Rabbi Arush will now beginwith the opening of the Tanya, as is the custom to start the book again on the 19 th of Kislev.

Transcription

1 19 Kislev Farbrengen Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh and friends Rabbi Yossi Peli Rabbi Arush will now beginwith the opening of the Tanya, as is the custom to start the book again on the 19 th of Kislev. Thank you to the Almighty for meriting us to take part in this great day, where the whole reality of the world depends on our teacher the Ba al Hatanya who said that there is a great war against chassidut, and he merited to turn this day, the 19 th of Kislev into the rosh Hashanah for all the chassidim. I was very saddened that Rabbi Ginsburgh couldn t attend the yahrzeit of Rebbe Nachman on Sukot and I am very happy to be here with him today. We will begin with a topic I am very involved in right now, the topic of giving thanks to the Almighty. Says the ba al Hatanya, in chapter 11 of the Igeret Hakodesh. He begins בינה,להשכילך to teach you understanding that all of a person s yearnings should not be for physical needs, the needs of the flesh, etc. We seem to have been created with needs and will that are related to our physical bodies, but we must nullify our will to God s will and by doing so we will choose the true form of life. Everything comes out of nothingness, and it does so at every single moment of time. God creates us anew and all of creation with us, from nothingness, every single moment. If I meditate at this moment that the Almighty is creating me, how can I even imagine that I am experiencing anything negative. The Alter Rebbe teaches us that if we truly live this truth, the fact that at this very moment I am being created, how could I believe that I have any suffering from anything physical, from my family affairs, or my body. How could there be evil in the world? The ayin, the nothingness that is the source of life, is higher than even the pleasure of the World to Come. By connecting with this force of creation, the wisdom in the nothingness gives me life and prevents us from feeling anything bad in our lives. Because truly no evil descends from Above and all is good. This is the main aspect of faith for which the world has been created. He writes that anyone who is sad, or even thinks that he has any little amount of negativity in his life, such a person is as it were denouncing God, since God is creating him at this very moment. For a person who is connected to God in this awareness, all is equal before him, all is good, and there is neither evil nor even something similar to it. In the book that we merited publishing this past week, we wrote that at every single moment a person should be connected to God. When a person wakes up in the morning at the very moment that he wakes up he is not allowed to learn or to pray, since his hands are impure, and yet, even then, a person is required to say thanks to God: אני לפניך מלך חי וקים,מודה I give thanks to you Almighty God. Thank you that I have a bed, thank you that I can sit down. I cannot perform any mitzvoth right now, but I am still connected to God through my thanks. When you say thanks you are connecting with this truth from the Tanya that we just read. God is giving me at this moment, He is creating me, etc.

2 But, if a person feels that all things are not equally good, he shows that he is from the mixed multitudes. Why? Because all that they do, they do for their own sake. He shows that he loves himself alone. That he seeks only corporeal existence, to have sons and to have livelihood, but he is not interested in finding the Almighty. Because the whole purpose of this world is to test a person to see what he searches for, what he is interested in. If he is not searching for God, he is worshipping false gods. When a person is searching for God, then his life is a true life. Let s tell a story from Rebbe Aharon of Belz. He had an older brother whose name was Mordechai who was very nullified before him, even thought he was older. When asked why, he told the following story. When they were in the Holocaust, Rebbe Aharon s wife and his five children were murdered. These two holy brothers were able to escape, and were in hiding and running for four and a half years. A certain woman came to Rebbe Aharon and told him that her husband was taken to the army and she doesn t know where he is. She was crying and desperate. Rebbe Aharon strengthened her with words of encouragement that there is nothing negative, no evil in the world. And this is after he lost his wife and five children. And, so, if he is so strong in his faith, of course I should be null to him. Another small story. When people came to console him after he reached the land of Israel, if someone said to him, may you never know sorrow again, then he would stop them and made them say: Aharon ben Batya ruchamah has never known any sorrow in his life. He made people repeat this 3 times. We can understand from such a person how to see this whole issue of sorrow in the world. That there is no suffering. All that god does is good. I saw thank God that from the time I strated diseeminating this issue of saying thanks to God about everything it s not with my strength, but the strength of the tzadikim that I believe in them then a lot of people have been writing me telling me about how saying thanks to God has changed their lives. Rabbi Ginsburgh We bid farewell to Harav Arush. We welcome our teacher and rabbi, Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh. We ask that everyone find seating. The event is being broadcast over the radio as well, and we welcome all those listening to us from wherever they might be, in their cars or at home. The nigun we just heard is the takeoff nigun. And from here we should fly for the rest of the year. Harav ginsburgh s shiurim can be seen usually live on the internet, and they can also be heard on the phone at the number As we say, may it be a good year in the way sof chassidut and the learning of chassidut to all. Lechiam lechaim. Gut yom tov and chag sameach, for the entire Jewish people. Since today is the day of redemption of the Alter Rebbe it is pertinent to begin with the nigun padah beshalom nafshi ki berabim hayu imadi. We are many here and may the entire Jewish people be part of this many. פדהבשלוםנפשימקרבלי, כיברביםהיועמדי. ישמעא-לויענםויושבקדםסלה אשר אין חליפות למו, ולא יראו אלקים.

