LM 27.3 — Retzitza (Shalom), Part 3 of 3 · תורה כ״ז

בעזרת השם we are in Torah כ״ז, this is the third שיעור, we are starting from paragraph ז' ודווקא במרא קיבלו שבת שלום, and this is going to be really the last main topic that we're discussing in this Torah which brings it together, just summing up to bring us up to to to be able to discuss this next point. So using Rav Chaim Kramer's note, the he he says that the degree to which shalom prevails directly determines the extent to which people can share the truth by engaging in honest dialogue. And we explain this idea understanding what is shalom.

It's not the absence of conflict. It's not even necessarily two people who are traveling towards the same goal, because that could be circumstantial, that could just be I I need something and you need something, and in order for me to achieve my needs I need your help, and for you to achieve your needs you need my help, so then, you know, for at least the time being, for this moment in time, we are joined together in a particular project. But the the truest sense of shalom in, you know, in the way that we've been discussing, is a truly complementary relationship, and more than just complementary relationship—I mean, there's a lot of different examples we could use.

Rav Aharon Feldman, in the beginning of The River, the Kettle and the Bird, discusses a similar idea, but one example that we were using is let's say a puzzle where, besides for the fact that the overall picture does not express itself as a vision, as a picture, without all the individual pieces, each individual piece only finds meaning and finds expression of its individuality in the context of being part of the broader whole. So shalom is not just a bunch of individuals that individually have the same purpose, but they are both individuals with their own task and as part of the whole, and we've we've discussed this in the past, and we talked about it in Torah ב' in terms of individuals perfecting their piece of the משכן, and then the צדיק being really providing the management, the CEO, the purpose that brings it all together.

We discussed התפארות in Torah י״ז. So in our Torah we said that in order to achieve shalom where there's honest dialogue, right, in other words, there's 600,000 different viewpoints among among the Yiddishe people, which means that no individual lens can be the entire truth, and yet each one within the context of others can find its balance to complement the entire vision, and that is what provides honest dialogue, being able to have the confidence to provide one's opinion and have the have the anavah, have the humility and have the understanding to also be open to see somebody else's point of view and how they ultimately are driving towards a purpose that really is higher than both of us, and ultimately Ribono Shel Olam is the one who from top-down created, generated all of these pieces, these individual points of view, so that we can work backwards and bring everything back to the source to find the גילוי where everything is part of one system.

So once we can define and and subscribe to this shalom, so this shalom actually provides the context for the entire world, and everything in the world will will ultimately fall into the system. So how do we reach this shalom? We said through הארת פנים, through Torah, the blueprint of the world, רצון השם, the the חכמה אלקות, and through הדרת פנים. As we said that we really divided them up, we said that הדרת פנים is the י״ג מדות התורה, this is this is really the, I wouldn't say prerequisite, but this leads to the הארת פנים. As far as the הדרת פנים is concerned, we linked it to the י״ג מדות שהתורה נדרשת בהן, but also to the י״ג מדות הרחמים.

And therefore, we said, to the extent that one refines the י״ג מדות, then this leads to הארת פנים and ultimately to shalom. However, we we talked about another concept in parallel to developing Torah, the the the רצון השם, all going into the divine plan, the blueprint of the world, we associated with קול, רינה also, which is tefillah, and many of the Torot talk about the dynamic between Torah and tefillah, and we said that קול also, interestingly, so as we've been discussing, sort of how do how do you bring all the pieces in line, how do you bring all of the puzzle pieces together, by understanding the ultimate vision that came before the puzzle was cut up into the individual pieces.

In a certain sense, קול and דיבור, subscribing to קול, developing the truth of קול, the voice that comes even before the articulation of words, that also goes to the heart of an emotion, to the heart of purpose. And as one refined the י״ג מדות of Torah, they are also refining and perfecting the קול, רינה, and tefillah. And we read this into the word זקן, like we said the 13 point, the י״ג מדות הרחמים, the י״ג שהתורה נדרשת בהן, but also the י״ג in a certain kabbalistic framework, the 13 points of the beard, and we said a beard in Hebrew is זקן.

זה שקנה חכמה is associated with חכמה, but קנה is also the windpipe, is also a reference to the קול, is also a reference to this voice. And we continued on to say that in you know, a lot of times we get caught up In the in the everyday, I mean this is the practical takeaway, we get caught up in all of the conflicting considerations, what we have to do in life. How does a how does a person get out of that? So the the first thing a person can do is step back and and understand what is the driving purpose behind all of this.

Yes, there's all these all these all these pieces in life. הקדוש ברוך הוא created the world in order to give. The way that I am going to make myself into a kli is to be a מקבל from הקדוש ברוך הוא שפע. Everything that I have in life is a way to connect הקדוש ברוך הוא. It's a tool for me to utilize, it's a tool for me to to understand, to connect back to the source. And therefore, when when I just don't even have the words, I'm confused, I'm all over the place, I have all of these differing points of of conflict of drives, what I do is I connect back upwards.

Let me rise a level above before all of that conflict started. And that's going to be based on the י״ג מדות, that's going to be based on קול, and through this voice, even without articulation, I'll be able to arouse the mercy of הקדוש ברוך הוא and elicit shefa from from above. And we said that achieving this voice, achieving this הדרת פנים, which is associated both with the Torah, both with the קול, we we reference the שירת הים and Yosef Hatzadik, we said that that is contingent on שמירת הברית ענינים. So now, we're going to continue in the text in paragraph ז.

As we now understand that this entire Torah is focused on shalom and how to achieve shalom, shalom is achieved דווקא במרה. So after the after קריעת ים סוף, the next stage is that Klal Yisrael went to מרה, which literally means bitterness, and that is where they received the mitzvah of Shabbos, Shabbos shalom, and we're going to talk about how shalom is actually enclothed in bitterness. I actually want to say just another couple of words before we read it read it in the text. Using using our משל, why is shalom enclothed as it were in bitterness?

So let let's let's use the משל that we had of the puzzle. Before you cut up a puzzle, before there's the putting together the pieces or even those pieces exist, the reality is that there's clarity, there's a structure, there's a צורה, there's a picture, there's a message coming from this picture. When the when a person, you know, takes a pen, takes a knife, and they carve that picture into pieces, they still all fit together. הקדוש ברוך הוא wanted to, in part, give us the gift of having a world where there's going to be a gilui of yichudo yitbarach.

