I'm so glad you're here. I'm so glad we're doing this. Thank you so much. My pleasure.
I've been thinking a lot, a lot about it lately, I think because of Sukkos, probably. I think because of Sukkos, I've been thinking a lot lately about about Tom. Tom, I mean Tom's always in the air, but then you asked me about that nigun, so I want to sing one of the the nigun of Tom's nigun, one of his nigunim. I could keep on playing all morning.
None of you would have a problem with that, but I want to get to learn. Okay, good morning, everyone. Boker tov. I want to dedicate the learning today to the refuah sheleimah of my father-in-law, Binyamin Efraim ben Miriam Sarah.
He should have a refuah sheleimah and feel stronger and better immediately, b'ezrat Hashem. Also, want to welcome my dear chaver, Matt Canter, who's with us for the bar mitzvah of his great nephew this coming Shabbos, and, of course, his brother, the saba of the bar mitzvah boy, as well. And, of course. The whole family should be a beautiful simcha this Shabbos, and we should bask in the light of an of another boy coming תחת קבלת עול מלכות שמים, עול תורה ומצוות.
It's a very very special thing that never ever gets old ever. So today we're going to do a piece, a piece I've wanted to do for many years, on the parsha. What page is it on? Oh, 38. This is from Even Shleimah.
This is a piece that I saw this year inside where it's sourced from. I'll give a little bit of a background. Beautiful beautiful piece lichvod Shabbos Bereishis. Shabbos Bereishis, the beginning of everything.
So, very very beautiful and a very deep thing. A very deep concept. So, the world always goes to cynicism, not always, but quite often quite often gets cynical whenever we talk about marriage. I'm not cynical, I'm married.
You know, all these statements and The I mean the roots of it, the roots of it all are are definitely found in a pasuk that could be very confusing. Because when Hashem turns to Adam Harishon, and He says, "What'd you just do?" So, his response is, "האשה אשר נתתה עמדי," right? It's her fault. What'd you Like, you know what happened. You gave it, you know, you gave me this wife, and of course, I'm going to listen to her.
And I And it's her fault, and she she she's the blame. So, what what What this piece does today does something so um It does something so beautiful in terms of redefining what that whole parsha was all about, and it gets it gives us an insight into what I believe could be a a a very a very big opening for us to reinterpret how we understand anything that Hashem tells us, anything that Hashem tells us. And the Ribbono shel Olam is talking to us all the time. Whenever we're learning, Hashem is talking to us.
When we're davenening, you could hear already Hashem the Ribbono shel Olam speaking back to us. So, this piece is based on a Torah from Reb Efraim of Pshe- Pshedzborz. This we we learned from him once before. Let me see if I have a picture of him.
He was a big one of the giants in Breslov from two generations ago. They put out now they have two two volumes of the Sefer Sha'ar Efraim. And he I was debating whether to learn it just inside from here, from his sefer, from his from his peirush on the Torah, or to just see it how it was, how Reb' Shlomo interpreted it, because here, it just it extracts it out of here. Maybe maybe one day we'll we'll if we have more time we could we could see this also inside, but we'll reference it in in a second.
He has a sefer that's called Oneg Shabbos, and in Oneg Shabbos, he basically it's a peirush on on extract like all the all the incredible koach that one can take out from every word of the parsha to give us more oneg for Shabbos. So the pasuk that we're going to be learning today is you know you know all this. Are there are there enough copies for everyone? Everyone has? You got to look inside today. I mean every day, but definitely today got to look inside.
The pesukim from בראשית פרק ב' go like this: "ויקח השם אלקים את האדם ויניחהו בגן עדן לעבדה ולשמרה." So Hashem took Adam, He placed him in גן עדן לעבדה ולשמרה.
"ויצו השם אלקים על האדם לאמר," and what did God command man?
"מכל עץ הגן אכל תאכל," right, "ומעץ הדעת טוב ורע לא תאכל ממנו." So from all the trees that are in the gan, you should eat it, you should eat, but ומעץ הדעת טוב ורע, so from the tree of knowledge, you shouldn't eat. Why?
"כי ביום אכלך ממנו מות תמות," because the day that you will eat from the tree of knowledge, you will die. Okay, that's the pshat of the pesukim over here.
"אחד מגדולי חסידיו של רבי נחמן, רבי אפרים, כתב ספר בשם עונג שבת.
רבי אפרים שואל: מה באמת היה חטא אדם הראשון?" He asks, let's, you know this is like an Izhbitza question: What was really the sin? So we've said it before many years, like how do we understand it אליבא דבית איזביצא, what was the sin of אדם הראשון? It wasn't that he ate the wrong tree, it was that he thought that after you make an aveirah, God's done with you. And that is the real aveirah, which is mind-blowingly deep. That that whole way of thinking is false in its yesod.
Here he's going to answer it differently. What was the sin? What was it?
התשובה שלו מדהימה, his answer is amazing.
"מובא במכילתא," so it's brought down in the in the Mekhilta, we see מכילתא דרבי שמעון בר יוחאי, "ולעבדו בכל לבבכם," when it says we should serve God with all our hearts, "איזו היא עבודה שבלב?
הוי אומר, זו תפילה." We all know this. What's avodah?
עבודה שבלב.
What's of to to work in this world? What's עבודה שבלב?
זו תפילה, that that means service of the heart, working of the heart is davenen.
"כשהתורה מדברת על עבודת הלב, הכוונה תמיד לתפילה." Whenever there's any mention in Chazal regarding avodah of the heart, it's always referencing to davenen.
הכוונה תמיד לתפילה. Chavre, can you can someone, if you don't mind, I'm sorry to bother, can someone bring I don't know, four or five chairs, משהו כזה, אנחנו צריכים עוד, it's it's here, from the בית מדרש, okay? Okay, let's try to focus back inside again.
I mean you've heard this concept I mean this is no chidush to anybody, עבודה שבלב, thank you, עבודה שבלב זו זו תפילה, everyone's heard of before, right? That's not a I don't think that's a chidush for anybody, right? I always say, and I I believe in this very strongly: Thank God that davenen's not called הרגשה שבלב. You know why? Because if I came to shul and I'm not feeling it in my heart, I'd be patur. What is it called?
עבודה שבלב.
זאת אומרת, when I if I come to shul and I'm not feeling it, the יצר הרע wants me to think in the name of authenticity, I shouldn't be really working so hard on davenen right now because the הרגשה is not in the heart.
