Farbrengen 20 Av part Three , Rabbi Yossi Paltiel - 5786

the right. Oh, >> you live here. You're visiting. You live in Florida. No. has a which he writes about I think it's about oh about is the son had two sons an older son and a younger son and the youngest was had he a very very long life he lived well into his 80s maybe even to his 90s >> and uh which >> one And describes him he he spent the last years of his life in and he would fab his in the beginning of the so the way would get his he would sit down and he would tell the story like as if he's reading a milla and if somebody prominent would walk in in the middle he'd start from the beginning again like they they didn't the basill in order but I'm not if I'm not mistaken the fab talks about him as a person and says that all the members of the alterb's children were extremely strong physically they were very very strong physically they were gi they're very extremely healthy strong people except for the because the The Reb carries a responsibility, a burden cost is expensive. It cost health. It cost years. But the the sons were physically very strong men. They were physically very strong people. And many of them had the the story is told by himself. The used to fast every day. talk fasted every day and his daughter who we all know did's mother said to her father you know fast himself writes in the a person fast and because he fast he cannot learn it's not a good thing so the the said to your father said but we know the bump was not into him He didn't go there was big but they fasted and they punished their bodies and they believed that if you want an to shine you have to break the didn't agree held there you know we have one one there's one extent and original manuscript in the handwriting of Shiv one and it's in the Reb's library. It's in the Reb's library. Someone is angry about it, but okay, they're angry about a lot of things. The we also have the letter one in the in the page. >> It's the same letter but the original is in the Reb's library. >> Huh? Oh, I don't know. But it's printed in every if they print a picture of the so that we don't have their photo they print a manuscript. This letter from the BMP is printed in the when I was growing up was called I mean the names have changed now he called it made so he printed the pictures of the but by the by the by the if you don't have a photo he puts a faximile of so the one extent letter inv's own And it's a letter written to young about he told us who and if you listen to the was older than the god whatever it is says him don't fast don't punish the but fasted and the also fasted as we know so the there's A beautiful exchange for the Reb and his father. If you'll remind me later, I'll come back to it. It's another wholeb's father's reprimanding for his fasting. He said go home from you know what I'm saying. It was very effective. He wrote and answered and said what he said and the did what he did and that's the end of the story. But if you'll remind me later I'll tell you about it. It's interesting. I think it's more than interesting. Anyway, so fasted. So the daughter the said to her father fast. So the alterb said to his daughter that I have a litmus test. I test my strength. He said the alterb had got the shasin had a sh I mean paper then was not like paper today. It was real paper. A safer from 300 years ago looks fresher than a safer from 100. A safe from 100 years ago you open it, it crumbles. The paper from three four years ago it's fresh cuz it was made with cloth. It it was real paper but it was very heavy. A book was a book. So I'll tell I have a shas with wood wood covers wood covers jackets of wood not of cardboard. It's very heavy. And I lift up. So I lift up the sh with my pinkies. He says if I can lift up the shas with my pinkies I know I can fast. That was the passed away at 68. But were very strong. The Reb's father was a Gibber was an extremely strong man. Physically he was a tall man. He was a beautiful man. He was as strong as a lion. Was physically extremely extremely strong. know people imitate how he did hagb you know I I don't think people should but the he would open up nine I don't even know if you're allowed he was a ge he was a very strong man he was extremely strong and a man with that kind of gura should have lived 100 years no reason why not he passed away at 66 now he got sick he had an illness but um everybody understands that illnesses the kind of illness that had you know if if your life is very stressful you're far more likely to get such an illness than a person whose life is easy the father gave his life a yishkite he passed away in his bed you understand passed away in his own bed they didn't shoot him but he he gave his he they killed him they killed him there's another way to say it the mention god and a kadesh and they broke him. They didn't break his will but they broke his body. Theic passed away at 66. It was way before his time. And the Reb said that it was way before his time. Was way before his time. I just want to tell you a story as a mime was I'm sorry for bringing it up but I'm not sorry because if I wouldn't bring it up yet. Um the story when I heard the story the first time I was so mim for those who ded in 770 the for was Kaplan. He was was a big a very big chak but when I heard the story of how his father passed away it's like they he was he was he was a liter he was a I don't know what yeshiva was from from the big