Iyar – LaG b’Omer 5733 – The Torah Will Never Be Forgotten – Speaker: Rabbi Zvi Aryeh Rosenfeld ז”ל. (Recorded on 1973-05-19.)
Transcript of Clip:
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai ז”ל promised, assured, he guaranteed, that the Torah will never be forgotten from the Jews. How? Through him. Through his guarantee, through his assistance.
The Gemara brings (Shabbat) there’s a Machloket – a debate – between the rabbis and Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai ז”ל. The rabbis say “There will come a time when Chas v’Shalom [may we be preserved] the Torah will be forgotten. There will come that time – a very dark moment. There will be no more Torah. That moment will be a moment of darkness.”
But Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai ז”ל says that darkness will never come, Chas v’Shalom. The Torah will never be forgotten. Why? Because of the Possuk… כִּ֛י לֹ֥א תִשָּׁכַ֖ח מִפִּ֣י זַרְע֑וֹ – “…the Torah will never be forgotten from the Children of Israel” (Devarim 31:21, Vayelech). But in that Possuk “…will never be forgotten from His children…” the last letters of those words are “Yochai” which means: “Because of his child.” Whose? Rabbi Yochai’s child. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai ז”ל. Therefore the Torah will never be forgotten. Why? Because the Zohar HaKadosh says: Through the Zohar HaKadosh, which Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai ז”ל wrote, this will bring the Geulah for the Jews.
The word “Zohar” is “light”. The Zohar HaKadosh says, with the words of the Gemara (Nedarim 32), “Im lo briti…” – “If not for the Torah, this entire world, the entire universe, the heaven and earth, would be destroyed.” There must be a Torah, otherwise there is no creation. The moment the Torah stops, Chas v’Shalom, everything disappears. So if there would come a time when there would be no Torah – it would be forgotten – that means this is the end of all creation.
בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים – “In the beginning, Hashem created…” Bereishith is the letters Alef, Taf, Reish, Shin, Beit, Yud. That means “Ohr Torah”. The Torah – light – of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai ז”ל is what ברא – continually creates now, keeps this creation in being – of the heavens and the earth. Through the light of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai ז”ל’s Torah. Which light is that? That’s the light of the Zohar.
Transcription by S.Y. Wurtzel.
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