Thank God, davenen's not called הרגשה שבלב. It's called עבודה שבלב. What's פסוקי דזמרה? It's the build up, it's the work out, right? It's עבודה שבלב. So we're working on our hearts because we don't naturally come into shul, especially in normal weekdays, when you're dropping after dropping off kids or a bad night's sleep and be like, "Ah, gevald, I'm feeling it!" It's not normally it's not usually how it is.
That's why it's called עבודה שבלב. So look what he does with this. This is a brilliant chidush.
"כך אומר רבי אפרים." If there are more pages to give out to the chevra in the back, are there any? Ah, zehu? Okay.
"כך אומר רבי אפרים." This is what Rabbi Ephraim is saying: "כשאדם שמע את הציווי שלא לאכול מעץ הדעת," so when man heard the commandment not to eat from the tree of knowledge, "הוא חשב שזה פשוט תיאור המצב," he just thought this is a description of like what goes on there.
"לא עלה על דעתו שהשם באמת" באמת רצה שהוא יתפלל לקיים את מה שנצטווה. He didn't think for a second that when God told me something, when God tells them, that he should daven over it to understand it better. He just looked at it as a proclamation from God, וזהו.
Now, that may work for the individual that hears it directly from God. If God speaks directly to you, perhaps you don't have to daven over it to understand so much in order to keep it.
אלא מה הבעיה? How do you give it over to someone else that didn't hear it directly from God? Who heard the commandment not to eat from the tree of knowledge? Only Adam, right? Where does Chava hear the commandment to not eat from the tree of knowledge? From Adam. And that's that's that's separate over here, but he wouldn't have added the chumra had he actually not had he had he had davened over here over understanding, ריבונו של עולם, what's what what do you really mean over here? Now, this has ramifications for our lives all the time, all the time, we'll see it in a second.
So again, כשאדם שמע את הציווי שלא לאכול מעץ הדעת, הוא חשב שזה פשוט תיאור המצב, לא עלה על דעתו שהשם באמת רצה שהוא יתפלל לקיים את מה שנצטווה.
לכן, כשאדם דיבר עם חוה, הוא בעצם העביר לה את ההצהרה: השם אמר לא לאכול את זה. When Adam gave it over to Eve, what was he what did it sound like to Eve? It sounded so dry. It didn't sound like there was any חיות in it because you can only give over Torah This was a moment of him transmitting Torah, but you can only give over Torah to someone through tefillah.
You can't give over Torah to someone just and and and expect them to be connected and understand it if you're just saying, "This is asur." It's never turned on anyone before from the moment of creation. That's the greatness of Yitzchak. With the עקידה, Avraham heard it from Hashem, and Yitzchak heard it from Avraham. Yeah.
Yitzchak Which means that the Very good, which must mean that when Avraham Avinu gave it over And we know this, he was davening that those that walk up to Har HaMoriah. The Ishbitzer speaks about this. He was stuck in such a contradiction. On the one hand, כי ביצחק יקרא לך זרע, on the other hand, קח נא את בנך את יחידך והעלהו שם לעולה, and it seems like a contradiction between the two.
So the the mefarshim are saying, really the chasidishe rebbes are saying, Avraham Avinu was davening his heart out, "What do you mean? What do you mean? What does it really mean?" And what you pointed out is is האי עובדא that he must have been davening the whole time, because he gave it over to Yitzchak and it was mekubal. And then what is it what is the akeidah called, עקידת אברהם? No, it's called Akeidat Yitzchak to show us the transmission of Torah that it went through, because he davened over it. So for us, what does this have to do with us? Quite often, a lot of things that we that we are told to do or not to do weren't kvetch't out. They weren't davened out.
So they appear to us in our lives as proclamations, as hatzharot. And at a certain point, זה כבר לא יזיז לי. It's not gonna I won't care too much about it, because I need something much more than that in order for me to stay intact. Is it coming across yet, a little bit? Is this on the level of prat or klal? Like of each particular mitzvah needs its own like cracks, or Yes.
Yes.
אתם יודעים, חברים, השם יכול השם יכול לומר המון הצהרות, ובכל זאת אמשיך לא להקשיב. God can make many proclamations, and I still won't I won't listen.
יש רק דרך אחת עבורי להקשיב באמת להשם.
There's only one way for me to really listen to Hashem. This is so deep. There's only one way for me to mamash listen to Hashem. And that is, אם ממש אתפלל בלי הרף על מה שנאמר לי.
I have to daven over what I learned. If I daven over what I learned, then I will continue to listen and be connected. Now, who came who was very big on making sure that you daven over what you learn? Rav Natan. Rav Natan, Rav Nachman.
Meaning, Rabbeinu HaKadosh. Because obviously he he understood that if you're if you're going to walk away from Likutei Moharan, even Likutei Moharan without davening over it, so you'll walk around knowing what Rav Nachman says, but at a certain point you'll stop caring. So what does he have him do? Put together Likutei Tefilot, in order to daven over what you learned. So I always thought like this: עץ דעת is proclamations, it's Torah, but I need וידעת היום to to become what?
והשבות אל לבבך.
When I write a tefilah, when I daven over the daat that I have, that's what gets it into the heart. Avodah shebalev, zo tefilah. And I think that's what he's that's what he's building up over here, yes. Just thinking, if you applied this now to naaseh venishma, naaseh being avodah, it it takes what what It's exactly that.
I'm saying. Mamash. So you have to the doing in this if we apply it this way is avodah shebalev, it's tefilah. Naaseh venishma, now it makes sense, the the order, the only way to listen The only way to listen.
is through the avodah. The only way he says that I could actually stay there with the רבונו של עולם, in the relationship, is if I daven over what I'm told. Why? Because I may know what God said, and I may know what to tell someone, but the link of God's word is going to be broken at a certain point. By Adam and Chavah, when did it break? Instantly.
Right away. He he heard it directly from Hashem. He wasn't confused about it. The second he gave over a proclamation in the name of God to Chavah, it wasn't strong enough.
Now, obviously we're You're going to see in a second how how this how this makes sense according to the peshat in the pasuk, too. Did Moshe Rabbeinu daven over the last dibrot, the last eight dibrot, because Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us the first two, right? He was up on Har Sinai to daven the whole forty Well, if you and I are still Yidden today, he must have.
