Lech Lecha: Bris Milah, Shem Shakkai, and Finding True Fulfillment Through Torah

Transcript

At the end of the parsha, last week we have Parshas Mila, the parsha of Mila. I'd like to talk today, the inyan of Mila, inyan of Mila. What is the yesod of the mitzvah of Mila? And as we're going to learn, Mila is not a one-time thing. Mila is something that a person has all his life. The Gemara says that when Dovid HaMelech was in the beis hamerchatz, washing himself, so he was thinking, what mitzvah do I have when I'm in the beis hamerchatz? And he said, I have the mitzvah of Mila. So Mila is something that goes with the Jew wherever he goes. Now I have a shaylah, rabosai. He has pe'os also. There's a mitzvah of pe'os. But the only mitzvah is this Mila. Other mefarshim ask, mezuzah. Maybe a beis hamerchatz didn't have a mezuzah. Could be. But the house, right? But the beard is this pe'os, that's what I'm trying to say. So what is it about Mila, the mitzvah of Mila, which is considered that it's with you wherever you go? Thank you so much, koach. So let's discuss the mitzvah of milah and how we're supposed to understand the mitzvah of milah, the yesod of milah. The mitzvah of milah was told to Avraham Avinu, perek yud-zayin, pasuk aleph. It's interesting how the Ribono Shel Olam introduces the mitzvah of milah to Avraham Avinu. How does He introduce it? It says the pasuk, Vayehi Avram ben tish'im v'tesha shanah, vayeira Hashem el Avram, vayomer eilav, Ani Kel Shakkai. I am Kel Shakkai. Hithalech lefanai v'heyeh tamim. What is this introduction, Ani Kel Shakkai? And why does HaKadosh Baruch Hu use this shem, this name? From all the names, He could have said, Ani Hashem, Ani Elokim. Why Ani Kel Shakkai? Why these words? Why this introduction? So we're going to have to say that before we understand why, we have to know what the word Shakkai means, Shin-daled-yud. What does it mean? So Rashi explains that what is Shakkai? Ani hu sheyesh dai bElokusi. There's enough, enough in my Elokus, l'chol beriyah, for every creature. Lefichach, hithalech lefanai v'yeh lecha leElohah u'lepitaron. Interesting. Meaning that I'm not just a God of Le'eila, that's from the world. I can be even for the Adam Prati. I have tzimtzum. I'm able to mitzamtzem myself to every individual. Therefore I tell you, Avram, hithalech lefanai v'heyeh tamim. Hashem, Almighty, you know, you call Him Almighty, the Exhilarated One, the Exalted, right? Le'eila mikol birchata v'shirata, who can touch it? Who can get shayach to it? You know, they say over a nice story, just to give you the mashal to understand the Rashi. Actually it's not a story, but it's an interesting raayon. Someone, a Rosh Yeshiva, was maspid my grandfather, Reb Shmuel Walkin. And he said that the mahalach my grandfather was that he didn't just do for Klal Yisrael; he did for prat Yisrael just like he did for Klal Yisrael. What does that mean? He says many times, you're not gonna...

He has no time. Why? He's busy with seeing Klal Yisrael. He's busy with Klal Yisrael. My grandfather understood that what makes up Klal Yisrael? All the pratim make up Klal. So he wasn't only osek in Klal Yisrael, but he was osek even in prat, individual, right? So you would say, Hashem is osek in the world, in the klal, the exalted. Therefore, Hashem tells him, Ani Kel Shakai prat, that I could be shayach to the individual. Yesh dai bElohuti lchol beriah, lefikach hitalech lefanai v'yeh tamim. So this is the introduction, according to Rashi, why he uses the word, the name Hashem Shakai, as an introduction to the mitzvah of milah. The Ramban explains Kel Shakai in a very interesting mahalach. The Ramban says like this: Shnei shemot, kol echad toler l'atzmo, Kel and Shakai. Peirush Kel is takif, Hashem is takif. And he brings the lashon from a pasuk, and what is Shakai? And then he brings Rashi, sheyesh dai bElohuti lchol beriah. U'vesefer Moreh Nevuchim peirush haRav, ki lo yomar she'ein choser bemtzius ma shenimtza. Hashem doesn't need— What's around in this world. V'lo b'kiyum metzi'uto l'zulato, aval metzi'uto taspik b'atzmah. His metziut is enough, taspik. Hashem doesn't need anything. Aval metzi'uto taspik; it's enough for itself. According to the Rambam, why is this the introduction to the parsha? Again, we're going to learn very big Kabbalistic things here now, but not because it's my fault. It's in the pasuk. Rashi, Ramban, Rambam. Sounds like things nistar, but it's not. It's the pashut of the pasuk. You ready? The introduction to Parshas Mila. Hashem introduces milah to Avram: Ani Kel Shakai. Why this name, and why this introduction? Rashi says, Avram Avinu could think, Hashem needs my milah, that I should be mekushar to Him; He has the whole world. And the answer is, Yesh dai b'Elokuti l'chol beriyah. Hashem has enough of Him to go around. In English, there's an expression: there's enough of Him to go around. Dai l'chol echad. He has enough to give everybody. So therefore, Avram Avinu, yes, you prat. Not only He's the God of the klal, but He's Shakai. Okay. Ramban says, wait a minute, Kel Shakai is two words: Kel, takif, and Shakai, evil like Rashi, or like the Rambam. Now let's read again the Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim: she'eino tzarich b'metziut ma she'nimtza. Hashem does not need anything. What is dai? Dai, Hashem says, enough. Hashem says, enough. He don't need nothing. Hashem needs the world? Hashem needs nothing. V'lo yekayem metziuto l'zulato. He doesn't have to come on to anybody to exist. Doesn't need to take his metziut mi'mashu. Self-encompassing. Know what self-encompassing means? Shehu kayam l'atzmo, aval taspik metziuto, taspik b'atzmah. His metziut is enough for existence of itself. I have a question. According to this Rambam, so why is this the introduction? Ani Kel Shakai. This is who I am. I'm so great that—what does that have to do with milah? Then the Ramban brings down from the—

Eben Ezra. It's migzeiras shoided, k'loimar, menatzeach u'meshoded marochos hashamayim. Hashem, the powers of the constellations of the world, everything is mikocho. That's Shakai. This is the ha'anochi. Says the Ramban, I like this. This is the right pshat, ki hi midas hagevurah. It's trying to bring out that Hashem is—what it says, the Ramban, he brings the Ramban over there—shehi midas hagevurah. Hashem is ever so strong that the world revolves around His word, says the Ramban. So then why does Hashem tell him this now, here, as an introduction to milah? V'lachein amar Atah l'Avraham Avinu ki hu ha-patach v'hamatziach. Why? Sheyigbar al mazalo veyolid, vayehi bris beinai uvein zar'o l'olam, sheyechelek Hashem uvirtzono yinhigeh, v'lo yehe tachtam memsheles koach u'mazal. It has nothing to do with the milah. It has to do with the havtachah that Hashem is going to give him by the milah. Ta'ani kel Shakai is not about the milah. It's about the havtachah. So according to Rashi, what's it about? It's about the hithalech lefanai. What's the milah? It's hithalech lefanai v'heyeh tamim. Why? Ani Kel Shakai. According to Ramban, what is it? Promise. I'm going to promise you you're going to have children, but you're not bar mazal for it. And the answer is, Ani Kel Shakai. So it has nothing to do with the milah according to the Ramban. Rabbeinu Bechaye. Rabbeinu Bechaye also brings the Ramban, and then he says a pshat. He says like this: Tam shehizkirah shem b'milah, shehu pshat, takif v'shoded. Okay, okay, okay, okay. L'meah shanah, moled, yeah, hmm, ... malosam. V'yesh lefaresh, shehizkir b'mitzvah zu Hashem hazeh. No, maybe it has to do with the mitzvah, says Rabbeinu Bechaye. It has to do with this mitzvah milah. Why? Lefi shehu chosim b'yud. Shakai ends with a yud. U'metzuyar b'tavnis haguf limol hachosam b'ois bris kodesh. Since the bris is the chatimah, the signature of Hashem, ois bris kodesh, so therefore we take the yud, yeah, and we put it. V'im ha'ot hazeh misparsemes malosam shel Yisrael, lihyosam nivdalim mish'ar ovdei kochav u'ma'arei lev, arelei basar, v'Yisrael sheheim mitzad Kel Shakai. Klal Yisrael is Kel Shakai. That's what it is. V'im ha'ot hazeh nikra adam tamim, v'zeh she'amar, v'yehi tamim. Beautiful. It's beautiful. How can it be beautiful if you don't understand one word I just said? I don't understand what I just said. I don't מבין אף מילה שכתוב פה. Yeah, and Klal Yisrael is Kel Shakai. You knew this. I didn't know this. I read it, but I don't know what he's talking about. Could you imagine a person walks around saying, I need Kel Shakai. Everybody's going, Look, you mean the pasuk? No, I'm talking about myself. He said, What? Yourself? What, you think you're God? Yeah, it says. The Rabbeinu Mechayim says, Yisrael shehem מצד Kel Shakai, ומאות הזה נקרא אדם תמים. So we take the Shakai and we put it on ourselves in bris milah. Maybe this is a Kabbalah. Maybe we should learn it. U'lekedushas habrises נכתב ונאשם באדם שם יוד, הי, וו, הי, ממטה למעלה. There's kedushas habris. V'chein b'pasuk zeh, this is what this pasuk is saying, תמים, וואבין זה, you should understand this. Maybe he means וואבין זה. You better go understand this, because there's no way to understand it. You better work on understanding this. וואבין זה, וואבין זה, because Rabbeinu Mechayim understands this. I'm scaring the kids. Oh man, sorry. Now this is how you get scared when Rabbi Wolk says shit. Could you imagine the essence, the zeh of Kabbalas...

