Korach, Tamuz, and the Coca-Cola That Needs a Bracha

Chodesh Tamuz, everybody knows, is the month when we have to fix our seeing.

This fixing is re’iyah — fixing our eyesight.

The sign of the month is Chet.

In Sefer Yetzirah, it says: himlich et ha-chet briyah — God made the letter chet to rule over vision.

The month's astrological sign is Cancer. And if you remember — Cancer always walks sideways, but never forward.

The Izhbitzer says:
What is the essence of Sefer Bamidbar?

Remember, we were learning it all these years:

Bereishit is the book of the beginning — the beginning of the world,
the beginning of Israel — Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov.
Shmot is the book of redemption, the book of the Torah.
Vayikra is the book of serving God.
Bamidbar, the fifth [sic — but really the fourth] book, is something else.

The truth is — you can serve God day and night, you can do everything right, and you can still be off. You can be completely off.
"Off" is not even the word...

It’s possible to have prophecy — I see from one end of the world to the other — and what I see is true, and I am still off.
It’s possible to know everything — and still make the biggest mistakes in life... the biggest mistakes in life.

You know, the spies had clear prophecy.
And they knew everything — everything that would happen until Moshiach comes... and they were completely off.

Korach — remember — the Yismach Moshe says that Korach remembers everything he did in all his lifetimes.

He [the Yismach Moshe] says:
“I want you to know that I was in the time of Moshe Rabbenu.
And when Korach came — Korach wanted to be the High Priest instead of Aharon.
It’s a miracle that I remained neutral, because it was impossible — impossible not to fall for Korach... very hard.”

That means Korach was really the Holy of Holies.

So if you know: When Moshiach is coming—

“Tzaddik katamar yifrach”
צַדִּיק כַּתָּמָר יִפְרָח
“The righteous will blossom like a date palm” — the last three letters of Korach's name.

Korach will be a gevaldt — Korach will be the head of the Levi’im.
And yet — he was off. Mamash off.
And Korach, he goes somewhere else.

This is even heavier.

Bilaam is on the level of prophecy like Moshe Rabbeinu.
And “off” is not the word — he's the lowest.

And even Zimri — if you remember the Ishbitzer Torah — Zimri has clear prophecy.
Cosbi is mamash his soul mate, and he is the Holy of Holies.

Remember — the Ishbitzer says that Zimri never had one evil thought his whole life.
Kulo kodesh. Totally holy.
And yet — he was off.

And here comes Pinchas. Pinchas is something else.

For Chodesh Av, just remember — we were learning it a thousand times:
A rebbe, a teacher, you can change. You can have another teacher.
A father — you can’t have another father.
That’s all there is to it.
A father and a mother you cannot change.

If God would only be our teacher, then maybe we’d take another God.
But since God is our Father, there’s nothing we can do.
Also, God can’t take another people to be His chosen ones —
because Am Yisrael are God’s children.

OK. Yesterday we began studying the Psalms...

OK — the first verse says:
“Happy is the person (!) who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
and on the way of the sinners he doesn’t stand, and he doesn’t sit together with scornful people who tear everybody down. But he — really on the contrary — he really wants to study.”

OK. Now we were learning it very strong yesterday — just want to review it real fast:

There are three kinds of evil in the world —
three kinds of evil people.

One is called power,
the other is called pleasure,
and the other is called destruction.

And now listen — very, very deep:

What is the greatest power in the world?
What is the greatest power in the world?
What is the greatest power in the world...

If you know what to do with it.
If you don’t know what to do with it...

Anyway, money is the greatest power — strongest thing — and if you got the most dollars, the whole world is jumping.

Then there is pleasure.

So the Talmud says like this:
The person who is looking for pleasure — you cannot say he is wicked, you know?
He is not a wicked person, you know? Nebach, he wants to have a good time.

Now, what can you do with him?
It’s not wicked — it’s just... not so good, right?
Wicked... wicked is something else.

Wicked is something — a person who tells you:
“Man, if you got a dollar in your hand — you got the world in your hand!”

