Why Trump’s War Against Iran is Slowing Down Dramatically in the Mystical Month of Iyar

[music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music and singing] >> Good afternoon everyone. Today the third day of the month of Iyar uh we're having a special shear that is focused on a couple of important and pertinent questions. The question everybody wants to know is why has the war with Iran slowed down to a crawl? Let's let's contrast this to the opening events of the war. As you may recall in the months uh we're having a special in previous shearim, are integrally connected. Take a look at previous shearim, we'll be explaining that in detail. They're months of of flashing redemption. They contain the the dramatic turnaround of Purim. They contain the remarkable uh miracles that took place in Egypt, the 10 plagues, the splitting of the Red Sea, the emergence of Moshiach, the miracle worker. And therefore the month of Nissan and and Adar actually um mirrored that in the fact that the war started with a tremendous and very quick blitz. What does that What do I mean? The first day of the war, which was the couple days before Purim, it was Parshat Zachor, the day that the Shabbat that we read about the elimination of Amalek, ironically evil in the world, 40 of Iran's top leaders met their fate. Now, I don't know what stupidity It's not stupidity, it was divine will that led them to gather together in what they considered to be a secure location after all the previous uh successes in the 12-day war, uh the previous war with Iran, the beeper um adventure in in uh Lebanon. Wouldn't you think that these these uh rather uh how should I say, they're in intelligent in their especially in their um plans to evade to evade rule of law and to create chaos and to promote terrorism and death and destruction even on their own people. They're brilliant people, brilliantly evil, but they're brilliant. And what led them to gather together, 40 of them at a time representing several echelons of leadership, and be destroyed in an instant with one bomb? Impossible to understand. It was like a lightning strike. And similarly, all of the events of the first couple weeks of the war into Nissan were rapid incredibly powerful accurate strikes on nuclear facilities, on the navy, on the air force, which disabled the Iran's formidable formidable military. I read um some research reports that before the 12-day war evaluated the relative strength of the Israeli army against Iran, and it was almost a tie. In fact, I think they had Iran rated just above Israel. Well, that's not the case anymore. This was a tandem, the Israel-US tandem, and it's not exactly clear who did what. And nor do I think President Trump wants to delineate it exactly. And I'm sure Netanyahu doesn't want to cuz he He just go along with whatever President Trump says. Go along, go along with it. We'll ride their wave and augment their every move like brothers working in complete unison. Um and Rabbi Yitzchak one of my mentors made this point just recently in his most recent class. I noticed he said that Netanyahu and and uh Trump called themselves brothers, brothers in arms to be sure. And that is the height of the relationship between the Christian world, Edom, and the Jewish world is if there's brotherly love coming from the world of Esau towards Israel, which is few and far between, granted, but fortunately currently resides in the White House. Resides elsewhere, too. Uh the president of uh Milei who was visiting uh Israel and prayed at the Western Wall, apparently very tearfully. The great lovers of of Israel coming out of Latin America South America. And uh we lost a close friend in Victor Orban. Whatever Again, whatever you think about these individuals personally is not relevant to their positions and their actions and deeds, but he was a very He was like a wall of protection against the nasty edicts of uh designs of the European Union to strangle Israel with sanctions and uh criminal uh prosecutions. Uh he was a bullwark against He would veto cuz you could have a one-person veto in the European Union. And Victor Orban of Hungary, who lost the election a week ago to a quote-unquote more mainstream, more European person um is uh you know, that's really a big loss for us. But be it as it may uh the question remains, why has this slowed down to a crawl? And uh and what Where is this crawl headed? What's going to be with this? Okay. That's question number one. So and question number two is um what about this month that we're entering can give us an insight into the events that are that are happening this month and may conclude this month. As far as my most recent information, I think there are more meetings called for for in a couple of days. And uh as we go into the month of Iyar, it seems like we're heading towards a very slow, but nevertheless uh strong stranglehold literally on Iran. It's like an a noose has tightened around their necks, but it's far from being uh how should I say, they're far from being hung. So what is this tightening of the noose, the the closure, the blockade um the pressure, taking out one ship at a time, watching their ships