Achdut is the fastest way to hasten the Geula (Redemption) - Rabbi Alon Anava

And we want to talk about a very special topic tonight that I find very close and dear to me. And when the host, Mrs. Rubinstein, suggested it, I said, "Yes, I want to talk about that because that's why we're still in exile, and that's what we're lacking in our nation." And this is called achdut. Unity. That if we would be able to bridge that problem, we would not be sitting here right now. We would be sitting in front of Bet Hamikdash. And instead of blocking the Route Number 1 to have Mr. Obama come, they would block Route Number 1 for Melech Hamashiach to come. So, it's a very important topic. I believe it's one of the most important things in our generation to work on because we're already past the time that Mashiach should have come here. We talked about it in one of our lectures here in Ramat Bet Shemesh. I believe it was all right after Purim that we talked about the coming of the Geulah and when it has to come. And all the topic, we talked about it already about that. We don't need to repeat it. And if you missed it, go to my website, you'll find the recording. But I mentioned that the Geulah, the redemption, can come in two times. The first time that it will come is what it's called in its due date, be'itah. Be'itah in Hebrew is not necessarily a kick. People think be'itah as a kick. Be'itah with an ayin is in its time. Like a lady who's pregnant, and the doctor gives her a due date, then the coming of Mashiach, there was also a due date. But there's always There was always the option that the Geulah, the redemption, can come before that, which is called achishena, I will bring it faster. That we're already past that. We're already missed that opportunity. And there are many different reasons why one might point on the fact that we're still not in in Geulah, in the redemption. But I believe that one of the foundations of everything is is this fact that in our dear nation, we are separated from each other. And we know that the first Holy Temple was destroyed from three sins. Bloodshed, idol worship, and forbidden relations. Giluy arayot, avodah zarah, u'shfichut damim. Since the sin was revealed, then the length of the exile was revealed. When they left Eretz Yisrael, Yerushalayim, then the prophet told them, "You're going out of Yerushalayim, and you're going to be back in 70 years." Then the second Bet Hamikdash, the second temple, got destroyed from one sin, sinat chinam. Hating another person for no reason. Now, since the sin is not revealed, then the length of the exile was not revealed. And as long as we're carrying in us this the sinat chinam, this hate to another person for no reason, and even if there is a reason, then this is the tikkun that we have to do. And this is what's called the opposite of unity, of achdut. This is called perud, separation. And as long as there is a separation, then we when we're not united, we're still going to suffer in exile. It says that when there's a a separation in the lower realm, perud batachtonim, there's a separation in the higher realm, there's a perud ba'elyonim. And our entire work here is to create unity, which is called yichud. And we see it in many different nuscha'ot, especially by the Sephardi, that they almost before every little thing, every brachah, every prayer, they say l'shem yichud Kudsha Berichu u'Shchintei, for the sake of the unity of the Kadosh Baruch Hu and the Shechinah Hakdushah. In many nuscha'ot, they don't say that. They might say it a little bit more, a little bit less, but the point is that every mitzvah that we do, and every time we learn Torah, and every mitzvah that we observe, everything that we do is for one purpose, which is called yichud, yichud ha'elyon. The Zohar explains that when we say Kriyat Shema, then Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad is called yichud ha'ilah, a higher level of unity. And Baruch shem kavod malchuto is a lower level of unity, yichud hatachton. But we see from that that the entire existence of the world is to create unity. And we even mention that every time when we pray, we pray three times a day. I hope that we pray three times a day. And you know also that women, they're also obligated in praying. Women have to pray at least once a day. If somebody tells you you don't have to, then they're wrong. They can open Shulchan Aruch. It says very clearly that a woman has to pray once a day. She's not obligated to which pray and for the time, but she has to pray at least once a day. Machal, if you want to look at it, you can look at it that a woman can pray three times a day by doing one prayer, whether it's Shacharit, Minchah, or Arvit, saying at least once a day Birkat Hamazon, and saying Kriyat Shema al Hamitah. These are three different prayers that a woman can incorporate into her life. And our sages say, "B'chut nashim tzidkaniyot yatz'u avoteinu miMitzrayim, with the merit of righteous women, we left Egypt. And with the merit of the righteous women, we're going to leave this exile." So, it's up to you. But also the men have to pray. We all have to pray. And we mention online when we pray, "Barecheinu Avinu kulanu k'echad." "Bless us, our Father, as if we were one." Because the brachah, the the blessing, dwells when we are united. When we are not united, chas v'shalom, the blessing cannot dwell. The point to understand here is that from the day the world was created, the world was created with with a symbol of unity. And now we're in the days of creation. Because two days ago started when the world was created in Chaf Aleph Elul. And Rosh Hashanah is when Adam and Chavah were created. And in creation, we see already the unity. Hashem created it in such a way that everything is separated, but with a cause and the and the effect that we can create unity. And Adam and Chavah, when when they were first created, they were created united. They were created one body. The male part was in the front, and the female part the female part was in the back. Later on, when Adam HaRishon was complaining that he doesn't have a a wife, then the Kadosh Baruch Hu decided already to separate them for many different reasons, but one of the reasons is that they will be able to return back to the same state of bringing the unity back together. Because the second that the Yetzer Hara, the Nachash, the snake, came between Adam and Chavah, and he caused them to sin, then right from that, they got separated. And the Zohar explains that Adam HaRishon left Chavah for 130 years. 