Tisha B'Av: We Only Go Up in Kedusha/Transcript Part 1

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Audio: Tisha B'Av: We Only Go Up in Kedusha – Part 1 (July 23, 2026)

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עובדא הוה בבר נש דהוה רדי. There was a man and he was hoeing the ground, plowing the ground. Va-az tora sof. The man was plowing the ground, his tora, his shor groaned. Over lachad Arabi. One Arab came by. אמר ליה מה מי את? Who are you? Amar lei Yehudai ana. I'm a Jew. Amar lei shari torach. Take off your ox. Ve-shari parnach. Take off the hoe, the plow. Amar lei lammah? Why should I stop plowing? אמר ליה דבית שי יהודאי חרב. The Beis Hamikdash of the Jews was destroyed. Amar lei manna yadata? How does this Arab know that? Amar lei mi-ge'at torech. I know from the moaning, the groaning of your shor. Ad de-asek immah while they were working together, ga-as tinas a-prisit. The shor groaned a second time. Amar lei, the Arab said, asar torach, go back and saddle your ox, asar parnach, put on your plow, de-yalei parke de-Yehudai, because there's been born the Mashiach, the person of the redemption of Klal Yisrael. Amar lei mah shemei? What's the name of the person who's going to redeem Klal Yisrael? Amar lei Menachem shemei. His name is Menachem. Ve-aviv mah shemei? What's the father's name? Amar lei Chizkiyahu. God will make him strong. Amar lei, the Jew kept asking this Arab, ve-heichan shrayei? Where does he live? Amar lei be-birat, in a castle, ערבת דבית לחם יהודה, in the town of Bethlehem, a Jewish town. זבין ההוא גברא תורא. That Jewish man sold his ox. Zavin parne and he sold the hoe, the plow. והוה מזבין לבדין ינוקא. And he bought lavidin, bought linen. for children, soft linen. Period. That's more than enough. I'd like to swallow. Should I go back and read it one more time or should we hit the questions now? One more time and then good. Okay. Let's go for questions. Tell me just this one, go ahead. Why is it all about the ox? Why is it all about the ox? Right. It's not all about the ox, let's just make the question right. Why? It's about the ox and the plow and the plow. Ox and the plow, wrong. Ox and the plow. Yeah. Okay, great. Next. Why is this? He starts by you should stop. Stop everything and then he continues but then he doesn't continue, he sells everything. Boom. What's these three stages? 100%. Like what's what's happening? So first he tells him undo your ox, undo your plow. And then he tells them put on your plow, put on your ox. And then the Jew doesn't do either the two. The Jew sells his plow and sells his ox. What are those three levels? What are we hinting at? The question is why originally do you tell him stop plowing then start plowing again like Moshiach say what's the plowing for, what are you doing, why is that crucial? Correct. And why all of the different questions? What's his name, his father's name, where's he from? Yeah, what's his father's name, where's he from, why all these aspects? Right? What's what we try to determine? What's going on? Why's he sell everything and buy linen for babies? That's a strange thing to be involved in. What are we what are we feeling here? Yeah, okay. חד ברנש איכה סומש? I don't know why, anyway. Lashon of Eicha, Midrash Eicha. Right. But in Gemara, barnasha is like a mezuzal person. It's like a gnai hashuv person. It's like a barnash. It's like a gnai siman. It's like a last am ha'aretz siman. Or like Amos, Amos. Does it have some mean here? Like had barnash, like what? Like nada? A person obviously, yeah, a person. So why are we taking this person? How did this person not know about the Churban Beit HaMikdash? He was far away from the Churban Beit HaMikdash. What is this person and all of a sudden he turns around? Yeah, what's going on? Yeah. Why do you need an Arab to come and tell him? Why's an Arab come to tell him? Why is why is nevuah by a shor? A chashuv shor. He's got nevuah and he knows what's going on, right? Why is it that an ox is smart enough to groan but the Arab and the Jew aren't smart enough to groan? What's going on? Is it relevant that he's actually plowing? Anyway. Is it relevant that he plows at all? Well, if it wasn't relevant then he wouldn't tell us. He didn't tell us it was on Tuesday, didn't tell us what the weather was, so