The question is: what do you need the dollar for?
Do you need that much money — lying around in the bank,
lying around in the bank and...
I wouldn’t touch it because I’m too cheap, right?

What do you do with it?
It’s for power, right?

Because if I have a million dollars lying in the bank,
I’m not doing anything with it —
but the moment I have a million dollars in the bank,
I feel the power. Right?

Then — there’s a little sinner man, you know? A little sinner.
He’s a cute little sinner.
He wants to have a good time.

You see, the thing about this — the sinner is really not...
He’s really not bad. He is not bad.

He’s a sweet little man. He’s looking for pleasure.

The only thing is — nobody ever told him that the glass of beer is not the greatest pleasure.
But studying is the greatest pleasure.
Doing someone a favor is a greater pleasure.
Doing good deeds — a bigger mitzvah. It’s a greater pleasure.

Someone, nebach, thinks he’s going to a French restaurant,
and he pays for one little plate of soup — twenty-five dollars — and he has “pleasure.”

Friday night — a piece of challah is more pleasure.

[Transcriber’s note: Time out to turn cassette over.]

...Friday night, you're blindfolded.
You don’t see the people, but you can taste the challah.
If they really have Shabbos on the table.

But if there’s no Shabbos in the house —
It’s just... they happened to buy the challahs from... the A&P.

It doesn’t taste so good.

You know friends — I was privileged to taste challah from Bobov, Friday night, with the Bobover Rebbe.

So sometimes there — let’s say, especially in the sukkah —
there were times Friday night when there were really so many people,
really didn’t have enough challah for everybody.
So you get one crumb.

But this one crumb — can carry you a whole life. A whole lifetime.

So this little pleasure-man is not bad.
He just needs someone to give him a little shabbosdik challah, right?

But then comes the end of the world — destruction.

Who is the most destructive person in the world?
The real anti-God?

The real anti-God is someone who tears people down.

That’s the end of the world.
This is absolutely the end of the world.

Here God created a person — right?
God made something out of him —
and this person tears him down.

This is absolutely the utmost of the...

—not even wicked — it’s just the end.

You see — the person who’s looking for power,
at least he’s a human being.
He’s looking for values.

Maybe you can explain to him that there are higher values.
Or maybe you can explain to him —
why don’t you take the money,
and instead of using it on people, on misusing people,
why don’t you do something with it?

But the person who’s tearing everything down —
whatever you tell him, he’ll tear it down.
He has no values.
He’s completely destructive.
Completely anti.
Anti-being.

And yesterday we learned something even deeper.

This is from the Ibn Ezra, who was one of the greatest...

I wonder how many of you ever heard of the Ibn Ezra?
He lived about... a little bit after Maimonides.
He was... the biggest poor shlepper in the world. Really poor.

Whatever — he was the biggest schlemazel in the world. Nebach!
As much as he was one of the greatest, greatest philosophers in the world...

You know, he said — this is his famous, classic saying:
He said, "If I would become a hatmaker..."
Because whatever he started went wrong.

Imagine — he would open a herring store, suddenly there’s a thing — people stop eating herring.
Or let’s say he would open a milk store — the next day the newspapers would say milk is not good for you. Something like that.

So his famous saying is: If he would open a hat store,
he could swear that the next morning, all the babies would be born without heads.
“No head? I’m sorry — can’t buy a hat!”

Anyway, so he says something even deeper...

And this — really, you have to tear your heart apart in order to get the message:

Let’s say, if I take a person and I tear this person down —
what am I tearing down? His ears? His nose?

If I take a person who’s standing here and I say, “He is…”
Ach! He’s still standing. He’s still five foot eight.

What am I tearing down?
His soul.

I am tearing down his soul.
Do you know what that means?!

Where do I have the audacity to enter?
I mean — I am really entering… even where God trembles.

And I have the chutzpah — I’m tearing down someone’s soul?

This is not just destruction like war —
destruction of someone’s body — that’s also destruction.
But this doesn’t even compare.

The greatest destruction in the world
is to say something evil about another person.

This — this is the end of the world.

There’s a ___________ [transcriber unclear] in the Talmud.