3 שלח ידו בשלומיו, חלל בריתו. חלקו מחמאות פיו וקרב לבו, רכו דבריו משמן והמה פתיחות השלך על ה' יהבך והוא יכלכלך לא יתן לעולם מוט לצדיק. ואתה אלקים תורידם לבאר שחת אנשידמיםומרמהלאיחצוימיהם. ואני אבטח בך Lechaim lechaim. The Alter Rebbe it says, said that He doesn t want God s world to Come, he only wants God s essence, בך,אבטח that is in every Jew, should be revealed, especially all the young Jews, the children and young men up to the age of 22, How does a Jew reveal this spark, this essential point of God in him? By connecting to the bach, the 22 letters of the Torah. The Torah and God are one thing. The Ten Commandments begin with the word anochi, which stands for I have given myself in my writing. Through the 22 letters of the Torah God gives Himself, and they are revealed in the luminary part of the Torah, the Torah of Chassidut. It says in the Yerushalmi Talmud that the beginning-middle-and end of the 22 letters spell the word truth Moshe (אמת) is true and his Torah is true. In each generation there is the Moshe Rabbeinu of the generation, who reveals God s essence as it is in the Torah until the Mashiach comes and reveals new light of Torah. Our motto tonight is to turn the world upside down, as the Lubavitcher Rebbe used to cry out. For this we need 10 people,,כנישתאחדא who will not be quiet until they bring the או says, redemption today. How can we turn the world upside down today, through truth. It The Torah brings peace both Above and Below. But.יחזקבמעוזייעשר שלוםלישלוםיעשהלי the truth of Torah is boldness,,עז wisdom gives boldness to the wise. So we will begin today with a vort from the Magid of Mezritch, who passed away 26 years before the alter Rebbe was released from prison. He came to the Alter Rebbe on the day of his passing and told him, today is our yom tov. He had 60 brave students who disseminated the Torah of Chassidut. Among them were rebbe Pinchas and Rebbe shmalke of Nickolsburgh. They once asked the Magid what the meaning of the.ויאמרמשהאלהאלקיםwords Moshe said to God, behold if you make me your messenger to the Jewish people, and I come to them and they ask me, What is His Name? What shall I tell them? The very first question that he will be asked is what is God s Name. God reveals to Moshe the holy.אהיהאשראהיהname This is the one instance of this Name in the entire Bible. This is very surprising, that this would be the first question they will ask of him. The answer is equally surprising that God tells him a name that no one has ever heard (and will never hear again in the entire Bible). This Name appears only these 3 times in the entire Bible. Everything here is surprising. But, what is most surprising is how the Magid explained this verse to the brothers. He said,.ואמרולימהשמו It is not written as a question, it s a statement of fact: they will tell me what His Name is. They are all wise, they all know God, they know all the holy Names. So when I come they will tell me all of God s Names. What can I possibly add to that? This is very surprising interpretation. I come to herald the redemption and they tell me what God s Name is. It seems to nullify the entire meaning of Moshe s task. So God says,.אהיהאשראהיה First of all no one knows this Name. And the Magid continues that Ekyeh equals 21, and when 21 is multiplied by 21, as in this

4 phrase, 21 squared is equal to 441, the value of,אמת truth. So what God is telling Moshe is that he should tell these great wise men of the Jewish people, that God alone is true and everything else in all the worlds, all the way to the highest level, is all false. Of all the Names, even all the Kabbalah that you know all is false except for God s essence, which alone is absolutely true, and this they certainly don t know. Now if this truth of Ekyeh asher Ekyeh is the Name of the redemption from Egypt, and today too the redemption will be similar to that from Egypt, then today too we need to reveal this truth that the only truth is God. From this very fact, we can turn the world upside down. All of Moshe s purpose is to reveal this truth, the essence of God, and everything else is false. When the Alter Rebbe used to fall on the ground and cry out, I want nothing but You, not your world to come and not your Eden. It is all false compared to Your essence, You Yourself. Everything else is false. The Alter Rebbe was the Moshe RAbbeinu of his generation, with your truth we can turn the world upside down today. Now how much does this name equal, it equals 543. The difference between 441 and 543 is 102. The companion of truth is faith, אמונה.אמת He is truth, she is faith, and together they equal 543, ekyeh asher ekyeh. This is specifically related to Moshe, because if we write 543 backwards, we get 345, which equals Moshe.(משה) Moshe sees the picture of God, he sees the mirror image of this Name, and what does he see? He sees himself. It means that he and only he can reveal this secret to the Jewish people, how faith couples with truth. From Avraham our forefather we receive the power of faith, but to receive truth, this we receive from Moshe Rabbeinu. This is the truth that There is nothing but God עוד מלבדו).(אין This Name is the name of absolute freedom, since it means that I can be what I want to be. This is the freedom of being redeemed from Egypt. To be able to be exactly what you choose to be in your free will. And it all stems from the absolute truth of God s essence. It says they believed in God and in Moshe His servant. First faith in God and then in Moshe. But, in Chassidut it is explained that through Moshe His servant one come to greater faith in God. All this is a story about how to turn the world upside down today. Every Jew must reveal the today. God s essence in Him, and with that we can turn the world upside down בך Since we just told a story from the Magid of Mezritch, it is fitting to sing a number of nigunim from him. One of these is the nigun that was transmitted down through Ruzhin. The Alter Rebbe said that one must live with the time, with the weekly Torah reading, connecting everything that happens to a person particularly miracles to the reading. In today s reading there is the story of Yehudah and Tamar, when God brings down the light of Mashiach, in the most concealed manner. Towards the end of the story, when Tamar is suspected of having been iniquitous and Yehudah says, take her out and burn her, but then when she brings out his belongings, Yehudah says, she is more righteous than me, for I did not give her to Sheilah and he did not know her again. There are two meanings to these final words, one is that he was never was with Tamar again, but the other is that it means that he did not let her leave him anymore. So we see a carrying of opposites in this story. In a sense, this is the end of the whole story. It is sometimes difficult to understand how both opposite interpretations can be true. Chassidut here teaches us how this is possible, and when a Jew learns Chassidut he sees how these and these are the living words of God. It is explained that in one world a person can be absolutely right and in another world, entirely wrong. The