When Hashem was teaching Torah at Har Sinai, ... The Gemara says you have to teach Torah b'reses uv'sever. Give me a lollipop, I'll give it. Who has a lollipop? Okay, now, what's the pshat? I'll read the ... So it says ... Okay, so that is—let me tell you the pshat. I'm going to give you a lot to talk about. I'm going to, be'ezras Hashem yisbarach, explain the Rambam. It's according to the Rambam that it's Hashem Kel Shakai, that His metziut is self-containing, and He doesn't need l'shum zulat. How is this the introduction to milah? What is that? Bishlama according to Rashi, ani Kel Shakai is ... Why do I need you to do brit milah? I'm King of the world. The Torah says I'm shayach to the prat. According to the Ramban, it's to say, don't worry about me being matiach you that you're a thousand years old and you'll have a child, and your wife who's a hundred—don't worry about it. Ani Kel Shakai, I can do it. Yesh li kochot to mishaneh the whole briah. According to Rabbeinu Bechaye, Hashem, yud and kodesh and Hashem, wow, and ... and the ... and the ... and Klal Yisrael is Kel Shakai. What's going on? Shabbosai, let me tell you over an interesting Beis Halevi and the Malbim. Why am I telling it to you? It's not so nogea to what we're going to talk today, but you have to know the pshat. It's one of the most famous peshutoi pshatim that everybody says why Hashem said, Ani Kel Shakai. And the answer is, says Malbim, Beis Halevi and others, Hashem wants you to make brit milah, telling you that you're not complete. You're not complete. Vayei tamim means you will be complete if you make the brit milah, so now you're not complete. So the Rasha will ask, if Hashem wants that we should be complete, so why didn't He make us that way? You think Hashem created a davar shavur, a broken thing? How could it be Hashem created us incomplete, and then Hashem gives us vayei tamim? You know, my grandfather used to say over in the Haggadah a very nice pshat. Why hakeh et shinav of the Rasha? Why do we break the teeth of the Rasha? So it's the whole question if hakeh means to break, maybe hakeh means to knock off his words. So my grandfather used to say over the pshat every year he would say it over. The Rasha claims that if Hashem wanted me to be with a brit milah, if Hashem wanted me to be with pe'ot, if Hashem wanted me to be a certain, why didn't He make me be born that way? Obviously Hashem wants me to be a na'arel because Hashem created me. That way. You know what we tell him? Let's knock your teeth out. Why? Hashem created you without teeth also. If you really needed teeth, then the pshat is Hashem should have made you with teeth. So hakei es shinav means this is the way we knock him up. We knock him up by telling him, listen, you see, look at your teeth. Now the truth is, the truth is that the maskilim, the maskilim used to say this about brit milah. This was a big thing about it. They used to come to the yeshivot—I know this as a story—they used to come to the yeshivot, and they used to show that brit milah is not real, v'lecharayah, take a look, Hashem didn't want that we should be born with brit milah. Had He wanted we should be born with brit milah, He would have made us be born. Meila, Hashem comes and says, Ani Kel Shakai. What does Ani Kel Shakai mean? Ani Kel Shakai. I was the one who put a dai to the world. I put a gvul to the world, and I said, continue, right? How does it say?

Shabbas, laasos. What does bara laasos mean? The mefarshim say laasos means that man was given the ability to be laasos. Hashem gave a koach, an ability in the world, laasos, that we could create. Could you imagine now we create electricity and that someone's going to say, I mean, if Hashem wants electricity, He should have made it from brias ha'olam. And the teretz is, Hashem gave the koach in the person to be able to create. Mi sheamar l'olamo dai means, Shaddai comes from mi sheamar l'olamo dai. Hashem said, Stop, which means He gave ad kan, and the rest I want you to be mashlim. I want you to continue. Why? Because Hashem said pshat. I'll tell you pshat. Hashem wants a person to know achrayus, that it's in his hands to make or break the world. Achrayus. Hashem says to him, I'm giving you the world in your hands, laasos. Adam HaRishon, before he went into Gan Eden, you know what Hashem told him? Re'eh, see to it shelo tekalkelu es olami. What? See to it that you don't destroy my world. Ha'adam yesh lo takach, o lachriv es ha'olam o livnos ha'olam. Asher bara Elokim laasos, that He created the koach of laasos, said the Beis Halevi, mi sheamar l'olamo dai. So therefore, He gives the milah, tashlim, lihyot tamim. Fix it. There's in your hands to be mashlim the briah, to be mashlim et ha'adam. And what's the lesson? The lesson is, גם במידות ובהשקפה. A person's born per adam. It's your job to do what? To create yourself, to be mashlim, to be metaken, to be boneh et atzmecha, ולא להרוס את עצמך, not to destroy yourself. What? Some people are born... We'll discuss that after the shiur if you'd like. It's not so simple. Very few people are born that way. What you think is called nolad mol, the poskim say is a joke. It's not true. That's a hyperbole. It's something completely different. I'll discuss it with you right after the shiur. Two people in the world were nolad mol. This is a discussion for later. Hashem's not working now. This is a discussion for a seminar. I can't continue now on the haloch yeilech of this topic, because we have to get down to milah. The point I had to tell it to you, because in Shamayim they would come over to me and say, and the answer is, I taught it to you. I taught you this Beit Aleph. I had to teach you this Beit Aleph, this ma'ubin, because this is the pshat that's universal. Mi she'amar la'olam dai. Hashem, who said to the world, Dai, you have to complete it. How do you complete it? You complete it by the hayei tamim, make brit milah, do the right things. Fix, fix the world. And I'm just being masbir to you in the beis halevi, this whole sefa, that Hashem gave the koach for a person, olivnot olam. So what does Hashem say to you? Reu shelo tekalkelu es olami. V'hayesod mizeh, and the musar from this is, tivneh atzmecha. Middot, hashkafah. A person has to build, to build himself. Veyetan. It's in your hands to make or break yourself. Okay. Laniya daiti, says a different pshat. Laniya daiti, there's a different pshat in why Hashem uses Shakai. And with this I'm going to explain the Rambam and the Rabbeinu Bechaye. Shakai, that Hashem is full, full and composite. And tzarich lizolat, you hear? What's the lashon? Aval metzi'uto taspik b'atzmah. What does that mean? I need Kel Shakai. And the second thing I'm going to explain is the Rabbeinu Bechaye, that Klal Yisrael represents Shakai, and therefore the yud of Shakai is the bris kodesh. What is this all about? Okay. I want to be makdim כמה הערות, a few questions.