130 years, he went by himself. He wanted to do teshuvah. He was actually kind of upset at Chavah that he kind of blamed her. Which that was already a the beginning of the problem, the male ego. It's was her fault. But that's a whole different thing that we have to correct. The point was that they got separated, and Adam decided that he's leaving her for 130 years. In 130 years, he went and he did teshuvah. And only then he returned back, and then they started all over. And we see in many places in the Torah that the Torah is based on one one connection, which is unity, is yichud. And we're lacking the yichud, then we cannot have any we're we're basically damaging the channel where the brachah, where the blessing, can come through. So, we see in the with the generations that slowly slowly we went and we went separated apart from each other to a point that now that you look in our generation and you look in in in our nation, you can point out and say, "We're all different." We seemingly we're all different. This guy wears the black suit, and this guy doesn't get wear a suit, and this guy has a black hat, and and this is a white yarmulke, and everybody k'viyachol, it seems on the surface completely different. But the reality is that there's no difference between any any any of us. To a point that when the Kadosh Baruch Hu looks at us, he sees us all completely equal. He doesn't get impressed. See, the Yetzer Hara, I told you. He's in his best tonight. I I told you he's working overtime. It just goes to show you, by the way, that one of the most important mitzvot It's not really a mitzvah, but it's one of the most most important acts that we need to do is to be to be united. And the Kadosh Baruch Hu puts all his emphasis in that the unity is the most important. And you see that right away the Yetzer Hara could not stand the unity of Adam and Chavah cuz they came down to create unity, that he had to go between them. This is the Yetzer Hara. So, now he comes in a cat, and before he came in traffic, and the day and before that, he came in a virus. The Yetzer Hara knows how to come between two souls and to create separation. And this is the avodah of the Yetzer Hara. He's a master of causing problems between one person and the other. That's his job. And this is basically what we need to take from that, which is the very basic thing in our existence, because all of us, at the end of the day, are striving to reach one place, and that's to reach to the time that we are redeemed. We are striving to reach to the point that Mashiach is already here. And that's it. Enough is enough. We had enough. And the Kadosh Baruch Hu already makes sure that each and every one of us has problems. All day long, and I'm not exaggerating, we get in an average day somewhere between 800 to 2,000 emails. And not one email is somebody telling me my life is perfect. I just wanted to report that everything is okay. Thousands of emails are coming to our system every day and not one is saying anything is good. Everybody's problems. One person has a problem in Parnasa, another person has a problem with health, another person has that can get married, another person can stand his wife, another Everybody has problems. And a lot of people interpret it in a very wrong way by saying, "Oh, you know, Hashem is punishing me." God is not punishing anyone. We mentioned that many times. God is not a third grade teacher that punishes people. We are responsible for our own acts, but the fact is that all these tsaros, all these problems that we are going through are not necessarily because I did something wrong. It's because the Kadosh Baruch Hu is squeezing us to a wall cuz he wants us to do teshuvah. He wants us to scream, "That's it. And I I had enough. I want the redemption." And one thing that is stopping this redemption is this separation. And one can look at our at our nation and say, "You know, he's different from me. He prays different from me. He dresses different from me." The reality is that I started talking before the the yetzer hara came in the shape of a cat is the Kadosh Baruch Hu looks at us and he doesn't see anyone different from each other. We do not impress Hashem if I have a long beard or if I have a black suit or a blue suit or a green shirt. This does not impress the Kadosh Baruch Hu. And I do not impress the Kadosh Baruch Hu when I'm reading Tehillim all day long or that I sit in the Beit Midrash and I learn Torah all day long. This does not impress God. Hashem says, "You're not impressing me with your Torah and mitzvot. I have enough. You sit and learn Torah all day long. It's not a big deal. I have thousands of scholars that learn more Torah than you. You're being particular about every little mitzvah. You're not impressing me. I have thousands like you. You impress the Kadosh Baruch Hu when you go out of your way to expect to to to respect and to accept another person that is not like you. That's where you impress the Kadosh Baruch Hu. And this is our test. Hashem made sure that each and every one of us has a few role players, has a few individuals in our life that annoy us to death. So, whether it's my wife, whether it's my husband, whether it's my kid, maybe it's my neighbor that keeps suing me and screaming