On Wednesday night, the eve of the 17th of Tammuz, a group of our community members from the city of Chevron—Kiryat Arba entered the home of The Rav shlit"a for a lesson before the Maariv prayer

In the lesson, The Rav spoke—as is his holy way—about many different topics. Below is a brief summary of the words of The Rav shlit"a:

The Rav opened the lesson by dedicating it for the elevation of the soul of one who was killed in Operation “Bayit V’Gan,” which took place in Jenin in recent days. He spoke a little about the secret of the verse, “And the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of the seven days,” and about the secret of “Like the light of morning, the sun will shine.” After that, for most of the lesson he spoke about Shaul, who did not nullify himself to Shmuel and did not listen to his words, when he told him, “Do not be overly righteous, and do not be overly wicked.” The Rav explained that because Shaul was “overly righteous,” in that he did not want to kill the children and women of Amalek, in the end the continuation was fulfilled in him—when he killed the women and children of Nov, the city of the Kohanim. Later in the lesson, the Rav spoke about Korach. Korach thought that since he did not see any flaw in Shmuel, it must be that Shmuel was the true Tzaddik. But he did not realize that Shmuel’s “bag of creeping things” was actually himself—because he argued against Moshe Rabbeinu. The Rav also mentioned the matter of educating children and having patience with them. The Rav expressed that the more hyperactive a child is, it only shows that he is smarter—that his mind runs faster, that he is sharper. Toward the end of the lesson, the Rav told the story of the Baal Shem Tov with great enthusiasm. When The Rav reached the part of the story where the attendant of the Baal Shem Tov cried out the letters, The Rav said that when a baby (a child) says Alef-Beis, all the heavens and the heavens of heavens—all the firmaments—tremble. In the same way, when a person prays Maariv and says, “Who opens gates…,” he opens all the firmaments. After that, The Rav spoke in praise of Rebbe Nachman from the holy sefer Shivchei HaRan, and he concluded with the greatness of accepting humiliations with love.

After a forty-minute lesson, The Rav shlit"a recited Kaddish and went out to Maariv with a great crowd from the balcony of his home. Fortunate are we that we merited this!

Below is documentation from the lesson: