Transcript
Good morning *Boker Tov* and welcome back to Living with *Emuna*, welcome to our last Living with *Emuna* *shiur* for the year. The bad news is it's the last *shiur* for the year, the good news is we'll resume the *shiur* next year, which also is next week, so that's the good news. Next week we are on, why not? Our *Emuna* series is incredibly generously sponsored by Doctors Avi and Bella Morgan in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut and in memory of Bella's mother Ellen Shanzer, very grateful to our friends the Morgans for their generosity. Today's *shiur* is sponsored in honor of *Rosh Hashana* in memory of Dr. Jacob Hiller who exemplified a lot how to live with *Simchas Hachayim* by Janine and Gordon Hass in memory of her dear sister Sharon Leichtman Katz whose *Yahrtzeit* is the 28th of *Elul*. It's also sponsored by the Orlan family, Avi and Dora Orlan, in memory of their daughter מרים אסתר בת אברהם יצחק, whom we tragically lost, a very special *neshama*, special young lady, our learning should be to elevate her soul the *neshama* of *Miriam Orlan*, מרים אסתר בת אברהם יצחק. And also I want to add our dear friend Merv Jacobs had a heart attack last night, unfortunately he's in the hospital and very, very dire, we *daven* for his well-being and for a *refuah shlema* and for a miracle. Please have Merv, please have Merv in your thoughts and in your *tfilos* as we go forward. Okay, I'm going to begin as we always do with an *Emuna* email. Interestingly, this not an *Emuna* email that was directed to me, but this was a post. I don't know if there are any tennis fans here, anybody follow tennis? So anyone know who won the women's US Open? Coco Gauff. I ask because I'm not sure how to pronounce the last name, so thank you. Coco Gauff. Now she did not write me an email direct. I'm a little disappointed. A little disappointed. Someone has to introduce her to the *Emuna* *shiur*. She did not email me directly, but somebody sent the following to me and thought it'd be perfect for the *Emuna* *shiur*, and I agree. It couldn't be more perfect for our theme, what we talk about, what we learn. And I guess this was a press conference after winning, she said the following, quote, "Oh my goodness, it means so much to me, I feel a little bit in shock at this moment. That French Open loss was a heartbreak for me, I realize God puts you through tribulations and trials. This makes this moment even more sweeter than I could have imagined. I don't pray for results, I just ask I get the strength to give it my all. Whatever happens, happens. I'm so blessed in this life, I'm just thankful for this moment. I don't have any words for it to be honest." The youngest American to win a US Open since Serena Williams, she joins blah blah blah. But anyway, that was her answer at a press conference. She lost the French Open, she was miserable about it, and then she says, looking back, it was a heartbreak but God puts us through these trials because it makes the sweeter moments even sweeter than we could have imagined. And she said that she doesn't pray for results, she asks Him to give strength to give it all her will, and then whatever happens is up to Him, whatever happens is up to Him. I thought that was a great, someone shared this with me, it was a great *Emuna* message really aligned with everything that we talk about in this *shiur*. Both parts of what she said. You know, it was interesting because right after she won, apparently she put her head down, and certain sports networks that try to be agnostic, atheistic, whatever, said "Oh, she's taking a moment." And one of the commentators on the sports networks said, "No, she's praying. And we don't have to apologize to say it. She's a very woman of a lot of faith, and she's praying with gratitude, and we shouldn't live in a world where you have to be apologetic or defensive or pretend that someone's not praying when they are." And clearly she has a lot of faith because she saw her loss, her challenge, her disappointment in the context of being part of God's master plan that makes the sweet moments even sweeter, and that she says that when she prays for her tennis matches she doesn't pray for the results, that's up to God, she prays to play her best and to have the strength to play her best, and the rest is up to Him, whatever happens. And that's a great metaphor for life that we *daven* *Hashem* give us the strength, give us the *koach* to use our talents, our skills, our blessings to do the best that we can with them, and the results are up to You. To not necessarily *daven* for the results because the results are up to Him. And one of the reasons not to *daven* for the results is because if we ask specifically for results, those results that we want and crave and ask for may not necessarily be the best results for us. They can't necessarily, so we *daven* for that girl, for that boy, we *daven* for that job, we *daven* for that house, we *daven* for that outcome, and if we *mutcher* *Hashem* enough, maybe He's going to say yes, but the yes wasn't really what was right for us, wasn't really what was best for us. And the best thing He can do in the world is save us from ourselves. We say this in *Ashrei*. We say, what do we say in *Ashrei*? Who's got a *siddur*? There's a *siddur* here somewhere. We say, I want to get the whole *pasuk* right. Oh, thank you, thank you. I'm sorry, that's a *Sefardi*, *Ashkenazi*, I think that's... Two Sefardi Ashreis. Sefardim really come at you. רצון יראיו יעשה ואת שועתם ישמע ויושיעם. Ratson yere'av ya'ase, the ratzon, the will of those who have all those who fear him, Hashem will do. But Ashrei's the acronym, we go all the way, we omit the nun for nefila, we don't recognize fall, but we do include the nun. סומך ה' לכל הנופלים. Hashem uplifts all those who have fallen. So alef through tav Ashrei follows the whole Hebrew alphabet in an acrostic, because from alef through tav Hashem is looking out for us, loves us, lifts us, responds to us. So Ratson yere'av ya'ase, the ratzon, the will of those who have all those who fear him he does, ואת שועתם ישמע ויושיעם, and