Transcript
Okay good morning Gmar Chasima Tova. First of all, tremendous, tremendous, tremendous, tremendous recognition to all of you Erev Yom Kippur. Wow. Erev Yom Kippur to come together to learn to grow, living with emuna, you know still a meal you have to prepare before Yom Kippur and then the break fast for after Yom Kippur and then Succos and a lot of excuses and reasons to not be able to come and to learn and to grow and this is where everyone is, this is where we are meant to be to be together in this Berdichev Beis Medrash relocated because Baruch Hashem they're preparing the shul. So it's a tremendous tribute to all of you and I'm grateful. When people said you're giving the shiur on Erev Yom Kippur, I said the people said they're coming, so how could you not give it? So if you would have all said, what are you crazy, I'm not coming Erev Yom Kippur, then there would be no shiur. So it's a tribute to all of you and I thank you. Our mini-series is generously sponsored by Dr. Tzvi and Bella Morgan in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut, in memory of Dotty Ellen Shanzer, Bella's mother, and in the great zechus that our hostages come home, our soldiers are safe, we daven those 72 hours, those few days are up at the end of Yom Kippur. As my daughter in Israel told me, that maybe we'll make הבדלה מוצאי יום כיפור to the news that hostages are home and that soldiers are safe and that it's over. So we have things to daven for each and every year. I announced in shul that if you have nothing to daven for, you have the most to daven for. If you think that everyone in my life, everyone's healthy, everyone's well, everyone's married, everyone's having children, everyone's successful, everyone's safe, if you think that everything's going well in your life and you have nothing to daven for, you have the most to daven for because there's the most that the other shoe can drop and things can go wrong. But we all have a lot to daven for each and every year. We certainly do this year and as we know that this deal is out and extraordinarily, remarkable. I mean, we talk about ישועת השם כהרף עין. Our Rabbis say that the salvation of Hashem can come in the blink of an eye. In one moment it can feel all is helpless and hopeless and all is lost and we can't imagine any possibility or salvation and in the blink of an eye things can be turned around and it's far from over. We should not spike the football until we're in the end zone. I'll explain what that means later to any of you if you didn't understand it, but we should not celebrate prematurely. Certainly, we should not celebrate prematurely. But I will tell you this: last week it felt like the entire world turned on Israel. The whole world was rallying around Hamas and Israel was isolated on the international stage and one by one every country and every continent was criticizing, condemning, isolating Israel. And in one day, in one hour, all introduced with the Avraham Accords and ending with the Prime Minister of Israel wishing the world, hundreds of millions of people watching, a Gmar Chasima Tova. But in one hour, now Hamas is isolated in the world. The entire Arab world, Qatar and Turkey and Egypt this morning putting pressure on them to agree to this deal. So ישועת השם כהרף עין. Is it perfect? It's not perfect. You didn't come here to hear my analysis or editorial comment on this potential deal. My point is there's a lot to daven for. There's a lot to daven for. And halevai, im yirtzeh Hashem we should see the peiros, we should see the results of the answer of our tefillah immediately. That with Havdalah on Motzei Yom Kippur if not sooner. Halevai before Ne'ila when I speak I could announce, Junior will tell us there's good news, hostages are home, im yirtzeh Hashem. This morning's shiur is also anonymously sponsored zchus James Yosef ben Genevieve, may Hashem remove all obstacles and bring a during reconnection with שרה צפורה בת יפה. And by Heidi and Alan Fuchs, leilu nishmas Alan zel. Oh, I loved Alan zel. I miss Alan zel. Alan was a fixture of my childhood in Teaneck, New Jersey. אהרן משה בן נחום אלתר. We miss him and his potato kugel. Whose warm smile lit up every room as emuna carried him through life and we certainly miss him. Anonymously, with thanks to BRS for giving life-changing shiurim for the zchus to bring a zivug for שינא רבקה בת שרה רחל. By Michael and Estee Lopin, leilu nishmas אברהם חיים בן יחיאל גוטמן. Oi, Rabbi Gutman, what a tremendous, tremendous power, what a neshama, we miss him terribly, we wish Estee a lot of nechama. And leilu nishmas my aunt whose yahrzeit is today, אסתר מלכה בת יענטא רחל. My Aunt Malkie Laza who passed away suddenly and abruptly on Erev Yom Kippur. Family didn't even have a chance to sit shiva. Very special woman who inspired her whole family and our whole family and we miss my Aunt Malkie. Our learning should be leilu nishmas her as well. We'll read a couple emails and then we'll get into our learning. We're finishing up where we were, maybe share a Yom Kippur thought, get everyone home to be able to cook for the Seuda Mafsekes. Hi Rabbi Goldberg, we hit the road on the way to my husband's first Ishay Ribo concert. And we got hungry thinking it was okay to come after the hour listed on the ticket, which is usually listed a half hour early. So we thought we'd stop for pizza. As we paid for our order, a rocket siren goes off. Okay, we still have a nice amount of time to get to the concert, into the shelter and out of the shelter. 20 minutes later, our pizza had still not come out. In Israel today you're more upset that your pizza is taking forever than the fact that you had to run to a bomb shelter. Like the bomb shelter is just part of daily life, but where's my pizza? I decide to remind the teens at the counter and good thing too, they forgot about our order. Finally we quickly ate, now in time to get there with a few minutes to find parking. On the highway Waze jumps up another 20 minutes. Now we will certainly miss the first song. Okay, time continues to creep up and my husband wants to turn back home. Instead I decide to introduce him to your podcast. I don't know if that's good or bad for Shalom Bayis. Listen to Rabbi Goldberg, he said embrace your place. Stop yelling. A few emails in and we're getting closer. I feel the tight knot of my stomach begins to ease as I embrace our place. We're clearly not meant to hear the start of the concert. Lo nora. We see the arena, along with an entire sidewalk of illegally parked cars and a closed-off parking lot. Deep breath, Hashem clearly has a spot for us somewhere. Not just anywhere, an empty spot on the sidewalk at the entrance of the arena. As we are an hour late, there is zero line to get in past security. We're finally inside to hear the opening notes of the concert. We were not the only ones late. Ribo was late, rather we were all on perfect time, thank Hashem. We didn't have to wait, sit hungrily for an hour as our bellies were full. We didn't have to sit and wait, rather we heard some emunah, some Torah. My husband and I got to connect through a new for him podcast and as usual Ishay Ribo did not disappoint. For the record, I started to write the email as we're embracing our place in traffic on the highway and I'm feeling very blessed I was able to complete it on such a high. Thank you for the weekly shiurim and we hear the shofar calls as we watch the kohen enter the Beis HaMikdash next week. Beautiful. Ribo was caught in the same traffic so everybody's where they were meant to be and they got there on time. Hi Rabbi Goldberg, I'm the girl who sponsored the shiur in honor of her aliyah. I've been making it, I've been an avid listener and honestly it's the only thing that's gotten me through the challenges of making aliyah. When I knew my aliyah flight would be on