Ki Savo: Just One Word..... Amen

Okay, good evening everyone. Shalom. Welcome everybody. Parshas Ki Savo the shmua of tafshin pey vov are sponsored by the Israeli family of Great Neck l'iluy nishmas Malka bas Yosef b'gan Eden timnu chasa she shiviti melitz yosher for her family ad bias goel tzedek. Also dedicated as a zechus for ben Nosson ben Menucha b'soch shaar Yisrael. Sefer Devarim uh is dedicated by Dr. Zaka mishpacha l'iluy nishmas ben Eliezer ben Yaakov Zaka ben Rivka bas Tuvia Halevi and Rav Dovid ben Yaakov ben Tziyon HaCohen. Tonight's shiur >> [clears throat] >> is dedicated by Eli Sisma l'iluy nishmas his grandmother was nifter this past Sunday Henya Rachel bas Eliezer alav shalom b'gan Eden timnu chasa she shiviti melitz yosher for her family ad bias goel tzedek. And there's a special announcement, special shout-out to a long-time listener Yaakov Selmar who I see him it's a as a happy birthday. Shem should give him arichas shanim v'shanim. Okay, some let's see what we got over here. Make sure you are well equipped for Chodesh Elul and Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur with the mystery and the majesty available in multiple languages. Now the sefer Birchas HaTzaddik there's some people out there they love getting things for free. Well, tonight is your night. You can now get the sefer for free. All you need to do is learn it. Contact [email protected] and they will send you a free copy of the sefer. [email protected] to get a free copy of the sefer. I got a message today about from my friend. He said, "I have to admit, you know, I like your shiur, but but when you start talking about the phones, I start rolling my eyes, especially when you say even if the phone is off, it's distracting. Come on." And then I decided to give it a shot. And I didn't bring my phone in the shul. And he said, "Rabbi Latsky, the difference between my tfillah He had it off. >> [snorts] >> Between having it off and not bringing it in is incomparable. The level of concentration is completely different." So, I'm happy he was honest with me that he rolled his eyes. And I will continue to mention it even if you roll your eyes until you stop bringing the phone in. Don't put it away. Don't turn it off. To not bring it into the shul. There's a There's a story going around. I don't know. I'll I'll have to get the exact details before I mention it. I I mentioned last time when I visited Yisrael in the north by the Druze, they make sure to remove your phone from your pocket before you enter. If you turn it off and you walk in, that's, you know, you're not going to have your phone anymore. Okay. But, I have another good story, but not for now. Okay. Parshas Ki Savo, I'll tell you I have a I had a question that's been brewing for many years. And the reason I didn't ask it, who knows why I didn't ask it? Cuz you never ask a question you don't have an answer to. Okay? My question is like this. There's a word in the Hebrew language in Avodas Hashem, it's a very important word. It's a very powerful word. The word is amen. Amen stands for many important things. Kel Melech Ne'eman. We'll see it has a numerical value of 91, which is the two names of Hashem, Yud Kay Vav Kay, Aleph Dalet Nun Yud. And lo and behold, the only time it appears in the Torah is by these really bad places. The only time you'll see the word amen in the Chumash is by like the most terrible places. For example, in this week's parashah, we have something unheard of in the whole Chumash. We have something called not mitzvot assei, not mitzvot lo assei, curses. Curses. So, it says cursed is someone who badmouths his friend in secret. Cursed is someone who lives with an animal. Arur arur arur oh, and what do the people say? Amen amen amen amen. 11 amens. Every single amen is to a curse. Wow, what a what a great distinction the amen has that it appears 11 times in response to amen. It doesn't say what they said to the baruch, but to the arur, we have amen. Arur asher ya'aseh fesel umasechah to'avat Hashem. Va va anu kolam va'amru amen. Isn't it a bit odd that amen only um appears in the context of arurim, curses? By the way, you know where else it appears? In parashat Naso. When the woman who's suspected of adultery drinks the sotah waters and it starts blowing up her stomach and causing her legs to cave in, va'amru ha'ishah amen amen. Well, the woman responds amen amen. So, that that pasuk is so disastrous, it gets two amens. Can't Can't maybe you have an amen by birkas Kohanim, you know, yevarechecha Hashem veyishmerecha, ya'er Hashem panav veyichuneka. You know, amen or amen amen. No. No amen to the birkas Kohanim. Nothing to the birkas Yaakov. You know, at the end of Vayechi, why don't we have va'anu Yehudah va'omer amen. You know, Yaakov says, "I Yehudah are to you do or at least you ask to give you a sham the honor done Amen. No. No one means over there. No one means by any good places only by other disaster only by you know catastrophe. Do we have the word Amen? Okay, I've