trying to escape the the blockade but not being able to? Everybody's a little bit in the dark. Okay, so I'm going to suggest an incredible insight that will help us both from the parsha and from what our what our rabbis tell us, uh especially from the world of the inner Torah, the pnimiyut haTorah, about this incredible month called Iyar. First of all, the parsha. We know that Acharei Mot, this week's sedra, speaks about the death of the two sons of Aaron. Now let's understand that for a second. This was recounted already previously. But the parsha begins by giving a strict code of conduct for the Kohen Gadol, that is, the the high priest, who could enter the Holy of Holies one day a year, that's Yom Kippur, and bring repair to the spiritual state, in other words, to relieve unholiness, tumah, which is spiritual defilement, from the from the precinct of the Mishkan, of the Temple area, what we call the um the model future model of the Beit Hamikdash. On one day a year, one day a year, and for just a couple of hours during the daytime, there is this window of opportunity to create this um incredible incredible uh how should I say, redemption of the Jewish people. We know so many Jews, so many Jews, if they're not really connected to Yiddishkeit, they may show up um at one of three times a year, whether it's Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. They might go to a synagogue. Don't try to connect. Hanukkah they'll light a candle and the seder. I think Hanukkah's number one. I think seder's number two look cuz that involves food versus Yom Kippur, which involves no food and no smoking for that way for that what for that matter also. So but these are the three core observances that that in in a somewhat traditional Jewish uh family would would note. And so why did they put it Why did they remind us of the death of Aaron's sons, which happened previously? The death of Aaron's sons happened on the first day of Nissan. The the events that are being described in this week's parsha are are not going to happen in in terms of the chronology of the Torah to for many months between uh Iyar, the current month we're in, which is exactly where the Torah is positioned, no no mistake there. We're historically marching with the Jewish people in their second year of journey, having completed the dedication of the Mishkan during the month of uh Nissan in terms of the uh leadership. Now, in the month of Iyar, as we have taught or for you to last week's shear, which is very very important point, the Jewish people logged in uh to the Beit Hamikdash and the divine presence only in Iyar. They did not manage to do it in Nissan, that was the province of the advanced leadership of Moshiach Aaron and the princes, not their time. The Jewish people were counted on the first day of Iyar, and that's when their money's all collected from equal half coins, not favoring the rich, not favoring the poor, not recognizing anybody uh more than another Jew, but complete achdus, we can fit two broken coins together. That's complete achdus when the Jewish people join together with love, harmony, and support for the bait for for the for the communal sacrifices as a group, we rose to power. ER is the month of Jewish power. Let me explain as I did briefly last last week. Since the Jewish people, according to our tradition, didn't really get on board, according to the Midrashim, with the Mishkan, meaning the place of divine presence, didn't really connect with it fully, all 12 tribes, until the first day of ER, it represents the global rise of our nation. What does that mean? That that and um as we explained from the Medrish, uh that that any day that the Jewish people rise to great glory is is is prophesized to happen in and around the month of ER. Because that was the first great moment of standing up on our own two feet after the sin of the golden calf. Now, the first time was by Har Sinai, with Mount Sinai, that was the greatest moment. But since that had been diminished by the sin of the golden calf, the Mishkan was regrouping and recreating the experience of Sinai, but in a lesser light, in a more controlled situation, with a lot of boundaries, same as Har Sinai, but also with the leadership organized. Moshe doesn't disappears onto Har Sinai, but he doesn't disappear here. He stays put, and so does um Aaron and all the Kohanim and all the leaders, and everything kind of holds together. So, now we're back to a kind of Sinai experience, but as far as the Jewish people is concerned, it was only ER in which everything rose as one. So, Medrish tells us that the month of ER is the month in which the Jewish people mobilize for glory. They were spoke supposed to make it and march within 3 days in the month of ER into the land of Israel, but as the story of the Torah will unfold uh through the book of Bamidbar, once we finish Vayakhel, describing the Mishkan and its procedures and so on, we're going to get into we're going to get into the real story of what happened in the month in that fateful month of ER. Um and many things happened that caused the process to to unfortunately abort, including the sin of the spies, which doomed that