An example that we've said in the past is I can tell you, I can show you a set of directions, a way to put together a Rubik's Cube, whatever it is, and you will say that is a good way, there might be alternate ways. You can accept what I say because you you trust me. But if I say, go nuts, here are all the scope of the all of the possible ways to approach anything, and after you examine the full scope of everything possible you come to the idea that not just a way, not just the best way, but everything is really leading back full circle, the only expression is actually the principle of emet that we started off with, that becomes the greatest gilui possible because it's not a bunch of a bunch of ideas that are expressing the same thing, it's actually breaking everything into pieces and having everything scatter to to ultimately come back and say that no, everything is really leading leading to one place.

So hakadosh baruch hu kivayachol in for purposes of my mashal, took this picture of emet, as it were, and divided it up into a bunch of different pieces. And those pieces were each each one thought itself an individual, each one had its own priorities, it thought that it could express its own message or maybe create a different picture that that might make sense in its own right, and maybe some of them were even jagged edges. And therefore, He gave us the avodah, and He gave us the pleasure, and the reward, and the satisfaction of being able to contribute to bringing about the gilui of this picture, not just not not just being a shaliach and and giving spoon-feeding us all of the answers, but allowing us, giving us the guidance, giving us the Torah, giving us Chazal and the tzadikim, to be able to bring about this gilui and appreciation of this gilui, where everything in the world is ultimately part of the system and expressive of the same message.

What that means is that shalom, shalom existed in a certain sense. It wasn't even shalom We we said that shalom is one of the names of hakadosh baruch hu. When there's only אין סופיות, if shalom is is complementary pieces, when there's no idea of pieces, there's only one, there's only אין סופיות. So in a certain sense, you could say that shalom doesn't it doesn't necessarily express itself as such. But what hakadosh baruch hu did is He created the multiplicity so that we could find unity in the multiplicity. And now that means that the process leading back to shalom, of shalom expressing itself, is going to be a refinement, right?

It's going to be a repositioning of each individual piece, and like we said, shaving down of of of refining the pieces, not just so that good wins over evil, but that evil is רשעה כעשן תכלה, it doesn't even exist. And therefore, I think that this is one expression of understanding that shalom exists in the merirut, it takes hard work because it's not just an expression of truth, it's an expression of the truth, and also it's going back to everything going back to the source. It's it's it's hard work. It's a repositioning. It's a it's taking those things that seem to be different and coming to the realization not not just ignoring them and not just layering the right answer over the wrong answers, but digging deep into understanding almost a almost a an identity crisis where you have to understand that everything is actually coming from hakadosh baruch hu, but bringing everything back to its source.

And this demands a a tremendous work, tremendous sacrifice, bringing a korban, sacrificing those I I define myself as as physicality and now I'm going to be able to to sacrifice those considerations, those priorities, to bring myself closer to hakadosh baruch hu because I am nullifying that animal aspect of myself. That is a that's a mesirut nefesh, and that mesirut nefesh is going to to trigger hakadosh baruch hu to give me additional light, additional shefa once I refine my keli. So now, ודווקא במרה, it's specifically in מרה, literally defined as bitterness, קיבלו שבת שלום, כי כן דרך השלום להתלבש במרה, because the way of shalom is in clothed in bitterness, בבחינת הנה לשלום מר לי מר.

Now, this is a pasuk that we're actually going to come back to, but for our purposes right now, this is a reference to that that Rav Chaim Kramer explains during Sancheriv's siege, the yidden davened to hakadosh baruch hu and they were promised a miraculous yeshuah, and on the night of Pesach, Sancheriv's entire army was stricken, it was utterly destroyed by an angel of הקדוש ברוך הוא. This was part of the prophecy that Yeshayahu Hanavi had brought to Chizkiyahu Hamelech three days before Pesach. But at the same time that Yeshayahu Hanavi had told Chizkiyahu Hamelech of the unbelievable miracle, the unbelievable nes that הקדוש ברוך הוא would perform, he also prophesied the king's impending death.

Now, Chizkiyahu Hamelech ultimately refused to despair and he did teshuvah, which we're going to talk more about. He was given additional years of life, and he took on the family mesorah, tradition, heritage of tefillah. But in any event, this פסוק, הנה לשלום מר לי מר, at the same time that he heard about shalom, he heard about this unbelievable miracle, it was also bittersweet. He also had this this merirus, this negative news, כמו שכתוב, הרפואות הן בסמים מרים, that refu'ot are come in the form of a bitter pill. Refu'ah, which we're going to relate to as shalom, comes in the form of bitterness, it's part of the process, כן השלום שהוא רפואה לכל דברים.

So too shalom, which is essentially refu'ah. When a person is ill, the way that the sefarim speak about it, that a person has different biles, there's different biological functions going on in a person and they all I mean if if a person learns by about biology, it could really turn a person into a into a ma'amin. When a person, when something goes wrong, a person has a headache, you know, whatever it is, you know what that means? That out of the 800 gazillion trillion things in the body that are going right, one of them is going wrong and therefore a person is focused on it.

If a person would really understand how many processes go on in their body, there is a tremendous amount of things going on that all rely on each other to the nth, to a hair's degree. And therefore when a person needs a refu'ah, what they're doing is they're restoring they're restoring shalom, as we described it, among their bodily functions. Similarly, when we do teshuvah, by the way, when we need a yeshu'ah, we we shalom striving towards הקדוש ברוך הוא is essentially a relationship between the neshamah and the guf going together, not being out of balance, where the where where the guf is not weighted towards the priorities of the guf not in a spiritual way.

And and and ultimately the mitzvot, the מצוות מעשיות that we do is utilizing, is leveraging is is leveraging physical things in this world that were given to us specifically. This world is not an afterthought. This world was is the stage through which we are here to grow and connect to הקדוש ברוך הוא. The malachim are on a spiritual plane and the malachim do not have the opportunity to connect to הקדוש ברוך הוא. So the idea of a refu'ah, the idea of a yeshu'ah is ultimately a function of restoring שלום, בבחינת שלום לרחוק ולקרוב, אמר ה׳ ורפאתיו.

This is another pasuk in in Sefer Yeshayahu, also relating to Chizkiyahu Hamelech. And this actually also links to to tefillah, I guess you could say, to using the lips. The full pasuk is, בורא ניב שפתים, שלום שלום לרחוק ולקרוב אמר ה׳ ורפאתיו. We see from this pasuk that it says that shalom will be restored to those far and those near, which we saw in the beginning of this Torah, that shalom restores restores striving towards HaKadosh Baruch Hu to the entire world, ורפאתיו, and it links refuah to shalom. Now, we're going to mention one point also which I think is is really a life-changing point, it really comes from the Tanya, so, but it's something to put a peg in and think about for later.

