הרב מאיר דוד שמואלי - תיקון ליל שישי פרשת לך לך תשפ"ז

Okay, What we are doing tonight, with the help of God: supporting the Torah world, which does not have great success. Close that window there, please, don't leave any windows open here. By the merit of tonight's study, of your prayers, of your learning, the Ketoret you are reciting, the study on Tuesday, with God's help, will raise the prestige of the Torah and its students. Cast all of Israel's enemies down, down, so they have no success, for they cause all the evil; may God reveal their wickedness and remove them from the people of Israel, from the Land of Israel.

Whoever is meant to repent should repent. These are the things we are doing: for the healing of all the sick of the people of Israel, for wisdom and understanding, help for you, for the healing of Rivka, for the recovery of Rotem bat Helen, for Sherez bat Galit, for the healing of the soul, the healing of the body, and for everyone who needs salvation with the help of God Almighty. Also for the salvation of our friend Baruch ben Mira , for the recovery of Bediah Chaya ben Noam, ben Bel. Or, David ben Chen, all the grooms and brides, Yaffa bat Tamar.

Especially for grace in the studies of repentance. And also against all the wicked ones rising up here against the Yeshiva and its students, may they not succeed on the western side in blocking the way; may there be protection and defense, may everything open up with the help of God Almighty. We are here today at the Yahrzeit. Rachel our Mother, peace be upon her.

And now tonight, it is the memorial of the Yeshiva head of Tzedaka, who was a leader before, before Ovadia, before Zion, he who was among all the greats, he was the teacher of Mordechai Eliyahu , he was the teacher of all the greats of Israel, he was a leader, he put in much effort, brought many into the world of Yeshivas, the world of Torah, he led the people of Israel in holiness and purity, he stood in the breach for every single thing. Smitten with the pain of Israel, he would always speak everywhere that. Blessings have great power, he says that a blessing should be divided into three parts: Baruch, Atah. Hashem should pause, Elokeinu Melech HaOlam should pause, and then bless the blessing.

A person reads the blessing: "Baruch Atah Melech Olam," they don't know the beginning, the end, nothing. Therefore, one must be careful with every blessing to pronounce it correctly. Rabbi Patiya, the Rav Patiya , said: Why are there car accidents, diseases, problems? He says: Because we don't bless correctly.

So all those holy souls that are reincarnated in fruits—they are not released. There are two ways for them to be released: either through a blessing or through a tragedy. Therefore, the more we bless, the more we prevent many, many troubles . There was a family here, very distant , one could call them atheists, heretics, in any case, you are a woman who doesn't believe, and by chance, the matter unfolded and it was a correction for life.

God graced this holy place and healed that secular woman; she said : "I don't believe in anything, only in this place." A young woman, full of illnesses, her husband came and said to me: "What do we do?" Does she bless? She does not bless. You said: give her all types of blessings, she-hakol, tree , ground, borei nefashot, al hamichya, birkat hamazon, let her bless. If you won’t believe it—the moment she started to bless, most of the illnesses disappeared for her.

What is the power of a blessing! There is one of the members here in the yeshiva, his daughter is six—every month terrible stomach pains, going and coming, going and coming, a family of righteous people. A righteous man happened to meet him in Tel Aviv, and told him: look, your daughter isn't reciting blessings, she is six years old. He looked into it—indeed, she wasn't reciting blessings.

She started to bless—most of the pains disappeared for her. When people call me with troubles, problems, I first ask them: do you recite blessings? "I try, I try" —the meaning of these words is that he is not reciting blessings. One blessing above, seven below.

Be careful with blessings, you will see miracles and wonders, there is none but Him. A book. By Rabbi Dvir, I remember, in Bnei Brak by Rabbi Ziderstein, in that area, he tells of and brings a whole book; he writes what the power of a blessing is. He brings miracles and wonders, just from the blessing of " Asher Yatzar." A whole family came out who received "Asher Yatzar" with strong intention, miraculously healing, the girl's illness disappeared.

