Rabbi Yitzchok Bistritzky | Elevating Through The Omer | | CHAZAQ

foreign [Music] it's a really really pleasure to having you all here thank you so much for joining uh we have uh the rabbi Rabbi here that came to join us and we have Rabbi winner the the rabbi of the show and we have Isaac Kerber the president of the show here and uh we have all of you and I really really thank you so much again for for you know for coming um so I'll be brief because we have a long night but I just want to say that uh you know before anything first of all I'm really thankful for you know the rabbi at the show because the rabbi at the shoulders everybody understands is the rabbi at the show and without a rabbi there's no show and of course the president that really really tries to to really make this place uh to keep to keep it going to keep it going then as everybody know Sheepshead Bay changed a lot this used to be a very Jewish neighborhood and over the years the neighborhood changed a lot but thank God the show is still here you still have a lot of Jews here but um the the only issue is the Jews you need to get them out because a lot of them associate with like a should with like um I don't know like a like a place where you're like forced to do things but actually uh Shola synagogue is just a place where Jews gather you could pray here you could you could eat here and you could just be here with your fellow tribe um and uh of course uh thank you to my father for being here also you know without a you know without it's really nice to have your father in attendance um and um just the last thing that I want to say is that you know in the past I made these events that we had these events here with the speakers but really this one thing that I want to take on that we shouldn't just do this once a year we should do this more often because anytime Jews are together it's a really special thing so now without further Ado uh please welcome the rabbi at the show he would like to say a few words Rabbi winner sorry welcome welcome are you related to anything I don't have Allah foreign [Music] that way we have the three pillars that the world is standing upon and um I want to welcome everybody uh that's why I just found out that he is makes mikvist and maybe he can make one here and she said Bae we need one there's not a mixing within a mile vicinity here for women so that would be an amazing accomplishment that was one of my dreams and have it here at Mixon and of course uh to uh representative what's your name again for coming and the ladies that are here and the regulars that are here so again we welcome everybody a special thanks to Ari and the shul for hosting uh this event so again the shoe we have umin every morning we have a medium in the evening we have classes this Wednesday hope everybody is welcome to come 720 be diving at eight o'clock we have a class on Zora this is this is also like a hotel Gathering and we'll get together and we'll learn Torah and we dive and we learn we have kadushim every Shabbos we have uh programs throughout the year so please feel free feel free to walk into the doors you don't need a invitation and consider this place as your own so the the title of the class that the rabbi will be speaking about is about sphera which is the candy of the Sweden which we just did which is a which is something which is it's really something in its time so we need to understand what exactly is the idea of svira which I'm so the rabbit will elaborate uh in this idea so you know when we do the Sphero it's not just accounting of the of the number or the prayer that Alan says that the temple service should be restored speed in our days I mean but it is also that we are counting 49 days it's from from pesach and every single one of these count is a different Spira a different uh trait that we are working on I think tonight was what network Ferris or Sochi but Ferris I forget which which it is so which means that every single a Jewish Soul has ten Soul Powers three intellect Chabad and seven emotional and the seven each of the seven are are compiled of a combination of the other seven so yes there's a blend of each so the idea of the preparing for the giving of the terror is not only that we're getting ready to receive uh to receive God's law but it's also that we are working on ourselves to improve our character the whole idea of Torah is really about middles so I have midis Davis everybody knows what made this table says right what is middle verse to have good character it's not only about having a lot of information and learning a lot of Torah and it's not about only being religious and making sure that you're shuckling or you're shaking or chuckling a lot in the gardening it's really about also what's going on inside true you have to do that you have to Shake in the evening you have to do them it says and you have to study Torah but it's also what is the effect that it has inside the person so the idea of the sphere is the counting of the spirit compared to giving the terror has to do also with emotional Improvement getting rid of the ego being a better person thinking more about somebody else before yourself so in the character traits that we have the interesting thing that we see here