Terumah: The Keruvim, Three Ahavos, and How Ahavas Yisrael Reflects Ahavas Hashem

Transcript

Parshas Truma, we have the building of the Mishkan. The Mishkan, of course, had different parts. There was Kodesh, there was Kodesh HaKodashim, there was holy, and there was holy of holies. We all know that the Aron was in the Kodesh HaKodashim. And on the Aron, we had something called the kruvim. And on it, what we call the kapores, excuse me, the kapores, and on that, the kruvim. It says in the pasuk that Hashem spoke to Moshe mi'bein hakruvim, from between the kruvim. So the kruvim must have been kodesh, should have kodesh, should have kodesh, should have Kodesh HaKodashim, right? Because the Shechinah, the Shechinah dwelled in a way that it spoke to Moshe Rabbeinu mi'bein hakruvim. The pasuk emphasizes this: V'no'adti lecha. Hashem joins together, moed. Hashem meets Moshe Rabbeinu and speaks to him mi'bein shnei hakruvim. Now look at pasuk zayin, perek chaf-hei, next to Sheini, in this week's parsha, and you will read the role that the kruvim played in the Mishkan. Let's read the pesukim inside. V'asisa kapores, and then it says in the next pasuk, v'asisa shnayim kruvim, how to make the kruvim. Then it says, v'nasata es hakapores al ha'aron. And then it says in pasuk chaf-beis, and this is what we're trying to point out, v'no'adti lecha sham. It is there that Hashem meets. No'ad is like mo'ed. Hashem meets. He joins together with Moshe Rabbeinu where? By the kruvim. V'dibarti itcha me'al hakapores, mibein shnei hakruvim, asher al aron ha'eidus. So the ultimate gilui Shechinah is mibein shnei hakruvim. Kruvim must have been mamash something extremely special, something unique, ששם יש את השראת השכינה, ומשם מדבר הקדוש ברוך הוא למשה רבינו. What are the kruvim? Let's learn today the yesod, yesod shel ha'kruvim, the secret. Yesod and yesod, both things, the yesod and the sod of the kruvim. What's so special about the kruvim? Abosai, the pasuk says the kruvim were made, hayu hakruvim paroshei kenafayim, pasuk chaf. Soichim mechanfeihem al hakapoires, ufneihem ish el achiv. The faces were ish, each one el achiv, to his brother. Now Rashi explains that what were the kruvim's faces? What were they looking like? All it says is kruv. We don't know what a kruv is. Lo kasuv, kasuv shnayim kruvim. So Rashi says that what were the kruvim? Demus partzuf tinok lahem. This is Rashi, pasuk yud ches. It had the demus of a child, partzuf of a tinok. And Rashi doesn't explain, but he just says sham hei. He's quoting a Gemara. So the Sifsei Chachamim explains, because ravya, ravya is a child. Ravya is a child. For example, it says in Yuma, arubim, the young kohanim, omdim sham. The word ravya is a child. So ki ravya.

Like a child. Kiravyo. So kruv is kiravyo. Rashi, dmus partsuf tinok lahem, that they looked like a little child. So this is ufneihem ish el achiv. What were they? They were two faces of a child looking at each other. So I ask you a pashut question. So why do we call it ish? If you're talking about a child, in the midabrim al dmut partsuf yeled, right? Rashi doesn't say yeled. Does Rashi say yeled? Does Rashi say tinok? It's not even a child; it's a baby. You know the difference between a yeled and a tinok? A yeled is a little bit older. A tinok is mamash a baby face. So why does it say ufneihem when you talk about the face, it says ufneihem ish? Ish connotates a grown-up. This is a question which I wondered for many years. It's a question. Tamid ani sho'el, lefi shitat Rashi, v'sheze be'emet muva b'Gemara, Rashi is not being mechadesh more than what it says in the Gemara, shehayu dmut yeled, not stam yeled, tinok yeled, child, a baby. So why does it say ufneihem ish, ish? So we could come and say that they weren't actually a child. The face was dmut, hakapot suf, haya kemo yeled, tinok. The rest of it. Wasn't necessarily tinok. That's why it's called ish. Now we don't know yet what the rest of it looked like. עדיין לא יודעים מה יתר הקרובים איך הם נראו. The rest of it, what it looked like, but the face looked like a baby. So why does it say, פנים איש? Ish is a grown-up. So we could say maybe, יכול להיות, שייך לענות. We could answer, הדמות פרצוף היה של תינוק, אבל היתר היה איש, which we don't know yet. We don't know what the rest of it looked... but maybe. איך רואים בשקפה ראשונה, לתרץ פשוט. You're right, the face was of a baby, but maybe the rest of it was ish. I wanted to show you an interesting Mizrachi. The Mizrachi explains that the reason why it was called keruvya, because actually, actually, it mamash was a child. Its features, when you looked at it, לא רק הפרצוף, what it looked like was like a tinok. And that's where it gets its name, kruv. So if it's called kruv because it looks like a baby, so why would the Torah go and say ish and bemadgish ish? בשלמא. Its name isn't kruv. It has like features, nirah domeh l'tinok. We יכולים להגיד איש, אבל אם השם כרוב בתורה מושרש, the shoresh of it is because it looked like a child, so why do we call it ish? Nice question, huh? ופניהם איש אל אחיו. You know what you could have said? Either you could have said, kruv el achiv, or you could have said, אחד אל השני. But don't be madgish kruv, which kruv is, and the way the Mizrachi explains, Mizrachi al Rashi, that it gets its name kruv because it looked like a baby, and then say ish el achiv. You ever see when you walk into the nursery, the babies are born, would you say, אה, ראית את התינוק? Ish el achiv. Would you say that? מסתכל... they're facing. Ish el achiv, would you say that? Would you use such a lashon? No, right? If you see two babies in a nursery, would you say ish el achiv? Doesn't make sense, right? So if you're saying kruv, if you're saying kruv, why do we turn around and say...