Says, וְאֶתְנָה בְרִית בֵּינִי וּבֵינֶךָ. It says this as one of the haftachot, one of the promises of the bris. What is it? It says, וַאֲנִי, here, וְאֶת, the pasuk beis, וְאֶתְנָה בְרִיתִי בֵּינִי וּבֵינְךָ, וְאַרְבֶּה אוֹתְךָ בִּמְאֹד מְאֹד. Says Rashi, which bris is Hashem going to give, בֵּינִי וּבֵינְךָ? Bris shel ahavah. Here, the bris of love. And also Hashem is going to give, says Rashi, bris aretz. That what? לְהָרִישׁוֹ לְךָ עַל יְדֵי מִצְוָה זוֹ. That through the bris milah, what do you have? Eretz Yisrael. Pirush Rashi, that because of bris milah, you have Eretz Yisrael. Why is Eretz Yisrael taluy in bris milah? Why is this the way to be koneh Eretz Yisrael? You're getting Eretz Yisrael because of bris. Ma kesher? But this mitzvah more than any other mitzvah, why bris milah? עַל יְדֵי מִצְוָה זוּ, אָדָם מְקַבֵּל, הַיְהוּדִים מוֹרִישִׁים אֶת אֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל. Why? What's the shaychus? Now I want to tell you a little bit more, a few more hakdamot to clarify, how do I say it, to bring light to the sugya פה. The Gemara in Shabbos, daf kuf lamed amud aleph, says, כל מצוה שקיבלו ישראל עליהן בשמחה, עדיין מקיימין אותה בשמחה. You know, Klal Yisrael, every Jew has a bris. Every Jew, ah, the farthest Jew can ... bris, bris milah, right? Afilu eino sheloshim min Torah, they have what? Bris milah and bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah, right? Bris milah they have. No, for the men. The men also have bat mitzvah. The boys get bat mitzvah also. Okay, but whatever it is, bris milah they have. Why? It has to do with this Gemara says: Hafarshim kol mitzvah shekiblu aleihem b'simcha, adayin mekaymin osah b'simcha, kegon mitzvas milah, d'chsiv, 'Sas anochi al imrasecha.' So I want to ask two questions. Question number one: Mahu kol hasimcha b'bris milah? Why is bris milah, 'Sas anochi al imrasecha,' 'sas,' 'sason,' the simcha? So we could come and say that the maalah of bris milah is that it makes a person a Jew. Through this he becomes a Jew. Meileh this mitzvah is sason, simcha, shayach to the fact that he's a Jew now. Identity. Lifnei zeh hu lo yehudi; achshav al yedei hamilah hu Yehudi. The Kli Yakar speaks that a Jew is only with the bris milah. Yud, right, Rabbeinu Bechayeh, the yud — a Yid is only a Yehudi. Yud shayach l'Ois Bris Kodesh. Rabbeinu Bechayeh, achshav lamadnu lifnei shehegata, before you came, right? A Jew needs a bris. I told you over the story, remember I told you over that there was a Jew in the concentration camps that he lost one of his children. I ever told you the maiseh? Sure I told you. There was a Jew that, from the concentration camps, he davened by my father, davened by my father. He was a simple Jew, and he even was mechalel Shabbat for work. When he came from Russia, he couldn't be עומד בניסיון. He used to go to work before Shachris Shabbos, and then he would come to Shachris. He would work early in his store. He would open up his store early. But what he used to do, he used to take the train, because he used to think, I'm not being mechalel Shabbat if I take the train. He would open up the key, he would have a worker working. It wasn't... maybe he got it, he cut the corners of mechalel Shabbat. He definitely wasn't shomer Shabbos, okay? And after pikuach, everything else he did, all the mitzvot and everything. He got sick. He has a very small family. He died suddenly, you know, without anybody knowing. No kevurah. They didn't have a place to bury him. So my father and mother went to find a place to bury him. My father was his rav, you know. Right here, happened two, three years ago it happened. Kids, they couldn't find a place. They found one place next to a certain gadol, tzaddik.

Why? Because there was a corner place, there was only room for one, and nobody wanted it. Nobody wanted it. So the question was, maybe for him it's good. Maybe it's good. What happened was, the chevra kadisha asked my father, was he a shomer Shabbos? I'm not going to bury a mechalel Shabbos next to a tzaddik, and it doesn't, you know. So my father didn't know what to do, because the truth was he wasn't mechalel Shabbos, but at the same time he was a pretty good Jew, but just one problem: he was mechalel Shabbos, and mechalel Shabbos is not a Jew, so it's a very big problem, right? Kitzur, my father thought and thought, and he said, You know what? Bury him there, mai achrayus. I want you to bury him. And at the levayah, my father explained why, and he said, I want to tell you about this person. He was in a concentration camp, and this story, my father said, he himself told. What did he tell me? His first son died machmat milah. His first son died machmat milah, because of milah. His son died. His first boy died. His second one, when he was born, he was born a kasher. He didn't even know who to give the bris milah. There was no mohel. Who's going to do the bris milah? How are they going to do the bris milah? So the father went and he started asking, Is anybody who could do bris milah, maybe with a rock or with a regular pocket knife or something? And he found someone that said he would do it. So he brought him the child and he said, Chayidish mein kind. Chayidish mein kind means make my kid a Jew, make my child a Jew, knowing the sakana that's involved, fearing they might lose this child. And there wasn't a normal bris milah. It wasn't like today we have antiseptic and take a stone. But what? My son has to be Jewish. Payidish mayn zun, payidish mayn kind, means make him Jewish. The father said, This zechus, this zechus is why he's being buried next to his son. I don't know Shabbos, that's—he'll deal with that, Kadosh Baruch Hu, when he gets to the shamayim. But this is the zechus that he has. And kachav, you hear? No. Payidish—what does that mean? A Jew becomes a Jew with a bris milah. Everybody in Europe, that was the expression in Europe: payidish mayn kind. A kid is a Jew with a bris milah. So maybe because of that, hasimcha, yes, harbeh simcha, bris milah. Maybe, maybe. But I'm going to say a different pshat, and I'll tell you why. Sos anochi al—why is imratecha bris milah? Imratecha means Hashem's commandments. So Hashem commanded us to have mitzvos. Why is—it's a pasuk in Tehillim, Sos anochi al imratecha. So you're a goy, you're an ilui, so tell me, you know, what is imratecha? Imratecha just means your words. Why is sos anochi al imratecha going on bris milah? So Rashi in Meseches Shabbos gives an explanation, and he says, Imratecha, one. What about imrottecha, many, right? Hashem gave 613 imrot, and the answer is there's one which was kodem to all the others. Bris milah came before the yad mitzvos. Hashem gave it as an imrah. Hashem mitzaveh Avraham Avinu. Ah, wait a second. Watch what... What's pshat? The mefarshim ask these kashas. But this is how Rashi learns. Rashi learns, Imratecha amirah yechidah lifnei matan Torah. One thing Hashem gave us by amirah, not so much al yedei matan Torah, which maybe He gave again afterwards. It's a whole shaila if the pshat in Bris Milah is because of Avraham Avinu or because Nachamal otam baTorah, tayag mitzvos nitna miSinai. There's a big question the Rishonim about this. But one thing, bishvil, lifnei hayah lanu amirah. There was an amirah to do what? Bris milah. Soasa nochi al imrasecha. I want to say a different pshat. Mutar li lehagid mashu acher? Mutar li. I want you to know how far it goes. The Gaon, miVilna, explains, the Gaon explains that sos—what's the lashon of sos? Sos means not so much simchah. Simchah is much more, says the Gaon. Why sos? Because it hurts. The baby's in pain. The father's in pain, Chazal say, right? Sos, soasa nochi al imrasecha, a little bit. That's why it's this. No, the Gaon— All right. I'm going to say a little different. I'm going to say a little different.