at me. Hashem made sure that there are enough annoying people in my life to drive me nuts. And then the ego, the yetzer hara comes and tells you, "You are 100% right. He's wrong." In the eyes of the Kadosh Baruch Hu, we're all equally the same. He looks at us the same. He blesses us the same. In 3 days where we're going to stand in front of the Kadosh Baruch Hu, each and every one of us in their own congregation, in their own shul, and hopefully all of us will be standing in a shul. Some people don't see the the the necessity. When Hashem looks at us and he blesses us on Rosh Hashanah, he doesn't say, "Oh, he does a lot of mitzvot. Give him more. Oh, he is dressed very black. Give him more." That's not how it works. Kadosh Baruch Hu blesses us kulanu ke-echad. He We are blessed equally. So, then Rosh Hashanah when each and every one of us gets his bracha, his blessing for the coming year, I can't say for a fact, but I can say that we all get the same blessing. It's up to me how I'm receiving the blessing. The quantity and the quality of the blessing that I'm going to get depends on the receiver, not on the giver. Hashem projects his blessing on all of us equally. He doesn't see the chilukim, the the separation. You know, some some teachings in Kabbalah, some don't accept that type of teaching, but some teachings of the Kabbalah based on the Baal HaSulam, he says something very simple. There is one soul in the world. That's that's it. There's no more than that. It says vayipach be'apav nishmat chayim. Not nishmot chayim. Nishmat is one. Nishmot is many. Baal HaSulam says there's only one soul. We are all one soul. And we're all equally separated in bodies. Just as each and every one of us according to the measure what the body is able to hold, that it's one soul, but some of the soul is in me in a certain I can't say a size cuz the soul doesn't have a size, but the soul cannot be separated. I mean, we know that there's one soul, Adam HaRishon, and from Adam HaRishon where all the souls came out and there are 600,000 souls broken into branches and more branches and more branches. That's why we have millions and millions of souls. But according to what the Baal HaSulam explains, Rabbi Ashlag, he says, "No, the souls did not get separated. They're not cut There's no such a thing. You cannot take something spiritual and cut it into half. You can only do it in something physical. In something spiritual, you cannot cut it into pieces and say, 'Okay, one piece will go here. One piece will go here.'" Means from that that we're all the same soul. Just that a piece is more shining in this body, another piece is more shining in that body, depending on what the body does. If the body does exactly what the Torah instructs us to do, then there's more capacity where the soul can actually shine in it. But in essence, we're all 100% equal. It says in Hebrew kulanu koma echad. We are all one level. There's no chilukim. I mean, one might argue and say, "But there are kohanim and there are levi'im and there's we we see that there's tzaddikim." And yes, that's once it starts falling down into the worlds, what's called be'seder hishtalshelut, in the chain descending chain, yes, there is what's called a chiluk. It's not necessarily called a chiluk. Chiluk is a separation. Rather, it's called madregah, a level. So, yeah, each and every one of us might stand on a different level, but in essence, we're all the same. In essence, if you go to the the to the source where we all come from, we are equally the same. 100% the same. So, by the fact that I have the chutzpah to look at another Jew and to have anger or frustration or hate or any type of judgmental towards that person, I'm basically basically becoming the biggest hypocrite ever. Because any other Jew that is standing in front of me, and I'm now concentrating on the Jews. Don't take my words out of context and say, "Oh, the Jews are better than the non-Jews." Tonight we're talking about the Jews. In technical technically, I see us and the non-Jews also almost the same. Just that we have more mitzvot to do. That's it. A non-Jew has got about 70 of them that they're titled under seven mitzvot, but they're more like 70. And we have 613. So, we got a better job, a more demanding job. But in essence, when God is looking at this at this world, there are two ways how God looks at this world. I don't want to sidetrack, but one way how God looks at this world is what's called in the terminology of Kabbalah, "open me", which each and every one is looked upon in according to the the capacity of what the soul can handle. But there's another way how the Kadosh Baruch Hu looks at us and this is called according to also vev, or makif, a surrounding light. And here, Hashem sees everything equal. There's no chilukim. There's no separation. There's no madregot. There's no levels. Everything is completely equal. This is in the level of also vev, or or makif, a surrounding light. But tonight we're concentrating on the Jews. In essence, we're all equally the same. So, if I have the chutzpah to look at another Jew that I don't know and have some type of hate towards him because he pronounces a word different from how I how I pronounce it or he wears his clothes different from how I wear it, this is the biggest hypocrisy that one can think of. How can you dare to talk about somebody that you don't know anything about them? And to have some type of hate or resentment towards that person that you don't even know. This is one level. I mean, one can cause a a separation when a person actually hurts me or does something bad against me, that's a whole different thing right now that I'm talking that I'm not talking about. And even in that level, we should go way beyond our level and say, "Yes, that person hurt me. That person did something wrong to me. I'm 100% right, but this is not the argument if I'm right or