is one idea is that there has to be a blend that that extremes is not healthy person is extremely kind it's not a good idea of a three persons extremely uh extremely uh uh uh strict or strict it's not a good idea a person extremely humble it's not a good idea humble maybe is a good idea to be extremely humble but if a person extremely ego it's not a good idea meaning that the whole idea that we're counting the several weeks that we're working on our character we're also working our character and animal we had to improve our character we're also looking how to blend the character traits so each one helps each other and that's the difference in tall and chicken when there's whereas a person who's a wild person or a control person and that is when there's a blend of the middles because each Mida each trait really has its place now there's a interesting thing that the the rabbi Baba asks in a question with regard to the month we just began the month of year and we're going when we had Nissan so the question is which month is really a greater month right what is a greater month Nissan or ear which is greater ER why here so that's a very good a good answer I would be saying this and I would say why in this one but each one actually is has its own quality so you would think that really Nissan I would expect you'd say Nissan because that's solid Passover we're not in Egypt all the Miracles why so what's ear but actually the rebel explains this is actually an advantage in each over the other that in this sun that represents that which that that is from above to below it's an as Russo delay an Awakening from above and here is momata LA milis from below to above it's a Russo de la Sato it's an Awakening From Below to above meaning that everything that we experienced on the holiday of Passover really came from God we didn't have anything to do with it of course we took the animal we sacrificed it but we didn't really earn it we were on the slowest level of impurity one more day one more moment will remain there forever pace of men God took us out of Egypt it was coming from God so it came from God which but on the other hand what is the human being do the idea of ear is that now the person is working on himself to integrate and to internalize all that which occurred in the month of Nissan so you have two ideas over here on the one idea you have on the on the aspect of what is a higher level the month of Nissan is a higher level however and however the the the the the the the the fault in it being a higher level is is that it's beyond us and we didn't internalize it in the month of ear is in a sense a lower level but because it is coming through man's effort therefore he's internalizing he's working out he's working out all that which he received in the month of Nissan and then when it comes to uh the the holiday of shuvot that is when we're ready because we internalized that great light meaning when we left Egypt Only The Godly Soul left Egypt animal Soul was still stuck in Egypt but when we count 49 days and we read ourselves giving the Torah and the giving of the Torah both The Godly soul and the animal soul is ready to receive the Torah both souls are ready to receive the Torah because at this point we worked in these 49 days we worked on our character try to improve ourselves to be ready for this manifestation to give me the term so I want to just conclude with uh with a story two stories one is we just had the outside of everybody who made great Miracles and so my daughter shared with me the story she read the book I didn't get a chance to read it yet so there was a story that he uh someone uh came into the business and said it is a there's a peasant uh and Hades in Hungary who has the ax who wants to kill a Jew rather come save us so he comes there and he sees the Jew the guys with the ax he's ready to kill the Jew what's wrong I need my 10 10 Ruble or flooding whatever the Hungarian foreign Lincoln Logs he didn't stack it uh uh well he stacked it with space it's not a full wagon the guy is saying I want my ten to floating the heat is saying he didn't give me what you didn't you didn't give me what I asked for so uh so sodium Shayla said I made a miracle right all the other stories hear about me I don't know if you should believe but this is a true two miracle I did what did he do he took out ten dollars from his pocket he gave it to the guy and the guy walked away and he saved the Jewish life so this I think is a beautiful story because sometimes the miracle is in the simplest acts you don't need to have lightning and thunder sometimes you just do something small and you save the life and the rubber says a similar story I heard from Alice Friedman once that he was he would talk to women in describe in Minnesota and there was this lady who had problems she had a bad temper and she would scream at everybody she had social issues nobody wanted to be a friend and she didn't know what to do so she said I have to have a private audience I have to go into the office maybe the rabbi knows that I'm a maybe I'm a Reincarnation of cleopatria maybe I'm a Reincarnation of who knows what maybe the rabbit could do exorcism on me take out the book that's inside of me there's something wrong with me