So there are 45 days from Rosh Hodesh Shvat until Purim.

That’s Beis Shammai.

And 45 days from Tu B’Shvat until Nisan.

That’s Beis Hillel.

Timing is everything.

My father would finish Neila and the shofar would blow at 7:22.

This old “yekke” would fold up his talis at 7:10.

So I asked him, “Why are you leaving so early”.

His answer was “My wife holds dinner at 7:30exactly.

I can’t be late”.

“Lo paga v’lo nega”.

As the Gemara teaches, Yom Kippur never touched him.The seed must be completely surrounded by, completely covered by the earth.

What is exile? Lack of growth.

So the growth is the beginning of Redemption.

Beis Hillel is Nisan.

Pesach.

Beis Shammai is Purim.

The Gemara teaches that in olam hazeh, halakha is k’Beis Hillel.

Beis Shammai is for Moshiach.

The exodus from Egypt is of this world.

Purim we wipe out Amalek, we wipe out evil from the world.

That is Moshiach.

What is the difference between a tree and a vegetable? A tree is perennial.

The vegetable is new every year.

On Tu B’Shvat, the tree is at the point of death.

On the outside, dead completely.

Unless you are receiving newness, you are completely dead.

I was once invited to a function for Yom haAzmaot.

This important rich man spoke, he said, “I am here today with you as a proud American”.

Completely dead.

Not here as a Jew.

Gevalt.

Now listen to this.

The Redemption is all about timing.

Once I went to a Reiki healer.

Stupid, I put on Shabbos clothes by mistake, I get there and I have no money.

She gives me her card, nebekh I lost it, even forgot her name.

I promised to pay her for the treatment, but now how could I? Very spiritual lady, but not Jewish.

What a Hilul haShem (desecration of haShem’s Name)! Three years later, I’m at Famous (deli restaurant on 72nd street) for breakfast, and whom do I see outside the restaurant.

The Reiki healer! And what does she tell me? Oy vey! Last night I was robbed and all my money was taken.

So I’ve been walking up and down 72nd street all morning looking for someone from whom I can borrow some money.

This is Tu B’Shvat.

When you think you’re at the end, it happens.

The Zohar teaches us, “Vahamushim alu bneiyisroel m’eretz mitzrayim.” The literal translation of “hamushim” is weapons.

But what it really means is that we are at the final gate, the fiftieth gate of impurity, the gate from which there is no return, G-d forbid, and at that very split second, we get out of Egypt and the sea splits open.

Until the sea split, we thought the redemption was for but three days.

Now we know the redemption is forever.

The first two Holy Temples were but for a while.

The Third Temple is forever.

The first two Holy Temples were built by the Kings of Israel.

The Third Holy Temple is built by HaShem Himself.

Haman’s tree stands fifty feet high.

What is Amalek? He tells you he is the fiftieth gate of holiness.

But really he is the fiftieth gate ofunholiness.

So he is hanged from the tree that he built himself.

So on Tu B’Shvat, I am mamash at the end.

So Leible Eiger tells us, we get back our soul, new energy pill, the strength not to give up.”Az yimale s’hok pinu”.

When Moshiach comes then our mouths will be full with laughter.

All the great leaders of the Jewish people will be sitting in a gala reception hall.

The most important leaders of the Jewish Establishment will have seats on the dais right next to the Moshiach.

And there will be a benefit journal, and all the great Jewish leaders will have pages and pages giving koved, honor, to each other.

And all the great leaders will wait for Moshiach to honor the greatest of them for having helped bring about his coming and the final redemption, and Moshiach will get up and say, Moshele the water-carrier standing all the way in the back of the hall, you brought me here.

And everyone will laugh.

That’s a P’shiskhe Torah.

The mazel, astrological sign of Shvat is Aquarius, the water drawer.

In Hebrew, the word is “dli”.

Rivka drew water for Eliezer.

Yaakov drew water for Rachel.

Moshe Rabbeinu drew water for Tzipporah.

This all happened on Tu B’Shvat.

Moshe gave over the Torah of D’vorim (Deuteronomy) which is called B’eir haTorah = Wellspring of Torah = Torah She B’al Pehin Shvat.

Like the seed, you have to descend into such depth, such darkness to grow again.

If you didn’t get the redemption at the very second you reached the deepest depths, then you aren’t yet open for it.

In Shvat we get the vessels to receive it.

New York,  Shvat 5753.

According to Beis Shammai, the first (Rosh Hodesh) is Rosh Hashona (New Year of Trees), and according to Beis Hillel, the fifteenth.

What’s happening? Listen to this.

What’s “beitah — stuffing”? Why can’t I chew? According to the Arizal, every month corresponds to a letter of the Hebrew alphabet and to one of the twelve tribes.

This month, the letter is “tsaddi” — whose letters stand for “Amha Kulom Tszddikim — Your entire nations righteous”.

Listen to this: The holy Izhbetzer says that a Tsaddik is someone who helps you get your outside shining, who gets your outside shining into your inside.

The inside– we have it already.

The only thing, sadly enough, when it comes to the outside, we’ve lost the shine.