not." The one who sent that person to do that bad thing to me is just a shliach. He's just a a messenger of the Kadosh Baruch Hu. God sent him. If I have an issue with what's going to happen, talk to the boss. Don't complain to the to the the messenger. Anyone who does something bad to you is is basically what's called the garzen be'ad hachotzev, the axe in the hand of the tree chopper. You cannot have complaints to the person who did something bad to you because he got a green light from the Kadosh Baruch Hu. There's a famous story in Tanakh that a certain individual, his name was Shimei ben Gera, and he came and he cursed David HaMelech, King David. And the general at the time, his name was Yoav, and he said, "This person has to die. The din, the judgment, is death. He cursed the king." David HaMelech says, "No, no, no. Hashem told him to curse. Don't do anything to him." This is the level of David HaMelech that says, "I must have done something or for whatever reason Hashem wanted to me to do teshuvah. Hashem sent that person to curse me." He didn't have an ego. David HaMelech didn't have an ego of saying, "Oh, yeah, he cursed me. We have to chop him." No. He said, "No, no, no, no. Hashem told him to curse." So, even when somebody does something bad to me and I'm 100% right, it doesn't give me the right to be upset at that person. That person is just a shliach. And when I'm upset at another person, I'm punishing myself. That's the only thing that I do. Because I'm carrying in me hate and anger and resentment, and I'm the one who's suffering for that. I'm holding the poison in me. So, the best thing to do is just to let it go. Just to to totally ignore it. Don't worry, there's a there's a there's a judge in shamayim. Hashem is dayan. Hakadosh Baruch Hu sees everything. He knows everybody what they do, what they think, what they feel. This is a this is this the worst thing one can do is hold anger towards another person because he did something bad because you're only punishing yourself. But, I'm already talking to a completely different level. I have this quote to travel around the world to give a lot of lectures around the world. I just came back now for 3 weeks in the West Coast. Before that, another 3 weeks in the East Coast. And for the last 10 years, I've been traveling all around the world and giving lectures, and I found a very disturbing thing that I go to different communities, and some communities, if I go there and I hold a the the the prayer book is different from a day prayer or if I dress a little bit different, I be I I get stared. And I don't get invited or I get my my lectures canceled because they find out that I associate myself to a certain group or I go with a certain a certain way. And in the beginning, when I became religious 15 years ago, I saw all the Jews as equal. I don't care if you have a beard or you don't have a beard. I that doesn't impress the same way it doesn't impress God. It doesn't it didn't impress me. I saw everybody as equal. And then I started getting doors slammed in my face because I look different, because I pray different, because I pronounce the word a different way than another person pronounces it, or I I you learn a certain Torah of a certain rabbi. And I started meeting all this rejection from so many people. Oh, because you because you look different. Not too long ago, I walked into a shul. I looked for a place I was in a in a in a city that I was never there. I told him, "Where can I find a minyan for mincha?" They told me, "Go to that shul. They pray at 6:15." And I walk in, all excited I'm going to pray now with a bunch of Jews. And all I got looked at Everybody was looking at me. What is this doing here? How dare he come here with his black beard? And in my mind, I'm like, "Why are you looking at me like that? I'm just as equal to you. I don't see you different than me. I don't think that I'm better than you. I see you all as equal to me." And it's very, very sad that up until today, we still did not learn that we're all the same. And when we fight between each other, that causes unbelievable sadness to the master of the universe. And when I really learned that is when my kids started growing up, and I saw how in in in I can't really compare it, but how God gets upset when we fight. Cuz when my kids they get along, it's the biggest nachas. When I see them sharing their toys and they're talking nice to each other, I'm like, "Ah, it's the best best nachas ever to see my kids getting along." And when then they fight over a little piece of plastic, "He took my toy. It's my toy." And they break the toys and scream and this is the the worst thing a parent can can experience. Why are you fighting over a little piece of plastic? Because he got a a cookie it's 3 mm more than your cookie? Like, what are you fighting over? And that's when you can really relate how Hashem is looking at us. What are you fighting over? That you got 3 mm more in a cookie? That's what the kids fight at. "Hey, my his cookie is bigger than mine." They're all the same. They taste the same. "No, his cookie is better. That's not fair." And a whole argument starts. That's how ridiculous we look in the eyes of the Kadosh Baruch Hu when we fight over very, very basic things. And you can you can I see you all nodding, so I understand you're relating with the example that I gave you is that's how Hakadosh Baruch Hu looks at us. You look at a person and right away a bad thought comes to your mind because he's dressed a little bit different? Hakadosh Baruch Hu gets upset. He's like, "Why You don't even know that person." Forget about now the scenario that I told you that you do know the person the person hurt you. That's a whole different thing. That's a whole lecture in itself. How do you just let go and to forgive and to move on? But, the point is that we're suffering in this exile, and we're all suffering, and