If it's going on happiness of a mitzvah, so why are you giving a mashal, k'motzei shalal rav? Just say, Sos anochi al imrasecha. I need a mashal, k'motzei shalal rav. Simchasi, ma? Sass, adam sameach, ma. Here, does it say, Kol hasason v'chol simcha k'motzei shalal rav? Does it say that? No, it says sason v'simcha. Why does he need a dimyon, k'motzei shalal rav? And I have another question for you. He should have been more happy than k'motzei shalal rav. Could you imagine a tzaddik says, You know, I'm just as happy to do a mitzvah as if I would win money. You know what you should say? You should be more happy than that. If you're a tzaddik and it's sos anochi, he should have said, Yoter k'motzei shalal rav. Why does he say k'motzei shalal rav? You like the question? It bothered me for a while. According to the Gra, it's good, but then there would be a pashut, but there would be no reason for pashut. להגיד שאני בכאב קצת k'motzei shalal rav, that's the pashut. Now what's it? Tashma, la k'motzei shalal. תגיד, יותר מ'motzei shalal rav. K'motzei... adam shelo hayah lo kesef. Yesh כזה אדם? I don't know. The Gemara says, the Gemara says, יש אדם ש... I mean, they say Rebbe, Rebbe didn't care about his money, huh? Was there such a thing in there, adam ש... The Gemara says, V'ahavta es Hashem Elokecha b'chol levavcha uvchol nafshecha uvchol meodecha. Omera Mara, b'chol meodecha — יש אדם שממונו חביב עליו מגופו, ויש אדם שגופו מחובב עליו מממונו. האם יש אדם שבכלל לא מחויב אצלו כסף? I don't know. I don't know, I don't know. I'm close to it. I mean, people who know me, I'm not so into the... to come and say that I wouldn't feel good at all, kemoitzei shalom... I don't know. He should have said, Yoter mimotzei shalom. האם יש כזה אדם? יש, יש כזה אדם? שבכלל לא חובב כסף? The Gemara says on the pasuk, שונאי בצע, ששונא ממונם בדין. They don't like to have their money if it comes through a din, through a court case. למה לא כתוב שונא ממונם? Period. No such thing. That's probably what it is. There can't be such a thing. אפילו יעקב אבינו, he worked for oisher. You see, Avraham Avinu got oisher. So why'd they come and say, I don't want it. אני ממאס בזה, אני לא... You have to... אני סתם... I want to broaden your thought. I want to broaden your thought. Kemoitzei shalom rav. Why doesn't it say, יותר? Nimotzei shalom rav. Good question? Okay. I'll tell you what I think the pshat is. What is the yesod of mitzvas milah? So we saw from the Rabbeinu Bechaye and the Kli Yakar, they all speak, להסיר ערלת הלב. על ידי זה, it takes away the taavah. The Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim says it takes away the taivas hamishgal. You don't have taiva for arayos so much. The Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim, brit milah makes that you shouldn't have such taiva for arayos. Mefarshim explain it's not only taivas arayos, everything, anything. According to the Kli Yakar, it's any orlas halev. It takes away all the taavos. It curbs, curbs the taavah. You know, a guy runs after olam hazeh. Tell a guy that he should curb his olam hazeh, you know what he thinks to you? Then why am I living? What's the point of life? What am I doing here? No, you have to explain a guy. You talk to a guy and tell a guy, you know, don't go to beer and then ball game and then golf and then chreislas and women and then movies. He looks at you, so, Bishvil mah li chayim? What's the point? What do I have from the whole thing? A Yehudi somehow finds tachlis hachayim without all this. You know, some of the most happiest people are the people that have nothing. The Mishnah tells us, right, Tachlis, darkah shel Torah, pas bamelach tochal, mayim b'mesurah tishteh, al ha'aretz tishan, v'chayei tza'ar tichyeh, uvaTorah atah amel.

Now, a sheche b'olam hazeh, toiv lach l'olam haba. Happy, mushar, a sheche. Yeah? The teretz is, rabosai, a Yid has a milah which was chotech the orlah talef. So therefore his taanug doesn't have to come from taanug. Masha'ein kein, a goy that has orlah talef, the only sipuk that he has is from the taanugei olam hazeh. L'maaseh, does a person who runs after olam hazeh have taanug? Does he taka be'memale taanugav v'taavosav? Never. You know where that comes from? Mi she'amar l'olam dai. That's what I hold. Hashem gave a gvul to the world. There's a stop. How much ice cream and steak could you eat? There's a gvul. How many vacations could you go on? There's a gvul. At a certain point, you get sick of it. You get sick of it, right? That's mi she'amar l'olam dai. Kel Shakai means Hashem gave gvulim to inyanei olam hazeh. Ruchniyus is not that way. Ruchniyus grows, miyom l'yom it goes. There's no end. Ein sof. There's no end. You see tzaddikim, more and more Torah and more... You know, I was thinking to myself here, Reb Elyashiv. Do you know Reb Elyashiv? You remember? They sit and learn with such hatmada. They get tired of it. How can they don't get tired of it? And the hatmada—you know how old Reb Elyashiv is? You know, 96. Someone told me that he knows family members. 101 years old. They're learning b'hatmada, rabbe. 101. I want to see which guy at 101 is still running after his taivos. I want to know. I want to know. At 101, if he's already that old, he's probably thinking to himself, What do I need it for? Al mah shehu spent—whatever he spent his whole life on, he stops at that. 40, 50, 60, 70. By 100 already, he says he wants to sit in a rocking chair. That's all he wants. Rashaim kein. Tzadikim, kol mah shemezaknin, da'atan misyasheves more and more and more. I got to ללמוד more Torah, more. Pli ployim, pli ployim. Why? Because by taiva, it's mi she'amar la'olam dai. There's a gevul. How much olam has to could there be? Mah she'ein kein a Yehudi, a Yid, who's oisek in ruchniyus, there's no dai. You know, this guy, because he's not happy with the taiva, because at a certain point he goes to the next thing and he looks for more chiddush and more chiddush. The taivas of arayos, right? How much arayos he has every day? Ten. Okay, good, so he gets sick of it, right? Then you start thinking maybe if you go with men, it gets better, right? You start thinking maybe children, right? You try to find maybe with beheimos, right? It's no badness. That's where it comes from. They're trying to search, איך למלא את התאווה, והתאווה לא נתמלאת. It doesn't work, because there's a rule: you ate, finished. But they weren't taught that you ate, finished. It's you eat, and then you try to find a candy bar that's sweeter, and then you try to find an ice cream store, and then you... So they're trained that you always search. לחפש עוד. I had a house, I need a bigger house. I have a car, I need a bigger car. Then a truck. Then an airplane. Yesh sof. That's the idea. How does a Jew find satisfaction? How does a Jew find satisfaction? Milah helps that it should be sason nochi al limrasecha. That's the pshat. It's not sason nochi al limrasecha, שהמילה זה. Ha-milah עושה, the milah makes that the Jew should be sason nochi al limrasecha, אשר קידש ידיד מבטן, וחק בשארו שם. Take a goy. You know the Gemara says, Chacham bagoyim ta'amin, Torah bagoyim al ta'amin. I know goyim that learn Bible.

They learn the Bible. They learn the Bible. Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, sure. I know preachers that say nice Torah. They say very nice, very, very good. You ever saw the preachers' pshat at Adam and at Eve and Abraham? And Abraham was like this, and Cain, Samson, right? Beautiful, yeah? I met... Torah. Torah b'tur chochmah yesh lahem. Torah b'tur sipuk hachayim, shezeh hachayim shel ha'adam ein lahem. What's a Jew? A Jew is a ben Torah. He lives like that. That's his whole mahus. You know, how many years could a person live running after a lulav and esrog that it should be beautiful for Sukkot? Thinking about every year the esrog, and a lulav, and it should be beautiful and hadar. And the answer is, a Jew could do it all his life, because the Torah is his life. The Torah is his life. And because the Torah is his life, mimeila he's able to do it. That's chaim. We're going to soon show you where I got this from. But the point is, 'Toraso nochi al imrasecha,' al yedei ha'milah. The milah makes, like the Kli Yakar and the Rambam says, it makes a chituch, it's meisir orlas ha'guf, which is meisir orlas halev. When there's no orlas halev, then a person could be 'ashrecha v'tov lach' when he learns Torah, even though it's kachi. A goy can't learn Torah, because kachi darko shel Torah, pasul. He'll never be happy with pas bamelach tochal. A goy could never have pas b'melach, toichel mayim, amsurah tishteh, v'al ha'aretz tishan. It can't be, because his orlas halev gives him only sipuk from Olam Hazeh. The tzaddik, the talmid chacham, gets sipuk from what, rabosai? From his Torah. This is darkah shel Torah, mimeila milah makes, sason אנכי על אמרתך. Sason, noichi. You like it? In the core of my mahut, I believe this is the emes of the pshat. I feel it with every fiber of my neshama that I'm telling you the real pshat. Milah, al yedei hamilah, a person could be sas אנכי על אמרתך. That's the only way it could be. Because if you're a person that has orlas halev, which means you're running after your taavos, it can't be. How could you enjoy a Tosafos? There's no—what's Tosafos? What is it? You know how many times people ask me, Look, can I see you enjoy so much when you say the shiur? What do you enjoy? I don't know. I can tell you what I enjoy. Why do you enjoy ice cream? You know why you enjoy ice cream? Not you. Why does the goy enjoy a steak? I don't know. Do I know? The teretz is because that's his mahut. I don't know. He enjoys it. Later, later. It's not really up for discussion. I'm not saying much, and you want to know more, and I can't do more. Not because the people that are— Okay, I'm not saying with the goyim. I'm saying not with the goyim. Sason is tremendous. Kol mitzvos shemekaymin ois b'sason, it's mashma from the Gemara that it was unbelievable. The Gemara's mashma that it's—kol mitzvah, the opposite. I'm not working with the goyim right now. Pashut pshat in the Gemara. Pashut pshat in the Gemara is sason means that the Yehudim kiblu es zeh b'sason. Okay. Lefi zeh, I understand the pshat in the pasuk, Sos anochi al imrasecha. Why do you have to have a mashal of k'motzei shalal rav? And the Teretz is, he's trying to say, Imrasecha, la'afukei olam hazeh. That's what I'm teaching you, Sos anochi al imrasecha, kach hi darka shel Torah without olam hazeh. He's trying to say, I don't need olam hazeh. Your Torah itself brings me simcha. Your kiyum hamitzvos bring me simcha, as if k'motzei shalal, which means the tachlif of olam hazeh to me is this. He's not giving you a mashal how great is the simcha. He's not trying to say the measurement of the simcha. He's trying to say the tachlif. You know, to me, al yedei ha'milah, you know what brings me happiness? Not motzei shalal rav, which brings the whole world happiness. Imrasecha brings me happiness. K'motzei shalal rav, ma she'adam...

