Tisha B'Av 2007

Transcript

Tisha B'Av, we read Eicha. Eicha is the name of the Megillah. What does the word Eicha mean? What does the word Eicha mean? If the Megillah takes on the name Eicha, so the yesod of the Megillah is Eicha. What does Eicha mean? When we understand what Eicha means, we'll be able to properly understand what the gisha, how one is supposed to approach Tisha B'Av. What is the avodah? What is supposed to be our avodah, our work, our job on Tisha B'Av? What are we supposed to walk away from, walk away with on Tisha B'Av? So, b'mes in Seder HaDoros, it's brought down that Eicha actually is Yirmiyah's name. Ani Yirmiyah Kohen haAnasos. That's how Seder HaDoros brings it down. The Midrashim, Chazal, that Yirmiyah was born for kinah. Yirmiyah was born to be the navi of churban, the navi of kinah, to lament the Beis HaMikdash, the churban habayis and the churban of Yerushalayim. So it's interesting that Eicha takes on the name of Yirmiyah, Ani Yirmiyah Kohen haAnasos. I never really understood this, because b'emes we find in Chazal that actually Yeshaya also said eicha, Eicha haysa l'zonah, kirya ne'emanah. We also see that Moshe Rabbeinu said eicha esa levadi, tochachem, masa'achem v'rivchem. The Midrashim in Eicha and in Devarim write that it's a yalkut in Devarim, it's a Medrash Pesikta in Eicha, that Moshe said eicha in a certain tekufah. We spoke about this last week. B'shalvaso, when Klal Yisrael was in its peak, Yeshaya says it. B'pachzusa, when Klal Yisrael is in a state of unsettled, they were unsettled at the time, and Yirmiyah said it, b'navlusa. So l'choira the word eicha is not unique, unique to Yirmiyah. But af al pi kein, af al pi kein, Yirmiyah—say that doiros tells us that Yirmiyah was the eicha. He was the navi of eicha, and he takes on his name. Ani Yirmiyah kohen hu ha'nasos. That's who Yirmiyah was. I'm going to show you now that actually HaKadosh Baruch Hu was the first one to say eicha, that eicha is not originated by Yeshaya. Actually, Moshe Rabbeinu said it before him, like we're speaking. I'm going to show you that actually HaKadosh Baruch Hu said it prior to Moshe, to Yeshaya, and to Yirmiyah. There's a Medrash Pesikta in Eicha as well. The Medrash says on the word eicha— Says the Medrash, Rabavo pasach l'megillas Eicha. There's a pasuk in Hoshea: V'heimah k'Adam avru bris. They were like Adam, like a person that went and transgressed, avar al habris. What's v'heimah k'Adam? Just say v'heimah avru bris. Why k'Adam, like a person who was over, who transgressed, Klal Yisroel transgressed the bris, so don't say k'Adam. Says the Chazal, mahu k'Adam? What do you mean k'Adam? What does the pasuk in Hoshea mean? Says the Chazal, k'Adam harishon. Just like Adam Harishon, Klal Yisroel was like Adam Harishon. Amar HaKadosh Baruch Hu, said HaKadosh Baruch Hu, Adam Harishon, nichnasti v'Gan Eden, I put him into Gan Eden, v'tzivisiv, and I commanded him to keep the mitzvahs, v'avar al tzivuyi, v'gerashti v'shilachtiv, v'koinanti alav eicha, and I said on him eicha. HaKadosh Baruch Hu was the first one to say eicha. Where did HaKadosh Baruch Hu say eicha? Where is this? Actually, it's a pasuk in the Torah.

Vayomer lo, ayeka. Where are you? Ayeka. Echo ksiv. So it's written echo. Even though it's ayeka, it's read ayeka, but it's written echo. Av banav, hichnastiv l'Eretz Yisrael, so too his children. I brought them into Eretz Yisrael. I brought them to Canaan, so to speak, Yerushalayim, lifnei Hashem. V'tzivisiv, I told them to keep the mitzvahs. Var al tzivui, v'girashtiv, shene'emar, mibeis egershenu. And on this, keinanti aleihem. Afterwards I said, echo. Ayeka, echo. What does ayeka have to do with echo? Kri ksiv. It's a play on the words. What's meinin Chazal? What do the Chazal mean? Echo is not ayeka. But because ksiv, because the wording, I think there's a taich over here. I think there's a moydike insight into this Chazal. The Ribono Shel Olam comes to Adam after he sins and he tells him, Ayeka. The Ribono Shel Olam didn't know where he was? The Ribono Shel Olam doesn't know where he is? So the pashut pshat is, you know, there's in Hebrew a word called machbu'im, hide and seek. Adam went to hide. So the Ribono Shel Olam is playing with him. Okay, where are you? I'll search you. Ayeka, where are you? The Ribono Shel Olam is, so to speak, playing with him. Vas nar, you don't know? I know where you are. Okay, you're hiding, I'll go look for you. Where are you? Where are you? Where are you? That could be the pashut pshat. But could be there's a deeper pshat. Ayeka doesn't mean physically where are you. Ayeka is, where are you holding? What happened to you? Where are you? Efo atah. Ma kara lecha? I put you in a Gan Eden. I made you yetzir kapav. I put you on such a high level. Where are you? What happened to you? Ayeka. Chazal are teaching us eicha is the same thing. Eicha is, Efo anachnu. Where are we? What was? Ma haya lanu, shehayinu b'Eretz Yisrael, b'veis Kodesh HaKadoshim. Efo anachnu? Ayeka. Where are you, says Yirmiyah. Look what happened to you. The same way the Ribbono Shel Olam tells Adam, Ayeka. This is the yesod of the Megillas Eicha: to know Ayeka, to understand kama nafalnu, how much we fell. Efo anachnu uchazim, where are we holding compared to what we had? Look what we had, and look what we have. Rabosai, this is the avodah of Tisha B'Av, to understand this. And I'll explain to you what I mean. In English, there's a word called complacency. Complacency. What does that mean? It means as follows: a person learns to make the best of the matzav. Human nature is to learn to feel comfortable and make peace with the matzav to the extent he begins to like it. Complacency. We think, oh, take a look. We're learning, and we're davening, and there's yeshivas, and Brisk, and Lakewood, and we're running, and we're coming, and we're harving, and we're b'chashmal, and we're learning halacha, and it's wonderful, and poskim, and halacha, and davening, and Yerushamayim, and kissing Sefer Torahs, and schoolers, and anything you can think of, right? Beautiful, yeah. I heard once a nusach from somebody that, Me'olam lo haya kol kach harbeh bnei Torah. Never such an influx of bnei Torah. And then I heard from the Baalei Teshuva movement saying the same thing: Me'olam lo haya kazeh tnuah shel chozrim b'teshuvah. Unbelievable what's going on. You're right, but there's kamus and there's eichus, which means, of course, the numbers are a lot, but the question is the quality, the quality. It's not to say it's a yeker, rabosai. It's far from what was, far from what was. The ruchnius, the spiritual level of Klal Yisroel was so great, to the extent that we don't even realize how much we've fallen.