It is known in the name of our teacher Rabbi Shach, Maran Rabbi Shach, that he would recite the Grace After Meals from a siddur. He says: a person who has no children, recite from a siddur, and he will see that he will have children. Many people listened to his advice and were blessed with children. Even though my teacher’s yahrtzeit, Rabbi Sharabi, the yeshiva we studied in, it was Porat Yosef a bit, but our Rabbi who brought everyone into the yeshivot is Rabbi Sharabi, he brought in hundreds and thousands, his merit is in the yeshivot .

So Rabbi Shach had, his descendants told me here, they came to the guard about 10 years ago, that one of his descendants had no children and they did that and it didn't work, he said: you need a blessing from Rabbi Sharabi. That same one from the family of Rabbi Shach...And she went there, she received a blessing, thank God, she was blessed to conceive. But, in principle, one can see what the power of a blessing is. The Ari writes: the main attainment of a person's holy spirit is according to the blessings of the person.

He writes, therefore you see all the Kabbalists, what is their power ? Blessings, "Baruch Atah," intentions, what is in the intentions? Why intentions? Why is the main holy spirit that rests upon a person according to the Ari?

Certainly there are many, many details, but that is what is written in the Ari: through a person's blessings. Yaakov Chaim Sofer, the grandfather of our Rabbi Yaakov Chaim Sofer, 1939, He was always, Rabbi Tzedaka says: we would always see him, you could talk to him after studying, but if he was eating—you couldn't talk to him. Why? All his meals had Ari intentions, he would perform intentions.

She doesn't do it; eating for him took an hour, which is why he didn't eat much, Grace After Meals another 10 minutes, and so on and so forth. But what, whoever reads his dreams—he has a dream journal, revelations of the Ari, revelations of Elijah the Prophet, revelations of things inconceivable to the mind, what attainments, what things he received. He says they don't experience it; why did he say the intentions were not in order? The Rashash came to him, I saw this in a test, because I was with Rabbi Shalom Cohen at the Porat Yosef Yeshiva, he said: "My father said today we don't have the right intentions, people don't understand the intentions," but explicitly Rabbi Yaakov Chaim wrote, he also did it that way, they don't focus, they don't understand.

The Rashash arrived, he says: "Why are you not intending?" He tells him: "It’s not in order." He says: "Everything is in order, focus, it is in order, focus!" That goes against the things he answers . How empty it is; one always knows the Rabbi was very, very strict about distance. It is known in the name of the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh, it is known to us that someone bought an orchard and a spring and they make a lot of money there, an inn. And only he—the spring dried up, everything withered.

He asked why? So he says, pay attention to the Grace After Meals, there are acronyms there, look at two blessings there, look at two blessings, the first blessing, the last blessing, he brought beautiful acronyms. He says: Whoever would arrive at this inn, he was strict that they should recite a blessing, as long as they blessed there—there was a blessing, there was Divine assistance . Meaning, Rabbi Taya tells that a woman came to him, she was grinding wheat, grinding, a date, she recited a blessing over it, after she blessed, an old man came, said to her: "Thank you very much," and disappeared.

She was terrified, what is this dream? He told her this old man had a reincarnated spark that you fixed when you blessed, he came to tell you thank you very much , but you have one mistake, that instead of blessing the tree you blessed the earth, and his correction was [garbled audio]...What, you have no mistake? I blessed before that. That instead of the tree, you blessed the earth, so he wasn't fully corrected, anyway he was corrected, he came to tell you what he was corrected for,

he says, and she merited it, since a woman is exempt from the commandment to study Torah, he says it is harder for a man to fix, because if a man neglects Torah , then his blessings work less, so how important it is to know that I say two hours of continuous study, three hours of continuous study, people don't understand that this is one of the things that we are in exile, that there is Torah in commercial quantities that didn't exist before the Holocaust, not even 10%of

the Torah of this generation .