the cries he hears and he saves us. If he hears our cries, what does he have to save us? If Ratson yere'av ya'ase, if he follows our will, why does he have to hear our cries and save us? He follows our will, he already follows our will, he already heard it. Ratson yere'av ya'ase, he did the ratzon, the will of what we wanted. So why does he have to hear our cries and yoshi'em and save us? So commentators point out, because he's willing to listen to what we want, he sometimes has to save us from ourselves. So what we ask Hashem in Ashrei every day is, Hashem, here's the world the way I see it. I'd love if this girl would agree to marry me, agree to go out with me. I'd love if this would happen on this timetable, in this way, in this place, with this way. I'd love this job, I'd love this house, I'd love this outcome, I'd love to win the lottery, I'd love this happen, I'd love that happen. Here's the way I see the world. But you know what? From your perspective, from your perch, from your porch, where you get to see and you know everything, yoshi'em, save me from myself. If I'm asking for something which is not in my best interest, if I'm selling myself short, if I'm sabotaging my success, yoshi'em, save me from myself. That's what we daven every day. We say Hashem, I'm going to fill my morning with asking you for things, and if they're consistent with what you agree is the best thing for me, great. But if it's a conflict between what I think is the best thing for me and what you think is the best thing for me, let's go with what you think is the best thing for me. So save me from myself. And if you close a door, I know another will open. And if something happens, I believe it is for I believe it is for a reason. Which brings us to our learning for this morning. Page Tav Mem Chet, we're in Tuv Ha'emuna, we're still learning Rav Gamliel. I learned my first cousin told me we have copies here, so please take, follow, enjoy. My cousin told me that my great grandfather, my great grandfather who learned in the yeshiva in Kishinev, the Rosh Yeshiva of the yeshiva my great grandfather learned in is Rav Gamliel's grandfather. So turns out we've been learning together for a long time already. Who knew? Who knew? I didn't tell him that yet. Next time. Next time I go. So we're in Tuv Ha'emuna, דף תמח, where he's talking about Rosh Hashana. בראש השנה כשאוכלים את התפוח בדבש, for those who did not get the memo, Rosh Hashana is very soon, 48 hours away. Very soon. So come Rosh Hashana this Friday night, we are going to, every child on the planet knows and sings, we are going to dip the apple in the honey. And what will we say? מבקשים אנו מהקדוש ברוך הוא שתחדש עלינו שנה טובה ומתוקה. Hashem, please renew us for a good year and a sweet year. Have a happy new year, a happy sweet new year, a sweet new year, a sweet happy new year. I wish every Jewish organization on the planet if I'm on your email list, I know you wish me a good year, don't feel obligated to clog the inbox with emails from every organization, you know everyone getting those now, flooded with those emails? Yes, that's a message to me, unsubscribe. No, I'm just joking, they're wonderful, you all do wonderful work. So everyone's wishing each other a happy new year, a sweet new year, a happy and sweet new year. And wonders Rav Gamliel, he's not the first, and where does this come from? The Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim, סימן תקפג סעיף א. This isn't some preschool creative idea someone came up with. We'll make paper maché apples and honey and dip and we'll introduce a whole new song, dip the apple in the honey. Well, that wasn't didn't come from kindergarten. It's from the Shulchan Aruch. Rav Yosef Karo in the Shulchan Aruch. And even though we are a people who generally are against silly superstitions, Hashem took us out of Mitzrayim, he took us out of Egypt, so that we would not subscribe to silly superstitions, but we would exclusively follow and submit and surrender and love him. Not silly superstitions. We don't believe that red strings and we don't believe that all kinds of other silly nonsense, narishkeit, is what determines our future. We have, we have segulos. Our segulah is mitzvos. Torah tells us we're an am segulah, a nation of segulah. What is a segulah? It's Hashem says I have 613 things which can protect you and heal you and help you and give your life meaning and purpose and direction and gives me happiness and pleasure. We say no, no, no, those aren't so important. It's there was somebody on my way to the Kotel that promised me if I tie this red string then my children will be safe everything will be good. And the Tosefta, the Tosefta which is Tanaaitic literature says if you tie a red string and you think that that's going to ward off some evil then darkhei amori you're an idolater. That's a form of idolatry. We don't believe in silly superstitions and narishkeit and segulas. We have 613 segulas they're called Torah and mitzvos. Ah, so how do we reconcile what do we dipping apple and honey, that's what's going to give you a sweet new year? You could be cruel, unkind, dishonest, abusive, neglectful, disobedient of Hashem's Torah but you dipped the apple in the honey so that's it, good year, sweet new year, it's that easy, right? Wrong. Wrong. So how do you reconcile the being opposed to segulas with doing these things? So it goes back to the Gemara. The Gemara says simana milsa. The Gemara says that on Rosh Hashanah night it is an exception to the rule, we believe that there is a power in these symbols. Simana milsa. So we eat all the different foods that their name correlates with a theme, with an idea, and we hope that it will motivate and inspire us in our ambition, in our goals, in our dreams, in our behavior and so on. So one of the things we do is dip the apple in the honey. Vehamisbonen shoel says Rav Gamliel if you think about it for a moment you ask yourself mesuka sweet זו מטיבה וכי לא די בבקשה לשנה טובה. Why can't we wish one another have a happy year? I'm sorry, have a good year. Have a good year. Why do we have to say have a good and sweet year? If