right, obviously. Yeah. So that's the Gemara quickly. This Midrash, it's actually Gemara in Taanis, also in Yerushalmi. But okay, that's fine. Okay. I'll just go for Yehuda quickly and just so we can put the questions in. Midrash Eicha Rabbah. Rabbi Shimon omer: uvda. It happened, havei b'chad barnash. It happened with one stam man, like Moshe said. Not a chashuv Talmid Chacham or anybody. Not a Talmid Chacham in Beis Medrash, a person who was just out there in the world. D'havi raddi. He was plowing. Ga'as tortei. His ox moaned. Why's the ox moaning, the people aren't moaning? The man's not aware of it, but the ox is aware of it. That's strange. עבר לה חד ערבי. It happened there passed one non-Jew, an Arab. אמר ליה מה את? Who are you? אמר ליה יהודאי אנא. I'm a Jew. אמר ליה שרי תורתך. Untie your ox and untie the plow from the ox. Amar lei lammah? Why should I stop doing that? אמר ליה מקדשא דיהודאי חרב. The Beis HaMikdash of the Jews was destroyed, but the Jew didn't even know about it, but somehow the ox and the Arab knew about it. אמר ליה מאן ידע? How do you know that? We're far away from the Beis HaMikdash, we're far away from the Beis Midrash like Moshe was saying. אמר ליה מגס דתורך. I know it from the moaning of your ox. ad de-aseik imei, they were working together, gaas zimna achrita. The ox moaned the second time. Amar lei, so now the Arab told him, אסור תורך ואסור פדנך. Retie up your ox, reconnect your hoe, your plow, de-yelid purka de-yehudaei. That the birth of the Messiah happened for the Jews. אמר ליה מה שמיה? What's his name? The Jew asked the Arab. אמר ליה מנחם שמיה. Ve-aviv mah shemei? What's the father's name? Amar lei Chizkiyah. The father's name is Chizkiyah, he will be strong. אמר ליה היכן שרי? Where does he dwell? אמר ליה בבירת ערבא דבית לחם יהודה. He dwells in a castle, an Arab castle, in the land of the Jews, in Beit Lechem. זבין ההוא גברא תורא. That man sold his ox like Moshe said that he liked the ox that he was told to do. Zavin pardaneh. He sold his plow and ועביד מזבין לבושין דינוקא and he went and bought linen for little kids. Okay, so let's go what's outside, then we'll try to see it inside. This is the piece that the Maharal wants, how is a person supposed to relate to Churban Beis HaMikdash? So a person could see the Churban Beis HaMikdash as a destruction of the world that's impossible to fix up. That would be the simple way to look at it. We looked at it and I can't think of the right mashal. We looked at it that Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty together again. If an egg breaks, you can't put it back together again. So we could look at the destruction of the Temple as that's it, we had our one chance and the Goyim are right, maybe the Christians took over for us, maybe there's a second coming, but we can't do it. There's no purpose once we've destroyed the egg, you can't put the egg back together again. That's one way you can look at destruction. And the answer is, this piece is, that no you have to understand that it was creative destruction. God built worlds and destroyed them, בונה עולמות ומחריבן בונה עולמות ומחריבן, and the destruction of the Temple was to get us to a higher place than we were before. And that everything in the world works on gradual growth and we have to see the Churban as a gradual growth, that rather than being completely hopeless, we have hope and we expect it and that that's the essence of Torah. And we're mourning today not just to think about the broken egg and all the people who broke the egg of Humpty Dumpty sitting on the wall, but so that we can build a better world and a greater world, that's what we're trying to do. Okay, that's the basic idea of the Maharal, let's proceed that we'll see the Maharal say, we'll see it outside first of all. So basically what's the idea? The idea of the Midrash is that like Moshe said there's a stam Jew who was very, very distant from the Temple, not connected to the Beis HaMikdash, he's unaware of what's happening to Klal Yisrael and what's the involvement? He's involved with the physical world, the olam ha-gashmi. He's plowing. He's a good balabos unaware what's going on. So the Bais Hamikdash gets destroyed and because of his low spiritual level he's unaware of it. But the Shor is aware of it. Let's say it simple first, we'll go back and do