Merirut is bitter. Is bitter bad? Right? A refuah is not bad. A person needs an operation and they, they don't have that operation, or they need medication, they don't have it, they're very happy when they get it, they're davening for it. So merirut is not bad. For a person that doesn't understand the refuah, a kid who has to take that medicine, he may cry. So when it comes to merirut, it might be hard, but it's not bad. Actually, it's energizing, it's invigorating. We cannot confuse merirut with atzvut. So an example that I'll give, I might have given it before, is a person wants to run a marathon, he wants to run a three-hour marathon, one of the gold standards, and he hits three hours and three minutes, or one minute.

At that point, he is energized to just ramp up his training to be able the next time, he's going to come in even 10 minutes faster, and he uses this in front of him, this idea that he, that he did not meet success the first time, as something that is going to energize and push him through, create motivation for him to do even better. At that point, there's merirut, but it's directionally, it's a, positive, it's directionally. Atzvut, lethargy, ye'ush, the person now all of a sudden loses motivation, there's no point in trying anymore, that is directionally negative.

So the merirut and atzvut, potentially we can say over here, they, in one sense, they might seem to say, oh, almost they're synonyms, merirut and atzvut, sadness and bitterness, they're actually, couldn't be farther from the truth in how we're using them, and a person has to calibrate, they have to understand, where is my emotion coming from, how am I utilizing this? Atzvut during let's say cheshbon hanefesh, feeling badly about oneself, maybe there's a place for it, but it would have to be compartmentalized, because otherwise it would leak into everything else. If a person feels badly about something, so now not only they feel badly about what's worth feeling bad about, that's also going to pull back on the things where they should be energized, it's going to hold them back.

And therefore, in terms of avodah, atzvut has to be dealt with one way. However, merirut has a totally different place. This is actually what could be leaned into in a way that is energizing, that achieves shalom. Period. So now, further, so we said that specifically shalom is specifically tied to merirut, and we gave a bunch of meshalim. ולפעמים החולשה גוברת כל כך עד שאין יכולת ביד החולה לסבול מרירות הרפואות. There are times when the illness, the weakness, where a person put himself because of his aveirot really, right? Had a person just taken that first opportunity, HaKadosh Baruch Hu presented him with an opportunity, they're only one step removed from the end goal, there's a certain amount of hard work, and now they could have gone straight to the goal.

And because we positioned ourselves instead of, we were let's say one degree off of center, we turned directionally very much different, we leaned into other gashmiyut, other priorities, we created not just a little bit of a jagged edge, but we made our edge even more jagged, so now there's a problem, because now it takes that much more merirut, that much more repositioning and shaving down, that much more work to get towards clarity than we would have otherwise had, but we don't necessarily have the muscles to deal with that. We didn't necessarily become stronger. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave us a project where we had the perfect amount of strength to deal with the merirut, the hard work that would be necessary to get to, back to the source, we positioned ourselves where now it's going to be, take that much more effort, and yet we never built those muscles, the, the, the additional strength that we would need to get back to the source.

So we're in a little bit of a catch-22 here. We want to do teshuvah, we're so far away, and yet we don't have the strength to achieve it. And therefore, the illness is so much where the choleh can't handle the bitterness and the refuah to heal himself. ואז הרופאים מושכים ידיהם מן החולה ומיאשים אותו. Two different ways of learning this, Reb Chaim Kramer brings, either the doctors give up, or because of the doctors' reaction perhaps, the patient ultimately gives up. But this is a problem. So how are we going to bring ourselves back? כך כשהעוונות שהם חלי הנפש.

When the avonot, the sins that we engaged in, both in terms of philosophical sins, sichl'dik sins, gashmiyusd'ik sins, but we, we, we positioned ourselves far away, גוברים מאוד, they become very powerful, אז אין יכול לסבול מרירות הרפואות. Now we need the, we need to bear the yisurim as a kaparah, the hard work, and, I mean, I think we described, in a way that makes sense to me, that's a rational way, we, we spent our efforts going the wrong way, so now we need, we were going down the mountain instead of up, but at what point did we develop the muscles necessary?

We put ourself in the position where it's becoming hard. Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us the perfect tools that we needed for our job. Ve'az the pasuk says, אין שלום אמר ה׳ לרשעים, the resha'im are not going to be get, going to get back to shalom. How are we going to, how are we going to address this? The the true resha'im are not going to have shalom because it's not Hakadosh Baruch Hu's fault, it's it's their own doing. They're experiencing the consequence of what they're doing. But here I am, and I want to do teshuvah, I'm plugged into Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

So how do I balance out? How do I understand? How do I climb out of the hole that I myself dug? So here we see that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is going to have is going to have rachmanut on us by plugging in. Chizkiyahu Hamelech engaged tefillah, he engaged the kol, it lifted him above above the the mud that he was sunk in. What was the mechanism to do that? So let's take a step back. Again, why are we in this מצב where we experience רע, where we experience this בחירה, this טוב against רע, this this tremendous confusion?

Really for a very specific reason. The yetzer hara is our coach. He's giving us resistance in order to become stronger. Now, I have a problem because I want to achieve Hakadosh Baruch Hu's purpose for why this entire system is in place, and because I didn't because of my own actions, I'm I'm unable to do so. But now, let me I'll clean up the the spilt milk afterwards, let me just plug into purpose for which is there to begin with. What do I do? I have to daven to Hakadosh Baruch Hu and say, "Listen, the purpose for which I had these tests was to bring about a גילוי.

I now recognize that and I'm willing to do it. But what can I do because I am now very deep in the hole because I didn't realize that yesterday? I need help." Therefore comes Hakadosh Baruch Hu and he is able to allow us, create a system to ignore the consequences of this aveirah. And now we're going to go back to the pasuk that we quoted before by Chizkiyahu: הנה לשלום מר לי מר. There is this shalom, this amazing nes, and yet it's bitter for me. Chizkiyahu Hamelech on his level, he did an aveirah which was שמירת הברית associated.

He had had a נבואה about what the nature of his son would be, and therefore he did not engage in פרו ורבו, and this was the aveirah for which he was going to experience punishment. And and there's a Gemara in Berachot that explains the the conversation between Yeshaya Hanavi and Chizkiyahu Hamelech where he davened and he was granted more years of life and and they made a shidduch. And he did have an opportunity to rectify the שמירת הברית issues by leveraging tefillah, again, which was the the heritage of of the בית דוד of Klal Yisrael.