you said good isn't it inclusive of everything including sweet? So just say lishana tova. Why do you have to say shana tova umesuka? Just say shana tova and that includes. Why do we add on? Why do we add on mesuka? So I want to tell you when I and I don't think I mentioned this last week when I had breakfast with Leo Dee with Rabbi Leo Dee, my dear friend, I know he listens still, he should be giving every emunah shiur I don't know why he listens, but he still texts me and I'm honored and flattered. Most of them are telling me it's time to get to Israel, but also referencing things in the emunah shiur. So I don't have his permission but I'm going to tell the story anyway. So we had breakfast and we did a little video afterwards and that was posted in our Elul behind the bema. But we had many conversations. So he was telling me the following. I don't stop me if I told you this but he was telling me the following. You know the Gemara says there are three things that happen keheref ayin. I know when I gave him a hug and I wished him a good year and we said Mashiach should come, techiyas hameisim and we should be reunited with the people we love that we've lost and Mashiach should come. So he said to me the following. He said the Gemara tells us there are three things that happen keheref ayin. Three things that happen like the blink of an eye, like the snap of your finger. They happen sort of immediately, abruptly, out of nowhere. One of them is you find a lost object, you find something lost. That happens immediately, it happens out of nowhere. And the second is that you can suffer a tragedy, a loss. And the third thing is Mashiach comes. So he says you know the first two I know, I've experienced in my life. And he told me the story about when he met Lucy his wife and immediately he knew he was going to marry her. The Gemara Chazal tell us, the Gemara in Kiddushin we've learned recently in Daf Yomi that when a person gets married it's like they've found a lost object. Really min hashamayim bashert we do believe this. Really we were one soul that was separated in two and we came down to this earth and we look for our other half. And when we find them a successful marriage then it's two halves becoming a whole. It's not one plus one equals two, it's two halves becoming a whole. So the Gemara says that and for many they lose a lost object and it takes them a long time to find it. For others they lose a lost object it was right under their nose they find it immediately on the spot. I was once standing at a carousel. I was a madrich on a summer program with somebody who was a little older hadn't been married yet was trying to get married and we're waiting for our suitcases. And he said you know shidduchim, dating, marriage is a lot like the carousel at the airport. You watch each bag come off and you think maybe that's mine. Maybe the next one is mine. And he said sometimes one comes off and it comes and oh that's mine, that's mine then you take it off and you say it looks just like it should be mine but it's not mine. It looks just like mine but it's not mine then you have to put it back. But hopefully you wait long enough and eventually yours comes. And if they lost it they deliver it, eventually it gets delivered but if you wait and you're patient eventually yours comes. eventually yours comes. That was the metaphor that he told me. But the Gemara says, it's like a, it's like a lost object because this is not the first introduction, the first time you're meeting. I said under, I think, my first orders chuppah. Why don't we make a shehecheyanu under the chuppah? Many ask, many answers are given. If getting married is a mitzvah or is at least a prerequisite to the mitzvah of having children, make a shehecheyanu, ooh, under the chuppah. You get a new car, a new house, you make a shehecheyanu. Eat a new fruit, you make a shehecheyanu. A new suit, a new sheitel, you make a shehecheyanu. And you stand under a chuppah and you enter a new stage of marriage, a new stage of life, you don't make a shehecheyanu? So many answers are given, but one of the answers is, because there's nothing new here. Already from 40 days after you were conceived, the heavenly voice already said, so-and-so is going to marry so-and-so. You were two halves that were split, that were simply restored. You don't make a shehecheyanu when you find something that you previously owned and you lost and you got back, so you don't make a shehecheyanu because this isn't the first moment of this union. This union has long since preexisted. This union has been meant and predetermined from above. The idea of bashert. There's a lot more to say about it, not for now. That's a little bit of an oversimplification, but the idea of bashert. So it's the idea of losing a lost object and getting it back. So Rabbi Dee said to me, he says, I know what it means to find a lost object ke-heref ayin because I saw Lucy and I knew I was going to marry her the moment I met her. He says, I also know what it means to suffer loss ke-heref ayin because it was Chol HaMoed Pesach and we were on a tiyul and we were in two separate cars. Everyone was healthy, everyone was happy, everything was wonderful, everything was amazing, and like that his life changed. Like that his life changed. An evil, wicked terrorist, an evil, wicked Palestinian terrorist shot and killed his wife and two of his daughters, ke-heref ayin. So he says, so I know what it will mean that Mashiach can come ke-heref ayin. Everyone else, what does that, Mashiach's going to come, the whole world order's going to change, redemption will occur, it's going to feel like the blink of an eye, what does that mean? If it's not in your experience, you don't know what it means, but he says, I know what it means because it's in my experience, because I found my lost object and then I lost my lost object both ke-heref ayin. Why am I telling you this story? Because he was telling me, ke-heref ayin something good, I found my lost object. And then he said, ke-heref ayin I suffered, and he was about to say the tragedy, the loss, the sad, the pain of losing Lucy. But he