I have another question. Does anybody know that the word kruv actually doesn't mean a child? Ravya is a child. Do you know what the word kruv means? Who knows what the word kruv means? And the answer is, kruv is a bird. You look at the Rashbam. Rashbam says clearly, kruv is a bird, right? So why would you call it ish if it's bichlal not a kruv? It was a bird. It had wings. The face was that of a baby, and yet we call it ish, forgetting about the fact that it's a baby. But the rest of it was a bird. So how can it be ish? You know of a bird that's called ish? Maybe Batman. I don't know. Maybe that's where Batman comes from. Yeah, he's a person who looks like a bird, no? Maybe the goyim got the idea of Batman from the kruv. The word kruv, rabosai, means a bird, and kiravya means it looked like a face of a child. So why do we call it ish elachim? Now the truth is, many Rishonim say that whenever you talk about an object, it doesn't have to be a man. You use the word ish and isha. Now the closest thing we have in English is, let's say, a car. We say she. כשמדברים על חפץ, אומרים נקבה, she. But she's only a person, right? She's a nekeivah. And the answer is, even on an object, you could use the word she. So many Rishonim say the same thing here too. It doesn't mean ish. Ish el achiv is when you talk about objects. You could say this klapi this is ish el achiv. Forget about the lashon zachar. We're still talking about why would you call a statue ish? It's not an ish, unless it looked like a person. It's not a person; it looked like a bird. Would you call the statue of a bird ish? That's right. Keruv is a tzipor. What? Okay, the word keruv is a bird. It had כנפיים. It was a bird. The Rashbam says the word keruv is a bird. Rashbam, it's keruv, it was a bird. It wasn't— The only thing is, the face, we're soon going to learn maybe a little bit later that half the body was like a person, half was of a bird, but whatever it is, pashtus it was a bird. So the question is, if it's a bird, why do we call it ish? And the answer could be, like many Rishonim say, that whenever you talk about an object, like in English we have she is, even though it's not live, it's an object, we say ish el achiv. Bechiddush, right? Some Rishonim say that. Now the truth is, it's a tremendous jump, because by she is, we don't say ish. We don't say person; we say she. But here we're saying the word ish, a person. Maybe in lashon kodesh it's that way. Maybe the Rishonim are teaching us, based on this pasuk, sheb'lashon kodesh, שרוצים לדבר עם מלככם, אומרים איש, איש כלפי השני. It's a chidush nifla, huh? Okay. Let me ask you another question. Do you know that actually one was zachar and one was nekeivah? This is a Gemara in Yuma daf nun daled. The Gemara in Yuma says that when Klal Yisrael used to come to be oleh regel, they would take off the paroches, they would move it away, and they would let Klal Yisrael look at the kruvim. Re'u, see, חיבתכם לפני המקום, how Hashem loves you, like a zachar loving a nekeivah. That's the love that Hashem has for Klal Yisrael. So the Gemara says clearly one was zachar and one was nekeivah. So I don't understand. How could you say ish el achiv if one was a zachar and one was a nekeivah? It should be ish el achoso, or ishah el achiv. It doesn't klap, no? A, you're talking about one zachar and one nekeivah.

You're talking about a bird. It's a bird. It looked like a bird. It had his name קרוב because it was a bird. You're talking about the face of a tinok, and yet it was called איש אל אחיו. פלאי פלאות. אגיד, אחד לשני. זה לזה. מה זה איש אל אחיו? יש פה רמז, יש פה משהו עמוק, אני חושב. זה לא פשוט ככה, איש אל אחיו. No, this is for someone who doesn't know Hebrew, he would write like this, you know. The two birds were איש אל אחיו. איך יכולים להגיד איש אל אחיו? אם לאו שיש פה משהו עמוק. Something deeper here. So let me tell you what I think the pshat is, but first you have to wake up, Mr. Kaikov. So why are you looking... Oh, you're like... You don't feel well? I also don't feel, so what? I never feel well. לא מרגיש טוב. ... לא נכון, לא מרגיש טוב. Okay. So listen carefully. Listen what I think, rabboisai, is the pshat. איש אל אחיו. לא מדברים על חפץ הזה נגד חפץ הזה. אה, על הקרובים עצמם. אין להגיד איש אל אחיו. זה היה זכר, זה היה נקבה, זה היה עוף, זה היה תינוק. קשה להגיד איש אל אחיו. אפילו מישהו לא יודע עברית, קשה להגיד ככה. Okay. So what's the pshat? So, rabosai, listen carefully. The keruvim was meramez, katuv b'Gemara, al hachibah bein HaKadosh Baruch Hu l'Klal Yisroel. Everybody brings down, yeah, it's a tremendous remez. It's a remez for Hashem, Klal Yisroel. The Gemara also says, b'zman she... Gemara Bava Basra, daf tzadi tes, b'zman she'osin retzono shel Makom, the keruvim were facing each other. B'zman shelo asu retzono shel Makom, the keruvim were facing away from each other. So again, what do you see? It's like the kesher between the husband and the wife. We know that by Matan Torah, we were nitares. We got married to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Matan Torah was a chuppah, husband and wife, zachar nekeivah, right? Therefore, b'zman she'osin retzono shel Makom, they're sholom bayis, they're looking at each other. B'zman shelo osin retzono shel Makom, so you ever see when a husband and wife fight? Each guy sits in the kitchen looking the other way, all angry. They don't look at each other, and each guy is a shtikah, quiet. The keruvim do the same thing. They look away and they give a silent treatment. I'm glad keruvim is a silent treatment, because HaKadosh Baruch Hu and Klal Yisroel are כאילו married. So it comes out that this is siman. For the marriage. Zachar nekeivah, the keruvim, Hashem and Klal Yisrael. The hemek davar, the Netziv says a me'orei dekezach, why are they mistaklim pneihem one to the other? So he says, kemo a chatan shemistakel al hakallah b'hana'ah, staring at her, appreciates to look at her. So the keruvim, Hashem, Klal Yisrael, the chatan and the kallah, they're looking at each other, u'pneihem ish el achiv. And this everybody knows. Tish'al, kulam yagidu siman laKadosh Baruch Hu. It's a siman for HaKadosh Baruch Hu and Klal Yisrael and the love. Yesh mikorot b'Chazal al zeh. There's mikorot, right? Like I tell you, the Gemara, the Gemara that says that bizman shehayu עולים לרגל, hayu mar'im otam. They used to show Klal Yisrael the love. Or like the Gemara says in Bava Basra, that bizman shehayu ... shel makom. It has to do with the love and the shaychut between Hashem and Klal Yisrael. I found in Chazal other remazim, other remazim in the keruvim for other things. I found the Yalkut Melachim, Melachim Alef os kuf pei hei, that the two keruvim is connected to luchos.

