Transcript
Good morning Boker Tov, it should be a good morning Imirtze Hashem, we should hear בשורות טובות ישועות ונחמה for Am Yisrael, we should hear only only good things. Want to thank our generous Emuna series sponsors, Dr. Zvi and Bella Morgan, sponsor in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut and in memory of Bella’s mother Dr. Ellen Schanz, we remain always appreciative to them. Also this morning is sponsored Lichvod Rosh Chodesh in memory of Dr. Jacob M. Hiller, who exemplified and modeled Simchas Hachaim. Also this morning is dedicated for a Refuah Sheleima משה אהרן בן רחל לאה. We are starting a new Limud. We completed that Sicha by Rav Druck, and we're going to start learning something new together. We'll dive into it in a moment, but first a couple of thoughts and comments. First of all, Baruch Hashem, you know you're successful when your children are also always thinking about good Drasha material for you and Emuna Shiur material for you. So my holy son-in-law Hillel yesterday said that his beautiful daughter, my granddaughter Miri, was lying on her stomach, little baby, and he went to pick her up and he picked her up, but as she was being lifted and she didn't know who was doing this to her she started to cry, she panicked, she was frightened, and when he turned her over and she saw that it was her father, she had a big smile and she was calm. So he wanted me to know there's an Emuna message that sometimes it feels like we're being jolted and lifted and there's a bunch of we're going through turbulence in our life and we feel why and who and what's happening and where am I going, but if we just turn over and look up and we'd realize it's our father who's lifting us up, if we'd look at Hashem and we'd see it's our father who's lifting us and carrying, then we could have a big smile, then we go for the ride. Now he didn't tell her where she was going, he didn't tell Miri what's happening, but she didn't need to hear because as long as you look up and you see your father, once you know it's your father, you're not panicked anymore, you're no longer frightened, that's all you need. So today's Emuna message brought to you by Hillel Storch, my son-in-law, he's good, he can stay, he can remain in the family. Was a good, was a good message, Baruch Hashem, was a beautiful, beautiful Emuna thought number one. Number two, number two, in these difficult dark days, this Et Tzara L'Yaakov, this Matzav that we still find ourselves in and we're so desperate to get out of, we want to wake up, every day we want to wake up and we want to see a headline that Sinwar's head is on a plate, he was taken out, that the hostages were brought home, that Hamas is no longer, that Hezbollah was eliminated, every day we want to desperately wake up to that to that reality and we feel and we fear that we need Mashiach to come for that to happen, we want to hear the president of MIT was fired, we want to hear that AOC's no longer in Congress, we want to hear that we got a long list of things that we want to hear and it feels like it will take until Mashiach comes. And on the way in, someone shared with me, you going to give out those cards for Mashiach? Mashiach Brachas cards. What are Mashiach Brachas cards? What are they, Brachas to say when Mashiach comes? Okay, I wasn't even familiar. It's good to know, we got to all get ready, we got to get ready, and we hope he comes before the end of our Shiur. So on the one hand, we're going to take a card and there's a Bracha we'll say to welcome Mashiach and we can't wait and אף על פי שיתמהמה even though it's taking time, nevertheless Achaka Lo every day we're waiting, every day we're waiting patiently and patiently and we want it to come. But I want to share with you as we begin this morning, a message, a thought, Rav Avrum Zvi Kluger, the Tzaddik from Eretz Yisrael, was at my home last night, he gave a Shiur to men in our backyard and he shared the following thought among many others. He's an author of fifty Sfarim, he's a big Tzaddik, he's a very holy person. Rav Kluger said the following. He said sometimes we're sitting and we're waiting for Mashiach and every day he doesn't come, every hour he doesn't come, we define and we describe as a disappointment, it was a failure, Mashiach's not yet here, Oy nebach, what's the point, what's the point of it all, he's not here, what a failure, what a failure. And to live a life that we're only sitting and waiting and in the interim and during that time we see it as a failure, that's the failure, that's the failure. Because while of course אני מאמין באמונה שלמה we long for, we believe, we get ready for, we should have Rav Biton, the Rav of Kiryat Eretz Hemdah, we've gotten very close with, and I don't know behind the I don't even remember when but videos of him that I've shared when I've been on the trips to Israel, Rav Biton who's serving in the north of Israel, he he took with him a suit, he took with him his suit when he's called up for Miluim because he's ready for when Mashiach will come. Who did that? People grabbed, some forgot to take their Tefillin, they left on Simchas Torah, October 7th, they didn't even bring their Tefillin, but he had the wherewithal, his mindset was, I'm being called up in the reserves, I'm going to the northern border to fight, he brought with him a suit so that he's ready to welcome Mashiach. That's Rav Biton. I shared with you, he's the one who carries the רבינו בחיי שער הביטחון in his pocket, and he said to me, "You want to see my secret weapon?" I thought he was going to take out a grenade, an Uzi, an RPG, a new type of gun or a bullet with a new tip at the end. He takes out this tiny little tiny little Shaar HaBitachon he starts waving it to the enemy. Says, "this is my secret weapon, take that, take that, take that." His bitachon. He's living with emuna sheleima. אני מאמין באמונה שלמה. We're sitting and we're waiting be'emuna sheleima for Mashiach. But said Rav Kluger last night, we shouldn't think that in the interim a life until he comes is a wasted squandered life. This is life. This is where Hashem wants us. This is what we're