stopped himself. This was just me and him. There was no camera on, there was no audience, there was no microphone, there was no one watching. There was no journalist interviewing. This was just me and him. And he stopped himself and he said, I know what it means to find a lost object ke-heref ayin, and I know what it means to have experienced, and instead of saying a tragedy, he said, a yet unrevealed good, ke-heref ayin. He described the murder of his wife as a yet unrevealed good. That's his approach, that's his perspective, that's his attitude. It's not everybody's, and there's certainly no judgment of people who experience the worst, the most horrific, the most painful, the most unimaginable in different ways. Everyone experiences it their own way without comparison and without judgment. But that's how he experiences it by saying to himself, this is unbearably painful, but all that God does is for good. So this is a yet unrevealed good. I don't know, and when I get upstairs, I'll have a lot of questions, he says, and demand an answer of how this can go from an unrevealed to a revealed good. What could be good in it? What is good about it? But he described it, and I just tried to maintain my composure because he said it in passing in a conversation over breakfast, and it's extraordinary that he was able to. But he describes it as a yet unrevealed good. Says Rav Gamliel, הקדוש ברוך הוא נותן לנו תמיד שנה טובה. By definition, every year is a good year because all that God does is for good. שהרי אנו מאמינים באמונה שלמה שכל מה שהשם עושה הכל לטובה. Everything Hashem does is for good. Kileshon Chazal, the Gemara says in Berachot daf samech, כל מן דעביד רחמנא לטב עביד. Everything God does is for good. Everything God does is for good. וכל הקורה איתנו גם אם הוא נראה בעינינו רע הרי זו בוודאי טובה עבורנו. Even that which appears, which we experience, which is painful, is good, is good. I've shared with you many times I heard from someone who lost his wife tragically young, wrote a book about it, a Rav from England. He said, painful things happen to good people, bad things don't happen to good people. Bad and good, God is the only and ultimate judge. Painful and pleasurable, that's our experience in this world. And that's what Rabbi Dee was expressing. It's a yet unrevealed good that's experienced right now as unbearable pain. Unbearable pain. And that's complicated, and none of us should minimize how complicated it is for the people in the unbearable pain, and how hard it is to even say the words that somehow it is a yet unrevealed good. But that's what we strive for. That's our aim. even that which we experience as unbearable pain that we wish we never had, that we daven, that we bear some resentment, that we demand explanations, that we protest and object to God for, that we scream and yell at him about, even that which we experience as unbearable pain is a yet unrevealed good because כל מאן דעביד רחמנא לטב עביד and because bad things don't happen to good people, painful things do. אם המבקשם אנו מהקדוש ברוך הוא שגם אנו נרגיש בטוב הטמון בכל דבר הקורה אותנו. So now he explains, that's what, that's why we wish one another shana tova u'metuka. You know why you have to add the word metuka, sweet? Because every year by definition is tova. If it's the year that God gave us and that's the year that was meant to be and that's the year that was right for us, but we hope and we wish and we ask and we beg and we plead that that which is good is also sweet. shana tova. It's going to be a good year because all that God does is good. But we hope and we wish and we ask that that which is good is also sweet וכידוע מימר צדיקים על הפסוק harenni Hashem chasdecha. Hashem, show us your loving kindness, dahinu that we believe for sure everything is kindness, really Hashem I believe that all that you do is good and kind, אך מבקשים אנו שיהיו אלו חסדים נגלים ונוכל לראותם להרגישם בחוש. But Hashem, I'm asking you, please, that that which you are doing that is good, also let me see and let me know how it is good. Don't just do good, but do good in such a way that I can see and that I can know that it is good. Do it in both, do it in both. That's our hope, that's our wish for this year. Going into next year, going into Rosh Hashana, we are confident and we proclaim that כל מאן דעביד רחמנא לטב עביד. God, all that you do is good. Some of it's revealed good and some of it is yet unrevealed good, but harenni Hashem chasdecha. Reveal to us the good. Do a good that is a revealed good. Do a good that is not only good because you are the objective authority on what's good or bad, but do a good that's also sweet. That's why we eat sweet things on Rosh Hashana and we say יהי רצון שתחדש עלינו שנה טובה ומתוקה. yehi ratzon, may it be your will, Hashem, that the year ahead not only be good, which by definition it will be, but let the good also be sweet שכשם שמרגישים את הטעם המתוק של התפוח בדבש just like we will taste the sweetness of the apple in the honey, כך נרגיש את הטוב הטמון בכל הקורה איתנו במשך השנה הבאה. Let us see and feel and taste the sweetness in all the good that will be in the year ahead. Let us taste it. So I want to tell you a parable I saw. Chinese farmer gets a horse. You didn't see that coming. A Chinese farmer. ברוך אתה ה' אלוהינו מלך העולם שהכל נהיה בדברו. amen. Chinese farmer gets a horse which soon runs away. And the neighbor says, oh, that's bad news. And the farmer says, good news, bad news, who can say? Horse comes back and brings another horse with him. Good news, you might say. So the farmer gives the second horse to the son who rides it, and the son is thrown off the horse and badly breaks his leg. So the concerned neighbor says, so sorry for the bad news. Good news, bad news, who can say? the farmer replies. In a week or so the emperor's men come and take every able-bodied man to fight in a war and the farmer's son is spared. Good news. So, and it goes on and on and on. Good news or bad news, who can say? And it goes on and on and on and of course each we have this, it's the Gemara that tells us the story about the fire, Akiva, the tent, the listim, the robbers, this