It was b'nes, the printer brought it. The printer printed one, and he bought it. He had one on Kiddushin. The printer couldn't do it. He didn't have enough time, and it's lost, got lost. He had a sefer on Chullin. He had his shas, so much. And if you realize, that's one row. Imagine all the different gedolim, the Torah that they had. Churban is churban all around. It's a churban. Now, upon getting back to the story over here, so he was already on the Russian watch list to be a troublemaker. If anybody wants, I have the KGB file on the Alter Zeide. I have. If you go to Stalin today, you go to Stalin, they take you on a tour of Karelin-Stolin. I don't know if you know, Karelin is a small little suburb. To the big metropolitan of Pinsk. Pinsk was the big city. Minsk, and then Pinsk. Pinsk was the large, okay? Smir, Bramovich, whatever, Grodno. But this, Pinsk, Minsk, and then Pinsk, okay? The Zeide was the rav of both of them. They put together. One day we'll talk about maybe even a little later. Kehillos HaKodesh. I don't know if you notice, that's one of the things that we talk about, is the kehillos hakodesh shemastru, kehillos. What is the kehillos hakodesh? We'll get to it hopefully soon. Hashem yirachem, hopefully we'll be in Eretz Yisrael or anybody. The churban of kehillah is also churban Beis HaMikdash. The churban of the batei knessios, the churban of the kehillos. Kehillah. We don't even have a concept of a kehillah today, part of the galus. Kehillos hakodesh shemastru nafsham. Akoponim, let's get back to the original part of the story. So he already was on the watch list by the Russians. So before the German came, he went into hiding, went to basements and attics. When the Nazi came in...

For a few months, they started making decrees one after another. When they made a decree, no shul. They have to stop coming to shul, and the yeshiva has to close down. The Steipler's yeshiva was there. It was Yaakov Yeshiva, was in Bnei Brak. The Beis Aryeh came out of hiding, בלי to say. He hid his beard in a fur coat, and he wore a kasketel to look like a Polish, you know, palagola. He didn't want to be recognized. This Yid told me, one morning, gets a knock on the door. He was in a yeshiva bachur. He opens the door, and the rav is there. He says, We didn't see the rav for months. We didn't know what happened to him. All of a sudden, I see him by the door. He tells me, 'Amol, a rav, today, no respect for rabbanim.' He says, You know what? He was a king. He was the king of the city, the king of the shtetl. A knock on the door from the king. He asks me that I want that we should all come together, all the bnei Torah, in a special house, where we're going to continue davening in learning. It shouldn't be that there should be a hefsek of davening. We should mamash continue davening, learn, and I'm aftiach that I will be there, and I will lead with shiurim and chizuk. And I want you to sign as a yeshiva bachur, the mesiras nefesh means you're giving up your life for this. Straight from the sefer. Straight from the ... As a matter of fact. I'll tell you the end of the matter, in fact, later. It's all ... because he wrote a book about it. It's in the book. It's online. You can read this whole story. He says that the Rav asked him. He said right away yes, he was ready to sign. His mother stood there, and his mother said, I don't want you to sign. Why? They still believed, chaloymis, that if they behave, the Nazis will leave them alone. His mother begged him not to, not to, you know, what do you call it, to ... rates on the Nazi, rates on the Nazis. He said the Zayde started to cry, and I was standing underneath him, and his tears went on my lapel, on his jacket. He said the tears were so strong, they were so ... that side that he had that wasn't even learning and davening, I had no choice but to sign. He says till today, when I daven, I feel the ... those tears on my jacket. I saw that this is a person in front of my face telling this. I couldn't say no. So I was maskim. It was a group of bnei Torah, and we learned and we davened ad yoymo ha'acharon until they came to take him away, and I was the last person to see. Now you understand this letter. This letter is, Eich aruchos avinu shebashamayim. That's what's concerning. This is this last letter. Afilu tash koichen, that's the lashon he uses. He says, ... להודות להשם יתברך, ... שום דבר, ... This is what we ask the Ribono Shel Olam. ... You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.