Likutei Moharan I:35—And this “chashmal” (literally, electrical energy) is a product of the aspect of “he speaks truth in his heart” (Tehillim 15:2), and it enclothes faith. Everyone has chashmal in his heart. “Chashmal heart” is the gematria of “Shema,” “Hear Yisrael.” “Shema” is equal to “Chashmal heart.”
    A person has electrical energy within him. When a person is sick, it’s because the electrical energy is faulty. He must always protect the energy in his heart. The energy radiates outward from the heart; he has sinews and nerves that extend throughout all his limbs. How does he protect this energy? Through “speaking truth in his heart.” As soon as a person says a lie or even thinks a lie, this energy is damaged immediately, and his limbs become ill. All of a person’s illnesses come from the fact that he told a lie, thought a lie, or said a lie. He lies. He cheats. He acts like a sneak.  That is where all his illnesses come from. The electrical energy in the body draws vitality—warmth—to all of the limbs. When the energy in the heart is damaged, a person immediately becomes ill, and his limbs fall apart and become weak. His muscles become weak. These are the straps—all of a person’s muscles, sinews, and nerves parallel the straps of the tefillin.
    The Rebbe says that the tefillin draw the Endless Light down to a person—this is the light of Arich Anpin that is drawn down to Zeir Anpin. Malchus ascends from Beriyah to Atzilus; she rises from midnight onward during the night. She ascends from Beriyah to Atzilus until she rises to the level of the arm. Then the light of the tefillin bursts forth within the forehead of Malchus—this is the tefillin of the arm. The tefillin raise up and extract the holy sparks from the depths of the klippot [the impure husks]. Every person has six hundred thousand holy sparks, and by virtue of the Divine service that he does during the night; he extracts innumerable holy sparks, endless holy sparks—these are the Ba’alei Teshuva [those who return from a non-religious to a religious life]. Every person has six hundred thousand Ba’alei Teshuva [connected to his spiritual source], and he has to see to it that he does not leave this world without bringing back those six hundred thousand Ba’alei Teshuva.   “In the place of your fathers will be your children, who you will make princes in all the earth” (Tehillim 45:17).  The Midrash Tehillim says about this that six hundred thousand souls will emerge from each person.  Every person needs to bring six hundred thousand souls into the world. Six hundred thousand Ba’alei Teshuva, and six hundred thousand descendants.
    In Egypt, the women gave birth to six children at a time. By the end of the years of slavery, the original seventy souls had produced six hundred thousand offspring. Everyone could, after one hundred and twenty years, have produced six hundred thousand descendants. This is what we sing: “As for Me, this is My covenant with them, says Hashem. My spirit that is upon you, and My words which I have put into your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your children, nor out of the mouth of your children’s children, says Hashem, from now and forever” (Yeshaya 59:21).  When a child says this prayer—this verse—he has to think about all of the children that will emerge from him in the future. Every child knows that he is not the only one in the world, and that generations upon generations must descend from him. This verse is the most important one in the entire prayer service.  “As for Me, this is My covenant with them, says Hashem.” Hashem made a covenant with us. “My spirit that is upon you, and My words which I have put into your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your children, nor out of the mouth of your children’s children, says Hashem, from now and forever.” Hashem promises us that we will have children, and grandchildren, and every child brings his own mazal [good luck] with him.
    The irreligious make a terrible mistake. They think that if they live ten years in some cellar, working sixteen hours a day, then afterward they will be able to buy a villa. This is only afterward.  In the meantime, they acquire ten dogs, five monkeys, ten parrots, and five aquariums full of fish, and also snakes. They raise all these animals instead of children, and in the end, with considerable difficulty, they manage to have one or two children because they are afraid to have any more. They are afraid that maybe the children will take their money from them. They think it is forbidden to waste money on children.  They don’t know that the reality is the exact opposite of this. The more children a person has, the more mazal he has. Children bring the mazal.  They bring [the money to buy] the apartments—we have heard so many such stories. 
    So too is it with every single Jew, as it says at the end of Tehillim 45, “In place of your fathers will be your children, who you will make princes in all the earth.” It is proper that every single Jew have children like the ones who left Egypt. When a person serves G–d from midnight until the morning, by staying awake all night he atones for sins that are punished with spiritual excision. With that service, he extracts souls, holy sparks. Certainly, they will also be his children. Some will become Ba’alei Teshuva, and some will be his actual children. Every letter that he utters in hisbodedus, in speaking to G–d, in prayer and praise to G–d, every letter pulls holy sparks out of the depths of the klippot. Tens of thousands of holy sparks are pulled out with every letter that he utters, and afterward they become his children, and his children’s children.
    These are the straps of the tefillin—the tefillin of the arm represent the raising up of the holy sparks out of the klippot. Every single person has innumerable holy sparks that were lost because of Adam HaRishon’s sin. Every person was a part of the sin of Adam HaRishon. Everyone said the words, “And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise” (Bereishis 3:6).  A person loves to be smart—to be well-versed in worldly wisdom—this too is forbidden! It is unnecessary to be well-versed in worldly wisdom. It is entirely superfluous. A person needs only the wisdom of the Torah. 
    As Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chanania said, "My wisdom is just the wisdom of Judaism." Worldly wisdom is unnecessary.  He came to the Elders of the Academy of Athens and said, "I am a Jewish sage, and I have come to learn wisdom from you." I want to see what you have to teach me. He was simply making fun of them when he said, “I have come to learn wisdom from you.” I want to know what your approach is, to be familiar with your approach.  “I am a just a Jewish sage.” One letter of the Torah is victorious over all worldly wisdom. 
    “And speaks the truth in his heart.” The minute a person has a drop of falsehood, of deception, of sneakiness, he already becomes ill with all kinds of sicknesses. At that very moment, the energy in his heart is damaged, the heart doesn’t cause the energy to flow to all the limbs, and it makes the person ill. This is the only reason why a person gets sick, or why his wife gets sick, or why his children get sick. The woman is also the tefillin of the arm. The woman parallels the heart, the light within the heart. One must illuminate a bride with the “five alephs” (Likutei Moharan I:32). To illuminate the bride…“I have hidden Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against You” (Tehillim 119:11). We illuminate the bride with the “five alephs” that are in the heart—this is what we focus on as we dance at a wedding. One should have the “five alephs” in mind during the dancing, to draw the “five alephs,” the Name of G–d called “Eheye Asher Eheye” [“I will be what I will be”]. That is why the Name “Eheye Asher Eheye” appears five times in the Torah portion where Hashem appeared to Moshe at the burning bush. The word “Eheye” appears five times.
    We need to draw down the five Names of “Eheye.” Each “aleph” represents a single “Eheye.” The five Names of “Eheye” parallel Keter of Binah, Da’as of Binah, Tiferes of Binah, Yesod of Binah, and Malchus of Binah. Five times “Eheye.” Through this, one draws down to the bride the five Names of “Eheye” so that she can escape the aspect of judgment. For this is how she is—a young girl, a “na’arah” [without the “heh”] is the gematria 320, the “shach dinim.” But through the addition of the five “alephs” [which equals “heh”] she is called “na’arah” [with the “heh”]. “Then the king’s wrath was pacified” (Esther 7:10). One must draw down the light of the tefillin onto the child.
    A person has two aspects of Divine service to perform—to raise up holy sparks from the depths of the klippot, and to bind them with the tefillin to the left arm. He then has to draw down light from the light of Arich Anpin, from the strand of hair that goes out from the tefillin. From the head of Arich Anpin a hair descends until it strikes the head of Zeir Anpin, and it is from this that the light goes forth from the head of Zeir Anpin. These are the head tefillin.
    This is what happens with every single person during each and every night. There is a kind of light that he receives from above, and there is a kind of light that he himself needs to bring out from the depths of the klippot. There are all different types of lights that fell into the depths of the klippot because of the sin of Adam HaRishon.
    These holy sparks are tremendous lights that a person raises up through the Divine service that he performs at night. It is this light that makes him worthy of the arm tefillin, and it is with this light that he raises up Malchus.  Every person must repair his own aspect of Malchus. “Who is this rising” (Song of Songs 3:6, 8:5). “This” [“zos”] refers to Malchus. Without having repaired the sefirah of Malchus, he is unable to achieve anything holy. Without the sefirah of Malchus, a person cannot grasp anything. Therefore, “this” is prayer. Inasmuch as the prayers take longer—the slower they are recited—the more able a person is to repair the sefirah of Malchus. Then, during the remainder of the day—now it is 8:30 AM. Until 7:00 PM, we are left with only ten and a half hours—so after praying, he is able to raise up holy sparks by learning Torah.
    Prayer is ChaBaD (Chochmah, Binah, Da’as). Torah study is the six dimensions of the lower sefiros (Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferes, Netzach, Hod, and Yesod). This is an aspect of sleeping. The six dimensions of the lower sefiros are an aspect of sleep—mindlessness—lacking connection to Hashem.