I don't get along with anybody so she goes to the river she writes everything and uh and the rebel looks at her and tells her you're not nice be nice and Rebels are saying an example you go to the luncheonette there's a friend there and she has her tray pull out the chair for the little for the young lady your friend to sit there you're going to class you're in a rush and your teachers walking through the door don't walk and let the door close the door let the teacher go on first you're not nice be nice and she understood an amazing lesson from this it's that we don't really need to change our life dramatically become a better person that's the sometimes that's a yet Sahara the evil inclinations trying to tell us that we need to do a dramatic change sometimes if we do something small that what we do our soul follows our actions of course person could become refined if they act refined a refined person to become coarse if they act coarse so the Reba told her be nice and you become nice and I think that's where it all starts so Hashem should help us we should be nice and Hashem will help us become nice and we wish everybody a uh to receive the Torah with joy and internalizer thank you so much thank you for having me I see there's some Spider-Man some Ashkenazi me so I'll tell you a story about the sward the menashikenism once had a son I think was Rabbi David that had to have a medical procedure done here in America and he's done he doesn't have family here so abavadya called up a doctor and told him he was a from Jew an orthodox Jew and he told him listen I want you to take responsibility that my son will be okay and you're going to take care of him and you'll be on top of his health issues so he said okay so so he says maybe you give me a bracha so he says yeah I'll give you a bracha whenever you go into any medical procedure then you should have a malach an angel should come with you say says you know I did a medical procedure for the satmeal for Rubio Three Angels should come with me and you tell me only one angel so he says what don't you understand once while the angel is more than three Ashkenazi angels so now so now like this uh I'll tell you I'll be very honest with you I have to be at a sheer and borrow back at 9 40 really officially but I came late here I'll come a little late over there so I'll try to be makatse you don't have to worry I won't speak too long so the thing is like this um I have a speech repeat let me tell you I heard on the way some stories about the some was talking about and he said something that really hit me you know we see in the pasture that when elieza went to do the Yitzhak so he's standing there and he says oh Hashem please hakran all the funai those that look in the hummus please send me the shadow that's what it says do me a favor Hashem and he's ask Hashem now if you think into it who's he asking was the best baker in the world he was the most sought after bakra his father was a billionaire his father was avhamon the most famous and the most influential person around and he's coming for a sugar for him and he had Iraqi says that he had a document that avram signed over all his assets to it's was a billionaire and he's still standing there and saying Hashem please please because that's the point that we have to drive across to our hearts that even though we shouldn't feel that we have anything there's nothing coming to us we have to realize that everything that we have is all a gift we're a bunch of sonoras to Hashem we that's what we are we're Beggars we beg our Shem for everything don't take anything for granted neither our health not our family nothing can we take for granted and he said another nice story that it was about her there was a boy that was an older boy and he really wanted to get married and he told his I want to get married give me a bracha help me so he says and then he's you know he was really he was really broken-hearted so he told the rabbi you know rebe I think Hashem forgot about me look it says you want to go for a walk says yeah go for a walk so his Rabbi takes him with him for a walk and they pass an old age home and he said you know let's go into the old age Zone maybe we'll see someone that still remembers uh the balcantov is like 250 years ago so what he means to remember is the balcantov oh okay maybe he doesn't remember it about shantoff but maybe he remembers um was 150 years ago Rabbi how do you expect him the day to be someone so old so he says I don't understand maybe the Malachi mothers forgot about someone so he tells his Rabbi what do you mean doesn't forget about anybody so he says why not he has such a good memory she said well Hashem sends him to pick up the people you know he doesn't forget so he says why when it comes to forgetting someone do you feel that Hashem doesn't forget and why do you think that Hashem forgot about you so that's also something we have to internalize Hashem does not forget about us each and every one of us Hashem remembers we all have to try and bring the Muna and it says in all this farm that will have a moon if we'll have faith and will have bitachham trust in Hashem we have to trust in him and we have to talk to him and he should become like he really is our best best