אנחנו, we're we're living proof that he must have, because if he didn't, there's no way we would be sitting here. There wouldn't be Yiddishkeit.
There wouldn't be a Torah in the world. Is that also like with Va'eschanan? Like he davened 100%, 100%! And he's and he's It's the It's the highest form of tefillah over there, נכון.
יש רק Okay, so again, יש רק דרך אחת עבורי להקשיב באמת להשם, אם ממש אתפלל בלי הרף על מה שנאמר לי.
כל עוד אינך יושב ובוכה בדמעות זה לא זה.
Like we've learned, we learn a lot of things, but you know when you start crying over what you learn? When your kid stops keeping Shabbos, and then you're sitting there crying. So then, chas v'shalom, and then you're wondering what in the world did I do wrong? So, you know, and I this is not a klal for anyone, chas v'chalilah, but it seems it's like saying did I did I daven over the way that I gave over Shabbos to my kid, or did I just expect them to take my word the way I heard it from God, and that would have been enough? Right, it's like this in it's like this in many different areas. It's known. It says in chassidus, in Kabbalah, but you can the children can't learn from their parents the רובד השכלי, רק אפשר ללמוד מה מידות.
And that's exactly what it is.
בדיוק זה.
בדיוק זה.
זה המקור לזה, יפה.
האם מספיק שאדע שישנו המושג שבת? Is it enough that I know there's a concept called Shabbos?
מה פתאום.
עליך להתפלל מיליון תפילות כדי לזכות לטעום מה זו שבת. We're shomer Shabbos. Shomer Shabbos.
Oh, I just put you right now in John Goodman's mind, I know, but listen. We're shomer Shabbos, right? So listen like this. It's like this: did I ever daven in order to understand and taste Shabbos? No, why? Why not? Why usually don't I? Because I'm under the assumption that I know what Shabbos is because I'm Orthodox. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I know what the laws are, but to taste Shabbos, to taste, לאו דווקא at all.
לא מוכרח להיות בכלל. Doesn't necessarily mean that that that's a given at all, at all, at all, at all. That's what he's saying over here.
I could know there's a concept called Shabbos. I could know there's When was the last time someone cried over tzitzit? When was the last time we even thought about putting on tzitzit? I mean, we put it on every morning, b'ezrat Hashem. But with everything in our lives, there's לעבדה ולשמרה, which is what Hashem told אדם הראשון going into גן עדן. What's לעבדה? Daven over what I'm telling you, ולשמרה, and then you and then you it's amazing and then you keep it.
It's actually the flip It's it's almost like a flip There's five hands up now, chevra. I can't wait now cuz we're we have to go vayter. It's there's it's almost like this amazing incredible reversal of things. You're saying, לעבדה ולשמרה means when you hear God's word, you have to instantly both daven over it and also keep it right away if you want it to if you want it to last, if you want it to remain.
It's almost like the same thing, not lehavdil, but I feel it because this is the matzav we're in, is that there was a, there's an establishment of this modern State of Israel, which is, as we've been learning in this room for a long, long time already, is in dire need for tikkun. As Rav Yitzchak has taught us for for for years already about תיקון המדינה, right? But for some people, it's just taken, listen, there's a state, it's a country, there's whatever this interesting form of sovereignty is looks like, right? There's some kind of interesting sovereign thing going on. But the davening over, Hashem, what does this what is this gift that you gave us gave it back to us? Like, what mah zeh? What is this thing? I want to daven to understand it deeper, we'd we'd be with so much so much less problems. If we davend over the things that Hashem we feel Hashem is mamash telling us, giving us.
And when you daven over it, it lasts, and it doesn't remain a proclamation, right? Doesn't remain a proclamation. Let's go vayter.
התורה אומרת שהשם הניח את אדם הראשון בגן עדן לעבדה ולשמרה.
רבי אפרים מפרש שלעבדה פירושו שהשם רוצה שנתפלל אליו בעבודה שבלב.
He says that it doesn't mean become a heylige gardener, which is no diss at all, gardeners are some of my favorite people, right? That's not what it meant.
לעבדה ולשמרה, he means he wanted us to daven to him בעבודה שבלב, שפשוט לא נוכל לאכול מן הפירות הלא נכונים של העולם. That we should daven that we shouldn't be capable of eating the wrong fruit, the equivalent of that in the world. That's what it means.
When you hear an issur, it's not just a, okay, now I know this is wrong, it's that he wanted us to daven over that we shouldn't be capable of doing aveirot. We shouldn't be capable. Now, in here, I had to look at it inside in the source, cuz I didn't see that in many years, and he says like this: יש לומר, Rabbi Efraim says, כי כוונתו יתברך היה שיעשה האדם התבודדות. That's how he says it.
It must mean, when Hashem says לעבדה ולשמרה, it must mean cuz ויקח, the word ויקח השם אלוקים את האדם, ויקח, רש״י says, לקחו בדברים נעימים ופיתהו להיכנס. He got him, ויקח, he took him. How did he convince him to come in? With דברים נעימים, with nice words, and he seduced him to come inside the garden. What were the nice words that he used in order to get Adam Harishon to go into Gan Eden?
לעבדה ולשמרה.
What does that mean? He gave him over the secret of hitbodedut of saying, you really, do you know how deep that it's going to get with us if you come in here? If you לעבדה ולשמרה, if you keep on davening over my words, you're going to feel it only gets better, it only gets deeper, you're only going to feel closer. And that was the, according to Rashi the way that he understands it, the seduction, the way that Hashem got Adam Harishon to come inside. Cuz he told him, listen, it's not a proclamation game, that's not why I created the world, so that I'm a judge, I say what it is, or I'm a governor, I say what it is, how I govern, and now that's it.
לעבדה ולשמרה.
לקחו בדברים נעימים. So again, רבי אפרים מפרש שלעבדה פירושו שהשם רוצה שנתפלל אליו בעבודה שבלב, שפשוט לא נוכל לאכול מן הפירות הלא נכונים של העולם. That we just we we just won't be capable. Like, do you ever daven to Hashem and the words weren't, Hashem, I'm sorry, but the words were, Ribono shel Olam, like please, please that when I learn about your ratzon, please may it be that I mammash end up having no בחירה חופשית? And I know you created me with בחירה חופשית, it's part of the game.
But part of me really wants, wishes that I had no, that there's not a, there's not a מציאות, אין מצב, there's no, there's no chance that I could ever end up dis, dis, you know, disobeying you.