Antishabav is, where are you holding? So, choyrah Hashem, if you start thinking of what it was, and we start to think what we're happy with, could you imagine a person, he lost all his home, yeah? He lost all his money. He goes to the bawery, starts drinking and drinking, and he's laughing. So another guy looks and says, Take a look, he's so happy. Wow, it's tremendous, no? Yeah, you know why he's happy? Because he doesn't chap his matzav. He completely blocked out mehoyo loi, what he had. So of course he's happy. Of course we're happy. It's great. It's beautiful. You know what's beautiful? Because we don't know what we lost. We don't have a clear picture of what it was. I'm going to repeat one nekudah that I said last week, because I hold it's beautiful. Chazon Yeshayahu ben Amotz asher chazah al Yehudah v'Yerushalayim, Parshas Chazon, we read the haftorah. Rashi says that this is the strongest lashon of mussar, Chazon Yeshayahu. Rashi questions why chazon. Sometimes we have chazon. The previous haftorah was Divrei Yirmiyah, the one before, Shimu shamayim, shimu dvar Hashem, right? Listen. Chazon is the strongest language of tochachos, says Rashi. Why is it that way? Chazon, I saw a picture. Every navi sees a picture. So I said the pshat is as follows. Asher chozal Yehuda v'Yerushalayim. What is asher choz? What's the repetition? It's the Bnei Yissaschar, heilige Bnei Yissaschar. See them, Yissaschar. It's with kashya. Why does it say asher choza? Repetition. He asks this kashya, he gives a teretz. I want to say a pashut answer. Asher choza, he painted a picture al Yehuda v'Yerushalayim, painted a picture of what it's supposed to look like. Give a person an insight. This is what Yerushalayim is supposed to look like, and this is what Yerushalayim unfortunately looked like bizman hachurban. This is the greatest tochachah. The greatest eichah, the greatest lament, is when you see what could have been. To have a view, a picture of what it's supposed to look like to what it taka looks like. Eichah, eifah anachnu. Where are we holding? That is Megillas Eichah, רבותי. We're going to discuss what it looked like. One detail. I can't give you an entire picture of every prat, every detail of the ruchniyus that once was, because then I would have to go through pasuk by pasuk, because every pasuk is addressing this, what was and what we don't have anymore. I'm going to pick out one nekudah, one point, and we're going to elaborate on this point: what was and what isn't, and what we think it unfortunately is good enough for us. Yeah, we're happy with what it is. We don't realize, kama chaser lanu, kama, kama haya lanu v'ein lanu. May I ask somebody for some water or something? Water, just a little water. I have to drink. If it's okay, I also need a medrash רבה on Eichah. What kind of water is this? If you look at the end of Eichah, there's an interesting pasuk. Interesting pasuk. I'm going to show you a little bit of mah haya, what was, and what isn't anymore, but we think is. We think, yeah, it's good, it's gevaldik, it's tremendous. Let me read you a pasuk. Perek hei, pasuk yud-daled. Zekeinim mi-sha'ar shavasu. The elders from the sha'arim, the gateways, the Sanhedrin used to sit b'sha'arim.

He came to Elisa, shaarecha, to the gateways, because the Sanhedrin was there. So, zkeinim... Mishar shavasu. Bachurim, the young ones, the bachurim, min ginasam, from their song. What does he mean? What is he referring to? So, pasuk you can come and say it's churban, that what? That the elders, the Sanhedrin weren't there anymore, and the bachurim stopped singing. Is there a connection between zkeinim, mishar shavasu, and bachurim, min ginasam? Maybe not. Maybe just the pasuk is giving us a description of churban. The zkeinim aren't where they're supposed to be, and the bachurim are not singing anymore. Let me show you how the Medrash ties the two together, okay? And the Medrash says that actually it's connected: zkeinim mishar shavasu, and therefore bachurim min ginasam. Says the Medrash, Amar Rav Aba bar Biyavya, mizimreihen shavsu. Zkeinim mishar shavsu, bachurim min ginasam. What? Bachurim min ginasam. Amar Rav Aba bar Biyavya, mizimrehem shavsu. That the word shavsu that says by mishar shavsu, zkeinim mishar shavsu, that word is actually going also on bachurim min ginasam. So actually, the beginning Shavsu, the beginning of the pasuk, is somewhat connected, because at least the word Shavsu that says in the beginning of the pasuk is supposed to be already for the end of the pasuk too. Shayches? Says the Eitz Yosef, yeah, there's a shayches. What's the shayches? Interesting, we don't have the Eitz Yosef here, but all right, I'll tell it to you בעל פה. You have the other one? Get the other one. Says the Eitz Yosef a chiddush. S'kein, the mishar Shavsu. So mimeila, they weren't where? In the she'arim. So now they're in the streets. Now they're among the people. So the bachurim stopped singing because they were afraid of the skeinim that was giving them mussar the whole time. Eitz Yosef, a peirush on... came Eitz Yosef, the peirush Eitz Yosef, you hear? I looked at it. It's a chiddush nifla, yeah? Okay. Says the Eitz Yosef, come here, look at the lashon, פלא, yeah? U'peirush hakasuv, how do you explain the pasuk that it's connected? Like I explained, pashut you learn it's not connected, it's two different things. Skeinim weren't where they're supposed to be. They weren't in the Sanhedrin, and the bachurim stopped singing. It was a bad situation, sad situation. Says the Eitz Yosef, it's connected. U'peirush hakasuv, it's connected. How is it connected? Bishvisas hashkeinim mishar bezdin Shavsu, gam kein habachurim. Because the skeinim weren't there. That's why the bachrim stopped singing. Why? Mipachad musram, because they were afraid of the zekeinim. They made them crazy. They gave them tochachah, k'seder. What are you looking? He says it. You have it in the bottom of the Medrash, Reb Yosef says this. Shehayu hazekeinim meichichin osam, u'moichin b'yadam. They used to give them, you know, they used to make them shtarke mussar. They made them bitter. Because of all the mussar, they became bitter, so they stopped singing. Very interesting. Chidush nifla. Let me show you how the Matnas Kehunah, which is the other peirush, learns the pshat in this Medrash, okay? The next pasuk in Eichah, the next pasuk in Eichah, okay? Shavas mesos libeinu. There was a rest to the happiness of our hearts. Nehpach l'evel mecholeenu. Our simchas turned into aveilus. What is that referring to? Now, is this pasuk connected to the previous pasuk? Chas v'shalom, two different things. So the Medrash on this says,