ancient Chinese proverb is coming from a story from our Gemara. But that's the sort of attitude in life. Good news, bad news, who can say? Now, people suffer categorical tragic painful unbearable loss. We can say. We can all say how painful. We can say. With empathy and sympathy and love and support, we can say. But again from God's perspective, we can say it's painful. Good or bad is up to God. And that's why we say harenni Hashem chasdecha. Hashem, that which is good, don't let it only be revealed good in our life, don't only have unrevealed good in our life, give revealed good. Let the shana tova, let the year that's good also be metuka, let it also be a year that is that is sweet. And that is our avoda over this holiday of Rosh Hashana. This is what we're working on right now, these final days of Elul and Rosh Hashana, aseret yemei teshuvah through Yom Kippur. Here's our mission, here's your homework. Are you ready? Our job on Rosh Hashana is to be ממליך הקדוש ברוך הוא. We are coronating the Almighty as king. Everything, if you have to reduce emuna to one, to Rosh Hashana to one word it is, that's why I'm not a teacher, I just gave away the answer. It is emuna. If you had to reduce Rosh Hashana to one word it's emuna. They tell a story and it appears many places, I've two sefarim in front of me where I saw the story. It appears a little differently in different places, but the Baal HaTanya when he was by his Rebbe, the Maggid of Mezeritch, the Heiliger Baal HaTanya, the Alter Rebbe of Lubavitch, of Chabad, the Baal HaTanya was by his Rebbe, the Maggid of Mezeritch, and the Maggid finishes davening on the night of Rosh Hashanah, and the Baal HaTanya was still davening. So they waited, they waited at the tish, they weren't going to start Kiddush until the Baal HaTanya was done davening. They waited and they waited and they waited and they waited and they waited. And where was he? So they went back to shul and they found him (there's different versions again of this story). His davening went on forever and ever and ever because he was lost on one phrase, one expression that we have in our davening of Yamim Noraim. And they thought, you know, maybe maybe he's the whole Shmoneh Esrei is taking him forever, the whole Maariv is taking him forever, but there was one expression that was taking him forever. And what was it? It was וידע כל פעול כי אתה פעלתו. They say they came in and he had the shtender he was davening at and he was pounding it again (there's different versions again of this story). He was banging it on the floor and throwing it against the wall and screaming at the shtender. וידע כל פעול כי אתה פעלתו. Let every creation know that You are the creator. And afterwards when they say what took you so long and you know we were happy to wait, but where were you? He said, I couldn't finish davening until I banged into the shtender, till the shtender knew that ויבין ויודע כל פעול כי אתה פעלתו. Till the shtender, this created entity knew that there was a creator. That that's the mission of Rosh Hashanah, that's the mandate of Rosh Hashanah, that that's what we're working on this time of year, in our own lives, in the lives of our family. Talk about Hashem. Ha'emanti ki adaber. We have faith in Hashem when we talk about Him. See Him everywhere, talk about Him, thank Him, ask Him, object and protest to Him, but be in a relationship with Him. Coronate Him, surrender to Him, submit to Him, recognize that He's everywhere and He's what it's all about and that's what this world and that's what this life are all about. That's what it's all about, being mamlich Hashem. That shofar that we're going to hear only on one day this year because the first day is Shabbos, we have to be the shofar on the first day and we listen to the shofar on the second day. According to the Gra the Vilna Gaon, the purpose of the shofar (there's a lot of different interpretations of the shofar, but the Vilna Gaon's approach, I'm giving you a kavanah, something to think while listening to the shofar), you're at the coronation ceremony of God. This is the inaugural ball of the Almighty. We've just coronated, we've elected Him King once again. And at the King's ball there are trumpets and the shofar is the trumpet at the coronation of Hashem. So don't be mournful and cry and fearful and afraid, those are images, those are one set of images you can have, but the other, much more hopeful, positive, optimistic, joyous, celebratory is: wow, I'm listening to the trumpets. I got a ticket to the ball. I got a ticket to the inauguration. I was invited to the inaugural ball of the Melech Malchei HaMelachim and I'm listening to the trumpets play and I'm wearing my finest and I'm here celebrating, but you know what that makes me realize? Oh, one second. If He's been re-elected, if He's the Melech Malchei HaMelachim, what does a King do? He looks at His kingdom and He says: what's worthy? Who in my cabinet should remain? Who am I keeping, who am I reappointing, who am I replacing? Who has fulfilled their purpose and who has not? And right after the King's inaugural ball we, the members of the kingdom, realize that the King is going to now take His new re-election and look at every member of the kingdom and say: from the blade of grass to the shtender to the chair and certainly to the people in His kingdom, am I renewing their contract? Are they fulfilling their purpose in my kingdom? Or is it time to let them go? And that's why after Rosh Hashanah, the Slonimer Rebbe says, we spend the next eight days of Aseres Yimei Teshuva advancing our argument for why we still belong in His cabinet. Keep me in Your kingdom. Keep me on the team. So we coronate God on Rosh Hashanah. There's no mention of cheit on Rosh Hashanah. We don't clap Al Cheit, Ashamnu, there's no viduy. Rosh Hashanah people think is the day of judgment. The Torah never calls it a day of judgment. Yom HaDin is not referenced in the Torah. Zichron Teruah. Torah never calls it a day of judgment. And we don't invoke sin, we don't talk about it, we don't use the word cheit. We don't even eat egoz, nuts because they have, that's the gematria