עשה רצונך כרצונו. Sorry? Isn't there a tefillah where we say עשה רצונך כרצונו? There well the Mishnah in Pirkei Avot says, but you know, אין, אין דבר העומד בפני הרצון?
בטל רצונך מפני רצונו. Yeah.
I mean we put it into different tefilot, עשה רצונך כרצונו, but it's more than just that. Like make your will my will, but it's it's more than that, like make it in such a way, unless this is your kavanah when you say this tefillah every day that you just quoted. I didn't think so, right, so עשה רצונך כרצונו could mean, should mean, like Ribono shel Olam, make it be your make your will be my will, but to such an extent That I can't not listen to you, that I I understand you in the deepest way and I can't not listen to you. Why? Because even if I still keep your word, I can't transmit your word to someone else on the level that it will last by them.
And what's the greatest proof and example of it? Right here, the first parashah in the Torah, the first two human beings, the first level of mesorah. This is the first level of mesorah, of transmission of God's word. And right over here it gets messed up, right there, when you think that it's just about a proclamation. Now, he ends off this paragraph in saying, אבל כשאדם מסר לחוה את הציווי הזה, זה נשמע כמו מין הצהרה גרידא.
But when God, when when when Adam gave over to Chavah the commandment, it simply sounded like a proclamation.
דעו לכם, he ends off here.
כשאני מנסה ללמד לאדם אחר משהו שלא התפללתי עליו... This is like to all mechanchim in the world, and to all mechanchim that should not be mechanchim.
I I pray this this reach be'emet, there's there's a devastating epidemic of mechanchim in yeshivos of people that should not be mechanchim at all. It's a horrible epidemic that has horrific ramifications. It's slaughtered families, mamash. That they that these this this words that he say right now, when I try to teach someone that something else that I didn't daven over, אין לכך שום השפעה.
He's being nice here, he says it has no השפעה. I want to say, oh, it has a השפעה. It has a horrific השפעה, horrific influence.
לפעמים אני שומע שמלמדים יהדות, אבל זה מותיר אותי קר כקרח.
So sometimes I hear people they're saying they're talking about Yiddishkeit, leaves me cold like ice. Aderaba! Not only cold like ice, אני אפילו רוצה להקיא, I want to actually throw up. Why?
כי אם זו היא יהדות, מי צריך את זה בכלל? Cuz if this is Yiddishkeit, who needs this? Who needs this?
ולעומת זאת, and sometimes, לפעמים אתה שומע את היהודי הכי עני בדעת. Sometimes you you you hear from someone, a yidele who is so poor in his knowledge, barely knows anything, אבל הוא יודע מילה אחת של תורה, but he knows one word of Torah on the level of לעבדה ולשמרה וזה חודר לתוכך כל כך עמוק, it goes so deep into you.
Why?
כי הוא התפלל על זה. That's the reason. How could it be someone's such a talmid chacham and he leaves me cold like ice, and then one guy barely knows anything, he says one word to me. You know, when I was living in L.A., I met chevra like this all the time.
The chevra that mamash the one word the one word of תורה חברה, the one-word תורה חברה. Remember all the chevra I would bring home, Abba, sometimes like, you know, these people, did you ever learn Masechet Rosh Hashanah? Rosh Hashanah, that's like the shofar, like guys knew nothing, right? But then you they they they learned one word on the level of Etz Hachaim, and you're blown away, and you're we we meet these people all the time. I mean right now in Eretz Yisrael, Eretz Yisrael is filled with chevra like this. In the Israeli scene, not in the other scene.
In the Israeli scene, it's filled with chevra like this. He says over here how could it be that one person could say one word and it it puts me on such a fire, because they must have davened over it, they must have heard something and they had a conversation with God, and they did what he said over here, they had a little hitbodedut and say, what does this really mean? So I want you to know, chevra, this teaching is infinitely deeper than the way that we're trying to give it over right now. But I know that if there was one teaching that we would want to master for the sake of the homes that we're raising, it's this one. It's this teaching.
One time a mother called me and said, I don't understand, my sons, so in the she raised her children in the States, so she started telling me how much money she she paid every year for the tuition. I don't understand, it must have been like, you know, a few children, it must have been like I probably my husband and I probably put like $350,000 into our into the elementary school, and the kid comes out of elementary school ready to go to high school, the second he got realized he's a bar daat, the kippah came off, and the tzitzit came off, and we don't understand. We we sent him to all the school. My husband worked so hard so that he could have Jewish education, right? And we see how the whole thing is bankrupt in its yesod.
It's all bankrupt, it's a bankrupt system. Because they're sending them to institutions that half the time, mamash, half the time, the people that are giving over God's word never davened over God's word. Ela mai, they were told, "You have a good kop, you should be in chinuch." That's what they were told when they were younger. So they're thinking about parnassah.
So they're getting their parnassah, so they'll that that they have a job, and it can even be holy, because it's Torah. Torah? They're shechters. Sorry, just experienced it with a with a certain maaseh recently. They're shechters, they're slaughterers, and it's a it's a it's such a busha v'charpah that that schools would hire people that do such an עץ הדעת transmission of of of of of דבר השם.
Our whole thing is to have teachers of עץ החיים, but remember, the עץ החיים teachers may not necessarily know as much daat Torah as the עץ החיים חבר'ה, but I'd take them over them any day of the year. And this is all coming from this inyan of how we understand this pasuk: ויקח השם אלוקים את האדם ויניחהו בגן עדן, and in Gan Eden is the world of the Ribono Shel Olam and us being back and forth in harmony and in oneness, transmission of the רצון of Hashem in its purest form, but there's two words: לעבדה ולשמרה.
לעבדה, we דרש'ן, איזו היא עבודה שבלב?
זו תפילה. This is not our chiddush, Mechilta de-Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, it's based on a midrash by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, and only then ממש לשמרה.
Then I guard the giluy that I have from my hitbodedut, I guard it with me, and then I dare open my mouth to give over דבר השם to someone else. Only then I have the chutzpah to actually tell someone else what God said or what God means. Can you imagine if the prerequisite for hiring staffs in schools, in institutions, was this? It it'd be it'd be Gan Eden. Literally, it would be Gan Eden.
Like literally speaking. Halevai it should be from our chelek, and we should be back in the garden, be-ezrat Hashem, through fiery, fiery tefillah. Yashar koach.