B'chizda, b'rishainik shehayu eimas Sanhedrin al Yisrael. When the Sanhedrin had their fear over Klal Yisrael, the people were scared of the Sanhedrin, lo hayu omrim divrei nevalah b'shir. They didn't have all these songs, all this nivul peh. Afterwards, after the Sanhedrin, mishebatlah Sanhedrin, when they became batel, they said divrei nevalah b'shir. Then the Gemara, then the Medrash says, Mishebatlah Sanhedrin, batel ha'shir. When the Sanhedrin became batel, then song became batel, mi'beis hamishteyos, from the parties, shene'emar, b'shir lo yishtu yayin, which we know, halachah is the mekor that you're not allowed to have music b'zman hazeh. That's where it comes from, b'shir lo yishtu yayin. So whenever there's a party and I'll have music, live music, not live music, this is the tumah. I don't want to go into the halachic aspect of this halachah. All right. Is this connected to Bochrim Meginosam? Sounds the same, right? If you learn that, Skeinim mi'shaar shavsu, Bochrim Meginosam, so the next Medrash that says that mishebatlah Sanhedrin, that what happened? Mishebatlah Sanhedrin, batel shir mi'beis hamishteyos. Sounds familiar, right? Sounds connected. Matnas Kehunah connects it. He says, kedemevuar in the next piece of Medrash, actually it's one big pasuk, that the Sanhedrin became batel, me'eilah Bochrim Meginosam, and me'eilah, nebach, le'evel macholeinu, therefore there's no singing because batlah Sanhedrin. You know what he... Matnas Kehunah. I have two ha'aros. Two questions. Tell me, only bachrim sing at the beis mishteh? Maybe that's the mekor where every bachur wants to show off, he gets up at the chasan, he sings. Maybe that's where it comes from. Bachrim in ginasam is beis hamishteh. But only bachrim sing? What does it mean, bachrim? Only young people enjoy music at a wedding? I mean, it's an interesting matzav. How did you learn all this? Second shaila: l'choira it has to do with churban habayis. Why is it dafka mishebatlu Sanhedrin? What does Sanhedrin have to do with it? I mean, if you look at the Shulchan Aruch, Mishecharav habayis, hizkinu, they were mesaken that you're not allowed to have klei shir, b'shir lo yishtu yayin, and the whole sugya. Why is it talui? Why did they connect it to the mishebatlu Sanhedrin? Now the emes is, Chazal tell us that forty years before the churban already, the churban began because batlu Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin moved away from the lishkas hagazis, the Gemara in Sanhedrin. So maybe that's what it means. Forty years before the churban. Forty years before already, the Sanhedrin already left. Already left the lishkas hagazis. So maybe the beginning of the churban is symbolized, mishebatlu Sanhedrin. But it's not taka תלוי in the Sanhedrin; it just means churban. Interesting. I mean, the pasuk stresses, ... right? Batlu Sanhedrin. I mean, there's a certain hadgasha. If you just meant churban, okay, so churban. Shkoyach. I want to say a pshat. You hear my horror? No? Yeh, shein ha'ores. Pashut pshat. There's something that the pasuk is teaching us, that the Sanhedrin became batel and the bachrim in Ginosar, and that's it. The bachrim stopped singing. Only bachrim sing. And you mean the beis hamishteh? You mean the next halachos? What does that have to do with bitul Sanhedrin? It has to do with churban habayis. Unless it means from then started the churban, which could be the symbolically the churban started when the Sanhedrin left. Aniyas da'ati, there's more over here. Aniyas da'ati, there's more over here. I'm going to show you that limud haTorah is shir. It's song. And I know everybody's thinking, wait a minute, wait a minute, Dovid HaMelech didn't say, Zmiros hayu li chukecha, and he got punished for it. I'd like to discuss this. And then we'll try to understand mishebatlu Sanhedrin, shavsu...

I want to discuss this, all right? Let me begin by teaching you a Gemara in Ervin, Yud Ches amud beis. Now pay close attention. The Gemara says like this: אמר רבי ירמיה בן אלעזר, כל בית שנשמעין בו דברי תורה בלילה, שוב אינו נחרב. You want to guarantee your house from fire? All the fire protection that you could get is nothing compared to this. Learn Torah. Learn Torah. Nishmayin—if it's heard, the voice of Torah in your home at night, instead of other narishkeiten, instead of fighting with your wife, that's what's nishmayin, or instead of, chas v'shalom, a tuma box, whatever, whatever, right? If it would be divrei Torah nishmayin, then you guarantee your home, okay? Says the Gemara, how do we know this? Listen to the pasuk: שנאמר, 'ולא אמר איה אלוה עושי, נותן זמירות בלילה.' Zmiros? So divrei Torah nishmayin is song. Zmiros, beautiful zmiros. Oisi, Elokai, oisi, noisein. If you give, what? Zmiros balayla. This is referring to divrei Torah nishma'in babayis. So the Torah is what? Zmiros. Let me show you another Gemara. Gemara Chagigah. You familiar with Gemara Chagigah? Chagigah yud-beis amud beis. Chagigah yud-beis amud beis. Amar Reish Lakish: kol ha'osek baTorah balayla... Again, limud haTorah at night, HaKadosh Baruch Hu moshech alav chut shel chesed bayom. HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives him chesed, a certain favorable chut, that the people should look at him and see, beautiful, oh, they like him. What? If you learn Torah at night, shene'emar, like it says, Yomam yetzaveh Hashem chasdo, uvalayla, what's the next word? Shiro imi. Again, song. Take a look. The Gemara calls Torah zimrah. The Gemara calls shirah, song. Going to tell Yova, helical, helical Rashba. All right, the Mishnah in Avos says, shlosha she'achlu al shulchan echad. It's in perek gimmel, Mishnah daled. Shlosha she'achlu, give me the... my eyes are reading inside. Shlosha she'achlu al shulchan echad, v'ein beineihem divrei Torah, ki'ilu achlu mizivchei meisim. Bot? Shloishes achlu, vyesh beineihem divrei Torah. Oh, that's already... Ki'ilu achlu mishulchano shel Makom, shene'emar, Vayedaber eilai — a pasuk in Yechezkel — Vayedaber eilai. The nevuah was that he spoke to me and he told me, Zeh ha-shulchan asher lifnei Hashem. I think Sefardim use this when they eat by the table: Zeh ha-shulchan asher lifnei Hashem. Okay, so you can identify with this. There's a gevaldige Chashbam on this Mishnah. The Rashbam says, Wait a minute, I don't understand something. If you take a look, the beginning of the pasuk that Yechezkel is talking about, he's actually talking about the mizbeach, not the shulchan. If you look at the Rav, he even says that the diyuk of the Mishnayos is actually from the mizbeach. Yesh omrim, says the Rav, mi'rosho shel mikra hu yotzei, that the limud, because it's talking about mizivchei meisim, zevach is what? Is the shulchan or the mizbeach? It says, V'hamizbeach eitz shalosh amos. Yeah? Keneged Torah, Nevi'im, Kesuvim, amos. Yesh eim la-mikra, shalosh; Torah, Nevi'im, Kesuvim. Mikra, Mishnah, Talmud — that's shalosh amos. So actually...