of cheit. You know, everyone knows, if you don't know now you know, don't make any recipes that have nuts in them for Rosh Hashana. We don't eat nuts on Rosh Hashana. It's a custom. It's not a law, it's a custom. We don't eat nuts on Rosh Hashana. Why don't we eat nuts on Rosh Hashana? Because the word egoz, which is the Hebrew word for nut, is the same gematria, the same numerical value as the word cheit. So the Kotzker Rebbe says, you know what else is the same numerical value as cheit? Cheit. So people, Kotzker Rebbe says, people while they're cooking their recipes for Rosh Hashana that don't have nuts because they don't want cheit, are busy gossiping and slandering and listening and watching to the wrong things and doing... He says, you know what else is the same numerical value as cheit? Cheit. So don't just not have nuts, don't just not eat egoz, also don't do cheit. Cheit's also the same gematria as cheit. My favorite Kotzker, my favorite Kotzker of the year. My favorite Kotzker of the year. So we don't even eat nuts on Rosh Hashana. We don't invoke cheit, we don't clap al cheit, we don't say viduy. So how could it be? What kind of a Yom HaDin is this? It's a pretty weak Yom HaDin. So the answer is, it's not really Yom HaDin. It's the coronation ceremony of the Almighty, we're coronating Hashem as king, we're at His inaugural ball, we're blowing the trumpet to celebrate, and then that automatically, that automatically triggers us to say, whoa, if we just re-elected... you know, imagine right now you've got primaries and elections and people are working on campaigns and they're trying to prove their worth, they're trying to help their candidate get elected, and let's say they win. It's election night, the ballots are all in, and they win, and they win, and everyone agrees they win, and they win. And and and and they celebrate. And at least for that night, there's streamers and there's music and there's trumpets and they celebrate. And then they're sworn in, their candidate, and there's the inaugural ball and everyone's wearing their finest and the confetti falls from the ceiling, and then all of a sudden the staffers, they look to themselves and they said, who, what's with tomorrow? Who's got a job tomorrow? Who on the staff that got the person re-elected, what's with tomorrow? Do they get a job, do they land a position in the new administration, or are they on their own? What will determine the answer to that? Their worth, the difference they made. Do they fulfill their purpose? Do they have a mission? Do they contribute? That will determine whether they have a position on the staff. So that's the mentality, that's the attitude we have. We are right now working. All of Elul, Erev Rosh Hashana, we are on the campaign team of God. We're putting lawn signs, we're knocking, we're going door to door, we're telling everybody, you know who's the king? Accept the king. He's the king. The Gra, the Vilna Gaon also says, what's the difference between a moshel and a melech? ועלו מושלים בהר ציון והיה למלך על כל הארץ. What's the difference between a moshel and a melech? A moshel is a ruler, and a melech is a king. What's the difference between the two? A moshel imposes himself on people. They're a, they're a dictator. A melech is elected king. Hashem can be a moshel or he can be a melech. He's in charge either way. He can be in charge as a dictator or he can be in charge because we've elected him. And the Gra says that's why we long for the day when he will go from being מושל על כל הארץ to being מלך על כל הארץ. From the whole world who are, whether they know it or not, ruled over by him, dictating what happens. And we long for the day that everybody will see him, accept him, surrender to him, and he'll go from being a moshel, a ruler, to being a melech who's elected. So how are we going to get to that day? What's our mission and our purpose? The Lubavitcher Rebbe was not only about loving and inspiring Jews but teaching the seven Noahide laws for the whole world. Torah was not meant just for the Jews, the Torah's a blueprint for creation. Torah's not just for Jews, the Torah's how to repair and redeem a world that is increasingly feeling irredeemable and confused and complicated and further from Hashem's vision and plan for it. And that's our mission, that's our job as Jews, shout from the rooftops and everyone we interact with, tell them and demonstrate to them that there's a melech. What are you, don't just be the subject of this moshel, accept and elect him the melech. There's a king, he's the King of Kings, he has a vision, he has values, he has expectations of us. Don't just be a taker, be a giver. Don't just ask about your rights and entitlements, what are your duties and obligations. You want a position in the cabinet, you want to have, be rehired as a staffer, join the campaign, help us elect him and coronate him king. That's what we're doing, that's what Elul's about, that's what we're doing. And then Rosh Hashana we're going to, that's it, our candidate won. He's the only candidate and he always wins, spoiler alert. Spoiler alert, he's the only candidate and he always wins. But we're going to be at the inaugural ball, we're going to be at the celebration. There's going to be trumpets blasting and it's going to be amazing. But you know what happens on Motzei Rosh Hashana, Tzom Gedalia, and for the next eight days to Yom Kippur? When does he decide who's in the cabinet, when does he hand out the job offers? Neilah. Right after Neilah, God's giving out the job offers. Some say you can still apply for the job till Hoshana Rabbah, some say you can still sneak in and get a job till Zos Chanukah, the last day of Chanukah. But really, when does he give out the jobs? When do the gates close on the job offers? Neilah. So from Motzei Rosh Hashanah till Neilah, we are there making our case. This is what I can offer. This is how hard I'm going to work. This is why I'm here. This is the position I have to offer. That's why by the way in our davening, Rav Gamliel also says this somewhere else in here. He says that's why what's the sentence that we're