the depth. So but the Shor is aware of it. The Shor. The Shor cries and moans and the Arab comes along and says your temple's destroyed. So your temple's destroyed, the Arab thinks that it's like Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. Stop working so hard. Unleash your animal, unleash the plow. The first mitzvah given in the Torah, first obligation in the Torah is a man has to make a better world. Right, man was placed in the garden leovdah uleshamrah to work it and to guard it. And he tells him you've destroyed it, forget it, there's no reason leovdah uleshamrah anymore. The first thing is that you control animals and the second thing is that you use your human intellect to make plows. Very famous midrash the great things that a human being did was he made fire, he made plows to make the world better, the first commandment of leovdah uleshamrah. So the Arab says I hear the spiritual voice and it's over. The temple's been broken, you had your chance, you destroyed your chance and now there's no reason to try and make the world better again. Untie your ox, untie your plow. Just mourn, there's nothing to do, you've lost your chance and the rest of your life should be just negative mourning, that's all you should do. Before they finished that conversation the Shor groaned a second time and that groan was to tell you that the Moshiach was born. The idea being that no, it wasn't the fact that the destruction can never be fixed up and it's Humpty Dumpty had a great fall you can't put the pieces together again. But the idea of the breaking the first aspect was to have giluy of the second aspect is that when you destroy a lower level completion you get to a high level completion. And that's what happened that you shouldn't lose your optimism, you shouldn't lose your vision, you should work harder. You have to recognize that the Moshiach was born immediately and that's the Maharal's major part of this perek. The major part of this perek is that why did Hakadosh Baruch Hu create the world תהו ובהו וחשך על פני תהום, why did Hakadosh Baruch Hu create the world incomplete to tell us it's always our mission to take incompleteness to move it to vayehi or to bring it to 'there is light'. And that Boneh olamos umacharivan, Boneh olamos umacharivan, he built worlds and destroyed it to show us that each world can teach us more so we can get to a better level. So when the Arab sees that immediately there's no reason for a churban and no reason for destructiveness and pain and pessimism, he says okay go back, keep doing your mission making the world better, leovdah uleshamrah to work the garden and to guard the garden. Go back and do it, keep working and building and developing. The Jew says but I want to know how are we going to build a better world? How are we going to build a better world? What are we going to do? So the name of the Moshiach I want to know what the attribute, how are we going to do it? There's so many ways I can work. So Menachem. comes from the name right we Rashi says in the end of Parshas Bereishis nicham to linachem somebody to see something with a different perspective. So nichum aveilim is a person's mourning and thinks he can't go on and you look at it from a different direction you see that rather than being destructive it was creative this gives me ability to grow and develop in a new way so the name is Menachem. What's the father's name? What's the mida that it comes from? How can you menachem somebody? You have to be chazak, you have to be strong and you get that strength from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So the nichum comes from you don't give into the hava amina you push through a bad hava amina to get to a deeper maskana. To get to the way to see Mashiach it's easy to just wallow in the destruction it's easy to wallow in everything but if you're chazak and you push through the hava amina you push through the wrong answers to get to the end then you get Mashiach. So the Jews answer is okay if that's the case you've told me to go back and to plow the ground like I was doing before that's not my mission my mission now is to change the way I look at the world and I'm now going to sell linens for babies so I can help the Mashiach grow I'm going to I sell my cow and I sell my plow and I realize the