Shemos: The Power of Jewish Names, Preserving Identity in Galus, and the Mission of the Neshamah

Transcript

What is, what is, like, what do you call? Leviticus. Leviticus, because they say, and the Leviim, the Beis Hamikdash. What do they call a... numbers. Bamidbar? Numbers. Why do they call it Numbers? I guess it has to do with the tally, the tally, the counting, midbar, the counting. What is Deuteronomy? What does Deuteronomy mean? Huh? Repetition, because Devarim is Mishneh Torah. But you see, whoever the guy who thought of the names in English understood the yesod of parshiyos. It's not the names. Imagine, it's a side thing, the names. Chazal don't even know why it's brought. And yet this becomes the name, this becomes the theme. The opening dialogue of the Chumash becomes Shmos. Pelei pelei. So I was thinking maybe you could say a simple teretz, and not just because it's the first word, V'eileh shmos, that I'm not accepting. You could say, ha, gufa, Rashi says, since the names were repeated to show the chibah, it was to recount them to show that HaKadosh Baruch Hu loves them. And this, I guess, was supposed to be an introduction to the galus. They were going through such torturous times, so as an introduction, as a hakdamah to the galus, HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, Ani ohev oscha, chibah, laharos hachibah. So shmos doesn't mean shmos; shmos means chibah l'klal Yisrael. It's another way of bringing out the theme. Hashem loves Klal Yisroel, and that we saw. That is a theme in the whole Shmois, even in the galus, that it was so difficult. Imanochi b'tzarah. As a matter of fact, we're going to learn this at the end of Parshas Mishpatim. It says that the skies opened up, Vayechazu, and they saw es Elokim. Right? At the end of Parshas Mishpatim, v'atzilei Bnei Yisroel, the young among Klal Yisroel, says the skies opened up, and they saw. And they saw. U'mar'eh kevod Hashem. What is mar'eh? They saw the vision of Hashem, that what? K'eish ocheles, like fire that's eating. So Chazal say, what did they really see? They saw, k'maaseh livnas hasapir. Here, it's a pasuk here, pasuk tes. Vayal Moshe v'Aharon, Nadav va'Avihu v'shiv'im miziknei Yisroel, vayiru es Elokei Yisroel. The sky opened up, and they saw Hashem. What did they see? They saw, v'sachas raglav k'maaseh livnas hasapir. What is this maaseh? What are these bricks? Livnas hasapir is a brick. What did they see? Says Rashi, he oisah lefanav b'shaas ha'shibud. While Klal Yisroel was enslaved in Mitzrayim, this brick was in front of Hashem, lizkor tzarosan shel Yisroel, to remind Him of the tzarah, the pain of Klal Yisroel, shehayu meshubadim. It's a maaseh l'hizdaynen. You see that even in the galus, even in the torture of the shibud, HaKadosh Baruch Hu left a brick of Imo Anochi b'tzarah, that He loves Klal Yisroel. He suffers together with them. So Shemos represents the chibah, the love that HaKadosh Baruch Hu has for Klal Yisroel. So the theme of Shemos becomes—Shemos, the names, the counting—pirush that through the galus and the geulah and Matan Torah and everything that happened, even Eigel, it's with love. It's with Hashem's love for Klal Yisroel. Okay? This I was thinking as a pshat. Ken, v'lo. Not bad, not bad. Nice pshat to say at the Shabbos table, but I don't think it's the real pshat. Hear, rabosai? You like the kasha, Rafi? It's a kasha. How could the name of a book that talks about galus Mitzrayim, geulas Mitzrayim, Matan Torah, Eigel, Binyan HaMishkan—binyan HaMishkan—there's so much in Shemos, Shemos becomes the name as if that's the theme of the whole sefer. Yir'u vei. The theme of Shemos is the names. Rashi doesn't bring from the Chazal that we don't even know why.

The names were even numerated. So how did this become the name? How did this become the theme of the entire sefer? Unless you say, like I said, pshutei, because it's the first word in the parsha. Shh. It's the first word in the parsha. Very, very poor teretz. But that's what everybody would say, simply, very poor teretz. Unless you say, like Rashi explains, the enumeration of the names was to show chibah, was to show the love that HaKadosh Baruch Hu has for Klal Yisrael. So in the hakdamah, in the theme, in the introduction to the parshiyos of Galus and Geulas Mitzrayim, HaKadosh Baruch Hu shows us sheimos, that He enumerated the names, that He showed us chibah, that He loves us. I think it's more. I think it's more. I want to show you an unbelievable Chazal. Chazal tell us that in the zechus of three things, Klal Yisrael was nigal: shelo shinu shmam, shelo shinu leshonam, shelo shinu malbusham. They didn't change their clothing, they didn't change their language, and they didn't change their names. What's so special? What's the big zechus that they didn't change their names? So Avram wasn't Abe, and Hershel wasn't Harry. So what? Tell me, do you think the pshat that they didn't change their names to goyishe names? Is that what it means? U'pshat is they didn't change their Jewish names to other names, which means, Harry is still a Jewish name. Abe is still a Jewish name. But it's not Avram, right? If you call Avraham Avrom, it's also no good, right? You see from the Torah that any deviation from the actual name, it's already not what the Torah says is his name. Your name is Avraham. So I'm asking, the shleishinu leshonam malbusham is the taich that they didn't speak goyish, they didn't dress goyish, they didn't change their names to goyish names. That's the pashut pshat, right? The pashut pshat is that they didn't walk around and become from, what should we call it, from Mechveis Chayim to Johnny. What about from Avram to Abe? Was that a problem? Where is the problem, shleishinu leshonam malbusham? It could be a very big nafka mina. Is the pshat they didn't become goyish, or the pshat is they kept the original leshonam malbusham to the T, to the last, how do we call it, syllable. Avram was Avram, or if he was a Sefardi he was Avraham. It wasn't Abe. Is that the pshat? It's a very good question. It's a very good question. I'll tell you, leshonam. Yeah? Did they speak lashon kodesh or did they speak Yiddish? What, what's so different? It's a nice question. You can't come and say that Yiddish... There's a guyish language. Mameloshen. Yiddish is a goyish language. I don't have—there's no goyim that speak Yiddish, unless they want money from the Jews. When they want to get money from the Jews, they speak Yiddish. You have to learn to be quiet. Let me explain. This is a class. Class is a teacher and students who listen. Everything is self-explanatory. Believe me, there's nothing which is not 100% clear what I'm saying. So listen, that's all. Why am I saying that? That's really the question I'm asking you. Does shaloshinu leshonam means that they spoke exactly the lashon kodesh that's their lashon? Or does shaloshinu leshonam means that they didn't speak Yiddish? So something which is a dialect of the actual original Jewish language is okay. Where is the chisaron change that they didn't do, that they refused to do? Was it to speak like the goy, or it was the change from the original Shem, leshonam, umalbusham? So let's understand what's so special about the lashon, what's so special about the name, what's so special about the malbush. So I could come and say—