ששייך לעולם הזה. Has the—what's his big? He won the lottery. I win the lottery every time I see a Tosafos. Yeah, like—no, if I can, he meant to say, like someone, like a guy. A guy, כמאיתי של רב, he has his סיפוק החיים. This is my סיפוק החיים. זאת אנכי עלים ראשך, this is my סיפוק. כמאיתי, like the guy who's מוציא של רב, what is—what makes him—what is the happiest day in his life? Won the lottery. What's the Yid's happiest day in his life? He finished Shas. He finished Shas. He was מקיים סוכות with all the mitzvahs. That's what makes a Yid happy. But how does that happen? על ידי המילה, זאת אנכי עלים ראשך, זו המילה. Now I'm going to tell you, give only a pshat according to this. הִתהַלֵך לְפָנַי וֶהְיֵה תָמִים. What does הְיֵה תָמִים mean? What does it mean? It means to be tamim, like a tam. Some say that, by the way, like Yaakov Avinu, tam. Don't ask. In other words, some want to say, be a tam. פירוש: אני אומר לך לחתוך, לקתה, יש פה סתירה. Be chover b'atzmecha, be tamim. Some say it that way. Cute. Some Rishonim, some Rishonim. Rashi says a little different. הְיֵה תָמִים, says Rashi, אף זה ציווי אחר ציווי, הְיֵה שלם בכל ניסיונותי. Be shalem. הְיֵה תָמִים not only in this milah, in everything. Finish the test. אני מצווה לך. Okay. ולפי מדרשה, יסלק לפניי במצות מילה. ובדבר הזה תהיה תמים. שכל זמן שעורלה בך, אתה בעל מום לפניי. כל זמן, כל זמן שעורלה בך, אתה בעל מום. So, היה תמים means complete yourself, because you're a בעל מום. You're a בעל מום. The mefarshim explain, you have to understand, by cutting yourself, לכאורה you should be a בעל מום. And the answer is no. If you don't cut yourself, you're a בעל מום. If you don't take off ערלת הלב, you're a בעל מום. Not real skin; the mefarshim speak like this. והיה תמים, אל תחשוב שעל ידי זה אתה בעל מום. חותך את חלק מה... you cut your finger off. No. אדרבה, עכשיו אתה בעל מום. והיה תמים עם החיתוך. If you take off, you will be תמים. If you don't take off, you'll be a בעל מום. Not now, not now, not now, please. This is how Rashi learns והיה תמים. Siforno, והיה תמים, you hear? Shh. Listen to what תמים is. והיה תמים, says the Siforno, הו, וכנה השלמות. תמים doesn't mean physical, but it means שלמות of האדם. You hear? השכל וידוע אותי בדרכי, בידיעה, knowledge. Complete yourself. A person is an idiot. A person can live his whole life an idiot. Milah. Milah helps that what? Haskel v'yadoi, and he becomes what? Enosh. Shleimus ha'adam. Complete yourself. The Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim, yeah, the Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim learns in middos. Heyei tamim al yedei, al yedei the milah, a person becomes shalem in middos. What does he mean? Because it's not he runs after the taiva and the kinah and the kavod. Arlah halev, like I told you before, the Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim. So we have here now four pshatim of heyei tamim. Pshat number one, heyei tamim, al tachshov cheshbonos, taaseh hamitzvos, and fulfill the tests I give you. Heyei tamim. Be tamim. Al tisafek bi. Don't have sveikos in me. Rashi learns, heyei tamim because you're a baal mum without the milah. Tashalem es atzmecha. You're a baal mum. The way you are now, you're a baal mum. Cutting off your fingers makes you baal mum, but not cutting off your orlah. Cutting off your orlah makes you adrama, shalem. That's how Rashi and the mefarshim explain Rashi. Seforno learns it has to do with that person is a nobody.

But he pitched the ball and he threw the ball, and he hit the ball and he pitched the ball, and he threw it and he pitched it and he hit it and he hit it and he pitched. How many times can you say the same thing over? And he swung and he hit it and he pitched, and he pitched and he swung and he hit it. Okay, so that's what Adam is all about. And the answer is, Hashleimus atzmecha bidei, behaskel. Knei hashleimus ha'efshar limina anushi haskel v'yadoti b'yediah darki, ubidamoscha elai kefi efshar. This is the support. The Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim learns it has to do with middos, like I explained to you, orlas halev. Take away the kinah. Or how do you get rid of kinah and taivah? And the teretz is, take off the orlas haguf, and like this you have off the orlas halev. I'm going to say a new pshat in Hayei Tamim, pshat chadash. ואני בונה את היסודות שלי על דברי הברבנאל. If you look at the Abarbanel, it's possible that this is what he means. You know, a person, I explained to you, if he runs after the taivos, is never fulfilled. תמיד חסר לו. He's always missing something. He's never satisfied. הוא לא מושלם במצב שלו. הוא לא מושלם בעצמו. He's not in peace with himself. He's missing. A person who doesn't run after his taivos, he takes the brit milah and he makes it orlas halev, he takes off, Hayei Tamim. He finds fulfillment, shleimus, peace within himself. Hayei tamim. Complete. A person is b'etzem complete. You know how he ruins himself? The minute he starts being seeking and searching for exterior ta'anugim and sheleimus. I need this. So it comes out that I'm not shalem till I get this. L'mashal, אדם קם בבוקר וחושב לעצמו, I need, I need, I need $500,000. I need it. You know what he thinks to himself in the back of his mind? אני לא שלם. I'm not complete without my $500,000. I don't have a house. I don't have a this. I don't have a job. I don't have that. I don't care. So kol zman he doesn't have his exterior—exterior, give me a good word in English—exterior... Ah! You know what I'm talking about. Not extra. Not a satisfaction. It's more than a satisfaction. Fulfillment. Exterior fulfillment. He's not in peace with himself. Yeah? Huh? I'm not in peace. I need, I need, I need, I need, and because I need, I'm not a chashuv person. I don't have a job. I'm not who I... I don't have a house. Someone once told me from Victor Miller, nice, nice... Notice. That there's no such thing anymore, especially in America, a person just sitting doing nothing. You can't. You can't. Why not? Why not just sit there? No, I'm saying by himself, lashevet, lidboded. Do you know that there was a whole avodas hamussar years ago called hisbodidus? They still do it. You should know, they do it, and most of them that do it, not necessarily healthy. They're good ones, they're tzaddikim. I'm not saying, I'm not. Not necessarily comes from healthy people, healthy thinking. We can't do hisbodidus today. Can't, can't do it. It's not boring. It's pshat is, adam lo yachol without exterior motivation to do anything. Without exterior motivation, we can't do anything. We need the exterior because a person's not shalem by himself. I heard this b'shem Rav Victor Miller, and I thought it was a brilliant thing. We need a television and a book and a... We need exterior fulfillment. Otherwise we can't, we can't, we can't. How can a person can't just sit, be himself?