So he says, "לשלום מר לי מר, ואתה, but You, חשקת נפשי, You wanted me, You desired me, You, Hakadosh Baruch Hu, desired me, משחת בלי, כי השלכת אחרי גוך כל חטאי. You desired that my nefesh not become destroyed." בלי is like the לבלות, to to waste away. "You, Hakadosh Baruch Hu, decided that I should not waste away. I have this strengths. Maybe I should have applied them earlier, but I didn't. And therefore, in the pesukim, he says, 'השלכת אחרי גוך כל חטאי', You cast away all of my sins behind Yourself, as it were." Now, we're going to see later on, Hakadosh Baruch Hu chas v'shalom to say Hakadosh Baruch Hu is a mevater.

So there has to be a system where ultimately a balance is achieved. These sins are there, they're going to have to be dealt with. But Hakadosh Baruch Hu, in order to achieve the purpose for which the nisayon is there to begin with, excuse me, therefore, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is willing, as it were, in order to achieve the purpose of the system itself, to ignore those aveirot. And therefore, this is our approach. This is what we learn now from Chizkiyahu Hamelech, from Yeshayahu Hanavi, that if we can attach back to the קול, that shalom is achieved through מרירות, necessarily, what do we do when the מרירות is such that we don't have the strength to endure it in order to achieve the shalom?

That's where we can rectify. Again, Chizkiyahu rectified שמירת הברית issues to to attach to קול, to attach to tefillah, to be able to overcome so that he could bear the מרירות. And Hakadosh Baruch Hu, in His rachmanut for us, י״ג מידות התורה, this is the הדרת פנים associated with קול, gives us the מרירות that we can bear so that we can achieve the purpose of why this project is there in the first place. וזה ששיבח חזקיה את הקדוש ברוך הוא, and this, now we understand the pesukim through the lens of פנימיות: שהשליך כל חטאותיו אחר כתיפיו, that הקדוש ברוך הוא threw the sins over his shoulder, as it were, kivyachol, overlooked the sins, כדי שלא יצטרך להלביש את השלום במרירות הרבה, so that the shalom would not be clothed in a מרירות that wouldn't be able to be withstood.

וזה: הנה לשלום מר לי מר. Now back to the pasuk that we just read, היינו זה ידוע כי לשלום צריך מרירות. We understand that the shalom requires מרירות, but we can't handle it. ואתה חשקת נפשי מרדת שחת. A little bit different than the pasuk we read, but okay, the the words are quoted a little bit differently, but Hakadosh Baruch Hu who desired to save my soul from מיתה, not from going down to שאול, כי ידעת, because Hakadosh Baruch Hu knew שאין בי כח לסבול מרירות לפי חטאתי, that I, it's because of חטאתי, it's not because of, no blaming Hakadosh Baruch Hu, no blaming circumstances, no blaming the, the, the world.

This is the consequence of what I did, and this is what I'm willing to rectify. The problem is is that I'm too weak to bear the consequences, to climb the mountain, to climb up the hole that I dug myself. But now I want to engage in purpose. So what do I do practically? I attach to the source. I have to go a level up. I attach through tefillah, through שמירת הברית, through שמירת הברית, through י״ג מדות הרחמים, and I engage that at this level Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the רחמים, before there is דין, before there's the עונש, before there's the, the, the גבורות, at that level of י״ג מדות הרחמים, the י״ג תיקוני דיקנא, והשלכת אחרי גוך כל חטאי.

And Hakadosh Baruch Hu is willing to ignore the חטאים, as it were, כדי שיתלבש השלום במרירות כפי יכלתו, so that we only have to endure the מרירות כפי יכלתו. Now just because before we just finish this paragraph, I'm going to read just from Rabbi' Chaim Kramer, one of the most amazing notes that we've read, I think they're all amazing. He says, page 163, note 58, he says, so this is really וימררו את חייהם. This is Mitzrayim. Mitzrayim is גלות, but it's the all-encompassing גלות. It wasn't it wasn't for an עונש per se, as we relate to the other dalet' גליות.

But Mitzrayim was itself, it's a refinement. It's a כור הברזל. It was the מרירות to bring out the shalom so that we could be גוי מקרב גוי, so that we could attach to Hakadosh Baruch Hu leading towards Sinai. And ultimately there also Hakadosh Baruch Hu, it says that when we cried out to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, we say it as part of the Haggadah, this is what, this is what broke us out of this situation. And Rav Natan continues, I mean this is, again, mark this, tag this, print this up, Rav Natan continues, this same idea applies to each individual.

Bitterness is a necessary remedy for healing illness of the soul as well as of the body. This we've described. When a person needs this רפואה, he needs this healing, Hakadosh Baruch Hu, this is really just part of the spiritual physics of how we achieve shalom, but again, we have this problem, we have this catch-22, Hakadosh Baruch Hu will provide the appropriate bitter remedy in small doses. Again, that is not being a מוותר, right? There's ways that a person can have a, you know, rip the Band-Aid off and then sometimes you do it slower. They both have a מעלה and a חסרון, but if a person can't handle the pain, then then we can do it in slower, smaller doses so that we get everything that we need, but it's able to be handle it in a way that we can that we can absorb and not get distracted from.

Even so, says Rav Natan, he's at the moment in a state of judgment, although Hakadosh Baruch Hu has unclothed the bitterness in manageable amounts, this does not free him from his own yetzer hara. Okay? Listen very closely. What is this yetzer hara at this point? To complain about the bitterness that he's getting. Now remember this bitterness is not bad. This bitterness is actually a gift from Hashem. The actual מרירות, which wouldn't have been bad either, is what he created that he needs shalom, but he can't get past it. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives a gift and redesigns the bitterness in order that he can achieve shalom, achieve his greatness, his self-actualization.

But what happens? He sees the bitterness. Do I deserve it? He totally recategorizes the bitterness. I don't deserve it, I didn't do anything so bad, and he fixates on it, and instead of thank you, Hashem, for everything I'm receiving, which I understand is only part of a process to bring about my greatness and the greatness and the perfection of myself, my family, my community, and the world, thank you for giving it to me in a way without this I would have no purpose, without the מרירות the puzzle is complete, we're only in the world in order to be able to refine this, instead of saying thank you, Hashem, he has feelings that rebel against this diminished suffering as bad, I don't deserve this.

Now, says Rav Natan, should he succumb to these feelings and balk at the lesser doses of bitterness, so then why is Hashem giving me the gift? If I'm not going to utilize the gift, I don't need the gift. So if I take away the gift, where am I? I'm back at the level of יסורים and suffering, חס ושלום רחמנא ליצלן, they're really the hole that I dug for myself, and there's nothing right or wrong about that. That actually just is. That that is not a reward or punishment, it's the hole that I dug myself. And therefore the dosage will be increased, okay, because now I'm just going to end up where I belong.