Being that they were shomer their malbush, shemam u'leshonam, that kept their identity, that they shouldn't get mixed up in the Mitzrayim and become tarovet, that they shouldn't become swallowed up. They kept to themselves, that they should exist, and that was protecting them that they should be nigal. Maybe that's the pshat, right? Jew dressed like a Jew. He's not going to have chatanah with something which is not that way, which means we're separate. So the separatism that they practiced, the apartheid. You know what apartheid is? Of course not. You know what apartheid is? Thank you. Apartheid, excuse me, apartheid, yeah, apartheid. The separation. שהיו מתנהגים גרם שכשהזמן בא, when the time came for geulah, so Jews were able to leave, because otherwise there would be no Jews; it would be all Mitzrayim. So is the maalah that they didn't become hitbolel in Mitzrayim, they didn't become mixed in with the Mitzriyim? Is that the maalah? Maybe. So according to this, what was the main nekudah? That they didn't speak like the Mitzriyim. The main nekudah is they didn't dress like the Mitzriyim. The main nekudah is they didn't have names like the Mitzriyim, because otherwise you would have mixed marriage. But the maalah was not so much that they kept their own. The maalah was that they didn't keep what Mitzrayim was. They didn't do what the Mitzriyim did. So Nachmanides, this was fantastic. Sure, sure. Tzvi could be Hershel. What's wrong with Tzvi as Hershel? What's wrong? You know what Hershel is? Hershel is Yiddish for Tzvi. Bear is the Yiddish for Dov, yeah? So there's nothing wrong. The main thing is that they weren't called Johnny. The main thing is that they weren't called Jimmy. That's the main thing. You know, you're laughing. I'm learning real pshat. I'm not—this is Nazi ... Shabbos ... I'm telling pshat, pshat. Why no pashut pshat, no? What was the malah? What was the zechut? ... It's—that's what it is. They separate themselves. So according to this, it wasn't so much that they kept theirs; it was that they didn't do what the Mitzrim, and that separated them. All we could say, no, it was a shmirah on the original shem, malbush and lashon, and the maalah is because there's something in the shem, malbush and lashon of a Yehudi that protects from going off, which Chassidus believes very strongly in, that the malbush cannot be that of a goy. You have to have Jewish malbush, right? Malbushei kavod is Yehudi. It has to be a Jewish, because there's something in the way the Jew dresses. He dresses dark, he dresses tzniy, whatever it is, that itself is shomer that he shouldn't get lost in Mitzrayim. So I'm telling you two different pshatim, you hear? Yeah, that'd be two different pshatim. You, photographer, I'm telling you two different pshatim, you hear? Either the mahala was that it wasn't mitzri, or pshat sheini, the mahala is that it was Yehudi. One is that it wasn't; it wasn't mitzri, and the other pshat is because it was Yehudi. That there's something special about Jewish clothing, which the mesorah of the Jewish clothing name and language protects, protects, shomer, shehaYehudi lo yaaseh aveirah bifrat b'makom metunaf kemo Mitzrayim. Okay? So this could be the two ways to learn that the zechut of shloshina leshonam, malbusham, ushmam, what it was, what was the zechut. Chazal tell us, taka, that there were very nizhar on our avos. Chazal say it was not one that didn't aveirah, famous Chazal, that it taka worked, that they were separate. They were taka nivdal. They weren't together with the Mitzri to the extent that not even one, not even one, Chazal say, did an aveirah in Mitzrayim. Not one went with the Mitzri. Remember the Chazal?

One, okay, one. One. But you're talking about it worked. Did it work? Did the system work? Yes. And that's the zechut of Shloshinu, Shoinam, and Malbusham. This is how I learned Kepshutai all the years. Over Shabbos, it came to me a havanah yoser amukah, a deeper understanding in the Shloshinu, Shoinam, Malbusham. Remember I asked you, what was the name of the sefer of Exodus, the geulah from the galus? What's its name? Remember what Chazal tell us? B'schut Shloshinu Shmom. There's a connection. Listen carefully. Over Shabbos, things were going through my mind very rapidly. Different concepts were going through my mind. Let me share them with you. Chazal tell us, V'eileh shmos bnei Yisrael... it's a medrash. Al shem geulas Yisrael nizkeru kan. Reuven, Shimon, Levi, Yehuda is al shem hageulah. In their names is embedded the geulah. So when the goyim call it Exodus and we call it Shemos, it's the same thing. That's what Chazal say. Al shem geulas Yisrael nizkeru kan. Reuven, Shimon, Levi, Yehuda, Yissachar, Zevulun—it's all about geulah. And it's mentioned here because it's geulah. So Shmois, in essence, means, if you know Chazal, it means Exodus. It means geulah. How? Reuven, Reuven, Reuven, shene'emar, Re'u, I saw the suffering of my people and I redeemed them. Shimon, al shem vayishma Elohim es na'akasam. Levi, al shem shenischaber HaKadosh Baruch Hu l'tzarah, Hashem attached Himself to their tzarah, bitoch hasneh. In the story of the sneh, Hashem showed that He's fire, that He's burning with Klal Yisrael. L'kayem mah shene'emar, Imo anochi b'tzarah. Yehudah, al shem shehodu laKadosh Baruch Hu, because after they left Egypt, they praised, shirah chadashah, shibchu ge'ulim. Yehudah. Yissachar, shenasan lahem HaKadosh Baruch Hu sachar. Hashem gave them reward for the working in Mitzrayim, who were sho'alim mimishchenta. They were supposed to take all the gold and silver from Mitzrayim, reward. Like it says, V'achar kein yeitzei birchush gadol. Zvulun, al shem shehishkin HaKadosh Baruch Hu Shechinaso b'kirbam. The word Zvul, beis Zvul is a Beis HaMikdash. HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave us the Mikdash, the Mishkan, Zvulun, which is later, Shmois. It's later on in Shmois. So that's also part of what Shmois, the names. It's all merumaz in Shmois, the names. Beis Zvul, Ela Beis HaMikdash. Like it says, Beis Zvul, Mechon l'shivtecha olamim. Binyamin, al shem Yemincha Hashem nedari bakoach, yachoz yasher. We say, Yemincha Hashem, binyamin, yemincha Hashem nedari bakoach. Dan, al shem v'gam es hagoy asher ya'avodu dan anochi. Achichei Yosef b'kushya gadoyl. Naftali, al shem Torah u'mitzvos, matan Torah. Naftali, al shem Torah u'mitzvos shenosan lahem HaKadosh Baruch Hu, shene'emar, shekasuv בהם ומסוקים מדבש ונופת צופים. Naftali, the nofes tzufim. Naftali, sweet. Gad, al shem hamon, the parsha of the mon that we have in Shemos, she'echilum HaKadosh Baruch Hu, she'kezera gad. Pasuk says it was like zera gad, poppy seeds, or whatever you want to translate gad. Al Asher, al shem shehayu me'ashrin osan kol shanah mi'gedulasan. People were praising, Oh, look at Klal Yisrael, right? Look at Klal Yisrael that they left. D'chsiv, Ashru eschem kol hagoyim. Yosef, al shem she'asid HaKadosh Baruch Hu l'hosif, l'galos Yisrael, the malchus Rasha. Yosef means the future galusin.