meant to be doing. And we can have a meaningful and full relationship, a rich relationship with Hashem. So if you're sitting and waiting and watching and saying he's not here and therefore everything is a failure because he's not here yet, so then that's a failure of a life. You've forfeited and you've squandered all that opportunity and all that meaning. But we need to lean in and we need to embrace and we need to make the most of and we need to bring him. And we need to bring him. And even if he's not here but Hashem is here. Even in the galus of Mitzrayim. Those are the parshios that we're reading. And they're very apropos as we're reading the harshness of the galus of Mitzrayim, the exile in Egypt, in which we spoke about yesterday in the parsha shiur. Hashem turns to Moshe. Moshe turns to Hashem: למה הרעות לעם הזה? Enough! Genug! Genug! Enough funerals, enough widows, enough orphans, enough parents burying children, enough shivas, enough, enough, enough! למה הרעות לעם הזה? We can't take it. We can't take it. It's enough. This galus Mitzrayim. We just want, we just want geulah. He said also last night Rav Kluger, he said, "you know we want a small gola." Gola means exile, darkness and harshness and bad news. Gola is exile. And we want Hashem it should be small. Why do we have to suffer? It should be small. Said, but you know there's only one difference between the word gola and geulah. What's the difference between the word gola and geulah? One letter. Aleph. The Aleph is always the alufo shel olam. Aleph is the one and only, the unique and single, the one Hashem, alufo, the Master of the universe. Alufo shel olam. The Aleph. So he said if you have a small gola and you add the Aleph to get to geulah, but it's going to be also a small geulah. Because you made the font small. You made your gola small and you add the Aleph, it's going to be also a small geulah. So get out of the way and let Hashem do His thing. He knows. He knows when it feels like a big gola because He's setting us up for a big geulah. And the Aleph is going to insert himself. The alufo shel olam is going to enter the picture and enter the scene. And on the heels and in the shadow of the Holocaust was the birth of the State of Israel. And the Six-Day War that hovered over us, where they dug graves, hundreds of thousands, thinking they were going to lose a significant part of the population. We recovered and we have a unified Yerushalayim Ir HaKodesh. And sometimes when it feels like that gola is so big and so overwhelming and where is Mashiach, when the alufo shel olam adds his Aleph and the Aleph answers, so that big gola is set up and positioned for that big, that big geulah. We're waiting, we're wanting, we're longing. But in the interim while we wait, it's not squandered and it's not wasted. In the interim and while we wait is an opportunity to be with and to feel the presence of, of Hashem. To be with and to feel the presence of Hashem. So each day we're in galus is not a farfalen day and it's a wasted day and it's a frustrated day and it's a day that we forfeit because after all here we are. Hashem has paskened we're still in galus. Hashem has determined and decided here we are still in exile. It's not a wasted day. That's where we're meant to be. That's where He put us. This is where we have to be for right now. And now the question is what do I have to do? What's my mission? What's my purpose? Why am I here? What difference am I meant to make? What's my role? How am I a leader? What am I meant to do while I'm here? So yes I'm waiting, yes I'm longing for Mashiach to come, but it's not a holding pattern. It's not like while I'm here there's nothing else I can do and my entire definition is determined by whether he comes or not. אני מאמין באמונה שלמה and we'll have a card in our wallet, in our pocket with a bracha we're ready to say to welcome him. Halevai and im yirtzeh Hashem by the end of the shiur, he should be here and escort us all. And we'll go see Rav Bitton in his white suit in Israel coming from victory. Halevai, Halevai, Halevai. And if not, that's not what was meant to be today. And what's meant to be today is the chesed we're going to do and the davening we're going to do and the brachos we're going to say and the hakaras hatov we're going to feel and the emuna that we're going to practice and all the other things that we're going to do to repair Hashem's world, to repair Hashem's world. I thought it was such an important message. He said many things, more than that, but among the things he said Rav Kluger, I thought it was such an important message, is that we shouldn't define our day by whether Mashiach came or not. Whether this gola ended. Because we have to be ready for a big big geulah, the alufo shel olam to add his letter, to add his name in. I want to share with you one emuna email and then we'll get into this new limud. The new limud today is from Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz zecher tzaddik livracha. Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz was a Rebbe in the Mir in Europe. up and Rosh Yeshiva in Shanghai and then Yerushalayim Ir HaKodesh and we have a collection of the Sichos of the of the Mussar Shmuzen that he gave in the Mir. It's called Sichos Mussar and at the end of Sichos Mussar is an addendum of the of the Sichos, the new edition of Sichos Mussar is an addendum called L'Regel Hamatzav. He spoke and he gave tremendous chizuk to the Yeshiva, to the Mir Yeshiva in Yerushalayim throughout the Six Day War, when the period of the Six Day War. And those Sichos were collected, and so we're going to learn. The same message is what we need to hear now, the same message is what we need to hear now. But first, a quick email from our, not from our sponsor. I've been listening to the Rav's Living With Emunah shiurim for quite some time, always look forward, blah blah blah. I'm at the stage of shidduchim and the Rav shiurim have given me a lot of chizuk through the journey. Every shiur I look forward to hearing the Emunah emails where everyone takes the lessons of Rav Guezover and applies them to their lives. I have a story