If I'm willing to attach myself to the purpose for why I'm in the world, the purpose for why the, the suffering is there in the first place, the purposes of the challenge, so then Hashem will allow the purpose of this challenge to trump the bitterness that I really deserve. But if I'm not there, and I'm just engaging my yetzer hara to complain, so then, then I don't get the benefit of that gift. And then he says that's why there's no shalom for רשעים, there's no peace for the wicked. Listen to this line. This is because suffering, the מרירות, is a must if a person is to ultimately attain true peace, quotes Torat Natan, as Rabbi Nachman once said, if you don't want to suffer a little, you'll suffer a lot, okay?

This is we could speak for five hours about this, but go back, replay it, print it up, do whatever you have to do. This is an entirely new way of understanding מרירות, it's an entirely new way of understanding challenges and opportunities rather than things that are directionally negative, it's an entirely new way to embrace everything that happens in life as invigorating and exciting in order to grow, and it's a new way to appreciate every challenge that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives us as being directionally positive. And just to finish off this paragraph, וזה אברהם ואברהם זקן, אברהם, so we said that this לשון of זקן relates to הדרת פנים which leads to הארת פנים, which leads ultimately to shalom, and הדרת פנים is the זקן, it's the חכמה, it's the beard, it's the י״ג מדות הרחמים, it's the קנה, it's the קול, על ידי זקן הנ״ל, through this זקן, through all these ideas, על ידי זה וה׳ ברך את אברהם בכל, הקדוש ברוך הוא granted הקדוש ברוך הוא אברהם rather a blessing of כל, בכל זה shalom כמו שכתוב עושה שלום ובורא את הכל, so of כל links to shalom, when did Avraham Avinu get the ברכה of shalom?

Because Avraham was זקן, he engaged Avraham שמירת הברית obviously is Avraham Avinu is the symbol of this, led to this idea of הדרת פנים leading to shalom, zeh שלום כמו שכתוב עושה שלום ובורא את הכל. Okay, next paragraph, ושלום בגופו, so now that we said that shalom, which is refuah, is coming from bitterness, we're going to bring we bring again Yaakov Avinu, says that Yaakov Avinu came the pasuk says ויבא יעקב שלם to עיר שכם, and Rashi over there bring Rav says שלם בגופו, שלם בממונו, שלם בתורתו, the note over here brings Rashi, it brings the Maharsha, but that Yaakov Avinu was שלם in his גוף, his the that the the limp that he had was healed, נתרפא מצלעתו, from the he came שלם in his נשמה, in his Torah, that Yaakov Avinu spent time learning, we'll see, in בית מדרש של שם ועבר before he went to Lavan, and he was שלם in his Torah, שלם in his נשמה, and by his by his ממון, which we'll explain.

So, שלם בגופו, שבת ל״ג, דרשו על הפסוק ויבא יעקב שלם, יעקב came complete, שלם בגופו, שלם בממונו, and again also שלם בתורתו, בארבע מראות, so what's שלם בגופו? He was with with all of again the מראות are like the biles, all of the biological functions, שלא תתגבר אחת על חברתה, he was in a perfect balance, שלם בממונו, שלא איבד זה ואכלה זה כמו שאמרה בת נקדימון בן גוריון. This relates to a Gemara where the the general idea of the Gemara was that when not enough, in a particular context over there, that that that שלם בממונו implies having faith and serving הקדוש ברוך הוא, giving tzedakah benevolently and trusting that הקדוש ברוך הוא will provide them with whatever they need, that money we've addressed at length the idea of ממון as a vehicle of connecting to הקדוש ברוך הוא, and the Gemara over there says that that this daughter of Nakdimon ben Gurion said that her family had not given enough maaser and therefore the rest of the money, one came and devoured the other, the insufficient maaser the wealth became mixed with the with the other wealth and that they both they both disappeared, her father-in-law's wealth disappeared.

So, but שלם בממונו means that a person is relating within the appropriate context, that all of the money, all the money is is preserving is is preserved because the tzedakah goes where it's supposed to go, the money that's meant for me is goes where it's supposed to go and therefore it's subject to bracha. ושלום בתורתו, which also by the way is an idea of bringing back to the source, right? In other words, when you give tzedakah, you give the first the first things, I'm taking this and understanding the source of it that's that that's part of the avodah, not just to, you're not, the Mishnah says you're not supposed to estimate maasrot, in other words, no, I was given 10 things, nine are for me, and one of it is for the aniyim, one of it is for הקדוש ברוך הוא, the bikurim, the challah, the maaser, things have to come off the top, this is connecting it back to source where it's a statement of where it came from.

And שלום בתורתו בלא קושיות, without any without any questions, right? Lavan was a was was הערמה, it was was wily, Yaakov Avinu before he went to Lavan, he plugged into the ultimate blueprint of the world, he spent time in Shem v'Ever, Yaakov Avinu was איש תם יושב אהלים, he was a it was תם is שלם, תם is in a certain sense simple, right? What what we say simple, it doesn't mean that there's no the higher you go, the more yichud you go. First of all, simple, we'll say, as opposed to confusing or convoluted, but it doesn't mean that things aren't complex, there could be complexity if everything is working together in unison.

The higher up you go, the more, like we said, the more unity there is the simplicity there is in the multiplicity. The more that the more that you see that I have a vision, my vision requires multiple pieces, those pieces have to work together, but the higher up you go towards my initial vision, the more the more whole, the more complete, the more simple it is. Yaakov Avinu was so plugged into that simple, complete yichud, alignment with הקדוש ברוך הוא, that there was nothing to get confused by. Even after he left Lavan, and he had to deal with him on his own terms, but he himself didn't become convoluted.

It's a big it's a big yetzer hara that if I have to deal with you on your own terms, so I start digging in, I start creating my arguments, and and my arguments are really just in response to you, but you can forget to be anchored in the emet. So, ואז ויבא יעקב שלם עיר שכם, and with all of these things, Yaakov came שלם to עיר שכם, which was a goyishe city. Yaakov being שלם, going back to the beginning of the Torah, when a person has the shalom, יעקב אבינו it says was ראשית אוני. Yaakov Avinu had שמירת הברית.

Yaakov Avinu achieved shalom. Yaakov was חכמה. Yaakov was Torah. This brings shalom, and with that, he came שלם שלם to עיר שכם, to bring shalom even to the even to the אומות. And with this, we're going to plug it back into the מאמר חז״ל from the beginning of this of this particular Torah. But but but again, I mean, we've been summing it up as we went along, understanding, appreciating shalom as we describe as we described, it's not so much that good triumphs over evil. It's not so much that the Yidden are successful successful and other other things are subservient.