What are we redeemed us from? כשם שגאל אותנו ממצרים, דכתיב, והיה ביום ההוא ... ה' שנית ידו, Hashem will do it again. Part one was Mitzrayim. There's going to be a repetition to that. שנית, יוסף. Hashem will repeat it again. כל העניין ההוא ... שם, רבותיי. If someone asks you, what does Shemos mean, you tell him Shemos means Exodus. No? Your rebbe says good sometimes, huh? I say good only. Where would you hear this? Good only. How did shmois become the theme? And the teretz, what do you mean? Because the whole shmois, the names are brought here to represent the geulah, and it means Exodus. Comes along the Shem Mishmuel, all the mefarshim, and they ask a gevaldige kasha. Wait a minute. Most of what you repeated, the names, were about geulah, but the first two were about galus. Wait a minute. It says, ראה ראיתי את עני עמי. Saw the pain, the affliction of the nation. שמע, כי ... נאקתם. So those two are not geulah; those two are galus, asks the Shem Mishmuel. So the pashut pshat is, yeah, it's galus that Hashem saw their pain, and therefore He was going to bring them the geulah. So it's true that we're still talking about the galus, but it's the point of the galus that HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, now I'm going to start seeing the geulah. I need a little more room. Well, thank you so much. Good, perfect. Okay? So the question is, why is this, al shem hageulah? This is actually, the first two is the galus. But like I say, not such a big question, because this is where the galus breaks. This is the breaking point where Hashem says, from here, I'm going to start bringing geulah. The teretz that all the mefarshim say is a little different. If you take a look at the Sfas Emes, you take a look at the Ohr Gedalyahu, they all bring this medrash and they all ask this question, but this is galus, raah Hashem es ani. The second, Vayishma Elokim es naakasam, is already in the galus. It's still in the galus. Not already, still, still in the galus. So how is this al shem hageulah? So they say a pshat like this, rabosai. Why did we go to galus? So pashut, everybody says, what do you mean? It was a punishment, because since Avraham Avinu said, במה אדע כי אירשנה, by the Bris Bein HaBesarim, so right away Hashem tells him that you should know, כי גר יהיה זרעך בארץ לא להם, ועבדום וענו אותם. Punishment. Punishment. Avraham Avinu, lefi dargato, lefi dargato, he made a mistake. Since he made a mistake, this caused that we should go to galus Mitzrayim. I have a very big problem with that. I questioned it all my life. Is that fair? Is that fair that an entire nation should be tortured because the great-great-grandfather made a slip, so to speak, in emunah? Whatever happened to the klal of lo yumsu avos al banim, banim al avosam? So Avraham said. So he said it, so what? That means all of Klal Yisroel who didn't say it should have such suffering? It's a kasha, no? What are you trying to refute? Oh, so the Gemara says unless it's... maybe. I don't really like that. I don't like that. You know why? I haven't seen anybody say that. You know, I don't find anybody says that the reason why Klal Yisroel had to suffer through the galus is because they had the same chisaron that Avraham Avinu said, bameh eda ki irashenah. I don't feel it. I don't agree with it. I feel differently. I'll tell you what I feel. Avraham Avinu planted the mahus of Klal Yisroel. You want to know who we are? We are bnei Avraham Yitzchok v'Yaakov. Ma'aseh avos siman l'banim.

In our mahutz, we have a gene, which is a little bit—what would you call that? The change, what do you call that? A mutation. A mutation of a gene, amaida kirshena. So to heal that, to fix that, to fix it, we needed to go through chemotherapy. We needed to go through tremendous treatment, and the chemotherapy was called kur habarzel. You know, kur habarzel? Chazal tell us, Mitzrayim was the kur habarzel. It was mamash a punching to break. Chemotherapy, no? It was to clean us, to heal us. It was to fix the mutation of bamaaida kirshena. So the reason for the galus is not an onesh, rabosai. The reason for the galus is to help us, to heal us, to fix us, to embetter us, and to bring out the hidden kochos that we have, koach el hapoel. It's to train us, to bring out the potentials of the kochos hanefesh that we have. So galus and geulah is actually one and the same. Galus and geulah is the same thing, which means that we go to galus in order— That we should bring out the geulah. There was kochos in the Shvatim. These are all tremendous kochos. Reuven, ראה ה' בעניי. How did we have that? That we should have ראה ה' בעניי, that we should be able to pray to Hashem. א-ל ישמע ה' את נקמתם. Hashem put it to the test. Hashem made the situation that we should be proven, that we should bring out mikoach el hapoel, this koach that we have. So it's true that these pesukim are in the galus, say the mefarshim, but it's the geulah that we had to have the galus for. So it's not galus and geulah; it's the same thing. The Sfas Emes writes in year tof reish nun zayin — the Sfas Emes goes according to years — he says, you know what the word galus stands for? What does the word galus mean? He says it's מגלה, uncovers the hidden kochos in the neshama of the Jew. Why do we have so much galus? Why are we the only nation in the world that, when we began, we began with galus. אנחנו התחלנו עם גלות. איזה אומה בעולם מתחילה עם גלות? מתחילים ואחר כך... אחריות, לאט. הלוא לבנים — בוא נגיד זה בלשון נקייה — אפילו הלוא לבנים, the non-whites, right? We say it בלשון נקייה, yeah, like the Torah says by Chazir, שאינו טהור. No? Torah by Chazal says she'eina Torah. Of course, we have to talk b'lashon nekiyah when we talk about human... Okay, now. So listen carefully, רבותי, listen carefully, yeah? Nations. But then in the history, as the years go on, things happen to them. But how could it be a nation which started before we even became Am Yisroel? It's even before, according to many shitos, we weren't even Klal Yisroel till Matan Torah. So before we even stepped foot—it's like in Israel, before they even announced the country, they already had to go to war with the Arabs. State of Israel, the Arabs are here. Already in the beginning there has to be galus. And right away we were told about all the future galus, and I'll be with you in the future galus, ehyeh asher ehyeh. We were told now, in Mitzrayim, as we were suffering, by the way, I'll be with you in the future. There's been many more galusim to come. What are you doing to us? What are you—this is called you love Klal Yisroel? You know what? Maybe you should like us so much. Maybe better off if you didn't like us so much. As they say, with friends like this, who needs enemies? You know, the Eibishter gives us a whole speech, I loved you, and ami... b'tzarah, and therefore I'm going to beat the living daylights out of you now, Mitzrayim, and then in the future galusim. What are you doing to us? What do you want?