5 revelation that all is false but God Himself functions so that we see that there are opposites in different worlds. We see that the partial is simply not true. Only the whole is true. And so it might be that in the world of pshat, the world of Action, Yehudah never knew Tamar again. But, one world up, in the world of Yetzirah, formation, there Yehudah never left her again and they continue to be together to bring about the birth of Zerach and Peretz. Zerach is the mind and Peretz is the bursting forth of the emotions. Unifying these two brings about the birth of Mashiach. In practice, Mashiach comes out of Peretz, but both are tzadikim and they need to be unified. Only someone who is connected with God s very essence, can bear this understanding that in two different worlds two opposites occur. This is the power to contain opposites הפכים).(נשיאת This was all about the end of the verse, which ends with to know her.(לדעתה) It begins though with awareness, another synonym for knowing, wrong. Like King David, his descendant, Yehudah knows how to admit that he was.ויכר יהודה This is the time that Yehudah admits his fault and admits that Tamar was right and he acted wrongly. These words, ממני,צדקה in pshat were spoken by Yehudah who admits his guilt, stating that not only should Tamar not be burnt, but he is wrong. But, the sages interpret these words in a surprising way, saying that Yehudah only said the word צדקה while the Divine Presence said,,ממני indicating that God himself also admitted that Tamar was righteous, and that it was His doing to bring about the light of Mashiach in this way. Indeed Rashi writes, From me and out of Me came these events. ומאתי יצאו הדברים.ממני The initials of this phrase spell the word today.היום Turn the world upside down today. Today is the answer that Mashiach gave to Rabbi Yehoshua Ben Levi when the latter asked him when he is coming. Eliyahu the prophet explained this answer to Rabbi Yehoshua and told him (Eliyahu is the intermediate that connects us to the mind of Mashiach, as the Maharal of Prague explains), the Mashiach meant that he is coming today if you listen to his voice. As in the verse, אם בקולו תשמעו.היום There are many explanations to this answer. It seems to be a descent from the powerful answer that the Mashiach gave to Rabbi Yehoshuah from a state of powerful coming today, at this moment. It is written that every condition (if you listen to his voice) is in understanding, binah. Binah is also sound. To say simply today without any conditions that is the mind of wisdom, while the condition adds the mind of understanding. These are like the tefilin of Rashi (binah) and Rabbeinu Tam (wisdom). Where is Rabbi Yehoshua? He is in a state where he cannot hear the words that come from wisdom, and he can only bear the words that come from binah, from understanding, with a condition. Still, we want to hear the today that comes from the mind of wisdom, the mind of the Father principle. That is why we don also the Tefilin of Rabbeinu Tam. How can both opposites be carried at once? How can one believe that these and these are the living words of God. Eliyahu too is truth. He gave life to Jonah through the truth in his mouth. So what Eliyahu is telling us is that we should connect so strongly to the Mashiach S today that we will indeed make him come today. This is the carrying of opposites of both what Mashiach answered and what Eliyahu answered. When we all connect to this word today. This is attained by revealing the spark of Mashiach in each and every one of us. When there are enough sparks enough revelation of the yechidah in the psyche one knishta, one minyan of 10 people is enough. When this spreads and clings to all our minds, that itself brings the Mashiach. ממני phrase, was said by the Shechinah. What about the final letters of this ממני again, Now yud. again the word today but with a prefix letter,ייום They too spell.ומאתי יצאו הדברים What might this yud represent? Perhaps the Ten Days of Repentance. Now why does Rashi