We lack the shleimut because we're always chaser. We're convinced we need exterior to make us happy. Hafla vafela. You know where it comes from? The shoresh of is taiva, because we trained ourselves that it's only the exterior things that we achieve in this world that will bring us happiness. So we're always waiting for an exterior. How many people think to themselves they're nothing till they get a nice smile from a rebbi, or... I was thinking about, why do you need that the rebbi should smile? You need to know you're a chashuv person or a good person. Why do you care? It's so deep in who we are. Pelei pelei. No? No, you don't agree with me? No, it's really true. Hey, a guy, he didn't smile. So what? That's his problem. What do you want from him? Who cares? What does that do to you? You consider yourself depending on how much he's ma'arich you. That's external attention. It's interesting, a person cannot be shalem b'atzmo. It's an unbelievable thing. A person... Huh? I'm trying to explain to you, the idea of brit milah is to be meisa orlas halev. You don't have the taiv. I mean, of course we're not keeping ois bris kodesh. That's part of the problem. We don't shomeret habrit properly, and if you're not shomeret habrit, the brit doesn't have its effect. It's wearing off, the idea of the brit. But the yesod of brit is orlas halev, and therefore, once I take away orlas halev, I'm satisfied. I'm happy. I'm content. I don't need to be from exterior. To be given the motivation, I don't need all this. Fulfillment, it comes from within himself. I'm going to read you the Abarbanel. Baal yachshov adam. A person should not think, She'im yachtoch k'tzas mi'bsaroi shenolad imo, yechaser. You shouldn't think that if you cut off a piece of your body, you'll be missing. No. Baal mum. You're not a baal mum. Why? Ki ein hashleimus ha'anushis — listen carefully — ki ein hashleimus ha'anushis niknis ela ba'asiyas retzon Hashem. Ela ba'asiyas retzon Hashem. You hear? Ein hashleimus ha'anushis niknis ela... shleimus... ki... You're doing what Hashem wants. So this is explaining to you shleimus. What is shleimus? Shleimus is when a person takes away the taavah. He doesn't need to be a person depending on what his taavos are. Ratzon Hashem makes him happy, gives him shleimus. He gives him sefer. Gives him sefer. He gives him content with his matzav, who he is. Now let's go a little further. U'fi zeh, I want to explain the berit of Eretz Yisrael. It says in Rashi that you get Eretz Yisrael — no, I have it — that you get Eretz Yisrael. What do you get Eretz Yisrael for? Because of brit milah. Rashi, right? What's the connection? So he asks, what's the connection? You know what Eretz Yisroel is? Eretz Yisroel is beautiful, and it's wonderful, and it's—what's so beautiful and wonderful? You know, if you want to have beauty, physical beauty, the Alps are nice. Hawaii. Hawaii? Who said Hawaii? You said Hawaii. No, it's interesting. Why you have a chalom to go to Hawaii? I don't know what's in Hawaii. I'm just kidding. Hawaii, they say, is beautiful. Okay, you go to California, what's nice? New York City? Hawaii. I thought you were going to say Tashkent. Okay, now, whatever it is, it's beautiful, okay? Tell me, delicious food and that—it's all. So what is Eretz Yisroel? Eretz Yisroel is so beautiful. What's so beautiful? You know what the answer is? Rather, it's beautiful. It's beautiful if you're looking for other things than taavos olam hazeh. Taavos olam hazeh is not that beautiful. If you're looking for a good time, that's not what's so beautiful about Eretz Yisroel. You know, I once told this to you: Eretz, chitah, se'orah, gefen, te'enah, v'rimon. Chazal tell us that all these things, that Eretz Yisroel is so fantastic, it's all about shiurei Torah. Chitah and se'orah, and zayis, and shemen, it's the kazeisim and the kebeitzim, and rimon, it's all the shiurei Torah. What's the pshat? It's not—

The fruit. It's the teira that goes behind the fruit. That's the shevach of Peiros Eretz Yisroel. It's a ruchniyusdike. A guy who's looking for California, hey, for movie stars, he's not going to have enjoyment from Eretz Yisroel's beauty. It's not for him. So how does someone be moyrish Eretz Yisroel, huh? Yissurim. Milah. You know how Eretz Yisroel becomes—how does Eretz Yisroel become beautiful? How does Eretz Yisroel become Eretz Hatzvi? And you know what the answer is? Milah. That's the pshat, al yedei mitzvah zu. I'm going to show you something interesting. You ready? What does it mean, moyrish? Rashi uses the lashon of moyrish, yeah? You saw the lashon of Rashi, al yedei mitzvah zu. Rashi says it in a funny way. Does Rashi say you get Eretz Yisroel because of it, or does Rashi use the words—does Rashi—wait, wait, not here. Here. Does Rashi use the words here? Ve'etna brisi, l'hoirish lecha, u'bris eretz, l'hoirish lecha al yedei mitzvah zu. Just say, al bischus milah you get Eretz Yisroel. What's l'hoirish lecha al yedei mitzvah zu? And I want you to know something. I saw Rav Shteinman in his sefer makes the diyuk that in Maseches Kiddushin, the Gemara brings a whole bunch of mitzvos that b'schus this mitzvah we're nichnas l'Eretz Yisroel. So Gemara Kiddushin, daf lamed-zayin, the Gemara says in b'schus all these mitzvos... We come into Eretz Yisroel. He asks the question. It says nichnas, and in Rashi it says, moyrish, oto davar, says Rav Shteinman. It's probably the same thing. Don't make the— in other words, the diuk is not such a— same thing. Nichnas and yoresh is the same thing. I want to say this. I want to say there's one thing to be nichnas, that you got Eretz Yisroel in this zechus. But how you lohorisha lecha al yedei mitzvos? A guy comes into Eretz Yisroel, he doesn't have anything from it. What does he have from it? What's— lohorisha lecha, to make it that it should be a yerusha to you. How is someone koneh Eretz Yisroel? Al yedei mitzvos. That's the pshat. There's a zechus sometimes, nichnas, that you go to Eretz Yisroel. And then there's a time when it's what? Lohorisha lecha al yedei mitzvos, moyrish it to you. How does it become your kinyan? How does it become yours to give it to your children and that you should want to stay there? That's only al yedei mitzvos. Because if you don't have milah, you don't have— if you're looking for orlas halev, you're not going to last long over there. Who's going to last over there that long? I want to tell you further. What's the beginning of that Rashi? Rashi says that Naas Brisi, bris shel ahavah, bris of love. What's the bris of love? You know what it is? So I saw again Rav Shteinman in the sefer says, bris shel ahavah is the same thing as bris haaretz. Al ydei ha'aretz, natati lcha es ha'aretz. That's supposed to be read together, zot hadavar. That's how he learns. Ve'etna brisi. What is brisi? Bris shel ahavah. Ahavah, what? Ahavah what? Ha'aretz. U'bris ha'aretz. But it says u'bris ha'aretz, no? Mashma it's two things. Surprise, surprise, a gadol such a... באמת, הוא בעוד דייקן בפשט. Mashma two things, no? So what's the bris ahavah? I wanted to say the bris ahavah could be, v'ahavtacha tasim mimenu l'olamim. There's a special bris, Hashem will always love us, no matter what we do. No matter what. I love you anyway. That's the way it is. Unconditional love, and that's the bris milah. Ve'etna lecha bris ahavah. Unconditional. It's a special bris, v'ahavtacha tasim... Maybe, maybe. Oi dilma, maybe we could say, gevaldig a vort, there's a bris ahavah, and it is kashur to bris ha'aretz, because באמת Rashi brings it together, and Rav Steineman says it has to have some connection. He wanted to say it's all one thing. I'll tell you maybe what he means, or if he doesn't mean this, maybe it's what Rashi means al kol panim. You know, a person is happily married.

Yeah. In order for him to be happily married, yeah? Everybody's looking at me, who's happily married? I'm looking around, I'm saying, everybody's looking. What? What did you say? Is that the faces everybody's making? Oh, because the time is too out? Why is everybody making faces? If someone is happily married, do you think he's happily married because his wife buys him gifts? You think his wife—you're happy because his wife this or his wife—no. He's happily married because he connects to his wife, and therefore the time he spends with her and the fact that he's with her, that makes him happy, right? So what's making him happy exactly? The enjoyment, the completion, the ahava. It's the fact that you love this person, so spending the time with this person makes it enjoyable. Otherwise, I mean, what's enjoyable? What? You spend time—so, so what? Spend time with the guy next door, you would say, you wouldn't sit for two minutes. So your happiness is not dependent on what, on anything more than just the ahava. The brit ahava is what makes Eretz Yisrael so beautiful. That is brit haaretz. Yeah? I hold it's emet la'amito. I hold it's emet la'amito. You hear the Rashi? The brit ahava is—why is a Jew happy to be in Eretz Yisrael? What? What? What? What is he happy—what? Spend time with the Eibishter. You know, I want to show you something. Lech lecha, beginning of this week's parsha here, beginning of this week's parsha, Lech lecha me'artzecha... el haaretz... What is eretz asher ar'eka? Does anybody know what it means? So Rashi says, one day I'll show you and you'll know, and then... Where are we? What did you just say? One minute. Oh, one minute. He's going for one minute? So I want to show you a Siforno. Yeah, listen to the Siforno. You know what the Siforno says? Asher arecha, that the land itself is a land that you could see Hashem in. You hear? Eretz, asher arecha. I will show myself in that land to you. That's this land. Eretz Yisrael is eretz shero'im sham et Hashem. You hear? Yeah. You ever walked the streets of Manhattan? Did I ever walk the streets? That's unfortunate. But with the streets that I walked down in Eretz Yisrael, I saw Hashem. Um, I don't know. Who said? You were there? You were there? Yes, I did. Of course I saw. And the truth is, if there would be no Arba Amos, you'd see more. Now, what am I trying to bring out? I'm trying to bring out this yesod: Eretz Yisrael. What is Eretz Yisrael? Eretz Yisrael is eretz that is all about Hashem, seeing Hashem, being with Hashem, and that's the ahavah. Therefore, the milah, the milah, which takes away the orlas halev, then you can be in Eretz Yisrael, and then you can enjoy Eretz Yisrael, and then you can feel Eretz Yisrael, and then... That's pshat in the Brit. With this, I want to explain to you a gevaldige, gevaldige piece. You know, for you guys it's good stuff because, you know, it's called Ben Ish Chai, right? The sefer is called... how you guys live, the Ben Ish Chai, the Ben Ish Chai. Okay. Do you know what Ben Ish Chai means? Anybody know what it means? The son of a live man. You're the son of a dead man? I didn't know that. Do you know anybody who's the son of a dead man? Maybe it's— I mean, Christianity works that way, I guess. No? What? No, what does Ben Ish Chai mean? That he was once alive? You mean... what? Oh. So the Shem Mishmuel brings down the pasuk. It says like this: Tzadikim v'chayei... Tzadikim, true, yim chayim. They're called chayim. Like it says, U'Ben Yoven Yoyada, Ben Ish Chai. Pasuk. Based on this pasuk, that's where Ben Ish Chai comes from. He's the son of a live man. What does it mean? It means chai, tzaddik, he's alive. I want to tell you more. How does someone become a tzaddik, huh? There's a pasuk: V'amech kulam tzaddikim. Is that true? Oy vey. Everybody's a tzaddik.