friend because you did Hashem is our best friend our merciful father is our he's got what he gives us the best favors in the world even though it's not coming to us okay we'll talk a little about svirato Omer um first of all if you look at it says that there are 33 days of mourning the tamidam the students of Rabbi Akiva died in the days of svira but it's only 33 days so we really have to understand because if in the Gomorrah it says that the students of rabba Kiva died between pesach and schluis now between President choice is more than 33 days so why if they only died in 33 days let's say one shita holds they only die till like stop dying right so why if they stop dying like bomber does the gemara say that they die till schleus why doesn't they just say that they die talak bomber why do they say that tilsh Lewis so I heard an answer to this question it's the point why did they die they died because they didn't have enough respect for one for each other they didn't have enough respect to each other the time of having respect for each other is a whole year but mainly more importantly is that before Kabbalah Satora if we want to have a chance of getting the Torah of receiving the Torah that the Torah should take over our lives of really having a cachet with the Torah having a closeness with the Toyota then we have to prepare in these days for that and what's the preparing preparing starts by having love and respect for one another and love and respect you know I thought I if I remember correctly it doesn't say that it were 24 000 students Rebecca died it says there were 12 000 pairs of tamidam that died why does it say 12 000 beers 12 times 2 is 24 so say the 24 000 students died so maybe the answer is because sometimes you know when you come to shul everybody's very respectful you know how you doing how are you what's doing by you but sometimes when we come to our close people our family our real close friends the ones that we we think we can take advantage of the ones that we think you know they can't run away from us our spouses aren't running away so fast and our children and our parents no one's running away so fast so we forget that respect zugot remember your close people the ones don't take them for granted have respect for them I once heard a story someone told me you I think the guy told me he was there and robbed Palm Allah and he was he said something to his wife and his wife argued with them and she said that no I feel differently and he says he said what he felt which was nothing wrong as long as it's done respectfully and then afterwards he said something so smart he says you know Meg we're both right that means you know you have to have respect for what the other person feels and says someone told me he was in a car with Rabbi Wolfson Robert Wilson is also from Toyota vidas and Rabbi Wolfson said they were on the way to the airport and they forgot she forgot to bring the passports and he got very upset because he was going to touch his role and he really wanted to go and they thought they're missing the plan and he said oh what happened how did you forget the passport okay they went back they got the passport he said after five minutes the guy driver told me he tells his wife um I really I want to ask you for Michaela I want to ask you to forgive me I said that before that means don't take your close people for granted those are the ones that you really have to have respect for you know someone that's not close to us we we don't have to tell them to have respect you know why because if you're going to start up next to with a guy he's just going to go away from you it's those that that won't be on that aren't able to run away from you those are the people that's where the measurement that's where at the middles the middle stoves the The Good the good heart that's where it comes out are we really so good as we are in public you know it's very easy to get up and say at Russia about how you have all these middle and how you're supposed to have him interest but you have to really use it and do it and be close to it and we have to realize how sometimes people you know this rabistro salanti ones a big bottle of muster he was there Bistro salante and he once was going and yamam nairan between Rosh Hashanah I don't got to tell you when it came to between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur don't ask they were shaking like a leaf and the visceral salanta was the chief bowel monster that there ever was and he was walking on the street and he sees someone going you know there was a young man and he was very serious and he was very you know all worked up and he went over to him he said he asked him excuse me what time is it and he looks at him you know what time is it now between rosh hashani and Kipper she said what's the matter what time is it so he tells him the time and he says you know I gotta tell you something there's a saying in gamara Barbara which means that if someone goes out and leaves an article that is second person trips over it so that's not the right thing to do right if someone's gonna go and dig a hole and then uh my my friend's Pat is gonna fall in so then I got a problem right it's it's something wrong I did something wrong you know when