rochel taktuk: Okay guys, it is very late at night. I just got back from Miami, ⁓ visiting my parents. Everyone's here for Pesach. Thank God. We're all really excited. it's 11 PM right now. And I told my husband when we left to Miami, we took the baby to see my parents and my sister and whatever. I said, if I get home and I'm too tired to film this podcast, you need to force me to do it. We're going to. This is a podcast for the Rabbi's birthday, the Lubavitcher Rebbe's birthday, Yidolphe Nisan, which was yesterday? Yidolphe, yes, it was yesterday. The 11th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan was yesterday. That is the Lubavitcher Rebbe's birthday. ⁓ The Rebbe is Or Olam. He's the light of the world. And if you're not Chabad, might say, wait a minute, that sounds kind of heretical. What do mean the Rebbe is the light of the world? Isn't God the light of the world? That's a great question. We're going to talk about it. We're going to learn straight, hard Chesedas today. We're going to learn straight, hard Chesedas today. Chesedas is life. Chesedas is... Chesedic philosophy, the Rebbe's Torah, is just... It's delicious. It just soothes the soul. It gives you everything you need. And... I told my husband, if I get home and I'm too tired, you're going to force me to sit down and do it. So lo and behold, we were in the car on the way home from Miami and I said, I can't do it. Sorry. And he said, I'm forcing you. And I said, no, you're not. And he won. I'm here and we're doing it. And he's right. We're going to learn Hasidus tonight. But before we do, I want to tell you about today's sponsor guys. know that there are a lot of organizations asking for donations right now, and you probably think. Also, I've been sharing on my stories about Yad Ezra Vashulamit, the name of this organization. You probably get these requests a lot, like, please give money for Passover, for Pesach, and for this and that, and everyone needs money. And you probably might, you're probably thinking, like, where's my money actually gonna go? Is anyone actually gonna benefit from my hard earned money? I work really hard. ⁓ I want to read an email to you that Yad Ezra, V'shulamit, this organization that I partner with, I'm so honored to part with them. I want to read them an email that they just got. And this is one of hundreds of emails. I was speaking to the woman who I'm in contact with. She said they have thousands, hundreds, not thousands of emails like this, people begging them for food, for Pesach. If you donate to this organization that I'm partnering with, and I always donate first. I never ask you guys to donate to an organization that I don't donate to first. ⁓ If you donate to them, you are literally going to feed people on Pesach. It's that simple. Listen to this email they got. Hi, I called Yad Ezra Vashulamit. I was told that there is no help available for Pesach. Is this true? Is there anything available for Pesach? Or can I just sign up for a year round for a while until we're back on our feet? I just had a baby and I haven't been paid in months. We have nothing for Pesach. This is an email that Yad Ezra Vashul Amit just got. And there are hundreds, if not thousands, just like this, people asking them, you know, they rely on this organization, Yad Ezra, because Yad Ezra Vashul Amit, they give more food to people who need it than any other organization in Israel. But because of what's happening in Israel right now with the war and the economy and everything exploding. literally, ⁓ they don't have the funding that they need. so families in Israel are not getting the food that they need. So if you donate, you're going to literally feed families on Pesach. You have two days left. We have two days, not even. We have tomorrow and Wednesday. That's not a full two days. Please donate. The link is in the bio. It's www.yadazra.net slash Pesach, P-E-S-A-C-H 26-B-R-L-T. for Rechalei HaTakduk. That's yadazra.net slash pesach, P-E-S-A-C-H 26B for boy, R-L-T for Rechalei HaTakduk. Okay. That's today's sponsor. ⁓ You can click on the bio and give because you're not just giving money, you're giving dignity and love. So we're going to learn some Hasidists tonight, not just because my husband forced me, but because he forced me for a reason, because it's important to me. And the Rebbe is... The rabbi is like my life. I don't know where I would be without the Lubavitcher Rebbe. I don't know who I would be without the rabbi's Torah. And if you haven't started learning it, you really should. And actually, we're going to start tonight. So to commemorate and celebrate the rabbi's birthday, ⁓ we're going to be learning the very last Mimer, the very last Torah, this very holy Torah that he gave over. How do you describe a Mimer? I remember is when the rabbi would sit and he would really go into another dimension. It was almost like he wasn't really here on earth. Like he was here physically, but his soul was ascending ⁓ worlds higher than we can ever imagine, closer to God. And he was just communicating with us ⁓ the things that are so true in this world and the next world in reality. He was just communicating to us what he was seeing. ⁓ And the very last Mimer, ma'amar, literally means like, you know, speech. This is the very last one the Rebbe ever gave before he became ill and ⁓ eventually lost his ability to speak and he passed away. ⁓ And we're learning this not just because it's the Rebbe's last piece of chassidus, because we could technically learn the Rebbe's first piece of chassidus. which is also another one of my favorites, Basi Ligani, which is a different one, we'll learn that another time. But it is very hard to describe to someone what a Rebbe is, who a Rebbe is. If someone asks me like, Rechleah, what is the, who is the Labavitch Rebbe? Like, what is the Rebbe to you? What does the Rebbe do for you? What does the Rebbe do for me? I don't have a connection with him. Should I build a connection with him? Should I learn his Torah? Should I go to the Ohel where he's buried? That's also kind of weird. Like, I'm not an extreme person in any way. I'm not extremely spiritual in any way either. But with the Rebbe, it's different. I do go to the Ohel where the Rebbe is buried and I pray to God there. I never obviously prayed to the Rebbe. That would be heresy. But ⁓ I speak to the Rebbe there. ⁓ What is that? What is that? Well, we're going to learn now because the Rebbe told us. It is so hard to describe to someone what is chesedis? Who is the Rebbe to you? What does he serve as? How was he so powerful? with no corruption? How did someone have that amount of power and had not an ounce of corruption in their body, in their soul, in their mind, in their heart? What is, why did millions of people write to him every single year? I tell you guys all the time. I don't know if I said this all the time, but I've said in the past, I went to the OHAL once at like two in the morning. I always go to the OHAL in like the middle of the night. When I lived in New York and I was single before I was married and moved here to Florida, Whenever I went to visit the Lubavitch Rebbe, it's always, it's a very personal thing for me. It's very intimate. I don't go with it. I don't really like to go with anyone unless it's my family or my sisters, but I usually like to go alone and I would go at like one in the morning, two in the morning. And I once went at like two in the morning. I wrote a letter to the Rebbe. I needed to go for a specific reason. Sometimes I just want to go and talk to the Rebbe. ⁓ and I got there and I was there by myself and you know who walked in to the door in Queens, New York at the Rebbe's. grave where he's, you know, his resting place, Naomi Campbell, she walked into the Ohel in like seven inch heels, long ⁓ leather, like ⁓ patent leather coat with some guy. And she came and was just like at the Rebbe's Ohel, just like praying. It was, it was just me and Naomi Campbell and this guy at 2 a.m. And it's so funny to me that like wicked, evil Candace Owens and wicked, evil Tucker and all these people, Lehovdiel, Alphaevedal, talking about the Rebbe as a, I can't even say the words, Lehovdiel, that anything about the Rebbe can be superior, like he's some kind of supremacist. And I just, I can't even believe I said those words, that word next to the Rebbe's name. It's just such a disgrace. Naomi Campbell. was praying at the Rebbe's, ⁓ the Rebbe connected to everyone because he embodied the Torah spirit, which is that every human is created in the image of God and every human must have a relationship with their creator. It doesn't matter if you're a Jew, a Muslim, a Christian, an atheist, you need to have a relationship with God. That was who the Rebbe is and the Rebbe's gonna tell us who he is, his role. Remember this is the very last piece of Hasidus that the Rebbe ever gave over. and we're going to learn it tonight. we're going to learn the first three chapters. It's not going to be very long. ⁓ And I just want to give you a heads up that the way this Mimer is going to start is that we're going to read a verse from Shimos, from the second book of the Torah. And the Rebbe is going to ask a few questions about this verse. So stay, stay with me, like bear with me. It will take a few, maybe two or three minutes with all the questions and then we'll get to the answers. And you're going to understand, wow, this is who the Rebbe is. And when I say the Rebbe is Or Olam, the Rebbe is the light of the world, you're going to understand