So where are all the... You know, I'll tell you two stories. When my grandfather was oisek, my grandfather, zichrono livracha, was oisek in getting visas for the bnei hayeshiva that were not only bnei yeshiva, the Jews that survived the war. So he went to Dean Hutchison, was the Secretary of State. He went to Washington, my grandfather. And Dean Hutchison asked him the following question: How did they get visas? They claimed that they were rabbanim, right? They were rabbis. They got special visas to come as rabbis. So he asked, How could it be that Hitler killed off all the rabbis, all the regular people, and left all the rabbis? It's only rabbis are left. So they're rabbis. But it means there's no regular people, there's no laymen, nobody, only rabbis survived the war. My grandfather looked to Shamayim and he said, Ribbono Shel Olam, I have to answer him. It's dangerous. Dean Hutchison is Secretary of State. We have to give a good answer. Hashem, ma aneh lashon, give me what to answer. So you know what he answered him? He answered him the following: Our schooling system is the same as your schooling system here in America. Every child has to go through preschool and regular school, primary school and high school. Once he finishes high school, he gets his diploma, then he could become a shoemaker. But first he has to have a basic training, high school diploma, right? Not have to go to college, but high school diploma. We have the same thing, rabbinic school. Every person has to go through till the end of rabbinic school. So first you become a rabbi, then you can become a shoemaker. But first everybody's a rabbi. He liked it. He liked it. He says, a good, you know, it was a good... No, that's why everybody's a rabbi, because everybody chooses a rabbi. So maybe, amech kulam tzaddikim, דין hachshin's question, everybody's a tzaddik. He brings down that the pashut pshat from the Rishonim, he says that the pshat is shomrei habris. Since they have a bris, they're a tzaddik, because bris and tzaddik go together. So it comes out that a Jew is called a tzaddik because he has a bris. Amech kulam tzaddikim, and tzaddikim are kruyim chayim. What's the pshat? I want to explain, l'fi what I'm saying, what's chayim? What's chayim? You see chayim is to run after the taivos olam hazeh? You never have to. They commit suicide with that. That chayim leads to suicide. Yeah? They want to be like God. Chayim. Which is real chayim? Tzaddik. Amech kulam tzaddikim, that's ben ish chai. Yeah? That's ben ish chai, tzaddik. Milah. With this, I want to explain to you another nekudah, another nekudah. Tachas asher lo avadת את Hashem אלוקיך בשמחה ובטוב לבב. How can you have a taina on a guy? He's not happy. What do you want? The mefarshim ask this kasha. Shem Mishmuel speaks about it in a few places. Tachas, in Parshas Ki Savo, Devarim chof-ches, oh, tremendous tochachah because you weren't oved Hashem b'simchah. You know what the teretz is? If you'd be shomer habris, if you would keep the mitzvahs, there is no way you wouldn't be happy. It's a siman. Shema ta'oseh kein. Ashrecha b'olam hazeh. You're not happy, it's probably something wrong. You're not doing what you're doing. Try it. Learn and you'll see. Most people are very happy when they learn. And if you're not happy, you gotta be bodek, what's going on, what's going on. Because it's sasa nochi al imrasecha. If you have a bris milah and you mekayem the mitzvahs and you shomer, you know, it's interesting. The Steipler speaks barichus in many of his letters that people who are depressed, the first thing he would ask them: Shomer ha'bris? Are you being makpid on shmiras... ? And what's the eitzah? The eitzah is sit and learn. Lefi what we're saying, everything is meyushav. Sasa nochi al imrasecha. How is a person happy on Torah? It's because of the milah. If you're not shomer the milah, and you don't have the hachtachah of sasa nochi al imrasecha, you get depressed, depressed, depressed. I told you all a few weeks ago a story from Reb Shmuel Birnbaum, cancer, sick. The doctor started asking me if he has tzafes from depression.

He wants to know what the medication is. He didn't know what it was. Yeah, he turns to his daughter and he says to him, What's his depression? What is it? So the daughter started explaining to him, depression, whatever. She goes, Ah, this, this is not for me. This is לא בשבילי. It's not for me. You know why? שוֹשַנַּת נוֹעִי עֲלֵי בָסֶךָ. Learning Torah, yomam valayla. These people don't get depressed. He once told me, Reb Shmuel, that the way they survive Shanghai, Shanghai, people think they survived Shanghai. There was nothing there. People were dying from hunger in Shanghai. In Shanghai, how did they survive? He said, Only on Torah. Only on Torah. שוֹשַנַּת נוֹעִי עֲלֵי בָסֶךָ. So if you kayem shmiras habris, you mekayem orlas halev, you're choteich the orlas halev, you don't run after the taavos, memeila you'll be happy if you learn. That's what it says. And if it's אשר לא עבדת את ה' אלוקיך בשמחה ובטוב לבב, so then we have to worry what's going on beyond that. That's where the Torah chacham comes from. It's not, lefi aniyus daati. This is the Torah I want to say. With this, I want to end off with the following beautiful vort, okay? And then we'll give a little mussar, and then we'll send you off for another week. I did my part this week. Beautiful, such a beautiful shiur. Could you give me the Kisvei Avnei Mori, the one on Shas? The Rama in Shulchan Aruch brings down that there's a minhag by a bris milah that you should have a seudah with a minyan, with ten people. The Rama. And the question is, why do you need ten people? We just had this, right? Remember the bris milah, we try to get you ten people. What's wrong with just no ten people? So where does the ending of the seudah by the bris come from? So my grandfather... Hamechaber reish siman hei, okay? Heicha d'efshar, adin l'milah b'asarah, that the milah, the Mechaber, the Rambam Beis Yosef says that the milah has to be b'asarah. The Ramo in se'if yud-beis says, lakachas minyan lseudas milah, that even the seudah should have ten people, not only the bris should have ten people, but the Ramo is in reish samech hei that even the seudah. Why? So he brings from the hagahos minhagim, minhagim Ari Tichna, mishum shatinok yatza mibeis haasurim, the child is considered as if he went out of a jail, vetzarich lehodos bifnei asarah. So therefore he has to say hodaah in front of ten people. Yeah? Goymel, it's like a goymel. V'lachein omer, and that's why we say by the thing, Hodu laShem ki tov. Why do we say Hodu laShem ki tov? Birchas hodaah for the child. Yeah, moyredig, moyredig. Birchas hodaah for the child, because he has to bench hodaah because he was yatza mibeis haasurim. He went out of a jail, his mother's stomach. I know children that say, Ha, I first went into jail now. They tie their parents... Okay. See, my grandfather asks, what kind of a beis haasurim is to be in the mother's stomach? Eitoma, the Gemara says, Ki tov yarchi leida. The Gemara says in Niddah daf lamed that ein lecha yom shemasharer b'taanugot, it's the best days of a guy's life. Could you imagine a guy saying, My best days of my life is my mother's stomach? The Gemara says that. Yeah, Torah, yeah, but even without that, you're getting free food, there's no daagos, he doesn't have to worry about his brothers beating him up, right? People would love, they wish that. Some people wish they could still be in their mother's stomach. For some people, they should have factored stay there. Now, al kol panim, you hear? Al kol panim, yeah, okay, say al kol panim. So how can you come and say, Yatzmi beis asurim? Listen to it like grandfather answers. Ah, such good stuff. He says, Azad is very geshmak in the mother's stomach. But what kind of a life is that? What, eating and drinking and—what are you talking about? There's no bechirah. There's no mitzvahs. No mitzvahs. What kind of a chayim is that? Ach pashut, emes kein, it's true that for the gashmiyus there's no better time than the mother's stomach. He has everything, ach daka, but l'maaseh, ki sechel habechirah, u'viladei ein erech klal lachayim. There's no point of life. What's the point of life? What, stam to eat and drink? I told you over that Rabbi Yisrael Salanter used to say, I wasn't born for eating tsimmes. Know what tsimmes is? Tsimmes is the carrots with the sugar, you know, with the Ashkenazim eat, okay? So I guess if Rabbi Yisrael—