there's not one person in the world that can raise his hand and say everything's good in my life. Cuz if one department is good, the other department is not good. We're all suffering. And we're suffering cuz we don't have Mashiach, and we don't have the Geulah yet. And instead of closing now Kaddish one for Mashiach to come into Yerushalayim, they're closing it to Hashem Elokeinu to who they're closing it. And that's there's many reasons. Many rabbis that I meet, they tell me, "Oh, we're now we're still in suffering in in in exile because of this sin of the generation and that sin." And everybody comes with these theories. It's this sin that's stopping the Geulah from coming. I strongly believe that what's stopping the redemption from coming is the fact that we're still not united. And if we would take now the top 10 thousand rabbis in the entire world, the heads of all congregations, of all yeshivas, of all sects, put them together in one room, and say, "Hey, let's cut to the chase. We're all waiting for one thing, Mashiach. We're all suffering here. We're all learning the same Torah. We all serve the same God. Let's make a campaign that we're all united. Let's mix all our students in different yeshivas and different congregations and different shuls. Let's make a whole week that we love each other with no conditions. Don't you think the redemption would happen just like that? The fact that you can't get a thousand in one room, that's already a problem. Because there's going to be an argument who's going to be the chairman, who's going to be the one who's we're not talking. I want to talk. No, I hate to talk. I'm more important than him. I have more students than him. The point is that we're suffering as a nation from from this lack of unity. And it start starts in the top. Cuz I don't know many roshei yeshivas and many big rabbis of congregations who saying, "No, no, no, no. We have to be united. We have to accept each other. It doesn't matter that we have many different sects. There's reasons for that." There's a reason why we're separated. Look at the Torah. It tells you very clearly. First was Avraham Avinu. Then came Yitzchak. Then came Yaakov. Three generations, one person. And from Yaakov came 12 tribes. Don't you think there's a reason for that? If the Torah tells us in a very clear way that there are 12 tribes coming from one father, and they are called Bnei Yisrael, the sons of Israel, so there's a reasons why we are separated. There's a good reason for that. But, the fact that we can't stand each other from nonsense, we're basically harming ourselves. And I strongly believe that we're still in exile because we cannot find in our heart to be united with another person. And in some places, you feel it less. In some places, you feel it more. But, I believe that each and one and every one of you has experienced it on himself that somebody rejected you or didn't accept you because you were a little bit different. When I'm saying different, I'm talking about how you serve God. There are many ways to serve God. There's not one way. God told us when we left Mitzrayim, "V'asu li mikdash v'shachanti b'tocham." You should build for me a mikdash, a sanctuary, and I will dwell in them. Not in it. Not it not in one. In b'tocham, plural. We're supposed to build this mikdash. We should supposed to build this tabernacle, this holy place. And the only way way of building it is if I'm united with everybody. He says, "V'asu li mikdash." We have to build this. How do you build it? Like you're going out to a construction site. You have a an engineer, an architect, the contractor, the plumber, the the the electrician. You have so many different trades. Each and one of every one of them comes to do their job. And each one knows his job. Can you imagine the plumber trying to put the doors on? Or the engineer trying to to put the the plumbing? Nobody He doesn't know. It's not his trade. So, the we are the same way. We are an army of the Kadosh Baruch Hu. When we left Mitzrayim, we are the army of the Kadosh Baruch Hu. So, in the army, you have the Marines, and you have the Air Force, and you have the Commando, and you have all these corps. Why? Cuz each and every one has a job. Can you imagine an army not working in conjunction? It would be a disaster. So, there is a reason why we are separated. The separation is caused not for me to hate another person. It's rather for me to work side by side and appreciate the place and the position of each individual in this world. And to see the greatness if the Kadosh Baruch Hu is able to love everybody, who am I to v'shalom not to love one person? How dare I? Where do I come up with the chutzpah not to like another person when the master of the universe likes him more than me? Where do I come up with this chutzpah? And the thing is a lot of people don't accept and they say, "No, I accept everybody as long as they do what I say or they as long as they they they they're kind of parallel to me." No, you have to accept somebody when he's completely different from you. That's the point. It's to accept another person when he's totally, totally different, and still to love him and accept what he does. And not to come and contradict and say, "My rabbi is more smarter than his rabbi." And my way is more right than his right. There's one way. There's the way of the Torah. There's derech Torah. The fact that there's a different opinions in the Torah how to do certain things as long as it's on the path of the Torah, yeah, we always have contradictions. When the world was created, there was already a market. We just got the Torah right away we got a market. This is what we This is how we get to the point. This is how we actually extract the the the the diamonds is by having a market, having a contradiction. Our entire oral Torah is based on a on a contradiction between Bet Shammai and Bet Hillel. There's