It's that once you achieve shalom, once you take all of the pieces, they're all repositioned, they're all re- they're all directionally towards understanding their own שלמות in the context of a greater שלמות. Understanding my job as an individual in the context of a community so that I can achieve meaning, there's perfect balance. Nothing is off-kilter, and now the puzzle is put back together, and not only do you start off with a vision, you now start off with the vision, right? And at that point, once we're able to bring that into the world, like we said, through שמירת הברית, through מרירות, to bring about this shalom, so that causes a mesirut nefesh, that causes a מ״ן, that brings שפע down from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, that creates an influx of of clarity, an influx of of of שלמות from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, so that the the clarity forces that the entire world becomes devoid of other considerations, not because they they are they're unsuccessful, but because they they just evaporate.

וזהו פירוש רציצה. So, now plugging this back in to the initial to the initial מאמר, רציצה is a the just to read read forward, again remind us what that initial מאמר was, give me a second. רציצה, we've translated as a chick דמיית בביעתא, that dies in its shell, ביעתא is a ביצה. היכא נפיק רוחא? Where does the רוח exit? אמר להו, בהאי דעל, where it came in, although we're going to read that a little bit differently in this context. וזהו פירוש רציצה, בבחינת קנה רצוץ. So, רציצה is a it's a general reference to idolatry, but where where is the term קנה רצוץ coming from?

So, it actually works out very well in Penimiyus. I'm looking at Rav Chaim Kramer's note. In the time of Chizkiyahu Hamelech, the Yidden were were were challenged by Sennacherib, who already saw this is the source of this idea by Chizkiyahu Hamelech of this of this נבואה that he was going to achieve shalom, although it was מתוך מרירות. Over here, the Yidden were being challenged by Sennacherib, so what did they rely on? The correct way to break through מרירות would be to rely on Hakadosh Baruch Hu, to rise above. Instead, they sought to form an alliance with the Egyptians, with Mitzrayim.

Mitzrayim was וימררו את חייהם. The The galut of Mitzrayim is not one of the four גלויות, it was not a punishment, it's the כללות הגלות. This is the the כור הברזל, the smelting pot. This is where the Yidden became purified to become a nation, גוי מקרב גוי, to go towards Har Sinai. So, it's מצרים דוקא. This is one of the most powerful points, as a person takes a step back, that it's really it's not good versus bad. Everything is good. Everything is coming from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. It's up to us to know how to use it.

The same place that we can go through מרירות and build ourself and change the world and go towards Hakadosh Baruch Hu, if there's a misplaced reliance or a misapplication of that, that actually becomes the קנה רצוץ. The Mitzrayim and the way to break through and build build ourself, the misplaced reliance on the Egyptians became a קנה רצוץ. It's the same קנה. So, over here, this is the רציצה, back into the text. The רציצה, which is representing the קנה רצוץ, the broken reed, שהם העכו״ם, which is like Mitzrayim when they relied on Mitzrayim instead of the מרירות being a function of what Hakadosh Baruch Hu is providing to us to grow, instead that became misplaced reliance, right?

Instead of thinking good or bad, a person has a sports car, it could be the biggest gift, and it could be the the biggest cause of his downfall, as can be wealth, as can be anything. It's the same idea. The berachah and kelalah is how we use it, how we choose to connect. So, שהם העכו״ם, this is the broken reed, שהם רחוקים מבחינת זקן, זה שקנה חכמה. This קנה רצוץ, as it's applied, instead of breaking through the מרירות and attaching ourself to shalom, instead of attaching ourself to הדרת פנים and הארת פנים going going towards shalom, but instead It's far away from that חכמה, far away from that הדרת פנים, far away from the truth, from the י״ג מדות רחמים, where we attach to HaKadosh Baruch Hu and rise above that מרירות towards the actual point, towards the actual purpose of the world.

It's far away from הדרת פנים. והם דבוקים בקנה רצוץ and instead, this same קנה, they were relying on a broken reed because it doesn't have power, right? It's like the the reservoir goes through the shower head, HaKadosh Baruch Hu sends bracha through XYZ mechanism and instead of understanding that that's how HaKadosh Baruch Hu delivers it, and appealing to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, we appeal to the middle thing as a source. Well, in and of itself, it's just a broken reed, it doesn't have any stability. Although the the the the note over here does point out that why are we referencing like this, because there's always זה לעומת זה.

Actually we talked about this in Torah ג, that the same way that we have a קנה that we rely on, the flip side of of that idea would be a קנה רצוץ. The same way that we have a קול that we are going through to קול רינה to songs, there are also the ניגונים of the סטרא אחרא, כמו שכתוב גער חית קנה, literally the the the rebuke to rebuke the wild beast of the קנה. This is a reference to Esav in in the פסוק in Tehillim. But be that as it may, we are defining the question that the סבי דבי אתונא raised, is how can these nations be rebuked for their עבודה זרה, for their other priorities, what they're pursuing, their culture, so that they can ultimately return to serve HaKadosh Baruch Hu.

Okay, and so he goes on, דמאיס בבעיתא that that it died in its shell. But בעיתא is also a לשון of prayer, מבעיא, בעיא is need, want, or ask, מבעיא is a seeker. So over here, בעיא in Aramaic could be a ביצה, it's a shell, but over here in פנימיות we're saying דמאיס בבעיתא, היינו דלחמוס ולבטל בעותם וצלותם, they are praying, they're seeking, they're looking to the source of the עבודה זרה, but over here, how can we get these other cultures מלבקש עוד מאלהים אחרים, instead of looking towards the קנה רצוץ, instead of looking towards the עבודה זרה, they will abandon it, abandon those types of prayers, those relying on the wrong source, אלא לקרא כולם בשם ה'?

So so this is really defining the question from the סבי דבי אתונא, how can we get the entire world to abandon their their other priorities, their other looking towards the source, their misplaced reliance, and rely only on HaKadosh Baruch Hu? And the beginning of the answer, in the actual מאמר חז״ל this is really part of the question, but it's a little bit we're changing a little how we're reading it, היכא דנפיק רוחא, it's where the ruach goes out. היינו זו אי אפשר אלא על ידי תיקון הברית, שהוא בבחינת ולא קמה עוד רוח באיש, it's a pasuk by Rahav, where she's referencing the fear of the of the people of the land because of understanding that Klal Yisrael was coming, and the way that she references it, that they lost Rahav understood that they lost their ability to to their ta'avah in that sense, and the way that she referenced it was the ולא קמה עוד רוח באיש, there's no more ruach in the איש.