    All prayer is just crying out to Hashem, speaking with Hashem, crying to Hashem, singing to Hashem. With it, one ascends to the Keter of Arich, but one cannot maintain that level of consciousness for more than three hours. So then we have another ten hours or so to learn Gemara, Halacha, Mishnayos. Anyone who slept [through the night] can start learning straight away, and anyone who didn’t sleep can rest for two or three hours and then proceed to learn. He can sleep until 10:30 AM or 11:00 AM and then learn until 7:00 PM.  7:00PM is Minchah and afterward, at 8:30PM, Ma’ariv is already over. After that he can sleep until 1:30AM--five hours. Later on he can make up another two hours or so.
    A person must know that all that with he does during the 120 years of his lifetime, he is raising up sparks from the depths of the klippot, through the prayers that he says from Chatzot [midnight] until Tikkun HaKlali [the ten Psalms proscribed by Rebbe Nachman to say every day, which are recited in the Yeshiva immediately after the Morning Prayer] is finished. Tikkun HaKlali is another thing that the Rebbe revealed. That which we were unable to raise up through the prayers when we did not focus properly on the letters—when we do not have the proper intention when enunciating the letters, then we do not raise up the sparks. So then the Tikkun HaKlali comes and completes everything. If a person did not pray with sufficient concentration, saying the Tikkun HaKlali can fix it. As a rule, we do not focus properly during most of the prayer service. We say it, we even scream it, but a person is thinking about America, thinking about dollars. He is thinking at that moment all kinds of thoughts that have nothing at all to do with the prayers. Nothing at all to do with serving G–d. If we would only focus properly for a letter or two!
    It says in the book “Zohar Chai,” Parshas Vayikra, that Rav Yosef of Anapoli, the son of Rav Michel of Zlotchov, died during the third meal of Shabbos. He was thirteen years old when he died, and ascended to heaven. The distance between Zlotchov and Anapoli was a few days’ ride, perhaps a week. In any event, he ascended to heaven and he saw that they immediately wanted to judge him. All of a sudden he saw that his father had arrived. They had both died during the third meal of Shabbos. Rav Michel asked, “What is my son doing here?” They said, “His time had come.” He asked, “His time had come?! He has more to learn, he has more prayers to say!” All of a sudden, myriad's of angels came bringing all the letters of the prayers he had said during his short lifetime. He used to pray with such attachment to G–d, with such fiery enthusiasm—he would cry to the very heavens. Every letter was said with such love and fear of G–d that he trembled as he said each and every letter.  After they brought billions upon billions of letters that he had said during his lifetime, they placed them on an enormous tray, a tray full of merits. A single accusing angel then came and, with one puff, blew them all away! Only one “heh” remained on the tray. This is the story that is brought at the beginning of the “Zohar Chai,” in his introduction to Vayikra.
    They wanted to throw him into Gehinnom, for only one letter had remained on the tray. Everything he had said had been without proper intention.  It was all pride. It was all for honor. What does a person think as he prays? “Do they respect me, or not? They insulted me; they hurt me. I won’t come any more to Shuvu Bonim. They insult people here.” 
    The Rebbe explains that when you hit a child, it must only be with “a shoelace.” (Bava Basra 21a; Likutei Moharan I:35:9) Draw down the lights of chashmal for him. You want to educate the child? Draw down the lights of this energy; draw down energy from Binah, the heart. The heart is the energy that enclothes faith. For we are without faith, we live without faith. We don’t need faith. We have water to drink. As soon as I get home, the wild ox and the leviathan are laid out on the table for me to eat. I eat for an hour or two and after that, I rest a little. After that, I eat lunch and then rest some more. What do we need faith for? So many people are traveling to America: they’ll all bring back a little extra, some more dollars. What do we need faith for?  Faith? To draw down money through faith? To draw down a flow of abundance through faith? Drawing down abundance through prayer?  This is a sign that there is falsehood here! If we can’t manage to bring down the abundance through faith, then there is falsehood here! The chashmal in the heart is damaged; this is the light of faith. The light of faith is damaged.
    If a person exists in a state of humility and self–effacement, then no movement of his will bear any trace of falsehood.  A person is full of falsehood. He lies with every movement. He comes, he prays. What is he going to do, abandon the Torah?  I said to one young man whose parents scream at him and hit him when he comes home after eleven at night.  They make him trouble.  I said, so go and sleep at someone else’s house. He answered: “But who will buy me an apartment, who will marry me off?”
    The longer your peyos are, the more money you will have. Even when the secularists see someone with long peyos, they trust him. This is a trademark: this is a sign of the Jewish people, a Jew with peyos. The question is, what’s behind the peyos. Is it some kind of costume, G–d forbid?  He should fulfill the precept of “and he speaks truth in his heart” while he does business, like Rav Safra.
    So the Rebbe explains that, really, everything is a product of the chashmal in the heart. All the flow of abundance, everything. And when you go to educate a child, you must educate him with the strap of the tefillin, with the chashmal that is in the heart. Illuminate him with the chashmal in the heart, meaning the consciousness that one receives from the light of Hashem’s Countenance. This is the soul. The chashmal in the heart is the soul. The chashmal in the heart is your soul, and when you speak falsely, the soul flies away. Every lie that a person utters, any deception, any underhandedness, makes his soul fly from him. It simply flies away. The chashmal in the heart comes from the soul. All warmth comes from the soul.
    When I was in grade school, the teacher asked: “Where does body heat come from? The body is warm, what makes it warm? Why, when a person dies, is he cold.” They drew the figure of a person on the blackboard there, and in the belly of the figure, the teacher drew a fire. I was ten years old at the time and I said to myself, “What, is he crazy? A fire in the belly! When the body is warm, there’s a fire in the belly. He drew a fire.” It was only later, after I had entered Yeshiva, that it became clear to me that all the body’s heat comes from the soul.
    They don’t know what makes a person warm, they don’t understand, these natural scientists. All the body’s heat comes from the soul. If a person has a soul, the soul is enmeshed throughout the two hundred and forty–eight limbs and three hundred and sixty–five sinews of his body. He speaks truth in his heart; he is honest in all that he does. He truly prays. He truly learns—so his body is warm. All illness is a result of a disruption in the warmth of the body. If there is no warmth in a certain limb, then that limb deteriorates and grows cold.
    There are three hundred and seventy lights of the supernal Countenance that are drawn down through rectification and honesty. Everything, then, depends on truth. The Rebbe says that if we so much a make a false movement, then our souls flee from us. The Rebbe says, “I am pure of any false charm,” yet see how these famous false leaders are so refined, like Agag who came to Shmuel “in chains [literally, with refinement]” (Shmuel I:15:32). The more wicked the person is, the more refined he is. A natural person is sometimes angry, sometimes sad, whatever... But the more evil a person is, the more he knows that one day he’ll stick a knife in his enemy’s back, so now he can afford to be patient. He says “please” and “thank you,” but one day he’ll show you who he really is. He’ll say to you, “You’re just a bit of bacteria anyway. I’m going to exterminate you with some pesticide.”  Meanwhile, he can spend fifty years saying “please” and “thank you.” The crueler a person is, the less you are able to see it on his face. His face is pleasant and lovely. He speaks pleasantly, but one day he’ll take care of you, permanently!
    A regular person, on the other hand, is sometimes sad, sometimes angry, sometimes this way, sometimes that way. He can’t play the same game because his evil is not so great. He isn’t plotting to hurt someone someday. Whatever comes out, comes out. Someone can suddenly get him upset.
    The Rebbe said: “I am pure of any false charm.” All the famous false leaders--see how their movements are so refined: they are the biggest pursuers and the biggest enemies. They have the most enmity for their fellow Jews, and they will run anyone who is not connected to them in to the ground. The Rebbe said, “I am pure, I don’t have any of the false charm of the false leaders: no false charm at all. I only have true charm!” Reb Nosson said: “We haven’t got true charm, but we haven’t got false charm either.” Everything that a person does is false charm. The only thing that is real is what comes naturally.
    This is what Rav said to Rav Shmuel bar Sheilas: “If the child responds to your discipline, fine. If not, let him sit together with his friends and [let him] learn that way” (Bava Basra 21a). Amalek is the most refined. Agag went “in refinement.”
    The Rebbe explains that one must draw down the chashmal from the heart in order to teach the children with the chashmal that is within the heart. Unfortunately, in the meantime, if we wait until we will have the chashmal in the heart, until we put in the batteries, until…How long do batteries run for? Two hours? How much chashmal can enter into the heart at one time? Perhaps some scientist can [figure out a way to] keep the chashmal in the heart going a little bit longer?
    What do we do? We have no chashmal in the heart, no chashmal in the mind, none in the hands and none in the feet. The chashmal just dissipates little by little.  How will we then put this chashmal into our children? You want to educate your child? You need the three hundred and seventy lights, the lights of chashmal. But who has the lights of chashmal? Who has the three hundred and seventy lights?
    And the children…”A wild donkey’s colt will turn into a man” (Iyov 11:12). A child is a wild donkey’s colt and his mother and father don’t want to believe this. Now they are taking the children on a trip.  They sing holy songs the whole way and give mussar speeches that the children don’t even listen to. This is how they teach the children: Six hours in cheder and afterward, the child goes outside and everything dissipates. He sees bad children; he speaks with children that talk bad language.