generation to die in the desert and only have to see their children succeed them in raising the banner of the Jewish people over the land of Israel, okay? So, just realize, however, that the potential to march to the land of Israel, to conquer its boundaries, and to establish the Beit Hamikdash, all of that is much more centered in ER than any other month of the year. We might find redemption from evil in Adar and Nisan, but we find Israel rising to its destiny only in the month of ER. And as I pointed out to you, in our generation, one has to be uh blind not to see the swirl of events that have been of a national significance in the land of Israel uh for the Jewish people. First of all, on the fifth of fifth of ER, the Jewish state was declared right after the Holocaust, when we were literally um the Jewish people were cremated, were burnt in Auschwitz. We almost we we we we lost a third of our people, and we were on our way to losing everybody. And out of those ashes, out of those dry bones, the Jewish people started to reassemble, but in the land of Israel. And that was a massive turning point. There were already many Jews in the land of Israel, but only about half a million survivors uh is is people were of still were were there uh through the um dramatic events of World War I and World War II. We get to the the rise of the the establishment of state, you then you reach that magic number of 600,000 citizens, which the Vilna Gaon predicted would be the would be the train would leave the station, as it were. Or what you say in America, the cow has left the barn. There's no turning back, the train of redemption, said the Vilna Gaon, 200 years earlier, in the 1740s, not the 1940s, but he told his students, get going to land of Israel. It may take 200 years, and it may cost you your lives and your fortunes, but we got to start somewhere, and it's time to get mobilized. The mobilization began then, in the year of the Baal Shem Tov, 1740, the critical crossing point into the current uh halfway mark of the sixth millennium, which is getting ready for Shabbat, the ultimate Shabbat, which is only uh you know, a couple hundred years, but must start at least as early as within four years. The the numerical um how shall I say, understandings of many of the masters of the Jewish mystical tradition are that we're already beginning the state of of transforming to a higher spiritual form. And you might want to just notice how in the secular world I know like to us with secular in the out outside world, how much the world is being transformed due to artificial intelligence, uh technology, phones, the connectivity of the world has never been higher. The fact that the world can almost in an instant share a piece of information is unheard of in the history of in the history of mankind. It only goes back to the days of Adam Harishon, but he was able to see from one end of the world to the other. Now, any jerk can see from one end to the other, because you just have Google Earth. These are not accidents. These are signs that we are rapidly rapidly advancing as as a as a um how shall I say, as humanity, but particularly in Israel. Israel's greatness is rising exponentially. And as you can see, um it's unprecedented the success of Israel specifically since the year 1990, in which marks the last 250 years, and like I said, it's got to be to it had to be less in it's something like 30 or 40 years from 1990, which is we're really right there before things kick into uh warp speed, as they say in the science fiction world. We're already in the warp speed. This year, the world turned to warp speed. Actually, in the last two or three years with the with the advent of October 7th, that's when the world started to heat up, and really really, well, COVID, you might say, too. Those these last five, six years, the world has been um how shall I say, having global experiences, global with global impact. There's no more local anything. There's only global. And the world is one village, as it were. And it's only going to get more like that. But Israel is rising. And at that so so therefore, let me explain. The month of ER was the original month in which the first temple was construction began. When HaMelech, King Solomon, planned the first temple, he began construction in ER. Why? Now we understand why, because the rise of prominence of the Jewish people depends on whether Jerusalem will be a Jewish capital under Jewish jurisdiction with Torah at the center, which is what the Beit Hamikdash represents. You have the Sanhedrin, you have the high court of Jewish law, not the high court that we're contending with right now, which by the way, again misbehaved this week and shut and stymied Mr. Ben Gvir, who ironically, what do they want? They said, he's abusing the police. Well, you know how he he broke the status quo. What was the status quo? He encouraged a couple of things. Number one, that people, if they want to, I'm not saying it's halachically correct, but if they want to, they can go to Har HaBayit more than anyone, and and there's prayer on Har HaBayit. That was his breakthrough, because the police on the walk used to let them would