adding in our davening? Zochreinu L'chayim. Tempted to sing it for you but well that would be a kapparah for you. I'm not going to do it. זכרנו לחיים מלך חפץ בחיים וכתבנו בספר החיים למענך אלקים חיים. What kind of argument is that? Zochreinu L'chayim. Hashem, the world is unpredictable and we don't know what's going to be. And I had to interrupt, come to the emunah shiur listening to a levayah of somebody in Israel, a beloved member of our community, nebach, who came home, her father was at her house, working on her house, and she found him that he was no longer among the living. I mean, extraordinarily exceptional person, Ellie Weberman from Miami Beach, grew up in Miami Beach, Rabbi Weberman's son, 67 years old, and he wasn't in the best of health and she came home to find her father. A tragedy, and he's being buried in Israel as we speak. Was just watching the levayah. Extraordinary. It's just a reminder of just how short life is and how when everyone in that family woke up that morning, nobody thought that's how their day would end. And I'll reiterate what someone who I admire so much and love taught me, any day that you end with the same head count in your home as the way the day began is a good day, period. Whatever else is going on, if your day ends with the same head count in your house as the way the day began, it is a good day, period. If it's fixable, if everything else that's gone wrong is fixable, it's a good day. It's a good day if it's fixable. Beyond beyond tragic. And it makes you believe this was the end of Elul that happened to him. Was this already decided on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and this year? And there's so many questions and so many challenges to it. And a person who was kulo chessed. All he did was live for helping and lovingkindness to others. Life is so short. So we say Hashem zochreinu l'chayim. Zochreinu l'chayim. If we knew, if he knew, if his family knew last Rosh Hashanah how much kavanah they needed to have for zochreinu l'chayim to make it through the next Rosh Hashanah. Zochreinu l'chayim. Zochreinu l'chayim. Remember us to live. L'ma'ancha and we end, we make this all, זכרנו לחיים מלך חפץ בחיים, God don't you, you know, you love life, don't you love life? You want life, don't you love a big staff? Don't you want a big cabinet? Don't you want a lot of people? You like big staff, you like a lot of people, you like a lot of people working for you. So zochreinu l'chayim, give me a job, keep me around, give me a job because Melech chafetz bachayim you like having a big staff and a lot of people working for you. And then we end it l'ma'ancha and by the way in the end, and don't do it for me. L'ma'ancha elokim chayim, l'ma'ancha, for you. Give me life, l'ma'ancha elokim chayim, do it for you in the end. We say it in Avinu Malkeinu, עשה למענך אם לא למעננו. We say it in our selichos that we've been saying, asei l'ma'ancha in the aseis. Over and over in our davening, we make all the argument for us and as like the last, I was going to call it a Hail something, but that wouldn't be appropriate. In the last ditch effort, the last ditch effort we say, we give every argument under the sun, keep us around, renew our contract, add us to your cabinet, keep us on your staff. And here's the final argument: don't do it for us. Do it for you. But how is that argument, what are we saying? What kind of argument is that? How does it help God? He's infinite, he's omnipotent, he's all-perfect. How is it l'ma'ancha? How is it for him? How is it for him? And the answer is what we're saying to God is you need me. You need me. Because אין מלך בלא עם, there is no king without a people. And this world doesn't all know you and accept you and coronate you as king. And you need me to help continue to go door-to-door and post on social media and scream from the rooftops and put on the lawn signs and you need me. You need me to get your message out, you need me to get people to elect you, you need me to get people on your side. L'ma'ancha, I'm here and ready to work for you. But that only helps if what? You're here and ready to work for him. So the whole argument is keep me around and keep my family around, give us the resources we need, give us the good health that we need, give us the strength that we need. Why? For us, for our pleasure? So that we can have more things? Go on more vacations? Those are nice and there's nothing wrong with them in the right context. Enjoy them. But that's not why we're asking for life. We're not asking for life and health and parnassah so we can get more pleasures in this world. Why are we asking for it? Because I want to be in Your cabinet. I want to be on Your staff. So position me to be the most effective. So God, if You want me to be able to travel and go and penetrate and make a difference, I need an expense account. I can't do it if I have no expense account. You want me hospitality, you want me to have Your children over for meals who have nowhere else to go, I need an expense account. How am I supposed to host people? How am I supposed to travel? How am I supposed to help? How are we supposed to run a pre-Rosh Hashanah market that ran out of food both days, four hours before the end of the time we posted, because that's how many of Your children needed relief and food? And there are extraordinary people in this room who volunteered for hours, unbelievable, pouring sweat, working hard, lifting boxes, they can testify to how many trucks came, how much food kept coming, how much was replenished, and it wasn't nearly enough, because Hashem, that's how many of Your children needed relief and help as prices have skyrocketed just to be able to make Yom Tov. So Hashem, how can I work for You if You don't give me the expense account, if You don't reimburse, if You don't provide the resources? So we're not asking so that we have things and go on vacations, those are nice too, because every worker also gets time off and you need a salary for yourself, but Hashem, I need also an expense account to take care of Your children, I need an expense account to launch, to run Your campaign, we need