The theme of learning Torah is not from Zeh HaShulchan, Asher Lifnei Hashem, but actually it's from the beginning of the pasuk, that the mizbeach was Shalosh Amos. Fragt the Rashbam a kasha: Pasach ha-kasuv b'mizbeach, v'siyem b'shulchan. I don't see the pasuk says the Rashbam. You're talking about the mizbeach or you're talking about the shulchan? I quote you the Rashbam: Pasach ha-kasuv b'mizbeach v'siyem b'shulchan, lomar, to teach me, b'zman sheBeis HaMikdash kayam, adam miskaper al yedei ha-korbanos, v'shir haLeviim. The song of the Leviim also was needed in the kaparah. So now how is shulchano shel adam miskaper? Shulchano shel adam miskaper b'makom korban ma'achil aniyim. So he makes his shulchan ma'achil aniyim, so he's miskaper like korban. What about the shir haLeviim? I thought it says that that was also part of the kaparah. Uv'makom hashir medaber divrei Torah. The shiras haLeviim is substituted with the divrei Torah. Kol shulchan shelo achlu bo ein bein divrei Torah, it zivchei meisim, because you don't have the shiras haLeviim to be mechaper. Oh, the Torah's shiras haLeviim, Rashbam, gevaldik. You listen to Rashbam, it's gevaldik. You know, the Litvisher guy who reads this, it's beautiful. He doesn't have to sing any zemiros. Everybody knows that the shulchan of the Shabbos is doimeh to the Beis HaMikdash. The twelve loaves of bread, mishnah, you look at the shlah, the Zohar, right? And then there's the menorah, and then the asarah lidroimah, menorah to taftoh. You read the whole—you guys read, you guys read? Yeah, yeah. Mivtzo, they rifta. It's all about how the shulchan of Shabbos—I even told you once that there's a, my real, that the table of Shabbos shouldn't be a three-footed table. You need four legs, because it has to be like what? Doimeh to the shulchan in the Beis HaMikdash. My real, it's brought down halacha. So someone's gonna say, Where is the shiras haLeviim? You would say what? The zemiros. Chashbam says it's in Divrei Torah. The Litvisher Chashbam—they say over that the Litvisher, they say a raya that they don't have to sing zemiros. Why? Zemiros yihyu meiru, v'sishbachos yemeiru. All you have to do is say it. You know, singing zemiros—The entire—you have to say, zemiros. I know the Chabad very well. I want you to know that don't laugh at it, because there's something interesting. If people don't know halacha, and therefore they don't chap that even the different minhagim of Klal Yisrael is based on halacha. The halacha is that you're not allowed to have shiur b'zman hazeh. A lot of people don't know this. They think in three weeks and in nine days, there's no such halacha of three weeks and nine days, no music. There's no such thing. It's not brought down anywhere. What? What do you mean, in the three weeks, music? It's a halacha. It's a Shulchan Aruch. There's no such Shulchan Aruch. It's not true. It doesn't say it anywhere. It's all year round. It's this halacha of b'shir lo yishtu yayin, that when you're having a party, you're not allowed to sing. The Rama comes along and says, b'makom d'var mitzvah, if it's in a place where it's a seudas mitzvah, mimeila you're allowed to have music. Mimeila, many poskim say, good, a chasunah. But who says a bar mitzvah? Heista seudas mitzvah? Because who says it's that night? If it's that night, the night of the bar mitzvah becomes a seudas mitzvah. What happens if you make a Sunday affair? You know, today the oilam became frum, so they make it on the day of the bar mitzvah. When I was growing up, whoever made a bar mitzvah on Sunday was convenient for the people. Klal not a seudas mitzvah. And you weren't allowed to—Moshe held, you know, Rav Moshe, zecher tzaddik livrachah, held, you're not allowed to have a bar mitzvah music. You're not allowed to בכלל listen to music. You're not allowed to even listen to a tape of music. Period. Rav Moshe said, he didn't understand the heter. Period. Rav Moshe held you're not. You know why? Because that's what it says in Shulchan Aruch. It's not wrong. It says in Shulchan Aruch. So what's the heter? We chip away at it. It's not live music, it's a tape. Then we chip away, we shvacher people get depressed.

I'm not saying. L'maaseh, I once asked Ravin about this. How you talking to Rav Moshe's yeshiva, start now, we listen to music. Ravin told me that the certain things that my father said, it's just too much, and... There were certain takanos—I mean, takanos, certain shitos that Rav Moshe held, but he wasn't wrong. He was following the letter of the halacha of the Shulchan Aruch. Mimeila, understand that it's b'shirah yeshtiya, you're never allowed to listen to music. Now, if you look at the Shaar HaTeshuva on the Shulchan Aruch, he says even Shabbos you're not allowed to sing songs. Nor what are you allowed? The piyutim that are kavua for the zemiros Shabbos, efshar you could sing. Period. What are you gonna do with the whole tape in this, with the whole music in this? It's finished, unless they sing zemiros Shabbos. They know all this stuff. They know it, but they don't want to know it. Bring me the Mishnah Berurah. Bring me the... You say, they only say the piyutim. There's a makor for it. There's a makor for it. What do you think? Okay, sha, sha, no one asked you. You want to say the shiur next week, you can come and say the shiur. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, the oilam doesn't know. What are you gonna do? They can't do it, that's all. It says like this. Tishbachos. And the Rama, Rama says, Ufanuagu kol Yisrael loy medivrei... nohagu lomar, nohagu lomar. You hear the mechaber? The minhag is to say, to say, to say divrei tishbachos. Says the Be'er Heitev, d'hainu shirim shenisaknu al hasudah, kegon b'Shabbos, aval piyutim acherim asur. See the Be'er Heitev? Os zayin. Then he says that l'maaseh, we also have a minhag, he brings the Taz to sing Kaddish. Nohagu l'shair Kaddish, d'hainu yiskadal. Must be a Sefardi Taz, because they like Kaddish. Everybody says Kaddish. V'zehu vadai, v'zehu vadai chet gadol, lo yatir ela zichron chasdei Hashem. Kitzur, yes, even gadol shelo yechin leitzim, tehav v'vatlin, v'osin schok b'psukim. Okay, b'kitzur, it's not so poshut. I don't want to get into the actual halacha, because it's not halacha shiur, but the point being, the point being, that zemer asher necherav HaMikdash was asur. And this, that we sing at the Shabbos table, zmiros, b'emes, divrei Torah is the shiras haLeviim. V'valdige, valdige Rashbam. Let me show you over—let me show you, not over, but let me show you another piece of Gemara in Sanhedrin daf tzadi tes amud beis. It's a small piece of Gemara. I don't know how many people catch this. But Akiva oimer. Akiva says, Tzadik tes amud aleph to amud beis, Zamer b'chol yom. Sing every day. Zamer b'chol yom. Sing every day. So the musicians say, Ooh, take a look. Zamer b'chol yom? Sing every day? They didn't quite make that... it's something else. I know what you're talking about, but I want to quote that song. I'm going to quote it because it's b'emes a memra from a Chazal, and we're going to discuss that song. I know what you're talking about. Now, says the Rashi, what does that mean? Heyei mesader limudecha. You know what? First let me tell you over the Maharsha. The Maharsha says, what's the pshat in this Zamer b'chol yom? Sing? What? I'm supposed to sing every day? What, what? Says the Rosh Maharsha, yeah. There's a mefurish Gemara in Megillah, daf lamed hei. The Gemara says, Kol hakore... whoever reads... oh, shteit in the Gemara, azei.