been thinking about that for a while and um and I can't come up with anything. Until today. I guess I was stuck, you know? So, let's begin with a story. In most books this they'll tell you the story appears in the right the writings of the Lavush which it doesn't. Okay, it does not appear in the writings of the Lavush. It has it's a story about the Lavush but as far as I know it's not in the safer of the Lavush. It's in a safer called safer Hagan. And in safer Hagan he talks about the following tradition that every Jew should try to be a tzadik. What's a tzadik? A tzadik is four things. Tzadi dalid, yud, kuf. Tzadi is 90. You want to answer Amen 90 times a day. >> [snorts] >> Dalid you want to say kedusha four times a day. That's kedusha and yotzer or, kedusha and shmona esrei, kedusha of al tzion, kedusha in mincha. You want to say kedusha four times a day. Yud, you want to hear kaddish 10 times a day. Between shacharis, mincha, and maariv. Kuf, 100 brachas. 100 brachas. Now, we'll discuss how are you going to get 90 Amens? That's a lot of Amens. That's you know, how how are you going to do You have 19 for shots by Shacharit, 19 by Mincha. Okay. Birchot Hashachar Now, okay, that's 15. So, you're up to 55. Now what? Baruch She'amar Yishtabach, 57. Yotzer Ohr, Ahavah Rabbah, Ga'al Yisrael, 60. Maariv, I don't know, 64. You're still short. >> How many times 10 times 7? >> Yeah, I guess in Kaddish. But if you're a if you're holding in a different part of davening and you're not you know, for shots, how exactly you going to get 90 times? Okay, you could try. You know, there's a question in some shuls, people gather together and they go back and forth with the Birchot Hashachar. You know, the Mishna Berurah quotes the Pri Megadim who says not to do it. It it creates too much stir in the shul. Too much confusion. So, you say, I know, but but phones create even more confusion. Right, so that's why you're not allowed to bring a phone into a shul. You're not you It doesn't matter if it's Young Israel, Agudah, Ortho, any house of worship, you want to honor the place. Did I ever mention that? Okay. And So, the story goes like this. The story is reported in the Sefer Hagan. The Gemara says in Berachot, greater is he who answers amen more than the mevarech. That someone who makes the bracha is secondary to someone who answers amen. Why? Cuz when you make the bracha, you only say aleph dalet nun nun and you think yud kay vav kay. So, you're not really getting both names of Hashem. You're pronouncing it Adoy and then noy, but you're thinking the yud kay vav kay the way it's spelled. But when you answer amen, amen is numerically valued at 91. 91 is Yud Kay Vav Kay and Aleph Dalet Nun Yud. Now it's interesting he brings the an amazing remez. What does the chazzan do if he can't answer amen? Did you know the Mishna Berurah says in Siman Kuf Kuf Samech Zayin that the chazzan should wait for the people to answer amen and be yotzei amen with the people. That the chazzan is yotzei amen with Shomeya Koheina. And the Be'er Halacha wonders and the Rama writes that where you know where did the Rama get that from that the chazzan needs to be yotzei the amen. But that's what the Rama writes. Actually Right, you can't say amen. So you're stuck. But you would think I don't need your amen. Your amen is only confirming what I said. So no, but it turns out your confirmation is stronger than what I did cuz I only did it and you confirmed it. So there's a concept that the mevarech wants to be yotzei the amen with the one who's owning amen. Now the word chazzan is numerically valued at Chet Zayin Nun 65 Aleph Dalet Nun Yud. If you take the letters chazzan and you spell it out Chet Yud Tav Zayin is Zayin Yud Nun Nun is Nun Vav Nun You ready for this? Spell out the word chazzan. Chet is spelled Chet Yud Tav. The middle letter is Yud. Zayin is Zayin Yud Nun. The middle letter is Yud. And Nun is Nun Vav Nun. The middle letter is Vav. Yud Yud Vav is Hashem Havaya. So chazzan is 65 and the middle secret letters is Hashem Havaya. So he's getting really I don't know what's going on here. He's getting the the Shem Havaya through his secret service. Okay. By the way, the final letters of the letters of chazan, ches is tough, zayin is nun, nun is nun is 600. So, there's 600 levels of the rakia and the chazan needs to get his feeler through all the levels of the rakia. And the power of amen is a Jew should even risk his life to be able to answer amen. Amen stands for ani moiser nafshi. I give up my life. Now, that doesn't mean literally, cuz it's not one of the three cardinal things, but still to some degree one should sacrifice to be able to answer amen. And the safer that now reveals a epic story, okay? So, fasten your seat belts for this epic story. The story happened in the times of Reb Mordechai Yoffe, the author of the Levush. And this the the writer, the author of this particular safer said his father-in-law told him the story because the author's wife is the great