There weren't Torah scholars 10%of what there is today. There were Torah scholars almost 100 times more than what was before the Holocaust, much, much more. Where is it? Where is the redemption?

Look at how many diseases, how many troubles, how many persecutions there are on man. Everyone who starts a political party only says how they will rise, saying: I am with you, but I will persecute the world of Torah even more. Are you persecuting? Come, take power; will I do that to the world of Torah?

Come, take power! It has become the opposite. Maybe someone asked to ostracize them, to sacrifice them, to take them out of the community of God? No, the opposite!

They, heaven forbid, may God have mercy. Why? Where do they have...like this week here, they came to clash with the border police to stop here, not to close the western side, and they fell. Why?

Here, Torah is studied continuously, with God's help. The merit of the Torah, the merit of the incense offering we made there every time. I am taking them down , this is the incense offering. When that happened, I said: Where is all the incense?

The incense is good, so to go like this, to go down, not to go down, to take out the whole Yeshiva, leaves? Don't take them out. I thought, it felt like a divine spirit, that God is telling me: Do not be afraid, take them down, bring a tractor, do it, don't be afraid of them. This time, and the Holy One, blessed be He, thank God, helped us with divine assistance and defeated all our enemies from here and cleared them forever, for eternity.

>> And the Yeshiva will expand until the coastal road. >> It will be fulfilled in us as it is said: "The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and spread." Spread, south and east, north and north , and all directions, the whole area. Now, I always thought of the coastal road, now I'm thinking of everything. We are taking everything with God's help, with special divine assistance.

There is the Holy One, blessed be He, and He bequeathed it to him, there is every blessing. Once there was a tragedy at the funeral of the Baba Sali , four young Torah scholars were run over. He said: It is because we are not careful with blessings. I always remember Rabbi Tzadka preaching to us, he passed away 35 years ago, he used to tell us: Many of our troubles come from [not being careful with] blessings.

So yes, he wanted his own. I am preparing, I also have some boys who will go tomorrow, recite all the Psalms at his gravesite, so we will have the merit that he will pray for us. The Yeshiva here, know that it has become a place where all his practices are kept. He was particular about it, a person must sacrifice himself, what is that?

Rabbi Sofer said, speak about it strongly. I remember the sermon from almost 40 years ago, my uncle told me that we must strengthen the vigil, the guard. Why? The Rabbi explained, it is written in the Halacha that a person, every yeshiva student, every Jew, is obligated every night to recite Tikkun Chatzot.

The Shulchan Aruch states: Whoever fears God should lament the destruction of the Temple, so he is obligated. When do we do it? Bnei Torah do not do it, at least watch the vigil. Do not say "I do not do it." Therefore, whoever comes here, comes here on the condition that he does Tikkun Chatzot; if not, he has theft in his hands, theft in his hands.

There is no such thing; without saying 10 chapters of Psalms, it’s Tikkun Chatzot which is written in...you must do it. Secondly, he brings the Rabbi One of the Rabbis of Aleppo that Rabbi Mash'an writes about, it was that in Aleppo they would wake up early at night and study. He says: No man died before his time, and no woman miscarried, no disaster befell them. They would study Torah at night, and when do we study Torah at night?

We go to sleep. He says once a week that ...that he gave a command before he passed away, he said: It doesn't matter what you do, but this. Let it continue, my friend was in charge, he reached a debt of 100, 200 thousand. He went to the grave, told him: Rabbi, I am continuing your path, I don't have money to pay.

That same week the Rabbi told me: Someone arrived from the United States, a certain philanthropist , said: Should I bring you, how much money do you need? Take it here now. Of Friday night, how the Rabbi, Rabbi Yehuda, reached some rich man in the United States somewhere, he told him: Listen, I need money for Friday night, send me money, so-and-so, transfer money to me, so-and-so. Less than seven he prayed, he tells me how many miracles happened to him in the merit of Rabbi Tzadka.