I found in a Medrash Tadshei, base, that it's keneged two of the shemos of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. He doesn't say that, I don't know. It says, I guess, Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei and Adon, maybe. For those that like Kabbalah, you can look at the Medrash over there. Now, the Rambam brought down, has to do with shnei shemos shel HaKadosh Baruch Hu. First pshat, Yalkut, has to do with the shnei luchos. Second pshat I found has to do with shemos, Yonim gvohim. Third thing I found was the Rambam quoted in Rabbeinu Bechaya. It's to show malachim, the inyan of malachim, the kruvim. We know in Shamayim there's also kruvim, the malachim around the Kisei HaKavod are kruvim, omdim mima'aloi. You know, today the angels, when you think of an angel, what do you think? Wings. Where does it come from? It comes from the Torah, because the Torah tells us kruvim al haAron, and Yechezkel tells us that in Shamayim there's kruvim. So the kruvim are the malachim, and the Rambam learns that this is to show the inyan of malachim. Okay. Now, obviously, kruvim is more deeper than just Hashem loves Klal Yisroel, because you find that Hashem put kruvim before Gan Eden. In front of the Gan Eden He put kruvim, right? We find that the Kisei HaKavod has malachim, kruvim all around. So obviously, kruvim is amok, something very deep. So we're not going to come and go all the way and say all the pshatim, kol haomek, ma sheyesh b'kruvim. But there's one nekudah, which I think is the omek of kruvim. Ufneihem ish el achiv has to do with the achdus of Klal Yisrael. Ufneihem ish el achiv has to do with ish el achiv Klal Yisrael. Everybody knows that's with Hashem and Klal Yisrael. No, no. Ufneihem ish el achiv, Klal Yisrael. Achdus Bnei Yisrael. Ish el achiv. How do I know this? Okay, now let me tell you a story. I'll tell you a beautiful story. Last week, I took my son for a bechinah, for a test for his yeshiva, to go into yeshiva ketanah. It's called high school. The principal told me to come to his shul, to his beis medrash. He's the rav of a shul somewhere. I came in there. I never saw such a beautiful shul in my whole life. It was mashu mefu'ar. Eize yoifi, eize pe'er. Hakesef shenatnu b'zeh nifla. It was an unbelievable amount of money went into that shul. At first glance, chashavti, הלוואי היה אחד ככה בשבילי. I wish I had such a place. That was the first thing that came into my heart. I wish I had a shul like this. I also wish I had a shul like this. My next thought could have been kinah. That could have been my next thought. Yeah, yachol lihyot sheha-machshavah ha-shniyah, mizeh kinah, לקנא, I should be jealous. Now, b'teva, I'm not a jealous person. That's not the type of person I am. You know, I have other chisronot, but this is not one of them. יש לי חסרונות, זה לא אחד מהם. ... צריך להיות צדיק ... לקנא. And I'll tell you what popped into my head. I've told you many times that I have a policy, hashita shel Rav Wolbe. What's my shita? Kemo sheyesh gimel avos, there's three fathers. Remember what I used to say always? There's the gimel ahavos. Remember, I always say that, the three loves. A person has to have ahavat Hashem, ahavat haTorah, and ahavat Yisrael. אצלי, כמו חבקוק, בוא חבקוק ומידן על אחת, חבקוק put it on one thing: צדיק באמונתו יחיה.

I'm walking, and midon al sholosh. That the whole thing, the whole Yiddishkeit to me is based on three things: Avat Hashem, Avat Torah, and Avat Yisrael. Tavdu al zeh and you'll be in good shape. I learned this שנים שנים אני אומר את זה. זה השיטה. אלה שלומדים אצלי יודעים, אני אומר את זה אלף פעמים. הגימל אהבות. אז חשבתי, Ribono Shel Olam, Ahavat Hashem. This beis knesses brings you kavod. So I'm happy. Tell me, this beis knesses brings kavod haTorah, I'm happy. This beis knesses brings kavod to my friend, the menahel of the yeshiva, so I'm happy. זה מתקיים, את הגימל אהבות. אני לא מתקנא, I'm not jealous. Sorry, I'm not going to be jealous. That's why I'm going to be happy. That's the second thought. I walked in and I said, Hu, halavai sheyahli. Achakach חשבתי, הרי בזה נתקיים, the gimel ahavos. My policy, my, איך אומרים את זה, the tafkid hachayim שלי, היסודות שלי, זה היסוד שלי. רבויסי, תאמין לי, תאמין לי שאני מספר לך את הסיפור הזה. המנהל ביקש ממני חמש דקות, הוא עדיין לא מוכן לרב חינה. הלכתי לספרייה, לתורה. הוצאתי ספר חדש, שמעתי על זה, ומעולם לא ראיתי שם שום דבר. I never saw anything there. Why did I hear it? I had a principle, Rabbi Yaakov Goldstein. Well, I am a manal from the yeshiva here in Queens, in Forest Hills, Or Yisroel. Achshav קוראים לזה ישיבת קטנה, but in my days it was called Or Yisroel. He was the menahel, and he used to tell us about a tzaddik called Admur miOzhorov, Ozhorover Rebbe. Shu tzaddik, eich shu diber alav, ma sheyashav kol hayom v'lamad. Hu katav sefarim, v'haya tamid mesaper lanu alav, v'omer lanu chidushei Torah mimenu. I saw his sefer. His name of his sefer was Esh Dos, Hashem shel hasefer. And I sit and I see the set of sefarim, Esh Dos. I said, Fuck, let me go look at it. I took it out, and I opened up the parshas Terumah to the keruvim, and that's why I'm talking to you about the keruvim. And the dvar Torah that he says is as follows: HaBaal Shem Tov kotev, Botzina d'nehora. Ani chashavti shel haBaal Shem shel sefer. I didn't know that. When I read it, I thought it's the name of a sefer. Someone told me afterwards that it's a title that they give to the Baal Shem Tov, botzina d'nehora, the ray of light. Okay, I didn't know. I thought it was... I didn't... I didn't know. And he says that the Baal Shem Tov said that he came to this world for three things: lyased ahavas Hashem, ahavas haTorah, and ahavas Yisrael. I look, I went over to my son, I said, You see what it says here? I can't believe. It was just this minute thing, this second, I was saying to myself. Bonavot, shelo likanot. Don't be mekaneh. I take it out, and I see this achizuk gadol. But let me tell you what he did say. He continues, and he says, the keruvim was the gimel avot. It's the three loves. Why? He says like this. First of all, he brings from the Zohar. The Zohar writes, gimel dargin inun miskashrin da v'da. There's three levels that are mitkasher together. What does he mean? He means this: Yisrael, v'Oraisa, v'Kudsha Brich Hu, chad. So there's three, right? This is the three. The Gemara in Kiddushin says, daf ayin amud aleph, the Gemara says that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave mussar to Klal Yisrael. What was the mussar? Adon, Hashem says, Ani amarti, you Yisrael lifanai chashuvin k'keruv. I said Klal Yisrael should be like a keruv. V'omar, and what did it—what happened? V'heim samu atzm...