Shteit in the Gemara, zeh? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh. Amar Rabbi Yochanan. Says Rabbi Yochanan. Says Rabbi Yochanan: Kol hakoreh v'lo ne'imah, kol hakoreh v'lo ne'imah, v'shoneh v'lo zimrah. Yeah. If somebody reads without sweetness, and he learns without song, alav hakasuv omer, v'gam ani nasati להם חוקים לא טוב. Says the Maharsha, wait a minute, what is this singing? Singing? Learning? What could the yeshiva yehiv? Kalbach nigunim while they learn? Says Tosafos, shehayu regilim leshanos haMishnayos b'zimrah. They used to chazer Mishnayos with a song, u'fi shehayu shonin osan al peh, because they did it baal peh, al yedei kach hayu nizkarim yoser. Like this, to remember. You know, little kids, they teach them memorization through a song. Comes from this Tosafos. The technique comes from this Tosafos, that, let's a bracha... they have a song. Why? Because like this the kid remembers it. So it's interesting that the Maharsha didn't learn it kipshutoi, that it's only about Mishnayos and Zichron, but rather the Maharsha learns it bichlal, what a person learns, he's supposed to sing, and therefore he learns the pshat in the Gemara in Sanhedrin, Zamer b'chol yom, zamer b'chol yom, when you learn. Now why does the Gemara have to repeat it twice? I don't know. Zamer b'chol yom, sing it, what, two times a day? Zamer b'chol yom, zamer b'chol yom. But on the third say, I don't know why the Gemara repeats it twice. Maybe it's the same, but it's a saying, so he says it twice: Zamer b'chol yom, zamer b'chol yom. Al kol panim, but you see from the Maharsha that the Maharsha learns that the Gemara isn't only referring to Mishnayos when they chazer, but rather when you learn bichlal. When you bichlal, you learn, you have to sing. So I went to search. Searched, searched. I found the Chida, Yosef Ometz, says a me'oirdike zach. He says, and I quote, me'oirdike Chida: Achein b'Gemara poskim ein ani yodea nigun. I don't know the song for it. I mean, I know when you learn Chumash, there's a song, right? When you learn Eruvin, right, go to the sefarim, they have special songs for Tehillim. They have special songs for different parts of Torah. Zohar, they have a song for. But he says, I don't know the song for Gemara and poskim. When you learn Birchas Shmuel, there's a special song. Maybe you have to learn Reb Baruch Ber's nigunim when you say the Reb Baruch Ber. Seems, seems... yeah, maybe you have to sing Reb Baruch Ber's Torah with his nigunim. I don't know what song, says the Chida. You ready? Says the Chida like this: V'efshar d'oifen amiraseinu b'derech pilpul mikri zimra. It's not so much the singing; it's the way we talk and learning, that's a song. You listen? You listen to the Chida. Haflo vafela, zamer b'chol yom, zamer b'chol yom. Yevaldik. It doesn't mean that you have to sing. Vilna's nigunim when you learn Torah. You don't sing Vilna's nigunim when you learn Torah. It's the way. There's a certain beauty, a certain rhythm to the talking of Torah. And that's what Rabboisai, that's called zamer bechol yom. Chidah. Let's learn the Rashi now. It says, Rashi, zamer bechol yom, heyei mesader limudecha. Be mesader your learning, af al פי shesadur beficha kizemer. Even though you're learning mesudar, but be mesader it like a song, kizemer, like a song. V'hu yigrom lecha l'olam haba b'simcha uv'shirim, that the Torah itself, you'll have simcha from it. It'll be like a song, the Torah. Yeah? Are you listening to what we're saying here? We're not discussing to say the words of the Torah like a ... metanegin. That's not what we're referring to. That the Torah itself should be learned like a song. There's a simcha, there's a kishmak, there's a rhythm, there's a beat. Yeah? You listening? Zamer bechol yom, zamer bechol yom. Let me show you a little...

The Gemara in Megillah says a beautiful pshat in a story. What's the story? Yeshua. Yeshua, miyad vayalon balayla hu, shelamad bumka shel halacha, that he was learning in the middle of the war a whole night. Says Chazal, what was the story? The story was that the malach came to him, b'charbo shelופה בידו, and he's ready to kill Yehoshua. He's ready to kill Yehoshua. The Gemara in Megillah, daf gimmel, everybody knows, right? Everybody here learned Megillah, daf gimmel. Says the Gemara, Yehoshua asks him, What are you coming for? What are you coming for? You coming because MSB talti, mevatel the korban tamid? He says, No. Ata basi, I'm coming for now. Now what? What does it mean? Says the Gemara, it means, V'ata kisvu lachem es ha'shirah hazos. Write this shirah, which is referring to Torah. Shirah, remember what we're discussing. Write this shirah, b'lamdas Bnei Yisrael. You weren't learning. You were mevatel Torah. You're in the middle of a war, good, but you're being mevatel Torah. You weren't learning. Miyad vayalon balayla, shelamad b'umka shel halacha. He was misaken it. Let me ask you a kasha. If the malach is trying to give him mussar for not learning, so let him say, V'shinantam levanecha, that you're mechuyiv to learn, divrei Torah, right? I mean, say clearly what a remez, V'ata kisvu lachem es ha'shirah hazos, ata, ata. What kind of a Gemara is this? What, everything has to be in... Remez in code. Just say because you aren't learning. Now, people are going to say, He should have told him a gisah from Yomim Valaylah. There's just one problem. You know where vigisah b'yomam valaylah is written? Does anybody know where? Yehoshua. It's written by Yehoshua. So you can't be mekasher that he should have brought him a gisah. I know people ask it that way, and it cringes my ears. It shows that they don't know, you know. But there's many pesukim in the Torah that we learn, vishinantam l'vanecha, k'sheytivim Torah, right? Yenalvim mevatlin Torah. How do you know? V'dibarta bam v'lo bidvarim bטלים. Why does he come and bring, Ata kisel lachem shirah, ata ata, a drash? Just say you're not learning, and that's all. I hold the pshat is pashut, rabosai. Yehoshua had a tremendous excuse. He was in the middle of a war. Yehoshua was in the middle of a war. There was tremendous pachad. There was tremendous tirda, says the Malach to him, Shirah. What does Dovid HaMelech say? Lulei sorascha shaashuai, az avadti b'anyi. Fakert, you're in the middle of a war. You're in a difficult matzav. Simchas haTorah is what you should be osek. Ata kisel lachem is a shirah. There's shirah to Torah. Torah is shaashuai. Torah is meant to, like a song. And I'll explain to you a little bit more. I want you to pay attention, because a lot of what I say, you have to picture and envision and get an understanding, because a lot of it is amkus to it. You know there's something called zimras ha'aretz. Does anybody know what the word zimras ha'aretz means? Ve'eis mizimras ha'aretz. Does anybody know what that means? You know, land that sings. You take a fruit from Eretz Yisrael and you eat it. There's a song that comes out of it. What does the word zimras ha'aretz mean? What? It has to do with— No. No. No. There's something called zimras hachai. You know what that means? Okay, go ahead. Translate it. What does the word zimra mean, zimras ha'aretz? It just means the choppings, the— you cut a piece of branch and it's called zimras ha'aretz? No? What'd you say? Chazal talk about Torah. K'hu mizimras ha'aretz. Chazal say it's referring to Torah. פירוש חזל. Zimras ha'aretz. Huh? What people sing about. Okay. What, you didn't know this? K'hu mizimra— you think he needs—