and I'm excited to share. Around nine months ago, this is more, this is a great story, but it's not an Israel war story, it's more of back to the old days of the mundane story, but they're important also to see and to feel Hashem in our lives every day and and where He is. Around nine months ago my mother gave me a shopping list of things to buy for Pesach. While I'm very aware of the stereotype of not sending men shopping, I decided that day I'm going to prove the stereotype wrong. As I went through the list thoroughly, making sure everything on the list was marked off with perfection, I was excited to come home with a great job well done. As I came home with a big smile on my face handing the bags over to my mother, I said, who said you can't send men shopping? She went through the bags one by one, seeing everything on the list had been checked off exactly the way she wanted. Until right before I was about to take my victory lap, I heard, oh boy. I turned around confused, thinking to myself this can't be. She looked at me holding the cranberry sauce and said to me, this isn't kosher for Pesach. Not to mention the store had been turned over and ninety-five percent kosher for Pesach, I somehow managed to get the non-kosher for Pesach cranberry sauce versus the kosher for Pesach one. But the story was not over yet. Fast forward nine months later, the family's having a big get together for Shabbos, a lot of cooking had to be done. My mother was making her delicious cranberry apple crunch. However, we ran out of cranberry sauce. She wanted me to go quickly out to buy the sauce because if not now, there is not going to be enough time before Shabbos to do it. All the cars were currently being occupied, there was no way to get to the store. And nebach, the family would not have the world famous cranberry, world famous cranberry apple crunch. It's good stuff. Yocheved makes cranberry apple crunch. Once upon a time that was called dessert. Somehow that made it into the main course of the meal. Made it into the main course of the meal. But anyway, I digress. Let's get back to the email. As she looked desperately through all the shelves, all through the kitchen, hopefully to find one more can, I heard her scream my name, saying, look what I found! Low and behold, the cranberry sauce I accidentally bought for Pesach, I didn't know then but I was really buying for this Shabbos. The moment this all occurred I knew I had to share the story with the Rav showing a classic example of Hashem orchestrating everything from all points in time, causing me to buy the wrong cranberry sauce in order so that we could have it for Shabbos nine months later. Nothing is a coincidence, Hashem pulls the strings all the time, and every time a mother sends her son shopping, if they make a mistake, it's really Hashem telling them what to buy. I like that moral of the story. I fully concur with that conclusion. Thank you much. I hope you enjoyed this story. I very much enjoyed the story, and I agree entirely with it. And it is a great example. Not every example is at the highest level of the person who suffered a terrible loss. Some examples are also are also the mundane type. And this is one. But what's beautiful about it, and we'll get back to my encouraging you, if you don't yet have with your family or friends or for yourself a WhatsApp group called Hashgacha Pratis WhatsApp group, in which every day you find a story to share of what happened. The parking spot, turned out you got the cranberry sauce that you thought was the wrong one was the right one. The flight, it was changed, it was delayed, it was canceled, but it worked out. There's always and you don't just, you don't just leave a message, a voice note for the Hashgacha Pratis stories that worked out and then can you believe it, it all worked out perfectly. But also when it didn't, and it was frustrating or disappointing, it's all from Above, it's all from, it is all from Hashem. Tonight's Behind the Bima that's going to be posted, dropped tonight, is a conversation with Hadas Lowenstern, whose husband Elisha was killed in Gaza this Friday night Shabbos will be the shloshim marking it. His grandparents, Elisha's grandparents were members of our shul for many many years, the Lowensterns. His uncle lives still in our community, is a member of our our community. And he was an exceptional person, whose Emunah and Bitachon were off the charts and how he lived and how he lived his life. And the conversation with her is she's just not from this world. The stories that she tells and the feeling that she has and the gratitude to Hashem, all with her six children, the youngest is ten months old, who won't have memories of her father and never even said the word Abba yet, she's not speaking yet. And she addresses that and yet within it finds the capacity to feel that everything is from Hashem. And when I asked her, he was done with the reserves, I didn't know this, there's a law in Israel Once you have six children, you are released from the army and you no longer have to serve in reserves, you no longer are called up in Miluim. So when a war broke out and in his WhatsApp group with the rest of his unit everybody was mentioning they were called up, he wasn't called up and he called his commander. Why wasn't I called up? He said, because you were released, because your 10 month old now 10 month old but because your sixth child was born. He said, that's nice, I'm showing up anyway. And he went to serve anyway, put on his uniform and he served anyway. And I asked her, do you do you regret his decision? Do you think he made a mistake? Would you take it back? And you have to hear her answer. It's just not from this world. It's not from this world. Her everything and her Hakaras hatov for everything, including the fact that she says, and I'm sorry to get graphic but she says, she says, you know the anti-tank missile that that killed her husband hit him from the waist below so she was still able to have him to say goodbye to and to see his face one more time and Hashem is amazing and she's so grateful and so many didn't have that and she