Kinamer, and they made themselves like a leopard. What does that mean? So Rashi explains, a kruv is a bird that stays with its ben zug. It's not hefker. So Hashem said, Klal Yisroel, I want you to be like a kruv. I want you to be like a kruv. I don't want you to be like a namer that doesn't stay with its ben zug. Kedoshim, keruvei haKodesh, kechayos haKodesh, dichsiv, pnei hakruv. And what's the pshat, the kruv? Like the malachim kruv, not only like the bird. Rashi says that it has to do also with the malachim. I told Klal Yisroel they're like the malachim. So the kruv, which is Yechezkel's kruv, which is the kruv that we have on the aron, is a remez to kedushas Yisroel. ... Reishis kol, tzrichim lehavin sheKlal Yisroel domim lakruvim. That's the first thing you have to know. Chazal tell us, Hashem said, Klal Yisroel, you like the kruv, the bird kruv. Rashi says not only the bird kruv, the malach. You like the malachim, that you stay within your species, your spouses, right? You're loyal and devoted to your spouse. But you, unfortunately, unfortunately, you went away a little bit at certain times in history, kinamer. That you weren't protective of your yichus. So it comes out, the Klal Yisroel is like a kruv. Now listen to what he says, unbelievable. He says like this: Poreshin knafayim, klapei maalah. The kruvim, upwards. So he wants to say, esh daas, that this is a remez, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, that the knafayim go to Hashem, looking up towards Hashem. I want you to know, Rabbeinu Bechaye already says this. Rabbeinu Bechaye asks the question: How could we have kruvim? Asur la'asos temunah, pesel. Asur la'asos pesel, which many mefarshim ask, how yitachen? Do you know what the simple answer is? Pesel asar, hua pesel shehiti. Hashem amar lo la'asos pesel, v'po amar li ken la'asot. Harbei rishonim mitartzim kach. Many Rishonim answer: How could you have a pesel in the Mishkan? And the answer is, Hashem amar. Hashem told me to do it. Rabbeinu Bechaye gives a different teretz. Rabbeinu Bechaye says, if it would be one, then we would worship the pesel. Shavshi yesh shnayim, siman sheze lo echad, you know, the big, the big pesel. I shoel, Harbeinu Bechaye, bona gir sheyesh shtei reshuyot. Omer, me'ach Hashem porsim knafayim l'maalah, emarim shemekablim koach hashefa mehaKadosh Baruch Hu, klapei maalah. The inyan of the knafayim, klapei maalah, is to be matzbia klapei maalah. You know, like Moshe Rabbeinu, right? Moshe Rabbeinu, k'shayad Yadav, when his hands were למעלה, everybody looked up to Hashem, and they thought about Hashem. And what happened? They had emunah, and they won the war in Amalek. K'sheyaradu Yadav, when his hands went down, so the inyan of פורשים כנפיים למעלה is the point. Zeh Keili. This is Hashem, and all my kochos is from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. That's the inyan. He even says by the Kohanim—so many Rishonim say the Kohanim, why do they go like this? It's to show clapping ma'alah, actually. I was thinking about it. It's very interesting. Many Rishonim say the inyan of the Kohanim to put their hands out is like the keruvim, to show that mekablim koach haShefa from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, that they're getting it all from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. So it would be a very big chiddush according to this. A lot of Kohanim, they go straight, straight across. Truthfully, according to this, it should be like this, like the keruvim. I don't know, but if you want to be domeh l'keruvim, so we have to see in the sefarim, in the sifrei halacha, but al kol panim, al kol panim, we have this yesod. The inyan of the stretched out arms is—

HaKadosh Baruch Hu l'maalah. It's an inyan of, hakol ba meHaKadosh Baruch Hu. Where are they covering over? Al hakapores, says Eis Das, the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh, zechuso yagen aleinu, that's ahavas haTorah. The sochin b'chanfeihem also, over the Torah, the inyan of the or, they're on top of the or. What's the third thing? Ufnei mishalachiv ahavas Yisrael. He learned my yesod, that ahavas, that pnei mishalachiv means what? Hu adam l'chaveiro. It means the achdut. It doesn't mean HaKadosh Baruch Hu and Klal Yisrael. It means ufnei mishalachiv, the inyan of achdut, that one Yid is pnei mishalachiv. Where is that? Kaffeim klapei maalah. Now I'm adding to his words. You see, Rabbeinu Bechaye says this. Rabbeinu Bechaye explains, mah heteh laasos? What's the heteh to make the keruvim? And you know what the answer is? Says Rabbeinu Bechaye, first he says because it's only one. I'm sorry, if it's two, because if it would be one, they would say, Oh, you know, this is the god. Ah, he says, Ulai yagidu shehem shtei reshuyot. It's a sign of two gods. He said, since their arms are stretched out to shamayim, so it's a siman. They're trying to show that everything is from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Like Moshe Rabbeinu also picked his hands up. He doesn't bring the mashal; I'm bringing the mashal. I'm bringing the example of Moshe Rabbeinu. So that's yesod shel Rabbeinu Bechaye. ויש ראשונים שלא מדים, ולכן הכהנים עושים את זה ככה. הכהן רוצה להגיד, לציין, שאולי כדאי, כשהכהנים יפרשו את ידיהם כמו הקרובים, כלפי מעלה, לא. Oh, yashir, clap your hands. Unless you say that's also good enough. You have to know, the truth is, we once spoke about this. How was the wings of the kruvim? יש מחלוקת גדולה על זה. We spoke about it once. I gave you all the different shitos. I think it was like the third or fourth year of the yeshiva, I gave a shiur on the different shitos on how the kruvim looked. I have it somewhere. A shiur on the different derachim of how the kruvim was situated. Okay. Says Esh Dos, he says like this. So what do we see? The yesod of Kodesh HaKodashim is the Baal Shem Tov shita of the gimel ahavot that we spoke about all the years: V'ahavta Hashem, V'ahavta Torah, and Ahavas Yisrael. And he says, I'll prove it to you, says Esh Dos. I'll show you two beautiful gemaras. He's right. The Gemara says, Birchas HaTorah—there's a question how to make Birchas HaTorah. So the Gemara in Brachos says that the way we do it is the way you're supposed to be done. You're supposed to say, La'asok b'divrei Torah, ... ... and the regular brachos. Says the Gemara, Amar Rav Hamnuna, זו מעולה שבברכות. This is the best. The way we make the brachos, that's the best. This is it. This is the bracha that should be made. Hilkach, we'mamrinu l'kulehu. We'll say all three of them. All three, right? Three brachos. Says Rashi, what's so special about Birchas HaTorah that this is the me'ulah? Says Rashi, lefi sheyesh bo hoda'ah laMakom v'kilus laTorah ul'Yisrael. I'll ... word, ... word. That's not beautiful word. But you hear the pshat? He's learning in the Gemara because the ikar is the gimel ahavos, the loves of Torah and Hashem and Klal Yisrael. So Birchas HaTorah is the—what's so special? Rashi says, because in it yesh hoda'ah laKadosh Baruch Hu, laTorah, ul'Yisrael. The gimel ahavos, three loves. Beautiful, no? Afeh me'od. Chachamchu masbir. That's why the word shalom is given to all three. HaKadosh Baruch Hu is called shalom, you know that? The Gemara in Shabbos says, ... Shmoi shel HaKadosh Baruch Hu is Shabbos. You knew that? You know Hashem—there's a whole shailah in halacha: you're not allowed to say the word Shabbos in the bathroom. You're not allowed to say the word because it's Hashem's name. There was a whole shailah in halacha when they came out with the coverings of the switch, Shabbos switch. What they did was they put like a plastic cover; you would nail it into the wall or screw it.