attack any Jew who tried to pray. Now, people are praying. It's an unbelievable breakthrough. Number two, is that he issued guns to people in Yehuda and Shomron, so that we don't have to flee from that part of the country, which is our biblical heritage and homeland. And simultaneously, many many, I think there was a return this week to the village of Sha Nur, which was ripped out and asunder in the disengagement in North in North Samaria, and finally, this government has managed to return it to its place. So, quietly, creepingly, slowly, dot by dot on the map, security is being reestablished. Uh and it's he's in the he's involved in every one of those efforts, and Supreme Court wants to clamp it down. No, you can't make police appointments, you can't do this, you can't do that. Well, all of the things that he's accomplished, they basically wish to neutralize or or in their mind reverse. What is that about? The answer is is that sadly, since the Supreme Court does not operate on a rules that have anything to do with Yahadut, but rather with a Western notion of liberal values that are, you know, universal and do not have any Jewish quality to them. Uh, Adiraba, they're really about the rights of every human being and not they don't even recognize that a Jew is different than an Arab, really. Uh, that's not going to fly in the land of Israel cuz this is our land. This is our land. This is the Jewish land and the court will have to align itself eventually, sooner than later, with the notion that there's a unique relationship between the land of Israel, the Jewish people, and the the greatness and success of the Jewish people. And if you if you can't say that, which they cannot at this point, then um then you're then you're an opponent to the greatness of the land of Israel. So, this is this is the struggle I mentioned last week, the internal struggle will is part of this process. It's slow but steady progress. And that's why I would like to suggest the answer to our original question. We've entered a zone in which we went from how should I say, explosive um jarring and like a fireball of success to incremental gain slowly slowly. That's why the war is slowing down cuz we're now in ER mode. But ER mode is slow and stable. It's the building of the Beta Migdash, not Itziat Mitzrayim. We're not running out of crisis. We're not running into the Yam Suf, fearing for our lives, wondering whether Paro is going to murder us all. It's not the Holocaust. It's not the redemption from from uh from extermination. That was Nissan. That was the escape of the Jewish people with their very lives. But ER is the the rising and mobilization and strength of the Jewish people as they enter the land of Israel. Always like to say that the one thing that I have observed about the difference between Jews in Diaspora and the Jews in the land of Israel. What's the main difference? Really, you know, same Torah, we have the same beautiful rules, we have same beautiful Shabbos, same beautiful Hanukkah. So, really, what's the difference? You know what I'm saying? People say like the Babba Sale used to say, "I mach Eretz Israel do. You can create an atmosphere of every of Eretz Israel anywhere in the world. You take the Torah, you observe its mitzvahs, you bring people in as family, you build congregations, you build study halls of Torah, you build families, you build chesed, tzedakah. Okay. And and then and from that point on uh you've you've achieved a measure of sanctity called Eretz Israel. But once the Jews physically reattach themselves, not to the spirit of the land of Israel in a spiritual sense, but in a physical sense, there's one transformation that takes place. And that is that we become dangerous. >> [laughter] >> We become warlike. We become not warlike, but we become warriors. We're actually physical warriors. Now, I'll give you just one example. Jews that were taken literally off the boats, you know, the the boats that they were running on Independence Day, as you know, this week is Hey Eyar. It's coming up Hey Eyar this week. And today is the yahrzeit, by the way, of a great tzaddik from Hungary, Reb Shayaleh of Kerestir. I'm going to show you how there's a special connection between him and the other great tzaddikim that we yahrzeit here in the month of Eyar. Notice, you've got Reb Shayaleh of Kerestir, who's a miracle worker, a wonder worker, who only died 1925, and whose picture chases, according to many traditions, all mice out of the hou- all mice out There's no mouse in this house if Reb Shayaleh's picture is there. And I've seen it all over Bnei Brak, here, there. And and I can attest to the fact that uh I've seen it work, not necessarily on mice, but I'll show I'll share a personal story. It can get rid of a lot of pests. A lot of pests. Okay, so four-legged one, all kinds of little pests. But you have Reb Meir Baal HaNes's yahrzeit is Pesach Sheini, which is the 15th of Eyar. And then you have Lag BaOmer, right, which is the yahrzeit of um attributed to the yahrzeit of Shimon bar Yochai and and the events in Meron, which have been horribly stifled since since COVID. But just know that the connection to these