    My doctor told me that after you peel a clove of garlic, it should be left to sit for ten minutes before you cook it. These ten minutes allow the garlic to undergo some important organic process. Garlic is the most important food that there is. It can be eaten cooked or raw; it can be juiced; it actually heals all kinds of illnesses. Just as it says in the Gemara. Nowadays, they make garlic capsules, they make all kinds of things out of garlic, but it still should sit for ten minutes after it has been peeled so that this internal process can happen. The garlic, once its peel is off, begins to synthesize important substances within itself. Onions are just the opposite, as it says in the Gemara. They shouldn’t be left for a moment without their skin. If you leave a peeled onion for five minutes, it is like a magnet that absorbs all of the poison in the air, all the poisonous gasses and bacteria. He told me that green onions aren’t really onions at all. They do not have any of the properties of onions at all—it is just a green shoot that sprouts from the bulb. It is the white onion that has the healing properties, but only if you cook it as soon as you peel it. One mustn’t leave it without its skin for a moment. Every second that it sits exposed it absorbs more and more poison and vapor from the air.
    Children are more like onions than garlic. Children absorb everything immediately. A child goes outside for one minute, he just opens the window and he already sees all the garbage. What does he see? What is there to see in the street? [There are] things that I never saw in my life. Children today know things that I don’t know. 
    In Russia they kidnap people and cut them up into little pieces, just like the Nazis. They film this. This is what the youth of today sees! The youth of today doesn’t want to see anything but people being cut up and tortured, screaming and going out of their minds from pain. This is the “peak” for Israeli youth, and the youth throughout the world. Russia produces these films. Someone in Interpol discovered this; he discovered these films and the people who were kidnapped. A person goes to Russia, they kidnap him and cut him into little pieces and make a film of it. Russia is the greatest source of impurity. Not regular impurity, either. They poison the children. Afterward, the children go and murder and enjoy cutting people up.
    So what does a child hear outside? What does he see outside? What does a child see? Here, the parents don’t understand this. The parents think that their child will be able to play among the mischievous kids in the street, but in the end he will grow up beautifully. He will be another Chazon Ish, baruch Hashem. Surely, the Chazon Ish also wandered around in the streets!
    We know a yeshiva man who used to run around day and night after every child. He didn’t sleep. He didn’t eat. He just ran after the children. This is the miracle of Shuvu Bonim. If not, there wouldn’t be a single child in Shuvu Bonim. There wouldn’t be a single child. We heard terrible things. What do children do? Children throw stones! Tomorrow, he’ll throw stones at his own father.
    At 11:30 PM, I heard screams of “Shabbos!” Apparently, these are the children of Shuvu Bonim. Friday night I hear screams of “Shabbos, Shabbos!” [There were] twenty or thirty children. Shabbos matters to the child? It matters to him to shout, to shout “Shabbos!”  It matters to him that the cars are violating Shabbos? 
    This was all I spoke about on Shavuos. It was two days together [the festival and then Shabbos]. I gave such a lecture that people were shocked. Instead of speaking about the giving of the Torah, we spoke about bringing the children inside the house. When Hashem came to give the Torah, He said: “Bring me guarantors!” They brought Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov to be guarantors, but Hashem said that they were not good enough! They brought Moshe Rabbeinu—no good! Yehoshua ben Nun—no good! Until they said: “Our children will be our guarantors.” Your children? Fine, take the Torah!
    Our children: that is the giving of the Torah! Instead of talking about the giving of the Torah—talking about endless lights, about the lights of chashmal—we spoke about how we must educate the children, how we must close them up in the house and give them all kinds of counselors and make sure they have tutors. One of the reasons why we have endless debts here is because we have provided tutors for every child. What community provides tutors for its children? They all grow up like wild donkeys and afterwards they get married. They put on nice kapotes and shtreimels, but they stay the same wild donkeys. A child, if you don’t catch him by the age of six or seven, he is lost for the rest of his life. He is almost beyond repair.
    Now we won’t be here for three weeks. If we’ll get a million dollars here, then we won’t have to travel at all. Everyone with his prayer can push off the trip by another few hours, with another prayer and another prayer. People have given us deposits and put their faith in the Yeshiva, but it is forbidden to be in debt for even a single day! We must make an end to all of the debts. Everyone must now go out during the three weeks while we are gone; everyone must go out day and night. They should learn for six or eight hours and then go out to collect money. If the Rav is already going out then…Twice we left for medical reasons. We didn’t do anything there that wasn’t for medical reasons. Now we are only going for this reason and not for any other—to return those deposits. Just as Reb Nosson writes in every letter. He cries out over every few pennies throughout Alim LiTerufah. Everyone asks: “What is with Shuvu Bonim? Don’t they see what is written in Alim LiTerufah?” In every letter of Alim LiTerufah, Reb Nosson cries out to his son: “I’m in debt, I need money, get money for me.” He asks everyone—Reb Avraham Bernyu, and others…”I’ve borrowed money for the grocery bill, I owe for some bread and milk. Send me money right away, I can’t continue this way…” The Rebbe says that it is forbidden to remain in debt for even a moment. A person never knows if tomorrow will be his last day, a person never knows when his time will come. Or one day comes and he can no longer walk.
    Just like they just did x–rays on me today. They didn’t find anything in the end, but they thought that my spine had collapsed. I wasn’t able to move at all, all kinds of professors were looking…they still haven’t found anything. One day a person can suddenly fall apart. Suddenly, his body falls apart completely. His whole frame collapses. Out of weakness, from all the effort he’s been putting in—not eating, not sleeping—then one day his whole frame just falls apart. But something can still be salvaged. A person never has any idea when his time will come. If, G–d forbid, we go today, then the Yeshiva will owe the millions of dollars. Who will pay it back? Who cares about this? I will be sitting there for a billion years in Gehinnom! Until we will be reincarnated together with all of the lenders. Who knows? Maybe we will be their horses or their donkeys? Someone once had a horse. People said to him: “Tell it that you forgive him.” The horse died as soon as he said it. These are well–known stories.
    I am simply begging for mercy, that I shouldn’t be reincarnated as a horse or a donkey—that’s the truth. Everyone now, if you see some sheep, some goat, some dove, you’ll know that it’s me. In the end, I will pay back some of the debts. Maybe it’s just a miracle that I’m still alive. It’s a miracle. Perhaps Hashem is keeping me alive just so that I should pay back the debts. Maybe it is for that reason. But it is forbidden to continue living without paying off those debts.  All of Alim LiTerufah refers to this.  Every other letter says: “I can’t live in debt for even a day. Send money right away.”
    We are traveling now just to pay back the debts. The Yeshiva has gotten to the most critical state possible. If people know what was going on here, they would simply close down the Yeshiva. Oshry, Yaakov Kaminer, and Simcha Bunim are supporting our Yeshiva. People ask, what are these Gerrer Chassidim doing here? Who needs Gerrer Chassidim? They brought us the best accountant in the country. He is already retired—he’s a Jew of seventy years of age. He says that the Yeshiva is about to close, it is falling apart. Kaminer, Oshry, and Simcha Bunim are the three people who are keeping the Yeshiva going. They are taking care of public relations, and they send the maggidei shiur here. Gerrer Chassidim are the only ones supporting this Yeshiva. The Breslover Chassidim excommunicated this Yeshiva long ago. They said that this Yeshiva is full of heretics, because someone who won’t dirty his hands is called a heretic today.
    But if it wasn’t for the Gerrer Chassidim standing behind the Yeshiva and for the Gerrer Rebbe who is sending and pushing the maggidei shiur here to teach and encouraging them: “There is real fear of Heaven here and people are truly serving Hashem. Keep on supporting the Yeshiva. What does it matter if it is Breslov or Vizhnitz or Satmar? Jews are serving Hashem.” The Rebbe says, “In Heaven, they won’t ask you if you were a Breslover. They’ll ask you if you served Hashem.”  Skverer Chassidim…“You see true fear of Heaven here. What does it matter to me if they are Skver, or Ropshitz…What do I care? I see Jews serving Hashem and I want to give them a piece of bread. I’ll have a share in their Divine service.”
    So we must do this, we must really serve Hashem—not to rent cars and drive around in them. If we do that, then we wind up with debts. Then we have to pay their debts. The Yeshiva has already been at a zero balance. Twenty years ago, fifteen years ago, we didn’t owe a single penny. But we didn’t pay salaries, either. People built up debts of their own—after a year, everyone would owe ten thousand dollars, twenty thousand dollars. The Yeshiva paid the debts of twenty avreichim [students] at once—this one ten thousand dollars, another one twenty thousand dollars—people were falling apart. In the end, we saw that we would have to pay salaries. People then built up debts at the grocery store, debts here and there; they defaulted on the interest–free loans that they took. The loan societies came to us for payment. If not, they said that they would blacken the Yeshiva’s name. So we said, we’ll pay salaries and we will begin to raise money. It is clear, however, that prayer can push this [my journey] off another day and another day, but the goal here is to pay off the debts.