6 add the word?מאתי It would have been enough to say יצאו הדברים.ממני Where did God s from Me enclothe in reality? Who manifested the sense that this was all from Me here מאתי below? Who was his messenger to make these events happen? In this case, the word was manifested by Tamar! She was willing to even be burnt in order to fulfil the plot, to make it all happen. She was the one guiding Yehudah, she was the one carrying the entire ממני וממנה יצאו It will come out as?ממנה her plot. So what will happen if we write from today the initials will stay the same, but now the final letters will also spell exactly,הדברים All this is an introduction to a saying from the sages about this word. The sages say: In.היום three places the holy spirit appeared. In the entire Bible, the holy spirit appeared in only three places: in the court of Shem the son of Noach, in the court of Samuel the prophet, and in the court of King Solomon. Where was Tamar taken to be tried? To the court of her father, Shem. Even though Shem was no longer alive, the court was still called his court. That.ממני word, is where she was tried. How did the holy spirit appear there? In this In the court of Samuel it says that once, when they were hearing a case, the word testament עד was heard. And the final time was in the court of King Solomon, which is more well known and even famous in the trial of the two women who came and both claimed a child. The final words, She is his mother היאאמו were spoken by the holy spirit and this ensured that everyone recognized that this was true justice. So the holy spirit spoke three times, each time in a court of law. The three phrases were:.ממניעדהיאאמו When we will continue, we will see how this is all related to today. Now we will sing the nigun known as the infinite nigun, or the three-movement nigun. Each part was written by a different Rebbe, the first by the Baal Shem Tov, the second by the Magid of mezrtich and the third by the Alter Rebbe. This nigun goes through all 12 tones. Lechaim lechaim. We said that in three places the holy spirit appeared: in the courts of Shem, Samuel the Ramathi, and in that of King Solomon. The words spoken were עד היא עמו.ממני There are a few different levels of holy spirit. The level that we should all merit to have is the one mentioned at the beginning of the Torah, אלקים מרחפת על פני ה,ורוח this is the spirit,משפט צדק equals רוח הקדש spirit, hovering over the waters, the spirit of the Mashiach. Holy just verdict. In the great wedding when the Alter Rebbe and Rebbe Levi Yitzchak became mechutanim, Rebbe levi Yitzchak showed the Alter Rebbe one of his chassidim and said that he has a gilui eliyahu, a revelation of Eliyahu. the Rebbe was impressed. He then showed one of his chassidim who was in the middle of Amidah during davening and said that it this moment, this my chassid, has a revelation of the yechidah in the soul and that is greater than the revelation of Eliyahu. That is one point. Gilui Eliyahu is like we said, Today-if you hearken to his words. A conditional revelation. But, the yechidah in the soul, the singular level of the soul, is the revelation of the Messianic spark in one s psyche. The moment someone has a revelation of the yechidah, at that moment he receives a revelation of the Mashiach himself. He experiences a feeling of Turn the world upside down today. In truth this phrase in Yiddish really translates as Turn a world upside down, not the world. What is the difference? To turn a world refers to first of all one s inner world. First of all in the person himself. If I speak of the world it is referring to the objective reality to turn the establishment, the state, some reality that is outside of me. But, when I say turn a world, I am referring to a subjective reality. The beginning of turning the world upside down begins with turning my own world

7 upside down and revealing the yechidah in my psyche. World in Hebrew means concealment. The people walking in darkness saw a great light. People itself עם also means darkness. Each one of us is in darkness and we are walking in darkness, and we have to turn upside down and shine a great light. The light that comes out of darkness is infinitely much stronger and more essential than direct light. That is why the Almighty created the world in a manner of first darkness and then light, so that the great light would shine. Thank God, as it were, we have a lot of darkness, and now is the time for the great light to shine through this darkness. this truth that is in each one of us is what needs to shine through. This is the revelation of the yechidah in the soul, which is greater than the revelation of Eliyahu. Thus, the Alter Rebbe explained that my purpose, the purpose of Chabad chassidim, which God willing we all are here, is to reveal this light and to thus turn our inner world upside down and then turn the objective reality outside of us upside down and God willing this should be immediately, today. There is a second vort that the Alter Rebbe once said to the Tzemach Tzedek, his grandson, that before one merits the revelation of Eliyahu, one must have holy spirit. And then he gave his grandson an order of toil for 40 days, spiritual toil that required a tremendous amount of strength. The Tzemach Tzedek was truly bold, and strong. At the end of the 40 days, having done all that he required, he was hardly able to walk from one side of the room to the other. He was so weakened that he could hardly walk, all in order to merit the holy spirit. In the end, he received the holy spirit. About this it says, ומצאתי תאמין,יגעתי but if you have not toiled, don t believe that you have succeeded. And this was all for the lower level of holy spirit that comes through great toil. It s not related exactly what the toil included, but it did not include fasts and other aesthetic acts. There are early kabbalah works that mention this type of toil, but this is not the way of Chassidut. Still, the toil was tremendously hard, and required a lot of submission of both the body and the psyche much greater than anything one might endure in army training. Once there is holy spirit, there is the revelation of Eliyahu and even above that, the revelation of the yechidah in the soul. If one reaches that level, then one feels a revelation of the Mashiach. Now all three levels are included in these 2 stories. The revelation of Eliyahu, being that it is an intermediate between the level of holy spirit and the revelation of Mashiach, he is in essence even higher than these two levels. In any case, these are two different levels of mind. Rashi writes in the Chumash that da at, the sefirah of knowledge, is the revelation of the holy spirit. We said that the level of Eliyahu is a condition, placing a condition on Mashiach s revelation, which is the inner essence of Abba, the inner essence of Atik. Relative to binah, this is the mind of Rabbeinu Tam. So we have here all 3 intellectual sefirot. Da at is the holy spirit, binah is the revelation of Eliyahu, and wisdom, chochmah is the revelation of Mashiach. Now, when the sages say that the holy spirit was revealed in three different places, the phrase holy spirit can certainly refer to all three of these levels. Now we ll see a beautiful remez. Each of the courts names begins with a shin (Shem Shmuel and Shlomoh) and they all contain a letter mem. Three names correspond to three books with which God created the world according to the book of Formation. Shem is the Rebbe of Jacob, every Jew is a semite, a descendant of Shem. That Jephet should dwell in the tents of Shem refers to the Temple in Jerusalem. Now adding these three names, שמואל שלמה,שם they equal 1092 which is a multiple of Havayah, 42 times 26, a very great secret in Kabbalah, the number of times Havayah appears in the Tefilin. 42 is also Ekyeh Ekyeh, two times 21. In the entire