people in Tiberias, the grave site of Reb Meir Baal HaNes, is huge place to daven for the Jewish people at the banks of of Tiberias. And of course, Reb Shayaleh in Hungary is a huge place uh in certainly in Hungary, Romania area. And then you have probably probably one of the biggest, if not the biggest. And and then of course, you have Meron with uh Shimon bar Yochai and his um and then and the in the association that Reb Nachman of Breslov had with him and and with his work and his position in the world and how he associated himself with it. Eyar is a month of the some of the deepest Torah expositors, Reb Meir in the written Torah and in the in the in the oral Torah, and Reb Shimon bar Yochai in the Pnimiut HaTorah, in the Zohar, and and miracle workers, just miracle workers. Reb Meir is also called Baal HaNes. Reb Shayaleh was known as a wonder worker. Thousands of Hasidim, I'm talking about in the 20th century. I'm not talking about 500 years ago. In the 20th century, people flocked to him for miracles. >> [snorts] >> Okay, month of Eyar, why? Cuz we rise. These are our power players are packed in the month of Eyar, packed. So so Yom Yerushalayim, the capture of Yerushalayim later this month. It's not This whole Six-Day War was in month was in Eyar. It was in Eyar. That's nothing you can't deny that reality of national, how should I say, victory unfolding in this month. Therefore, I will tell you that it is quite possible that Iran's regime will get further and further choked till they may crack. Now, I actually hear and see from what I my observations that there's a split going on between the radical elements within IRGC who want to follow the Khomeini path to the death, and other parts, maybe from the main army, maybe from the political wings, who are saying, "Enough self-damage. Let's just capitulate here, right? You know, bow your head to America for the moment and you survive. You know, Trump's not going to be here forever. So, just go along with him and just say now." The other the other ones are have a hissy fit. We have to keep fighting, to keep firing on ships, but it's bringing about their own stranglehold. Okay. Now, so having explained our original question, the war does grind to a slow process. Much as we enter the month of Eyar counting Sefirat HaOmer, we count the days between Nissan and Sivan, the giving of the Torah. This is a transitional period where we count 50 days on the second day of Pesach. Okay. And it's also the time when the Jewish people didn't get the clouds of protection. The clouds of protection came came when? In Nissan. But the air, the water the water of Miriam that was always with the Jewish people and the manna bread, which came in the merit of Moshe Rabbeinu, and Miriam, the the water, happens in Eyar. Bread and water. Bread and water is daily. It's slow. It's regiment. It's routine. It's your meal that will happen twice a day, hopefully, and just sustain you, sustainable growth. Sustainable progress. Marking milestones. Achieving goals. That is what Eyar is all about. And it's especially about the hidden aspects of Torah because as the hidden aspects emerge, then we stabilize our malchut. Malchut Israel depends on the full rev- revelation of Torah, and the full revelation of Torah depends on the spiritual food of man. Man, the Torah is given to the people ate man, and the man started to fall on the sixth on the 16th of Eyar, right on 1 month after leaving Egypt, because they had matzah, which tasted like man, for 30 days. After that, they had nothing and Moshe brought them the man. And the water of Miriam also began only in the month of Eyar, the day the Jewish people rose to prominence. Okay. So, let's go back to our original question from the parsha. Why are the Why is the death of of Moshe of Aaron's sons mentioned here about the story of the laws of Yom Kippur? It means ancient history already. And the answer is very simple, I believe. And it it's a profound insight into the entire parsha known as Shemini, which recounts the death the first day of Nissan, but also recounts it's the problem of Nissan, which included the death of two of our brightest lights. Moshe turns to his brother Aaron and says, "Bekarov Akadesh, I knew that Hashem that they would they would be uh something happening in Nissan. The light is too powerful. It's likely that some of our best and brightest will perish. It's just too much light. I thought it was you and me. I thought we were goners and young people would take over, but actually it was Nadav and Avihu. What did they do? They rushed to offer a strange fire to Hashem. They were so connected and in love and overwhelmed spiritually by Hashem that they jumped too high and they jumped too fast. That's what Nissan can bring. It's a quantum leap. It's a month of quantum leaps. But the Shemini the the the parsha Shemini taught us that that's not the way to go. That's not sustainable. So, when the soul rushes to God in incredible ecstasy, yeah, that's great. But what about when you come down to earth? Rebbe Nachman of Breslov used to speak about serving Hashem ratzo v'shov, back and forth, in your high points and in your lower