starts to list a long list of things that Hashem did for her even in this horror for which she is so grateful and sees the hand of Hashem. So from the apple cranberry sauce stories of our life to the Hadas Lowenstern stories of our life and many people in between, the tools that it gives us to live our life, I spoke to a group of women yesterday who are here on a chizuk mission and I met an amazing woman whose husband had ALS and and passed away. And she told me she had stumbled upon our Emuna shiur on Spotify, which is music to my ears. I love hearing that. I love Spotify. It's a great algorithm that keeps me going that people stumble upon and she shared with me that from when she stumbled upon it until her husband's neshama left this world they listened every day together to an Emuna shiur, sometimes two a day, sometimes one more than more than one. And that's not a big deal, the Emuna shiur is very easy to give, I'm busy thinking about apple cranberry crunch, that's easy to give. But she then described to me, and I told her to please send me an email, not because I want it for my files, because I want to share it with you and I hope she will take the time to do it because she's extraordinary. She went on to list when he passed away and the family and what they were able to do and they were able to bury and Hashem is so amazing and the Emuna muscle that she had so worked out and that was so strong and robust was ready to bear that weight of the experience of the loss of her husband. It was tragic and it was horrific and she cried and she's grieving and of course he's irreplaceable to her. Emuna doesn't make our problems go away. Emuna doesn't make life be happy-go-lucky. Emuna doesn't lead to life happy after ever after. Emuna doesn't do that. That's not what Emuna does. But what Emuna does is it gives us the tools and it gives us the koa'ch and it gives us the strength to navigate wherever we need to go. That's what Emuna does. Emuna's like Torah. The Ramchal writes in Mesillas Yesharim, he says Torah's lashon orah. Torah comes from the language of light. If the light is off in the room, let's say it's nighttime, there's no light from the outside, if the light's off in the room and we're in a room there's a bimah, there are chairs, there are tables, there are shtenders, how am I going to get from here to the door to get out if the light's off? I'm going to trip, I'm going to stumble, I'm going to fall over, I'm going to chalila hurt myself. So what does Torah? Torah turns the light on. Orah, Torah zu orah, Gemara Megillah says. Torah turns the light on. How does light help? The light didn't empty the room of the table and the chairs and the shtenders, you know what the light did? It let me know now navigate them. I'm able to get to the destination to where I want to go and I'm able to navigate around or over or under or through whatever's in my way. It doesn't change the reality of the world, but it gives me the tools, the light, the illumination to be able to navigate. That's what Torah, that's what Emuna do. It doesn't Torah doesn't take away and a life of Emuna, it doesn't take away loneliness or infertility or illness or poverty or war. It doesn't remove those things. We live in a world and nebach unfortunately until Mashiach comes those are the things that we have to overcome, those are the challenges that we have to confront. What Torah and Emuna do is it gives us the strength, the tools, the power to be able to navigate to get to the destination to where we need to go for the little things like missing an ingredient that could frustrate, having a flight canceled, my 3:00 meeting just texted me right before we began, he wrote Mazel Tov you have your 3:00 back, my flight was just canceled I won't be coming in today. But there's a met- now for me it's easy, I'm grateful to have my 3:00. What are you doing at 3:00? You want to get together at 3:00? I have a 3:00. There's plenty of things to fill that time, lest you worry for me. But but for him it's frustrating. He had a flight, he had meetings, he had plans, he had some a whole lot of things that were orchestrated. So Emuna doesn't change change that. Well, I have emunah, my flights aren't supposed to get cancelled. I have emunah, I'm not supposed to get bad news. I have emunah, my husband's supposed to come home from work. Emunah doesn't do that. Oraysa, Torah, emunah turns the light on. It gives us the strength and the power, whether you're missing an ingredient, whether your flight is cancelled, whether your husband doesn't come home from work, or whether your husband is not cured from the ALS. It gives us those tools. Not that we don't cry and we're not sad and we don't grieve, but that we have the capacity and the strength despite it to be able to navigate. I'll give you one other preview of the conversation with her. Many of the soldiers who went to war wrote a letter. This is, tragically, the minhag. To write a letter to your family in case you don't come back, in case you don't come home. Dr. Joshua Berman, his parents are members here, wrote an article this week on Times of Israel. He collected several of those letters and put them together. We're gonna put that article in the weekly because it's so powerful to read the letters of these fallen soldiers and what was on their mind before they went to battle. So, Hadas shares that her husband Elisha, Hashem yikom damo, did not write a letter. And when the others in his tank asked why he didn't write a letter, he said, because there's nothing I have that's unsaid. I've told my family exactly how I feel about them and what I value and what I live for. They know it all. I don't need to leave them or write a letter for them. And that's her message to us and his memory is don't leave anything unsaid. Go call, go meet, go reconcile, go speak to, go live. Go live, so your children don't have to read in a letter, oh, that's what you care about? Oh, we never noticed you do that. Live a life so that nobody needs to read a letter to know what you value. They simply saw you demonstrate what you value. It's an unbelievable idea that he said. There's nothing wrong with writing the letter. Those who wrote the letter left a beautiful gift in these circumstances to their family too. So chalila, it's not that anyone who wrote a letter left too many things unsaid or it's a failure in them. Their letters are beautiful, they're meaningful, we're sharing them in the weekly this week because they are inspiring and powerful for all of us. But I thought it was also a very powerful message and an important charge that she gives us to say that live a life where nothing is unsaid. Go live a life that no matter what happens, because any of us, whether one is going to war or just wants to wake up in the morning, none of us know what that day will bring. None of us know. So don't leave things that are unsaid. Say what we have to say. L'regel hamatzav, the handouts here if you'd like to follow it inside. Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz zatzal, Rosh Yeshiva of the Mir, this is during the Six-Day War. Erev Succos, תשל"ד. Isa b'Berachos, the Gemara in Berachos says, כל המרפה עצמו מדברי תורה אין בו כוח לעמוד בעת צרה. The Gemara says, somebody who weakens themselves, somebody who weakens themselves, who is lax when it comes to Torah, does not have the strength to overcome and persevere during a crisis, during a challenging time. It's very counter-intuitive. I would have thought you're running back and forth to doctors, you're running back and forth to a hospital, you're running back and forth to treatment, you're running back and forth to a rehab, you're running back and forth to the army, you're running back and forth to who has time? Who has time to learn? If there's ever a time that you're excused, it's during an illness, it's during a war, it's during a time of worry, it's during a time of crisis. If there's ever a time that you're excused from Torah, you're legitimately preoccupied with staying alive, I would have thought. But it's not what the Gemara says. Berachos samech gimmel, 63. Say Chazal, you want to survive, you want to persevere, you want to overcome, you want to have the strength? Then you need to learn Torah. You need to learn Torah. You need to have contact, you need to have connection, you need to draw strength and power from, and protection from Torah. From Torah. הרי שהכוח לעמוד בעת צרה הוא חיזוק בלימוד התורה. I shared with you Ephraim Jackman, Hashem yikom damo, the young soldier who was killed whose father texted me when I reached out to him that his son, that Ephraim, got up early every day in Gaza to daven without distraction and to learn the Daf Yomi. And Hadas shares about Elisha too. There was a picture she got from Gaza, from his unit, the tank unit, that they had some downtime, this one's schlupping, this one's making that yucky soldier coffee in a little pot on the fire, this one's eating, this one's resting, and Elisha's learning the Daf Yomi. Learning the Daf Yomi. Whether it's Elisha Lowenstein, Hashem yikom damo, learning the Daf Yomi, Ephraim Jackman, who woke up early in Gaza. Woke up early, not after eight, nine, ten hours of restful sleep. We mentioned last Shabbos, soldiers can't take their shoes off. You go weeks or months at a time without getting undressed and without taking a shower. It's possible when I told our son that his cousin hasn't taken a shower in weeks, he's in Gaza fighting, you know you can't shower for weeks, a light bulb went off and he said, can I join the army? You don't have to... He's an age that's okay. That's okay. If he were a little older, I'd be nervous, but he's an age that that's still okay when he said that. So it's not like it was after eight, nine, 10 hours, it's not like a hot bath and a warm shower and Ephraim Jackman had a good sleep and now he woke up early to learn the Daf Yomi before going back to fight. It's after sleeping with a uniform and shoes off and a vest and not showering or changing clothing in weeks or months and despite that waking up early every day to learn Torah because כל המרפה עצמו מדברי תורה אין בו כוח לעמוד בעת צרה because if you disconnect from Torah, if you disassociate from Torah, if you don't nourish yourself just like you can't survive if you don't eat and in an eis tzara as a Rabbi I go to a lot of people whether it's bedside in the hospital or elsewhere who are in a time of crisis and one of the things you know the Rabbi thinks that you gotta say is are you eating, you gotta take care of yourself, are you making sure to eat, are you taking care of yourself? Why? Because you can't take care of others if you don't take care of yourself and you're not going to get better if you don't eat. Okay, it's an eis tzara, I understand, it's a crisis. But you're going to not eat, you're going to not sleep? That's going to make things better? You have to eat and you have to sleep because you can't persevere through whatever you need to overcome and confront if you don't eat and you don't sleep. Say Chazal, you know what goes with eating and sleeping? Torah. If you don't connect with Torah, if you don't imbibe some Torah, if you don't absorb some Torah, whether you're listening, whether you're reading, whether you're watching, whether you're thinking about divrei Torah, but if you don't connect with Torah like eating and sleeping, you cannot persevere, you cannot overcome whatever tzara you are facing. והבני ישיבה מוטל חיוב זה ביותר. Now again, Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz is giving this sicha where? Six Day War. Where is he giving this, delivering this? In the Beit Midrash of the Mir of Yerushalayim, he's speaking to Bnei Yeshiva. And he's telling them, you have a greater responsibility. This is your service. This is your contribution to this war. You can't say, well, it's an eis tzara, I'm following the news, I can't focus, I can't pay attention, I need a break. You can't say that because divrei Torah ובין הזמנים שהוא זמן שהרפיון צריך חיזוק גדול ביותר. You know what else Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz said and many Roshei Yeshiva said it again now after Succos and on Chanukah? There is no bein hazmanim. There was no Chanukah vacation. The soldiers don't get to go