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Third Tishrei Shiur 17 Tishrei 5773 Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh (Notes Taken During the Shiur by Moshe Genuth

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Third Tishrei Shiur 17 Tishrei 5773 Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh (Notes Taken During the Shiur by Moshe Genuth Third Tishrei Shiur 17 Tishrei 5773 Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh (Notes taken during the shiur by Moshe Genuth. Not reviewed by Harav Ginsburgh) Harav Shalom Arush: The first time I met the Rav I looked very different. I wore jeans and had long hair. The first time we met, he took me in and learnt with me the of Rebbe Nachman. We miss him a great deal and are full of infinite ( ִס ּ ּ ֵפורי ַמ ֲע ִׂש ֹּיות) stories joy to have him here in our sukah. The Rav will now say a sichah and we’ll then begin dancing again. Harav Ginsburgh: We are all here in a sukat Shalom (a sukah of peace). The Almighty will place over all of us a sukah of shalom. We all want Mashiach. Mashiach will come when there is true peace between us. We would like all of the Jewish people to come into this sukah here. 1. The Four Species and God Frees Prisoners “Hashem frees prisoners…” We will now hear a nigun set to the words, “Hashem frees prisoners, Hashem open ה' מתיר ) ”the eyes of the blind, Hashem straightens the crooked, Hashem loves tzadikim We will then hear how these 4 phrases .(אסורים, ה' פוקח עורים, ה' זוקף כפופים, ה' אוהב צדיקים we will do and ,נעשה ונשמע correspond to the four species of Sukot. It says in the Torah then we will hear. First we have to sign and dance the words and then we can understand their meaning. The willow branches It is known that Rebbe Nathan wrote letters to his son, to strengthen him by relating ,ועלהו לתרופה ,what he saw by his Rebbe, Rebbe Nachman. He called this book of letters based on the verse in Ezekiel (47:12), that a river will come out of the house of Hashem and on the banks of this river all manner of fruit tree will grow and the leaves of these trees will be a remedy. From this we can understand what it means that God frees prisoners. The sages say that when a leaf is a remedy, it means that Hashem opens the mouth of the moot and the womb of those who are sterile. The covenant of the mouth corresponds to the covenant of procreation. Each of the four species corresponds to one of the parts of the body. The Aravot, the willow branches are like a mouth. The lulav is like the spinal column, the myrtle branches resemble eyes, and the etrog, the citron, symbolizes the heart. The willow branches are those simple Jews, the simple Jews of the Ba’al Shem Tov who have earnest faith in Hashem and earnest faith in tzadikim. The pure faith comes I have“ ,האמנתי כי אדבר ,out and is expressed on every day on Sukot, as we say in the Hallel faith because I can express it.” Every one believes in the tzadik of the generation. The Egyptian exile represents a spiritual state where our mouths are in exile, where the mouth cannot express what the heart feels. It cannot pronounce faith. The freeing of a prisoner is thus first of all to give freedom to his power of expression. The prisoner is 1 one who does not feel free, perhaps because of society, perhaps because of his family. He is not free to pronounce his earnest faith in Hashem and in the Tzadik. Every one is connected to a tzadik and has to be free to pronounce this faith with his mouth. Thus, Hashem releasing the prisoner corresponds to the willow branches, about which the sages say that their shape is like lips. The lips must be allowed to open in prayer to Hashem, must be allowed to learn Torah and most importantly of all, must be allowed to express our faith. The myrtle branches The next phrase is, “Hashem opens the eyes of the blind.” The myrtle branches are likened to the eyes. One has to be able to open his eyes to see that the Mashiach is here, as the Lubavitcher Rebbe told us repeatedly; that the redemption is here. In Chabad we חיים ) ”of the Rebbe and of “eternal life (התגלות) ”hear a lot of talk about the “revelation The one who invented these phrases was Rebbe Nathan, Rebbe Nachman’s .