points. There are moments where you're not going to be so inspired. There are moments where you're going to need to be resilient. That's Iyar. Iyar is about resilience. Nissan is about the up, the flying. Iyar is about ground grinding it into reality, your daily bread, your daily water. So, what happens in Shemini? We get the laws also of the kosher animals. Now, uh, what's the connection to the death of the two sons of Aaron? An interesting thing. Hashem is saying to Jewish people, guess what? I made you holy. I'm going to be with you, but you got to be careful cuz my light and my power is so great. You risk you risk crossing over to the other world. You can't be a human being and accept the divine light to that extent. It's got to be slow increments, a little bit of light and a little bit of light. This is how our sages describe the redemption of Jewish people, the ultimate redemption, kima kima. It's going to be as Mar Shmuel says, like the dawn of a day. The light starts in the morning, it grows a little bit at a time. It's not, you know, you're dark as as anything, it's midnight and all of a sudden, ah, sun comes up. You'll get you'll get a heart attack. You can't live like that. That's that's Nissan. We can't do that. The day there was no sun, there was no moon, there was no nothing. There was just light. Slowly, slowly, slowly. Slowly. A little bit at a time, incremental gain. Sefirat Omer. Counting of 50 days, slow growth. So, the the paradigm of of the sons of Aaron is jumping too high, too fast. Therefore, Hashem gave specific restrictions to the Kohanim back in that parsha already. Don't drink wine. Don't get overly excited. I need you sober. I need you grounded, right? Don't go into some state of ecstasy. A lot of people want to do, unfortunately, they think they're going to do drugs or alcohol that's going to help them with their religious experience. That's not a religious experience. That's an ecstatic experience, but it's not necessarily religious. I mean, I don't call it religious. Religious, a godlike a god connect. You're you're maybe in your own in your own world. You're not even in this world, but you're not in God's world necessarily. God's world requires um, like atomic energy, requires shields, blocks, monitors, careful regulation. That was parsha Shemini. Now, it's interesting that the kosher animals are like that. It says, eat, but don't eat every animal, but also don't become vegetarian completely. We're not ready for that. Maybe in the times of Mashiach. Eat. But what am I going to eat? Certain animals that have wonderful traits that are docile, that are giving, the cow which gives us milk. He's docile, except when he has horns and he doesn't want to be docile. We take care of those separately. The ox, which will plow your fields for bread. The sheep, which reproduce, reproduce, reproduce and give you wool to wear and give you give you wealth. It's really the wealth of the of the of the of our of our founding fathers of Yahadus was sheep, goats. This is wealth, more wealth. And and then the the we don't find many horses in in in the possession of the avos. You know that? Cuz horses are made for war. Horses are tremendous competitors. Show show horses, they have a sense of gaiva, sus paroh. That's Egypt. We don't we don't want that. We want nice, humble animals, not ones that are looking to be champions and lead to war. Horses love war. They love racing. They love competition. We're not looking for those midos. Calm down. Just calm down. Focus on a steady spiritual light, a smaller light, not an overwhelming flash like an atomic weapon kasha. That's really what the Iranians want. They want that moment of of Armageddon, you know, that way they can blow up the world and and have their 12th Imam come. That's not the way we do our path. That's not the way the Torah says the path to to Messiah is. Our path to Messiah is slow, sudden. You might not even notice when he's here. You'll say, "Okay, yeah, I understand. Mashiach came. That's fine. That's that's fine." The world is not going to change according to Gemara in Sanhedrin perek chelek and that's that's how the Rambam paskens. There's not going to be a great difference between our world now and the world of Mashiach except we'll be strong, independent, and not have to kowtow to anyone. All right. So, now, continuing that list of the kosher animals, I found one that defies understanding. If you think that Hashem didn't want you to eat yucky stuff, right? Didn't want you to eat despicable animals, right? So, he said, "Don't eat eels and don't eat crabs and don't eat sharks and don't eat, you know, all these creepy crawlers, flies and insects and who knows what." But one insect, yes. And that is the grasshopper. Four varieties of grasshoppers. How do you explain How do you explain that? A grasshopper is an insect like any other insect. How could they be kosher? It's it's like disgusting. How could you How could it be something kosher? So, I did a little research. And if you look at the simanim, the signs of a kosher grasshopper, actually, it jumps from two legs. It has two jumper legs. That's a sign of a kosher grasshopper. And