Wednesday, I knew I had to sponsor the shiur. I even had a conversation with my friends the week before, stressed because I didn't want to listen to the previous week's shiur as I want to save it to listen to on the plane, knowing that that day's shiur wouldn't be out in time for me to download. What I did not know that El Al has a secret living with emunah section. I had already downloaded 10 hours' worth of older shiurim for my flight. A sure fire way to fall asleep on the plane. It's better than Ambien. Better than Ambien, download some living with emunah. But the screaming toddler next to me who was making aliyah made it hard to concentrate on the shiur. So don't worry, I made sure to have my fix emunah shiur locked and loaded for my night, for my flight. Now for the emunah story. I finally got off the flight after hours of a screaming toddler not allowing me to sleep. After I just left my entire family to move to a country with no relatives, safe to say it was emotional and the lack of sleep didn't help. After hours of processing and documents at the airport, I go to the carousel to get my luggage. I brought four suitcases with me. I only found two. I went to the Nefesh B'Nefesh helper and told them and they said look again. Still no luck. My immediate thought was my bags are where they're meant to be. The Nefesh B'Nefesh lady said we'll file for missing suitcase claim. My response to her was I could easily burst into tears and break down right now, but I'm going to practice some emunah and say this instead: It could have been so much worse than losing two bags, I could have lost all four. But Baruch Hashem two of them still arrived and im yirtzeh Hashem I'll have all the necessities in those bags. Aliyah is not easy. I'm learning that over and over again, but strengthening my emunah muscle has been the best way to get through it all so thanks. I did receive both my missing suitcases and now I can easily say I am living the dream with all of my belongings. Shana haba'ah b'Yerushalayim. Again, I share these emails, they're exciting, they're other people's adventure, but they're also inspiring for us in our moments of losing our suitcases or getting stuck in traffic and missing where we thought we were headed to just remember and it could happen and it will happen tonight at Kol Nidrei, tomorrow in shul. There could be, there shouldn't be, we're trying hard not to be, a screaming toddler or the person in front or behind you talking despite our heartfelt plea to take it outside. It could be, and in that moment, that is also where we are meant to be and we have to figure out how to adjust and figure out what's the appropriate way to communicate with the people around us so that we can inspire them and remain inspired ourselves. But the point is, if we live and go into every moment of our lives armed with that worked-out emunah muscle so it didn't atrophy and it doesn't die and it doesn't disappear, but we're ready for what life throws at us. Because I promise you, not maybe, but every day something will be thrown at us. Some frustration, some disappointment, something that will or won't work out. My Shabbos Shuva drasha that got erased and Baruch Hashem I rewrote it. Some of you wish it got more erased so that it would have been a little shorter, but whatever in life is the challenge we're supposed to have, and the beauty of emunah is it arms us and we're ready and we don't have the regret. I should have said this, I forgot to tell that story. I did forget to tell a story at the end. Our drasha was about ego and ego versus Elokus. It really was an hour and a half emunah shiur. The antidote to ego is Elokus. synopsis, which was that ego is the enemy when it’s all about us, when it’s about self. But when ego is the soul, is the piece of Hashem in us, when we’re expressing our elokus with romemus, not a humility of shy and humble and meek and hiding in the corner, but a humility of Moshe Rabbeinu, I didn’t get to this either. Moshe Rabbeinu is the anav mikol adam. Hashem himself testifies, Moshe is the most humble man of all time. And yet the same who’s the most humble man of all time is the greatest leader of all time, the biggest influencer of history. Every home, every all over the planet knows the name Moses. The most ignorant Jew, a non-Jew who knows nothing about religion knows the name Moses. Moses is the most well-known name, he’s the biggest influencer of all time, the five books of Moses, of Moshe. Moshe Rabbeinu, he’s quintessentially our leader. How do you shtim, how do you reconcile that? He’s the most humble man of all time, and when you picture the most humble man of all time you picture the person who’s quiet, who sits, who doesn’t speak unless he’s asked, who hides and shies away in the corner, who doesn’t suck the air out of the room and doesn’t need the spotlight, who’s not an influencer, not impactful, and not a leader. Moshe is simultaneously the most humble man of all time and the greatest leader of all time. He’s the most humble man of all time and when the moment demands it, who rises, vayach es hamitzri? Who’s the one who eliminates the Egyptian because an Egyptian is harassing and abusing someone else? Who’s the one who doesn’t say humble, it’s not for me, I can’t insert myself, it’s not my business, I shouldn’t, what do I... No. Humility is assertiveness. Humility is standing tall and proud. Humility is knowing your mission and your purpose. So the synopsis is in every moment to ask ourselves: is it ego or elokus? Why am I reacting this way? Why do I want to say that email, that text that back? Why am I feeling this feeling? Is it because of ego or is it elokus? Am I expressing the godliness in me or is it ego that’s driving me? That’s the question and we talked about why is ego the enemy. Three or four of its greatest dangers: it causes us not to learn, it demands of us external gratification, we went through I’m not going to give you the entire shiur, but the ultimate punchline of the shiur is ego or elokus? In every moment, every time we’re tempted to respond, to lash out, to answer, to do, to feel, why did I need so many people at the Shabbos Shuva drasha? Was that my ego or because I have all this Torah of others and elokus, I just want the whole world to hear it because it had such an impact on me I want it to have an impact on them and on you? Why are we trying to expand the emunah shiur? Why do we want everyone on the globe to be learning emunah and living emunah with us? Ego? Need to have the biggest emunah shiur? Or elokus? That’s the question I ask myself, I’m asking myself every day. I’ve been struggling with this the last many years and as long as you’re struggling you’re in good shape, you’re in a good place. But that’s the question for us all the time. So the story I left out, so I’ll feel better now because I left it out, but I didn’t beat myself up. Why? Because the emunah shiur. The beauty of living with emunah is you realize there can be no regret. There should be regret in a healthy sense, we’ll talk about that about Yom Kippur tonight, but you can’t beat yourself up with regret about things you could have or should have done differently because you can’t go back and change the past. And to recognize that as we learned a lot together, reshaim meleim charata. It is evil and wickedness to be filled with regret. To be focused on the past and to try to change something you can’t paralyzes and debilitates you and it handicaps you. It makes you stuck. I was going to say hold you hostage, but we can’t use those words today. So it keeps us back and chalila it keeps us back. So a person can’t. Reshaim meleim charata. It is wicked and evil to be filled with regret. So you forgot the story or you sent that email and you regret it or whatever we did we were meant to do and now how do we undo it