This is the Klal Yisroel that you claim to love. And the teretz is because the nefesh, neshama of a Yehudi comes to its fruition, to its mikoach el hapoel, to all its potential, only through being beaten. As the Chazal say, that Klal Yisroel is doimeh l'shemen, right? Just like shemen only becomes pure as you kotesh, so too Klal Yisroel becomes beautiful and pure and perfect with ketisha. ... what are you sleeping for? I'm gonna come and beat you up in two seconds. I'm serious. I'm gonna let you sleep? Huh? Yeah, ... Klal Yisroel is being taught that the only way that they're going to be able to be who they are, perfect to the kochos that they have, is hard labor. It's galus. Says Sfas Emes, galus means legalot, to uncover the kochos hanefesh. Beautiful vort, okay. ... It's true it's by the galus, but it's to bring out ... it's to bring out Vayishma Hashem et naakatam. So it's actually the geulah, and not per se דווקא the galus. With this, rabosai, I think we learn a tremendous lesson. The names of the shevatim represented kochos. Had to come, mikoach el hapoel through the galus. That's what we see from here. Each one of the shevatim was going to bring out tremendous geulah that can only come first through galus. Shemos, the name. The name represents the mahut, the shlichut, the tafkid of the person. Yeah, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. It represents the shlichut and the tafkid of the person. That's pshat, shemos, the shevatim's shemos, their names, was a representation of kochot that they had to bring out only through ketisha, only through being banged through a galus. And you think it's only, rabosai, for Mitzrayim? The kochot of the shevatim was for the future galus and also to be brought out through galus. The Sfas Emes says that's the pshat why it says, Habaim, eileh shemos bnei Yisrael habaim. It should say shebau, that they came. So he says habaim, in the future galus and also, in the future exiles too, these kochot of the shevatim had to come to fruition through the galus. Every galus is there to bring out. The koach of Reuven, the koach of Shimon, in Klal Yisroel, because that's Bnei Yisroel, eileh shmot Bnei Yisroel. Reuven is from the names of Klal Yisroel, which means that in the koach, in the mahus, in the greatness and the capability of Klal Yisroel is the koach of Reuven. And where do we see that koach? In the name. The name represents the greatness and shlichut that every shevet had and every person. I want to discuss this with you: names, the significance of names, and then we'll see why Chumash Shemot, names, means so much. There's a peledike Medrash Rabbah. The Medrash Rabbah says in Koheles, a person is given three names. And I don't mean Chaim, David, Baruch. I don't mean that, that when there's a fight between a husband and a wife, what name to give, you give both. I'm not referring to that. I know a guy that has five, six names. They were fighting, the grandfathers and the parents, it was such a bilbul that they gave five, six names. Also, I know a guy that has five names because the person who called out the name got it wrong, so he ended up with five, six names. And in the middle, one of the names was Tipesh. Where did that come from? And the answer is because the guy screamed, It's not the name, Tipesh! So it became one of his names.

Yeah, so he had five, six names, the guy. That's not what it means. That's not what Chazal mean. Chazal say there's three names. One name is what HaKadosh Baruch Hu calls a person. This is a Medrash Rabbah; it's a Medrash Tanchuma also. Medrash Rabbah Koheles says three names: Shlosha shemot yesh la'adam. There's three names. One is what HaKadosh Baruch Hu calls him. The next name is what the parents call him. Wake him up. What the parents call him. The third name is what the person calls himself. So I was thinking, what do you mean by that? Do you mean to say it is that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives a different name than the parents, and that the person calls himself in his lifetime a third name? And if he doesn't call— I know you gave yourself your own name. I never heard of anybody that gives themselves— cool guys, you know, the guys who are cool like to give themselves nicknames. They like to call themselves, you know— Joe. Joe. You know, from Yosef became Joe. Okay, but that's not what it means. I don't think it means that. What does it mean, the name that he gives himself? Rabosai, I'll tell you what it means. The name represents the tafkid, the mission that a person has in his lifetime. HaKadosh Baruch Hu sets up one mission. The parents sometimes are mechanech to a second mission. They're not always mechanech to the mission. They don't always bring up the child to fulfill his potentials. And then there's the name that the person makes for himself, the life that he sets out for himself, the mission that he makes for himself. A person is lucky. All three are the same name. A person is lucky, he muzachah shekol hashemot yiheyeh oto shem. But sometimes it's three different names. Hashem, one thing; parents had something else in mind; doctor, Hashem put out that he should be harav hagaon, hamamukubal, right? It's Friday yeshiva, I have to say. Okay. What do the parents have set out for him? Doctor. What does he have set out for himself? Joey, Jackie, the stock market. A person has three names. Halavai, halavai, halavai shekulam yihyeh shem echad, that should all be one. Now, the name is the shlichut of the person; it's the tafkid. Notice that Avraham Avinu, he was called Avram to Avraham when he had his brit milah, right? As soon as he got his brit milah, he called him Avraham. And what's Avraham supposed to mean? Av hamon goyim. That's a tafkid. That was a shlichut that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave to Avraham Avinu. His name was Avram, and that's why there was a special akpadah. He was not allowed to be called anything else. Remember I started asking you, what is so important about the names of Klal Yisrael that they weren't allowed to deviate, they weren't allowed to change it? What's wrong if you change a name? What's wrong if Harry from Tzvi becomes Harry? What's the big deal? It's not goyishe name, not Johnny. Tzvi stands for a mission in life. Naftali, Reuven, it stands for a mission that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives a person. I'll change that. Like, תיקרא שמי, you're not allowed to call you—his name is not to be called Avraham, Avraham, but rather Avraham. Whoever changes, עובר בלאו. Do you know that Yaakov Avinu was given his name Yisrael, ki sarisa... Elokim v'anashim vatuchal. It was a mission. Yaakov's goal and tafkid and kochos hanefesh was ki sarita im Elokim, and therefore his name was given Yisrael. His name was given Yisrael. Yaakov also, we have, there's two parts to Yaakov, we discussed this many times. Yaakov has two tracks at the same time: one is that he has to go around, and one that he has to fight directly. But the name of the person, rabosai, represents his mission. I want to tell you more. I saw in the Arizal, a sefer called Amudei HaShamayim. He has a sefer, Amudei HaShamayim, os chav gimel. He writes that the analyzation of the name, the analyzation of the name could bring you to understand the person, even in gematria. You know, a lot of people, they look at the names, tzaddikim, they look at the names, and they start telling you big stuff. Now let me tell you the rule: if they ask you for money after—