I've been thinking a lot, a lot about it lately, I think because of Sukkos, probably. I think because of Sukkos, I've been thinking a lot lately about about Tom. Tom, I mean Tom's always in the air, but then you asked me about that nigun, so I want to sing one of the the nigun of Tom's nigun, one of his nigunim. I could keep on playing all morning.
None of you would have a problem with that, but I want to get to learn. Okay, good morning, everyone. Boker tov. I want to dedicate the learning today to the refuah sheleimah of my father-in-law, Binyamin Efraim ben Miriam Sarah.
He should have a refuah sheleimah and feel stronger and better immediately, b'ezrat Hashem. Also, want to welcome my dear chaver, Matt Canter, who's with us for the bar mitzvah of his great nephew this coming Shabbos, and, of course, his brother, the saba of the bar mitzvah boy, as well. And, of course. The whole family should be a beautiful simcha this Shabbos, and we should bask in the light of an of another boy coming תחת קבלת עול מלכות שמים, עול תורה ומצוות.
It's a very very special thing that never ever gets old ever. So today we're going to do a piece, a piece I've wanted to do for many years, on the parsha. What page is it on? Oh, 38. This is from Even Shleimah.
This is a piece that I saw this year inside where it's sourced from. I'll give a little bit of a background. Beautiful beautiful piece lichvod Shabbos Bereishis. Shabbos Bereishis, the beginning of everything.
So, very very beautiful and a very deep thing. A very deep concept. So, the world always goes to cynicism, not always, but quite often quite often gets cynical whenever we talk about marriage. I'm not cynical, I'm married.
You know, all these statements and The I mean the roots of it, the roots of it all are are definitely found in a pasuk that could be very confusing. Because when Hashem turns to Adam Harishon, and He says, "What'd you just do?" So, his response is, "האשה אשר נתתה עמדי," right? It's her fault. What'd you Like, you know what happened. You gave it, you know, you gave me this wife, and of course, I'm going to listen to her.
And I And it's her fault, and she she she's the blame. So, what what What this piece does today does something so um It does something so beautiful in terms of redefining what that whole parsha was all about, and it gets it gives us an insight into what I believe could be a a a very a very big opening for us to reinterpret how we understand anything that Hashem tells us, anything that Hashem tells us. And the Ribbono shel Olam is talking to us all the time. Whenever we're learning, Hashem is talking to us.
When we're davenening, you could hear already Hashem the Ribbono shel Olam speaking back to us. So, this piece is based on a Torah from Reb Efraim of Pshe- Pshedzborz. This we we learned from him once before. Let me see if I have a picture of him.
He was a big one of the giants in Breslov from two generations ago. They put out now they have two two volumes of the Sefer Sha'ar Efraim. And he I was debating whether to learn it just inside from here, from his sefer, from his from his peirush on the Torah, or to just see it how it was, how Reb' Shlomo interpreted it, because here, it just it extracts it out of here. Maybe maybe one day we'll we'll if we have more time we could we could see this also inside, but we'll reference it in in a second.
He has a sefer that's called Oneg Shabbos, and in Oneg Shabbos, he basically it's a peirush on on extract like all the all the incredible koach that one can take out from every word of the parsha to give us more oneg for Shabbos. So the pasuk that we're going to be learning today is you know you know all this. Are there are there enough copies for everyone? Everyone has? You got to look inside today. I mean every day, but definitely today got to look inside.
The pesukim from בראשית פרק ב' go like this: "ויקח השם אלקים את האדם ויניחהו בגן עדן לעבדה ולשמרה." So Hashem took Adam, He placed him in גן עדן לעבדה ולשמרה.
"ויצו השם אלקים על האדם לאמר," and what did God command man?
"מכל עץ הגן אכל תאכל," right, "ומעץ הדעת טוב ורע לא תאכל ממנו." So from all the trees that are in the gan, you should eat it, you should eat, but ומעץ הדעת טוב ורע, so from the tree of knowledge, you shouldn't eat. Why?
"כי ביום אכלך ממנו מות תמות," because the day that you will eat from the tree of knowledge, you will die. Okay, that's the pshat of the pesukim over here.
"אחד מגדולי חסידיו של רבי נחמן, רבי אפרים, כתב ספר בשם עונג שבת.
רבי אפרים שואל: מה באמת היה חטא אדם הראשון?" He asks, let's, you know this is like an Izhbitza question: What was really the sin? So we've said it before many years, like how do we understand it אליבא דבית איזביצא, what was the sin of אדם הראשון? It wasn't that he ate the wrong tree, it was that he thought that after you make an aveirah, God's done with you. And that is the real aveirah, which is mind-blowingly deep. That that whole way of thinking is false in its yesod.
Here he's going to answer it differently. What was the sin? What was it?
התשובה שלו מדהימה, his answer is amazing.
"מובא במכילתא," so it's brought down in the in the Mekhilta, we see מכילתא דרבי שמעון בר יוחאי, "ולעבדו בכל לבבכם," when it says we should serve God with all our hearts, "איזו היא עבודה שבלב?
הוי אומר, זו תפילה." We all know this. What's avodah?
עבודה שבלב.
What's of to to work in this world? What's עבודה שבלב?
זו תפילה, that that means service of the heart, working of the heart is davenen.
"כשהתורה מדברת על עבודת הלב, הכוונה תמיד לתפילה." Whenever there's any mention in Chazal regarding avodah of the heart, it's always referencing to davenen.
הכוונה תמיד לתפילה. Chavre, can you can someone, if you don't mind, I'm sorry to bother, can someone bring I don't know, four or five chairs, משהו כזה, אנחנו צריכים עוד, it's it's here, from the בית מדרש, okay? Okay, let's try to focus back inside again.
I mean you've heard this concept I mean this is no chidush to anybody, עבודה שבלב, thank you, עבודה שבלב זו זו תפילה, everyone's heard of before, right? That's not a I don't think that's a chidush for anybody, right? I always say, and I I believe in this very strongly: Thank God that davenen's not called הרגשה שבלב. You know why? Because if I came to shul and I'm not feeling it in my heart, I'd be patur. What is it called?
עבודה שבלב.
זאת אומרת, when I if I come to shul and I'm not feeling it, the יצר הרע wants me to think in the name of authenticity, I shouldn't be really working so hard on davenen right now because the הרגשה is not in the heart.