    No one has any right to throw a stone at an Arab. On the contrary, one should do him favors and help him. They are our neighbors—sometimes you have to help a neighbor. If he is sick, you have to go and help him. “We sustain the poor of the gentiles for the sake of maintaining the peace” (Gittin 61a). There are entire sections of Halacha that teach us how we are to act with the gentile nations. The gentiles are not a free-for-all, but they were created in the image of G–d. A gentile is a Divine spark, “For He made man in the image of G–d” (Bereishis 9:6). One must have mercy on them and help them. It is written that Rabbi Yochanan would be first to greet even an elderly gentile. The Gemara says this in Kiddushin. One should greet them first—and a gentile should take precedence before a Jew. Because it is a sanctification of G–d’s Name when a gentile says, “Blessed is the G–d of Shimon ben Shetach.”
The Midrash in Devarim Rabbah 3:3 is the source of this quote. Shimon ben Shetach bought a donkey from a non-Jew and found a gem on the animal. People said to him, “It is permitted to keep a lost object for yourself.” He said, “No. I’m returning it to its owner.” When he returned it, the Yishmaeli said to him, “Blessed is the G–d of Shimon ben Shetach.” The gentile sees that there is a G–d in the world, and if the Jews believe in G–d, then everyone believes in G–d.   If a Jew steals, hits, throws stones for no reason, then they stop believing in G–d.  All the Muslims and Christians—their eyes are all turned to the Jewish people to see whether or not the Jews are holding on to their faith: to see if the Jewish people are acting in accordance with their faith. This is what the Rebbe says, that all of the chashmal goes in accordance with faith. Then there will be chashmal throughout the world, the whole world will believe. But if the Jewish people lose their faith, then the entire world loses its faith as well. They all know that the Jews are the chosen people. They can say what they want, and they can distort the idea like some priests have attempted to do, but the whole world still knows the truth: that the truth is found among the Jews.
    Wherever you go, as soon as a Jew goes abroad, everyone recognizes that he is Jewish. They only want to serve you. A Jew comes along and everybody runs. The Jew is G–d’s ambassador throughout the world. Even a secular Jew, it doesn’t matter. He’s called a Jew, so he’s an ambassador of G–d.
    The Gemara in Chullin says that when Rabbi Pinchas went to redeem captives, a merchant with a load of wheat for Pesach traveled in his caravan. This merchant had a sack of wheat. There was also an Arab that joined their group on the way. They didn’t know him at all, but he joined their caravan. People would, in those days, travel through the deserts on all kinds of roads—so some Arab joined their caravan. They reached the river Ginai and Rabbi Pinchas said, “Ginai, split your waters.” The river said, “No. I am flowing at Hashem’s command.” Rabbi Pinchas said, “But I am going to fulfill the Will of my Master.” The river answered, “So am I. Hashem sent me here to flow. You can’t tell me to stop.” Rabbi Pinchas finally said, “If you don’t split for me, I will decree that your waters stop flowing forever!” And the river split for him! Afterward, Rabbi Pinchas said to the river, “Split for that Jew as well, the one who is carrying wheat, so that the Pesach wheat will not get wet.” It split for him too! Then the Arab was left. They had already crossed to the other side and the Arab was afraid to cross. So Rabbi Pinchas said: “Split for this Arab too.” They had to do a miracle like the splitting of the Reed Sea, like the splitting of the Jordan, for that Arab. It split for the Arab as well.
    Rav Yosef says: “How much greater this man was—he was greater than Moshe and the six hundred thousand Jews.” According to the story, the Ginai river split three times, whereas with Moshe, the Reed Sea split only once. The Gemara says that this is still no proof. The river might have split only one time [and just remained open long enough for three people to pass], but even if it had only split once, it still would be (as it were) greater than that which Moshe Rabbeinu had done. Moshe was with six hundred thousand Jews, but Rabbi Pinchas was only traveling with one other Jew and an Arab. Even so, he managed to split the river for another Jew and the Arab while Moshe had split the sea with the combined force of six hundred thousand other Jews.
    They explain, though, that there really isn’t anyone greater than Moshe Rabbeinu! Here we have an example of a Tzaddik who is “greater” than Moshe Rabbeinu, but that is impossible. What happened was that, at the moment when the river split, Moshe Rabbeinu’s soul manifested within Rabbi Pinchas and it was the power of Moshe that Rabbi Pinchas used to bring the miracle about. Then he was able to do twice as much as Moshe had been able to do, for Moshe Rabbeinu was himself incarnate within Rabbi Pinchas. We find whole sections of the Gemara that describe people who were worthy of doing things that were greater than that which Moshe Rabbeinu had done. And it is all in the merit of Moshe Rabbeinu who manifests within them.
    In the second section of Midrash Rabbah, there is a shocking story that illustrates that it is forbidden to hurt and Arab, an Edomite, a gentile. In the introduction to Midrash Eichah, subsection 14, Rabbi Chaninah bar Papah said on the verse in Mishlei 29:9, “‘If a wise man contends with a foolish man, whether he rage or laugh, there is no rest.’ A foolish man has no rest. No matter what you say to a foolish man, he isn’t satisfied. Rabbi Simon said, ‘Anyone who contends with a fool is himself held accountable.’  There is nothing you can say to a fool. You want to judge a fool, but in the end you’ll be judged.” We are speaking now with wise people who understand what we’re saying, not with fools. “If a wise man contends” is interpreted as meaning that if a wise man speaks with fools, then he himself is judged. 
    Another opinion of “If a wise man contends with a foolish man” is that this refers to Hashem, about Whom the verse says, “He is wise in heart and mighty in strength” (Iyov 9:3). “A foolish man” refers to the Jewish people about whom the verse says, “For my people is foolish” (Yirmiyahu 4:22). “Whether he rage or laugh” would mean that I [Hashem] raged and there is no rest; I [Hashem] laughed and there is no rest. I raged at you during the time of Pekach ben Remalya, and I laughed at you during the time of Amatzya. Amatzya started off as a righteous king, it was only afterward that he became corrupt. He became corrupt and brought idolatry to Yerushalayim. It happened when he conquered Edom. “And Amatzya strengthened himself and led his people.” (Divrei HaYamim II:25:11)
Whichever way we leave Yerushalayim, we find ourselves at the beginning of the land of Edom. Ma’aleh Adumim, Mishor Adumim, Kfar Adumim…All of this is called the land of Edom. The land of Edom extends until Eilat. So you come to the end of Yerushalayim, the epitome of holiness, and you enter the epitome of impurity. Edom is the epitome of impurity—this is Amalek, this is Esav. The land that was once the most fruitful, the most flourishing, is today a barren desert. It is a barren desert until Eilat.
    They went, then, to conquer Edom. Amatzya went to conquer Edom. They got to the Valley of Salt and the soldiers from the tribe of Yehudah took ten thousand Edomite soldiers captive. They took ten thousand soldiers and threw them off a precipice. They brought them to some cliff and threw ten thousand soldiers from the top of the precipice. At that moment, Hashem said, “I decreed that Bnei Noach [non-Jews] are only to be executed by the sword.” You conquered Edom? Edom is making trouble for the Jewish people? Edom is making war against the Jewish people? Edom is killing Jews? Then it is permitted to save Jewish lives from the hands of Edom. If you take them captive, though, and you have to kill them, you are not allowed to kill them in a barbaric way. Execute them by the sword, but no other way. Death by the sword, as fast as possible. So that their suffering should be minimized as much as possible—more than that is forbidden. Here you have conquered Edom—Amatzya conquered Edom. Amotz and Amatzya were brothers. Amatzya was the uncle of Yeshaya the prophet; he was the father of Uziyah and the grandfather of Yotam. In the end, he became corrupt, and he also became cruel. After he became a cruel man, he introduced idolatry. It was after he had become a cruel man, after he had done this cruel act and lost his faith—that was when he introduced idolatry to Yerushalayim.
    “And Amatzya strengthened himself, and led his people, and went to the Valley of Salt, and smote ten thousand of the children of Se’ir. And another ten thousand did the children of Yehudah carry away alive captive.” The ones that they killed had been killed in battle. He tortured the captives. “They brought them to the top of the rock, and they cast them down from the top of the rock, so that they all were broken in pieces” (Divrei HaYamim II:25:11). They killed them in such a barbaric way, by throwing them down from the cliff so that they were smashed to pieces. After he did this cruel deed, he became completely corrupt.  When a person acts cruelly, whether to a Jew or to a gentile, he also loses his faith. He loses his chashmal, and he starts to worship idolatry.
    “And it was when Amatzya returned from smiting the Edomites that he brought the gods of the children of Se’ir and stood them up before him as gods. He would bow down before them and offer incense to them” (Ibid, II:25:14). After his victory over the children of Se’ir, when he saw that their gods were worthless and everyone saw with their own eyes that their gods did not help them, that was when he fell from his faith and adopted the gods of the vanquished people of Se’ir, of the children of Edom. He brought their idolatry to Yerushalayim. He stopped going to the Temple, he stopped serving Hashem, and “he would bow down before them and offer incense to them.”
    When a person acts with cruelty, at that moment he disconnects from the Jewish faith, he loses all his faith. He loses everything and falls lower and lower. Hashem says about this: “I will not forgive! If you act this way, then the decree of exile will go into effect!” At that moment, Hashem said, “What are these people doing here? They should be exiled from here!” If we act cruelly to the Arabs—to the gentiles—then at that moment, exile is decreed on us. 