8 verse, אלקים אל משה אהיה אשר אהיה.ויאמר Elokim here is speaking. Moshe in the previous verse was speaking to,האלקים which equals 91 the unification of אלקים.הוי' This is a higher level than just Elokim. When God answers, He speaks to Moshe 10, 5, and 11 letters, so up until this part of the verse there is a beautiful allusion to 26, God s essential Name, Havayah. And specifically there is a unification of 6 and 5, the yud hei, which Amalek cannot stand. About this unification, it says that he is truth (foundation) and she is faith (kingdom), until the coming of Mashiach today. So this verse contains a beautiful allusion to Havayah. So again, there are 42 instances of Havayah in the tefilin. In our tefilin it says, ישראל,שמע but in God s tefilin it says, כעמך ישראל גוי אחד בארץ.ומי This verse equals exactly 1092, the same number as the names of the three courts. This is not the same name that the great Kabbalists of Moshe Rabbeinu s generation knew. It is something new. In any case, the verse, כמעך ישראל גוי אחד בארץ,ומי equals שמואל שלמה.שם But, now what happens if we add to these 3 names the phrases that were spoken by the holy spirit in all three instances? We still haven t explained what the word עד was. After Samuel anointed Saul a king, he gathered the people and made a mock trial with them, like an accounting. He had been the leader until now, and now he was giving the leadership to Saul. He asked, have I done anything wrong to any of you? Have I taken anything from you? The people as it were answered, we testify, but in the verse it says, עד.ויאמר: He said, indeed!. This was the second appearance of the holy spirit chronologically. We want the holy spirit to appear to be something that appears everywhere. Until now it has only happened in three places, all three times in courts of law. This second time was in the court of Samuel the prophet. The first again is in the Torah reading corresponding to today. This was the second and the third was in Solomon s court. If we pay careful attention, we see that each time the appearance of the holy spirit is in relation to some kind of case, some trial. The first time was when Tamar was about to be burnt God testifies that everything that happened, he is responsible for. The appearance of the holy spirit reveals God s hand in all that transpired. The second time is when Samuel is about to leave the leadership of the people, and he tries himself before the people and he comes out clean. The holy spirit testifies that this is indeed true that he never stole or took anything that belonged to anyone else. He was not on trial, but he was trying himself as it were. It says that one should be clean (in one s affairs) from God and from Israel. Finally, the third appearance is in relation to a new king, King Solomon, who has just become king. If he would have gone on to just build the Temple right away instead of pursuing marriages with 1000 wives, he would have become the Mashiach. In this case, he is not the one on trial, but rather he is conducting a trial. This is the final appearance of the holy spirit for now. The fact that the king was trying a case between two women of the lowest part of society, and he was able to try it properly and because of this case he gained renown and was accepted as king by all the people, it was all because of the appearance of the holy spirit. So there is some order in these 3 appearances. The first one, from me the second indeed [testimony] to cleanse Samuel, and finally the astonishment in the wisdom of the king. Solomon had wisdom of nature, but here he has the wisdom of God in him. And from this people were astonished. So now let s add their values:,עד 140,,ממני 74 and,היא אמו 63 (the name,סג which is the name associated with binah, with mother). 63 is also the value of Channah, a very important woman. She was the mother of Samuel, she was the one who prayed for her son Samuel who anointed Saul and David out of whom came Solomon. So altogether they equal 277, a holy seed. When we add this to 1092, we get 1369, which is the 37 squared, and equal,זרע,(ורוח אלקים מרחפת על פני המים) waters to the phrase, the spirit of God hovering over the