or fix it or redo it now? Don’t get stuck in the past, don’t be filled with regret for the past. How do you fix it, how do you fix it now? So here’s the story that my brother-in-law reminded me I forgot to tell, so I’ll feel better because I’ll tell it to you now. Ego versus elokus. So many many years ago under a very different administration who was having trouble in the relationship with Israel and the Jewish people because at the time Florida was not a red state but a swing state and the votes mattered, not because of me, I was invited to a series of meetings at the White House, one of which the president himself joined to discuss the administration’s relationship with the Jewish community and the pro-Israel community. But the first time I went was my first time in the West Wing of the White House in the Roosevelt Room sitting around the table and members of the administration and Secret Service coming in and it was, wow, I was all geared up and I was all excited and I planned and I measured my words and if it was I had a chance to speak what was I going to say and to be in the room, to be literally at the table. at the table. It was an incredible experience. The buildup to it, the experience itself and when I came out, of course, my first phone call was to my other half, to my better half, I called my wife to say it was incredible, it was amazing. This is what it's like and the splendor and the and the Secret Service and the members of the administration and the Roosevelt Room and the art and the sculpture and the paintings. This is what it was like. And she listened and she was interested and attentive and she said that's amazing. And then she said, listen, I don't care what time your flight comes back, listen Mr. Tough Guy White House, Mr. President Guy, tomorrow's garbage day, whatever time you get in, whatever time you get in, don't forget to take out the garbage. So for those who worry, for those who worry that when you're the rabbi of a shul with a thousand families or give a living with emuna shiur you could get an ego, the last thing I forgot and I left off was the biggest way to combat having an ego is to having a life partner who keeps you in check, who tells you no matter where you were, no matter what meeting you had, don't forget to take out the garbage. Don't forget to take out the garbage. So that's a very big important point. The point is that when you leave out a story or you leave out a source or after a conversation, I had a conversation on Shabbos, one of those conversations that you replay in your head over and over and say, oh I should have said this, oh I should have said that differently. When you live with emuna, you can stop those thoughts because they're unhealthy and unhelpful. No, clearly you shouldn't have because you didn't and that wasn't what you were meant to say. And if there's something to be said now, so say it now. Call that person, get back in touch with them and say it now if it's meant to be said. But if it wasn't meant to be said, you didn't say it because that wasn't right. So when you live with emuna it arms you whether you're stuck in traffic and late to a Rebo concert or whether there's a crying baby next to you on the plane and you lose two suitcases or whether you forgot a story in the drasha that you meant and could have and should have ended with, you don't beat yourself up when you live with emuna and you see that everything is carefully choreographed and curated from above and you are taking initiative and we are expressing our free will to be the best that we can be and the rest is up to him. And here's another example of it. On Rosh Hashanah night right after candle lighting my six-year-old comes over to me and tells me his ear is hurting. During the night he came to me again complaining about an earache and again in the morning at which point I figured, okay, time to do something about it. I have a wonderful neighbor who's a pediatrician so I knocked on her door at 8:00 AM. She looked in his ears and his ears and said he has a very bad ear infection with a strong possibility of bursting his eardrum. He needs to be treated today. She sent off the prescription to the local Walgreens and said it cannot wait until after Rosh Hashanah. So off I went with my baby in the stroller and insurance and credit card to Walgreens. I did my best to have the pharmacist do any melachos for me and as I was sitting waiting for the prescription, I just kept reminding myself, embrace your place, I'm exactly where I'm meant to be in Walgreens taking care of my kid on Rosh Hashanah. We got back with plenty of time to get everyone out the door and shul for shofar, but this was definitely strange Rosh Hashanah. On a side note my car magnet disappeared off the side of my car recently and my husband told me, your magnet is exactly where it's supposed to be. Gmar tov. So if you're in Walgreens on Rosh Hashanah instead of in your seat in shul, embrace your place. You could beat yourself up, you could be bitter and resentful, you could be negative, you can feel I can't find spirituality here or by leaning in and realizing אכן יש השם במקום הזה. Hashem is in Walgreens. Hashem is stuck in traffic. Hashem is at that conveyor belt of the suitcase line and missing suitcase. Hashem is אכן יש השם במקום הזה, he is wherever we are and wherever we are meant to be. Shana tova I want to share a story that reminded me and my friend of the Rav's emuna shiur. A few weeks ago my friend and I had planned to attend a speed dating event in Long Island. I was hesitant, school, long drive, but realized I'd already been in the area that day, why not? I later realized I likely wouldn't make it to the event on time, so the organizer gave away my spot and my friend opted not to go either. As luck had it, I finished earlier than expected that evening and reluctantly called the organizer, secretly hoping he'd say it was too late. But instead he encouraged me to come. So I drove back an hour to where I'd just been, mostly feeling like I was simply cashing in hishtadlus point. I didn't meet anyone for myself, but I ended up setting up my friend, same friend who didn't attend, with someone from the event. Here's the punchline. The same week she had asked a tefillah group she's part of to daven for me without telling me. Within 48 hours I had unknowingly tried to help her meet someone and she had tried to help me. While the match didn't work out, neither of us have our happy ending just yet, we found so much comfort in the hashgacha praying and thinking for each other in the very same week. It was a strong reminder that it's not about the perfect ending but seeing Hashem in the process. That even without the obvious yeshua ending for either of us, the hashgacha is often in the process, not just the outcome. Although we hope to have a part B to share from the story soon. Wishing a sweet emuna-filled meaningful year ahead. Finding Hashem, feeling Hashem's presence. Okay the story didn't turn out yet and you're still sitting and waiting for that outcome that one is so desperately hoping for. But nevertheless, nevertheless waiting and finding Hashem wherever we are. Okay last one. I emailed you a couple months ago, I've been working really hard in accepting Hashem's will with a positive attitude. This summer my husband had a stroke. I thought of myself for some reason, Hashem wanted my husband to have this medical... even though he's only in his lower fifties. It wasn't easy, but I was managing. We've been busy through the summer and still busy with several doctors' appointments, imaging, tests. Apparently, he suffered more than one, as we recently found out that he has a heart condition as well. Due to all the time we've been spending with his medical crisis, I've had to cut down my hours and parnassah's a challenge. I always tell myself, as long as you have what you need for today, let God worry about tomorrow. I'm at the point where I don't usually have what I need for today. I'm embarrassed to admit how much debt we've accumulated. In the background of all this, my daughter, shidduchim, as I mentioned in her previous email, health. When I listen to the emuna shiur, I feel I cannot help, I cannot relate and be inspired. Can you address simultaneous serious issues to help people like myself get through challenges? So that's a big question. That's not like stuck in traffic to the Ribo concert after having eaten really good pizza. That's not Walgreens on Rosh Hashanah, but no problem, antibiotics going to make the ear infection go away, all's good, I'll catch shofar later. This is a tough question. It's a really, really tough question. It's a really tough question. So here's what I want to share with you. I don't have permission to share yet from the person who wrote. I don't think I have permission. Did I ask him permission? Maybe I did ask permission. I got one of the most dramatic, powerful, strongest emails I ever got in my life last week before Rosh Hashanah, and it blew me away. And it totally blew me away from a person who's very angry at Hashem. Oh, I did. Of course you may share this however with whomever in whatever manner you choose. Okay, I want to read to you the following email. But be ready for it because you may not, it's painful, it's powerful, it's real, it's raw. I'll tell you the postscript to it. It shook me to my core because it articulated something that I hope none of us are feeling entirely, but I think and I wonder if maybe some of us are feeling partially. And if we're not feeling it now, or not feeling it this year, maybe have felt before or fear will feel in the future. Okay, so with that dramatic introduction, you ready? This is someone shared with me their letter to God on Erev Rosh Hashanah. I write this to you, God, because the time for apologies has come to an end. I'll express this in no uncertain terms. You have hurt me. You have abused and tortured me. You have taunted and judged me. In my hour of need, you abandoned me. You have condemned me to loneliness and envy. You elected every moment to continue to subject me to pain which drains the little hope I still have for things in my life to improve. I've been aware of all this for a while, but the time has come for me to say it. You dare call yourself a merciful father? A father who treats his children like you deserve nothing but the staunchest condemnation. You willingly subject humanity to horrors unimaginable and claim to be a God of kindness and compassion? If you are as they say you are: omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, then it is within your power to reverse the sadistic creation you fashioned, and yet you continuously choose to prop it up. Here's what I have to say to you. Nearly a decade of dedication to you, your laws, what I thought was your will—go on, I'd like you to think about the thousands of times I've prayed, put on tefillin, kept Shabbat, pushed normal thoughts of girls out of my developing brain and castigated myself when I didn't. I slaved away over a Gemara for years, bored to tears and pressured to meet toxic social standards because I thought it would make you love me. Well, so be it. You have hurt me, and this time I'm going to remember it. Of course, what I'd like to say is that I'm going to hurt you too, but if you are as they say you are, that's not quite something I or anyone else can do. Fine, I accept that hurting you is beyond my control. Fortunately for me, you decided to grant me free will, and oh, I'm itching to use it. This mouth will never utter another word of praise or thanks to you, the source of my pain and misfortune. I'll dedicate my arms and legs and years to helping those in need because you've abandoned them too. I will forever rue the day your cruel masochism decided to plant me in this traumatic world to suffer and scream. How many times have I prayed to you to heal me, to comfort and console me, to show me the purpose in my pain? You've left me unanswered. You've stood me up. You've left me. And so I leave you too. May you know the pain of a parent witnessing their child turn his back and walk away. May you feel the seething grief that darkens my days and slashes my guts. May your eyes flood with tears shed over losing your son forever. I don't want you to explain anything anymore. I don't want to hear from you at all. I'm done asking questions and I'm done reaching out. I suppose the next time I see you will be whenever you decide to pluck me from this world and stand me up before your kangaroo court to judge me as a wicked man for defending myself. Until then, please don't talk to me. Don't communicate with me. I'll never forget what you've done to me, and I know you won't either. This Rosh Hashanah I'll be doing something of my own. I hope it was worth it. That's, that's maybe the most real, raw, authentic, powerful letter I ever read in my life and I want to address it because that's what this other email is essentially saying. How do you reconcile all these challenges and all these problems: the health of her husband with her parnassah, with the waiting and the longing and the loneliness of her daughter and all that combination of like where are you? Where are you? It's easy to say, oh, I saw your hand, I got the parking spot, the thing worked out, the flight was delayed, ah it turned out, ah, embrace your place. But when you're waiting and you're longing and you're wondering and you're nervous and you're anxious and you get that letter from an anonymous email address. So I'll tell you what I wrote back. This is what I wrote back and I'm reading it because I want to share it with you, not only in saying it to him but saying it to you. And anyone else who's listening and anyone else, like I said, I hope that no one here says that's exactly how I feel. But I wonder if anyone here doesn't say that's a little bit, a little bit, a little bit, a little bit, with hostages still held and families still grieving and people still suffering and people we know and love and maybe some in this room who are still in such pain. Like where are you? Avinu Malkeinu, you're Avinu, if you're our father and you can, why don't you intervene and intercede? Why don't you step in and provide? Why don't you answer in the positive what I'm waiting and longing and wanting and asking? So here's what I wrote back: I've read and re-read this so many times and each time it breaks my heart and brings tears to my eyes. I'm beyond sorry for your pain and experiences. I found your words so real, authentic and profound, and while they're written to write off Hashem, I see them as one of the greatest expressions of emunah I've ever read. If you didn't believe he's real, you wouldn't bother being angry, disappointed with him or walking away from him. And so your walking away is in fact an enormous demonstration of walking towards. Maybe on Rosh Hashanah, if you don't want to open a machzor, print this out and read it to him. Scream it at him. If you want to communicate further, if I can help in any way, I'm honored and grateful that you shared it and so on. Since then the person has revealed themselves to me and we had a big hug because he was in shul on Rosh Hashanah with a tallis and a machzor and I saw him the other day here davening Shacharis. And that scene reminds me. Elie Wiesel once wrote after the Holocaust about putting Hashem on trial. That the survivors of the Holocaust, he wrote very poignantly Wiesel, about after the Holocaust putting Hashem on trial. And he describes very dramatically all the evidence and all the testimony and the conviction of Hashem that ultimately Hashem is found guilty of this great atrocity of