It is known that in Jerusalem there were Talmud Torahs, there were three greats who stood, who built the Sephardic ones, Talmud Torahs : Rabbi Tzadka, Rabbi Motzafi, Hacham Ovadia. Hacham Motzafi said: We will pass from the world, you will see the revolution that will be. Here they are seeing the revolution, tens of thousands of children in Talmud Torahs, tens of thousands of Kollel scholars. That wasn't in our generation, all of Jerusalem maybe 500 children, all of Jerusalem maybe 500 scholars, that's it .

What was there 50 years ago? Really there was nothing, a true spiritual wasteland in the country. What, what Talmud Torahs? There were no Kollels.

Where were there Kollels? Bnei Brak, Jerusalem, Safed a little, what? Nothing was there, a wasteland, a real wasteland, there was nothing. Who established the Torah?

They established it, they opened a network, one opened in the south. His wife comes, says to him: There is no money to sustain it, what is the issue? You said if you fly, you're out. Rabbi Tzadka told him: Bring her here, five minutes, three minutes you're in the room with the Rabbi.

She came out, said to him: Go, fly even to the moon, fly all over the world. Gargah, you told me: You’re going to the Rabbi, get out of the house, we’re getting divorced. Now you: What did the Rabbi tell you in three minutes? I am forbidden to reveal it.

When the Rabbi passed away, he asked his wife, she told me: The Rabbi in the room said such a thing: What will happen in the world to come? Who knows if you will have a Garden of Eden ? Gehenna? You know, I promise you, if you confirm that you passed away, you come to the Heavenly Court, start the trial until I come, and I will come, I will bring you into the Garden of Eden.

He heard this and said, why shouldn't I do it? This, I heard at the funeral of the Rabbi, if I am not mistaken, from Rabbi Moshe Amma, he was there, that is how I remember it. But this is the true story, this is the true story: He promised him Paradise. Can you promise someone Paradise?

If you...if you...who said that you have Paradise? But surely the Rabbi knew that he was certainly inside, and he also had the power to bring a person into Paradise. Look at that, he promised. Why set up a head of a Yeshiva?

How much effort they invested with him. There was someone who would expel a boy from the Yeshiva, it was a good Rabbi. You need to fast, if you didn't fast over the boy. Did you fast over him?

He has no desire for Torah, and he makes problems, take him out. But if you didn't do a fast, it is your problem, you are forbidden to take him out. First of all, before the Rabbi takes him out like that, fast. If it didn't help for any student, you must fast over him.

That is how it was, he used to test us so much, he and Rabbi Ben-Zion, it was sweet to the lips. It was He was strict that there would be no "between the times"(vacation); Sephardim never had "between the times, " why? We will continue in our tradition. Ashkenazim had them.

The Steipler also writes that it started once from the innovators; they knew the Chofetz Chaim was against this thing, it is written also in Or Yechezkel, it is written also in the talks of Mussar by Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz. What I am telling you, many of the great ones are known to have written this, that it is against this thing. This thing is a plague that entered the generation, it is idolatry that entered the generation . Look, open sources, everything is written in the book Sod HaHatzlacha, you can see, it is written in all the books.

The thing that I am telling you, the Rabbi would stand firmly on this matter, the "between the times" vacation from studying Torah. He had several things he strengthened very, very much: as I said, his guarding of the tongue which was very strong, many things, his humility, the leadership he had. Anything that happened in the Haredi public, he would shout, stand in the breach, not let any bad thing happen. From the heart he would shout so loudly that there would be no breach .

Truly his merit, also today is the passing of the son of the Rabbi, Ben Yosef Chaim and Yaakov Chaim, the day of Rabbi Moshe Levi there, his merit is great in heaven. A special story, I know that during the Gulf War he arrived to give a lesson at Rabbi Mazuz's, then he sees no students, they are sleeping in the class. He said to him: What happened, sir? What does he say to him: What, didn't the Rabbi hear that at night there was an attack from the Iraqis and all of Bnei Brak...it broke?