yeshiv he was a very very big l he was the ro of kiev his name was label kaplan in lab there's label kaplans they all come from one label cap you're the lab cap he was a liter but if you lived in Russia those years and you wanted from children so as we said it in the old country they learned if there was nothing else that's how his sons ended up in the Bible she was a lit but they were sol it was true in Russia even before the revolution there was there was no were very proud but the but the the mutual respect and the kid of Alvarez the cooperation was real nagdam married each other like it was not even a question there was no division but when they sa started the mamameish were like a family one of his grandchildren told me that when they arrested their arrested label capital but they spread the prisoners around they didn't want them to be near each other they'll have camaraderie so they sent each one to a different place this rabbi Kaplan Harav Label Kaplan knew he knew him because they had meetings. They would get together for in in the Ukraine and he knew that is going to starve at he's not going to be able to take care of himself. The Reb's mother joined him but it took her months to get to him. She had to close the house. She had to she had things to take care of. It took her about six months to join the Reb's father. This label Kaplan was a prisoner himself. Every week he would jump onto a moving freight train and travel illegally to to Chile. I don't know how to pronounce that word. Where the Reb's father was. He'd jump off the moving freight train. He'd go to a market. He'd buy some food. Obviously, there was no chicken and meat. You understand? He bought potatoes and he would cook food for the deb's father. And he push saved his life. Kip saved his life. when the Reb's mother, you know where the Reb's parents lived? They lived in a in a in a I don't know what you would call it, in a gazebo, some some Asian man had in the front of his house a room with screens, you know, it wasn't even didn't have walls and the mosquitoes were coming in like it was a mitzvah. That's where the's parents lived. It the accommodations were terrible. The Reb's mother shows up and she sees that has coole you know she wasn't sure to some house of blat from empire you understand so she says to him to her husband we have to cook in in in that part of the world once a week an angel comes and he makes me cle who's the angel label kappa a few days later she sees him he didn't know that the's mother came so he came for his weekly trip he was risking his life to cook food for the Reb's father. So he see she sees him and she says to her husband I saw from a malik this is the angel that brought me food. The Reb's mother met the children his his son and she said to him I can still taste the flavor of your father's koug. I want you to understand what happened to this man. He was fashiku. I don't know who he was. And it was 44 43. The the war was turning. The Nazis were being pushed out. And the people were able to breathe. And of course, the most basic part of breathing is there was food to eat. In the beginning of the war, there was there was hunger. People were dying from no food, no nourishment. You had a piece of bread. You were a rich man. So there was a sort of a more I don't know what the word is an optimistic mood. On the other hand the KGB wasn't paying attention. They were busy with other things. So he made a minion this label Kapl made a minion got together a bunch of Jews in a room and the agents of the government were so angry he walked out of and they pett beat him until there was nothing left. So his father his son David and I'm thinking back now if I knew then what I know now how I would have listened I would answer his you understand this was the life this was the father gave his life for and I I I you know the the lion that the used to use in the mid it's not like you're looking for nef you know you have to serve the I if you have to have nephish The story is extremely extremely sad, extremely extremely painful. It's a story of midn spoke about his father a lot. The spoke about his father and the spoke about his father's nephesh. So there was a one in the early years of the rebus. I I believe it was the first time that was on chabas. You know when the reb became a reb he had to he had to change labavish but he did it slowly because he was afraid people's health were going to deteriorate too quickly the did things that were like terribly and one of the things that the had to slowly shift was idea of saying it was like a big to say was a big and the had no problem saying if he wanted How many? It was a sinus. There was a very big whose name was he. He was by the once. He came to he was he was a big he was big a big but it looks like I I heard from people who knew him. He knew the whole shas by heart and the whole raam by heart and he would quote and verbatim. He would always say I think I think it says he was never wrong. He made he had his own he was he was a very special man. It really was. He came to you know what he came with and film. He didn't bring an extra pair of sacks [laughter] was no. He lived that way in also. He came for six weeks with taff film with film. That's it. He didn't have a change of clothes. Nothing came to the so he sat behind the reb it's very special. You should know you can see the pictures if if you understand labav hierarchy the seats behind the reba for 25 