great granddaughter of the Levush. Okay? The Levush was um Reb Mordechai Yoffe. And before he became one of the world-renowned poskim and rabbonim, he took a small position, he was offered a small position in Posen. So, they offered him the position and he says, "Look, I'm very honored to be offered this position." At the time, he was the greatest scholar in the Jewish world both bigla and nistar. He says, "But I have to tell you something. There's one area of Torah I really don't know well. I don't know astronomy. I don't know hilchos kiddush hachodesh. There's no one here in Poland and in Europe that really in Eastern Europe that's proficient in these Halachos. I'm not comfortable taking the job until I study and master these Halachos. The only way I could learn it is I have to go to Italy cuz there are the Tamim in Italy know astronomy. So I'm going to go to Italy for 3 months. I'm going to learn Hilchos Kiddush Hachodesh and I'll be right back." And he goes to learn to Venice to Reb Yitzchak Abuhav in Venice Nitzia who was a very proficient in astronomy and if you look in the Levush Adar and Hilchos Rosh Chodesh you'll see the greatness of the Levush even in Hilchos Kiddush Hachodesh. Okay. So the Levush is there, Reb Mordechai Yaffe is there and um the Levush of course establishes himself as one of the greatest Tamim of Reb Yitzchak Abuhav. And one day sitting next to the Rebbe is the Rebbe's 5-year-old son. And he has an apple and he makes a Bracha on the apple Baruch Ata Hashem Elokeinu Melech Haolam Borei Pri Ha'etz. And Reb Mordechai Yaffe is lost in thought. He's you know, immersed in his learning and he didn't answer Amen. Whereupon Reb Yitzchak Abuhav completely lambasts Reb Mordechai Yaffe his student. He said, "A chutzpah no you You're here learning Hilchos Kiddush Hachodesh and you don't even answer Amen?" He yelled at him. He scorned him. He says, "You're in cherem. No one's allowed to talk to you. No one's allowed to go in your dalet amos. You're not allowed to get an aliyah. Nobody can be in your vicinity." And he publicly humiliated Reb Mordechai Yaffe. After 30 days for the course of 30 days Reb Mordechai Yaffe is praying to Hashem, "Hashem, please forgive me but I don't even know what for what. At the end of the 30 days, he goes to the Rebbe. He says, you know, please forgive me. Hatasi, avisi, pashati. And maybe kindly tell me what I did wrong. The Rebbe doesn't even want to talk to him. He pleads, he cajoles, he supplicates, he beseeches. And finally, the Rebbe says, Mutter lach, Mutter lach, Mutter lach. You know how much I love you? I love you more than a son. But you should know, you when you didn't answer amen to this bracha, you were chayav misah. And I had no choice but to save your life by humiliating you, so you should get a degree of kaparah, so that they wouldn't take your life min hashamayim. But I'm forgive you on condition that wherever you go for the rest of your rabbinic career, you need to make it known and disseminate the story that the severity and the gravity of not answering amen that it could jeopardize a person's whole life. And tell your children, your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren until the end of time, they need to publicly speak about this. And the author of this sefer, because he married the great-great-granddaughter of the Levush, his father-in-law told him, listen to me, you better tell the story. Even though the rule is never give advice to your son-in-law. The only thing you could give your son-in-law is money and kavod. Okay? That's from Rav Vigder Miller. Never give advice. That's coming from you know, we just made our first shidduch, so it's not relevant. I'll let you know if how I'm able to handle that one. Okay. But Rav Yisrael Salanter didn't finish the story uh didn't end there. He says, let me tell you, Rav Mordechai Yaffe, a story that that place before the Spanish Inquisition. There was once a king in one of the provinces of Spain who wanted a banish all of the Jewish residents of the area. But there was one particular righteous Jew who always carried favor with the king. And every time the king was about to banish his Jewish residents, they would call this pious Jew and he would come to the king and plead with the king and the king would always uh uh reneg and allow his Jews to remain in his in his kingdom. One particular time the king said enough is enough. He was going to banish his Jewish residents. So the people of the city, they come to this Hasid [snorts] and the Hasid comes to the king and he starts talking to the king and the king is so happy to see him and he hugs him and he kisses him. And at first this Hasid didn't want to go. Cuz he said, "You know, it's late in the day. I didn't daven Mincha." So they said, "Mincha schmincha. You know, our lives are in jeopardy. This is also a mitzvah. You'll daven Mincha later. You'll You'll catch a later minyan in a chaim v'shalom or something. You know, you need to save our lives." So the guy uh