higher level I have to grow for and I have to help something that's in its nursling stage that's very soft and very very fragile I have to take care of it I'm going to get diapers for the baby or swaddling blankets for the baby or whatever it is so like Moshe said there's three levels over here there's one level of I can't do anything that's untie the cow and untie the plow there's a second one is keep going the way you were going before and make a living and do make the world better in a normative way and the third level is no I've got to be occupied in Mashiach I have to do something new and a different way right now and I'm going to look to sell warm supportive clothing to the fledgling new aspect of Mashiach that's out there that's what I'm trying to do there's lots more that goes on the way down but that's that's what we're looking at that's what the idea is but the Maharal wants this big point over here is that don't see destruction as a one-time act there's a second level after destruction the destruction made you see a deeper truth like we talked about aveilus last night that all aval a but is always a deeper revelation right aval and aveilus come from the same root and the Rashi says it's really the Gur Aryeh explains the Rashi which explains the Targum Onkelos that aval is always it's truth but a deeper level of truth I love you but not enough to walk over to your house so I love you is true but then the but reveals a deeper truth about what's going on so aveilus the aveilus for the Beis HaMikdash is we have to get to a deeper truth that makes us act differently than the way we acted before which was the plow now we're going to sit down and make linens soft garments for babies to bring the Mashiach and have the destruction was not destruction destruction was there to bring forth the Mashiach and the Mashiach's essence is to look at the world from a different way a deeper way nechama and you have to look at that with strength that's what the Maharal's basically saying that's what we're looking at and then the side questions maybe the two side questions are three side questions oh yeah I didn't do okay I missed one part is the pashut pshat so he asked where the Mashiach was obviously this Jew was smart he knew that he had to find out what's the mida that's going to bring the world back again so he got the name Menachem that you have to look in a different way and mida of the father and the place where everybody everybody knows this of my this is my stuttering mood as many many decades ago right here's the Midrash right before. before this line before this is that Menachem is gematria 138 although we talked about that 138 is gematria chen finding a portion 138 the Arizal is saying all the time is find the highest level of who you are to lowest level you are the gematria will look out work out in a non-perishable day but Menachem you have to look at the thing from a different perspective a deeper perspective a higher perspective is what the Arizal says and you have to bring it down to the deepest perspective within your book before and Chizkiyahu is it's got to be strong it's not easy to change the world it's easy to fall into the mistakes and the inertia that we're in they were stayed in and not really change making you have to chazak but the part that I left out didn't explain was why is he living in a Jewish town in an Arab palace? So the Maharal always learned that there's a huge fight. Okay. So he says the key thing is that the Mashiach how's the Mashiach going to grow the Mashiach's going to grow by recognizing living in the best of the destroyed world and seeing how vacuous it is and seeing how empty it is so he's going to see just like Moshe Rabbeinu had to grow up in Paro's house so he could see how evil and lacking Paro was and therefore he could see exactly how important change was Mashiach is going to grow up in an Arab palace because he has to see how evil and lacking meaning the Arab world is the Maharal understands all through Netzach Yisrael there's a machlokes of Amoras no of Tannaim where will the redemption come from there's two redemptions one says the Gemara in Eruvin Pesachim that the Mashiach lives in Rome and the other one the Mashiach lives in Arab of Arabia like here and the Gra