In other words, you know that it's a bunch of baloney. But if they don't ask you for money, and they have muchzak that they know what they're doing, see, they have a chazakah, which is not less than a hundred times. Chazakah doesn't mean that they can come and tell you three times that they were right. I once had a mekubal came to Lakewood when I was a bachur, and my roommate was all into him. I don't want to say his name because he's one of the famous ones. But right away I saw there was something wrong because he came to my dorm room. I didn't understand, such a big guy, what is he doing in my dorm room? He came to the room in my dormitory. My friend didn't leave me alone. He was a chassidishe; he was into this guy mamash. You got to speak to him. You see, he's mamash, you know, kol yodea daas v'din. He knows everything, okay. You know me, I'm a Litvak. I was very skeptical. I didn't, you know, I look at the guy. First, he's a young guy. But then I heard people telling me, What? This guy is mamash, mamash. He's him and the Baba Sali, okay. Kitzur, what happened? I walk over to him, and I got my yechidus with him, because since he was in my room, you know, listen, you have to pay me back. He set up shop. He set up his business in my room. It's only fair that he gives me a free consultation. So he looks at me and he goes, You? Your name is Chaim. I look at him and go, No, it's not. I'm sorry, man, I don't know how to break the news to you, but it's not. So I'm looking at the guy, I'm thinking, maybe, maybe, maybe he means my uncle. I have an uncle named Chaim. So I tell him, My uncle. Oh, that's it, that's it. It's the uncle. You remember the story I told it to you? He told me, I forgot. You remember the second thing he told me, something about Chai. Ah, he was hacking in Chinese. And I saw that again he was wrong, and I started. I felt bad for the guy, you know what I mean? So I was going to tell him, listen, you need, I'll write you up all the information, study it, and then you get it right, and that's all. You should not the test, but finished. To make a long story short, this guy obviously was a sharlatan, I think, I don't know. But one thing for sure, there were Gedolei Yisrael who were able to study the names. What were they studying? They were studying the kochot of the names. Reuven. They saw Reuven, Reu Hashem b'ani. They saw what Chazal tell us. He's the tafkid of a person with the name Reuven. And the Arizal is saying that even in gematria, numerically. That, I guess, you need a little bit more imagination and a little more koach, but the names of Yehudim, Jews, represent who they are. As a matter of fact, there's a ma'amar in Medrash I saw on Shabbos, the Medrash, Yalkut Shimoni, Yeshaya mem, tof mem tes. Had we been zoche, says the Medrash, Hashem would have given us our names direct, like in the Torah. Who called Avram Avram? Hashem. Who gave these names? Yaakov, Yisrael. It's HaKadosh Baruch Hu. The Torah told us the names. It came from Hashem. Later on it had to come through the parents, and the parents have to have a certain siyata d'shmaya, however you want to call it. I don't know, some said it was nevuah, but I saw the ... it's not nevuah, I don't know. There's a big question of how the parents know to give the name, and how does that become the name? As a matter of fact, from this Chazal you see a little different. Hashem gives one name, and the parents can give a different name. That was what I learned from the Medrash, that there's three names to a person. Either way, אילו זכינו, Hashem would have given us our name, meaning He would have shown us clearly what our direction in life is, what we were supposed to do. A name represents the tafkid and the kochos hanefesh of the person. There's a gevaldige Noam Elimelech, which I saw. Noam, hafla vafla, I saw it on Shabbos, mamash, couldn't get over it. He says, notice when a person sleeps, you know how you wake him up? You could move him. He's not going to wake up as quickly as doing what? Calling his name. You call his name, he wakes up. Says the Noam Elimelech, because the name is actually the name of the neshama. And since the neshama is sleeping, it's left, right? Because the neshama goes up when you sleep, you're summoning back the neshama by calling. No, no, no, I didn't make it up. It's in this week's parashah, Shemos. You summon the neshama because the name is actually the name of the neshama. I saw from the Baal HaTanya. Tanya writes that actually it's merumaz in the word neshama. The root of neshama is what? Shem. Neshama, shem. The middle letters are shem. It's because it's not just a name. It represents...

The kochos and tafkid of the neshama. It's an unbelievable thing. So says the Noam Elimelech, by calling the name, you're summoning back the neshama. Mimeila. So what we have from over here, that eilu shmos Bnei Yisrael, these are the shmos, the names of the Bnei Yisrael, meaning our forefathers, our basis, our base, has these names, habaim Mitzrayim, which came to Mitzrayim to do what? To bring it to fruition that shebecha yikorach al hapoel, to bring out the kochos of Reuven that we have in ourselves. This is shmos. With this, rabosai, I want to explain the mashal that Rashi brings. Rashi says that nimshlu, af al pi shemonin bechayeihem, bishmosam, chazaru umonin bemisosam. If you notice, there's a second girsa: achar misosam. Bemisosam, achar misosam. I saw the Ber Mayim Chaim. I daven in a Chassidishe shul on Shabbos. There are a lot of Chassidishe sefarim over there. So, some days you're going to be getting a lot of Chassidishe Torah, because that's the sefarim that I have to work with, begavra legavra. So there's a sefer called Ber Mayim Chaim. Chassidishe world worships the Ber Mayim Chaim. It's a very chashuv sefer. No, Chernovitch. We have it here. It's a famous sefer, Ber Mayim Chaim. Ber Mayim Chaim is like by the Sfas Emes, Darizal. So it's not darga, b'Berach Chaim. Okay, so the Ber Mein Chaim says that's the pshat, shemonan b'chayeihem, u'monan b'misasam. Peirush, what does that mean? They filled their tafkid. Eilu shmois Bnei Yisrael. They were born with this tafkid, and when they died, it was still Reuven, Shimon, Levi, Yehuda, and that's why monan, HaKadosh Baruch Hu enumerates them, that they fulfilled their tafkid. Interesting, huh? He says that's the—HaKadosh Baruch Hu is pointing out, monan, He counts them with their name, b'chayeihem, because it represents their tafkid, and therefore b'misasam, when they finish, when they bring in their, so to speak, their papers that it's over, they fulfilled their tafkid. There's tafkid Reuven, Shimon, Levi, Yehuda, Yissachar. Says the Sfas Emes, very interesting thing. That's the pshat. It says, V'eileh shmois Bnei Yisrael haba'im Mitzrayma. They came to Mitzrayim. Eis Yaakov ish u'veiso ba'u. Why are you changing? Shmois Bnei Yisrael, and then you come to Yaakov. And the teretz is that there's two kochos. There was two kochos. There was two tafkid. One is Yisrael, and one is Yaakov Avinu, right? Right? What do we say? Yaakov Avinu v'Yenuchu bo. We say, we say two leshonos: Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, Yaakov Avinu v'Yenuchu bo. There's two tafkidim. One is Yisrael, and we go as Bnei Yisrael, and then there's a time that we go as Yaakov Avinu. That's what came to Mitzrayim. Mitzrayim came that we should bring out and perfect the kochos of Bnei Yisrael. He brings from the Chiddushei Harim, and that's why it switches. Eileh shmos Bnei Yisrael ba'u Mitzrayim. They came as Bnei Yisrael, but also came as the Yaakov, Yishuvei bo. Both levels, tafkidim of Yaakov Avinu came to Mitzrayim to come mikoach el hapoel. And then he says that's also the pshat, is the Sfas Emes to his grandfather, says, V'Yosef hoyah b'Mitzrayim. We don't know that Yosef hoyah b'Mitzrayim. Rashi brings the kasha already: V'halo hu banav hoyu b'chalal shivim, u'mah ba lamedeinu? What's the chiddush of Yosef hoyah b'Mitzrayim? V'chi lo yod'im shehayah b'Mitzrayim? Ela al yad tzidkaso shel Yosef, hu Yosef haro'eh tzon aviv. He was Yosef as a child that was ro'eh tzon aviv. Hu Yosef shehayah b'Mitzrayim v'nasa melech v'omed b'tzidko. Because since the whole parsha is trying to say that this shevatim fulfilled Reuven, Shimon, Levi, Yehudah in Mitzrayim, so it's moredik vort. It's Sfas Emes. Sfas Emes says that's why the Torah says, And Yosef was Yosef in Mitzrayim. They came and they were Reuven, Shimon, Levi, Yehudah at the end, and Yosef was Yosef at the end.