    The present task is to educate the children: to take the little children and to know that “a wild donkey’s colt will turn into a man.” There is no such thing as a child who is a Tzaddik. Even when a child throws stones at someone in front of his parent’s eyes, the parents still don’t want to believe it. “My pure and holy child that I brought down to this world in holiness and purity like Amram and Yocheved?” There are people that want to end their connection to the Jewish people completely. They say that the Arabs are so sweet—it is the Jews who are the murderers. This is what they broadcast on the radio and kibbutzim. It’s just that no one believes them except for those people who, later on, become members of Knesset and Prime Ministers. The simple people can’t be fooled.
    After Amatzya did this cruel act to the gentiles, he lost his faith. He brought home the gods of Se’ir and bowed down to them and offered incense to them. It is forbidden for anyone to act cruelly to any of Hashem’s creations. [The prohibition of] “tza’ar ba’alei chayim” [causing suffering to a living creature] refers to gentiles also. It is forbidden to cause pain to horses, and to dogs. It is forbidden to hurt Arabs. They didn’t do anything to you. Even if he threw a stone at you, you don’t have to throw it back. If you can stop him, that’s good. But a person should not  throw a stone back at them, for that will destroy your own attribute of mercy. He isn’t worth the loss of your attribute of kindness and mercy, or the loss of your refinement. “And it was when Amatzya returned from smiting the Edomites that he brought the gods of the children of Se’ir and stood them up before him as gods. He would bow down before them and offer incense to them.” He fell from all of his faith!
    Now we will read the Ibn Ezra on the Parsha, the Parsha of Eglah Arufah [dealing with the finding of a dead body. If it cannot be ascertained who killed him, the elders of the nearest town have to sacrifice a heifer as an atonement.] “Grant atonement, Hashem, to Your people Yisrael who You have redeemed, and lay not innocent blood to the charge of Your people Yisrael. And the blood will be forgiven them” (Devarim 21:8). Grant atonement to all of Your people, Yisrael. They found a dead body. The Rambam says that the elders go, but Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov in the Gemara Sotah says that the Kohen Gadol and the King also go, because they are all responsible. A person was killed near Tzfat in the Galil, near the town of Tzfat, and five members of the Sanhedrin together with the Kohen Gadol have to go all the way from Yerushalayim!
    There is a Gemara in Sotah here. There is a whole chapter called “Eglah Arufah.” So the Rambam decides the halacha that five elders are sufficient, but the Gemara in the ninth chapter “Eglah Arufah” says, “Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov says, ‘Your elders’—this is the Sanhedrin. ‘Your judges’—this is the King.” Together with the Kohen Gadol, they all have to go to measure. The Ibn Ezra says: “What does ‘Grant atonement, Hashem, to Your people Yisrael who you have redeemed’ mean?”
    They say: “Our eyes did not see it.” The commentary Avi Ezer says that the elders must go. “And the Kohanim and the Levi'im will come near for Hashem has chosen them to serve Him and to bless in the Name of Hashem, and by their word will every controversy and every blemish be decided. And all the elders of that city that are nearest to the slain man will wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the ravine, and they will answer and say: ‘Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it’” (Ibid, 21:5-7).
    What is going on here? The elders come, the greatest sages, with the local Rabbis to the body to say: “We didn’t kill him! Why do the elders have to admit such a thing?” Who suspected them? We didn’t kill him; we didn’t spill his blood. Our hands are clean—see, look how white our hands are, not a drop of blood on them! No blood on the knife, not on the hands, and not on the watermelon. We have no blood on us!
    Who suspects these elders? They should look for someone from the underworld—in the pubs. They should go and eavesdrop on what people are saying in the pubs. To plants some GSS people in the pubs to hear what they’re talking about—“He killed him.” “He pulled it off.” “He took his revenge.” Who is this “he”? Adam Kadmon? Atik? Who is this “he”? Look, this is talking about Atik, about Arich Anpin. That is why the greatest elders go and cry, “We didn’t do anything. We didn’t kill him.” What is going on here?
    The answer is that there need to be five elders because, in fact, they did spill the dead man’s blood. They spilled the blood. The ones with the peyos and the beards—the young men who learn in Shuvu Bonim—they are the ones who are killing. That is why they hate you, because you really are the killers. If someone is killed, who is guilty? Whoever learns Torah day and night. Whoever learns Torah day and night is the guilty one! For if there had only been a drop more learning, a drop more purity of thought, then it wouldn’t have happened!
    So they really must go the greatest elders with the whitest beards and the longest peyos. They have to say: “Our eyes did not see it, we didn’t see anything. Believe us, we didn’t see anything, we don’t know anything.” Who suspected them? If they hadn’t done some sin, it wouldn’t have happened. The Ibn Ezra says: “If they hadn’t done a similar sin, a man wouldn’t have been killed in their vicinity.” It happened near this city, so then the entire city is guilty. Some sin happened in this city. That is how it happened that near this city—there was such an atmosphere of impurity that a person could murder his friend. This city, specifically, is guilty. It must have done some sin now. Some sin is going on in Yerushalayim—we are all guilty!
    The Gemara says in Makos—everyone is familiar with this Gemara; I’ve mentioned it dozens of times. How long does the Kohen Gadol keep his post? The Kohen Gadol is guilty! If someone kills, even inadvertently, the Kohen Gadol is guilty. The Gemara says, “Why is he at fault? Because food has to be brought to murderers.” The Gemara says, “Yes, we have a proof from Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi. A man was killed three parsangs from Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi’s town. He normally lived in Lod. A man was killed three parsangs from the town where Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi lived. Eliyahu the prophet used to appear to him every day, but for three days he did not appear. He wouldn’t appear until Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi repented for the fact that a man had been killed three parsangs from his town.
    So all that is happening around us—people are being killed—it is all because we are guilty! Those with the white beards—the elders of the generation, the ones who learn Torah day and night, the ones who pray word by word with proper focus—if they would pray just another prayer with the proper focus, then it wouldn’t happen.
    They must come. They must put out their hands and wash them—“See, our hands are clean, we washed our hands.” This is their repentance that is how they are to repent. Every time a person is killed, one must immediately repent.
    It is certain that it is my fault that a person was killed! If only I would have prayed with better intent, if only I would have reigned in my mind, if only I would have not opened my eyes. You opened your eyes, and a man gets killed. People die in auto accidents at that moment. The Ibn Ezra says, “If they hadn’t done some similar sin.” If we hadn’t stumbled into some sin on the same day, at the same moment, then this murder would not have occurred. The entire city is guilty of this. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have happened close to their town.
    They used to measure to the nearest town, to know which city was guilty. The town that was closest was the guilty one, apparently it was the one where some sin had been committed at that second. In that city, some sin was committed, so the murderer got riled up and decided to kill his friend. If not, then the murderer wouldn’t have killed. An angel would have come to stop him. He would have broken his arm or his leg. In order for one person to kill another, there has to be some sin committed that creates an impure atmosphere which enables the murderer to succeed. If there was no impurity in the atmosphere, then the murder would not have come off. A person would attempt it, but he would not succeed.
    So they measure to see which town is closest, to know which town is guilty of the murder—which town just did a serious sin. They bring the sages and the elders of the town. “All the elders of the town.” All of the elders! Before, they had to bring five or more members of the Sanhedrin [depending on which opinion you follow], and the King and the Kohen Gadol according to Rabbi Eliezer. All of them are guilty, even the King. Even the Kohen Gadol is guilty. All of them are guilty. As for the elders of the closest town—all of them must come. “Hashem’s thoughts are deep.” (So says the Ibn Ezra there.) “If they hadn’t committed some sin” it wouldn’t have happened that a man would be killed close to them. “Hashem’s thoughts are infinitely deep and high to us.” Hashem knows exactly. The elders need to come and confess, and the King and Kohen Gadol and the Sanhedrin need to come.
    “So will you remove the innocent blood form among you, when you do that which is right in the sight of Hashem” (Devarim 21:9). How is the innocent blood removed? The Ibn Ezra tells us. His language is very precise here. He says that if you will do that which is right in the sight of Hashem, then there will be no innocent blood shed. There will be no murder; everyone will do what is right in the sight of Hashem. I will not just do what I want to, impulsively.
Right now, I want to drink some water. Right now, I want to travel; I want to go right now. If a person follows his impulses, then some other person with a killing impulse will also pull it off. I manage to do what I want, so he too manages to do what he wants. Right now, he is angry with someone; he wants to rob someone for whatever reason. “Do not men despise a thief, even if he steals to satisfy his soul when he is hungry?” (Mishlei 6:30). Perhaps he is hungry, perhaps the other person owes him money, perhaps the other person mistreated him some time in the past? The moment that I follow my impulses, then he also follows his impulses. If I don’t blindly follow my impulses, then neither will he. It’s all one thing, one unit. 
    Those who learn Torah are at the head! If the head is all right, then the person doesn’t do stupid things. If the head is not all right, then he murders and beats, and everything is corrupted. Whoever is at the head—the ones who learn Torah—they are the head of the Jewish people—of the world. Their thoughts must be in order. So the Ibn Ezra says: “So will you remove the innocent blood from among you, when you do that which is right in the sight of Hashem.” If you do that which is right in the sight of Hashem, then you will remove the innocent blood!