to the wall. Like this, your kid didn't just turn on the light by mistake, you know? ... כתוב על זה שבת. ... האם מותר להכניס את המילה שבת לבתי ...? It's a big shaila. They talked about it. ... אבל מה שנוגע לענייננו, שבת שם של הקדוש ברוך הוא. Torah. Tell me, you remember the pasuk, right? Shalom is called, you know, Torah and shalom, yeah? דרכיה דרכי נועם, וכל נתיבותיה שלום. How about Yisrael? So he brings a Gemara in Pesachim zuta: ואוכל לשלום. It's referring to Klal Yisrael. Klal Yisrael is called shalom. ... says the ... Hashem, Tehei Klal Yisrael. We're all called shalom. We're all called shalom. Okay. So now we have that the yesod of the keruvim ... למעלה, סוככים כנפי ... על הכפורת, on the aron, and ופניהם איש אל אחיו is what? The bein adam l'chaveiro. Okay. With this, I want to answer a kashya, she'eilah mefuresemet. Remember I told you the Gemara that they used to show— The people who came oleh regel, they used to show them the aron to see that the kruvim were facing each other and Hashem loves them. The Gemara in Amud Beis, in the same Gemara, Nun Daled amud of Yuma, amud Beis, the Gemara says that when the goyim came in to destroy the first Beis Hamikdash, they found the kruvim were hugging each other. The kruvim were hugging each other. And they took it out and they started to be mevazeh Klal Yisroel. This is what your God is busy with, zachar and nekeivah hugging each other. Chazal tell us that the reason why it was done that way was to show chibah, the love that Hashem had with Klal Yisroel. Asks the Rimagash, the Rambam's rebbe, הרי בזמן שלא היו עושין רצונו של מקום, they're supposed to be facing away. So how come during the churban habayis they were facing each other? מאוד חמורה. So the Ritva answers, Hashem made it that way on purpose at that moment when they came, that the goyim shouldn't see that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is angry at Klal Yisroel. Bemet, they were facing away, but the moment the goyim came, like the Gemara in Yuma says, they were hugging, mamash hugging each other, because Hashem wanted to show Klal Yisroel, even b'matzav shemechorvim es habayis, I still love them. Don't be careful. Don't touch my children. They're still... This is my children. Lefi what we're saying, give a different teretz. Yesh tirutz acher. We could say like this: the first bayit, was there shalom initially l'chaveiro? Was there a v'ahavta l'reacha kamocha in the first bayit? Pneiim ish el achiv. Bizman she'osrim etzonei shel makom im bein adam l'chaveiro, and it's pneiim ish el achiv. That's the pshat. Since the pneiim ish el achiv, ... inyan shel HaKadosh Baruch Hu and Yisrael, inyan shel achdus b'Yisrael. The bayit rishon hayah achdus b'Yisrael. Az lachein hayu pneiim ish el achiv, afilu bizman churban Bayit Rishon. Who? Me. If you learn u'pneiim ish el achiv...

No, no. Byitas, byit. Byit Sheini, there was tremendous achdus. The Rishonim say that that saved them. Af al pi shehayah kol kach amon aviros, hayah achdus, pneihem mishulach. What do you say? Nice pshat, huh? You like it? I like it. Bizman she'osim retzono shel Makom. You know what bizman she'osim retzono shel Makom? They're doing Hashem's — man to man, the obligation between man and man. They were close. They were achdus. Uפneihem mishulachim. That was in the first Beis Hamikdash. Bizman shelo osim retzono shel Makom. There's פירוד in Klal Yisrael. That's when uפניהם ישלח. Because the way we're learning, איך לומדים uפניהם ישלח? It's a siman, it's a remez for the achdus of Klal Yisrael. So when the achdus is good, uפניהם ישלח. When the achdus is no good, then it's uפניהם — turning away, moving away one from the other. Ah, you'll ask me, that's not the pashut pshat. The pashut pshat is retzono shel Makom. The pashut pshat is HaKadosh Baruch Hu loves Klal Yisrael, and the keruvim is also a siman for Hashem and Klal Yisrael. That you can't be makhish. You know what? They're going to ask me, what? כאילו, הִנֵּה אתה מכחיש את כל המפרשים, כל מה שלומדים כולם. היש שני עולם, right? Not כולם. תשאל את כולם, יגידו זה סימן, it's a siman for the Hashem and Klal Yisrael. So I'm arguing? Is that what you're saying? No. I'm not saying that. You know what I'm saying? It's the same thing. It's toli ha-baha. Pneiam ish el achiv, and osim mitzvah shel makom, bein adam laMakom, is tied, mekushar u'mitli tali ha-baha. And I'm going to prove it to you. You ready? The Michtav MeEliyahu is meva'er the mitzvah of v'ahavta l'reacha kamocha. Chelek gimmel, page 9. Eliyahu des Michtav MeEliyahu, one of the classic mefarshim in the last hundred years, Michtav MeEliyahu. So he writes like this: Shloisha פירושים מצינו למצות ואהבת לרעך כמוך. זה עמוק מזה. One is deeper than the other. כל אחד מהם מציין מדרגה עליונה יותר של הזדהות עם כל אחד מישראל. I love the lashon, הזדהות. Carmel was good. He knew how to write. הזדהות is when you have a passport. It's—what do they call that? Zehut. It's more—it's, whatever, identification. Okay, leave it that way, huh? Okay, whatever. Identification. Good, yeah. Identification between one Jew and another. יש שלוש מדרגות. So he brings from the Ramban, and I don't want to go באריכות because it's a few pages, but בקיצור, the first thing is, don't be מקנא. I'm not saying I have to love you. I'm not saying I should love you, but don't hate you, and don't want that you shouldn't have. It's enough to have in your heart that the other person should have, but you don't need ממש כמוך. Can't be. That's the first thing he brings. Then he brings, no, פשט שני, שהוא בחינה יותר, ממש כמוך. של המקום שנותן. How do you do it? He says by giving, by giving, by giving, so it becomes a part of you, because you're giving. The famous Mesillas Yesharim, that when you give, so it's כאילו it becomes you, and, you know, like a father loves his child, because all he is, he gives and gives and gives. So there's love. ואהבת לרעך כמוך. Then he says a third pshat. אחי ישנה עוד בחינה נעלה. And he brings from the Rikanti, הפלא ופלא. ואהבת לרעך כמוך. אמר רבי עקיבא, זה כלל גדול בתורה.