a reason for that. There's a reason for that because the teachings of Kabbalah explains that we are separated to two sides, the the camp of the right side and the camp of the left side. It's not to do to contradict each other. It's actually to fulfill each other to to to to to to make each other better. So, the point is that we we want to work and strive only to get to this unity. This is our main avodah. And now we start standing couple days before Rosh Hashanah. Everybody for the last 30 days was doing his chuva and praying and waking up early in the morning to say slichot and apologizing to the entire world and taking on themselves everything. Why? If you're looking at it in a very superficial way, the majority of people do that because they say, "Hey, I'm not I I wasn't so great this year and I want to get say, you know, better blessing for the next coming year. So, I'm getting my act together." The reality is that we're standing in front of the Kadosh Baruch Hu on Rosh Hashanah because we want to be forgiven for every bad thing that we did and we want to be blessed for good and happy sweet new year. The reality is that we know that on the day of Rosh Hashanah, each day of the holidays that we're about to celebrate, whether it's Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur or Sukkot or Shavuot, every day something happens in the spiritual world. And in Rosh Hashanah, the act that is happening on Rosh Hashanah is called Hadinim Bashorsham, sweetening the judgment in their source. What does it mean? There's There's There's two midot that we constantly deal with. One of them is called chesed, kindness, love, giving. And the other one is called gevurah, judgment, severity, restriction, stopping. And you constantly have to have a balance between them. Now, a lot of people right away they hear the word gevurah, ooh, that's scary. That's din. That's judgment. That's harsh. If you're not going to have gevurah, if you're not going to have judgment in the chesed, in the in the kindness, the kindness is going to be out of control. It's not going to be a normal kindness. It's not going to be a normal chesed. It's just going to create damage. You can look now, for example, the the flood with Noach. It came from the middle of chesed, too much water, but there was no din at all. There was no judgment. So, the water came in such an abundance that it destroyed the world. One little act of gevurah of judgment to stopped the water or to filter the amount of water, then the water would become water shamayim shel bracha, rain of blessing. It says very clearly, Rashi says that first there was rain coming down. Rashi says, "If they would do chuva, these rains would become rains of of blessing. If they don't, then it will become a mabul." And that's one example out of many that in our life there's constantly Kadosh Baruch Hu is giving us his in a motion of giving, but sometimes it has to be stopped and refrained because giving too much is also not good. Take a child now, give him too much too much, he will never learn that there's a limit. So, the judgment is is actually something good for us. But unfortunately, since it manifests into the world in the judgments, they get all dressed into all sorts of unwanted acts like sins, then the judgments become very very harsh. And on Rosh Hashanah, we want to sweeten those judgments. And we want to sweeten them in in the root because we still need the judgment. We need this restriction motion, but we want it to be sweet and good. That's why we say shanah tovah um etukah. What do you mean etukah? Why why why why sweet? Why? Because we want the judgments to be sweetened. We want the the the the fact of the restriction to be sweetened. That yeah, we will have judgments to keep keep us in order, but it should be sweet. It should be sweetened in its source. The only way we can really touch Hashem's heart is only if we really practice, not say or think or practice this unconditional love to another Jew. And it starts in my home. It says say Israel starts between the husband and wife. That's the real Israel. That's where it starts, between the husband and wife. Then it will go to the kids and then it will go to the family members and so forth. But the only way that we're really going to be blessed with a sweet new year, a year of I mean, we still have 3 days. We can still get the redemption. But if Hashem decides that we are we're going to have to wait another 3 days for the next coming year, then we want this this year is going to be the year of the year of the redemption. Yes, you want to pray when you have a problem when a person has a problem, you want to pray for the salvation. But better to pray for the for the redeemer to come, you'll get a much faster salvation through your problem. So, we want that this year will be sweetened in its judge that the judgments will be sweetened in their source and we want this year to be the year of redemption. Not too long ago I gave a lecture, it was the Rosh Chodesh Elul and we gave a a whole lecture about Elul and this lady raises up her hand and she says, "Is that enough if I just promise that next year I'll be good?" I told him very sorry to disappoint you, but God doesn't take promises. You walk now to a bank and you tell them, "Give me a half a million dollar mortgage, I promise you I will pay the mortgage." They're going to kick you out of the bank. Because the same way the bank doesn't take a promise, nobody wants to take promises. Hashem says, "I also don't take promises. I want to see acts." You do an act, our sages say the the act is is the main part. Don't don't don't go in theory. Just act. The point is that Kadosh Baruch Hu wants us to practice this unconditional Israel, this unconditional tolerating another person because I don't even know him. And and when we reach to that point, if each and every individual will work on at least one