goes and as he's speaking to the king a priest strikes up a conversation with the king. And the priest starts praising the king and he starts reciting a whole Latin benediction for the king. And this Hasid doesn't even know what he's talking about. So he says, "This is my opportunity." He slips off in the corner to daven Mincha and he's praying. He's swaying. He has no idea what the priest is talking about, what the gibberish coming out of the the priest's mouth. And the priest is saying this whole Latin benediction and the priest finishes and he says, "And now everyone respond, amen." And everyone answers, "Amen." To the blessing of the priest. And then he goes around, "Did everyone answer, amen? I want to make sure everyone confirms the blessing I'm I'm placing on the head of the king." And he then turns, you know, "Did you answer, amen? Did you answer, amen? Did you answer, amen? Did everyone Did that dirty Jew answer amen? And he's off there praying in the corner. He has no idea what the priest was talking about. And they said, "No, the Jew didn't answer amen." "The Jew didn't answer amen!" And the priest starts ripping his hair out and screaming and carrying on. "This Jew destroyed my blessing. You see, my blessing was about to devolve upon the king. It was about to be hal on the king. And because he didn't answer amen, then now the the blessing is vanished into thin air. And the The priest is carrying on like a lunatic." And now the king is going out of his mind. And the king says, "Servants, off with his head!" And they they take out their swords, and they slice him, and they dice him, and they wrap him up in his robe, and they send him back to his wife a dead man. The The righteous Jew was killed in the palace of the king. This righteous Jew had a charusa. And the charusa was ice man. She was beside himself. How this righteous Jew who made an attempt to save the community just slipped away to daven mincha. Why would he have such a terrible punishment? So, he davened, and he davened, and he davened. He He had complaints against the almighty. Why Why did this happen to his friend? And one day, he had a dream. And it was his friend. And his friend said, "Please, you should not have any complaints against Hashem. Let me tell you what happened. I'll tell you the story. >> [clears throat] >> I really never committed any sin. I'm a perfectly, completely righteous man. But, what happened was one time, a child in my house made a bracha on hamotzi, and I didn't answer amen. But, God was patient with me until that faithful day when I was in the palace of the king and I didn't respond amen to the blessing of the king. That's when Hashem collected his debt and that's why I was sliced and diced. I'm telling you this. Please let everybody know this. Whereupon Rebbe Yisrael Salanter turns to Mordechai Yaffe and he says, "I'll make you But because you didn't answer amen to the blessing of my son, I want you to know it is your responsibility now for the rest of your life to disseminate the gravity, the severity of not responding amen to the bracha." And then the Levush writes >> [cough and clears throat] >> that he accepted upon himself the task of being a preacher among the Jewish people and wherever he goes, wherever he travels, he speaks about the importance of amen. Especially there two amens that people routinely do not answer. One is Baruch Baruch Atah Adonai Hashem Hamachazir Shchinah l'Tzion. Modeh Modim Anachnu Lach. And nobody answers amen. They just say Modeh Modim Anachnu Lach. And they they don't say amen to Hamachazir Shchinah l'Tzion. It happens every day. Baruch Atah Hashem Hamachazir Shchinah l'Tzion. Modeh Modim Anachnu Lach. What happened? It's amen. Modeh Modim Anachnu Lach. The other time people routinely do not say amen is Haporeis Sukkas Shalom Aleinu v'al v'al kol Yisrael v'al Yerushalayim. V'shamru v'nei Yisrael es HaShabbos. U'v'shamru. Amen. V'shamru. In fact in fact, the baalei mussar say the reason why Mashiach has not come is because we don't say amen to the redemption of the Jewish people. Number one, Hamachi Shishino let's see on and number two, If we would only confirm that Hashem is bringing the Gola, the Gola would come. But for 2,000 years, we don't want to confirm it. So Hashem says you're not going to confirm it, I'm not going to confirm it either. That the reason Messiah has not come is cuz people don't answer amen to these two brachas. And therefore the Lavush accepted upon himself to disseminate the importance of answering amen even to the bracha of a child. Now, as you know, you can't pasken halacha from stories. You know about this. The story is not a source of halacha. I don't care who said the story or where the story is. So the first thing you have to know is answer amen to a bracha of a child. Do you need to answer bracha to amen to bracha of a child? Are you allowed to answer amen to a bracha of a child? The Shulchan Aruch says, when a child makes a bracha, since they're benei chinuch, you can