the Holocaust. And Wiesel ends that the beis din after finding God guilty gives a klap and says Hashem is guilty as charged, but the sun is setting, we have to daven Mincha. That's the image of Elie Wiesel, that's the image of the Holocaust survivors. Hashem is guilty, but we have to daven Mincha. Now it's time to daven to him, to walk towards him, to hug him, to feel his hug. What I'm trying to say is that you can feel these things simultaneously. And when one does, and when one does, and this maybe radical and maybe some people listening may not be so happy with it, maybe people will dig up sources that say that I'm wrong but I'll match them by digging up those that will tell you that I'm right because this is not my own opinion but it's part of our rich tradition, that when a person is angry or disappointed at Hashem it's not a failure or breakdown of emunah, in some ways it's the ultimate expression of emunah. When you say I'm done with you and I'm never talking to you again and I can't believe you did this and if you're really my father why didn't you, if you don't believe in God you're not angry at him. There are a lot of people who come to shul and they say every word in that machzor, but they didn't have any real moment of tefillah. They didn't have any one real second of conversation or connection or commune with their creator. They could say every word in the machzor, say it slowly, have the longest Shemoneh Esrei in shul. They could clap every Al Chet the loudest till you're worried they're breaking their ribcage. But they didn't have one second of real connection. And the person who comes to shul and whatever the words in the machzor but uses that time to really pour out their heart and have a real conversation, where were you, where are you, how could you, when will you, gives that klap and says you're guilty of not acting like a father. But now what can I do? Guilty as charged, it's time for Mincha. Somebody else shared with me just this week whose mother is suffering from Alzheimer's and whose father has been her caretaker and is running out of energy and he said to him last week before Rosh Hashanah I'm not doing Rosh Hashanah this year because I am angry at God. So what do I do about my father? How do I- he has no *emunah*, no faith, he's walking away and I said, it's a conversation and it's a challenge, but don't say he has no *emunah*, he has more *emunah* maybe than me and you put together, because you're not angry at someone that you don't think exists. You're not angry at a figment of imagination. You're not angry at a fantasy. You're not angry at a character in a play or a movie or a TV show. If you're angry at God, it's because you know and believe and feel He's real, and you feel He's your father. You're not angry at the stranger that they didn't help you, you're angry at your father who could have helped you and chose not to. That's real, that's a real conversation, that's not walking away, that's walking towards. To be clear, I'm not encouraging everyone this year, this is the year of anger, let's get angry. I'm not encouraging you that if you're not angry you should be angry. I'm not encouraging you that if you don't have questions you should have questions. I'm not encouraging you that if you're not feeling like walking away you should walk out. *Chalila chas veshalom*, God forbid, that is not what I'm saying. It's not what I'm saying at all, it's not what I'm saying in the least. Is that clear? Are we on the same page? What I'm saying is if it is what you're feeling, and if it's what you're feeling maybe a little bit, and if it's maybe not what you're feeling but you once felt and you're feeling guilty that you felt it, don't. Know that whatever you're feeling, every feeling that we have can be and should be in fact channeled into connection to *Hashem*. The *Sfas Emes*, a beautiful *Sfas Emes* who actually says this. *Sfas Emes*, I forgot on which *posuk*, *bli neder* I'll try to remember for the next time. It's a beautiful *Sfas Emes* who literally describes that we need to know that whatever feeling that we're feeling, even if that feeling needs to be worked on, IFS, we have to talk to our different parts and get back to ourself. You thought I forgot about it since last year? We're still talking IFS. Whether it's through IFS or something else, whatever feeling that we're feeling needs to be processed and dealt with and isn't always for our best, but we should know that that feeling is also from *Hashem*. If I'm feeling this, part of my processing it is to know that it's not random and it's not by definition categorically negative, that that feeling, am I feeling jealousy? It all begins with self-awareness. This again connects to ego and our *Shabbos Shuva Drasha*. A person has to have self-awareness. What am I feeling? Often we just react and respond without actually pressing pause to say, why am I feeling this? What's bothering me? Why am I frustrated? Where is the anger? Where is the envy? Where is the arrogance? Where is the anxiety? Where is whatever I'm feeling, the anxiousness, this pit in my stomach? What's going on? What am I feeling? Where is it coming from? But we should never feel shame or guilt about what we're feeling, and we should never dismiss it as being random or chance. We need to know part of living with *emunah* is knowing that the feeling itself is coming from *Hashem*. Now what does *Hashem* want me to do with this feeling? Why am I feeling this? Anger towards Him or someone else, anxiousness about what will be, whatever I'm feeling, joy and happiness and satisfaction, hopefully, tremendous *nachas*, whatever the feeling that we're having is. But know that that feeling itself, *Sfas Emes* writes, *reshaim meleim charata*, not only do we not have regret, not only, and the *Izhbitzer* took that so far, *Izhbitz*, the school of *Izhbitz* takes that so far as to say, this is going to sound incompatible with what we're about to do tonight and tomorrow, but even the *aveiros*, even the mistakes that we made are from *Hashem*. Ay, what happened to free will? Why are we accountable? Why are we responsible? Why are we coming to *Klap Al Chet* if they're also from *Hashem*? So *Izhbitz* has to figure that out, exactly what that means that they're also. It doesn't mean that you don't have accountability and responsibility, but it means you were meant to use your free will to make that mistake. What do you do about it now? What you do about it now is take responsibility and accountability, you step up and you make a difference with it. But as you're trying to understand and process the past, to know that *reshaim meleim charata*. The goal of tonight and tomorrow, just to be clear, the absolute goal is not to beat ourselves up and knock ourselves down. One of the *Al Chets* we're going to say is על חטא שחטאנו בוידוי פה. For the sin of *viduy peh*. What kind of sin of *viduy peh*? I thought *viduy peh* is a good thing. For the sin of confession. Confession is our way out of the sin. Admitting, confessing, pledging, promising to fix, remorse, regret. So what do you mean *Al Chet she-chatanu*? For the *chet* that we sinned with *viduy peh*, with confession. What's the על חטא שחטאנו בוידוי פה? So *Rav Schorr Shlita* says, you know what the *chet* is? The simple understanding, the usual translation is that I wasn't concentrating. על חטא שחטאנו בוידוי פה. *Chet*, *chet*, *chet*, I didn't think about one thing. It didn't go through. It didn't penetrate. Like Rav Yankel Galinsky says, you don't walk up to an empty house to knock on the door. Why? Because there's no point in knocking if nobody's home. So the work of Erev Yom Kippur is to make sure that somebody's home so that on Yom Kippur when we spend knocking, there's somebody to answer. You don't go knock on an empty house. Because if