home for a long weekend of Chanukah, Shabbos Chanukah. Soldiers didn't get to go home for a bein hazmanim on the calendar. So if your service is in a Beit Midrash and learning Torah, there is no bein hazmanim. And the Yeshivas throughout Eretz Yisrael, Rav Schechter, Yeshiva University and elsewhere, they canceled. There's no break. There's no vacation. There's no bein hazmanim. Soldiers didn't get it, we don't get it, said Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz to the Mir in the Six Day War in 1967. ועל האברכים לומר לנשותיהם מה אמרו חז"ל. And the kollel yungerleit, the kollel members, married, those learning in Yeshiva who are married, need to remind their wives what Chazal say Gemara Brachos Yud Zayin, Sotah Chaf Alef, ששאלו נשים במה זכיין. Women, what is their merit? What is their zechus? Women can learn. Here you are at the Emunah Shiur and we have our beautiful Midrasha and we have Mrs. Kanner's incredible shiur that is, if you don't go you should all be going in addition to the other Midrasha shiurim. So women certainly can learn on their own, but bameh zachyan said the Gemara at a time that it was not popular or women were not literate to learn, שיש להם מצוות ומעשים טובים הרבה. True, women have many mitzvos they can do and many ma'asim tovim that they are occupied with, but ואין להם זכות קיום כלל בלי לימוד תורה. But women's greatest merit is enabling and supporting and encouraging and empowering the learning of Torah in the lives of those around them. Gam b'zman haragil, even in ordinary times, וכל שכן בעת צרה זו, and especially in this moment. And I want to dwell on this for a second. I want to dwell on this for a second because it often gets underestimated or underappreciated or even is perceived as being some biased misogynistic statement or approach. And I want to strongly encourage exactly the opposite. Because sometimes it can feel, you know, the man or the husband or the father, he's back in the Beit Midrash, he's at the kollel boker, he's at the Daf Yomi, he's at the amud hashvua, he's at the Semichas Chaver, he's at the shiur with Rav Kluger, and what am I doing? I'm driving carpool, I'm packing lunch for school, I'm making dinner so that or I'm taking care of bedtime so he could be at night seder, what am I doing? And Chazal say, you know what you're doing? Your zechus is the greatest of them all. Empowering and encouraging and enabling limud haTorah, it's the holiest activity. And it could and it should transform that effort and that energy. You're not driving carpool, you're driving the Kohen Gadol to the Beis Hamikdash to the Kodesh Hakodashim. You're not driving carpool, you're driving a soldier to the front line, your fifth grader, your little fifth grader who you fought to get his pants on. and to take the shower and to brush his teeth, that fifth grader, that your little fifth grader that you're fighting with, that is one of the soldiers of Klal Yisrael, that when you drive carpool, you're dropping him off to his unit to go do his contribution to this war, to open his Mishna, his haschalas Gemara, his Lehaven, what's the booklet called? Lehaven. See how often I help with homework? Lehaven. That's his, those are his weapons. So you're making sure his backpack is packed, because those are his weapons. And you're giving him his lunch, because those are his provisions. And you're dropping him in fifth grade, because that is his unit. And you're putting him in his classroom with his rebbe, because that's his front line. And you can turn what is frustrating and annoying and difficult and exhausting and seemingly unfair into the holiest activity, into a righteous, religious, noble, holy activity. It's not all, you also can come to the Emunah Shiur, Mrs. Kanish Shiur, and Rebbetzin Taugish Shiur, and Mrs. Arush Shiur, and did I leave anybody out? Rabbi Shaptay Shiur? I don't want to leave anybody out. And Mrs. whoever else teaches in the Midrasha. There's... It's not in lieu of or instead of, it's in addition to, it's in addition to. But it should not be underestimated or underappreciated, the contribution of enabling and supporting and including mutchering your husband who wants to turn over and go back to sleep and not make it to the daf yomi. And you throw an elbow in his side and you set four alarm clocks and six snoozes and you tell him, Hey, oisvarf, get out of bed! Oisvarf, I didn't marry a quitter. I didn't marry some low-good reject, no-good reject, lazy, good-for-nothing, turn-over-go-back-to-sleep. Get up and get... Don't say that. I don't want to have to meet with you for shalom bayis. But wake him up and get him and say, I know you had a tough day at work, I know you're exhausted, I know you didn't get much sleep last night, I'm not trying to make you feel guilty, totally understandable if you don't want to make it out to the shiur tonight, but I want you to know if you want to go to the shiur tonight, I got your back, I got the house, I got it covered, go. I want to encourage you and I want to tell the children, isn't Abba amazing? He's exhausted, he worked so hard, and yet he still went to go learn. You don't understand the zchus that you have. You don't understand the power that you have. You don't understand the influence that you have in the tone of the home, in the message to the children, to a family, into defining a family as a Torah family, into bringing out the best in your husband who's counting on you because you're the akeres habayis. Is that fair? Maybe not. Did you sign up for it? Probably not. Did the shadchan bring it up? Was it on the resume? I would like to be an akeres habayis, I am prepared to annoy my husband and make sure that he goes to learn and will be the best. You probably didn't put that on your resume, and you didn't tell it to the shadchan, and it's probably not what you spoke about in the yichud room. When you turn over and want to go back to sleep, I will be there to throw an elbow in your ribs, I will pour water on your head, I will do whatever it takes to get you out that door. Probably not. Why is that fair? It's not. And when you do it and you are the anchor of that