Thank God, davenen's not called הרגשה שבלב. It's called עבודה שבלב. What's פסוקי דזמרה? It's the build up, it's the work out, right? It's עבודה שבלב. So we're working on our hearts because we don't naturally come into shul, especially in normal weekdays, when you're dropping after dropping off kids or a bad night's sleep and be like, "Ah, gevald, I'm feeling it!" It's not normally it's not usually how it is.
That's why it's called עבודה שבלב. So look what he does with this. This is a brilliant chidush.
"כך אומר רבי אפרים." If there are more pages to give out to the chevra in the back, are there any? Ah, zehu? Okay.
"כך אומר רבי אפרים." This is what Rabbi Ephraim is saying: "כשאדם שמע את הציווי שלא לאכול מעץ הדעת," so when man heard the commandment not to eat from the tree of knowledge, "הוא חשב שזה פשוט תיאור המצב," he just thought this is a description of like what goes on there.
"לא עלה על דעתו שהשם באמת" באמת רצה שהוא יתפלל לקיים את מה שנצטווה. He didn't think for a second that when God told me something, when God tells them, that he should daven over it to understand it better. He just looked at it as a proclamation from God, וזהו.
Now, that may work for the individual that hears it directly from God. If God speaks directly to you, perhaps you don't have to daven over it to understand so much in order to keep it.
אלא מה הבעיה? How do you give it over to someone else that didn't hear it directly from God? Who heard the commandment not to eat from the tree of knowledge? Only Adam, right? Where does Chava hear the commandment to not eat from the tree of knowledge? From Adam. And that's that's that's separate over here, but he wouldn't have added the chumra had he actually not had he had he had davened over here over understanding, ריבונו של עולם, what's what what do you really mean over here? Now, this has ramifications for our lives all the time, all the time, we'll see it in a second.
So again, כשאדם שמע את הציווי שלא לאכול מעץ הדעת, הוא חשב שזה פשוט תיאור המצב, לא עלה על דעתו שהשם באמת רצה שהוא יתפלל לקיים את מה שנצטווה.
לכן, כשאדם דיבר עם חוה, הוא בעצם העביר לה את ההצהרה: השם אמר לא לאכול את זה. When Adam gave it over to Eve, what was he what did it sound like to Eve? It sounded so dry. It didn't sound like there was any חיות in it because you can only give over Torah This was a moment of him transmitting Torah, but you can only give over Torah to someone through tefillah.
You can't give over Torah to someone just and and and expect them to be connected and understand it if you're just saying, "This is asur." It's never turned on anyone before from the moment of creation. That's the greatness of Yitzchak. With the עקידה, Avraham heard it from Hashem, and Yitzchak heard it from Avraham. Yeah.
Yitzchak Which means that the Very good, which must mean that when Avraham Avinu gave it over And we know this, he was davening that those that walk up to Har HaMoriah. The Ishbitzer speaks about this. He was stuck in such a contradiction. On the one hand, כי ביצחק יקרא לך זרע, on the other hand, קח נא את בנך את יחידך והעלהו שם לעולה, and it seems like a contradiction between the two.
So the the mefarshim are saying, really the chasidishe rebbes are saying, Avraham Avinu was davening his heart out, "What do you mean? What do you mean? What does it really mean?" And what you pointed out is is האי עובדא that he must have been davening the whole time, because he gave it over to Yitzchak and it was mekubal. And then what is it what is the akeidah called, עקידת אברהם? No, it's called Akeidat Yitzchak to show us the transmission of Torah that it went through, because he davened over it. So for us, what does this have to do with us? Quite often, a lot of things that we that we are told to do or not to do weren't kvetch't out. They weren't davened out.
So they appear to us in our lives as proclamations, as hatzharot. And at a certain point, זה כבר לא יזיז לי. It's not gonna I won't care too much about it, because I need something much more than that in order for me to stay intact. Is it coming across yet, a little bit? Is this on the level of prat or klal? Like of each particular mitzvah needs its own like cracks, or Yes.
Yes.
אתם יודעים, חברים, השם יכול השם יכול לומר המון הצהרות, ובכל זאת אמשיך לא להקשיב. God can make many proclamations, and I still won't I won't listen.
יש רק דרך אחת עבורי להקשיב באמת להשם.
There's only one way for me to really listen to Hashem. This is so deep. There's only one way for me to mamash listen to Hashem. And that is, אם ממש אתפלל בלי הרף על מה שנאמר לי.
I have to daven over what I learned. If I daven over what I learned, then I will continue to listen and be connected. Now, who came who was very big on making sure that you daven over what you learn? Rav Natan. Rav Natan, Rav Nachman.
Meaning, Rabbeinu HaKadosh. Because obviously he he understood that if you're if you're going to walk away from Likutei Moharan, even Likutei Moharan without davening over it, so you'll walk around knowing what Rav Nachman says, but at a certain point you'll stop caring. So what does he have him do? Put together Likutei Tefilot, in order to daven over what you learned. So I always thought like this: עץ דעת is proclamations, it's Torah, but I need וידעת היום to to become what?
והשבות אל לבבך.
When I write a tefilah, when I daven over the daat that I have, that's what gets it into the heart. Avodah shebalev, zo tefilah. And I think that's what he's that's what he's building up over here, yes. Just thinking, if you applied this now to naaseh venishma, naaseh being avodah, it it takes what what It's exactly that.
I'm saying. Mamash. So you have to the doing in this if we apply it this way is avodah shebalev, it's tefilah. Naaseh venishma, now it makes sense, the the order, the only way to listen The only way to listen.
is through the avodah. The only way he says that I could actually stay there with the רבונו של עולם, in the relationship, is if I daven over what I'm told. Why? Because I may know what God said, and I may know what to tell someone, but the link of God's word is going to be broken at a certain point. By Adam and Chavah, when did it break? Instantly.
Right away. He he heard it directly from Hashem. He wasn't confused about it. The second he gave over a proclamation in the name of God to Chavah, it wasn't strong enough.
Now, obviously we're You're going to see in a second how how this how this makes sense according to the peshat in the pasuk, too. Did Moshe Rabbeinu daven over the last dibrot, the last eight dibrot, because Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us the first two, right? He was up on Har Sinai to daven the whole forty Well, if you and I are still Yidden today, he must have.