    They are searching—the police, the investigators. What do they want? For every thief and murderer, thank G–d, there are about a million prison workers, lawyers, secretaries and receptionists who print out reams of papers.  Altogether, there are about ten or twenty thieves in the country and the whole state is making a living off of them. The whole budget is dedicated to them—people study law, there are judges and lawyers, and they make laws in the Knesset. Twenty–four hours a day, they make laws, and have elections. Everything is because of the handful of thieves in the country. If there wouldn’t be any thieves, then everything would be just fine.
    Why are there thieves? Because the ones who are studying the Torah are thieves. They are the head thieves. They steal forbidden sights, forbidden thoughts. They think that no one sees, and that is why the country is so messed up. Because there is none of “that which is right in the sight of Hashem.” People aren’t doing what they ought to be doing. They say, “Who saw me look? Who saw?” But at that moment he killed a person. A bank is robbed. One person robbed another. Now there is a police investigation and a million people are making a living off of this murder.
    If you will do that which is right in the sight of Hashem, says the Ibn Ezra, then that is how you will remove the innocent blood shed among you. There won’t be any innocent bloodshed; there won’t be any murder or theft. The Avi Ezer, the commentary on the Ibn Ezra, explains these final words of the Ibn Ezra, “This is a manifestation of the concept of ‘The reward of a sin is a sin, and the reward of a mitzvah is a mitzvah.’” This is how the Ibn Ezra ends his comments. “If you will do that which is right in the sight of Hashem,” then there will be no murders, no theft, and no robbery. There will be no police—they will be out of work, and they will all learn Torah instead. Today, everyone is making a living—there are computers, writing devices, all kinds of the most modern equipment designed to help catch the murderers and track them down. The truth is, the whole world is standing just to catch a few criminals. The whole world gets its living for the sake of a few criminals that stole and killed. Everyone has an abundant livelihood.
    Instead, we should do the opposite. Everyone will do that which is right in the sight of Hashem; they will study Torah and cleave to Hashem. They will think about how they can serve Hashem instead of following their impulses and doing that which is right in their eyes. Do that which is right in the sight of Hashem. Don’t look for righteousness and uprightness. Do that which is right in the sight of Hashem. Seek uprightness by searching for how to study the Torah—how to pray with proper intent. That is uprightness. Then there will not be any killing.
    Everyone curses the Kohen Gadol because he did not pray with proper focus on Yom HaKippurim—that is the cause of murder during the year. All of the killers curse the Kohen Gadol, “When will he die already?”
    Let us finish up the words of the Avi Ezer. We are finishing now. For three weeks, we will not be here. I truly thank everyone who, with his prayers, has been pushing off the trip by a few more hours. We are literally seeing wonders and miracles. The trip has just now been pushed off another twelve hours. But we need the million dollars; we need the ten million dollars, to pay back all the money that is owed to people. If I die today, then it’s over. No one will pay back those debts. I will have to be reincarnated for the next billion years, and who knows if it will even be an atonement at all? Because reincarnation doesn’t erase even a penny that wasn’t paid back! A person has to marry off a child—he put up some collateral, his apartment, something. For a few more percentage points of interest, he put himself in danger. The interest is also a big question—how can one give such interest? After all, this isn’t a factory that is making any money. It’s a factory that is only losing money. They are giving out interest on the assumption that, sometime in the future, there will be a profit. But, right now, the negative balances have hit the bank’s “red lines.” The interest is also forbidden by Torah law, just as there are no profits so too…There are yeshivos that even have savings. They make deposits at all kinds of banks, so they are also permitted to give out interest, since they really are making a profit. But how can there be interest when there are only losses?
    This proves that the interest is forbidden. We are all, right now, transgressing the most stringent prohibitions. After doing these things, a person doesn’t get up at the resurrection. They thought that there would be some profit. But there is no profit margin here, no profit at all. Only losses. The problem is that it is impossible to return people’s deposits—we won’t even talk about the interest. We are transgressing prohibitions every moment that we do not pay back these deposits. “The wicked borrows, but does not pay back” (Tehillim 37:21). As soon as he borrows, he is called wicked, for how will he pay back? If he took a loan because he didn’t have, then afterwards will he have? A person generally loses and does not gain. Ninety–nine percent of people generally lose.  One person makes a profit, so the other ninety–nine percent say: “Maybe I’ll also make a profit someday.” But the person with ninety–five million dollars is one in a billion, or one in five and a half billion people. Maybe I’ll also be one out of five and a half billion? In the meanwhile, everyone else is in the red.
    Thank you so much for all the prayers that pushed off the trip until Thursday, but the main thing is that everyone should pray that we manage to pay back all the debts. That there will be some miracle and we will be able to return all of the deposits. Every day that goes by is a terrible sin; it is “the wicked borrowing.” A person is called wicked. A person borrows money, his prayers are not accepted. His prayers are not accepted. Nothing is accepted because he borrowed. He put someone else at risk, how can Hashem accept his prayer? What if you die all of a sudden? If a person does some sin and he dies? What does anyone know? How can you put yourself at risk and borrow from someone else? You know that you’ll live another minute? Who will pay it back? No one will pay it back! Especially such an amount. They would have to sell fifty apartments to pay back these kinds of sums.
    So the main element of the prayers must be directed towards us being able to pay it all back. It will be three weeks [that I am planning on being away for]. It [the trip] will succeed in the merit of the prayers, and of finishing the book of Tehillim. Just as everyone said the entire book of Tehillim every day so that the Rav should not have to travel, they should now say the whole book of Tehillim every day so that the Rav will be successful.
    I am not a Rav and I am not anything at all. I just got together a few people from the street and a few Yerushalmim so that there should be a Charedi flavor to the place. But these people literally sacrificed their lives for this place. They send their children here and literally sacrifice their lives in such a way that one hardly knows how to praise them and how to thank them that they are willing to help support all kinds of families without a tradition of Jewish education behind them. No one knows how to educate, but when there is a tradition of Jewish education, when there is a Grandfather and a Grandmother, then the child sees the Grandparents. He sees a Grandfather with peyos to the floor, and a Grandmother with a kerchief and a head that is bent to the floor. Not a Grandmother who comes with a low-cut blouse, or when you go to Grandmother you see televisions. If that is the case, how can you educate a child? How can a child receive fear of Heaven? A child is like an onion; he immediately absorbs the negative and not the positive. Afterward, the father wonders: “How could my child, my flower, my holy and pure one…” A child sees his Grandmother and Grandfather and he knows that this is the way. He sees the Zeida; everyone is bent over until the ground, wearing eighteen garments, as it says in Maseches Shabbos. And the mothers are covered up. He knows that this is the way, that there is no other way. Maybe he has a yetzer hara [an evil inclination], maybe he has some thoughts, but this is the way and he wouldn’t dare break away from it. But if the children already see the Grandfather and the Grandmother and the Aunts and the Uncles, then he says: “What do I need this mother and father for? First I’ll be like this and that, and afterward I’ll be like an old–time Tzaddik.”
    So in the merit of the families that are here, in that merit, there is some point of place for Shuvu Bonim and the Ba’alei Teshuva. That they should also receive a drop of fear of Heaven. But as much as we were successful with the first generation, we haven’t yet succeeded with the second generation. We simply haven’t succeeded. It is only in the merit of the Yerushalmim who have sacrificed their lives. They have to deal with their brothers and their uncles, and their sisters. They go through so much embarrassment, it is impossible to describe the kind of mocking they have to live through. A billion times worse than the Ba’al Teshuva. A Ba’al Teshuva gave up his career once and, that’s it: he’s the Tzaddik of the generation. But for those who are from here, the Yerushalmim, they get raked over the coals every second. They hate them: they spill their blood—they don’t have a single drop of blood left. They sacrifice their lives.
    So we should protect our children, at the very least. They scream that these people don’t know how to take care of their children—the Yerushalmim scream about this all day long. They don’t know how to keep them inside; they don’t know how to educate them. At the very least, during the three weeks that we will not be here, no child should be in the street—not during the week and not on Shabbos.  Everyone is free of his obligation to pray, is free from every other obligation, just take care of the children! That’s all.
    Rav Levi Yitzchak said to me when I came for Rosh Hashanah, “Stand by your child. Bring him for Rosh Hashanah, and stand by him so that he doesn’t go out in the street.” Your child is more important to you than all of your prayers, because your child, together with your prayers, is your future. Whatever you prayed, you prayed. Now take care of your child so that he doesn’t wander around, so that he doesn’t walk away. Stand by him, and follow him.
    We have now reached some very critical situations—whether it is the debts, or whether it is the education of the children. People are not at all aware of this. We never spoke about this. We spoke about endless light, about the lights of chashmal. In the meanwhile, there aren’t endless lights, there are endless sins and there is endless wildness. Everyone should take proper care of his children. Everyone is free of the obligation to come to the prayers for the rest of their lives. Every person is free from every other obligation, from everything, just as long as he sits with his child and teaches him the Chumash, the Siddur, the Mishna, and the Gemara, and tells him some stories. In that way, he should keep him at home, and the mother and father will take turns. That’s all. So that the child will not go outside! 