answer amen. What does that imply? They can answer amen if they're benei chinuch. And what if they're less than chinuch? What is the age of chinuch by the way? Six or seven, right? The kid in the story was five years old. So maybe, you know, back in the day they were very smart, they were advanced. The Shulchan Aruch seems to hold you cannot answer amen to a bracha of a child who's less than the age of chinuch. In fact, the Mishna Berurah says, mashma look at number six, the al bracha she mevarech al achila k'gavna koidem she giya lechinuch ein lanu amen al av. You're not allowed to answer, "Amen." Actually, the Steipler in the in the safer Rabbeinu, he brings that in the house of the Steipler, they would start making Amen even before the kid could completely speak. At age 1 and 1/2 the Steipler would give candies to his children. He would say, "Make a and he would answer, 'Amen.'" So, the author of this uh of the the one who recorded the of the Steipler says, "Wait a second. That's not like the Rabbeinu. Why would the Steipler teach them to answer, 'Amen'? Why would he train them even to make ice?" Some would argue maybe you're not allowed to. You're not allowed to You know, if you're going to train a child to make a before their age of you're training them to make a without any thought. >> [snorts] >> So, the author of the Rabbeinu said he asked his brother-in-law, Zalman Auerbach that really it's not the it's just it's a custom. The same way you tell a kid who's 1 and 1/2, "That's your aunt and that's your uncle." So, you say, "That's God. Thank him." Whether the kid understands or not. And you answer, "Amen." It's a practice. It's not the says uh Zalman that he personally does not answer uh he goes, "Ame." You know, "Ame." And because the is you're not allowed to answer, "Amen." So, according to that, I guess the kid in the story wasn't five, maybe he was seven or eight, or maybe the kid was the age of uh uh And uh Rav Chaim Kanievsky also says um Rav Chaim Kanievsky also says something interesting here. He He that you could train a child to answer a man after bracha. Um, but for you yourself, if you take a look at number eight with some of the back in the summer says that you could train a child to answer a man, but you should not answer a man to the bracha of a child that has not reached the age of but the reason you should teach them to answer a man very amazing there are more rights in Simen by the way in the same sift that the Shulchan Aruch says that if somebody speaks by God I avoid in the sight By the way this is very important to know. You see somebody speak by the shots that's the equivalent of in halacha in severity the same terminology the Shulchan Aruch uses I saw the shots is a terminology the uses by murder. So you know sometimes you see the guy he's shooting the breeze he he's a great guy he's such a great guy you know he's so friendly. No, that's not how the halacha views it. The halacha says God all I void the sin is too great to bear. That's the terminology that Hashem said about Cain killing Abel. That's what the Shulchan Aruch says about somebody who speaks by the shots. Then the says but you should make sure to train your children to answer a man because as soon as a kid answers a man from the time they're one or two years old they have a share in the world to come. So that's the contrast. If you speak by the shots and you disturb the answering of man it's like murder. But so that it's like taking life. Listen to the contrast. If you speak by the shots it's like you're killing someone. By the way, that's a bad thing to do. You know that? Taking someone's life is not We don't We don't condone that. We don't support murder, you know? Judaism likes to preserve life. So, speaking by chazzan shatz is like killing. And that's one extreme. But, if you teach your kid to answer amen, you're giving them eternal life. That's what one thing has to do with the other. In other words, why is the Rama commenting that you should train your child to answer amen and you'll get olam haba? Because the Shulchan Aruch is saying disturbing during chazzan shatz is like taking a life, but the converse has to be true also. If somebody has respectful behavior during chazzan shatz, you're literally giving your child eternal life. >> Like by Shacharit and Maariv, two brachos before Kriyat Shema, do you answer amen? >> By >> By Ahavat Olam Yisrael and Ahavah Rabbah for the morning. Do you answer amen? >> Me, personally? I don't. No. So, what we do is um you finish There are two There are two >> Why don't they answer amen? >> Because some say that that bracha is like a bracha on Kriyat Shema. So, you don't want to interrupt between the the bracha Ahavat Olam Yisrael and Kriyat Shema. So, you you end off together with the chazzan. Some of the Ramah says you could You could answer amen. And um >> I think that >> And uh most what I do is I say with the chazzan Baruch atah Hashem ohev amo Yisrael. Actually, it's not what I do. You want to know