years had the same people they were fixtures the same four or five men sat in the same spots mish for 25 years and don't you think about sitting in those seats there was rabbi jacobson there was a there was rakin there was rabbi Simpson and there was a kazani this was they sat behind the reb these people sat in no seat s from I don't know from when was right behind them from the beginning but very early on as soon as they were same PLACES M MIND PLOTS THEY HAD MINE PLOTS TILL THEY DIED every shabas and every that they gave up their spots because there's a whole set of new faces behind the and it was a grace kite you know it really was there's a whole set of faces all that they had their seats. [clears throat] I don't know where they sat, but they gave up their seats for the guest and huh, you could see in the picture and you it's a different set of faces. A bunch of us raided up on them. They took they gave them their seats and I mean it's it was a I'm telling it was a kite. It was it was a it was a it was the right thing to do. There's a picture of 300 like just here was a fire. He was he was very young in his heart and he was full of energy and he was sharp. What they say in his name is he came to see the Reb came here. He saw the reb he says I didn't see the Reb. I didn't see not in the mirror not in the not in the I saw the Reb by the I saw Reb. That's what he said. I saw the the standing I saw. So the story is and we only know the story because he told it because otherwise we wouldn't know the story. He's sitting behind the and the says wanted to have always after every there would be a gathering of him and the didn't go to the but he participated because the day before the spoken in would repeat it. is sitting behind the great and I mean said so many times there's not a lot of my for because no time to six seven eight hours with all kinds of goodies and the is speaking and is sitting behind the and thinking this is blasphemy I mean I'm sure he didn't say that word but he was thinking this is not this is not that I know here saying never heard thought harabuk the ticket costed 1,078 lit something like that 1,2 which was an enormous amount of money it was like four months pay they borrowed money took him years to pay back the the money for the one trip listed the precise number of leaders the Israeli leader was against the British pound which like $2 it was like then $2,500 it was an extraordinary expense did you did you get back did you get a return on your investment of the 1,078 whatever the number was that so he's sitting there and he's thinking the Reb is speaking Nicholas and immediately the Reb answers him so he got the message he got the message that the Reb can do whatever he wants but this is the Reb doesn't have to follow any rules the what makes the Reb is the Reb is not that he follows the rules that he's the Reb he makes the rules but in the beginning had a hard time the first time the Reb made a shabas was Sham You can see it's [laughter] you wonder how that's how is it even but if you understand the fact that the reb was was what's the word was working us into the fact that there's new rules now slowly there were a lot of old people had a very hard time with everything that did because was changed they came running to him like tatalak when they saw Don't kid yourself. They wouldn't miss a chance to get and to get but they all knew better than him. You understand? Till they had a problem. Then they came like to the so the first time the whole scene was making you know but I think you can see the is printed. Nobody has to believe me. I always tell people, never trust me. Look everything up. And I'm usually wrong. But um so [clears throat] which is unbelievable. The Reb is implying he didn't say it explicitly, but it was clearly was he was trying to talk about his own father. And what the Reb said was you mind what the Reb said was that there's a story. Everybody knows the story. Which one? Thank you. That that the BF lived 97 years had a very big Yeah. The BF was told I don't know how you get such messages. I don't get such messages. B got such a message that he is going to be like a wonderful piece of news. You understand? Then something happened. I don't know what happened. But they took the away from him. They took it away from him. He lost it. See never he lived a 100 years. Then 500 years ago was a very very long life. And during that long life he wrote the most important that we had wrote the whole a whole and of his own and other. So the reb lived so long and he wrote the most important basis you know called our teacher the said all of this was because he lost his says it doesn't make any sense he he was so to speak given what you would call the opposite of a reward. And what do we have from this opposite of reward and the base and the so the said this itself is it proves that when a person goes up and says one person is greater than writing and your own but he added another nuance one the benefit benefit of that act which is a private act. It's a personal act for others for others is greater than having written the because the was became a foundation for all of the Jewish people. We all live on the bas and this is all a consequence of losing this has to be greater than that. So the the nephesh that people had in earlier generations it it's not something that's easy to talk about. It's not impossible to talk about. It's impossible to talk about. But not only