You think? Oh, shehakol mezamrim olav. You see, it's not what you thought it was. It doesn't mean a zebeh, a pruni, take from the pruni. Zimras ha'aretz. Zimra means that there's a certain song, there's a certain praise. It's something special. That's called zimras ha'aretz. Chazal say it's also referring to Torah, zimras ha'aretz. There's something called zimras hachayim. What does it mean, zimras hachayim? The song of life. Let's go a little further, understand the kesher between Torah and zemer, and then you'll see more what it means, zimra, the song. I'm going to show you a gevaldige, gevaldige medrash, okay? It's in Bereishis. Bring me the Medrash. Everybody knows who made the sun stand, right? Yehoshua made the sun stand. Shemesh bGivon dom. Chazal tell us that the shemesh had a ta'ina on Yehoshua. You know what the ta'ina was? I can't. I can't stop. You know why? Because everything in this world says shira, and the sun, when it comes up, also says shira. So what, you want me to stop? What's going to be with one day shira? Missing the morning, but when I come up that I'm saying shira. You know what Yehoshua told him? Don't worry about it. My Torah is more important than your shirah. Huh? He spoke to the son, yeah. Not... listen, yeah, he spoke to the son, avada. If you would say you spoke to the son, I would say. But the shirah... listen to a medrash. Ah. The amar Reb Shimon, yeah, Reb Shimon says, Mishnah Torah haya segan l'Yehoshua. The Mishnah Torah was a, what do you call that, a protector. It protected Yehoshua. How did Mishnah Torah protect? What is he talking about? Says the פירוש מרזב, it means like this. ... Notloi v'hera ois l'gag l'cham. He took the Mishnah Torah and he showed it to the son, here, take a look here. Here, come here, son, take a look, take a look at my Mishnah Torah, take a look at my Chumash. Oh. Says the medrash, says the Marzav like this: Toan hashemesh. The shemesh, the sun, had a taina, shelo yitachen sheyafsik mehalchoi, v'yidon mishirah v'zimrah. You want me to stop my mahalach? I have shirah to say. V'Yehoshua toan, Yehoshua answered him back, sheiskoi tamid baTorah. The fact that he's always learning Torah, yakar yoser mishir hashemesh. It's more important than the shir of the shemesh. What do you say, pshat? Was he saying that Talmud Torah keneged kulam, it's more important? Or he was saying the shir, v'atem kisvu lachem es hashirah hazos, Mishnah Torah. What's he referring to, shirah hazos? Referring to Mishnah Torah. He's saying a moradikte heter. You want shirah? There's no greater shirah than the shirah of Torah. Why shirah takes precedence over your shirah? I have a shaylah for you. What are you looking? It's not beautiful? It's very interesting. Yeah? You're maskim? No, you're not maskim? No? You want... It's a shirah. He's saying, Forget it. What's going to be with the shirah? I'll take care of it. The shirah of Torah will take care of it. Ma'atim Mishnah Torah, ma'atim Kisvu lachem es hashirah hazos. This will take care of it. I'll tell you a little further. Does anybody know perek shirah? Perek shirah. What is perek shirah? That's the shirah. Is perek shirah davening, or is perek shirah learning? I have this shaylah all the time. Is perek shirah davening, or is perek shirah learning? If it's davening, so then I would say it has to do with this yeshuah, better to learn than to daven, no? Better than saying shirah, you should be learning, no? Why should a person stop halacha l'maaseh? Should a person stop learning to say perek shirah? Now the truth is, mistama...

Person has enough time during the day to do both. The child doesn't negate to us. But, ... he's middle of learning, he's harving and learning, she says, should be saying shira. Do you know that perek shirah is a braisa? Anybody know that? Perek Shirah alein is a braisa. Shirah is from the Torah. Perek, perek shirah. It's a Gemara, it's a Chazal, it's a braisa, it's learning. Is it like tefillah, or is it learning? I think it's learning. Huh? We're going to talk about that. Now you assume you're going to get to what? You assume you're going to learn ... So, nacha mara, boys. Shtei klar that Yeshua is saying Torah is a shirah, v'ata kisvu lachem es hashirah hazos, and could be saying my shirah, the shirah of Torah takes precedence over any other shirah of the world. The sun could be saying shirah. Am I learning Mishneh Torah is a greater shirah? No, no, you see, you see the ... you see it? Lovely, yeah, lovely. Pashut, you learn, the pshat is mine is better than yours. Torah ... Torah keneged kulam, alit v'shavot, everything else not ... Or could be saying in hilchos shirah, my Torah is more than your shirah, because that's a shirah. Laila zimrah. Zimra. Okay. I'm going to show you something, half love a fellow. You ready? Half love a fellow. There's a pasuk in Tehillim. Now we're talking about Dovid HaMelech that discusses his songs, his singing. It sounds like the Dovid HaMelech, Chassidishe Rebbe, zingen, mit zingen, mit zungen. Listen to a pasuk. Eskoro niginosi balaylah. I remember my songs in the night. My songs in the night I remember. What? Im levavi, asicha, va'echapes ruchi, and this gives strength to my ruach. What songs is he referring to? So Daven Ezra learns pashut, Dovid HaMelech used to sing at night. Yeah? Daven Ezra, zayin, remesh hayah menagen balaylah. From here we see that ... Dovid HaMelech was musical, and he made nigunim, and he made nigunim by night. Eskoro remesh hayah menagen balaylah, that he sang at night. Rashi learns a little different. Now listen to a Rashi. You ready? Eskor niginosi balaylah, bimei hagalus hazeh, hadomeh lalaylah. It doesn't mean at night; it means galus. I remember my song in galus. Ani zoiches niginasi. I remember the niggun. Which niggun? Now listen carefully, sheyasim menagin bimei kedem that I sang in yesteryear. Beis, beis, hey. What's he referring to? Again, David HaMelech, eskra niginasi. I remember in the galus my song. What song are you talking about? says Rashi. Ani zoiches niginasi, in the layla, the dark of galus. Which song? Sheyasim menagin bimei kedem, that I used to sing in the previous years. Beis HaMikdash. That's what he says. And he has a ta'ina to the Mesayemim. You know what he said? The Artscroll says it that way. When they bring this Rashi on the pesukim Tehillim, they say, the Beis HaMikdash. Can I ask you a question? You knew that David HaMelech was in time of the Beis... I didn't know that. Maybe I don't have my history right, but if I'm not mistaken, I believe that David HaMelech was before the Beis HaMikdash. So how could David HaMelech come and say, I remember the songs I sang in the Beis HaMikdash? Mishkan? Beis, beis, hey. David HaMelech sang in the Mishkan? I didn't know that. And beis, beis, hey means Mishkan? Beis, beis, hey. So I have a shtikel pshat.

