They used to call the Rabbanit ‘arab’!

She was the first sephardi woman who came to live in Bnei Brak, no sephardi dared to live in Bnei Brak. And suddenly, they see…

She was the only one in the whole city with dark skin, and they used to call her ‘arab!’

[She used to say]: What?! I don’t understand why they are calling me ‘arab’.

They told her: In the end, you will have a husband who is a tzaddik.

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They called her ‘Tehilla’ after the Tehillim (Psalms).

She was also the first person to be called ‘Tehilla’. Today, she is 88 years old. 88 years ago, there was still not this name. There was the ‘Tehilla’ of the Ramchal, but there still wasn’t this name. It was only when her father called her ‘Tehilla’, 88 years ago.

She was born in the 10 days of teshuva (on the 7th of Tishrei). She was born at a time when you say tehillim, so he called her ‘Tehilla’.

And when she came to live in Bnei Brak, they called her ‘arab!’ And he [her father] told her, in the merit of this, you will receive a husband who is a tzaddik.

They used to call her ‘arab’.

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Back then, they used to call Yishai ‘moabite!’

Because he was the grandson of Ruth, and he had eight children, and they called all of them ‘moabites!’

Everyone humiliated them. You are moabites! Get away from here! Why did you come here?! Go back to Moab!

So, he [Yishai]  decided to sire a child from his maidservant, who was a tzaddeket. Nitzevet [the mother of King David, the wife of Yishai] was the real tzaddeket, because she never revealed [what had happened, i.e. that Yishai was the true father of King David]. She could have said something…

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[Skipping some].

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In the book of Yirmiyahu, there was the Churban (destruction of the First Temple).

He said, another 70 years, you’ll return.

It’s written three times, ‘70 years’[1].

One 70 years was counted from Nevuchadnezzer [and his son] Evil Medorach. He was called ‘Evil’, because [his father Nevuchadnezzer] went from being a king, to being a beast. For seven years, he was a beast. ‘Merodach’ is the name of one of the gods of Babylon.

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[Skipping some].

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Now, they want all the yeshiva students to enlist.

It’s hard to learn, even one line in the Gemara is harder than being in the army for 100 years. One line in the Gemara is harder than being in the army for 100 years! A person needs to know, that understanding a single line in the Gemara is harder, to learn the Gemara is more difficult, and to read the stories in [Tractate] Megillah, about Mordechai and about Pesach, when they fasted[2].

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Shuvu Banim does everything backwards.

They do Succot on Tishrei, and Succot is a remembrance of the Clouds of Glory that were in Nissan. They do Purim in Adar, when Purim was on Pesach. When did they hang Haman? On Chol Hamoed Pesach.

So, I asked my grandchildren, where did they put him?!

After all, they hung him [Haman] twice. The first time, they hung him after Seder Night. The second time, they hung him [11 months afterwards] with his 10 sons. They didn’t want to make a separation, between him and them. It’s assur to split a father away from his sons.

So, where was he [i.e. his corpse, throughout the 11 months]? Someone told me, my little grandson, Nachman the son of Aharale, that they put him in Antarctica.

Because they didn’t have refrigerators, and there was only ice in the Alps. If you wanted to bring icecream, so then they would bring ice from the Alps and put the raspberries in the ice. That’s how the Romans did it.

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How did they make icecream?

They used to bring a wagon-full of ice from the Alps, and they used to put some berries into the ice, and make ice lollies. Only the kings had icecream, because you had to bring a wagon full of ice from the Alps.

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You could also do it in Antarctica, there is icecream there, as much as you want.

They build hotels there that don’t melt. In Canada, it melts at Pesach, and in Norway it also melts at Pesach. At Pesach, $1000 a day in a hotel, that is totally made of ice. You sit there with a lot of sweaters on.

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We take the sweaters off.

When the bachurim (young men) come, we tell them to take their sweaters off, because you are not in Siberia, and also not in Antarctica!

Jump a bit, pray, sing!

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Now, we were in the snow in Moldova.

It was minus 16 degrees, when we went to the grave yard in […missing in original…]

It was minus 16 degrees there, and we walked along like this, with these clothes. [The legs] didn’t have anything [special against the cold]. Without any sweaters, without anything. It’s stam, psychology.

It’s nothing. Say a tikkun haklali, you don’t need to add more clothes.

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The car sunk into the snow there.

It was a miracle, that they got it out. This was just one of the miracles. We’d got to the graveyard where there was no road, and then we got stuck in half a metre of snow. They managed to pull it out.

There are stories for a thousand and one nights.

We travelled to Moldova twice. We travelled North, according to the snow, that’s where we passed the border [to enter into Ukraine]. And in the end, some captain – maybe he got a million dollars – who said I had to be brought back, because I’m the biggest criminal.

We could have run away, but we didn’t want to escape from them.

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Translated from Shivivei Or # 451.

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ICE HOTEL IN CANADA:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Hotel_(Quebec)

ICE HOTEL IN NORWAY:

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ICE HOTEL IN ANTARCTICA:

https://www.uniqhotels.com/white-desert-antarctica/

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] See Tractate Megillah, 11b.

[2] In the Purim story, the time of the three day fast called by Queen Esther fell across Seder night.