what is that two? So, I was thinking, you know what? That's resilience. That's jumping on two legs, not too high, not too fast. You're not jumping from four legs like a tiger. You're not jumping from four legs like a like a like a predatory animal. Jump on two legs. A bisl a bisl is oich gut. Rebbe used to say Rebbe Nachman used to say, "A little is also good." A little is also good. Don't jump so high. The chagavim also brought us great miracles. They attacked Paroh, destroyed their land, and none of them were left over. Why? Because even when locusts come and destroy crops, you know what happens? In places like Morocco, in places like Yemen, where they had swarms of locust and which they kept the tradition of eating them cuz it happened meteorologically and naturally, that's where swarms of locust would show up and destroy crops, but then afterwards, they all died and they had food for the next year. Okay. It's organic. It may not be vegetarian, but it's organic. Okay? You can put in a health food store. In some way, I heard that when you roast them, they are crunchy like popcorn. So, uh, you know, it can re and it's protein. And it can actually be beneficial. That's the thing about locusts. It's not quite what you see. It's not all destruction. It's destruction, but it's also resilience. It's destruction, but it's also contribution. So, some of them some of them before Hashem want to suggest that that's why it merited to be kosher cuz it it created a great praise to Hashem through its attacks on Paroh, but at the same time, it provides. It provides a lot. And it shows something very interesting, that everything in the world has potential for good. And one of the things that Chazal says in the end of days, the pig, which only has a split hoof and internally is not kosher, and he's associated with Edom, with our current Roman galut, because they say, "We're very ethical, we're very kosher." And push comes to the shove, internally not so simple. He'll grow the ability to chew cud and he'll become kosher. Can you imagine? There will be kosher pigs in the end of days because the world will upgrade itself in its kedusha, in its inherent But it's a slow progress. It's a slow and steady thing. But it's possible. And the demonstration that it's possible is the grasshopper. And that's why in parsha Shemini, when we had the sudden death of of Nadav and Avihu, Aaron's sons, because they jumped too high, we were also shown an example of somebody who doesn't jump too high, which is the more kosher path. That's our friend, the chagavim. And that's a very, very important principle to understand for this time of for this time of year, but also more importantly to view the world events around us. And ultimately, uh, what I what I'd like to I'd like to tell a little story about Rebbe Shmuel as as we conclude. So, the implications of what I'm saying are as follows. There will now be incremental progress towards the destruction of not Iran, but of the regime. Do you follow me? We have to make a differentiation between the regime and Iran. Iran inherently and historically was not a was not a terrible opponent of the Jewish people. They never destroyed a temple. Quite the opposite. Just the opposite. They helped us build the temple. In fact, in DAF Yomi just very recently in Ramada House, it tells us just the last couple this week, it says that there was a building there was a area structure inside the Temple Mount known as Shushan Habira, the capital of Persia Persia which at that time in the first decades of the second second base of Migdal, they were the still the ruling power before Alexander the Great. And we had a room with the depiction of the of the capital of Shushan in the base of Migdal. Yuck. How could that be? Why would you put a far as like putting New York New York and the picture of the low low lane of the Twin Towers with the Empire State Building in the base of Migdal. What kind of business is that? I'm sure Trump Tower would he would love that. I mean there's no question that he wants the dedication wall in that base of Migdal. There's no question about it. And who knows, maybe he'll get it. But but why would they do that? And what did they keep in there? They kept in there something very fascinating. The measuring rods for the armor. When they made the various artifacts artifacts, the the utensils of the of the base of Migdal of the base of Migdal, they needed to measure. So, there's one measurement of a five tefach armor, five hand breaths being one unit. And then there's another one which was six tefach which was a slightly larger measurement and and also in between. So, these measurements were prophesized by Ezekiel the Navi who gave us dimensions of the future temple. And that's where those measurements were kept. Unbelievable. It had a taste of the future temple. Interesting interesting that in the Shushan Habira aspect in the Persian aspect in the I don't know if you use the word Iran. In the Persian aspect of the of the temple, it's the measuring rod, the building stick. Do you understand? Somehow Iran turning it around will be the fulcrum like the grasshopper will go from being reprehensible