Taimar, hoil v'nisbazeisi, isbaze chaver imi. Hoil v'niskalalti, iskalel chaver imi. Amar Rav Tanchuma, masisa kei dalifnei mi ata mevazeh. If you want to hurt your friend, think about in front of who you're hurting him. Says the Rikanti in Parshas Kedoshim, this is tzelem Elokim. This is Hashem's creation. If you love Hashem, you'll love His creations. So actually, what lays deep behind Ahavat Yisrael is actually ahavat Hashem. No? Very interesting. Recognition of what another Jew is and what it means is actually the recognition, hakarah, shel HaKadosh Baruch Hu. The Meshech Chochma writes, V'ahavta l'reacha kamocha — what does it say afterwards? Oh, what does it say in the Torah afterwards? Ani Hashem. Says the Meshech Chochma, why does it say Ani Hashem after V'ahavta l'reacha kamocha? Ani Hashem. This Rikanti, this pshat. Hakarah that Hashem is Hashem, memaleh V'ahavta l'reacha kamocha. When you recognize Hashem created, yesh lanu Av echad. ממילא, אנחנו אחים. אז הכרה באח זה הכרה באב. How does the Gemara say? Im ika toldes, iklal d'ika avos. Ani omer, im ika achim, biklal d'ika avos. If you respect your brother, you know what you're actually being makir? שיש לנו אב אחד. I told you the joke, right? Just to make it a little freilach. There was once a colored man. You have to be careful because he might become the president. Once an African American colored man went over to a Jewish descendant from the heritage. You have to be very careful. If he comes to complain to me, Obama, I'll tell him I don't speak English, like your father who didn't speak English. Okay, now you ready? So they asked the Jew, what's pshat that the Jews have such brains and they're so smart? So he answered him, the Jew, because we have something called sechel, sechel. You don't have it, we have. He says, Sechel? Could you teach me? He says, Yeah, I'll teach you. Okay, you ready? Who am I? All right, who am I? I'm my father's child, but I'm not my brother. My father's child. It's my father's child, but it's not my brother. So the shochet couldn't figure it out. You know why? Because by then there's no such thing as my father's child. He doesn't know his father, and his father had 50 children, so how's he supposed to know the difference? You know what he should have answered? He should have answered, it could have been anybody. It could be anybody on the block. It's my father's child. It's my father's child, it's not my brother. Who is it? It's any guy on the block. Anyways, he says, You know who it is? He says, No. He says, It's me. It's me. Good. He was all excited, the African American. Unbelievable. He runs down the block, and he meets another one of his fellow football, basketball players over there, whatever, football players. And he says to him, Leroy, I'm gonna leave it. I got zechel. The Jew down the block told it to me, zechel. Okay, you want to hear? Yeah, I want to hear. My father's child, right? Not my brother. He couldn't figure it out. She says, No, no, tells him, It's the Jew down the block. It's him.

If there's such a thing, it's my father's child, it's my brother. So that means me and my brother have a shaychus. So if there's such a thing as me and my brother, miklal there's a father. If me and you are brothers, so obviously יש לנו אב אחד, we have a father. So the Ahavas Yisrael is ואהבת לרעך כמוך, אני ה'. I told you over a few times, it's also printed in the Brisker sefer that they put out on Chumash. What's it called again? Huh? No, no, the other one. Mitoires Brisk, whatever. They have the story that Reb Berel Soloveitchik said that the Brisker Rav said about my grandfather, tremendous thing. הסבא שלי היה לו אהבה רבה לישראל. The Brisker Rav אמר עליו, היה לו אהבת ישראל. אמר, היה לו תירוץ דיקאס. היה לו אהבת ישראל, the lashon, כתוב בתורה ואהבת לרעך כמוך. ואהבת לרעך כמוך. What's the pshat? Pshat is like this: I love you, but I love you because of יראת שמים, I love you because of Hashem. It's directed through the fact that the Torah, who is מצווה ואהבת לרעך כמוך. So it's not just a simple love. What the Brisker Rav ended up saying is about my grandfather, many had Ahavas Yisrael, but few had Ahavas Yisrael שייך... מושרש בתורה. כשיש אהבת ישראל שמושרש בתורה, אז מצליחים עם אהבת ישראל. עושים ופועלים דברים טובים לישראל. כשיש אהבת ישראל, שזה לאומי, he said. לאומי means it's, I feel for my landsmen, you know, I feel for my countrymen, my countrymen. Do you know what happens? Only bad things come. Nothing good can come out of it. Ahavas Yisrael, which comes with hakarah, hakarah, comes with the understanding. שיש לנו אב אחד, זהו אהבת ישראל. אהבת ישראל בגלל שאנחנו... שנינו מארץ ישראל. That's not called Ahavas Yisrael. It's good to eat pita and falafel. Falafel. אה, בוא, אתה ישראלי, אני ישראלי, בוא נאכל פלאפל, פלאפל. Okay. אחר כך בוא נגנוב כמה סטריו ונמכור את זה בשוק. Okay. That's when you have Ahavat Yisrael le'umi. When it's Ahavas Yisrael because he's my countryman. When it's Ahavat Yisrael because אנחנו עם אחד, עם אבא אחד, עם שורש אחד, then the Ahavas Yisrael is an entirely different Ahavas Yisrael. How does it work? I can tell you one of two things. Either it works because you have respect, the fact that Hashem created. I saw the Eben Ezra on the pasuk, Ani Hashem says that way: ואהבת לרעך כמוך. Ani Hashem, ani shebarati. I created. So then it has to do with what? Hashem created. So if you respect Hashem, you respect His creations. Tell me, if you respect an artist, would you walk into his shop and say, This music, it's horrible? You say, It's beautiful. You respect the artist, right? You walk into the store and say, You made this? This is junk. The emes is, the Gemara says this about the person, the tanna who saw the ugly person. He said, Go to my Creator. So this is what the Even Ezra means. Even Ezra means, Ani barati, ani Hashem, I created. So therefore you have to love, you have to reacha kamocha. A little bit of a problem with that, because the truth is there's no mitzvah of ואהבת לרעך כמוך by a goy. There are mekorot that says—Rav Chal speaks about it—that there's an inyan to have respect for a tzelem Elokim because he's a tzelem Elokim even if he's a goy. Yeah.