Windows. He says to him: What are you talking about? I sat to learn until 4 in the morning, what attack, what? Sirens.

What explosions? He sat at home to learn there in his house, in that, where he lived, his area, and he says: I didn't hear a thing. What, did the Rabbi not hear? All of Bnei Brak either went to shelters, or went into rooms, or this, windows shattered, it was, buildings shook.

They said to him: Rabbi, do you remember? Yes, the Gulf [ War], it was like that, there was a mess. So he says to him, so he says: He doesn't know, he didn't hear. He didn't hear, he didn't hear, I didn't hear, I am studying Torah.

He didn't hear. For me, a fellow student brings my books. Oh, what did you want? Oh, like that.

He gets up, thank you very much, thank you very much. He says: To study, one must study. They once asked his wife: How did he merit to be such a scholar? Yes.

She says: This man doesn't deal with anything else, only Torah, day and night, Torah Torah, the entire Torah was in his head, sitting and writing the whole Torah, immense books. I am intentionally invoking his merit, that it should stand for us, for everything we ask for, before the Almighty. Anyone who asks Him for livelihood, abundance, and health, that all the friends, with God's help, should engage in Torah and fear of Heaven, everyone who comes here to immerse, everyone should return in complete repentance, with God's help.

Everything we ask of the Blessed One, with God's help, return to repentance, David son of Shulamit Naomi, that he should throw away the device, that it should rise up, or this, or that, everything we ask with the help of the Almighty, that it should be so.

A point that is very important: This Shabbat is the Shabbat of the Chafetz Chaim. What, they asked me what, these, these, look at the Chafetz Chaim, it seems to me like Elul, what are you talking about now? Remember, this Shabbat is the Shabbat of guarding the tongue. What is happening Tuesday?

It's elections. Now in the Yeshivas there are two camps; this one, that one, this one, that one, this one talks about this and that one talks about that, and one word is spoken and it ignites the whole Yeshiva and terrible waste of Torah. Today, one needs to know that it is a day of awe. What can happen on this day?

That we want to see the fall of the kingdom of wickedness, we want those who persecute Torah to be gone, we only want to see people who love Torah, respect those who study Torah, and may there be abundance for the world of Torah, and may all the evil decrees be nullified, as the Name wills. But how will that be ? Tonight we dedicate the study so there will be strength, that the horn of Torah will be exalted, and it will bring down all the persecutors of Torah and its students. The merit of the Torah of tonight, and soon we will do the Incense [prayer] with intense intention, open the sanctuary, pray with intense intention, the Psalms we will do tonight, Psalms with intention.

Also those who are doing the rectification there, the fast, everyone is united on one thing: exalt the horn of Torah, raise the Shechinah, redemption, Messiah now. In our words, we will fight the battle of the Torah. Let them not do anything else. If they succeed, there will be good leaders for the people of Israel.

Of course, the true leader is the Holy One, blessed be He, the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of the House of David, our righteous Messiah—that is what we await. But in any case, unfortunately, if we do not merit that, at least may God help us; this is the most important thing, with God's help, that is the goal we fear. The*Chovot HaLevavot*says: A person who speaks*lashon hara*(evil speech) loses all their Torah study. Election day— the most dangerous day; a person can lose their World to Come.

This week, everyone should take it upon themselves —I heard that in the yeshivas they are holding a "day of pure Torah." What is a "day of pure Torah"? What about secular householders? Yes, in the yeshiva there is talk among them. Yeshiva students told me: The first hour of study is 10 shekels, the second consecutive hour is 15, the third is, say, 20, the fourth hour is 25 shekels.

What, don't they know? There is an* yetzer hara*(evil inclination). The* yetzer hara*, how do we fight it? So they did—the boys did it, not the rabbis, the boys pooled money among themselves, and they are holding a "day of pure Torah" campaign.