is that nephish not a waste but we live on that neph that is our tell you told me a story and I I I don't have a lot of stories I just tell them over and over again and I make them look different so it's a sounds like a bunch of different same story just a different a different he's from Boston origin from Boston and he learned in Boston in Boston one of the oldest in America America. I mean, if you're an 80year-old yeshiva in America, you're ancient. You know, it's like a Padisa like a thousand years old in in bubble. Started in the 40s. They it was that had it was not push. It was very difficult to keep the open. So, the in Boston had a president. He told me the name and I don't remember the name and I apologize for that. The president of in Boston was a was aid who was complete midn his dedication to the yeshiva was literally till the shirt on his back mish in other words he was a very sincere man he wasn't a big lumpton and he wasn't a big but he was a real Jew and he was dedicated to keep this yeshiva open he would leave his shirt off his back mish his dedication had no limits his his willingness to give for the yeshiva had no bounds He met the init. And in this he told the story and he repeated this story to the person who told the story to me. They were still living in Russia before they came to the new world. They were very poor. They were extremely extremely poor. And the way they made a living was they would collect grasses sed grass and they would weave mats. They would weave the mats like you make from from the frs of alul. You could make like a mat. They would let them dry. They would paint them and sell them. What were they worth? These mats they worth nothing. Who was buying them? Other poor people, you know. So they were poor living off the poor. They were extremely poor. mameish. They were poured into there was no bread. So this young man tells the I wake up in the middle of the night and my mother is standing in the door of their little cottage where they lived and when she sees me she says sh quiet. Why? Daddy's not allowed to wake up the why not avive was stealing the mats off the roof of their house. The mat that they put on the roof to dry which they were going to sell to have food. Somebody was stealing them. The aish is unbelievable. And the root of it was poverty. Everybody was very poor. The Ghana was a But the getaway driver was aid. The getaway driver, the guy who was sitting in the wagon waiting to whip the horses that they shouldn't get caught was a yid. And she knew who he was. and he had two daughters who were not married. If the people of thetle would hear that he's a ganf, his children would never get married. So my mother was worried about the daughters of the ganv's accomplice. You understand? Anyway, my father woke up. He tells him father woke up. What's going on? My mother would not let him come to the door. She made sure he shouldn't see who the ganv was. She never told him so that the girl the Ghanv's children should find story crazy or what? I told this story at a kid. This is this is a new story which which I can't get over. I told this story to a room full of and one of the guys got so upset he was he was beside himself he started to scream. How can a parent do without the children? And he was going he went off the handle and he was screaming at me. What happened to those kids? I I I was stumped. So I went back to my s what happened to those kids the kid is the one who told the story you know he didn't die from hunger. He told the story to the said to him, "We live from the mid nev of the yuden who came from a generation before us. You know, I I was commissioned to make a fabin. I was asked make a faban. We've been talking about for a while for quite some time actually. So I have to decide what I'm going to talk about. I could have spoken about the kabali, you know, I could talk to you about how big he was. Not that I understand it, but I can make it sound good. But that's not the story of it's not. It's not the story of the Reb. The story of and the story of the Reb is a story of it's a story of whatever said to one of his what you're needed for the as great as these people are in T and in What the values, what the TA values, what the Aisha values, what the truth is the neph for another Jew should have a bliss. Another Jew should get married. Another Jew should have klesh. Another Jew should do one mitzvah. They were not even going to be from. There was no way, you know, in 1935, in 1936, nobody could imagine that Soviet Union would ever go away. I mean, we merited to watch the collapse of the Soviet Union. We merited. We saw it with our eyes. And we merited to watch how that great evil empire fell with very little loss of life. People didn't die. It's a miracle OF HISTORIC PROPORTIONS. It's it's such a big nest. We don't have language for the greatness of the nest. the collapse of the Soviet Union is an S enough, but that it collapsed with so little loss of life. But when you lived in the Soviet Union, you thought this is going to be forever. You imagine your father raising children and you have no concept of how your children are going to be. None at all, how they're going to marry Jewish. And you do it and you do it one day and you do it two days you do it three days you do it one generation do two generation do three generations what's the answer you know you have choice you got to do I I have [clears throat] a story I have so many