you go out with a source face that's about the robin that's where it be strong salanta told them this same Reb Israel salanter he used to travel around and he'll end up in koenigsberg in Germany and he was there and he spoke Musa and he got sick and he got very sick and the killer of this thought they hired a boy an older boy he should be he should be his attendant you know help him out be his aide and he was his aide and he was getting sicker and sicker and that he realized that his Aid is not the most courageous guy around so and he also realized that he only has small amount of time left to live on this world and he thought and he was doing true of a lot you guys know the story ready all right you make Hazara review the story we have to internalize it anyway so he was he saw right away that you know something's gonna happen and this boy here this Aid he's gonna get very very scared if he dies on him so he's instead of using his last hours on this world to do truva and to think of Hashem and to get close to Hashem he started talking to this boy and he started talking about how people have have anxiety when it gets dark and really there's nothing to be afraid of and he started talking about when someone's alone then he gets then there's really nothing to be afraid of you just have to psych yourself up and realize that Hashem is with you and it's really nothing to be afraid of and you know he was telling him when a person dies it's just like he's sleeping you don't have to be afraid of a dead person and he spent his last hours on this world just to make someone else at ease and that was someone that he really didn't have to do it but he said now 200 years later we're talking about representi because that's really what stays on this world to respect one each other to respect our our close relationships to respect I saw that there was once a a college teacher it was and she tried to teach the colors the the potential The Becoming wives they're getting married and same thing for the husbands so she wanted to teach them how to respect their husbands and how the husbands respect their wives so she told them let me tell you what to do you go travel down to high I would say to Manhattan but today there's high class restaurants in Brooklyn also and just sit down by a table and look at the waiters and the waitresses and see how they serve the people sitting there see how they're coming how can I help you and do you need anything and are you happy with the food and maybe I could bring you some something just internalize the way they're doing and the scholar teacher is related that there was one girl that went and hired a waitress to teach her how to honor a different person now I'm not saying that we have to go and hire waitresses and maybe but we do have to learn how to respect people in general and especially family and close close friends so [Applause] the owner what is Omer Omen means that it's a bundle what's a bundle a bundle is a lot of barley together it's together it's tied together because that's the way that we can go to cabala Satora with togetherness with realizing that every Jew is important and also realizing that everything that we do and every Mitzvah that we do how important it is you know if there's one letter missing if one letter is written wrong even though it's not my letter it's a different letter but every letter is puzzle and that's a fatorah if we miss out one letter the whole safety Torah is puzzled we have to realize sometimes we go our own way listen it's I got my own problems you have your own problems but just realize that the other Jews problems are your problems and your problems are his problems or her problems because as if a turtle that's missing one letter is puzzle and a Claudius Royal without one Jew is possible and the same thing really is we have to realize how each Mitzvah that we do how important it is you know just imagine if the we didn't hear marriage before just imagine that there were nine moisture abenus here nine most would you be able to say kaddish nope you need that tenth man it's no different how big you can have nine sadikem here but you need that tenth man every Jew is important and every Mitzvah is important I saw a story there was it was almost chauvinist role I don't remember I think the name was shorash and there was there in the moshav for kashrut and he wanted to make a minion minha every day so he tried and he had nine people one day and he didn't have the tenth man so he walks outside he sees the secular guy and he asks him you want to come into mincha he says I don't know what you're talking about I never went to school in my life I don't know how to dive in I don't know how to pray I don't know what you're talking about so he says you know what we need a tenth man just come in and be our tenth man and that's what he did he came in he sat down and three minutes later walked in a religious guy to Daven so someone told the secular guy you know we really have that you could stay you're welcome to stay but really you could leave we have our tenth man he left he was an older man he left the shoe a couple of weeks later the majriya had a dream and in that dream there was this secular guy and the secular guy is telling him do me