At my place, they are holding a "fast of speech." I asked for a fast of speech on that day, why? A person speaks—and loses their entire World to Come. It is forbidden to speak against anyone; he votes, let him vote or not vote, everyone should follow in the way of their ancestors, as your rabbi says, do one act of voting, no need for this "torch." Unfortunately, here in Herzliya, there was a mayor, and one person decided to fight him, a religious man. He said: " Put the other one in the ballot box," 200 votes raised God's name, we brought these problems upon ourselves.

And what is he doing? What is he doing? He opened schools on Shabbat. With the intention of showing young children there is no Shabbat.

What is this? The school is closed on Shabbat, on the contrary, he brought them in with buses . There are religious children studying in secular schools, so now he wants to corrupt them. They opened a Friday market here with only non-kosher food.

Only you want that? Ah, you want to open a market? You want food for Shabbat that is only carcasses and forbidden meat? Here, there was a library of books by terrorists, the* erev rav*, filthy things.

He comes to the library: "Why is it closed on Shabbat?""No, I don't open on Shabbat." "Ah, you aren't opening?""Pay 50,000 shekels in property tax." That is the decree—no, you will pay, I will fine you 50,000 shekels. "Ah, do you want a business license?""Open on Shabbat!" You want to fight for the Shabbat; the One who was here, God, may God contend with our adversaries, may He contend with this one who persecutes the Shabbat so, may God have mercy on him. Bring him to repentance there in Herzliya. But how did it happen?

Those who said "cast a blank ballot," they are the ones who caused damage. Who did all this evil? That person, now he is fighting against him nicely, and losing . He has, he has no success in the opposition, he has no power at all.

You had it, not the power entirely, interesting. There isn't, one must be careful, a person shouldn't move in this without the opinion of your rabbis , choose carefully. Why be careful? To know that everything is all-powerful, the voice is the voice of Jacob, with the help of the Blessed Name, God, God will help.

Everyone should follow the intention of their rabbi, follow the ways of their rabbi. Everyone should be careful, the Blessed Name. But as we said, let us pay very, very close attention, now these days are great days, now pay attention to continuous study, as we said. Pay attention that all of Rachel's passing, the Name of my elders, you have the matter of sacrifice, that a person sacrifices, Rachel, all the children that came to her by virtue of her tribe, so everyone should utilize the time now.

We will do it by increasing among friends, we always pray also for the institutions, for the slope that closed. After the blow they received, thank God this week , and they humiliated the whole municipal system here and the mayor and everyone, they did not win. And what did the policeman say? He said to someone: Tell your rabbi that he defeated us.

Thank God that God defeated them. God orchestrated the whole move here, everyone with shame, all the strange...The evil, that bitter evil from here, everyone left, thank God, may they not return and may they not succeed at all, and also in this neighborhood, all those who have lived here for years, everyone will leave us, everywhere the horn of Torah will be raised, with God's help, higher and higher. Everything you are struggling with, the Blessed Name, everything will be with the help of the Blessed Name. We are all in prayer.

Oh, oh just a moment, my friend, just a moment, thank you very much for coming. The main thing is to go with one message: I was silent and I carried. Thank you very much my friend, I was silent and I carried, and also to know that we will read the Sabbath of my teacher and rabbi, Rabbi Sharabi. Also, everyone who remains must be very, very, very, very careful to perform Tikkun Chatzot.

The Chatam Sofer came especially after his passing to his home: Why did they stop Tikkun Chatzot in my yeshiva? I gave an order before my death, every night, the whole yeshiva does Tikkun Chatzot. And when the Chatam Sofer had a cantor who didn't cry, he said, "I fear he is a heretic." Yes, he had a cantor who cries, and when he didn't come and he didn't cry, he said he feared he was a heretic. Whoever doesn't cry during Tikkun Chatzot, this , shouldn't we cry?

May God bring us to repentance, may we at least be able to read more Tikkun Chatzot, may God grant us merit. God, now we are truly with desire, with enthusiasm, removing wickedness from the world together, friends, You are the Lord our God.