An awesome Torah.

It’s so deep, you know, it’s beyond words.

The Tsaddik is one who gives you the vessels, that your outside should be vessels for your insides.

What happens to most people? Inside they’re a gevaldt, right? But their outside has absolutely no vessels for what they have inside.

So the inside gets lost.

You know what the Izhbetzer says? The moment we got out of Egypt we make Moshe Rabbeinu so much trouble.

We do it all wrong.

In Egypt we never did anything wrong.

Why now? In Egypt, everything was “inside”.

Inside, you don’t do wrong.

Listen to this.

Imagine, without saying anything bad, when somebody gets divorced.

After getting married or before? You know, on a joke level, someone once told me, he wants to get divorced first and then married– why should he ruin his marriage after? Ok, it’s a joke.

But you know what it is? What’s marriage? Marriage is connecting your outside to the inside.

Inside, it’s ok, inside I connect.

The outside, mamash, day to day life.

Washing negel wasser, brushing your teeth — outside.

That’s what summer is all about.

Summer is the inside coming outside.

Ok now listen to this.

Awesome, awesome.

Everybody knows that this month is the fixing of the beginning of the downfall of everything.

The snake tells Eve, Listen to this, deepest depths.

You know what G-d told you not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge.

That’s how G-d became G-d.

Listen to the deepest depths.

Do you know what brother snake is saying? What do you think G-d is about? He’s a famous kabalist.

He took an intensive weekend in Kabala.

Do you really think G-d is anything special, something awesome? Nothing.

You eat an apple.

You eat a PhD in Kabala and you have it.

What is “stuffing”? No inside.

Just stuff it in.

Who cares, right? Holy stuffing is the other way around.

I want the inside.

I want the holiest to shine into me.

I don’t want the outside to interrupt from the inside.

G-d should put it into me the way it really is.

Ok, now here comes a really deep Izhbetzer Torah.

What’s the difference between a cute little vegetable and a tree? How come a vegetable is dead when it’s done? A tree can live for hundreds of years.

He says the deepest Torah.

The tree prays to G-d; please make something out of me.

You know what’s praying the most? And this is one of the top ten Izhbetzer Torahs.

It’s good to remember.

How come one apple tree tastes so good and another one not? When the apple seed is praying before G-d the very last second before it’s completely disintegrated it’s the prayer of the deepest depths.

And if its prayer is not so deep…There you have two trees.

I mean the depths of this Torah are awesome.

Gevaldt, it’s the very last prayer we say before we leave the world…

A vegetable prays a cute little prayer.

A vegetable grows and then just stops…

But an apple seed, it prays so much.

Its every second.

It can’t stop.

The apple seed’s prayer is a “forever” prayer.

So the tree lives forever because this seed prayed so hard.

Shvat is the Rosh Hashanah L’Elanot, the new year– the headquarters– of the trees.

Now listen to this, it’s so deep.

A vegetable when it disappears doesn’t cry.

It says, “I had my day.

I’m happy.

I had a summer.

I had a good time on the earth, saw the sun, went to the supermarket, ended up on Shabbos in the chulent…Halivei (it should only be).Do you know what the tree is crying out? The tree is at is end, each year.Listen to this.

The tree when it reaches the end, mamash, all its prayers are rising up again.

The tree prays all its prayers again.

Awesome.

I want to tell you something very very deep.

Imagine I need coffee.

I say, “Please G-d, give me some coffee.” And G-d answers me, “Ok, I’ll get you some coffee”.

But when I pray for something very deep, my prayer is all that there is.

The more I need something from G-d, the deeper the depths my prayer touches my neshama.

And that prayer touches all the prayers which I ever prayed in this lifetime and perhaps other lifetimes as well…

what do we know…

You want the real truth.

I don’t know.

You see there are two types of Torah — from the Tree of Knowledge and from the Tree of Life.

The Tree of Knowledge Torah, cute…

the Tree of Life Torah — beyond choice.

Don’t choose.

Just stuff it down.

I don’t have words to explain it — it’s the deepest Torah…

So deep…What is Seder night all about? Seder night, G-d is mamash giving me His light.

What is the deepest freedom in the whole world? You know what our problem is? We take the deepest holiest thing and we cut them short.

Chew here, chew there, and change it all so that it fits…

What is Kadesh about — the first item in the Seder — what do we do with the cup? Everyone is chewing it down from all sides so that it fit…You want to love someone the most? Stop chewing! What is the fixing? Can you swallow it without chewing it? Take it in, not like Esau.

Esau wants to swallow up the whole world.

What is winter all about? G-d is putting something in the trees beyond chewing.

A tree cannot taste.

Rav Tsadok haCohen tells us that during winter G-d gives us something so holy, it is beyond our vessels.

Since it’s beyond our vessels, from Outside it looks — oy! — Stupid.

Reb Tsadok haCohen says winter is the highest.

The only thing, I’m not enough in touch with my Inside to know what is really so bad.

You know, sometimes, between people, husband and wife, parents and children, you’re angry at each other, you yell at each other.

But when you think you are far away, that is the time when you are really the closest.