9 which as we said the sages say is the spirit of the Mashiach. And as we said, this all refers to the holy spirit. A beautiful gematria. In the word she is his mother אמו,היא we have the words היום and the letters.אא This incredible remez that we take the names of the tzadikim in whose courts the holy spirit appeared together with the words that the spirit said, we get the value of the phrase in the Torah s second verse that describes the holy spirit. From this we learn that indeed the holy spirit includes all three levels of the holy spirit, and that this is an order of toil. Every Jew has to find the basis of the holy spirit in himself. This is the first level required in order to turn the world upside down. It requires toil in prayer, and in learning Torah, and in acts of loving-kindness. With toil one merits having the holy spirit. This is all the aspect of submission in attaining the holy spirit. Holy spirit is entirely related to being a servant of God, to toil. But, Eliyahu equals son.(בן) Pinchas equals 4 times Eliyahu, alluding to the 4 sons. The basic revelation of the holy spirit depends on being a servant, on a lot of toil. Holy spirit is a sense,,חש like Yosef says, נחש ינחש איש אשר כמוני,כי he has an inner sense of what the truth is, an ability to sense with holiness. This is the sense that is given to the greatest tzadikim that are like servants. Then there is the level given to Eliyahu, to Pinchas, which is like a son. But, finally, one must be a son who becomes a servant, as explained in Chassidut, that on the one hand the son is separate from his father, but when he becomes a servant he feels that there is no truth but his father. Likewise, the Alter Rebbe described the chassid in the middle of davening and experiencing the level of revelation of the yechidah in the soul. The Alter Rebbe said about himself that he merited the level of a son who became a servant. We too, must all of us go through all three stages and with this be able to turn our world upside down and then merit to turn the entire world upside down. Now, on Yud Tet Kislev it is customary to sing the special nigun of the Alter Rebbe, the Arba Bavot (Four Movements). Before that there is a preparation nigun and after the Arba Bavot, we sing the happy nigun Nye Zhuritzi. Lechaim lechaim One of the phrases used to describe today is the holidays of holidays, החגים.חגים We began with the song of Padah beshalom nafshi. Most of the ma amarim of Chassidut based on this verse begin with the saying of the sages that whomever learns Torah and acts of loving-kindness and prays with the congregation it is as if he has redeemed Me and my sons out of the exile with peace. There is redemption that is with peace, and there is a more difficult redemption. Each of these acts is an act that increases peace in the world. The act of.כי ברבים היו עמדי verse, praying with the congregation, is learnt from the rest of the Regarding King David who said this verse originally, it is said that even his enemies prayed for his success, for his redemption. This is truly miraculous. Like the way it will be when Mashiach comes. There are three levels in this. There is submission, separation, and sweetening in this respect. The submission is when one combats the enemy and wins. This is what happened in the time of Moshe Rabbeinu who said, ה' וינוסו איביך מפניך,קומה your enemies should flee before you. Nothing happens to the enemy. He doesn t stop being an enemy, but he is conquered and submitted, איביך וינסו משנאיך מפניך.יפוצו This is victory using submission. Greater than this is the state of affairs during the time of King Solomon, when he was still a new and fresh king, clean of any iniquity. It says, that all because of Solomon s wisdom came and nullified before him. There were no real wars in his time. He had 60 warriors around his bed, but the victory was in merit of his wisdom. This is peace, but not in the way of changing his enemies making him his partners, but rather because the kelipah has been nullified before him. There is a rule of halachah that Esau hates Jacob. This

10 is a rule. It might be an exception to the rule that Esau would nullify before Jacob, but he hasn t stopped being Esau. If he learns halachah he should then know that his nature is to hate Jacob. So the reality of the kelipah did not change in Solomon s time. It only nullified for the time being. Temporarily, it wanted to be included in Solomon s kingdom. The example of this is the queen of Sheba who came to Solomon and out of their union came Nebuchadnezzar. The true sweetening will only happen in the time of Mashiach when the nations of the world change their language and come to be with the Mashiach. This is the stage of the yechidah of the Mashiach being revealed, and this only happens when the new Torah comes out of me, and this new Torah has to change the halachah: that very halachah that Esau hates Jacob has to change. In this world the Almighty hates Esau. He loves Jacob, but he hates Esau. And for that reason Esau hates Jacob. But, comes the Mashiach and in his new Torah, Esau no longer hates Jacob, he loves him, and he takes care of him. This is true transformation. In Chassidut it says that this state already shone a bit in the verse בשלום נפשי,פדה and all because the multitude are with me. It shines in the second half of the verse. In this case, the enemies were those who supported Absalom. The head of Absalom s army was Amasa the nephew of King David, Absalom s cousin. After Absalom was killed, the mutiny ended, and the end was that Amasa came back to David. Even earlier Amasai, whom the commentaries say is Amasa, said, שלום וביתך שלום וכל אשר לך שלום.אתה He brought the people of Benjamin to make a covenant with King David. This is the revelation of the Messianic spirit. The Ibn Ezra and the other commentaries ask about this verse, what does the letter bet in the word ברבים mean? There answer is that it is a prefix letter, and they bring a number of examples from other verses in the Bible. But, we would like to say something different about this prefix bet. We will say that the bet means inside. The in the multitude means that deep inside they have the potential to become supporters instead of enemies. If we would like to change Esau from hating Jacob, the reality of supporting, like the reality of an anti-semite (if in the future he might be alive) who might change into a supporter and become part of the light, the fact that he might be so is a reality that is not in being (in a Jew it is described as a reality that is concealed but in being). It says that in the future all the people of the world will convert, כגר.כאזרח But, even if they don t there is a mitzvah to provide for them. If they are outside the land of Israel they are called אומות העולם.חסידי If they are in the land of Israel, they become a תושב.גר This is part of the message we have when saying to turn the world upside down. The world also includes the people of the world. At the present, these people seem to be enclothed in the garments of the non-jewish world. Earlier we said that the spark of Mashiach must extend outwards today and enter everybody and be revealed in everyone. This is called praying with the congregation. Up to the chayah of the soul, it is a private affair. But, when it comes to the revelation of the yechidah, that is an affair relating to the entire congregation, and therefore it is called praying with the congregation. At the level of the individual we have differences of opinion, but when it comes to the congregation, when it comes to the true public domain, which this verse calls there everything can be turned upside down. Even the minister of war of these,ברבים multitudes can change and support the Mashiach.