But that's not the mitzvah of v'halachta bidrachav kamocha. Unless— so because he's a Jew, he's more tzelem Elokim. I have to work that out. For years, shanim, shanim, chashavti al zeh. Ulay ha-pshat hu, Yehudi yoter domeh laKadosh Baruch Hu, because the Yisroel kedoshim, ki kadosh Ani, mah Hu af atah. So Klal Yisroel is more domeh to the Melech, so ממילא v'halachta bidrachav kamocha is much more with ani Hashem, that I created them. Do you understand? If you learn the pshat ani Hashem means I created, like the Even Ezra learns, so then it should be by a goy also. Now the amei karot are— the amei karot, hagam the idiots of today who don't know any halacha, who don't know any mikraot, walk around screaming that you have to hate goyim and you have to— you have to— שגעון. Barur, tzelem Elokim. You have to treat a cat with derech eretz because it's the creation of Hashem, so of course you have to treat a goy with respect; he's the creation of Hashem. It comes from not knowing Torah. It comes from not knowing halacha. It comes from not knowing Shas. That's clear. חייבים לכבד גוי. אם הוא רשע, אסור לכבד רשע גוי. It was לא מצד הגוי, זה מצד הרשע. And if it's ani Hashem because he's a tzelem Elokim, so then it should be by a goy also, and v'halachta bidrachav kamocha is not by a goy, unless you say that we're more tzelem Elokim than the average goy. Because since we're domeh laKadosh Baruch Hu, and it's mad nafach midilei nafach, as in every human being, but we have more ruach kodsho altikach mimeni. We have more, we have more. A Yid has more. V'shochanti b'socham. Hashem rests. This week's parsha. Chati b'soicho, Hashem rests in us. Az lanu yesh yoter, d'mut b'tzelem Elokim, mima sheyesh lagoyim. It could be. You want to see what I'm saying? I don't worry, huh? Oh yeah, okay. You hear the shaila? You hear the question? Ani Hashem is because it's a tzelem Elokim Hashem created, so every guy is that way. Emes, tzrichim l'chabed goy. Aval lamah ze lo hamitzvah zo? Why is it not this mitzvah? The teretz maybe is because we're more tzelem Elokim. We're domeh laKadosh Baruch Hu. Ki kadosh ani, kedoshim tihyu, ki kadosh ani, mahu af atah, we're the same. Also, don't forget, v'shachanti b'soicham, Hashem dwells in us. Okay. Or we could come and say, and I found this in the Reishis Chochmah, a peldike lashon: are we friends one to another, or are we brothers? So I was always thinking about it, because the truth is it doesn't say v'ahavta l'reacha kamocha; it says v'ahavta l'reiacha kamocha. Also, if you notice, chaveirim kol Yisrael. Say more, achim kol Yisrael. K'sheyesh mitzvahs, katuv achicha. B'kshama darshim, we darshen achicha b'mitzvos, which means in Kesef Talveh, achicha, whenever it says achicha. Yeah, but when it comes to ahavah, it doesn't use the word achicha. I was thinking about it. Why doesn't it use the word achicha? Wait, good kasha, huh? It should say, v'ahavta l'achicha kamocha. Chaveirim kol Yisrael. I can call you. Unless you say, lefamim, you're more friends with your friend than with your brother maybe. Maybe it's more. People like their friends more than their family. Everybody's going like this. Everybody knows what I'm talking about. I say, so every person... yeah, yeah, yeah. This guy, yeah, that brother, yeah, that... You hear my question, Mr. Kaikov? Well, you don't feel well. But forget about kamocha. I'm asking you, is every Jew your brother? Is every Jew your friend? Simple question. Your brother. How come it says, v'ahavta l'reacha kamocha? How come it says, chaverim kol Yisrael? Now the truth is, I found in Reishis Chochmah, Shaar HaAhavah, perek daled, that it's like brothers. He says an interesting lashon: Shekol haneshamot atzulot mikisei hakavod, v'lachen kulanu achim. We're all brothers. We all come from the same shoresh. We have all the same genes. You want to know where the pool of genes come from? Tachas Kisei HaKavod. It's a Reishis Chochmah, not stam a sefer you read at the Shabbos table. Reishis Chochmah. You know what Reishis Chochmah is? Atzulot...

Mitachas kisei hakavod, and he says, therefore, kol Yisrael are achim. So then why do we say v'ahavta l'reacha? We should say v'ahavta l'achicha. But either way, I have here a pshat, meaning the v'ahavta l'reacha kamocha is either because kulam nivru b'tzelem Elokim, or v'ahavta l'reacha kamocha, ani Hashem, yesh lanu Av echad, and we're all brothers. The ani Hashem is either because we're all created by the tremendous master artist. We're all from the same... here, what is the painter, Bianchi? What's his name again, the painter? Da Vinci. Da Vinci. You come and you say, Well, this is a Da Vinci, so what? Is it nicer or not? Yeah, but it's Da Vinci, right? It all comes from such a beautiful artist. So this painting, this one, this one, this one is from Hashem. V'ahavta l'reacha kamocha, ani Hashem. That's one way to learn. Kach mashma b'Even Ezra. Oshim meva'arim את אני ה', we have one Father, ani Hashem. Hashem is our Father, like the Rishis Chochmah. This is what I'm just going to leave you with a little bit food for thought, coming back to the yesod. So the keruvim that I'm telling you is פני מיכל אחיו, achdut, could also mean what? בזמן שעושים רצונו של מקום. בזמן שעושים רצונו של מקום, it could mean HaKadosh Baruch Hu. If the achdut is there, which means mimeila the ahavas Hashem is there. It's not two different things. The keruvim is for ahavas Hashem. You want to know, and this is how I want to say it. You want to know why Klal Yisroel is not doing what it has to do? If it's not doing, if it isn't, it's because there's a pirud in Klal Yisroel. It's the shoresh of pirud in Klal Yisroel lead to a lack of ahavas Hashem. So it's taka the love of Hashem in Klal Yisroel. But it all depends on upneihem ish el achiv. And that's why the second Beis Hamikdash was nechrav only because of pneihem ish el achiv. What person? You macher the Beis Hamikdash for that? And the Torah says that klal gadol baTorah: v'ahavta l'reacha kamocha, kol haTorah kulah. What did Hillel tell the guy? And I always thought to myself, watch pshat. Hillel tells the guy, v'ahavta l'reacha kamocha, and the rest is just the peirush. Why is the whole Torah v'ahavta l'reacha kamocha? So years and years I told you the pshat, because the yesod of Torah is not to live for yourself. You should be able to have someone else in your life. You should be able to live loving another thing besides yourself. A guy loves only himself, and therefore his beer and his football game. By the way, today's a big football game. Okay, yeah. Sure, today's the big day, today's Super Bowl, no? Vade, what are you talking about? You should know there was not one car on the road today. I'm kidding you. I got here, I could have gotten here in 45, 50 minutes, I got here. There's not a car on the road. You know where everybody is? They're waiting on line in front of the beer store. And then from there they're gonna go to the peanut store. What's that? Not the chips, not the popcorn. You guys have no hasagos. Watch what we call it, the beer nuts. The beer nuts, no? Super Bowl Sunday. You ever try to stop a guy from Super Bowl Sunday? He'll kill you. He'll kill you. It's yehareg v'al ya'avor. You know what the pshat is? It's all about himself. It's all about himself, and this is his big yetzer hara, so nothing else could exist that day. Nothing else could come in the way of his hanhugah. Good. Point B, point B. A Jew has to know — it's not about the... V'ahavta l'reeacha kamocha, you hear? Now I want to tell you, lefi what we learned today, I learned a whole new pshat in how's V'ahavta l'reeacha kamocha yesod kol haTorah kulah. And the teretz is: ahavas Hashem and ahavas haTorah is mekushar in ahavas Yisrael, the three ahavas. It goes hand in hand. If you love...