Dovid HaMelech was talking about himself. Dovid HaMelech is talking about nevuah for Klal Yisrael, and he's telling that in Klal Yisrael they're going to say that I remembered the songs that I sang in the Beis HaMikdash. I don't know. Then I see he brings a second pshat, that Dovid HaMelech taught the Leviim to sing the songs in the Beis HaMikdash. Dovid HaMelech taught to sing the songs in the Beis HaMikdash? I mean, there's no Beis HaMikdash, unless he prepared them for the Beis HaMikdash. I don't know. I'm sure they know what they're talking about. I'm sure they're quoting. Well, it means askerus. So what's, I remember bimei kedem. What's bimei kedem? How many years before? What, from his childhood he was teaching the Leviim? I don't know. I don't know. I can't be. I mean, I don't know. Either I'm crazy or something's wrong here. Are we reading the same pasuk? That's not so bad. Bimei kedem, what's bimei kedem? If he taught the Leviim, so he remembers now in the galus bimei kedem from years ago that he taught the Leviim. I don't know where, what. Leviim was after him. You're talking about a story that happened after him, so he remembers from bimei kedem. Listen carefully, rabosai. Eskora niginasi, Dovid HaMelech says. So either you say he's not referring to himself, he's referring to Klal Yisrael later, that they're going to be bimei kedem, galus. Okay, I'm going to show you something very interesting. Slichos of Rosh Hashanah. This you won't hear anywhere else, because who pays attention to slichos, to kinos? Who pays attention? There's a whole... Slicha about learning Torah. Emes. Tzidkascha tzedek... emes, rosh devorcha emes, סמוך לעד לעולם עשויים באמת. A whole, a whole slichos about emes. Emes יהגה חִכִּי. Emes, my, my cheich, my, my, my tongue will talk. Emes. Who says this? Fourteen. Who says this? Mishnah. בדברך אמת. Torah, right? אזכרה נגינתי בלילה. I'll remember my songs of the night. דבקתי בעדותיך. No? Kol halomeid Torah balayla. What is the lashon over there? Zimra, shirah. אזכרה נגינתי בלילה. The Torah that Dovid HaMelech learned. אזכרה נגינתי בלילה. The paitan understood that he's talking not about songs. Now let's see what the beis-beis hei means. Beis-beis hei. Could it also mean b'veis haMedrash? לחזות בנועם ה' ולבקר בהיכלו. The ne'imus, kol hakarah, whoever reads b'ne'imah. What? Torah, the ne'imus of Torah, the chidah. The way they learned was called shira, was called neima, eskra niginasi, the Torah itself. Eskra niginasi balayla, shehayisi menagen bimei kedem, b'veis, beis. Hey, you know the Briv Yeshiv Beis Hamikdash? Anybody know what the real Briv Yeshiv Beis Hamikdash is? Beis, hey, mem. Good. There's a very famous Rashi. Rashi says that we have to have tzitzis—I'm sorry, tefillin and mezuzos—and chutz la'aretz, hatzivi lachatziyunim. It's all that when we get back to Eretz Yisrael, we should know how to wear tefillin and we should know how to put up a mezuzah. Assu tefillin, tzitzis, mezuzah, tefillin and mezuzos, in order—it's a Rashi in Devarim, in the Mishneh Torah. So many Acharonim want to say, oh, you see from here that the kiyum hamitzvos is in Eretz Yisrael, and chutz la'aretz is only just to—we should keep it going to remember how to do it once we get back to Eretz Yisrael. So we only wear tefillin in America so we could know how to do it in Eretz Yisrael. So there's a very famous Gaon, and the Gaon says, al tznarishkeit. Why? Because the Rashi was printed tav-vav mem, and the printer was an idiot, and he wrote tefillin and mezuzos, and actually what does it stand for? Trumes u'ma'asros.

Is it possible, beis, beis, hei is not beis hamikdash. It's ... I remember the Beis Hamikdash. Dovid HaMelech was in the Beis Hamikdash. I remember the songs, Lulei Sorascha shaashuai. Az avadti, es ... balaylah, and this is what vayechapes ruchi. This gives me the courage. This gives me the chizuk. Whole different. You see clearly the pshat. I'll bring another raya. You want another raya from the Yerushalmi? Yerushalmi. This I think even the Sefardim say also, if I'm not mistaken. The Yerushalmi, tezayin. L'man chayoch. Yeah, this is in the zechus of, whose zechus? L'man chayoch, in the merit of one who caused you joy, caused you joy. What? Mecharker b'shir. You know who was mecharker b'shir? Does anybody remember in Tanach who was mecharker b'shir? Dovid HaMelech. He was mecharker, right? He was dancing and singing. Michal was looking out the window and she was, This guy is crazy. Right? So, l'man chayoch, mecharker b'shir, hamelamed Torah b'chol klei shir, that he teaches Torah with the entire orchestra, with klei shir. Talking about. So again, I take my potshots, so to speak. I take issue with the ArtScroll. So first they bring down the Gemara that Dovid HaMelech had an instrument. What was his instrument? The harp, and the harp woke him up. And since the harp woke him up, so m'meila, I'm going to read you. M'meila, immediately engaged in Torah study until daybreak. Thus, David taught Torah with the aid of a musical instrument. Very sharp. He quotes Rashi. He says it's Rashi. There's no such Rashi. The Rashi is the beginning. The Rashi is that he woke up — Gemara in Brachos — that he woke up with the instrument. The thus is him. The thus is whoever was mefaresh in the Artscroll, maybe. Whoever it is, maybe a Chashukei Chemed, I'm not saying, I don't know, Rabbi Avi Gold, Torah... But, hamelameid Torah b'chol... First of all, lamed, alomeid Torah. Maybe, if you want to say that the harp woke him up, it's alomeid Torah b'klei shir. That's what's called, because the alarm clock was the klei shir, so it's alomeid Torah b'klei shir. Then he brings down from a sefer over here, based on another tefillah Yesharah, that it's a mistake. You have to take out the whole thing. That makes sense. Hamelameid Torah — it's hamelameid Torah l'am Yisrael. So if by mistake it got in here, it doesn't belong here. I don't know. You're fapatchking the beautiful lashon. Fapatchking. There's an interesting shlah here, from Shaar HaShamayim. Fapatchking means you're making it, you're cutting it, you're messing it up, you're killing it away. What are you doing? You ready? David HaMelech studied Torah with such joy as if he was listening to a full orchestra. Alomeid Torah b'chol klei shir. It's such a Rashi, such a Rashi. Of course. What are you writing? What shleps the Maharsha? Not their fault. I mean, listen, they write a lot, and you write a lot, you're gonna make mistakes. Huh? Are you listening to the loshon, Dovid HaMelech hamelameid Torah? He learned Torah as if it was an old kestel. The shlah, the shlah, kvashtani. The shlah understood Dovid HaMelech's learning of Torah. You hear? You hear? Eskera niginosi. Torah was a song. It was a song. It was zimrah. It came from the depths. You hear? Dovid HaMelech, eskera niginosi, eskera niginosi. Can we go weiter? Now, with this, rabosai, I want to discuss Dovid HaMelech. You ready? Dovid HaMelech got punished, Gemara in Sotah, daf lamed hei, for saying what? Zmiros hayu li chukecha, chukecha. Now, what does the word chok mean? You know what the word chok means? Chokim is chokim. Why would he say chukecha? Zmiros hayu li dvarecha, mishpatecha. Why did he say chukecha?