what I mean. It's all for God. It's all for Hashem. The Rebbe just brings you closer to Hashem. Here we go. The Rebbe is going to quote a pasuk, a verse from Parshas Titzaveh, which is a Torah portion in the second book of the Torah in Shimos. And they will bring to you pure olive oil, crushed for the luminary, to kindle a constant lamp. Basically, God is telling Moses to command B'nei Yisrael, the children of Israel, to bring pure olive oil to Moses so he can light the menorah, the lamp, the candelabra in the holy temple in the Besamech Dosh. Here we go. And we know the explanations of this verse, right? This verse needs some explanation. We know some of them. In all of the other places where God is commanding Moses, he usually says, command the children of Israel. But in this verse it says, and you, shall command. So it's not saying tzav, aspen, H, draw, command. It's saying be'atah. Moses, you are important in this verse. This is a verse about Moses. It's like God is almost like pushing himself out the verse and focusing on Moses. Ulohoseph, dehadukh mashakasva atatatsava hu lo rakh bahalashon elah gam bahatochem. It's worth adding that this question revolves around more than a choice of wording, rather on the intent of the message of this verse. Dehashon bahatatsava mashmash hamoche hu ha'matsava. Okay, honestly guys, I don't know if we should go through all this. Hold on. I thought we, one second, one second. Okay, we're gonna do it. Okay, we're gonna do it. It's gonna take two minutes and I just don't want you guys to get lost. Just stay with me, okay? Really stay with me. Okay. The phrase, you shall command, in place that Moshe is the one issuing the command. It's not really God, it's Moses, it's Moshe. We have to understand this. Moshe is only the messenger to give over God's command. So why is it saying, and Moses, you are commanding. It should say, I, God, am commanding, and Moses, you're just the messenger for this. Why does it say Moses, you command? You, this is about you. Okay, we're gonna skip this, sorry. We're skipping this, it's too long. ⁓ Okay. previous Lubavitch Rebbe, the sixth Lubavitch Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzhak Schneerson, the Rebbe's father-in-law who was the sixth Lubavitch Rebbe, taught, he had his own Torah speech that he once gave over about Purim. The word sivoy in this mimer, in this Torah speech, The sixth Levitic rabbi was describing how the word Sivoi is not just the word for command, right? The atah tzavah, Moses, you go and command the Jewish people. It's also tzavta vechibor. This word does not only mean command, it also means tzavta, which means connection or bond. This is what God means when he says, Moses, you go command the Jewish people. What does it actually mean if we look at the word to me, not just command, but soft of a keyboard, connection. literally means. you should bind the Jewish people. You should connect the Jewish people. The verse says Moses, you go command the Jewish people, but the word command doesn't just mean command. It also means. connection. It also means to bind, to bring two things together. So what does it literally mean? It means Moses, you go and bind the Jewish people. Bind the Jewish people with who? With what? Shemoshahumikashah or Machabah espenestrolem or Ainsouf. Moses binds and connects the Jewish people with or Ainsouf, with God's infinite light. That is the role of Moses. Moses's job, his one true job, his one real task was to bind the Jewish people with eternity, with God's eternity, with God's essence. It's called, we call this Or-ein-sof, God's endless infinite light. The Jewish people were always connected to God, right through Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, but then they were slaves in Egypt and they kind of forgot who they were. They were enslaved and degraded and they had like some kind of like dementia they completely forgot their past well not completely but a big part of their past moses safta moses job was to bind them glue them interrupt them encase them in godliness connect them completely with god this is mosh's job the all you day show motion must be alias rel By the way, before we go on, Moshe was not Moshe the prophet. We don't call him Moshe Hanavi, like Eliyahu Hanavi, Elijah the prophet. We don't call him Moshe Ha'Malekh. Moses the king, like King David. We call him Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe the Rebbe. Moses was the very first Rebbe. He was the very first Rebbe. And what was that? The very, very first rabbit. created a structure for that job. What is the job of a Rebbe? It is to connect you with God, to bind you with God, like a husband and a wife get bound together for life where you are so in meshed with God, you don't