11 כמופת הייתי Psalms: There is another verse that we would like to look at, in chapter 71 of King David says, Like a mofet I was to the multitude, and now One.לרבים ועתה מחסי עז of our students explained that the greatest miracle performed by David was that he became someone who belongs to the many, to the public,.לרבים If he is able to turn himself into one who belongs to everyone, then he can come today as Mashiach. There is a touching and not touching dynamic here between being in the multitude and being for the multitude. The Mashiach himself becomes part of the multitude. And not just any kind of multitude, but even those who in the past were enemies. In our times this is mitnagdim who have become Chassidim. Everything has to turn around and upside down, so much so that the Mashiach can take a relative and turn him from someone who opposes the Mashiach to someone who supports him. What about the word,כמופת like a sign I was for the multitudes. Rashi explains that the sign is the troubles and tribulations that David endured. The Ibn Ezra explains differently. According to Rashi, because I had so many troubles, even those who opposed me prayed for me. But, according to the Ibn Ezra, it means that I leaned on Hashem, I had confidence and trust in Hashem, and thanks to my trust, God redeemed me. There are two more explanations from the later commentaries. One is that David never sinned. What God caused him to seemingly sin was in order to teach us how to do teshuvah. Part of what he suffered because of his sin, as it were, was the mutiny of his son Absalom. David in this sense is considered an intermediate stage between Adam and the Mashiach. Because he raised up his hands and admitted his guilt, he merited being this intermediate stage. The sign for the multitude is that David was able to do teshuvah and that his teshuvah was received by God. So, the third meaning is that he sinned, he did teshuvah and the teshuvah was accepted by God. The fourth explanation is that David says that in his entire life (this chapter, the 71 st chapter he wrote and said on his final day on earth) he says, that when people look at my life, that I killed Goliath, and all the troubles I had at the hands of Saul until finally he is successful in life and becomes the king, that is the sign that he gives to the public. When people look at my annals, they say that somehow my supernatural success is available to all. From me everyone can learn that all can succeed in this manner. Believe that if you toil and try hard, you can ultimately succeed. Whomever understands, this a yud hei vav hei from below to above. Either it s my troubles, or my confidence, or my teshuvah, or my supernatural success. These correspond in order to hei vav hei yud. To complete what we said before, that my sign makes me belong to the multitude, these 4 interpretations work with this. The phrase, כמופת הייתי לרבים ועתה מחסי עז equals 1870 which is the value of the verse, We will explain the connection in the continuation of the.יפת אלקים ליפת וישכן באהלי שם farbrengen. According to tradition, the next nigun from the helige yid was composed to the word of Ein Kelokeinu, it is a nigun that expresses the sentiment that all should happen today, and that is the spirit to turn the world upside down today. Earlier, there were other tzadikim here,

12 when we sang their nigunim. We like to collect all the tzadikim together, and so now we ll bring the heilige yid who was the Rebbe of Rebbe Bunim and then of the Kotzker, who was very into the truth,.אמת When they said the verse, Truth will sprout out of the earth, earth equals Kotzk. We said earlier that there is a fine difference between the phrase turn the world and turn a world upside down. Between the world and a world (as it is in the original Yiddish. When a person really requires something in his life, for instance if he needs a particular medicine, one which his life depends, he will turn the world upside down. He will not necessarily turn the entire world upside down, but rather a world. This is part of the revelation of his yechidah, as is defined in Igeret Hakodesh in the Tanya. When a person really needs something, he will act irrationally to get it. The Rebbe himself said, I am crazy about Mashiach. Being crazy is above reason, it is called holy folly. To turn the world upside down you first have to reach this state. Then you are willing to turn both your world and the objective world upside down. If you don t need Mashiach to save your life, the life of your people, it is hard to see how he will come. But, if one needs Mashiach at the level of one who wants to save his life, then one can turn the world upside down. So what does ker a velt heint mean? It means that first of all you should be taken in by this spirit of really needing Mashiach and then at every moment you can change the world. It begins with your world, your personal subjective reality, and extends to objective reality. It began with the Baal Shem Tov, with the Magid, with the salvation of the Alter Rebbe, when God gave a green light to bring Mashiach. How do we connect the coming of Mashiach with the today of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi? The wellspring of Chassidut (pnimiyut Abba) is that Mashiach must come today, and he will come today, yet, it depends on the wellspring being adopted by all. There is another point about this phrase: before we turn the world upside down, we begin with a world. To turn something upside down, one of the ways in remez is to write a word in Atbash. So the word העולם becomes,צדפכי which equals 207, the value of light.(אור) How did the people walking in darkness see great light? By transforming the world in Atbash. Now the Rebbe said that one shouldn t give up on the exile, just add the letter alef into it, and then the exile becomes redemption לגאולה).(גולה Likewise, if we have that אור העולם is the final result, and it equals 358, Mashiach. The sign is to do gematriot, the mofet. One should strive to turn the world upside down, but one begins with the subjective world in oneself. Apart from this general principle, when we say Ker a velt, to turn this state from what it is into a positive and good state, it begins with one s inner world, but based on one s inner world, there is a certain part of the greater world that is yours. This is your domain, your purpose in life is to rectify that particular part of reality. Every person s mission in life fits the part of the world that he needs to transform. This is also turning a world, from your particular individual abilities, you can determine what part of the greater world you need to focus on. From this we come to another point. In Kabbalah it says that there are 4 worlds, and they all function together at the same moment. There are souls from each of the worlds. When we say Ker a velt heint, first of all it means to transform and turn upside down the world from which you came. This is where you came from and where you need to end up. That is where you need to do your mission, and when you transform that particular world, that is when you ve performed your mission. Now what might it mean to turn the world of emanation upside down it s a rectified world, why turn it upside down. About action it says that there