to being holy. They have that potential. Iran could become a great ally of Israel and will become a great ally just like they were if they can rid themselves of evil. And that gets me to the story of um of uh Rav Shaila. I'm going to have to relocate just to continue the story so we don't lose power. So, uh my personal story is it's about ridding the ridding the pests. It's about getting the unholy grasshoppers out from the holy grasshoppers if you know what I mean. So, here was my story. That um earlier earlier this year several months ago about six months ago in my mother's apartment building, there was a plague. But not a plague of locust but of other insects that had invaded. Due to construction going on in the building then there was a rampant I don't want to say what they were, but you can imagine little creepy crawlers not mice. Uh mice Rav Shaila was known to be a remedy for but not roaches. Okay? But not roaches. And there was this infestation of roaches and I was there and I was just livid. I just felt that something had to be done. Then it occurred to me the following idea. I said to and they said, "Well, we called the we called the exterminators and you know, it's not changing. It's not getting better." And this was going on for several weeks. And it was when I was there and I was just fit to be tied. I said, "This is not how my mother is going to have in her building. She can't live like this. And I don't I don't want to be in that apartment anyway." So, I want to you have to just wake up every morning and see like where are they? Did they get into this pot? Did they get into that pot? You know, I don't want to have to have to spray it. Do I have to wash it? And every day you like you're looking around. How many are there? I got to get rid of this one. I got to get rid of that one. Not a way to live. It's just not a life. So, I said to myself, "Look, if Rav Shaila could get rid of rodents his picture he should be able to get rid of roaches too." So, I printed out a picture of Rav Shaila and I put it on the refrigerator. And then I went back to America. This was in early December. And they didn't ask cuz I wanted to be politically correct within the family. I don't want to accuse anybody of being negligent or anything. What happened? "Oh, they disappeared." Really? What happened? "We called a a better exterminator and he was able to get rid of them." So, in my family >> [snorts] >> there are different opinions. Some might say, "Yeah, it was the better exterminator." And I'm not I'm not going to comment to dispute that point. It could very well be. But in my mind in my heart Rav Shaila was the one that got rid of those roaches. Even if it was just to push them to find the right exterminator. But once his picture went up on that refrigerator and thank God I don't want them to take it down. It's still there in my mother's apartment. No way. If he can get rid of those bugs let's get rid of them. And I also feel that part of his greatness as a miracle worker is who knows maybe illness cuz ER Ani Hashem Rofecho we need to rid ourselves of certain illnesses. We read Tzurim and Tzurah. Those are illnesses that are not necessarily only about um physical health, but they're also spiritual illnesses. Hatred, anger um non-alignment with Hashem and Torah values. We need to align ourselves with great love with each other and for Hashem and for the holy Torah for the Jewish people and for our common destiny. Whatever whatever it is uh we got to do it together. We're going to experience it. We're going to rise together like they say, either we hang together or we hang separately. It's going to be one way or the other. And uh so just to conclude I think that and I when I offer bracha on this day of Shaila's Yortzeit and this holy month of Iyar which is Ani Hashem Rofecho on the upcoming Lag Baomer and upcoming Rebbe Meir Baal Haness, this is a month for us to get healthy and get strong and get rid of the poison in the the the the infestations in our in our hearts, minds, and souls. That's what it's about. Print out a picture of Rav Shaila. Put it in your office. If you need to, put it in your kitchen. But more importantly, put it in your heart because there's a lot of chametz that is sticking around after Pesach that we got to get rid of. But that's the power of Iyar. Slowly slowly yes, the Six-Day War was a great victory. But then again, we had to go back to square one after we gave it all away pretty much. And we are we are slowly a little bit of Lebanon came back. A little bit of Gaza came back to correct the folly of those who think we're going to be successful without Eretz Yisrael and without Torah. I'm sorry. But we have found just the opposite. Hashem should bless us with refuah and yeshua. People should get well. We should rid ourselves of these poisons and pests that plague us specifically the Iranian regime. And now that they've been reduced to that level and hopefully they will slowly and steadily disappear during the Sefirah period between now and the upcoming month of upcoming holidays of Sivan. Thank you. Have a great week. >> [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music]