really know who you are, like a husband and wife, you can't live without each other. You have the same, you're of one mind on everything. That is a Rebbe's job, to connect you with God completely, where you have the same mind, you think like God, you have God's goals, His goals are your goals, His desires are your desires, the world that God wants, a just moral. holy, righteous world, that is your only goal in life. You want to make God's world exactly what he wants it to be. His will is your will. That's the job of a Rebbe. We're gonna skip a little bit here. Okay, Ulova Erza, chapter three, and to explain this, makdim bahamayim rishamosha rabbeinu nikramayim ahemna. Again, in this previous Lubavitcher Rebbe's Torah teaching, he described how Moshe, Moshe, rabbeinu, Moses, was called a faithful shepherd. Moses, I believe it's in the Zohar, let's just see. I believe it's in the Zohar, but it's not so important. is that? Okay, I don't know. ⁓ yeah. Okay, I don't know. Somewhere. The sages, I thought it was a Zohar, could be wrong, in Kabbalah. Anyways, the Jewish sages call Moses a riah mehemna, which means a faithful shepherd. Dishonay perushin bazaab. There are two ways to explain what that means. What does it mean to be a faithful shepherd? Well, aleph shahu ro'an na'aman sheyestral. The first explanation of a faithful shepherd is, he was a faithful shepherd of the Jewish people. Literally means he was a loyal shepherd. He was their shepherd and he was loyal to them and we see this throughout the Torah. Every time they mess up and worship things they shouldn't worship and do things they shouldn't do, Moses is always loyal to the Jewish people. That's the first explanation of Ariah Mehemna, which is an Aramaic. It means a faithful shepherd. Baez, what's the other explanation? This is what the Rebbe is gonna really zero in on. What is faithful shepherd actually the second explanation, which is the true explanation of this. means a shepherd of faith. It's not just that he is Riah Mehmna, faithful shepherd. means he's shepherding faith to the Jewish people, loyalty to the Jewish people. He's feeding them faith. He's a faithful shepherd. He's a shepherd who's literally shepherding faith. He's like nurturing. He's internalizing faith into the Jewish people. He is their shepherd, their flock, and he's giving them faith. It's not just that he's faithful to them, he's giving them faith. meaning that he sustains and nurtures the faith of the Jewish people. This is so important. Listen to this, guys. The Jewish people have inherent resources of faith within themselves. Because we Jews are the sons and daughters of believers. It's a natural inheritance. It is like in our DNA to believe in God. But listen to this. So if it's so natural for us to believe in God, why do we need? A shepherd, a faithful shepherd. Why do we need a Rebbe, right? A Rebbe. Why do we need Moses? Why do we need the Lubavitcher Rebbe? Why did we need Mordechai? Mordechai, you have the Purim story, it's my son's name, Yoav Mordechai, was another Rebbe. He was not a king, he wasn't a prophet. Well, he kind of was a prophet, but he was more of a Rebbe figure. Why did we need them? If we're all, you know, we have these natural reserves of faith as Jews because it's an inheritance, it's in our DNA, it's in our blood and our bones, it's who we are, why do need a rabbi to help us with that and feed us faith? Why can't we feed ourselves faith? ⁓ Yes, we Jews have this natural reserve of faith within us and it's in our brain and in our DNA, but it can be an encompassing force in your life. It could be that it's encompassed It's encompassing you, around you. It's a kind of floating, hovering above you, but it's not going inside of you. You're not ingesting it. It's not becoming enmeshed in your bones and your blood. It's not being internalized by you. What's a better word for this? I'm too tired to think of it. It's not... whatever. It's not being ⁓ internalized. So why would you need Moses? Why do need the Rebbe? Moshe Rabbeinu, he shepherds Umpharnes and he nurtures the faith of the Jewish people so that it can be internalized. So it can go into your heart. What does that mean that it's make, if it surrounds you and it's not like internalized in you? To me, that means that we can lose our faith when things get hard. or that we would die for Judaism, this is really what it means to me. We're able and willing to die for Judaism, but we're not willing and able to live for it. I always ask myself this as a kid, believe it or not. I had a kind of weird brain, but specifically as a teenager, I knew I would always lay my life down for my Judaism, like 100%. And we grow up with these stories as Jewish children, right? We're told these stories. And I always