home, that akeres habayis, and you are defining that home, and you are bringing the zchus and the merit to that home, and you are putting that shield and protection around that home, and you are making that contribution to Klal Yisrael and to this war, fifth grader, first grader, the high school kid, everything that you're doing to enable, to encourage, to empower, to elevate the learning of Torah and the energy that that's bringing to this world, it can't be put into words. And it takes a moment of mindfulness to not be miserable about another carpool and miserable about packing another backpack and miserable about ensuring another lunch and snacks and miserable about having to meet the next bus drop-off. But all those are religious activities. Those are avodas Yom HaKippurim. That's the Kodesh HaKodashim. These are units of the army, these are soldiers giving their contribution. Packing that backpack with the Mishna, with the siddur, with the Chumash, with the lunch, that's... those are the weapons of Am Yisrael and Klal Yisrael. It's extraordinary and it's unbelievable and it's unbelievable. ותירצו בגמרא שם דזכות קיומם הוא במה דנטרן לגברייהו עד דאתו מבי תלמודא ומולכין בניהם לתלמוד תורה וזאת עליהם להודיע לנשותיהם שזכות קיומן הוא בהשתתפותן בלימוד תורה של בעליהן כמו שנתבאר ובפרט בעת צרה כזו. Says Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz, he's in the Beis Medrash, 1967 Six Day War, he's turning to the bachurim and he says, no excuses, no bittul Torah, no long breaks in the coffee room, no checking your phone, they didn't have phones then, no wasting time. There's a war, it's an eis tzara, it's only with Torah. He turns to the married avreichim, the kollel yungerleit, and he says to them, you go home and you buy your wife a gift. You go home and you say thank you to your wife, you go home and you recognize and appreciate and put on a pedestal the wife who lets you leave to come learn and to learn extra and to go back out for night seder, and you make her realize that she is the key and the source and deserves the credit for all of it. I'm not giving away the whole thing because I promise you it's still worth watching, but Adas said that her husband Elisha, Behind the Bimah, every Rosh Chodesh for the 13 years of their marriage brought her a Rosh Chodesh gift because Rosh Chodesh is the woman's holiday. They didn't give—she didn't get into this—but the women didn't give their money to the cheit ha'eigel, they didn't make the donation. Instead, they kept their jewelry, and when did they run to donate it? To the campus expansion plan. That's where they ran to go donate it. Where did they run to donate it? The building of the Mishkan. Building of the Mishkan. So Hashem says, ooh, ah, what am I going to repay them with? So he says, what do I have left in my, in my repertoire, my arsenal, my storehouse? Well, the shalosh regalim I already gave to Avraham, Yitzchak, v'Yaakov. And he goes through everything that he gave out. Shabbos and Yom Tov I gave to... What do I have left? I'm going to give Rosh Chodesh to the women. Rosh Chodesh is to women. And that's why the Shulchan Aruch records—they didn't teach this to you women, you know why? Because it was male teachers—but women, Rosh Chodesh is a woman's holiday. No laundry, you shouldn't have to make dinner on Rosh Chodesh, which either he should make dinner or if you want to eat better, buy takeout. You saw what happened when you sent the men shopping, gets the wrong non-kosher for Pesach cranberry sauce. That's what happened. But Rosh Chodesh is a woman's holiday. Is that just arbitrary? Hashem was like, what do I have left? Let's see. Ah, Rosh Chodesh. I'll just give them that. It's quasi-holiday, it's not even a full holiday, you don't even have an issur melacha. No. You know why? What is Rosh Chodesh? You know what Rosh Chodesh is? When is Rosh Chodesh? What does the moon look like on Rosh Chodesh? If I were in charge and I were making a holiday to celebrate the moon, I would have established that holiday when the moon is full. But when we celebrate Rosh Chodesh, it is on the first of the month. Next time it's the first of the month, go outside and look up, and what will you see? Yeah, that's it tomorrow. Rosh Chodesh is tomorrow. Tomorrow, taka. So tonight, tomorrow, go look outside and you will see the moon is barely discernible. It is a sliver. It is a sliver. That's when you make Rosh Chodesh? Make it when it's full, when it's complete, when it's round, when it's brightest, when you see it high in the sky. You're making it when it's a sliver and you have to—anyone see it? Where's the moon? Did the new moon? Where's the new moon? That's when you make Rosh Chodesh? Because what is Rosh Chodesh? Chidush, hischadsus. Rosh Chodesh is to roeh es hanolad, the capacity to anticipate, to predict, to believe, to have faith that something's yet going to come. That's why the Klal Yisrael, we don't follow the solar calendar, we follow the lunar calendar. We are a people of the moon, not the sun. Because the sun is stationary, that same sun is full and it's round and it's always there and it rises exactly—this past Friday, erev Shabbos Mevarchim, we had our sunrise minyan at the beach and it was one of those beautiful ones where punkt, exactly when the luach says it's supposed to rise, whatever it says, sunrise is, you looked up and the tip of the sun came up over the horizon over the ocean. It was unbelievable. Unbelievable. I have beautiful pictures of it as the sun came up right over the horizon over the ocean. Sun is predictable, sun is full, sun is always there, sun is always complete. But the moon, it waxes and wanes. The moon is sometimes a sliver then it grows larger, and even after it grows larger, it doesn't stay that way forever. So it's not that tonight it's a sliver and then the 15th of the month it'll be full and finally, Baruch Hashem, it'll stay full, it'll be full, it'll remain full forever. No. What happens after it's full? What happens the whole second half of the month? Then it diminishes. And it's דוד מלך ישראל חי וקיים. It's like the Jewish people: grows larger and smaller, we have