אנחנו, we're we're living proof that he must have, because if he didn't, there's no way we would be sitting here. There wouldn't be Yiddishkeit.
There wouldn't be a Torah in the world. Is that also like with Va'eschanan? Like he davened 100%, 100%! And he's and he's It's the It's the highest form of tefillah over there, נכון.
יש רק Okay, so again, יש רק דרך אחת עבורי להקשיב באמת להשם, אם ממש אתפלל בלי הרף על מה שנאמר לי.
כל עוד אינך יושב ובוכה בדמעות זה לא זה.
Like we've learned, we learn a lot of things, but you know when you start crying over what you learn? When your kid stops keeping Shabbos, and then you're sitting there crying. So then, chas v'shalom, and then you're wondering what in the world did I do wrong? So, you know, and I this is not a klal for anyone, chas v'chalilah, but it seems it's like saying did I did I daven over the way that I gave over Shabbos to my kid, or did I just expect them to take my word the way I heard it from God, and that would have been enough? Right, it's like this in it's like this in many different areas. It's known. It says in chassidus, in Kabbalah, but you can the children can't learn from their parents the רובד השכלי, רק אפשר ללמוד מה מידות.
And that's exactly what it is.
בדיוק זה.
בדיוק זה.
זה המקור לזה, יפה.
האם מספיק שאדע שישנו המושג שבת? Is it enough that I know there's a concept called Shabbos?
מה פתאום.
עליך להתפלל מיליון תפילות כדי לזכות לטעום מה זו שבת. We're shomer Shabbos. Shomer Shabbos.
Oh, I just put you right now in John Goodman's mind, I know, but listen. We're shomer Shabbos, right? So listen like this. It's like this: did I ever daven in order to understand and taste Shabbos? No, why? Why not? Why usually don't I? Because I'm under the assumption that I know what Shabbos is because I'm Orthodox. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I know what the laws are, but to taste Shabbos, to taste, לאו דווקא at all.
לא מוכרח להיות בכלל. Doesn't necessarily mean that that that's a given at all, at all, at all, at all. That's what he's saying over here.
I could know there's a concept called Shabbos. I could know there's When was the last time someone cried over tzitzit? When was the last time we even thought about putting on tzitzit? I mean, we put it on every morning, b'ezrat Hashem. But with everything in our lives, there's לעבדה ולשמרה, which is what Hashem told אדם הראשון going into גן עדן. What's לעבדה? Daven over what I'm telling you, ולשמרה, and then you and then you it's amazing and then you keep it.
It's actually the flip It's it's almost like a flip There's five hands up now, chevra. I can't wait now cuz we're we have to go vayter. It's there's it's almost like this amazing incredible reversal of things. You're saying, לעבדה ולשמרה means when you hear God's word, you have to instantly both daven over it and also keep it right away if you want it to if you want it to last, if you want it to remain.
It's almost like the same thing, not lehavdil, but I feel it because this is the matzav we're in, is that there was a, there's an establishment of this modern State of Israel, which is, as we've been learning in this room for a long, long time already, is in dire need for tikkun. As Rav Yitzchak has taught us for for for years already about תיקון המדינה, right? But for some people, it's just taken, listen, there's a state, it's a country, there's whatever this interesting form of sovereignty is looks like, right? There's some kind of interesting sovereign thing going on. But the davening over, Hashem, what does this what is this gift that you gave us gave it back to us? Like, what mah zeh? What is this thing? I want to daven to understand it deeper, we'd we'd be with so much so much less problems. If we davend over the things that Hashem we feel Hashem is mamash telling us, giving us.
And when you daven over it, it lasts, and it doesn't remain a proclamation, right? Doesn't remain a proclamation. Let's go vayter.
התורה אומרת שהשם הניח את אדם הראשון בגן עדן לעבדה ולשמרה.
רבי אפרים מפרש שלעבדה פירושו שהשם רוצה שנתפלל אליו בעבודה שבלב.
He says that it doesn't mean become a heylige gardener, which is no diss at all, gardeners are some of my favorite people, right? That's not what it meant.
לעבדה ולשמרה, he means he wanted us to daven to him בעבודה שבלב, שפשוט לא נוכל לאכול מן הפירות הלא נכונים של העולם. That we should daven that we shouldn't be capable of eating the wrong fruit, the equivalent of that in the world. That's what it means.
When you hear an issur, it's not just a, okay, now I know this is wrong, it's that he wanted us to daven over that we shouldn't be capable of doing aveirot. We shouldn't be capable. Now, in here, I had to look at it inside in the source, cuz I didn't see that in many years, and he says like this: יש לומר, Rabbi Efraim says, כי כוונתו יתברך היה שיעשה האדם התבודדות. That's how he says it.
It must mean, when Hashem says לעבדה ולשמרה, it must mean cuz ויקח, the word ויקח השם אלוקים את האדם, ויקח, רש״י says, לקחו בדברים נעימים ופיתהו להיכנס. He got him, ויקח, he took him. How did he convince him to come in? With דברים נעימים, with nice words, and he seduced him to come inside the garden. What were the nice words that he used in order to get Adam Harishon to go into Gan Eden?
לעבדה ולשמרה.
What does that mean? He gave him over the secret of hitbodedut of saying, you really, do you know how deep that it's going to get with us if you come in here? If you לעבדה ולשמרה, if you keep on davening over my words, you're going to feel it only gets better, it only gets deeper, you're only going to feel closer. And that was the, according to Rashi the way that he understands it, the seduction, the way that Hashem got Adam Harishon to come inside. Cuz he told him, listen, it's not a proclamation game, that's not why I created the world, so that I'm a judge, I say what it is, or I'm a governor, I say what it is, how I govern, and now that's it.
לעבדה ולשמרה.
לקחו בדברים נעימים. So again, רבי אפרים מפרש שלעבדה פירושו שהשם רוצה שנתפלל אליו בעבודה שבלב, שפשוט לא נוכל לאכול מן הפירות הלא נכונים של העולם. That we just we we just won't be capable. Like, do you ever daven to Hashem and the words weren't, Hashem, I'm sorry, but the words were, Ribono shel Olam, like please, please that when I learn about your ratzon, please may it be that I mammash end up having no בחירה חופשית? And I know you created me with בחירה חופשית, it's part of the game.
But part of me really wants, wishes that I had no, that there's not a, there's not a מציאות, אין מצב, there's no, there's no chance that I could ever end up dis, dis, you know, disobeying you.