Now we're going to quote an interesting song, which actually is a memra of a Chazal. You ready? Kol hamezamer b'chol yom, b'limud haTorah. HaTorah mezamer l'cha. The Torah sings back to you, shemegaleh lo razei Torah. Huh? Zmiros hayu li chukecha. Dovid HaMelech picks the word chukecha. There's a reason for it. The chukim, the razei Torah, Dovid HaMelech says, that to me is zimrah. That's a song to me. The Torah is singing to me. Zmiros hayu li, to me, from the chukim, I saw zimrah. HaTorah mezameres l'cha shemegaleh lo razei Torah. Okay? So what was he neheneh from? So you know who asked this kasha? Reb Akiva Eiger. Reb Akiva Eiger comes along in Gilyon HaShas in Sotah and says, Wait a minute. What do you do with all the Gemaras that Torah is a song? Iyov said, right, the pasuk that we quoted in Eruvin, U'zimrah balailah. So it is zimrah. So how can it be that Dovid HaMelech was neneh? So let me put out a disclaimer that anybody who thinks he can answer Reb Akiva Eiger's kashes is not well. That's the truth. He's obviously not well. Because anything you can think that you could even fathom, I believe Reb Akiva Eiger thought of it, all right? There's a beautiful maaseh that someone came to the Gifter, and he showed him a sefer that he was meyashev Reb Akiva Eiger's kashes. And he writes that he has a teretz to all of Reb Akiva Eiger's kashes except for three. So first, Rav Gifter asked him for his name and his mother's name. That's how Rav Gifter started. So he asked him, What do you need? He says, What, are you mispallel for you? Yecholi, you're not well. A person could think he can answer all Reb Akiva Eiger's kashas. And he said, and also the fact that you said that you answered but three, obviously you only understood three kashas from Reb Akiva Eiger. So Reb Akiva Eiger, why is my yetzer hara? I have a hard time answering, but I'll try. Try understanding that it's a mistama Reb Akiva Eiger. Do me a favor, look up the end of the pasuk. I want you to know this is something I thought about all my life, since I was a little bachur. The Gemara in Sotah, lamed hei, the Gemara brings down, lamed hei amud aleph, that he says, Zmiros hayu li chukecha. What's the end of that pasuk? Does anybody know what the end of that pasuk is? B'veis meguri. Thank you very much. What does that mean? Translate the words b'veis meguri. What does it mean? Where I dwelled. What does he mean? What does he mean, b'veis meguri, where I dwelled? On my kids' house, so that's where I live. When Dovid HaMelech says, Esken niginasi, what does Rashi say? B'veis hamedrash. Where did Dovid HaMelech get nehenehs from for saying, Zmiros hayu li chukecha? B'veis meguri. Hear a difference? Go ahead, read the Gemara. Read, read, read, read. Sholdoi l'ma... Gemara, go ahead, now read it. Okay, now take the Tehillim and see how the Tehillim translates b'veis meguri. Go ahead. What does he mean, b'beis megurai? What does he mean? What is the translation of the word? Vaz vil davar hamelech? What? Ha? Let's see, let's see, let's see what beis megurai means. Can we do this faster? People waiting. Yeah, what's beis megurai? What does it mean? Nu? B'tzodus, something. What, beis megurai, what does it mean? I learned b'simchas halev, k'derech hamiz... Beautiful, huh? But what does it mean, b'beis megurai? What does that mean? Beis megurai is beis medrash? B'chol makom u'makom shehayisi dar. How many places did David HaMelech live, you know?

Okay, so now we're starting to understand that the word zemer has to do with itzavon, simcha. Rashi says that if you learn what happens, shetehei l'olam haba b'simcha uv'shirim. The song is about what? Galus. You're in a bad matzav. Lulei sorascha sha'ashuai. Yeshua! Why aren't you learning? You're in a bad matzav. V'ata kisvu lachem es ha'shirah hazos. The lambdas, Bnei Yisrael, get read, read, b'beis megurai. Go ahead, nu. B'veis megurai. No, he's saying good. He's saying good. He's saying that. You know what the problem is? The problem is using Torah, using, mishtamesh with divrei Torah. Vatizmirah is Torah, is gevaldige shiros, simcha, it's gevaldik. And Dovid HaMelech said, you know something? When I'm in beis megurai and I'm feeling bad, I use the divrei Torah as a refuah, as an uplifting. Like we say, Oh, I'm in a bad mood, let me go listen to a good niggun, right? A good song, song, and song. Dovid used divrei Torah. As the zemiros hoyu li chukecha b'veis megurai. This the Ribono Shel Olam says, You're not going to be mishtamesh with divrei Torah. But avadeh, avadeh, lulei sorascha sha'ashuai, az avadti b'onyi. Not to use it b'veis megurai, not to use it when I'm home and I'm in a bad matzav. The Shtayimim says to Avin Ezra, a person's allowed, he's a bit moved. Davar, okay, let me take out a shtikel Rambam. That's not what the Rambam is meant, not you, Davar. Oh, but avada it has to be learned in such a way that it's midos hayolech kach. You don't have to—let me explain this. Again, for Davar HaMelech, I'm not saying for us, believe you me, believe you me. For us this wouldn't be a taina. It was a taina for Davar HaMelech. You know, the Gemara says, Halochei shel Amaka, it's a tremendous aveira. Why? Because you're being mishtamesh divrei Torah to heal yourself. I don't want to say more than this now, because it has to be dealt with in a shiur for itself, pshat in Davar HaMelech. But I'm showing you this nekudah is klar: koach of shiras haTorah to uplift, the shiras haTorah to take away the galus, the shiras haTorah to take away the bitterness. Now let's go back to the pesukim. Sgeinu mishar shavosu, bachurim inginosam. We lost this, rabosai, we lost this. Mishebatlu Sanhedrin. When the Sanhedrin became batel, so this shiras haTorah is gone. We lost the shira, we lost this simchas haTorah, this zemer b'chol yom. I saw in פירוש לחם דמעה, he taka translates bachurim. What's—I asked you, what's bachurim? It means the bachurim that are learning. That's what it taka means. He quotes the Gemara Megillah, Kol hakorei b'lo ne'imah v'korei b'lo shirah. They stopped singing in learning. What happened to the singing of learning? Where'd it go? And the teretz is because the Torah is not shirah anymore, and this is mishebatlas anhedrin. Avada we learn. Avada we're learning. No question, it's tremendous learning. How many people could come and say, Ki heim chayeinu v'orech yameinu, and that lulei sorascha sha'ashuai, az avadti b'onyi. How many people? We have that today. We don't appreciate the ruchniyus, the shiras haTorah that we once had. This became batel. This is eicha. If you understand, pratim in the eicha, the level that we once were on to what happened to us today. And it's possible that that's why shirah is not mutar anymore, mishum batlas anhedrin, because we don't have real shirah anymore. We don't have real shirah anymore. Chazal start by saying that today they started using different nevalah b'shir. Why did they substitute different nevalah b'shir? They're lacking the real shir, because it's the shir to make you happy, chitzoniyus. It's to work on the—

Okay, so ... say things like a schmuck. And the more the ... the more cooler and the more beat and the more, you know, it's... Amal, there was a time where a niggun was a pshat to elevate the ruchnius of the mensch. And there was a time that we didn't even need the niggun; we had the Torah. There was zemer from the Torah itself. But this is mishebatla Sanhedrin. ... We don't have any more kol ha-shoina bezimra. We don't have this anymore. We've come so far away from what we could have been, and it's not anymore. The emotions, the geshmak. You look the way Dovid HaMelech pours out his heart, Shirchi kamayim libech. Do we daven like this? Do we have the kavanos? We can't even ... so hard for us to be mechaven the little bit, the little kavanah. This is yeridah. This is galus. This is what we fell from, and this is what we mourn. Ayekah, where are we? Look how far we've fallen. Look how far we've come from what once was. That's eichah. That's how you go to the eichah. ... the shir of Torah, the song, bchol klei shir, hamelameid Torah bchol klei shir. It's like an orchestra, says the ... Imagine a person sits and listens to Mozart with all the different... fifty-piece band, bchol klei shir, with the trombone and the harp included. What do they call that big... the cello. Woo, you saw there was a cello. Beautiful. Mozart. Tkufa that a Yid saw a shtikel Torah and he saw Mozart. So beautiful, b'chol klei shir. Hamelameid Torah b'chol klei shir. Now we lost. Shavsu meginosa. We lost the song, the song of Torah, the zimras ha'aretz, the zimras hachayim. This is the galus, and we're satisfied. Yeah, we're learning, we're davening. Look at me, ... You're right, it's all good, it's all wonderful. Eichah. Ayeka. Where have we fallen? How far did we go? This is the avodah. When you read Eichah, it's takke bechiyah. Moshiach should come next year. We should have in Yerushalayim shiurei Torah, tefillah, the way it once was in Beis HaMikdash, in the times of the Sanhedrin. In yeshivos, not in those learning, in yeshivos. In the hilchos shirah should be. You're missing in the kishbachos that Dovid HaMelech said.