This is a reference to תיקון הברית, to to that area. So how is it that people can achieve the הדרת פנים? By achieving, we said שמירת הברית leads to הדרת פנים, and then הדרת פנים is a development of Torah, tefillah through the י״ג מדות שנתחרזו בהן, through קנה which is קול, so that represents tefillah and Torah leading to הארת פנים, ultimately leading to shalom. And so okay, now the follow-up question, ואיך מפיק ומוציא ניצוצי קדושה שנפלו על ידי פגם הברית? Okay, that's good going forward. How are the how how is the the the mess, how how is everything that happened through the through all of the aveirot, how can that be rectified?

ויאמר להם, so רבי יהושע בן חנניה says, בהאי דעל, though in the way that it went in. בזה שנכנס בו רוח, in the way that the רוח went in, that is how it's going to go out. היינו בזה שנכנס בו רוח שטות, in the way that the רוח שטות, a person doesn't sin unless they have a רוח שטות, היינו הרהורי זנות, that what's the רוח שטות? The מחשבת טומאה, right? In other words, if a person knows for a fact that something is true, 2 + 2 = 4, they don't have a ta'avah to say 2 + 2 = 5.

If a person would know for a fact that somebody is trying to deceive them in a business deal or in whatever other kind of encounter, they would know exactly what's going on, they wouldn't have a ta'avah to pursue it. The רוח שטות is what gets a person to If a person would know what happens when they get angry, they pursue their desires in this context, and they would literally see it, a person would see the the health information at at eating certain types of things, then they would lose they would lose their desire, if they looked at that as reality.

So all of that is a רוח שטות when they pursued הרהורי זנות. But over here, הוא משבר תאוותו, a person's able to break their תאוה בזה, הוא מפיק ומוציא ניצוצי קדושה של פגם הברית, that's how they he can redeem, as it were, lift out the ניצוצי קדושה, that ניצוצי קדושה are the life force, the רוחניות. Nothing can exist without trapping, as it were, a רוח- ניות, a life force, otherwise there would be no no makom for it in the world. Some things we could say, how could there be רוחניות in something that's a דבר רע?

Cuz again, it's not really a דבר רע, so to speak, it's הקדוש ברוך הוא is putting it into the world so that we have a מקום for בחירה, we have a מקום to ultimately get closer. But if it wasn't that there was a divine, if it wasn't that there was a divine energy in every aspect of the world, then there would be no מקום for whatever it is to exist, כי זהו בחינת תשובת המשקל. We're just going to make a couple of points. This is be'etzem the end of the תורה, תשובת המשקל. We talked about it in a couple different ways.

Over here, the note brings two ways. Over here, we're saying that the specific עבירה that a person was going to fall into, he stays away from. Another way that it's addressed is that whatever הנאה a person had from an עבירה, they're going to have that amount of pain, of effort towards the תשובה. But I think it goes actually very good in how we are, in how we've been addressing it. If a person, what is the source of pursuing הרהורי עבירה, מחשבה, מחשבת טומאה? Really, the עיקר פגם הברית, everything starts in the mind over what you find enticing, over what you're looking towards, and then that translates into something physical.

If a person would rectify the truth, they would understand exactly what's יצר הטוב, exactly what's יצר הרע. Again, you can imagine somebody who is who's trying to pursue a relationship, if you would know that this person is only pursuing that relationship in order to try to gain access to your bank account, there would be no desire for that person, it would fall away, you would see behind it. When a person rectifies that aspect of their מחשבה, so that so it's not just a matter of laying down their their their their יצר, a matter of not pursuing it, but they actually rectify it at the source, they they gain a correct perspective, so that becomes תשובת המשקל.

At the source, they're flipping it. It's not just that they're putting down their תאוה, they're actually changing what at the source of the מחשבה that that substituted bad for good, they're now actually re-substituting, they're realigning truth instead of, the falsehood just evaporates. And this is, he mentions over here in the note, this idea of a redirecting of thought, harbeh I'm just reading from the from the note over here, taken from Likutei Halachot in תפילין, הרבה בני נעורים נלכדו בזה. So many people become ensnared in this idea that they come, רחמנא ליצלן, מחמת שממילא הם כאילו אין מחשבתם בידם חס ושלום.

What am I supposed to do? This is my desire. This is my thoughts. This is my approach. This is who I am. It's really not. If a person would take a step back and understand what what what builds their desires, it's all based on a certain mentality, an understanding of the world. If you would substitute that for the truth, then these other things would fall away. One other point on תשובת המשקל, he quotes from the Siach Sarfei Kodesh, it's just an an unbelievable thing to be mitbonen on, and we referenced this a little bit ago.

So lema'aseh, there's עבירות in the world. It's wonderful that הקדוש ברוך הוא wants to give us an opportunity to do תשובה so that he's not going to make us deal with the consequences of our עבירה. But סוף כל סוף, they're in the world. They need to be dealt with. And he he quotes over here the that a צדיק, the the leader of the generation, he is able to bear the sins of the generations. He is able to put in the תשובה. A leader, a CEO or whoever it is, ultimately bears the bears the weight and bears the responsibility of the people.

The צדיק himself, if you are aligned with the צדיק, you're part of one relationship, then the צדיק is able to do that. Let me see if I can see it inside. היינו שבגודל It says, ואמר שלעתיד יובן גודל כוחו של רבינו שאמר מה מועילה תשובה שלכם, אלא אני עושה תשובה בשבילכם, he quotes. והיינו שבגודל כוחו של רבינו הקדוש שמקרב אליו באמת ומתחדש and so on, יזכה אף הוא להרגיש במצבו ושנמצא מלא צורך לזככו. Okay, he says, בכוח הצדיק, then you'll be able to A person himself can't necessarily achieve this תשובת המשקל, either because there are sins that he no longer has a relevance to, it was in his youth, or because הקדוש ברוך הוא allowed him to get past it so he's not dealing with it anymore, and therefore the צדיק himself is able to take on that burden of cleaning it up and being able to help out with תשובת המשקל.

So this is another reason to, not that we need another reason, but another aspect of coming close to a צדיק. And the last line over here says זקנים משער שבתו, בחורים מנגי... sorry, זקנים, yeah, משער שבתו, that the זקנים ceased, like שבת, from the gate, בחורים מנגינתם and the בחורים from their נגינה. And this is in line with our Torah, זקנים, again, זה שקנה חכמה. When there was no חכמה, there was no הדרת פנים, there was no attachment to Torah, so then what again, הדרת פנים is really attached to the קנה is attached to the קול, when there was no attachment to חכמה, so then the the emotional the relationship the תפילה, we lost access also.