I was a buchai, you would say this: I wasn't born to eat oshpalov. Okay. It would be the same, same way, the same idea, okay? Because if I say tzimmes, you won't remember it. Like this, you remember that. But when you go in front of Ashkenaz, don't say that. It looks like you're crazy. Ashkenaz will say, I wasn't born to eat oshpalov. What are you, oshpalov? He wouldn't know what you're talking about. So you say tzimmes, but when you go home, you could say oshpalov, okay? I translate, linear translation to Sefard. Okay? Point B, point B: you weren't born to enjoy your mother's stomach, the food that comes from your mother. There's a lot. So I want to be mosif. Wait a minute. So then the hiddush should be not by the bris milah. The hiddush should be before. It should be by the leid. I don't see it. Not answered. And the teretz is, ... vadai, vadai, vadai, you're born, you have bechirah. But what's the chayim? By the bris milah, we're talking about the chayim of a Jew, tzaddikim, amechum, tzaddikim, real life. You're meiser orlas halev, then you live. That's called life. Not having is having. Harotzeh lachayos, the Mishnah says, if you want to live, yamis atzmo. Kill yourself. Huh? Sounds like the thought of a goy. It doesn't make sense. You're contradicting yourself. You want to live, kill yourself. So the truth is, they should take a try. It might work for them. Or maybe harotzeh lachayos, if you want others to live, yamis atzmo, you should kill yourself. Maybe by the Muslims it would work that way. For others to live, you have to get—be perished. But al kol panim, al kol panim, getting back to what we're saying, harotzeh lachayos, yamis atzmo. Why, Reuven? Because true life is not by running after Olam Hazeh. No, oh no, no, no. That's not what it is. What does it come from? Torah and mitzvahs, shmiras haTorah v'hamitzvos. You want to live? Yomus. The bris milah is a yomus. He's cutting a piece of himself away. He cuts a piece of himself away. He's cutting his... away. It's a lesson in a person's life. V'nimaltem b'tnukim. Oh, yimaltem b'tnukim. Now you're alive. Now you're yotzei mi'beis ha'asurim. You know, the biggest beis ha'asurim is the taivos. You're stuck in the beis ha'asurim of your own mind, of your own yetzer hara. You know who the warden—who's the biggest warden in the world? You know who the warden is? Shomer haBeis HaAsurim. Who's the biggest shomer beis ha'asurim? You know who it is? Yetzer hara. Your yetzer hara is the biggest warden in the world. It says it right over here in my mind, right here. Look, look here. ... You don't know that? The person who doesn't let anybody do anything is the yetzer hara. Man is—his yetzer hara is his worst enemy. Yeah, worst enemy. This is the pshat: life. You know when life starts? ... starts by the bris milah. So the birchas hoda'ah starts by the bris milah. That's why I want to add to the beautiful words of my grandfather, beautiful, beautiful deher, that's yotzei mi'beis ha'asurim. How did he leave the jail, the mother's stomach? So he should—because there's no point of life by eating and drinking; it's to be bechirah. But that started before the eight days, so b'seida hodah laShem ki tov. No, no, it starts with the bris. Real life starts with the bris. Not complete. That's what I'm saying, you're still having raw, your raw taivos. You're complete when? By the bris milah. Let's go back now to answer the two separate questions. I asked you, what's the pshat in the Rambam, Shakai, you hear? What is Shakai? Shakai is, she'eino tzarich b'metzius mah she'nimtza. He doesn't need what's around. V'loy b'kiyum metziuso l'zulaso. He doesn't have to come onto external things to exist. Aval metziusoy taspik, enough fulfillment for itself. Tell me, isn't that everything I said about a Yid? Huh? Isn't that mamish? It's unbelievable. These four words in the Rambam, everything I said today for the past two hours. So everything, it's exactly what I said for the past two hours. Eliezer, isn't that exactly what I said for the past two hours here? Let's read it again. K'loimar, says the Rambam, b'sheim the Rambam, Moreh Nevuchim, she'eino tzarich b'metzius mah she'nimtza, v'loy b'kiyum metziuso. He doesn't need—he doesn't need anything around him to exist. He doesn't—

Not need for his kiyum is lazulasoi, for external. He doesn't. Avlam metziusai, taskik b'atzmo. Rabbeinu Bechaye is teaching us, Shakai is Am Yisrael. Am Yisrael can contain itself because it's ruchni. Am Yisrael is chelek Eloka mima'al. Every Jew is a chelek Eloka. There's Shakai in every Jew, that is self-contained on the ruchniyus itself. I end with a beautiful story. If you look at the hakdamah of the Beis Aharon, my great-grandfather, he wrote a letter to my grandfather in the concentration camps, and the letter is printed. He writes that, I'm sure you're worried about my physical matzav, the condition. He says, Don't worry. I didn't miss one hanhagah tovah that I did all my life, learning and davening, it's all the same. Ay, you'll ask, How? How? Mi-besari echezeh. From my flesh I see, ki b'shaa shenismaet ha-gashmiyus, misgaberes ha-ruchniyus. V'ha'adam yachol lachyot ha-ruchniyus levad. A person needs no external. He can live internally on ruchniyus alone. Nu? Nu? Chelek Eloka mima'al. A Jew has this koach, sheyesh lo Elokus. He has Elokus in him. That what? That he's able to self-contain, to be mesupak, sippuk ha-nefesh, fulfilled, happy with himself. But what? The taavos. I want, I want, I want. The minute you start wanting, see, you're not who you want. You don't want. Yetzer hara wants. Now I understand, Rabosai. Kol mitzvah shekiblu alav b'simcha. I asked you, why would they mekabel milah b'simcha? The teretz is because that is simcha. Vad, that's the greatest simcha. The greatest simcha. You know what the greatest simcha is? The greatest simcha is self-containment of who you are, that you're a Yehudi. It's the greatest simcha. Simcha. Or to destroy, Haroitz lacher yisyamitz atzmo. Chaim. Bris milah is about life. It's about living. It's about understanding what life is all about. Simchas hachaim comes by the bris milah. Happiness. I took away orlas halev. I'm not running after taivos. Torah, Torah is a day and day. Walk into a beis medrash and learn. It's gevaldik. Who needs? You don't have to search it. ... It's free. Free. Free. Take it. Sippuk hachaim, oisher hachaim. This is milah, and this is sason. Zu milah. This is what it says also, laYehudim haysa orah, simcha v'sason vikar. Okay? LaYehudim haysa orah. What is orah? Torah. Sason? And yikar. What is these three things? Why these three things? No? Why these three things? Ot. Yeah. The simcha, laYehudim haysa orah, the simcha is through Torah, orah, the light, the happiness. Zos haydei, the kesher with the Ribono Shel Olam. Kesher of the Ribono Shel Olam. Hu d'maisa, orah, simcha, v'sasson v'yikar. All the ot, which means happy, true happiness. Yeah, they were saved from Haman, yeah, yeah, yeah, but what was really happiness? You know what the real happiness was, Ruvein? Torah was teaching us: orah, v'simcha, v'sasson v'yikar. Torah, the milah, tefillin, right? Shteit a chap pasuk. Tefillin, milah. Yeah? Because this is the true, true, true simcha. A person is doing what he really has to, what he needs to do. So remember, you want simcha? Simcha is do what you have to do. When you have to do it, the way you have to do it, you'll have simcha. That's the seif, that's the inyan of bris milah. That's takke bizoicher. Vayei tamim. Some Rishonim say it's a tzivui: you should be tamim. So let's continue being fulfilled, fulfilled, fulfillment in the Torah and mitzvos.