Even though he was in Mitzrayim. Parshas starts to open up clear, huh? The idea is that these are the shmois Bnei Yisrael coming to Mitzrayim. They remained Reuven, Shimon, Levi, Yehuda. They remained Reuven, Shimon. They became Reuven, Shimon, Levi, Yehuda. Peirush: the Bnei Yisrael brought out these kochos through the galus of Mitzrayim, through the galus of Mitzrayim. V'Yosef, Yosef was haya b'Mitzrayim. This is fascinating. With this, I want to explain the mashal and the kochav. Says Rashi, an interesting pshat: l'hodia chibasan, to show Hashem's love for them, shenimshlu l'kochavim, shemotziin u'machnisin b'mispar u'vishmoisam. So when you read Rashi, what is the comparison between Klal Yisrael and the kochavim? By the fact that Hashem takes them out, and He counts them, and He gives them names, so that's how they're nimshlu l'kochavim, right? How did you read the Rashi? Dikrata, rabosai. What does Rashi mean? Rashi means that since Hashem takes them out and counts them, meileh it's nimshlu l'kochavim. In this pshat, they're nimshlu l'kochavim. The Medrash says not that way. Rabosai, the Medrash says not like that. The Medrash says the other way around. They are nimshlu l'kochavim. They're compared to the stars, and because of that, Hashem takes them out and counts them and gives them names. Pirush haMedrash. Let's read the Medrash. The Medrash says like this: Habaim Mitzrayim... no, v'eileh shmois Bnei Yisrael habaim Mitzrayim. Yeah, Mr. Keitel, how do you refute—how do you read this Rashi? That they compared to the kochavim, in what way are they compared to the kochavim? By the fact that Hashem takes them out, counts them, and gives them names. Says the Medrash, Shkulim heim Yisrael k'tzva haShamayim. They're equal to the tzva haShamayim. They're equal to the stars. Ne'emar kan shemos, v'ne'emar b'kochavim shemos. It says here names, it says there names. Shene'emar, moneh mispar lakochavim, l'kulam shemos yikra. Af HaKadosh Baruch Hu, k'sheyardu Yisrael l'Mitzrayim, mona misparam, kamah hayu, u'lefi sheheim meshulim l'kochavim, kara shemos lahem. Yeah? Because they're like the kochavim, Hashem gives them names. So it's not the pshat that they're compared to kochavim, that Hashem counts them and gives them names. No, they are nimshal l'kochavim. They're just like the stars. And because they're just like the stars, mimeila they get a name. What does that mean? Bishlema if you meant to say it was they're like the stars, Hashem counts them and gives them a name, okay, fine. But you're saying no, that they really are like—how are they like kochavim? What, in numbers? We find that if Hashem wants to say they're many in numbers, what does Hashem say? When Hashem wants to say that they're like—they're numbers, what does Hashem say? Hashem says, no, they're like sand. So good, some mefarshim say that sometimes they're like stars, high, and sometimes they're like sand, that they're low, right? That's not working. How long ago did it die? Yeah, I saw someone ask this for a kashya. Not like the stars are bigger than the stars. Shteiman asked this for a question. Come and say that, like, the stars are bigger than the stars. Shteiman asked this safe question. Very nice. ... This was recorded? Who was? Two. Okay, good. So listen, you hear? You hear? Listen. That nimshlu hakochavim. I want to say pshat. What do I mean, that nimshlu hakochavim? There's a gevaldige Ramban. The Ramban in Parshas Bereishis, perek aleph, pasuk yud ches, says the Ramban, what's the pshat Hashem gives names to the stars, constellations? What does it mean? And the teretz is, the names represent the kochos. The names represent the Ramban, פירוש הרמב״ן. He says there are certain stars which represent din, certain stars which represent rachamim. You know, let's read it inside. You think I'm making it up. Bring me a Chumash Mikraos Gedolos Bereishis. Peledik, peledik, pele. You hear? The names represent the kochos.

Right, right. The same way Adam HaRishon saw the kochos and he named, right? Bring me quickly, Aleph Yud Tes here. Because you brought it, you're gonna read it. Listen carefully. Everybody say, listen good, listen good. We're saying gevaldige zachin here. Listen good, listen good here. Okay, go ahead, read. Come here. From here, Yud Ches. V'limshol bayom uvalayla. Hashem made the stars and the constellation, limshol bayom uvalayla, ul'havdil bein ha'or uvein hachoshech, hayare' Elokim ki tov. Says the Ramban, go ahead. Here. Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. Ramban, here. Here it is. No, which one? Ramban, Ramban, Ramban. Here, here. Oh, here it is, here it is. Come here, come here. V'hu ma she'amar hakasuv, you ready? V'hu ma she'amar hakatuv, moneh mispar lakochavim, l'kulam shemot yikra. What does that mean, says the Ramban? Each one has his own name. What does that mean? Ki kriat ha-shemot hi havdalah bekochotam. That separates them in their power, in their kochos. L'zeh koach ha-tzedek, yosher. One of the stars, the constellations, has the koach of tzedek, yosher. U'l'zeh koach ha-dam, vacherev. V'chein b'chol ha-kochos, ki yadua b'itztagninus, ha-koach elyon... That means each name of each star represents the kochot of that constellation, of that star, of that shemesh. Klal Yisroel is domeh l'kochavim. You know what they're domeh l'kochavim? Each one of us has our own kochot. Everybody has his own power. You know what a Yehudi is called? Olam malei. Olam katan. You have each one of us, worlds, worlds of kochot. And there's so much kochot hidden, hidden. You know why Hashem brings so much yisurim on us? Hashem brings the yisurim on us to bring out, to push us to bring out, mikoach el hapoel, all the hidden kochot that are hidden within us. Every Jew has worlds of koach, worlds of tafkid, tafkid. But you know what it is? If a guy has an easy life, he sits back and he doesn't do much with it, Hashem bangs him into place. He tests him. He pushes him. I once told this to someone. Two things. Notice that one of your weaknesses will always come back. If you have a certain weakness, all your nisyonot are around that weakness. Let's say a person has a problem with shmirat einayim. So everything is in that ballpark. All his nisyonot is going to be around that. If a person has weakness that he has a problem with money, that he has lo tachmod kesef, it's going to come back and back. You know why? Because Hashem wants to take you. The koach hapoel, your ability to overcome these things. Life is the kur habarzel. It's the kur habarzel for a person to become who he is and who he's supposed to be, to fulfill his tafkid. Over again and over again and over again, you'll be tested and pushed to the limit on the weaknesses that you have because you have a mission. And your mission is not the same as the other guy's mission. It's not the same thing. Your place, where you're going to fulfill your... I said another thing. Notice that a person's weaknesses is always his wife's strengths and the opposite. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A person always marries a woman who's going to test him on his weaknesses. Help her against. Oh yes, oh yes. If a guy is a guy who gets angry very fast, so you notice his wife's going to be a person who really gets underneath his nails. Oh yes. Naggy. Naggy. No, no, not necessarily. Not necessarily. If a person's laid back, ba'atzlut, you notice his wife's going to be a dynamite, that she's not going to let him sit still for a second. She's a cheapskate, she's a spender. That's what it is. It is what it is.