ad buys, we need to buy, we need to promote You, I need an expense account. So I'm giving you the winning secret right now. I'm telling you the formula and you got to mean it, we've got to mean it. It can't be fake, it can't be insincere, because here's the thing about our candidate: He sees right into our heart. Other politicians and other candidates you could pull the wool over their eyes, here's the thing about our candidate that we're electing: He sees right into our heart. Bochen liba v'klayos, He knows everything, הבוחן לבבות ביום דין. Hashem sees right into our heart, He knows if we're sincere or not. You want to make it on the staff? You want to be in the cabinet? You want to be part of next year's team? L'mancha Elokim Chaim. The argument, the winning argument is Hashem, it's not for me that I'm asking, it's not for me that I'm wanting, I want good health, I need good health for me and my team, for me and my committee, we need health and we need resources if we're going to best serve You. You want our home to be a place of chessed and hospitality, you want our lives to be tzedakah and giving, you want us to be able to take our talents and skills and to be able to change the world, we need the good health, the energy, the strength to be able to do it. That's my argument, Hashem. L'mancha Elokim Chaim, aseh l'mancha, do it for You, do it for You. That's what we're asking. So what we're longing for, what we're saying, what we're saying over and over: וידע כל פעול כי אתה פעלתו from the shtender to the chair, it should all know God that You are the king. You are the king. This is it, it's the coronation. Rosh Hashanah's not about teshuvah in the classic sense of cheit, of Yom HaDin, of judgment. Rosh Hashanah we're at the coronation, it's celebratory, it's happy, it's joyous. That's why the Torah says we're not wearing black and disheveled and unshaven, you know, you come before a physical judge and we are wearing our finest and we're happy and we're eating and we're drinking and we're merry. Why? Because we're at a coronation, we're at an inauguration. But Motzei Rosh Hashanah, Tzom Gedalia, we say, oh, I've got eight more days, seven more days, the jobs are being given out after Ne'ilah, that's when it's decided who got a job, who has a place on the staff in the cabinet. I've got to advance my argument. I got eight days to prove myself, I've got eight days to prove that I belong. How will I prove it? The more I live my life of service to You, the more I take care of Your other children, the more I prove that with the resources and the health I can do great things, the more they'll be renewed. The more I don't really care about You, it's all about me, the more I have no interest in being of service to You, You serve me, the more that life is about me, then God says out, wouldn't we all fire such a person? The staffer who sleeps in, comes late, leaves early, doesn't care, has an ego, can't follow consensus, isn't about the team or the mission, wouldn't we fire such a staffer? That's the argument that we make. So I end by wishing everybody a shana tova u'metuka. It'll be a good year. Will it be revealed good or yet unrevealed good in the words of Rabbi Leo Dee? Will it be a year ahead that's only revealed good? That's what we daven. You know what revealed good is? The Mazel Tov section in our weekly. You know what yet unrevealed good is? The condolence section of the weekly. We want a year of only revealed good, of only revealed good. You know the Shemoneh Esrei's made up of so many parts, we have the praise of Hashem, we have the bakasha and we have the end, the hoda'ah, the gratitude. So we want a year of Modim Shemoneh Esrei. You know, some days you feel like this is a Refaeinu day. There's somebody in our life who's undergoing tests, who's sick, who needs a refuah. It's a Refaeinu day. The Bareich Aleinu days, running a food market, so many people who need, who don't have, it's a Bareich Aleinu day. We're davening for livelihood. There are days where the world feels so unfair and so unjust, and we're being treated so poorly, and it's a Hashiva Shofteinu Kevavarishona day. Hashem restore justice and truth. There's different brachos on for me, like days can be characterized by different brachos in Shmoneh Esrei. So and then there are days that are kulo Modim days. Wow, what a everyone's healthy, everyone's well, all good things, good news, it's a Modim day. It's a Modim day. It's a Modim. Rabbi Alan Schwartz is a rabbi in Manhattan, a huge talmid chacham. Rabbi Alan Schwartz, he has a saying, my friend Lisa always quotes him, she asks him, "Rabbi, what's the score today?" Because rabbis have scores, like especially on a Sunday. How many weddings versus funerals versus unveilings, a Bar Mitzvah, a bris, unveiling, a funeral, a shiva house. What's the score today? Four nothing, four to two, three to one, one against three. What's the score today? What's the score today? So all of us have lives that what's the score today? And all of us have lives that the bracha in the Shmoneh Esrei is it a Refaeinu day, a Bareich Aleinu day, Hashiva Shofteinu day, Shma Koleinu day, is it a Modim day? So we say it should be a Shana Tova U'mesuka. Every day should be exclusively a Modim day. Exclusively a Modim day. Even Refaeinu Bareich Aleinu days are shana tova, they're also good days because all that God does is good. But we daven and we bless one another that not only should our days be good, they should be good and sweet. Good and sweet. They shouldn't only be unrevealed good, our days should be entirely filled with revealed good and revealed sweetness and only the best of everything. So we'll see you next year, im yirtzeh Hashem, which happens to be next week, next Wednesday. Tonight Yocheved and I are going Behind the Bima with Rifka Ravitz. If you've never heard of Rifka Ravitz, she was the chief of staff of the tenth president of Israel, a mover and shaker in Israeli politics, also happens to be the mother of 12 children and somehow balances it all. She's our guest tonight on Behind the Bima. Until next year, stay happy, stay healthy, and stay holy.