    A child who goes outside is completely lost! Whatever you put into him is a waste of time; he’s already seen what he has seen. He has already heard what he has heard. And the father says, “not necessarily.” He comes home smiling from the street. He is smiling because he heard something not good! So no one should delude himself that his children are growing up fine. There are no guarantees; no one is signing on that. 
    These millions have to be raised. “The wicked borrows, but does not pay back.” Every second that goes by, no prayer is ascending to heaven. A Yeshiva that is founded on debts, the prayers also do not ascend. On the contrary, they should say Tehillim every day that we should succeed.
    May this be the last trip that we will have to take—that we won’t need to travel again. That there should be such success that we will be able to repay all the debts. 
    We are coming back. “And so do that which is right in the sight of Hashem, your G-d.” The first generation of Ba’alei Teshuva really did serve Hashem, but the children already don’t serve Hashem—also the new Ba’alei Teshuva that come. The Kollel Shas didn’t succeed at all, and the Kollel Hora’ah also. They chatter about things that are unnecessary to talk about. This is because everyone receives endless benefits that are from stolen funds that are used to help people. This is theft. Those who talk—who receive the benefits—they are the thieves. They are the biggest thieves. They do such foolishness, and then they need to be bailed out with money that belongs to other people. 
    So the Avi Ezer says that as soon as a person has a generous eye—the author says that, in truth, if everyone will have a generous eye on other people—everyone should just love one another. People always say that this Yeshiva is like family. This Yeshiva is not like all other yeshivos. This is family and love for friends and brotherly love; everyone loves everyone else and wants to help his friend. That is why we help everyone endlessly, because the foundation here is family. This is my brother; this is my father. This is my father. He has a father who is a shoemaker. If someone would say to him: Take this professor for your father, take this millionaire. I will give you a father with sixty–five billion dollars. I want my father! He is a simple shoemaker. Even though I am a simple person—I don’t know how to read or write. I don’t know how to learn, and I don’t know anything, but we’ve gotten used to living together, like brothers and sisters, like family. Like parents and children—this is my father, he’s illiterate, but he’s my father! I wouldn’t exchange him for a billion dollars. This is my father.
    That is how it is with all of the Jewish people. All of the Jewish people are one big family. All of the Jewish people are like one body, like one family. The Avi Ezer says, the minute that people look at each other generously, there won’t be any murder among the Jewish people. If everyone will look upon each other with a generous eye, then all the murderers would no longer be under the influence of their jealous eye. The murderer is also a Jew; he also has a G–dly soul. So the Avi Ezer says, “In truth, if the Jewish people would be in a perfect state of brotherhood and friendship”—if there will be brotherhood and friendship among all of the Jewish people—there will be no murder. There will be no theft; no one will touch anyone else’s money. The Avi Ezer continues, “They are all like a single person.” The minute that there will be love and friendship among the Jewish people, that is what it means to do that which is right in the sight of Hashem. A person slanders someone else and says untruths: this is worse than adultery, murder, and idolatry. It is the most grievous sin of all.
    Someone said: If you tell people that it [lashon hara] is like idolatry, then they will serve idolatry. Because speaking lashon hara is permitted. If lashon hara is like idolatry, then idolatry is also permitted. If lashon hara is like murder, then murder is also permitted. People are so drawn to speaking lashon hara—they’ll just go and kill people. Lashon hara is like murder. People can hear the entire Torah and walk around in eight garments like the Kohen Gadol and still speak lashon hara twenty–four hours a day. Because it is a mitzvah to speak lashon hara.
    The Avi Ezer says that this is the cause of all murder and all theft and robbery. If there aren’t ten people with a generous eye, then it spreads throughout all of the Jewish people. But the Avi Ezer says that the moment that people do that which is right in the sight of Hashem, when everyone will love one another.  We will judge each other favorably. They will not think that the Yeshiva stole money for some ulterior motive. On the contrary, the Yeshiva is only giving endlessly to everyone. A person brings in a penny and, immediately, receives ten shekel. Because he toiled and traveled to Eilat and traveled to Kiryat Shemonah. So take ten shekel for the penny that you brought in. That is why the Yeshiva has come to the point where it is now. As much as a person brings into the Yeshiva, he gets back tenfold, a hundred fold. The minute that there will be true mutual love here, especially here among the men, the Tzaddik’s people, when there will be real love among the Tzaddik’s people “when they will be like a single entity”—the minute they all decide to love one another and really help each other…
    These three weeks, during which we will now be going out into exile, this is really exile; this is really exile to wander. It is plain exile; they are banishing us from Eretz Yisrael, from the Foundation Stone, from the Kotel. Everyone must see to it that they should also go out for eight hours. Every pair should take eight hours and go from house to house, whether anything comes of it or not.
    This is what Rav Parado, the founder of Ohr HaChayim, says. My wife asked him for the secret—how does one found an institution? He said, “What secret?” I went from house to house and they threw me out like a dog.” That is what he said to the Rabbanit. He founded the Ohr HaChayim institutions that educate some ten thousand girls. They already have several hundred buildings. “I went from house to house and they threw me out like a dog. But, always, after they threw me out like a dog, after a few days, some door opened for me.” First they throw a person out like a dog, they spit in his face, and they throw him down all the stairs. Afterward, Hashem sees that he is still going on and on and isn’t broken. So after a week or so, they open a door for him and he receives enough to offset everything that happened before.
    “At first they threw me out of every house, I didn’t travel by cab but went on foot. That was how I built another building and another building and another building.” That is how all the Jewish people were saved. All of the Jewish people are products of Rav Parado, that is why he has sixteen or seventeen mandates—all of this is Rav Parado’s work. All the girls went through him—even secular girls. They all learned in Ohr HaChayim. Afterward, these people grow up and vote for Shas, for Rav Ovadiah Yosef. Rav Ovadiah Yosef appears and they all run after him. Everyone wants the good. There is no such thing as a secular Jew. There is no such thing at all. Any Jew who will not become religious will convert to Christianity, he will convert to Islam, or he will leave Israel. There are seven people who are running the country. They think that everyone is secular, and everyone spits in their faces, at their masks.
    Everyone wants to observe Shabbos; everyone wants to put on tefillin. Everyone. It is just that they go to moshavim so…It could be that this is one reason why we must also go to all the moshavim, so that people will see Jews with peyos, so that they will begin to put on tefillin. And the minute that there will be real love…
    Everyone needs to go out, they should go out in pairs for eight hours a day, every day: to learn eight hours and go out for eight hours. They should leave home for a day or two and go to every settlement, even if they will throw us out of the windows, out of the doors—it doesn’t matter. In the end, a person will suddenly see such salvation, the kind of miracle that he never could have imagined. Everyone must see to it to strengthen himself in this, and to fortify one another. Not to say, “I didn’t make any money. Why am I going out? Who am I collecting for? People who aren’t worth having money raised for them.”
    It says at the end of Alim LiTerufah—I won’t read it out loud, we are already running late. In a little while it will be 10:00AM. We always finish at 8:00AM, but since we are leaving the country, I wanted to speak about some basic things, about the education of the children.
    Everyone here wants the best, but people are unaware. They think that if they will pray for five hours, then they’ve fulfilled their obligations. That it is possible to lie in bed at home and Hashem will do everything. We still have yet to pray here, and we still have yet to pray with proper focus. Things still are not as they ought to be. We prayed for five hours, but this is just the formation of a vessel to receive heavenly assistance for the rest of the hours of the day. At the end of Alim LiTerufah, he says, “Send the money to Israel, to the poor of the land of Israel, however they may be.” That is what he writes. Everyone should see this at the end of Alim LiTerufah. That is what he writes: to send money to the poor of Israel, and don’t pay attention to what they are doing. No matter what they are, or what they are doing! One must support the poor of the land of Israel, no matter how they are, no matter what they are! One must first support them, so that they have what to eat. After that, they will serve Hashem. He brings this at the end of Alim LiTerufah. He brings a letter of Rav Nachman Tulchiner at the end of Alim LiTerufah. He says, Send me all the money that you have. There are only a few of Rav Nachman Tulchiner’s letters here. “Fortunate is Reb Chayim Krasinshtein of Breslov, with a powerful love. Fortunate are you, who returned to the Holy Land. Yes, my friend, listen to what I say when I encourage you to follow the precept of, ‘Turn it and turn it, and grown old in it and delve into it, and do not move from it’ in your fulfillment of the precept to settle in the Holy Land. If you still have a ruble or any gold outside the Land, for G–d’s sake, send it to the Holy Land. You should send every ruble, every penny, that you have to the Holy Land.”
    Rav Levi Yitzchak said that the Breslovers had so much money, they could have bought the whole Holy Land. In 5633 (1873), they let people know that they wanted to sell all of the Land of Israel. The Turks wanted to assassinate the Sultan.  They needed money, and it would have been possible to buy up the entire land for a pittance. The entire land could have been bought for a single sack of gold. In Tcherin, every Jew, every Breslover, had hundreds of sacks of gold. They could have bought all of the Land of Israel a thousand times over. There were no secular people here then. There was nothing. People could have come and settled, they could have bought beautiful villas. For a pittance, people could have bought villas.