what I really do? I'm always ahead. I'm already in the second parsha of Shema when they say Shema. Otherwise, I'm not going to be able to start Shemoneh Esrei with the tzibbur. So, that's that's what I usually do. Um >> So, when you're saying Kriyat Shema, you're not going to answer amen? >> No, I don't answer amen in the middle Kriyat Shema. You >> Between the two parshas, you answer amen? >> No, um I'll answer amen Yishmei Rabbah or Baruchu, but not uh >> Not amen. >> Not amen. No. Now, the word amen, which we mentioned earlier, has gematria of 91. In the Safer Kav Hayashar, he brings that whenever a person does a mitzvah, you create angels. And every time you do a mitzvah, you create a host of angels. These angels are called the machaneh of the mitzvah. Now, it's obvious any mitzvah you make a bracha on, the angels who you created when you let's say let's say you put on tefillin. When you put on tefillin, you create tefillin malachim. So, you're surrounded by tefillin malachim. When you say the bracha al hanachat tefillin, the tefillin malachim answer amen to your bracha. So, you should have in mind and by the way, the remez is malach is gematria amen. Amen is 91. Malach, angel, is 91. So, when you say a bracha and you answer amen, you should think the angels you created are answering amen with you. Okay? So, just bear in mind amen is gematria malach. When you answer amen, you create an angel. Do you remember the story of Esther? So, Esther didn't have a father, didn't have a mother, and the pasuk says who raised her? Vayehi Omein es Hadassah hi Esther bas they die. The word Omein should be spelled aleph vav mem nun. He raised her. Omein, he raised her. It's spelled aleph mem nun. Says the Yalkut Mayam Loez, why is it spelled aleph mem nun? What does it mean he raised her? What did he raise her to do? What did Mordechai How did Mordechai raise Esther? What was the chinuch of Mordechai to Esther? Says the Yalkut Mayam Mordechai trained Esther from the time she was young. Va'yehi Amen. He trained her to answer amen. Why? Because she's an orphan girl. The least he could do is he has to make sure she gets to the world to come. So, the least he could do is get her there by teaching her to answer amen. But, let's take this a little bit further. Because Mordecai had when that Esther if she's going to be she may be taken one day. In fact, when she was taken to Ahasuerus he knew that this could cause the redemption of the Jewish people even though he was trying to get her out of there. Mordecai knew from the beginning something was up with this girl. And he's grooming her and he's protecting her. This lady this girl needs a lot of protection. Ahasuerus needs a queen. She's a young girl. She's a beautiful girl. She could be taken at any time. She needs a lot of angels. She needs a lot of angels to protect her from that behema. So, if there's any mitzvah that could garner for Esther a whole host of malachim that are going to be guarding her and protecting her that would be the zechus of answering amen. So, the possuk says Va'yehi Omain es Hadassah. He trained her to answer amen cuz he knew the girl needs shmira elyonah. So, of all the zechusim Mordecai trained Esther to acquire it's Va'yehi Omain es Hadassah. And that may be what ultimately protected her and guarded her and protected her from somebody from maybe committing uh an act of infidelity to Mordecai because Mordecai is married to her. But, Esther Karka Olam She never went willingly until Mordecai told her to. So, what protected Esther physically, spiritually, emotionally? Vayehi Amen. The Amen that Mordecai trained her to answer be kavana. That always protected her. By the way, Okay, now this is This is important. We're going to try to keep it simple, okay? There are two kinds of brachas that you can answer Amen to. You can answer Amen to a bracha of praise or you can answer Amen to a bracha of request. What should you think when you answer Amen? When you answer Amen, you should think it is true. Amen means it's you're authenticating the bracha. So, Baruch Ata Hashem Pokeach Ivrim. Blessed are you, Hashem. You give sight to the blind. When you answer Amen, you should think it is true. Hashem is the source of blessing who gives sight to the blind. Now, I know it's a mouthful, right? The best kavana to have is to think it is true that Hashem is the source of blessing, that he does that thing. Hashem clothe the unclothed, that Hashem straightens the bent. When you hear Baruch Ata Hashem Matir Asurim, you should think I confirm Hashem is the source of blessing who releases the bound. If that's too much, at the very least, it's true. What he said, yeah. Good. Yes. Yes. It's true. MS. MS, actually. And not MS. MS. It's true. At the very least, you should think it's true. But, sometimes the blessing is not just a praise, it's a request. So, it's Baruch Ata Hashem rofei cholei Yisrael. So, that's a praise and a request. First, so you should think, it's true Hashem is the source of blessing