See, in life, Hashem puts the kur habarzel. Tisha, tisha, lamidos shel haben adam. It's unbelievable. Hashem wants to bring your tafkid, your koach el hapoel. This is the pshat in kochavim. Klal Yisroel is nimshal to kochavim. It's different than the goyim. The goyim are more or less bunched together, you know, they're bunched together. You notice, you can say, most goyim are like this, most Arabs are like this. There's no two Jews the same, you know what I mean? Every person is an olam malei, its own tafkid, with his own kochos, with his own kochos. This is the pshat, says the Sfas Emes also. You know how a light of a kochav works? When he fulfills his tafkid, he's me'ir b'toch hachoshech. Klal Yisroel, each yachid could be me'ir b'toch hachoshech if he fulfills his tafkid. Huh? What does it mean? I understand it meaning like this: if you want to do what he has to do in life, you will not shine. You will not become koach el hapoel. You will be dormant. You know when a Jew finds simcha and or in the choshech of galus? When he's doing what he has to do. When he's fulfilling the tafkid hamyu'ad imyuchad lo. Don't try to be somebody else. I told this to you many times, that there was a Yid who once told— Tzadik, if only I had the heart of the shoresh, yesod, shoresh avodah, and if only I had the emunah of the ... of this one, and the Torah of the Gra. So what are you telling? With your heart and your middos, Hashem wants from you, not what He wants from the other guy. That's not what He wants. What are you supposed to figure out? What does Hashem want from you? Ma Hashem sho'el me'imach. What does Hashem want from you? ... It doesn't say ba'olam. I told you many times, ba'olam, in his world. A person has his own world, and you have to be clear: ... ba'olam. What does Hashem want from you? Not what He wants from the other guy. You know, yeshivas ... destroyed a big part of the Torah world today. I didn't say this, the Chazon Ish said this. Why? There was a time and a place where every individual worked according to his kochos, and according to his capabilities, according to his kishron and his talents, to be the best who he could be. What happened? A lot of ameratzim, because very few people did that. So they made yeshiva to make sure everybody learns. What did yeshiva do? Yeshiva made that everybody has to be the same. Everybody has to be the same. No business. That's the idea of the yeshivas. Everybody has to learn the same thing, everybody has to learn. So what happened? It's not everybody can be the same. Not everybody is the same. Not everybody's future potential is the same. Everybody's bold. Tafkid hachayim is the same. A person has to learn himself well, well, to know what his tafkid is. What is your tafkid? What is your, why you're here? And if you're mekayem it, you should be prepared to shine in the galus. Otherwise, you'll have choshech in galus. Galus is going to wash you up. It's going to wash you up. This is Eileh shmos Bnei Yisrael habaim Mitzrayim. Galus was there to bring the koach hapoel, the koach of Reuven, Shimon, Levi, Yehuda, Yissachar, Zevulun. And the whole shmois encompasses these kochos. It encompasses these kochos. I just want to tell you one nekudah. What is the hatzlachah of a person fulfilling his tafkid? How does a person do it? A person can come and say, I'm in galus. What's the trick of being able to accomplish his tafkid in galus? How does a person do it? How does a person come in a choshech and be able to be meir? I want to tell you something interesting. Notice.

Vayeilech ish miBeis Levi. Tell me, what is ish? Anybody know what ish means? A man. Vayeilech ish. Tell me. Oh, usually ish means important, right? Vayeilech ish miBeis Levi. Okay. Does the Torah mean over here ish, that he was important? Is that the point, that Amram was important? So what is that? Vayeilech ish miBeis Levi. You know who says this? Mi samcha l'ish sar v'shofet aleinu, is what the guy screams, right? Dasan v'Aviram screams at Moshe, Who made you into an ish? Ish means important, right? So what's the vayeilech ish miBeis Levi? I didn't understand what the vayeilech ish miBeis Levi. Huh? Yeah, that's what it means? He was the head of his... head. Let me tell you, okay, everybody please be quiet because you're just ruining something that's good. Everybody ruining a very good question. What is vayeilech ish miBeis Levi? So let me tell you what I found. I did a little research. When is a person called an ish? I did, I did a lot of research on it over Shabbos. V'ata adam nikra ish. Called ish. It says, ish Ivri, ish Mitzri. Does that mean over there chashuv? No. That's an identification of who the ish is. Ish Ivri, or he's an ish Mitzri. But when you say ish פלוני, what do you mean by ish פלוני? So I want to tell you something interesting. When Moshe hits— The Mitzri for hitting the Jew, it says, Vayar ki ein ish. He saw that there was no person. So Chazal say, what do you mean, he saw that there was no person? What does it mean? So Chazal say a pshat. One is, vayar ki ein ish in the future, that this person is not going to have any geirim coming from him. That's the famous one that everybody knows, right? There's actually two more Chazal in the Medrash that say different. Vayar ki ein ish, he saw that there was no person sheyikane lichvod Hashem. There was no person to stand up for the kavod of Hashem. That's pshat ein ish. So the peirush of the Marzav on the bottom explains that this is what the Mishnah means: Bemakom she'ein anashim, hishtadel lihyos ish. In a place where there's no people, hishtadel. What does it mean, hishtadel? Listen, the meforshim explain, it's not easy. It's obviously not in your nature to be ish, right? It's a difficult thing sometimes. Bemakom she'ein anashim, hishtadel lihyos ish. What is that? So there's two pshatim in the meforshim on the Mishnah. What does it mean, bemakom she'ein anashim, hishtadel lihyos ish? You know the two pshatim? One pshat is, bemakom she'ein anashim, where there's nobody to do it, you go and do it. Bemakom she'ein anashim, where there's nobody to do it, you go and do it. The second pshat is, bemakom she'ein anashim, to help you to do it, you should strengthen yourself and be on your own. Bemakom she'ein anashim... Where there's nobody to give you the encouragement that you need, hishtadel lihyos ish al yero. That's the two pshatim that the BeYochanan Boi brings down, the Medrash Shmuel. Okay. You know what I found? That this week's haftorah—did anybody pay attention to this week's haftorah? Yeah. Shlomo. What does David tell Shlomo? Vechazakta v'hayisa l'ish. Right, this week's haftorah. What does it mean, vechazakta v'hayisa l'ish? Some mefarshim learn, don't forget, Shlomo was a little boy. So he's telling him, don't be a little boy. Be a what? Be a man. If you notice that Rashi over here too learns, mi-samcha l'ish, v'lo na'ar. You're a little boy. How did you become such a big man? Rashi learns that that's what Doson v'Aviram was telling Moshe. Moshe, you're a kid. What are you becoming? Walking around like you're this big man. You're a kid. Act like a kid. You see the Rashi, mi-samcha l'ish? Go ahead. Who made you into a man? You're a little boy. And Adak learns, vechazakta v'hayisa l'ish, I'm not going to be here anymore, so I won't be able to help you grow. Vechazakta v'hayisa l'ish al yero.