you knock on a door in an empty house, there's no point of knocking when nobody's home. So tonight, tomorrow, we're going to spend a lot of time with Al Chet knocking. You don't knock if nobody's home. So make sure that you're home. That's why we're living with emuna on Erev Yom Kippur. We're here this morning because we're working and all day we're going to spend time, is someone home? What's happening inside me? Am I home? Am I present? Am I here? Am I a soul, not a self? Am I here? Am I here? Elokus not ego. Who am I? Self-awareness. What am I? This past year, this coming year. So that when we spend all this time knocking, is somebody home? So the simple understanding is על חטא שחטאנו בוידוי פה, I spent a lot of time knocking and nobody was home. But says Rav Avrum Schorr no. על חטא שחטאנו בוידוי פה was I misunderstood vidui. That I used vidui to knock me down instead of to lift me up. We're not coming tonight and tomorrow to knock us down, to make us feel small, to fill us with shame and guilt because those are terribly unhealthy emotions and feelings. Those don't precipitate, those are not catalysts, they're not springboards of growth and progress and change and transformation. You knock people down and you fill them with shame and you fill them with guilt, they usually spiral worse. They usually compound their problems. But when you say to someone, that's what you did, it's not who you are. That may be what you did, it's not who you are, you're so much greater than that. You're so much more elevated than that. You can rise above that. You're greater. There's a beautiful Midrash I was thinking about using it but I guess I'm not going to now on Yom Kippur, still got to write the drasha. There's a beautiful Midrash Tanchuma Bereishis that says that we are gavoa, we are greater than our sins, our sins are not greater than us. That means to say what does that Midrash mean? What that means is are you greater than your mistakes or are your mistakes greater than you? Who are you? How are you defined? What is the sum total of your life? What is your legacy? Are you defined, is your character, is your identity, are you your mistakes or are you greater than your mistakes? Which one is taller and which one is greater and what are we? We say, we're going to say tonight and tomorrow, we're going to say to Hashem and I don't have a machzor in front of me that we know we're not צדיקים אנחנו ולא חטאנו, אבל אנחנו ואבותינו חטאנו. Now one question which we won't answer right now, which I'm still working on finding a great compelling answer to is, what are we throwing our parents under the bus for? You want to stand before Hashem on Yom Kippur and say chatanu, I made mistakes, I haven't been such a good boy, but I say Hashem, I'm not here to tell you I'm perfect, my parents weren't perfect and I'm not perfect. My parents are sitting next to me going, whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa, I'll take care of myself and my sins, what are you throwing me? I could picture our kids, our kids are going to come to shul tonight tomorrow and say, Hashem, I'm not perfect, but neither are my parents. Okay, I'll take care of my problems and my sins and my mistakes. אבל אנחנו ואבותינו חטאנו. So that's a big question. Why are we in our own defense invoking our parents, they weren't perfect, we're not perfect, there are answers to it, not for now. But notice what we don't say. We say, we're not here to tell you צדיקים אנחנו ולא חטאנו, that we're righteous and we didn't sin. No no, we're here to say anachnu va'avoseinu chatanu. What don't we say? I saw this this year. I don't remember where. I apologize I can't quote it in the name of where I saw it. You know what we don't say? We don't say we're not here to tell you tzaddikim that we're righteous and we didn't sin, we're here to tell you we're not righteous and we did sin. We don't say that we're not righteous. We're not here to say צדיקים אנחנו ולא חטאנו, אבל אנחנו ואבותינו חטאנו. We leave out, we don't correct that we're not righteous. We don't say that. You know why? Because we are righteous. We're not here to say צדיקים אנחנו ולא חטאנו, we're here to tell you צדיקים אנחנו ואבותינו וחטאנו. That we are righteous but we made some mistakes. What a chapp! Was worth coming this morning just for that. Think about it tonight, tomorrow, many times that we're going to say it at the end of the vidui. Why? Because what we're telling you is that we're greater than our sins. We are tzaddikim. We're tzaddikim who made a mistake. We are righteous. We're righteous who occasionally went wrong. It's not that we went wrong and therefore we're not righteous and we're here tonight tomorrow we're going to beat you up, I'm miserable, I'm terrible, I'm nothing, I'm a worm. is for, I'm a reject, I'm a low-life, I'm a loser, I'm filled with such shame and I'm filled with such guilt and I'm not worthy, I'm inconsequential, I'm incapable and I have no self-esteem and no self-worth and I'm a nothing. That's not what we're here to do. And that's why many people don't connect because that's what they think is being asked of them and they're just not ready to do that. What we're asked to do is saying, I'm everything. Do you know who I am and what I'm capable? Do you know my potential? Do you know my possibility? But I've come up short. I've failed and I've fallen and I've made some mistakes and I'm here to own them, take responsibility and accountability for them and get right back ba-derech on track to where I could go because I have anava with rommemos. I don't have an ego, I have elokus. You're right, if I had ego, I would lose it when I'm filled with shame and guilt. But if I have elokus, if I know who I am and what I can do and what I can be and where I can go and what I can accomplish and what my mission and what my purpose and why I'm here, so now I'm not here to beat myself up and knock myself down. I'm here to get going. If you've ever had to give or get an annual review or what EOS would call a quarterly conversation, everybody knows the goal of an annual review is not to beat up and fill with shame and guilt the person who reports to you, that's probably not going to make them work better or harder or be more successful. Everyone knows what you start with and end with is what's going right and well. A little praise. This went well, that's going great, you're doing great in this area, you made a big difference here. I want to commend you, I want to recognize you, I want to praise you. But we've identified some areas that need some work. So let's articulate them. I'd like you to acknowledge them. I'd like to come up with a plan for how we can improve upon them and I'd like to get back together and we'll see whether the things that we said we were going to improve and work on, whether we got there. And then we end with, but by the way, on the whole things are going well and wonderful and we articulate again the areas that you're doing great, right? That's a proper review. That's a proper quarterly conversation. That is most likely to get the employee to improve and to become better. I feel valued, I feel recognized, I feel overall I'm doing well, I feel appreciated. I'm able to therefore acknowledge and admit these areas that I need work, that need improvement, that are not going well. I'm not talking about the employee so terrible you're about to let them go. I'm talking about somebody this is appropriate for. And yes, I'm ready to admit that with no shame and guilt but with honesty and appreciation that we've articulated it so I can work on it and report back on it and be held accountable for it. Yom Kippur is our annual review with Hashem. We're coming before him and he says, Tzaddikim, you are Tzaddikim. And you're higher and you're greater than your pesha'im. And don't think this Vidduy is about knocking