who heals the sick, and I pray Hashem should be the source of blessing and heal the sick. Now, that's really a mouthful, right? Because or the simple way to do it is, it's true and halavai it should be. So, emes the halavai. True may it be. True So, in other words, when you answer amen to the first three blessings of Shmoneh Esrei, you should think, it's true Hashem is Magen Avraham. It's true Hashem resurrects the dead. It's true Hashem is uh the God of holiness. And then when you get up to the bakashas, then you should think, it's true Hashem grants daas, may he do so. It's true Hashem helps us do teshuvah, may he do so. So, you say, "Wow, that takes a lot of focus. So, you're telling me that I shouldn't be learning during chazarat hashatz?" No, I'm not telling you. The halacha says it. The Mishna Berurah says it. Mishna Berurah says you're not allowed to learn during chazarat hashatz. Rav Chaim Kanievsky says it's a mitzvah haba'ah ba'aveirah. If you do, let's say you're ma'avir sedra, you'll you'll have to do it again. If you made a you learned a mesechta and you want to make a siyum during the nine days, no, don't make a siyum. What do you do? I'm invited to a siyum of a guy he learned the whole thing during chazarat hashatz. If you have that, okay, ask me. I've been there. I've been there many times. Yeah, it's a big chazarat The Arizal says chazarat hashatz is more important than the silent Shmoneh Esrei. You're confirming your belief and you're praying. It's a very powerful time. Okay. So, now we see that a main offers like supernatural schmira, especially for Esther. She kept faithful to Mordecai through a main. She was never unfaithful to Mordecai. It's interesting. Where does a main appear in the Hamish? In the subject of Sota. Where else? In the in the context of the class. Okay, we'll come to that. Uh uh You'll see where we're headed. Tell you one story that appears in the safer Notrei Amen. It also appears in a there's an English book called just uh just one word. But I found it originally in the safer Notrei Amen. I think I also saw it in Rebbe Yitzchak Zilberstein's safer Emunah Sheleimah. There was a doctor who made aliyah and became a baal teshuvah. So he was asked, you know, what what exactly inspired you to become religious? He said, "I'll tell you the story. I was dealing with a patient who had a terminal illness and the patient had to make a decision. Either his days were really numbered or he could undergo an a very expensive, invasive, painful surgery that at the most would give him a few extra months." And the patient didn't even know what to say. You know, the doctor said, "Your days are numbered. The surgery will prolong your life only minimally, but it's extremely invasive, extremely painful, and extremely expensive." So the patient had learned by Rav Moshe Feinstein 20 years earlier. He said he wants to ask Rav Moshe. The doctor said, "Okay, well, you know, let me see for myself what this rabbi will say." So the man tells Rav Moshe the shaila. Rav Moshe wept for 20 minutes empathizing with his student. And then Rav Moshe says, "Give me a day to think about it." And the next day Reb Moshe said, "You should have the surgery. We're going to pray for your recover recovery. In the next couple of months, if you prolong your life, you know how many amens you can answer? You know how many angels you're going to create? You'll have so much spiritual protection. Who knows? You might have arichas yamim v'shanim. And he did. And this was so inspiring to the doctor, the doctor became religious. As reported in the safer, notrei amen. So, you see from here that amen has a certain power to of salvation even from very disastrous and difficult situations. It protected Esther when she was taken captive that she remained pure in purity. She never went willingly to Achashverosh. It protected her from becoming a sotah. You see from the story of Reb Moshe that the amen could literally has life-saving power. Is it possible that this powerful word amen the Torah reserves for these disastrous and catastrophic catastrophic locations to show that how powerful it is? That specifically in the context of the sotah, here it's written in the in the in the Torah K'doshah, a Jewish woman is going to be brought to this situation where her husband suspects her of infidelity. This is going to happen to a Jewish woman and it has to be written in the Torah. So, the Torah needs to offer protection for the Jewish people that we should never come to such a thing. So, the one pasuk in the Chumash that says amen twice is the pasuk of the sotah. Amen, amen. It's protection. And in the context of these klal is the Ribono shel Olam says, I I have to write I have to have klalois in the Torah against klal Yisrael. We need We need some security. We need some shmira. So, whenever there's a klala, Hashem says, "Don't worry, I got this covered. You're Don't worry. You'll be protected." What What's the protection? Protection is Look where the word amen