עשה רצונך כרצונו. Sorry? Isn't there a tefillah where we say עשה רצונך כרצונו? There well the Mishnah in Pirkei Avot says, but you know, אין, אין דבר העומד בפני הרצון?
בטל רצונך מפני רצונו. Yeah.
I mean we put it into different tefilot, עשה רצונך כרצונו, but it's more than just that. Like make your will my will, but it's it's more than that, like make it in such a way, unless this is your kavanah when you say this tefillah every day that you just quoted. I didn't think so, right, so עשה רצונך כרצונו could mean, should mean, like Ribono shel Olam, make it be your make your will be my will, but to such an extent That I can't not listen to you, that I I understand you in the deepest way and I can't not listen to you. Why? Because even if I still keep your word, I can't transmit your word to someone else on the level that it will last by them.
And what's the greatest proof and example of it? Right here, the first parashah in the Torah, the first two human beings, the first level of mesorah. This is the first level of mesorah, of transmission of God's word. And right over here it gets messed up, right there, when you think that it's just about a proclamation. Now, he ends off this paragraph in saying, אבל כשאדם מסר לחוה את הציווי הזה, זה נשמע כמו מין הצהרה גרידא.
But when God, when when when Adam gave over to Chavah the commandment, it simply sounded like a proclamation.
דעו לכם, he ends off here.
כשאני מנסה ללמד לאדם אחר משהו שלא התפללתי עליו... This is like to all mechanchim in the world, and to all mechanchim that should not be mechanchim.
I I pray this this reach be'emet, there's there's a devastating epidemic of mechanchim in yeshivos of people that should not be mechanchim at all. It's a horrible epidemic that has horrific ramifications. It's slaughtered families, mamash. That they that these this this words that he say right now, when I try to teach someone that something else that I didn't daven over, אין לכך שום השפעה.
He's being nice here, he says it has no השפעה. I want to say, oh, it has a השפעה. It has a horrific השפעה, horrific influence.
לפעמים אני שומע שמלמדים יהדות, אבל זה מותיר אותי קר כקרח.
So sometimes I hear people they're saying they're talking about Yiddishkeit, leaves me cold like ice. Aderaba! Not only cold like ice, אני אפילו רוצה להקיא, I want to actually throw up. Why?
כי אם זו היא יהדות, מי צריך את זה בכלל? Cuz if this is Yiddishkeit, who needs this? Who needs this?
ולעומת זאת, and sometimes, לפעמים אתה שומע את היהודי הכי עני בדעת. Sometimes you you you hear from someone, a yidele who is so poor in his knowledge, barely knows anything, אבל הוא יודע מילה אחת של תורה, but he knows one word of Torah on the level of לעבדה ולשמרה וזה חודר לתוכך כל כך עמוק, it goes so deep into you.
Why?
כי הוא התפלל על זה. That's the reason. How could it be someone's such a talmid chacham and he leaves me cold like ice, and then one guy barely knows anything, he says one word to me. You know, when I was living in L.A., I met chevra like this all the time.
The chevra that mamash the one word the one word of תורה חברה, the one-word תורה חברה. Remember all the chevra I would bring home, Abba, sometimes like, you know, these people, did you ever learn Masechet Rosh Hashanah? Rosh Hashanah, that's like the shofar, like guys knew nothing, right? But then you they they they learned one word on the level of Etz Hachaim, and you're blown away, and you're we we meet these people all the time. I mean right now in Eretz Yisrael, Eretz Yisrael is filled with chevra like this. In the Israeli scene, not in the other scene.
In the Israeli scene, it's filled with chevra like this. He says over here how could it be that one person could say one word and it it puts me on such a fire, because they must have davened over it, they must have heard something and they had a conversation with God, and they did what he said over here, they had a little hitbodedut and say, what does this really mean? So I want you to know, chevra, this teaching is infinitely deeper than the way that we're trying to give it over right now. But I know that if there was one teaching that we would want to master for the sake of the homes that we're raising, it's this one. It's this teaching.
One time a mother called me and said, I don't understand, my sons, so in the she raised her children in the States, so she started telling me how much money she she paid every year for the tuition. I don't understand, it must have been like, you know, a few children, it must have been like I probably my husband and I probably put like $350,000 into our into the elementary school, and the kid comes out of elementary school ready to go to high school, the second he got realized he's a bar daat, the kippah came off, and the tzitzit came off, and we don't understand. We we sent him to all the school. My husband worked so hard so that he could have Jewish education, right? And we see how the whole thing is bankrupt in its yesod.
It's all bankrupt, it's a bankrupt system. Because they're sending them to institutions that half the time, mamash, half the time, the people that are giving over God's word never davened over God's word. Ela mai, they were told, "You have a good kop, you should be in chinuch." That's what they were told when they were younger. So they're thinking about parnassah.
So they're getting their parnassah, so they'll that that they have a job, and it can even be holy, because it's Torah. Torah? They're shechters. Sorry, just experienced it with a with a certain maaseh recently. They're shechters, they're slaughterers, and it's a it's a it's such a busha v'charpah that that schools would hire people that do such an עץ הדעת transmission of of of of of דבר השם.
Our whole thing is to have teachers of עץ החיים, but remember, the עץ החיים teachers may not necessarily know as much daat Torah as the עץ החיים חבר'ה, but I'd take them over them any day of the year. And this is all coming from this inyan of how we understand this pasuk: ויקח השם אלוקים את האדם ויניחהו בגן עדן, and in Gan Eden is the world of the Ribono Shel Olam and us being back and forth in harmony and in oneness, transmission of the רצון of Hashem in its purest form, but there's two words: לעבדה ולשמרה.
לעבדה, we דרש'ן, איזו היא עבודה שבלב?
זו תפילה. This is not our chiddush, Mechilta de-Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, it's based on a midrash by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, and only then ממש לשמרה.
Then I guard the giluy that I have from my hitbodedut, I guard it with me, and then I dare open my mouth to give over דבר השם to someone else. Only then I have the chutzpah to actually tell someone else what God said or what God means. Can you imagine if the prerequisite for hiring staffs in schools, in institutions, was this? It it'd be it'd be Gan Eden. Literally, it would be Gan Eden.
Like literally speaking. Halevai it should be from our chelek, and we should be back in the garden, be-ezrat Hashem, through fiery, fiery tefillah. Yashar koach.