When we weren't aligned with the truth, then we lost access as well to this relationship, to the קול, to the תפילה. We were not able to achieve shalom, unfortunately, rachmana litzlan. However, Rabbi Chaim Kramer does mention in the note that this is one of the ideas of davenen at the at the grave sites, that the the נשמה of the צדיק is the נפש that we're able to connect ourself to the soul of the צדיק, and the צדיק who had this connection, we're able to realign ourself, and that's why we say the תיקון הכללי, that these are the the general remedy that that we recite, is is associated with a תיקון הברית, and by rectifying תיקון הברית, they can bring us back to הדרת פנים, back to חכמה, back to the צדיקים, so that we can ultimately achieve שלום, עד כאן לשון רבינו ז״ל.

Just to finish off the last paragraph, also an unbelievable idea that I'm sure could could be really fully fleshed out, but he says שייך לעיל in in paragraph י': וירא ה' בצר להם בשמעו את רנתם, that הקדוש ברוך הוא saw their affliction when He heard their רנה, על ידי שמיעת קולו הקדוש ברוך הוא רואה מי שמיצר לו, by making his voice heard, הקדוש ברוך הוא sees who it is that is afflicting him, איזה עכו״ם, which nation מיצר לנו, is is giving problems, Va'amar, and Rabbeinu said, She'al ken, I mean this is just an unbelievable idea, כשיש חס ושלום איזה גזרה וצרה לישראל מאיזה עכו״ם, when Klal Yisrael is experiencing some sort of a tzarah, a constriction, a pain and affliction from a certain nation who has this again a not emet, not God-aligned priorities, worldview, אזי טוב לנגן א ניגון של אותו עכו״ם שמיצר להם חס ושלום.

It's unbelievable. I recently saw, I could see if I could find it, but a piece on the idea that so much of music, even things that chazanim sing, is coming from not a not a Jewish or not heimishe music per se, but he says very interesting, music really is part of a culture. We just said before that no culture, nothing in the world can exist without nitzotzot. We also said that that the way to bring a מיתוק הדין is to purify at the source, which means that if you are able to take the nitzotzot of something towards kedushah, so then everything else will fall away, it won't be able to exist.

How are we able to elevate the nitzotzot within a particular culture that's bothering us so that its power will fall away and we're able to take those nitzotzot for our avodah? When we utilize their culture, in this case their power of song towards HaKadosh Baruch Hu, so then the other power of the nation will fall away. וזהו בשמעו את רנתם, רנתם דייקא, that means when He heard their rinah specifically, היינו רנה וניגון שלהם של אותו עכו״ם שמיצר לישראל, when HaKadosh Baruch Hu heard their songs, meaning the songs not of Klal Yisrael, but the songs of the nation that was giving Klal Yisrael problems, chas veshalom, that's what HaKadosh Baruch Hu saw.

And I'm going to to to read, let me see if I can see the page number, page ו', it's from Megillat Esther Matnat Chelko from Rav Mattityahu Solomon, he brings a unbelievable unbelievable idea. He says that אחשורוש'ס סעודה, it's just worth it to mention, אחשורוש'ס סעודה had everything to appeal to the senses: sight, smell, and so on, taste, but why was there no music? Why was the seudah missing music? And he brings an interesting machloket in in whether or not non-Jewish music can be utilized for tefillah and so on, but over here he says page ו', I'm just going to read it inside because it's unbelievable: הביאור בשיטת המתירים הוא שאין שום קדושה או טומאה בניגון מצד עצמו.

Music be'etzem does not have kedushah or טומאה, משום שהניגון אינו מחדש לשומע השכלה חדשה שלא היתה קודם. Music has the power to be me'orer, to awaken, but not from the outside, only to allow something to resonate from within. שמפני כך, otherwise, היה ראוי לאסור שירי נכרי מחמת ההשכלה החדשה של נכרי. If it was from the outside, so then we should oser any kind of music coming from any other kind of source. אלא שיש בניגון, rather, רק כח לעורר ולחזק את הידיעות והמחשבות שהיו בשכלו ובלבו קודם לכן. Music has the power to be me'orer. So now, really the dangerous koach in music is when we have mixed up priorities, then something is can resonate, bring out those bad things.

אם כן, הכל תלוי כפי טהרת לב השומע. It's actually taluy in the kli, in us. שאם לב השומע מלא בהבלים וטומאה, אז יתחזק על ידי הניגון ההבלים. If we're tamei on the inside, so then the nigun is bring that out. ואם לב השומע מחשבותיו הם דבוקים בבורא יתברך, יתחזק בהניגון את הדביקות ביתברך, then actually we'll be me'orer in the positive. And he says that's why Achashverosh didn't bring music, because actually the music would have undermined his purposes. But over here also we see something unbelievable. Again, this is a little bit of a parallel point, I was saying that even if the music was bad, so the good the nitzotzot would go towards Hakadosh Baruch Hu, everything would fall away, and according to the way that Rav Matityahu was mentioning it, the music isn't even inherently bad, so we can we can sort of like play around with those ideas.

But just as a last takeaway, I I think that we can be that we can be mitbonen, there's so many challenges in the world, there's so many tests, there's so much hardship, there's so many yisurim, there's so many ta'avot, שמירת הברית issues, and It seems to be very hard. That's because we want to challenge it directly. If we would understand that this is actually a realignment of perspective, if we attach ourself to the tzadikim, we attach ourself to the Torah, we attach ourself to Chazal, we see through it all, we rise above, we look at this world through the lens of something from the outside looking in, through the lens of the Torah, through the lens of chochmah, of the י״ג תיקוני דיקנא, we can, the י״ג מדות הרחמים, the Torah, so that is how we're able to tap into the mercy of why Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us this unbelievable, beautiful world in the first place.

When things happen, we don't we don't complain, but rather we say thank you Hashem. We don't understand how, but we understand that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is ultimately fulfilling his purpose, the tachlit of the world, to give us a way to get closer to him. And therefore, even the challenges b'etzem are are not truly what we would what we would deserve if we would have to deal with the consequences of what we messed up, but rather Hakadosh Baruch Hu is there waiting, he's our biggest fan, kivayachol kivayachol, rooting for us to be able to come closer to him, and therefore the challenges, they're really a gift.

They're really a gift, it's merirut versus atzvut. They're a way that we can come closer to him, and the way to remove those challenges is to is to align ourselves with the purpose of Hashem. And b'ezrat Hashem, a lot to be mitbonen on, but especially in a time of incredible conflict in the world, if we can attach ourself, it all starts with us. If we can attach ourself to shalom, b'ezrat Hashem there'll be shalom and a complete giluy of יחודו יתברך במהרה בימינו soon.