says more clearly than the Maharal says the Gra says there's a machlokes the Arabs they symbolize sensual desires physical pleasures and the Romans symbolize institutional power growth what's going to be the way what will be the catalyst for us to grow when we see how evil din is or we see how evil chesed is bad chesed bad din is Rome bad chesed is Yishmael and therefore the person who's become Mashiach is going to grow from seeing the best of the Arab world and recognizing how completely lacking it is only if you really see that can you have the energy to bring about redemption and everything that's good that's what looking for again the Arizal's language he learns this deeper which we'll talk to right now it's that you have to be there so that you can redeem the nitzotzos hakadosha that are in klipos you have to take out the light that's hidden in klipos and therefore you have to go to the place that's got the most light which is the king of the Arabs Maharal then says you have to see from seeing how bad something could be you'll learn how you have to change it and respond to it but either way that's what the Midrash is going for that's basically the idea of Mashiach okay we'll see it inside now any questions? Rabbi what's the Romans represent which aspect? Din control that's Eisav which is din al charbecha tichyeh they fight wars they try to control they conquer and that side and the Arabs they don't want to conquer they're they have harems they have sexuality sensuality so as far as for the Arabs it's just sensual desires and for the Romans it's control? Yep din and chesed yep impure din impure chesed why is it the inyan of the Arvim and the Yehudim like the Arvim recognize him and tells them what to do? Yeah yeah yeah okay so that's the hard one that's a great question Maharal does deal with that also okay so there's going to be There's two deep philosophical questions in this Maharal that the Gemara will talk about. Maybe we'll talk about see how we can flow into it without making a long day. Two ideas that aren't simple to understand. One is how come the Arab and what you think you're asking Moshe is how the Arab why the Arab and the ox understand things that the Jew doesn't understand? That's crazy. Well, what is that? And the second deep question is what what is this system that you can only boneh olamos u-machrivan? Why can't God just make it good the first time? What do we have to grow for? And then do we really grow? Is what's built new really better than what the old one was? It seemed by the second temple wasn't as good as the first temple, but it was longer than the first temple, so what's going on and how do we get better from the negative aspect? Also in the end the Jew shows that he understands what the Arab didn't understand. 100%. And at first it was lower than the entire world of things. That's right. That's right. You said it holy through it. So, I can't remember now if the Maharal does it here, he does it everywhere else. But the basic idea to your question Moshe is that Gemara in Eruvin and Pesachim that after the Churban Beis HaMikdash, nevuah and Ruach HaKodesh is left to children and shotim. Dogs? No, I wouldn't say animals. That Gemara doesn't say. The Gemara says three things. It says shotim, fools, tinokos, children, and the third thing. There's a third thing too. I can't remember. Chasrah? Yeah. And shoteh, it's all in Eruvin, it's got three places. Okay, but whatever it is, it's there. Meshugeh? Yeah. Cheresh, that's right. Cheresh, thank you. So, so the idea is that it's a hard deep it's a deep concept something like this, that the Kohen Gadol every day has to wear eight garments because the world that we live in is complicated. On Yom Kippur, he only wears ke-ilu one garment. He just wears bigdei lavan. Because he gets to a higher world of simplicity, of pashutus, of simplicity, of holiness. But after Yom Kippur he has to go back to his his world of complications. So, the idea is that a human being, a Talmid Chacham, is obligated in this world to be in a complicated world. He got eight garments and we have to use it. And because we're complicated, we often miss the pashutus, the simple idea that's coming along. We can't live in that world of pashutus beyond this world, so we have to mekadesh this world. So, we're working in a world of eight to understand