appears. Wherever when we need it most. It prepa- It appears when it's most needed. In the 11 klalois in the Torah, when it says baruch, we don't We don't We're not reliant on the amen. Here's where we really need it. There's a tradition that Reb Zalman would say from the great Mashgiach, Reb Simcha Zissel of Kelm, that one night, Shavuos night, Reb Simcha Zissel was trying to impress on his students the power of limud haTorah. He says, "The whole world, from the beginning of time until now, it was worthwhile for God to create all of the galaxies and all the universes, and the sun and the moon and the stars and all the planets and all the animals and so that there should be one Jew who answer one time in his whole life baruch hu ubaruch shmei. If that's the only thing that happened in, you know, 6,000 years, it was a successful project." But says Reb Simcha Zissel, "As great as baruch hu ubaruch shmei is, one amen is greater than 1,000 baruch hu ubaruch shmeis." But he continued. He said, "As great as amen is, one amen yehei shmei rabba is equal to 1,000 amens. And as great as 1,000 amens are, one word of Torah is equal to 1,000 amein yehei shmei rabba. Today was the yardzeit of the Ben Ish Hai. Yeah, Yud Gimel Av. The Ben Ish Hai in uh in what is called Shana Rishona Parshas Vayeishev, he says, "It's a good minhag, like we started a tzaddik has sown who says amen 90 times for uh Kedushas, 10 Kaddish, and 100 brachas. It's a good practice to say every day 45 times Baruch Adonai Eloheinu Olam, amen ve'amen. Baruch Adonai Eloheinu Olam, amen ve'amen. Baruch Adonai Eloheinu Olam, amen ve'amen. Cuz that pasuk has two amens in it. So, if you say it 45 times, you got your 90. This way, if for whatever reason you can't make it, you know, you're you're not you have an onus, you have extenuating circumstances, you're not going to hear Kaddish, you're down in the count, you say that 45 times. Now, the truth is, even if you don't say it 45 times, even if you say it 10, 15 times, it usually will it will put you over the edge, you know? And he says so something very interesting. He says, "I myself do it, and I do it every day after Birchas HaTorah, I say Baruch Adonai Eloheinu Olam, amen ve'amen. Baruch Adonai Eloheinu Olam, amen ve'amen. Baruch Adonai Eloheinu Olam, amen ve'amen." Now, what he says, "Why do I do it then? Cuz anytime you want to do something, if you say, 'Yeah, yeah, I'll do it today,' most of the time you'll never do it. But if you have a set time to do it, then you just do it habitually. I I like that line very much cuz it's very true. You know, there's a lot of things you want to do and you never get around to it. But if you sort of like have a seder, you know, I do this right after Shacharit, I do ABC. So then it's not it's not not even a test anymore. It's just that's your routine. Anything you can make routine, you have a much better shot of actually doing it than it just wanting to do something. You don't necessarily do what you want to do. You got to get it on the conveyor belt. So the Ben Ish Hai says he personally says, "Baruch Adonai Eloheinu Amen." But now I'll tell you another trick. The truth is you already say that pasuk in davening. So you already you got two. You also say in Hodu, um, you say, um, you say in, um, seder. Besides Baruch Adonai Eloheinu Amen ve Amen. So that's four. Shacharit automatically has four and it has a fifth in Hodu. You say, So you already have five in in P'sukei Dezimra. Okay? So so you don't have to do it 45 times. It's 85. You only have to do 42 and a half, okay? But and that that's besides any of the Amens you might have in, you might say besides that. But that's the practice of the Ben Ish Hai. And maybe we're suggesting that the reason why the word Amen in the Chumash appears in these uh in in these contexts um is because the Amen has a tremendous shmira aliyana. It creates an angel and the Rebono Shel Olam didn't want to establish as reality these disastrous situations. So, to offer protection to call Israel in the context of the call ice in the context of the episode of the sota is seared the protection of the great word amen. Have a great night. And uh by the way, you know, when um the Ramban says that the reason Hashem criticized Sarah, you should still have a great night, but listen to this. That the reason why the the um Hashem criticized Sarah for laughing is the Ramban says that when the angel told Abram that she's going to have a kid, so Sarah should have said, "Amen." Amen. Actually, Rabbi Wine tells a story that he was once in the airport and Rabbi Eliyahu Kitov was uh going on to the plane and the stewardess tells him, "Have a Have a safe flight." "Amen." You know, he belted it out. "Amen." Because I say, "So, what are you doing?" He said, "The Ramban says that when someone gives you a blessing, if you don't answer amen, you're criticized. So, she blessed me. She said, 'Have a safe flight.' So, I responded, 'Amen.'" So, have a great night and the imru Okay, there you go.