13 is a lot of work. The same is true of formation and creation. Since this all functions in conjunction, it can also occur at the same time. What campaign relates to each world. We said that only God s essence is absolutely true. So even emanation is a little false, and needs turning upside down. Now, in relation to the world of action, only really practical people can turn this world upside down. This is very important to understand. You can t change a world that you re not from. You have to figure out which world you are from and spend your time there. The world of action is like investing oneself on Jewish labor and on for instance, ensuring that the army has true ethics. If you invest yourself in this, you can turn it upside down. If you feel that this is life and death, you can turn it upside down. There are a number of commandments in the Torah that relate to Jewish labor: קנה מיד עמיתך.או And beyond that Jewish labor today is a life or death necessity. Whomever transforms this world, he has not yet transformed the entire state. All the worlds need to be turned upside down until the state is turned upside down. I need my friend to work on his world, and another on the world of formation, and so on. What does it mean to turn the world of yetzirah, formation, upside down? Formation relates to cultural norms, to social norms, to legal norms. For instance, to ensure that the rule of the Torah is what we use to judge in courts of law. To change the norms of how advertisements are done, what type of ads are put up in the public space. Social rectification is very related to feeling. But, most of all this is related to the judicial system. These are not the same people as those involved in the world of action. To transform the world of Creation? The higher you go, the more it is connected to frum people. The world of creation revolves around education, chinuch: from age 0 to 22. This is related to the intellect. In the time of the enlightenment, there was this idea of rectified education, and there the reformation of the maskilim was to add secular subjects as part of the curriculum. To mix light and dark together. What about today? What does it mean to transform education today? First of all it means to add a lot of Chassidut, and once there is a lot of Chassidut, it means taking the secular subjects and teach them 100% based on Torah, on holiness. This is the task of our generation. To take the beauty of Yefet, Jephte, whose language is science and symmetry and other things, and to bring them into holiness, into the Temple. There are people who fight for education that is holy. We are saying that there are people who s life task is to reform the education system, to reform it in the way of Mashiach. We ve now reached the world of Emanation. What is the revolution there? This world is already rectified based on Torah. The revolution here is what we said earlier about a new Torah that will emanate from Me. Like ומאתי יצאו הדברים.ממני Until now the halachah was like so, and in the new Torah it is the opposite, and this is not a contradiction, amazingly. A simple example is that in this world the ruling is based on Beit Hillel and in the world to Come it will be based on Beit Shamai, and specifically about their disputes it says that these and these are the living words of God. In the future the ruling will simply change, described as the ascendancy of the might above the loving-kindness. There are obviously only very specific souls whose issue is to make this revolution. One can understand how this relates to changing the way that people learn in yeshivot, the educational reform, which is of course even more important to do in the Academic world. The Torah must reach the university. It

14 must turn it upside down. This comes as a direct continuation of those whose task it is to change the world of Emanation. From creating a reform in Emanation comes making a reformation in education, in the world of Creation. And from there you descend into the World of Formation, and finally from there to the World of Action. The Rambam does not mention the mitzvah of Jewish labor, but this is a great and important mitzvah. There are many scholars today who don t understand the importance of this mitzvah and it s not taught in yeshivot. So what we ve said now is that there is revolution of all the worlds. And there is also the need for each individual to recognize his soul root and to see in which world he should invest his time in reforming and changing. Let s do the rest in short. Today, the 19 th of Kislev is the day of mazal of the year,.מזלא It says that the word equals 78, three times the value of Havayah. In this year, when Cheshvan is only 29 days, the 19 th of Kislev is the 78 th day of the year. The most important saying of the sages related to the mazal is that children, life and livelihood do not depend on merit, but on the mazal. These are the three things that people turn their world upside down in order to obtain in their lives. Yet, the sages say that these three things, having children, having parnassah, and their health, they re not dependent on merit, on one s actions necessarily, but on the mazal, on one s sign. We said that to reform the world of formation depends on those who can change our social norms. The most important norms in modern society have to do with rights. The whole idea of democracy and equality, they all depend on the idea of human rights. This is the holy of holies of the modern world. For instance in the United States, the culture that is taking over the land of Israel depends on three rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In any case, every individual has the right to these three. These are the multitudes today, this is what they base their culture upon. The sages seemingly use the word,זכויות rights in a different meaning (merit). But, really this is very related. The sages are saying that these three things, children, life (health) and livelihood, are not dependent on rights. Even though you do have these rights, this is not what ensures that you obtain these. It s not dependent on your even being a human being. It s dependent on your mazal. It depends on the message of the mazal, the 19 th day of Kislev. If we follow just the order of the parashahs we אין מזל is are now in the 61 st day of the year, and the message, the mazal of 19 th of Kislev mazal. Israel have no, לישראל Still, we must make the right use of human rights. Today there is a war on the world of creation, on education. The requirement is to add secular studies. One of the most important things that they want us to add is civil studies,(אזרחות) which includes all the norms of democracy, all the human rights. Now, if we agree to add this into our curriculum, it must be civil studies the way that we understand them. To be a good citizen means to have rights. It s not that man doesn t have any rights. Of course he does. But, the main rights are not those that revolve around the individual, but those that belong to the public. Public rights should make up the first lesson in our schools. There is the rights of the public, and they form the basis of all modern states. This is the right to revolution. I agree with this and this should be the first lesson. The initials of this in Hebrew are המרידה,זה.זכות It is the