everything, and therefore we'll miss nevuah. Nevuah is given over to people who are simple. A shoteh doesn't think, a fool doesn't think, a child doesn't think. So, there's lots of terrible things about that. You're going to make all kind of stupid mistakes being a shoteh, being a fool, and being a child. But he is open to sense simple ideas more than the Talmid Chacham. And that's why they have nevuah. And that's what happens over here. So, the Arab and the ox are simpler than the Jew. And therefore they pick up this simple idea that's too profound and simple for the Talmid Chacham, the Jew, a person just thinking. Okay? Basic idea. Take a look Maharal. Pirush HaMishna. כי כבר ביארנו בחיבור באר הגולה אצל כל אבן בוכה שבו נתבאר נוח כמו שביארנו. Why when the redemption came the dog didn't bark? כי הן מכלבים הרגש מלמעלה יותר מן האדם. Since they don't have the seven other voices, they're simple. So the simple deep idea comes out, they're more connected, that they're missing all the complications of man's intellect. כי אדם לחשיבות צורתו so the importance of being an adam, אינו מיוחד לקבל הרגשה. We're not set up to understand the simple world above this world. We're understanding complicated things in this world down here and this world get up, like someone said, maybe Joel said, that that's why at the end the Jew doesn't do like the Arab tells him to do, doesn't do like the ox tells him what to do, because he's smarter. But he missed the nevooah call, missed everything. K'mo she-hu behemah like a behemah, l'fi pshitusah biyoter. Because it's simple, it's not confused by seven other voices, it just gets the ruchnius and therefore it's open. Maybe the Gemara's not, maybe the third part of the Gemara is Nashim. Nashim get nevooah up over there. Ki hatachton, all right, likach margesh yoter, behemah feels more מן העליונים יותר מן האדם, שאינו פשוט כל כך. Man is not simple, man is complicated. We got to make all our machlokos and back and forth in the Gemara. פחת התחתונים הם קשורים עם העליונים and therefore you see that animals לכך הם מקבלים קודם. They pick up things that we don't pick up. הדמיון הזה אמרו בבבא בתרא דף י\"ב: מיום שחרב בית נטלו נבואה וניתנה לתינוקות ולשוטים. It's given over to youths and fools. וכל זה כי כל אשר הוא פשוט ואין בו דבר there's no ideas that are blocking this person. והוא מיוחד לקבל מן העליונים and therefore he could pick up whatever's going on. Today's thought, אבל אדם שהוא בר דעת, a man who's got daas, you're thinking all the time, v'hu l'atzmo, he's got to work on his obligations himself too. Things are complicated, it's got something, he doesn't just receive from the world around him, hu l'atzmo, eino muchan l'kabbalah. He's not so ready to receive. Yes, what'd you say Moshe? Do we really say today that these nevooah in tinokos v'shottim like it's really I was low. Are you asking like do we go to Tzfat and recognize that that's what's going on? No, I'm saying do we see this? We don't see this stuff today. I don't see a big difference between a slob and a 14-year-old about a pashuteh. I hear. There's an idea right we have all over the Gemara you see that you go into a Beis Medrash and ask the tinokos what they're learning. So yeah, so we're afraid to get too Breslov about this, that the people who davka don't have intelligence are the ones who can say over things. Because in Beis, specifically where it says miyom shecharav habayis, talk about the Maharal brings down that the Beis HaMikdash is the neck, that connects the daas of the mind and the heart. So people that don't have a connection, a tinok, he doesn't have daas. So when you're severed then it's more, you're more in their world. A person who's crazy doesn't have daas, a person who's a tinok doesn't have daas. Right, that's what I'm saying. You just open it to them. Moshe is saying he doesn't, he wouldn't walk up to any tinok and tell him tell me what to do. But you know, maybe those things are that sometimes children feel danger that we don't feel, we just push through. A woman might feel danger we don't feel sometimes. And it's also on the opposite like the story behind that is more pashut and less daas. I don't no, what the child has, what the child has and what a woman has is not daas. They're not pashut, they're pashut. They're expanded though, no? Like a child's