ask myself, if I would literally die, give up my life, like... like actually everything I know and cherish I would give it all up for Hashem. Why can't I live for Him too? Like why can't I live my everyday life learning Torah, doing the mitzvos, waking up saying Moda'ani, the morning prayer, and washing my hands, and praying, and living like a Jew following halach, a Jewish law. Why can't I do that? And it bothered me. And it's because of this. Yes, I had that internal reserve of those internal reserves of ⁓ faith, of Jewish faith, but it wasn't internalized in me. It was like hovering above me. I can see it. I can look, ⁓ there's my faith, but it didn't vitalize me. didn't electrify me. didn't bring me to life. A Rebbe's job, the Lubavitcher Rebbe's job, Moses's job, the first Rebbe, the first Rebbe, Mordechai's job is to internalize it. Make Judaism, just uncover your eyes, like make you see the truth all the time. Where you eat, sleep, and breathe the truth that you're a Jew and the Torah is real and that it matters. The mitzvahs matter. It's strange, I know, to wash your hands before you eat bread and it's strange to wrap yourself in leather in the morning to fill in and it's strange to cover your hair when you're married. These things matter. Life is mysterious, it's very weird, it's weird, but it matters, it matters to God. The way He created us, we need to keep these things, it matters. The Rebbe is there to make you see that all the time, where your eyes are open to the truth all the time. It's not hovering above you, it's internalized in you. That is the job of a Rebbe. And we're gonna end here. this fact that Moses was the faithful shepherd, this rule of what a Rebbe is, the fact that Moses was a Rebbe and his job of shepherding faith and internalizing faith inside of us, this applies to the extension of Moshe in every generation. Every generation of Jews has their own Moses. the heads of the thousands of the Jewish people in every generation who strengthen the faith of the Jews of their generation to help them internalize their faith. For example, Mordechai served as the extension of Moses in his generation. Guys, the Jewish people at the time of the perm story, they knew they were Jewish, but they wanted to assimilate. They were embarrassed of their Judaism. They were weak in their Judaism. And there was one... There was one Rebbe at the time. Mordechai would not bow and he would not prostrate. He would not bend and he would not bow. He wouldn't bow to Haman. He said, have one God. I bow to one entity and that is Hashem. And he, the Jewish people knew all of this, but they didn't internalize it. They would die for their Judaism, but they couldn't live for it. The exact same problem I had as a teenager. And Mordechai changed all of it because that is the job and the power of a Rebbe. Even in the time of Haman's decree, I'm going to read only the English now because we don't have so much time, when the study of the Torah and the observance of its mitzvoth involved the Miseris Nefesh, which means self-sacrifice, Mordechai gathered all of the Jewish people and he strengthened the Jews' faith in God. He had that power. Anyways, that is the power of a Rebbe. That is the job of a Lubavitcher Rebbe. When I say the Rebbe is the light of the world, the Rebbe brings you. The Rebbe illuminates the world with the truth. The Rebbe illuminates the world with the truth. It is so hard to hang on to the truth and live by the truth. And then there is this man, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who it feels as if he just walked directly straight out of the pages of the Torah. He's biblical. And that is so, when you dream of meeting people like Moses, the Lubavitcher Rebbe walked out of the pages of the Torah. He's biblical. And it takes your breath away. You can't look into his eyes. He's too holy. He just, he feeds you the truth and you can't look away. And that is how the Rebbe changed so many lives. You cannot look away from the light of his face. You can't look away. Once you see the truth coming out of his skin, the light shining from his face, just like Moses, right? When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, Moses wasn't divine. He was reflecting God's light. Reflecting God. The Rebbe, God forbid, is not divine. The Rebbe is a human being. He was reflecting God's light. When you see God's light, can't look away and it changes you forever. And that is why the Rebbe is so powerful and why I love him so much. hold on to him with every fiber of my being. So happy birthday to the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Words will never do justice to my relationship with the Rebbe. It is a soul connection. alright guys, thanks for tuning in and I'll see you tomorrow.