stories this just this story is just remarkable it's and I have a recording of the daughter of the person tell she speaks in Hebrew there was a yid who if you see the films of 770 you'll see him there His name was Rafael. What was his last name? >> He was a sadic. He was a very special man. And the more you hear about him, the more you they made a book on him called atam shalom. You can buy it or you could used to be able to buy it. You know the prophet biographies, they never get reprinted. You know, the family has such a hard time printed the first time and then when people wanted want to buy it, it's no longer available. [snorts] He he he was a very special person, extremely special person. He had many children and nobody nobody had libish. It was unheard of. So one of his granddaughters tells a story about her mother. Her mother was the daughter of and it came time to forid and there wasn't a from boy in Russia. There wasn't a from boy in Russia to find. You're talking now the early 60s m you couldn't find the she's looking for somebody to marry. Obviously a Jewish person must be from there were no from boys. So her father said to her, "You have to find a a Jewish boy that's that's that's a good character and has a fine mansion." So she met the person who would eventually be her husband. He wasn't from wasn't Shabas was but he was Jewish and he was he a very fine a fine character, very fine man. Anyway, she dated him. She met him. I mean, they may date. They went to this hotel and this hotel and they ate sushi in this bar at Exactly. What do you think it look like? They met in the kitchen. Anyway, after a number of meetings, she tells her husband, her father, that, you know, I like him, but I can't I can't marry him. So her father says to her, "If the girl knows it's enough, just think about the the the value. If if you know how to be a yid, it's you'll raise from kids with a husband is not ashamed of shabas. if the girl knows it's enough. And she said to her daughter, he said to her daughter, "If if he's a Ben, if he's a a respectable person and a respecting person, you'll build a life together and you'll raise the kids." So she she she agreed to marry him. But she told him that the three things she wants in there has to be Shabas and in other words what he does how do we say it in American outside the home is his business but the house is going to be shabas and he agreed he agreed and they got married where was the mikvah where was the mikvah it was in kaday's kitchen you moved away the table you moved away the placard there was a literally literally a sewer. Literally a sewer. Standing water. Standing water. There was no filtration. There was water wasn't replaced. Water was standing in one place and people mamesh if if you know the kazal in the times of the shas if you live near a river. So obviously it's the best thing near a spring. But if you didn't have access to flowing water, you had to find a kasher mikvah. was a mikvah standing water. The mikvah has to be ash the water's not allowed to move. The water moves its ple. Yes. So people were they were called they find caves and inside the cave there'd be standing water. Standing water becomes putrid. It becomes stinky. It doesn't even have oxygen. It's just it's just filth. And people todled in mus. So people went to the mikvah and they came out smelling terrible. So after the mikvah they would clean themselves. They' wash themselves. So the made that you go to the mikvah after you take a shower you come tummy again. They didn't mind that they took the shower because they were afraid that people were going to think that the mikvah was the shower. But this is how they lived. This is this in times of the shas is a long time ago. This happened this happened 50 years ago 60 years ago. So she she she tells her husband and he sees what the mikvah look like. You're not going in that. That's it's that's it's pure illness. It's disease. So she says to her husband, we made a deal. So he says to her, "But I didn't mean this." She [laughter] she said, "Well, I did mean this." So it became an impass. So she went to her to his mother and I don't know how from they were in Russia. I was once sitting at a Fabangan and I said I said in Russia people were not from. So a fellow Russian says to me the the communist he didn't like that I said they weren't from they were not they had a problem with mitzvah they come on you they called they couldn't do all the mitzvah so she went to her mother-in-law and she says to her mother-in-law that we made a deal that we're going to keep your son let go of the mikvah so she calls him her son and she was of and she says to him to her son do you remember that during the war. I got an illness. I got sick and the doctor said that I have to wash myself in a in a river of fresh water and that I had to go at night and it was so cold I was crying and screaming and I took you along with me so I should be able to be safe. She told her son when he was a teenager that she has an illness and that for this sickness the doctor prescribed that she has to wash herself in a fresh water river. It was so cold. was freezing. She was screaming. So he said, "Sure, I remember." He says, "What do you think I was doing?" I was going to the mikvah. So he let his wife go to the mikvah. I think they had eight children, which in in Russia is unheard of. If I mean, for those who remember, I was in the Soviet Union 40 years ago. Two