Another Jew, you know what that means? It's because you're loving Hashem and you're loving His Torah. That's why you love another Jew. Today I was mechaven to this. For years I had a whole different pshat. I always told you, you know how many times I tell you this other pshat? Shanim, shanim I told you this other pshat, that a person has to learn not only about himself, and mainly he can put Hashem in his life also, because a guy can only think about himself, and now a Jew has to learn it's not all about you, so meileh it's also about Hashem too. ... Ahavas Yisrael, ahavas Yisrael, ... u'mushreshes v'novea ahavas Hashem u'ahavas haTorah. That's what Chassidus says. He's telling him, start with ahavas habriyos. Start with ahavas Yisrael. You'll have ahavas Hashem and ahavas habriyos and ahavas haTorah. It'll come. I want to say with this, there's a gevaldige Arizal in Shaar HaKavanos, that before a person davens, this is in Arizal, Kisvei Arizal, Shaar HaKavanos, daf alef amud beis, the beginning, when you daven what are you supposed to be mechaven? Hareini mekabel alatzmi mitzvas bein adam l'chaveiro v'ahavta l'reacha kamocha. You know this, right? All the Chassidish, especially the Breslov, right? It's a big thing. That's why I do it also. Hareini mekabel alatzmi, it's Kisvei Ari, the mitzvah of v'ahavta l'reacha kamocha. So I always thought the pshat is, yeah, I always thought the pshat is, a lot of the tefillah is for Klal Yisrael. So don't daven for myself, daven for everybody. So if you don't mean it, so that destroys your tefillah. I mean, imagine a person davening, give him this, and in his heart he's thinking, make sure he doesn't get, make sure he, you know, he drops dead. Techolel tefillah, adam mispalel. HaKadosh Baruch Hu v'sein bracha, give bracha. Besides for this guy, besides for that guy, this guy should, sheyelech la'azazel, sheyachla... mut... Tefillah yachol liskayem kacha. So in order to make sure that the tefillah is shayach, tzrichim l'chaven, mikodem, שאני מקבל על עצמי מצוות ואהבת לרעך כמוך. Aval lefi ma sheanachnu omrim, yesh mashu amok po. It goes together. Ahavas Hashem, ahavas haTorah, and ahavas Yisrael, it's all one thing. Kudsha Brich Hu v'Oraysa v'Yisrael chad hu. You can't separate it. If you want to talk about v'ahavta es Hashem Elokecha, what's v'ahavta? It's tefillah, right? Tefillah. V'ahavta es Hashem Elokecha, ahavas Hashem. You have to mechazek ahavas haTorah. You know, the Gemara says, Korei v'Hashem, v'chol karov, v'chol asher yikra'uhu... b'emes. The mefarshim say, b'emes is Torah. That's why many people, what they do is before they daven, they first learn. Gemara also says that where is the tefillah niskabel? Between the place where you learn, right? That's the best place to daven. The daled amos of halacha is where you're supposed to daven. What's the shaychus? Why do you need a minyan? Just think about this. What are you waiting for? What's wrong if I come to shul and I daven ביחיד? What's wrong? It's so bad if I daven ביחיד? מה נורא? להפוך. ... אני מתפלל בציבור. ... אני מסתכל על השעון החדש שיש לו. אני מסתכל על איזה עלייה הוא קנה, right? Right? ... ביחיד. As poshut, the kavonah is very bad. זה ענין של כוונה. אדם מתפלל בעצמו. But the truth is, it's much more. HaKadosh Baruch Hu is not moyis b'tefilas harabim. Why not? What's so special about tefilas harabim? You know what the answer is? The three ahavos: Ahavas Hashem, Ahavas haTorah, and Klal Yisroel. It all goes together. Yisroel, the areivus of the Kudsha Brich Hu. It's all one thing. You want to daven to Hashem? Tzibbur. Tzibbur. Klal Yisroel. The inyan of klal. It's probably also b'rov am hadras melech, yimshachach Hashem. I'm sure there's a lot of that also. But a lot of it is the inyan of tzibbur. You're not a yachid. You're not an individual. What are you? You're one of a tzibbur. This is the yesod of the kruvim. And HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, Where am I going to come to you? And where am I going to talk to you? And where am I going to megaleh Myself? In the Mishkan.

You notice the pasuk is madgish. What does it say? Go ahead, what does it say? What do you need that for? What do you need that for? It's a pasuk mutar. What does the pasuk? Go ahead, what does it say? ... asher ... It's written there for them. Yisrael v'oraisa v'Kudsha Brich Hu, it's all one, one cheftza. Hashem is not ad. Hashem comes. Hashem speaks. Bein shnei hakeruvim. Asher al haAron. Torah. Lifnei mishalochim, bein shnei hakeruvim, in between. That's HaKadosh Baruch Hu. So now I understand why it says, Ish el achiv. I asked you, it was a bird. I asked you, it was the face of a tinok. Torah says it's not referring to them. It's a remez to what? Klal Yisrael, ish el achiv. It's a remez to ish el achiv. That's why you have to mekabel ahavas Yisrael before you daven. That's why, first, v'ahavta l'reacha kamocha is the klal of kol haTorah, the mussar, rabosai. It's pashut. You don't have to be marech. Yisrael v'oraisa, the gimel ahavos. Beg you. Learn the gimel ahavos. Implant them into your heart. V'ahavta. V'holachta b'drachav, Torah and mitzvos, u'midot mechaverim, u'midot laMakom. HaKadosh Baruch Hu will show His love to you. That's when Hashem shows His love. When the p'nim is ish el achiv, Hashem shows, I love Klal Yisrael. Chibaschem lifnei haMakom, like the Gemara says, Hashem shows His love through the keruvim. Three ahavos, rabosai.