Could be a moyshel. That's the word it works, moyshel b'yitzrcha. You be now man. You know what ish means? An ish means self-made. That's what the word ish means. B'makom she'ein anashim, there's no people, השתדל להיות איש. It's very easy to get chizuk and constantly be told, Come on, let's go. But not always in life is that there. There's going to be a time and a place where there's nobody around. You know what it is? Chizakta v'amatzta l'ish, then you're on your own. Vayar ki ein ish. Moshe Rabbeinu looked and he said, There's nobody here. השתדל להיות איש. I'm on my own now. You know what galus is? Vayeilech ish miBeis Levi. He took moyshel, he took achrayus. That's the vayeilech ish miBeis Levi. He's looking around here, and he could have said, You know, I don't want to do this. He realized it's wrong. It's not easy. It was very difficult. To have the children in this matzav was an unbelievable difficult thing. But he realized you have to be misgaber, and you have to be moyshel, and you have to take achrayus. Vayeilech ish. It's a sign of strength, of his gabrus, of moyshel. The yesod of galus is to be moyshel on the galus and not the galus to be moyshel on you. We have a matzav today, rabosai. Listen. That the galus is internal, and there's really nobody to help us. We think, we think, yeah, the yeshiva, the olam. Let me tell you, 90% of the time when the aveiros are done, there's nobody there to help you. You go out in the street, there's nobody to help you. You're on your own. There's nobody to stop you. We live in a society where the galus is not forcing us one way or the other. The galus is that we're free to do what we want. 90% of the aveiros that we do today, we are free to do them. No one would know the difference. We're on our own. The hisgabrus is to be an ish, b'makom she'ein anashim, הוי איש. It's an unbelievable nekudah. Think about what I'm telling you. Would anybody know the difference? Nobody would know. Nobody. You're free, you're calm, you go, whatever you want. There was a time and a place where there was a matzav in a yeshiva where everybody knew what everybody else was doing, and you had no choice. It doesn't exist today. I live in the ir haTorah. I can tell you that in the ir haTorah you can do whatever you want and no one would know the difference. Nobody would know. Nobody would say, Boo. I'll prove it to you. I took my child to the library. I took my son, Yitzchok, to get a library card because he had homework. He had to take out a book. Make a book report. I took him to the library. My three sons, me and my three sons, we went to the library. Hatchila, I didn't think I had to have to go to the library. I thought he would be able to get the library card on his own. He came back that they need my license. I went in. You know what I saw there? People sitting with hats and jackets on the computers, on my own eyes. Guys sitting with hats and jackets. Hats and jackets, sitting with hats and jackets, not without hats and jackets. Sitting by the computers. It was people, hats and jackets, sitting by computers. They're doing research. Well, for the Tosafos, they're doing research on. They want to do research on. We live in a dor hefker. The only way we could come to our tafkid, if you know your tafkid, you know what's right, and you take responsibility to get there. That's what it is. The yesod of the galus and geulah, that's what it says over there. Vayeilech ish miBeis Levi. Vayeilech ish miBeis Levi. The Baal HaTurim says this vayeilech ish, what about the Mashiach shel Yisroel?

The balatur. Vayeilech ish, miBeis Levi. The word ish, he goes on the word ish, because it says also by Tamar and Yehuda, Vayeilech ish, with Rus, the word ish. It's something about the word ish which brought about Moshe Rabbeinu. And the Torah says, the ish, he's gabus. He's gabus on the matzah, overstrengthening. That's called tafkid. You know how you come to fruition of tafkid? Strengthen yourself. Yisurim is going to be there. Yisurim is gavus, and we live gavus. The way to bring mikoach el hapoel, our tafkid, our kochos, is ish. Bimkom she'ein anashim, histadel lihyos ish. Strength. Look at the Radak. Vechizakta vayisa l'ish. You have a Radak in the Tanach? Bring me the Tanach. I want you to read the Radak. Bring me, bring me, bring me that before we finish. Melachim Aleph. What does it mean, Vechizakta vayisa l'ish? What does it mean to be ish? What does it mean, an ish? Ish, ish. Do you know that the Gemara uses the same lashon? Know where the Gemara is? This is a Mishnah. It's also Gemara in Brachos. Remember the Gemara in Brachos? Gvar. No, it's not. It's in the last perek, samech gimmel. Bimkom she'ein gvar, histadel lihyos gaver. Gever. Ish is gever. Let me show you. Read. It's a lashon of Gemara Brachos. Pick up Gemara Brachos. Bring me Gemara Brachos, you'll read it. The mefareshim, you might ask, why do you need both Gemaras? It's a meforesh in Mishnah. Nu, Vechizakta vayisa l'ish, nu? Don't run away. We're almost done. We're almost done. Vechizakta vayisa l'ish. Come here, nu. What? I don't hit the beginning. Hinacha, because ... pasuk beis, aleph beis, no? Yeah, but I want you to read me inside the ... Oh, so, oh yes, okay, zariz. He is zariz. Zariz. Zariz, u... u... u... umoshel b'nafshecha, v'koveshet yitzrecha. You see how the Radak learns ish? Sholet berucho. To be obedient to yourself, self. Yeah, read, read, read. V'chazakta v'hayisa la'ish. Go ahead, read it. Zariz, umoshel b'nafshecha, v'koveshet yitzrecha. You saw that there's nobody there to help. That's geulah. You want to know how you come tafkid, koach el hapoel? Know your name. Know your tafkid. Know what Hashem wants from you, מה ה' שואל מעמך. And then you don't give in, right? Because the yisurim is there. It's not going to be easy. Galus is strong. Galus is bad news for you. How do you know what? Four thousand? Till it's over. Someone once asked the ... how much hishtadlus should I put in for a shidduch? You know what he answered? Till you find. Till you find. Same thing. How much yisurim? And the answer is till... till you have to get there. V'chazakta v'hayisa la'ish. The Gemara in Brachos, you got the Gemara Brachos? You didn't get it? How come you didn't get it? Gever. Two slides today. Gever. You know what ish means? Ish means the gevurah of the gever. That's what it means. Come in, come in, Reuven. Let me show you the Gemara in Brachos brings that Mishnah. Go ahead. Nu, Samach Gimel, come in. Nu, come, nu, Reuven, come in. Nu. Yeah, come in, nu. Here it is. Shma mina. Batar d'it gavar gever. Batar d'it gavar... lo tihyeh gavar peshita. Lo tihyeh gavar, which means, Gemara, she'ein gever. That's what Chazal... ish is gever. Gever. Man means strength. That's the... gever. You're not going to come to your tafkid. Not. Not going to fulfill your tafkid. No fight. Aggressively fight for it. It's not going to come by sitting back easy, easy. Nothing is easy. A person's tafkid, he has to fight. This is eileh shmot Bnei Yisrael, haba'im Mitzrayma, tafkid, the kochos of the shevatim was all in... the geulah, the geulah. And that's why Shmot is called Shmot, the names of the shevatim.

This is what the Chassidic literature is about. You're saying the name of the pasuk, according to the name of the person. It's brought down that when you come to Olam Haba, Hashem will look at you and ask for your name. If you remembered your name, then you go to Olam Haba; if not, you go to Gehenna. So what they do is they make the pesukim from the Torah in parallel to the name. Like this, it's a segulah that you should remember your name. What is that all about? Remembering your name means that you fulfill your tafkid. It's another way of pointing out: a person comes and he didn't fulfill his tafkid, won't remember his name. The neshama doesn't identify. What? So the pasuk, the pshat is, I guess, through Torah. And the pasuk gives you maybe the identification of your mission. But that's what it is, that remembering the forgetting of the name is this Torah. It's the ... That's what today everybody does. It's brought down all over today. It's the remembering that the neshama is able to identify with his name, the tafkid. That's why they ask, Do you remember your name or you don't remember your name? The pesukim is to remember the name. That's the idea of this Torah. The name is the mission of the neshama, and if you can't identify the neshama with his mission, that means something went wrong.