children was a lot. Your push couldn't afford to feed them. Nobody had three kids. I'm talking about an nobody had. It was impossible to have five, six, seven children was unheard of all. And when she finishes this whole story, she shows a picture of her father in the last years of his life. The big beards, theap and the a Jewish girl who was born under the Soviets, she just knew you have to be a yid. You have to be a yid. This is this is a yard of rablavic like so many other people whose names we don't even know who push gave their lives that we should sit here now in Pomona and there's a very direct connection it may not be a logical connection it may not be a causal connection but it's a spiritual connection between demis nephesh and us sitting here. And this is this is more important. It really is more important than the godless of the godless of the inabah which is extraordinary. They're all amazing things. But the nephish to put in a situation where you have to be stand up and be counted. You have to you have to do the right thing and you have to do the right thing and the attitude is there's no choice. This is just what needs to be done. And people stand up and they're mason 50 years later, 100 years later, a thousand years later. We are who we are because of that neph is the foundation of the truth is even today is neph. But the world was a world of nephesh. I mean my father my father lived this father's alive and well his father was a was a person of m father was a child he was the product of that we are all the offspring of that generation it's important for us to contemplate which spoke about it's very important it's in last week's par How does the last finish? How does the last finish? It's it's going to come and the go are going to fear you and you're going to be strong and you're going to conquer the land and you're not going to let yourself live amongst who are going to be an obstacle toe and you're going to establish with your your life with strength and with security and with permanence. So has a come and they're going to have a security which we can't even relate to. The security was not only sovereignty, political dependence. The security allowed us to live our lives as we wanted. Yidden lived in their whole world was yiddish because there was nobody telling them what to do. They were free people. Andu says to the Jewish people going into which translates into the sob asks the question you're going chapter 25 at the end you're going you're going to be free people you're going to be independent people independent people not you're going to have your own country but you have to shake make your head to to or to or to or to but you're you're you belong to yourself only no mis not so why are you talking about nephesh if you talk going into gulos if you talk about yedn's lives are hard so you talk about neesh yedna going into they're about to experience the greatest period in their entire history why is moa talking about midn This alterb ask this question and the alterb says when you don't have to do you talk about it when you have to do it you don't have to talk about it you got to do it was saying you're going to go into a world where your life is going to be peaceful and safe and harmonious and consistent it's not going to be like America you know we're free people we're falling asleep the American the American holocaust they ever called it the the nan of America the nan of becoming you know just becoming neutralized becoming like your environment it's an that the faces America puts you to sleep it puts you to sleep in a in a in a in a in a in a shik of of mediocrity in a shik of relax chill everything's is good. Don't be and it's it's it's it's a go. It's a go AND THEY DIDN'T HAVE that was their world. They live in the world of and says when you don't have to do you have to know your roots know who we are. We're yidden because it was a yid who lived not so long ago who gave his life that we should sit here. It it it's it's the purpose of this is to make us appreciate the earnestness of what we have and to translate that into we would call an America is an interesting thing. It's a real thing is a real thing but it's you know it's it's a it's there's no has to come from us. It's a deeper. It's different. It's a different but this is a much more important than there's a lot of you can make a lot of you could talk about a lot of themes. So what can I say? We're Americans. We're Americans. Could be worse. H it could be worse. It could be worse. We're Americans. We're Australians. I don't want to make I want to be politically correct. Make everybody happy. Whatever we are, we're living in a world where by and large by and large no one stops you, you know, no one stops you, but by and large, no one challenges you. And when no one challenges you, you have to challenge yourself. And in this aspect we have a greater difficulty than they had. I La I it La I I'm [laughter] all wired up. Get up. And I understand the show. >> Okay. So leave it here. Let it high. Let it high. Let it si for South Africa. Thanks to 20 years old. >> I was in South Africa 20 years ago. He's still alive. I never saw him. >> Yeah. >> I mean, I know you know. Or was it your father and yes for lie la I la [singing] I lie. La may na. Oh yeah. Nal. Oh yeah. N N oh n I Oh la. Hallelujah. I love you. And I die la. I might Hallelujah. Oh yeah. I am a lash [singing] I la. I love you. I made my name my Jesus.