(נצחיים disciple. Many times he says that we are waiting for the revelation of Rebbe Nachman and that the Rebbe, Rebbe Nachman has eternal life. To see this we need to have (התגלות) the power to open our eyes in order to see that this is indeed already here, but the eyes are closed and remain without the power to see. It is with the myrtle branches that Hashem opens our eyes in order to see this. First Hashem opens the mouth so that the moot can speak, so that we can give birth to new souls and to bring souls closer to Hashem. Like the Alter Rebbe said that every Jew must make another Jew by bringing him back to Yiddishkeit. The way to do this is by opening our mouth and having the strength to speak our faith. By opening our mouths in faith we open the wombs of those who are sterile. The palm branch After that the lulav, the palm branch is like the spinal column. The spinal column is bent over, we do not feel that we are strong, we do not stand upright. Therefore Hashem has to straighten us. If a person is standing upright because of his self‐pride, that pushes the Divine Presence, the Shechinah away, God forbid. But, as a community, as a people, especially this holy gathering, we should stand upright, walking proudly toward the redemption. We should clearly speak our faith that Moshe is true and his Torah is true. Of all the species the one we say the blessing over is the lulav, it is the most central and rises above the others. The citron Then it says that Hashem loves the tzadik, the individual who has both Torah and good deeds. This is the etrog, which is like the heart. The tzadik’s essence is in his heart, God wants the heart.” A“ ,רחמנא ליבא בעי ,and the heart is what God seeks, as the sages say special thing happens when a Jew merits to connect with the tzadik that is of his soul root. The Alter Rebbe says that consummate love is when you love what the beloved loves. Hashem loves every Jew, therefore he also loves whomever that Jew loves, and therefore God doesn’t just love the tzadikim directly, He also loves the tzadikim because we, His beloved people love them. Every Jew loves a tzadik for whom he is willing to 2 give himself over to fully in body and spirit. There are Chassidim that connect with their Rebbe if he performs miracles for them, but if he doesn’t then they have doubts. But, in Breslov and Chabad there is no such sentiment. It doesn’t matter what the tzadik does or doesn’t do for you. Rather, like with Hashem: whatever he gives you, you love him. Rebbe Nachman stresses that we have to find an etrog that is beautiful and kosher. Especially in the etrog, there has to be hidur, the most beautiful and it all depends on my own inner tzdaik, on my heart, that I be able to find a true tzadik. Now tomorrow morning when we take the 4 species to be joyful before Hashem these seven days, we can have this kavanah in mind. Now we can sing it once again with this kavanah. Sukot and the holy spirit ,the time of Simchat Beit Hasho’evah. One who never saw this joy ,זמן שמחתנו Today is Rashi .( ּ ַרוח ַה ּ ֹק ֶד ׁש) has never seen joy in his life. This is the time that we draw the holy spirit says that da’at is the holy spirit, and the reception if da’at (knowledge) is particularly related to Sukot, since the verse says that we dwell in the sukah, “So that your generations know that I placed the Jewish people in Sukot.” The mitzvah in this holiday is to know. But the action is to enjoy the mitzvah and joy breaks through all barriers, like the king who breaks through all barriers. Rebbe Nachman’s 202nd yahrzeit We are now on the night before the 18th of Tishrei, the yahrzeit (day of passing) of since his passing and his strength ,רב ,Rebbe Nachman of Breslov. This is the 202nd year He taught us that it is a mitzvah to be in joy always, like King David who .(רב) is great danced with all his strength before the Ark. 2. Attaining Joy Joy and the secret of impregnation Rebbe Nachman also says that whomever is from the seed of King David is always crying on the inside, yet outwardly he is always shining brightly with joy. Especially according to Torah 61 in Likutei Moharan which we will shortly explain, a Torah which begins with the words, “Rabbi Shimon [bar Yochai] wept….” The inner weeping is of the Jewish people that was taken from them and given to the (חן) because of the grace nations. The loss of our grace and its having been given to the nations is the thread that connects all of Rebbe Nachman’s teachings from the beginning of Likutei Moharan all be it—( ֹסוד ָה ִע ּב ּור) the way through. The remedy is to bring back the secret of impregnation of the year or of those who cannot bear children.
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