you down or it's about knocking you out. It's not about being debilitated and it's not about being paralyzed by shame and guilt. It's about coming in to know you are a valued employee. Hashem says you are critical to my mission, to our brand, to what we're doing. I need you. If I didn't, you wouldn't be here. You wouldn't have made it to Yom Kippur. You wouldn't be here right now. If you're here, it's because I'm renewing you, if you're here, it's because I need you. You are a critical part of our brand, of our mission, of our purpose. You are critical and indispensable. But now let's spend a few minutes on what didn't go so well. What can we work on? How are we going to improve it? How will you report back on it? So I'm not here to knock you down, shame and guilt and beat you up and tell you you're a loser and a low-life and a nothing. I'm here to tell you you're indispensable and you're critical to my mission and I need you and I want you and you're doing wonderfully in so many areas and ways. But here's, let's be honest, where we need a little work. So when a person misunderstands the purpose of Vidduy, they have to clap על חטא שחטאנו לפניך בוידוי פה. On the cheit that I misunderstood Vidduy and I thought and I used it to beat myself up instead of to lift myself up. The goal is to lift ourselves up not to knock ourselves down. The goal is to know that we're Tzaddikim who are bigger than our sins and that our sins and our mistakes are not bigger than who we are. The goal is to know the emes and the emes is, I wrote about this a couple weeks ago in the article on the imposter syndrome, the emes is that the best moments and the best version of who we are is who we really are. And those other moments we're being an imposter, not the opposite. Not the opposite. Not the opposite. Was it the Rebbe or the Alter Rebbe who the chassid came to and said, I feel like a fraud if I come to Shul on Yom Tov when the rest of the year I don't dress like a chassid, act like a chassid, I'm not really living? So the Rebbe said you should come because it's on Yom Tov that's the real you. The rest of the year you're living like a fraud. So Yom Kippur we remember. The goal is not to knock ourselves down, knock ourselves out. The goal is to know those best moments are the most real moments. And those worst moments, that's the imposter, that's the fraud. That's what we're working to improve. This is a quarterly conversation, this is an annual review. This is the annual review with Hashem. It does come quarterly because we're not quite done at Yom Kippur, even though we're signed and sealed and the gates are going to close, you have till Hoshana Rabba. And if you didn't quite get there on Hoshana Rabba, we know you have till Zos Chanukah, the eighth day of Chanukah. And if you didn't quite get there on Chanukah, you know Purim and Tu B'Shvat and Purim and Pesach, you can let yourself out of the shackles, the chains, redeem yourself from mistakes that you've made. This is much more than a quarterly conversation. This is a monthly conversation. This is a regular conversation we have with Hashem. Why? Because He wants the best for us and from us and He needs us and He wants us and we need it. So this isn't some, I'm trying to paint the picture that don't come tonight with dread and fear and misery and shame and guilt and feeling how many times can I be knocked down? It's the opposite. Come tonight excited and looking forward. I love Yom Kippur. Wow. If you have productive, proper annual reviews, then the employee looks forward to them. I feel seen and acknowledged and validated and appreciated and I also if I'm growth-oriented and I have a growth mindset, I'm ready to learn where I can improve and I'm excited to improve and to come back and demonstrate it. That's what Yom Kippur is with Hashem. על חטא שחטאנו לפניך בוידוי פה. Al chet that I thought the viduy was to knock me down and didn't realize it's supposed to lift me up. Al chet that I thought that I shouldn't say צדיקים אנחנו ולא חטאנו, I thought I should say eini tzadikim. That we're not tzadikim and no, no, you are tzadikim who are chatanu. We are tzadikim. We are right. We are righteous. We are greater than the mistakes that we've made. We're bigger than them. We're bigger than them. So let's finish up. That was about Yom Kippur. I want to get back to the last paragraph in this Emunah Bitachon because I want to resume after Succos with something new. So just to finish this last paragraph, bear with me for three more minutes. What have we been learning? And it does connect. Because this whole perek has been עבודת השם דוקא מהמצב שנמצא בו עכשיו. The idea that don't wish you were somewhere else. In the moment that we're in, embrace that place because there is an avoda from where we are. Whatever matzav we're in. There are highs and there are lows. There's closeness and there's distance. There's being on fire and there's feeling ice-cold, ice-cold. There's a love letter to Hashem and then there's a letter I read to you to Hashem. We have in Yiddishkeit all of these things. Ratzo v'shov. We have highs and lows. Mochin de-gadlus and mochin de-katnus. So whatever matzav, whatever moment, whatever condition we're in, there's an avoda, there's work to do in that place and from that moment. So we're on page kuf kaf beis in the right-hand column. כיון שהכל בהשגחה פרטית לכן נגזר שתהיה הרגשה בשעה זו. וזה יסוד גדול בעבודת השם יתברך. This is a critical principle in the service of Hashem. שבכל המצבים יקבל באהבה מצבו כפי הזמן והמקום שבו נמצא. What it means is to say like the woman in Walgreens. The woman in Walgreens. That should be the name of like a book or a country song. The woman in Walgreens. Like the woman in Walgreens, you say that's my matzav. There, you know how many phone calls I got over the last few days with Yom Kippur shaylos. Someone's pregnant, someone's unhealthy, how many people have to take medication that they have to eat something. In fact, I just spoke to my father this morning, got my bracha from my father this morning, he's in Israel. So I had to for the time difference early. So he said to me, he said, I just learned something, I read something, Baruch Hashem it doesn't apply to him. He said, I'm shocked by it, do you agree with it? I said, yeah, what is it? He said that if a person has to, would have to break their fast, better to stay home, miss all of davening in the air conditioning, not go outside where it's hot, not stand and daven, better to stay home and be less likely to have to break a fast than go to shul if it makes you more likely to break a fast. I said that's 100% the halacha. It's 100% the halacha. Because fasting is m'doraisa, fasting we're biblically obligated to do. I'll tell you a little secret. In the time of the Beis HaMikdash, at the time of the Temple, the Kohen Gadol performed all the avoda of Yom Kippur. Our whole Yom Kippur was just fasting and waiting for the all-clear from the Kohen Gadol. That was Yom Kippur. Fasting, a few prayers, but there was no all day in shul, there was no Shacharis, Musaf, Mincha, Neilah. The Kohen Gadol did the work, we fasted and waited to get the all-clear from him. Today we obviously have rabbinically introduced all else that we do, but still the main mitzvah is fasting. So, so he was shocked by that. And sadly there were many people that I had to tell that to. They said, you know, I'm worried if I come to shul and I could get faint and because of these conditions and then I would have to, I said, then you should stay home. You should stay home and daven at home. But what does that mean? What will my davening look like? How... how short will my davening be? Who's going to lead me in singing Unesanneh Tokef? and lead the Avodah and my bowing down? What does that mean? That's exactly what he's saying. A yesod in avodas Hashem is