person that they that person is the one who annoys them, not the ones that you easy going with, the ones that annoys you. It's to still practice Israel with that person and tolerance and patience and understanding and love and accepting and still giving. And it starts in your home. You find your own person that you start practicing your Israel. I mean, if you can do to every person that that is surrounded you, then you hit the jackpot. But the point is that we're already it seems like we're doing our best. We're trying to get every day to a minyan three times a day. We're trying to learn Torah and we're really particular with kosher. We're really We're doing our best. Hashem sees our efforts. It's the that comes to make my my my Hashem not so easy. That's part of his job. Hashem says, "Just tolerate another person. Just love another person. Doesn't care. Doesn't matter who he is. Just smile. Just be more more more patience. That's what I want to see. I want to bless you and I want to give you an unbelievable abundance of blessing, but I can only do that when you when you are united. We are when we are united, no one can stand against us." And you see it's 45 40 What was it? 40 8 years ago? The Six-Day War, 47 years ago? Look at the unity that we we really this country was under a threat of being being completely annihilated. People in the time said that they were never so such a unity. Everybody was helping each other. Everybody accepted each other. Everybody was together. Our power is in our unity. When we are united, us our father when we as when we were as one, that's our power. Our power is laying in in the foundation that we have to be united. And if my entire agenda all day long is to see how am I practicing the mitzvah of Israel, it's a mitzvah from the Torah. I have to have love for another Jew, unconditional. And it's don't don't go and love the ones that it's easy for you to love. That's There's no There's no effort here. Let's see you loving the one that's annoying you. The one that that is not dressed like you, that doesn't talk like you, that pronounces the word instead of saying "Oh", he says "Oy". That's all nonsense. Let's see you practicing this unbelievable Israel to a person that you really don't really like. You can't really stand them. That's what the Kadosh Baruch Hu wants from us. We're going to take two questions in a second. We're almost done. The point is that the really it cannot be stressed enough in such a short shiur or class or lecture. It's something that one needs to live by. And I'm sure some of you had the opportunity to hear my own personal near death experience. If you didn't, then you go online, you can find videos about it on my websites. We have CDs here, you can listen to it. But I saw many many things. What I What I tell in my lectures is maybe a fraction of what I really actually saw. But one thing that was the most dominant and not too long ago, a week ago, a big newspaper in Israel they interviewed me. And he finalized he finished the interview by saying, "If you can say one thing to Israel from what you saw, what what what is the most dominant thing that you saw in shamayim that that were that we know that we that one should incorporate?" I told him one thing that I saw the most is how we're all separated. The one that was most dominant in how I saw is how we're all separated in the shamayim is the biggest sadness that we're all separated down here. This is our problem that we are not united. There's no yichud. There's no unity, there's no love, everybody hates each other, everybody can't stand each other cuz he's chareidi and he's chassidi and he's kippa sruga and he's this. I'm talking right now in the religious circles. I'm not talking about the non-religious circles. They have more tolerate tolerance to each other than we. We can learn from that also. The problem is that we all can get better in many different things, but the basics for all is just learning to live with each other. And one of the first times that we saw that that they had to have this unity is in the first exile that we experienced and that was the flood. That there Noach and his kids, they all had to be in the same place for a whole year. They had to tolerate each other for a whole year. So, the point to take from tonight is very very simple cuz we're standing about 4 days in front before Rosh Hashanah and we really are at the before judgment day. Spiritually and and physically and literally. And we are judged not only how we think and how we act is how we practice what we want and believe or should do. And what we really need to do is really to find in our heart how am I bridging to another person to tolerate that other person, to to bring this unity. And you will see very soon when we're going to experience the redemption that there's not going to be sects, there's not going to be chambers. Oh, the Breslovers are going to be standing here and the Chabadnikim are going to be standing here and the Mizrachi are going to standing here and there's not going to be such a thing. We're all going to be standing together because we're all equal. You choose your uniform, you choose the how you want to sing to the Kadosh Baruch Hu, you choose your path cuz there is many many paths to reach to the king. The king is sitting in his in his armon, in his palace. There are many paths to get to the king. No way way is better than the other. My way is not right more righter than your way. There are many ways to get to the palace and there are many many many ways to reach to the Kadosh Baruch Hu. There's not the right way. There are many ways. The right way is to respect the other way. And chas v'shalom, don't think my words are out of context by saying if somebody is going and doing something completely against the Torah. No, that you don't have to accept. I'm not talking right now a person who does follow the Torah. The