    “If you have a ruble or a little gold, for G–d’s sake, send everything to the Holy Land. Even a single penny should not be given for any purpose outside the Land, unless it is for the purpose of a mitzvah. Your bones and the work of your hands will be blessed with the sanctity of the Holy Land. The poor of the Holy Land.” All the Jews that live in the Land of Israel observe the Shabbos; they put on tefillin and eat only kosher food. They are already holy and pure and it is a mitzvah to support them without making any calculation about whether this one did or did not learn. If there is a Jew who observes the laws of family purity and also tries sometimes to guard his eyes, who comes to the lectures, who comes to the prayers on Shabbos, and who also travels to Uman, then this Jew is priceless. Now we have to pray that we will fill all of the twenty–four hours of the day with Torah and prayer, fear of Heaven, education of the children, not to let them out in the street. As we said, the child is like an onion— he only absorbs the negative, and then it is impossible to educate him. And if we didn’t catch him by the age of six or seven, then he is already lost for the rest of his life. 
    Everyone should take his children, from the age of three, and put them under lock and key. He should buy books and sit and tell them stories from the time they come home from cheder, from whenever he comes home from praying, until twelve o’clock at night, until they go to bed. One story, and another story, and another. I used to live in Chazon Ish. I also got home at 10:00AM. I would sit with my children until four in the afternoon and tell them story after story instead of letting them out in the streets, even though we lived in Chazon Ish, on Rashbam Street, in the best area of Bnei Brak. They don’t need to go out in the street! I used to sit and learn with them from 10:00AM, when I would return from Sippurei Ma’asios in the Breslov Yeshiva. I would sit and learn with them until 4:00PM with all my strength. Another story, and another story, and another story. So anyone who lives here in Israel, especially if he has faith in Rabbeinu HaKadosh, if he travels to Rabbeinu HaKadosh, and if he keeps kosher and everything else—all of them are holy and pure.
    Now we have to see to it that the holiness and purity will permeate all the twenty–four hours of the day, and not think, “Why am I collecting? They aren’t worth anything—even the Rav put them down.” What the Rav says as mussar is one thing, but everyone is holy and pure and sacrificing their lives to be here. You must remember what is written in the fifth letter of Rav Nachman Tulchiner—one must always know this—that one mustn’t think, “Who am I collecting for? In the final analysis, he isn’t learning either.” He also needs to fortify the Kollel, to support the Kollel. First of all, we must support the Kollel, to give salaries to people. Afterward, they will also learn. Just like Shuvu Bonim has done for the last twenty–two years. We gave salaries even when people didn’t learn, so that the children will learn, so the grandchildren will learn.
    This is about when we must finish. We will end off with the words of the Avi Ezer, the Ibn Ezra, their words about how it will be that there will be no need for an "Eglah Arufah." This is the ending of Rav Nachman Tulchiner’s letter; this is to encourage all those who are going out to raise money. They should not make judgments about whether or not it is worthwhile. First and foremost, they must collect. They can go for days just being shamed until a day comes when such a miracle happens, a gateway opens for them that is worth a billion times what happened. Here you receive fifty shekel, and there fifty dollars.
    One must know, though, that those who are going out, we hope that starting from Rosh Chodesh, people will start to go out for eight hours a day. The entire Yeshiva, with no exceptions. They should go out in pairs having first prayed Shacharis.
    The last time, when they went out before Pesach, they prayed Shacharis at noon. That is not what I meant. They should pray Shacharis beforehand. “Collect money—let’s go collect money.” That is a “ribui ohr” [an over abundance of light]. It’s also the work of the yetzer hara [the evil inclination]. You first pray Shacharis with a minyan—you pray with the dawn, word by word and after that, you receive Divine assistance. You don’t run. You pray. People run immediately to collect money instead of going to pray. You pray Shacharis on time, word by word. You recite the Shema and pray Shemonah Esrei at the right time and, after that, you say Uvah LiTzion on time and Aleinu Lishabayach on time. After that you say Tikkun HaKlali and after that you go out, or you first learn something. And the truth is that you must pray slowly and learn for eight hours. After that, you can hope for some heavenly assistance. What are you going for—not to talk, not to chatter, but to see to it that you save the Yeshiva from the terrible mud that it is stuck in, a mess that a billion reincarnations won’t help get us out of. A billion reincarnations won’t help this situation. If now, during this year, we do not raise this money then a billion reincarnations won’t help.
    No one should make calculations about whether or not it is worthwhile. Here, the people are unworthy; here the people are deceivers, liars, and thieves. No calculations! First, one must know that all that live in the Land of Israel who observe Shabbos, etc. are all holy. Let them eat the money. “However they are! Whatever they are!” Each one of them, the way he is right now, is worthy of being dressed in gold and silver. Just as the Gemara in Bava Metzia says, “If you had treated them the way they would have been treated at a feast of Shlomo HaMelech in his heyday, you would not have fulfilled your obligation.” All of them are children of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. All of them observe the Shabbos. “All of them are holy, however they may be.”
    You go to collect money for every avreich [student] and for every family however they may be and whatever they may be, and to enable and encourage them to be more holy and more pure. Then one travels to collect for eight hours a day, every day, after praying and learning word by word, and everything. “However they are, they are holy. Holy with the sanctity of the Holy Land.” May you also be worthy of this. Amen. May it be His Will.
    We finished the Alim LiTerufah. With this, we will finish the Ibn Ezra with the commentary of the Avi Ezer which explains: “So will you remove the innocent blood from your midst, when you do that which is right in the sight of Hashem.” If you do that which is right in the sight of Hashem, that which Hashem wants, then there will be no innocent blood shed. There will not be theft; there will not be robbery. If ten people will fortify themselves with love and joy, with true love and true mutual assistance, each one helping the other, each one encouraging the other, then there will be no killing among the Jewish people. There will not be any thief among the Jewish people. Everyone will love one another. If ten people love one another, this lights up the whole nation. None of them will murder, none of them will steal, and none of them will rob. This is the end of the Parsha.
    Even so, everything could be done through prayer alone. Even so, the main thing is, as we said, to work through prayer to get out of the debts. If every ten men will resolve to collect a million, then we will be able to continue on. At any rate, that is the end of the Parsha. If I will not be here, then it is worthwhile that someone should mention this at the lecture. They should say the lecture and mention the Ibn Ezra and the Avi Ezer. Say that I asked that they should tell this over. This, here, is the foundation of all of Judaism. This Ibn Ezra and the Avi Ezer are the foundation of all of Judaism.
    “So will you remove the innocent blood from your midst when you do that which is right in the sight of Hashem.” Make sure there will not be any murderers among the Jewish people. If there will be no sinners, there will be no secular Jews. There will be no Meretz; there will not be anything. It all exists because there is no mutual love between friends. There is no mutual love among friends, so there is Meretz. That is why there is Shinui. All of this comes from the lack of mutual love among friends. Just as Meir Vilner said to Shimon Bernstein—he was the leader of the Communist Party—he said, “Believe me, I want to be religious. I was religious, with peyos,” he said. “Do you know why I became a secularist? I lived in a village; I lived in a little, out–of–the–way village. Some penniless man died and the Chevra Kadisha refused to bury him. That is what made me a secularist.”
    People became secular because of such stories. Meretz, the Communists, and all day long their hearts burn inside of them, all day long. This is the way it goes. The one who we went to, he loves religious Jews. “I love the religious.” I love the religious. It’s a separate matter, my Communism. But I love the religious, I love the Torah, I love Judaism. (Why mix the two together?) All of them—Shinui, the Communists, Meretz—all of them love Torah, love Shabbos, love Yom HaKippurim. Except for the seven—it is possible to say that of all of them without exception. And those seven also will repent.
    So with mutual love among friends—“If you will do that which is right in the sight of Hashem”—then everyone will repent in an instant and no innocent blood will be spilled, and there will be no murder or robbery. “The correct interpretation, in my opinion, is that which I mentioned. There will be no innocent blood spilled in your land if you will do that which is right in the sight of Hashem” (Ibn Ezra, Devarim 21:9). “When they unite as one to help one another” (Avi Ezer): not to mistreat, not to deceive, not to rob, and to “speak the truth in one’s heart,” as it says in Likutei Moharan I:35. Then the chashmal will spread throughout the entirety of the Jewish people. The chashmal is faith, and the soul.
    If the bodies will join together to help one another, then so will the minds and the spirits. The bodies must unite—the bodies must love one another—and then the spirits, the souls, and the minds will likewise join together and everyone will be of the same mind. No one among the Jewish people will have murderous thoughts. Everything depends on the thoughts. As it says in the Zohar, “Everything was created in thought.” If ten people will mentally resolve to love one another, to sacrifice their lives for one another, then there will be no murderous thoughts among the Jewish people. Murderous thoughts come from me. I must bear some hatred for someone, and my hatred brings someone else to commit murder.
    Everything depends on thought, says the Avi Ezer. This is what the Zohar says everywhere. If everyone will only think good thoughts about others and only love one another and act mercifully with one another and help one another, then there will be no murderous thoughts. Then it will also save the thoughts of the murderer—even the murderer will not, G-d forbid, have a thought to kill anyone. All of them will truly repent and the complete redemption will come. May the Temple be built and may Moshiach ben David come speedily and in our days, immediately. Amen. 

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