imagination is that they can be anything. If you talk to a crazy person, I've talked to a few, they'll say you know, they think they're Napoleon. That's not daas. Right, but I'm saying the ability to expand and hit levels of, they're open. They're open to sensitivity. This not there, it could be that they're just, they're crazy inside themselves. What I'm saying is because they don't have so much in their head, they're more sensitive to what's going on. Anybody who's a thinker knows, I think anybody who's a thinker knows. I think anyone who's just even a little bit of a bad husband, when you're thinking a lot, you don't really, you're not noticing what your wife's doing. You're holding in the middle of a deep sugya like I'm all busy. A person who walks in and he's completely vacuous, in this case a tinok ve-shoteh, walks in and he sees his wife's face and he goes, \"Oh, I know what's going on over here,\" right? And he's just thinking about something. That's what we're trying to talk about. But Moshe's right. I'm not going out to find the stupidest Dani Shev and tell him, \"Tell me what's HaKadosh Baruch Hu's hadrakha.\" I'm not exactly sure of course. You asked me for ma'aseh? משחרב בית המקדש משחרב בית המקדש. We're trying to understand the pshutis that it's not rather than go to Rav Chaim Kanievsky, you should find the stupidest person you know and go to him and go through that. But the idea is that sometimes they have the regesh. There's a regesh to an am that is there. You have to know sometimes the regesh does go. It's more maybe the memra's connected to what you were saying is that Moshe's pointing the point, mishe-kharav ha-bayis, so like the nasbeh in the aravi probably only got this nevuah only now. He didn't have it before. But again, the key is eino mukhan le-kabbala. The keyword is eino mukhan le-kabbala. Yeah, so I'm saying that's what I'm trying to say. A person who's thinking and acting all the time, we're not sensitive. You have to know it because you're not a blank slate. These things are blank slates. They pick up what's going on. So, the point I'm saying is that the notice that this barnash had that when do we say this is nevuah and when we say it's shtuyot? It's like exactly this. I'm sure the shor gored many times. He did that. But he only got the nevuah now, mishe-kharav ha-bayis, and now they noticed it. Like to notice when this is a nevuah and when it's not, that's לפיכך ניתן רשות לומר לראש יותר ממה שראה אדם. Therefore, an animal sees more, right? The famous Rashi says this and we skip it over. How come the donkey knew it, but Bilaam ha-navi didn't know? So Rashi says Bilaam ha-navi was thinking lots of things. The donkey wasn't thinking of anything. המשל נמשל פה. אתון ובלעם. Bilaam's a navi, but he didn't get what the donkey got. וכן תמצא דברים הרבה שמקבלים בעלי חיים שאינם מדברים. Animals have a sense that a man doesn't have. יותר ממה שמקבל אדם. והביאו בזה בגמרא בפרק השולח. דהוי מעשה רב עולש דהוי יתיב גבי חד דהוי ידע בלישנא דציפורא. Because a man who knows the language of birds... אתו עורבי וקא קרו. And he said, \"How... why do you think the birds have this wisdom?\" and it said because they are pashut. הרי יש ידיעה לבעלי חיים בדברים נסיים. That animals pick up things men don't pick up. ולא תמצא בזה באדם מטעם שהאדם לפעמים אינו מקבל. Mankind is complicated. Mankind is da'as. מפני שאדם מסובך. מפני שאדם דעת. וכן הסברנו עוד סמוך. ולכך אל תתמה ממה שאמר ההוא ערביא. What that Arab said. שידע חכמה זאת להבין מבעלי חיים שאינם מדברים שחרב בית המקדש. ודבר זה אינו ספק שהיו יודעים להבין בבעלי חיים מן הקול שלהם. לפיכך כאשר געה פעם ראשונה אמר shecharav. He chapt, the Arab chapt what the animal chapt because they were in the world of pashutus and they're mekabel that there is negative energy going out to the world. ובפעם שנייה אמר שנולד משיח. כי כבר אמרו למעלה כי חורבן הבית הוא סיבה להוויתו. Why were the two... before he could move from the place, the two were tied together? It is that don't think that the churban is just humpty dumpty that you can't put it back together again, but the destruction was designed to build something better. כי חורבן הבית הוא סיבה להוויתו. The destruction of the house was a way to get something better. מפני שהדבר השלם לא יתהווה. Because if something's complete, you can't make it better. You have to break down the foundations to build something better. And therefore HaKadosh Baruch Hu builds a world up and says, \"Up! You see how far we came. We can't get to the end. We can't solve all the problems. We have to break it down and build it up better again.