our highs and our lows, it's the rollercoaster of what it is to be a Jew and to be a Yid. So why do we celebrate Rosh Chodesh when it's a tiny sliver? Because we know it's going to grow large. We believe with complete faith and optimism and hope and we know with certainty and confidence that it's going to be full again. How do we know that? The men? They were reliable? No. The men were panicking and they were therefore building an eigel and the women said, buddy, husband, relax. Moshe's coming back. You miscalculated. Have a little faith, show a little patience, relax. Just relax. What are you doing? Then Moshe says it's time to build a Mishkan. They say, now. Go. Act. Take it. Now we're ready to give. So Hashem says, ooh, the women who excel at patience and looking to the future and being roeh es hanolad and anticipation and hope and faith and optimism and belief in a brighter future, those women— who took us out of Mitzrayim, we just read last week, because when the men gave their wives a get, divorced them and said, I love you and I really wish I could stay with you, but we have to have no more children, so I have to separate from you, because this world is so harsh, this world is so miserable and cruel that we're not bringing any more children into it. And Miriam looked up, four years old, and said to her father, you're worse than Paroh. Paroh just wants to get rid of the males, you're getting rid of everyone, males and females. You're worse than Paroh. No children at all? You're worse than Paroh. And to Amram's credit, after mussar from a four-year-old, he doesn't say, go to your room. He doesn't say, time out, chutzpah. He says, she's got a point. She's got a point. And the women went and they beautified themselves in their mirrors that they had in Mitzrayim, and they attracted the attention of their husband, and they reunited with them and they had children. They didn't just have children, they proliferated, they promulgated, they multiplied, they had an incredible amount of children. Who has children in such a miserable world? Those who believe that the world is miserable right now, but the moon's going to grow full, that it's going to be bright, that there's a reason to bring children into this world. You know when this happened again? And what do we do with those mirrors? Those mirrors were the bottom of the kiyor, and while Moshe said, mirrors, instruments of vanity? I don't want them in our in our holy Mishkan. Hashem said, those are the most precious instruments that there are. Those are the holiest keilim vessels in a Mishkan, because the women looked in those mirrors to beautify themselves to demonstrate their faith that the world was yet worth bringing children into. And you know when we replicated that? You know when there was an incredible Jewish population explosion? Immediately after the Shoah in the DP camps. Displaced people who were skeletons, who were shadows of human beings, skeletons, survivors in the displaced persons' camps had children, many children. Probably again, if it were up to the men, they would have said, we survived, that's good enough. Who has the energy or wants to make the effort to have children, to have to send them to school, feed them, wake up in the middle of the night, change their diapers, have the small children small problems, big children big problems? We survived, that's enough, let's just get on with it. And again, probably, their wives said, no, that's not why we survived. We survived so that we can have children and a continuity and a bright future. And in those DP camps, this is fact, you know how it's fact because you can Google it. It's fact, check up on me if you want. But there was a Jewish population explosion in the DP camp. A people who limped away from a Holocaust as mere skeletons were determined that the world would yet become worth bringing children into. Those women, those Nashim Tzidkaniyos, and because of that, women are roeh et hanolad, because of that, Alisha Lowenstein brought Hadas a Rosh Chodesh gift every Rosh Chodesh. Every Rosh Chodesh. So tonight and tomorrow are Rosh Chodesh. And she said, what is she going to do? Okay, I'll get you a gift, whatever you want. 3:00 today, we'll spend time together. Happy Rosh Chodesh. So she said, what am I going to do, Alisha's not here to get me a gift? And you have to hear the most incredible story of hashgacha pratis, when she had that thought, her doorbell rang, and you'll hear the rest when you watch or listen to Behind the Bima. That is Rosh Chodesh. So nashim b'mai zachu, so this is what women merit, is is encouraging and enabling and empowering the learning of Torah, their own learning of Torah, but also their role and their responsibility to their spouse, to their children, and the other learning of Torah. So we only began with the first two paragraphs this week, but this was Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz's opening message. Opening message. This is Ma'amar Aleph. There are six ma'amarim, six sichos, six speeches that he gave in the Six-Day War to the talmidim of the Mir Yeshiva, and we'll go through them together because the messages are the same in the war then and the war now. And the opening statement of his message to the bnei hayeshiva in the war was, this is not a time to be distracted from Torah, to disengage from Torah, to this is a time to imbibe as much Torah as possible. That's our anchor, that's our strength. Just like we need to eat and sleep in order to be able to persevere and survive whatever we need to navigate, so too we need Torah. We can't have rifyon, you can't have weakening from Torah. And so their bachurim double down, avreichim, yungerleit, married students of Torah, appreciate and thank your wives and double down. This is a time that we need to double down, each of us figure out in our own way, and im yirtzeh Hashem we'll pick up next time. Please stay for Tehillim, we're going to complete all of Sefer Tehillim, everyone is in. and im yirtzeh Hashem we'll pick up next time. Please stay for tehillim, we're going to complete all of sefer tehillim, everyone is encouraged to remain.