a favor I need a favor from you I need you to go and tell my son to say kaddish for me so he said okay I'm gonna look for your son where's his son okay I'm gonna go and get him to say Kardashian so he says you know not everyone they let come in dreams in here in heaven not everyone they let come into dreams but you have no idea when I went into that tool even though I didn't dive in just to be the tenth man and I wasn't even the 10th man I was just ready to be the tenth man you have no idea what that's worth up here in heaven and that's why they let me come to you in a dream to go and be and ask my son to say kaddish because in that in that Merit so we never know what is what is worthy in in heaven and what's not worthy you know it says one second does everyone know what Omar means we can't Omer does everyone know what it means it means that there was a sacrifice on the second day of Passover and every day we're counting from that sacrifice till we hit throughout and why are we counting because we're looking forward to something we're looking forward to we're looking forward to take upon the Torah to get close to the Torah so it says the in this age you say it's not an easy thing it's not it's not a small thing it's a big thing to honor so why would you think that it's a small thing why would you think that the Omer is just a small Mitzvah why it's a carbon I'll tell you why it says that what's the Almond made out of it's made out of barley barley is not a high class food barley bread anyone ever eat barley bread no we make bread out of wheat spelled some people but we made bread out of wheat that's the best bread that there is the bread out of wheat but no Hashem is coming to tell us you have a low-grade mitzvah you have like barley that's given to the animals eat barley you have a low-grade Mitzvah you think that it's nothing you think that it's an easy thing never feel that a Mitzvah is too small every small Mitzvah adds up and we start with barley on Passover on pesach and we finish throughout the carbon is wheat is the two breads that are brought in the basement are made of wheat because if we're gonna be massive means we're gonna feel worthy we're gonna see the worthiness in every small Act of good that we do we won't say okay so I said a kaddish I will go to school I will go to school I'll dive in with the minion I'll do I'll do a gift to DACA I'll do filling I'll I'll learn every day I learned five minutes what's learning five minutes every day it's nothing anyway no if I'm Gonna Learn five minutes every day on better yet let's say I learned five minutes of it but I'm gonna add on because I want to be prepared for sure I'm gonna add on another five minutes I'm gonna arrange the sheer for women in my house I'm gonna arrangea with with another man that's how we're gonna get from The Barley to the wheat by realizing what a nachat how Hashem loves every Mitzvah that we do we have to realize it was once uh King that told the servant he really liked the servant and he put him in the a room full of golden things and the sir and he said take whatever you want and the servant thought that it's a joke this must be fake stuff so he just took a couple of Trinkets and he just left everything behind and he comes home and he starts looking at and he realizes you know this is this is heavy stuff this is the real stuff what did I do what did I collect enough that's what we got to do we have to realize we can pick up the gold and the Diamonds off the streets you know sometimes real estate in Brooklyn went up in the last 30 years I never bought an apartment all my friends bought Apartments I never bought an apartment and sometimes I think to myself you know what did I do why didn't I buy an apartment when I got married or five years later I'm still paying rent what am I doing what did I do you know we have when we come up to the samayam we're going to say hey I could have done so many mitzvot I could have picked them up off the world and the same thing when we come to schwart we have to realize Now's the Time to prepare we can still get off the ground and get running let's all together let's be Machado cow stuff let's strengthen ourselves with the havarti Israel to realize that every Jew is my brother to realize think let's put in a couple of minutes a day what can I do for claudi Israel what can I do for my neighbor for my sister for my wife for my husband for my friend how can I respect them or how can I make them happy make a hobby of it to make another person happy what can I do for Hashem it's throughout in another couple of weeks you know the 49 days is a numerical value of lave toys life is a heart type is a good heart you wanna finish the 49 days for throughout have a good heart you'll have a good heart and good heart doesn't only mean to care about someone else it also means to have a pure heart to have a heart that's ready that the Torah should shine into it so let's accept upon ourselves I'm gonna better myself between a man and his friend and his and his family I'm gonna better myself in my relationship to Hashem and that's the way that we really can prepare for schwart and have a personal relationship with Hashem and a personal relationship with the Torah thank you [Applause]