to know, if that's my matzav, if that's where I'm meant to be that year. If that's where I'm meant to be that year. That's where I'm meant to be that year. You know, Rav Notte Greenblatt zt"l from Memphis, the incredible biography about him, he was a mamash a tzaddik. One of the things that he did was mesader gittin. He helped women get a get. He helped make sure to give a get so that nobody would... and I think in the book it tells a story of one year, the timing of giving the get demanded that he had to fly somewhere where the only way that husband was going to give the get meant he spent Yom Kippur alone in a hotel room. By himself. This adam gadol, this enormous talmid chacham, this tremendous ba'al chesed spent Yom Kippur not with a minyan, davening b'yechidus alone in a hotel room with his machzor to ensure to enable that woman to get her get. And I didn't know him, but I could promise you he did it with a smile and with simcha because he understood that in avodas Hashem whatever matzav you're in, that's where you're meant to be. And that was his matzav that year. There are people that have had to spend Yom Kippur in a hospital room. People who have to spend Yom Kippur at home because they can't go. That's the matzav. Yocheved sends out in her women's group, her rebbetzin group, a message every year Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur that people with small children, it's very hard. Often young women in school, in seminary, they're building up. My daughter had printed out all these 17 different viduy thoughts and mindful exercises and you're in that space in seminary and you're going to have the longest Shemoneh Esrei of your life. And then im yirtzeh Hashem halevai for those who want, you get married and you have a child and all of a sudden you have a baby and you're home for Yom Kippur. You're not printing nothing. You'll be lucky if you get the fastest Shemoneh Esrei in the world out without your kid destroying your house. And now these women say, I thought that like to be the most religious person, I've got to be in shul all day, first one there, last one to leave, longest Shemoneh Esrei. And now I'm sitting on my couch watching my kid cleaning up drool and changing a diaper and looking at the clock and... so she has a beautiful message every year, that's your matzav. Motherhood is your mission. That's your matzav. That's where you're meant to be. Where's your avodas Hashem in that mission? So this is such a Yom Kippur message also. What's our matzav? For the person who does have to break their fast, that's their matzav. That's their matzav this year. That's their condition, that's their mission. ואל יחפוץ בהשגת מדרגות רמות וזהו הסימן שעיקר אצלו עבודת השם יתברך ולא הנאת וטובת עצמו שתהיה לו בזמן של נחת ושלוה. That's the siman says Rav David Abuhatzeira. If you're only interested in the Yom Kippur where you get to be in shul all day with the best chazzan and the singing and the incredible tunes and you're singing the harmony away and you can't embrace your mission in your matzav of being home, then it was never really about Hashem. It was about you love those tunes and that harmony and that feeling and being in shul. If it's really about Hashem, then you figure out how to lean into your avodah wherever you are. Because if it's about Hashem, what's my mission? What's my mission? What's my mission? זה מה שרמז הפסוק לא הביט און ביעקב ולא ראה עמל בישראל. This is in the pasuk. Who said those words לא הביט און ביעקב ולא ראה עמל בישראל? This is Bilaam. כי גם אם נמצא בשפלות בבחינת עמל ואון עם זאת השם אלקיו עמו ותרועת מלך בו דוקא מהמצב שבו נמצא מעלה נחת רוח לבורא יתברך כי כך נגזר משמים שאדם זה בדיוק הוא שיעבוד את בוראו ברגע זה ודוקא ממצב השפל שנמצא בו. When is it truas melech bo? When are we demonstrating and displaying that He's the King and we're coronating Him and we are singing to Him and we are declaring His dominion and His kingdom over the world? When? When we say, hey King, what's my next mission? What's my next mission? I don't only want the assignment when it's big and glorious and fun. What's my mission? Cleaning the toilet, picking up the garbage, changing the diaper? I'm serving You in whatever mission, whatever is my next assignment. When you embrace every assignment no matter how great or small, then you demonstrate it's about the King. But when you only want the mission which is great and the one that's small you reject, then it was never about the King, it was about you and ego. And ego. ולא זו בלבד אלא תרועת מלך בו שמעיד על המצאות השם בכל מקום מצב אף במקומות וזמנים המרוחקים מן הקדושה ובכך ממליך מלכנו על כל בריאה. Now I love it when things come together. This is a hashgacha pratis moment. We are ending our emunah shiur, we're ending emunah before our little break till after Succos, we're ending our Sefer Emunah U'bitachon with a Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur line. Coincidence? I don't think so. And what is this? ממליך מלכנו על כל בריאה. ויאמר כל אשר נשמה באפו השם אלקי ישראל מלך ומלכותו בכל משלה. Literally the last words of the sefer and the last words that we're learning are what we're meant to be doing right now, which is to be mamlich Hashem. We're coronating him. As Bibi said, because he knows how to play, by far not. The King of Kings is the only king, and he's orchestrating everything that's happening, and we're coronating him in a world that desperately needs it. And we're longing for a time והיה ה' למלך על כל הארץ when everyone will surrender and submit and recognize he's in charge and he's in control. The Arab world and the European Union and the United Nations, and when everyone who thinks that they're in charge will surrender and submit כי לה' המלוכה ומושל בגוים. When Hashem is the king and he rules over all the nations of the world. So how do we demonstrate that we believe that, we live that, that that's our truth? When we accept our mission. When is it about the king? When you say to the king, where do you need me next? What's my next mission? What's my next mission? Then it's about the king. But if you say, I only take a mission if it's near a Ritz-Carlton or a Four Seasons. You could send me on my mission, how's the air conditioning? You could send me on my mission, are there 17 different types of fleishig kosher restaurants? Is there a sushi place? Is there a smoked meat place? Is there... But if you say, send me on my mission and wherever you sent me is where I'm meant to be and I'm in, then it's really about the king. So my dear friends, chevra, my emuna community, wishing everyone a gmar chasima tova, may it be a year that we embrace our mission. May our matzav, may our mission be near a Ritz-Carlton and a Four Seasons, near a smokehouse and a sushi platter. May our matzav and our mission be in a place of comfort and pleasure and satisfaction, but wherever our mission, whatever our matzav, wherever we may find ourselves, may we find Hashem there. May we have the strength and courage to embrace our place and to know that we are where we're meant to be, that אכן יש ה' במקום הזה, even like the woman in Walgreens, the newest country song, the woman in Walgreens. May we embrace our place. My laptop is telling me low battery, your MacBook will sleep soon unless plugged in. I appreciate that it says it's going to sleep, because I find it very harsh when your technology dies. It's going to sleep. It's going to wake up from its sleep. I'm going to plug it in, it's going to wake up. Why should it have to die? It's a very harsh thing that it dies. It's going to sleep and it's going to wake up. So we should all wake up to a wonderful year, a happier, a healthier year, and most of all to besoros tovos, we should share good news with one another, hostages home, our soldiers safe. Have a meaningful Yom Kippur and we'll see you on the other side, im yirtzeh Hashem.