Reb Nachman says that if you’re so close that you can be angry at somebody, then gevaldt, are you close! When you’re so close that you can even hate somebody, then gevaldt, are you close, right.

Gevaldt you are so close.

And if you’re already that close, Rebbe Nachman tells us, when you are angry at another person, at that moment G-d gives you the vessels to fix his/her soul, in the deepest, deepest way.

Imagine we are angry at our children.

Gevaldt we can fix their souls forever.

Gevaldt, gevaldt…Everybody knows that the tribe of the month of Shvat is Asher.

Barukh m’banim Asher — the blessing of Asher is children.

You know when a baby is born, he can’t chew.

Do you know why? Children don’t just want a little milk from their mother at feeding time.

They want their mother to give them over their heart, their soul, everything that there is.

What is Asher’s blessing? Asher had the most children.

You know, sometimes you go to school and the way they teach you to be a Jew is all chewing.

It’s so stupid because they think children are so stupid.

You know what? The truth is just the opposite! Asher has the blessing of children.

Asher has the vessels to stuff children.

Don’t chew.

When it comes to food, maybe they swallow it.

When it comes to something really deep and holy, they chew it down…

to nothing.

And here let me tell you something awesome.

You know what it means to chew? Chew it in, chew it out.

Chew it again.

Tree of Knowledge.

Why are Shevat and Adar the last two months of the year? Because Nisan, Pesach is already the month of Redemption, Moshiach, no chewing.

When it starts to grow again, do you think people who chew so much are growing? Yeah they grow, but how much are they growing? Could you say humanity has grown unbelievably since the Second World War? It hasn’t grown an inch.

Right? You know it also says of Asher, “Tovl b’shemen raglav” — he immerses his feet in oil”.

What does Raglav (feet) really mean — his habits? It means Asher has no habits.

His wisdom is the deepest wisdom.

Everything Asher does is done with the deepest consciousness.

His habit is to immerse in the Torah.

Sadly enough, we do everything out of habit.

And what is my biggest habit, my biggest chewing — cutting someone down from Heaven.

You can even love as a habit.

Imagine I meet a girl, right, and I’m madly in love with hereafter one day.

After a week I marry her.

Ok, now it’s a habit.

What happened –I chewed it down to nothing.

But Asher is so deep.

No habits.

And listen to this.

What do we do — we give over to our children our habits.

Everything we do is by habit.

I’m a Jew by habit, you be a Jew by habit, too.

I love people out of habit; you love people out of habit, too.

I bless you.

I bless myself.

I bless all of Israel this Tu B’Shvat, with the blessings of Asher, Barukhm’banim v’tovl bashemen raglov.

I bless us all with the blessings of children.

That we immerse ourselves, we immerse our children in the deepest depths, beyond habit.

Yerushalyim, Shvat 5741.

I mean the depths of this Torah is awesome. Gevaldt, it’s the very last prayer we say before we leave the world… A vegetable prays a cute little prayer. A vegetable grows and then just stops… But an apple seed, it prays so much. It’s every second. It can’t stop. The apple seed’s prayer is a “forever” prayer. So the tree lives forever because this seed prayed so hard. Shvat is the Rosh HaShona L’Elanot, the new year– the headquarters– of the trees.

Now listen to this, it’s so deep. A vegetable when it disappears doesn’t cry. It says, “I had my day. I’m happy. I had a summer. I had a good time on the earth, saw the sun, went to the supermarket, ended up on Shabbos in the chulent… halivei (it should only be).

Do you know what the tree is crying out? The tree is at is end, each year. Listen to this. The tree when it reaches the end, mamash, all its prayers are rising up again. The tree prays all its prayers again. Awesome.

I want to tell you something very very deep. Imagine I need coffee. I say, “Please G-d, give me some coffee.” And G-d answers me, “Ok, I’ll get you some coffee.” But when I pray for something very deep, my prayer is all that there is. The more I need something from G-d, the deeper the depths my prayer touches my neshama. And that prayer touches all the prayers which I ever prayed in this lifetime and perhaps other lifetimes as well.

Background

Rabbi Mordechai Yosef Leiner of Izbica (1804-1854) was a Hasidic thinker and founder of the Izhbitzer dynasty of Hasidic Judaism. Rabbi Leiner is best known for a doctrine of radical determinism: all events, including human actions, are absolutely under God’s control, or as Rabbinic discourse would phrase it, by “hasgachah pratit.” His second most famous idea is that if everything is determined by God, then even sin is done because God determines it.

One of his most cited comments is on Leviticus 21:1 None shall defile himself for any [dead] person among his kin. Rabbi Leiner read the verse as a warning against the defilement of the soul. The soul is defiled when it is infected with the bitterness and rage that comes with senseless suffering and tragedy. Those who — like the Kohanim— would serve God, are commanded to find the resources to resist the defilements of despair and darkness. Despair is the ultimate denial of God, and surrender to darkness is the ultimate blasphemy.

Photo

First Page of Mei Hashiloach, the Commentary on the Torah by Rabbi Mordechai Yosef of Isbitza (1800-1854)