The Talmud says that God can forgive everything in the world —
but God will not forgive you if you say something bad about another person.

And you know something?
Because this is the most evil thing in the world —
it’s also the hardest thing not to do.

You know, listen — it’s very easy for me...
Let’s say for instance, OK — money.
You can get out of it a little bit. OK, you don’t have so much money.

[To paraphrase: It’s easier to forgo money than to forgo lashon hara.]

Pleasure — you can maybe somehow, a little bit, try not to have...
Try not to run after pleasure so much.

But when it comes to talking evil — _____
[a phrase lost in transcription]

A person will always be running after that.
It is the greatest pleasure in the world to tear someone down —
because this is the most destructive force in the world.

And the greatest force in the world
is to take someone who, nebach, is hungry and has nothing,
and feels rejected — and lift this person up.

This is the greatest God-like thing you can do.

This is the great God-like thing.

And listen to this:
The Gemara says:
To receive guests is greater than to talk to God.

Remember Avraham?
God was talking to Avraham, and in the middle —
he saw three little paganers, he thought they were pagans.
But they were angels.

But he thought they were pagans.

He thought: “Three little pagans — it’s a hot day — they must be hungry, they must be thirsty.”

So he says to God:
“You know, God — You have time.
But these three people — who are starving — they don’t have time.”

I don’t want to go into it now, because some of you remember when we learned that portion of the week.

That was the acid test of Avraham.

God wanted to see — before He announces to him that he’ll have his son, Yitzchak’l —
Avraham, are you really my man?
Did you get the message?

There are a lot of people who are ready to talk to God.
Why not? The Pope is ready to talk to God.

The question is:
Are you ready to say to God —
“God — You have time. But the poor man? He has no time.”

That’s the test.
That was the strongest test of Avraham.

But anyway — he told God — “You know God, You can wait now...”

But you know what the Zohar HaKodesh says?
The Zohar Kodesh says — this is very, very, very deep:

OK — God created the world.
He created people.

Let’s take children.
They’re born into the world.

But you know what the story is?

Until someone comes to you and tells you, “I love you,”
you are still a stranger in the world.
You feel like a stranger.
You’re not really here yet.

The Zohar Kodesh says:
Do you know what it means to take a stranger
and invite him into your house — and into your heart?
To really say:
“I love you.”

This is...

The Zohar Kodesh says —
That means I’m giving this person even more existence than God gave him.

God sent him into this world — and he is here.
But that’s not real existence yet.

The real, real existence of a person
has to be given by another person.

And... I don’t want to go into it now, it’s very deep.
But if some of you know a little bit about Chassidus —
you know about the Baal Shem Tov —

The whole thing about the Baal Shem Tov
is that we have to give the world existence.

What happens if I...

If I drink a Coca-Cola and I make a bracha over it?

What am I doing with the bracha?

“Blessed be the Lord, who created the world with His word.”

And I drink the Coca-Cola. What am I doing to the Coca-Cola?

I’m giving it existence.

Because so far, the Coca-Cola was like nothing.

Or imagine I say hello to a little dog.
What am I doing to the dog?
I’m giving him existence.
He was like a little stranger, walking around in the world...

You know what someone said?

The old chasidim were — maybe some of you remember —
the old chasidim were sitting together and talking to each other,
and one of them says,
“What did the Baal Shem Tov really teach us... what did he really teach us?”

So one of the old chasidim said:
“You know what the Baal Shem Tov taught us?

He says, ‘We all knew that God is there, right?
There is one God.
But the Baal Shem Tov taught — He REALLY is there.’”

You know what that means?

Even ______ [unintelligible]
Even God needs us to give Him existence.

Greatest thing in the world.
God is there —
but until I really say, “He’s here,”
He’s not really here — sadly enough.

OK, now listen to this — very fast.

Ashrei is...

Ashrei means real, you know.
The world doesn’t know what happiness means, right? They...¹

If you have the rest of this holy lesson, please paste into the comments for the world to have access to it - SAJ 

1. Editor’s note (HH):
This is all I have of that typescript from HH. Obviously there was more; I’ll check.