\" וכאשר חרב הבית אז ראוי שיבוא משיח. ופרשת דעל רגלוהי מתבני. By its feet will be built up. פירוש כי נולד משיח. ועל ידי זאת אינה לידה ממש גשמית. Don't you dare think that the Messiah was actually born then. We're not talking... not an individual flesh and blood. We're talking about a spiritual state in the world. We're talking about metaphysics. כמו שהוא הענין פה לגבי כן החכם מדבר ענין גשמי כלל. Quite, the rabbis aren't speaking about physical reality at all. רק מופשט מן הגשמי. They're talking about what's happening in the metaphysical world. ורצונם לומר שנולד משיח שעצם כח משיח הוא נמצא בעולם. The power to bring *Moshiach* to the world. Now we have to bring it out. וזה כי קרוב שחרב הבית נולד משיח. Before the temple was destroyed, we could have *Moshiach* who's going to save everyone but get to a different level. כי שלם לא יתחדש. Because when you have a completion, you can't get to a whole new level of completion. You have to rebuild the foundation. *Kemo she'amar*, השכל והשכל שיש לדעת, we have to realize that destruction is creative destruction and we'll get to more than we have right now. וכאשר חרב הבית. When the temple was destroyed, אז יש לו כח מה שלא היה קודם. There's a new level, there's a new energy we couldn't get before. ויש כאן העדר שהוא סיבה להויה. When you see a lack, that's a cause for greater creation. So seeing the lack opens up creativity and a breadth of desire that couldn't happen before. ובוודאי יש מונע ומעכב מצד אחר. *Avadai*, there are things that have to be broken through that *Moshiach* wasn't coming easily. כי עדיין כח טומאה גובר בעולם. The *loshon hara* and the *sinat chinam* were still in the world עד שראוי שיעביר השם יתברך מן העולם until he takes them away from the world. סוף סוף נולד שם משיח. Nevertheless, the ability to build a better world ועל הדרגה זו כראוי שיהיה משיח כבר בעולם. *U'vmenachem k'mo she'amar*, yeah. So only *Hakodesh Baruch Hu* has the ability to make the call that something has to be destroyed. Like *Yirmiyahu*, for example, is a person who saw that things are going wrong. He didn't have the right... let's say you could have the power... you can't say let's destroy the *Beit HaMikdash* to rebuild it better. Only *Hashem* can make the call on that. So it's the... if a person sees something has to be built better, does he have the right to make the call and say let's destroy to rebuild? The *Alter* of *Slobodka* points out that that's one of the major ideas that he says בונה עולמות ומחריבן בונה עולמות ומחריבן. He's got like five or six *ma'amarim* that that's the essence of growth that we have to do it in our world all the time also. We have to reach something and then we have to break it so you can go for something greater. He says every time you learn *Gemara*, the *Maharal* says that the *Alter* of *Slobodka* says every time you learn *Gemara*, you have a *hava amina*. What's your obligation? The *hava amina* is a pretty good *hava amina*. We have to break it to get to something better. So *Hakodesh Baruch Hu* is *megale* in the world that he has built worlds and destroyed it. Why did he build worlds and destroy it? To teach us that we have to build worlds and destroy it. So yes, we have to take this awesome responsibility but you have to know the son of the *Netziv* writes that when they destroyed *Volozhin*, they closed *Volozhin*, he felt that because they closed *Volozhin*, something better would develop. Although they had to have *emunah* that by closing *Volozhin*, even though they couldn't see it coming, there'd be a better built-up program or whatever they were going for. It's an awesome responsibility, but somebody has to always do it. You have to sit down and say this works as far as it went, let's break it and go again. *Rav Yisroel Salanter*, you know, he says that *Rav Yisroel Salanter* opened up many *yeshivos* for two or three years and then closed them because he thought they weren't good enough and he went on to do something more. So yeah, that responsibility. וזה כנגד רב שלם. *Shalem* is a whole thing and we're saying the *inyan* of something...