same way that we serve Hashem different, it manifests into our body how we how our body behaves. We all have to eat all the types of nutrition. But some person is more allergic to one thing. It can be allergic to citrus. Another person has to have a lot of citrus, a lot of vitamin C. One person is it can be a a a a allergic to dairy products. Another person needs calcium. We all need to to consume all types of of nutrition, but some person needs a little bit more and some person needs a little bit less. There's a reason for that physically, but the same way in the spiritual our our serving of God, each and every person has to concentrate on one department more than the other. The test that we are all put on is if we can tolerate another human being because he looks a little bit different and he talks a little bit different. That's our test and up to now, unfortunately, I'm sorry to announce that we're failing big time. And don't look at me by saying, "Oh, what is he's not talking about me." He's probably talking about other people in the crowd. I'm talking about even about myself. I'm not talking about anyone. I'm talking right now about myself. I can't judge anyone. Maybe each and every one of you already mastered the the avodah of avat Yisrael. But that's a very hard job to get to a point that every Jew is precious like a diamond to the Kadosh Baruch Hu equally. Kadosh Baruch Hu like I started does not get impressed from anything. He gets impressed how much you tolerate another person that is completely different from you. And when we reach to that point, we will be ready to receive the redemption. And we want it to come in a very nice way. We don't want it to come with problems. I mentioned before that there are two dates when the Geulah can come, but there's also the the Talmud explains that there are two ways that the redemption can come, in a very nice way and in a very not nice way. There's no middle. There's no part. There's only good or not good. And we constantly we pray every day v'techezena eineinu b'shuvcha l'Tzion b'rachamim. Bring it b'rachamim. Sweeten it. We don't need all these judgments. We don't need all this havoc and and madness that the world is ready to offer. We want to do it. We want to get the Geulah b'rachamim and it's only depending on us. Yes, we have to follow the Torah and the mitzvot, but the basics of everything is avat Yisrael. Masha shesanei al alecha, al taaseh l'chavero. What is hated what what you hate, don't do to another person. This is This is the basic of the Torah. V'ahavta l'reiacha kamocha, zeh klal gadol baTorah. Every prayer you're going to look all the sages, that's what they're talking about. The Torah is only talking about one thing, shalom. Just peace. You know how many times a day we mention the word peace in our prayers? We pray Shmoneh Esrei, oseh shalom bimromav. Ask any Jew in the world that is not affiliated with anything. Tell him, "What is the most famous verse in our religion?" Oseh shalom bimromav. Oseh shalom aleinu. Al kol Yisrael. Everything in the Torah, darcheha darchei noam v'chol netivoteha shalom. Everything is shalom. The entire Torah is based on the fact of peace, peace between one person and the other. The whole prayer that we mention oseh shalom bimromav is there's one camp on the right right side, machaneh Gavriel, and another camp on the other side, machaneh Michael. The camp of Gavriel and the camp of Michael and they're fighting, so to say. And Hashem says Hashem does peace in the heavens. He's taking the minister of fire, which is Gavriel, and the minister of water, which is Michael, and he puts them together and makes peace in them. Puts them together. This is oseh shalom bimromav, making peace in his in the heavens. So, we want to get to the point that we are practicing the peace between each and every one of us. And by me doing it in my own realm then I'm able to start affecting the the world around me. And when I give example, then people say, "Oh, if he can do that, then I can start doing that myself, too." So, we want to be blessed with a very happy new sweet new year. And we want to be blessed that the the redemption is going to come faster than what we can imagine. And we want it to come b'chesed v'rachamim. We want it to come in kindness and in peace and with mercy. And we want all these good things and we want to have a health and we want to have parnassah and we want our kids to get married and we want ours to have a normal relationship with my with our spouse. We want all these good things. And Hashem says, "I'm ready. I'm going to give you more than what you can handle." V'arikoti lachem bracha ad bli day. I'm going to give you blessings where you can't even handle the blessings. I'm going to give you. Just do one little thing. Just have avat Yisrael. Just be united. Like you're looking at your kids, just be good kids. I'll give you whatever you want. Just be united. Just don't fight. Just respect each other. Just accept each other. Play nice with each other. Even if it's hard for you. That's what the Kadosh Baruch Hu wants from us. And you waited 40 minutes till I came, 4 and 1/2 hours in a car. My my my my shape of the body is already I'm I'm in the shape of a seat. From Tzfat. I live in Tzfat, all the way in the north. Is to just give this one small message and if each and every one of you takes this message and applies it and then makes another Jew do it and then makes another Jew do it, we might have our very first new sweet new year, Rosh Hashanah will be much much better. This is what really impresses Hashem. If you're looking to Not too long ago, I have a student who came Unfortunately, he was dealing with a very difficult health problem. It was a life-threatening problem. And he told me, "How do I get on Hashem's best side? How many tehillim do I need to read? How much money should I donate?" I told him, "All this is nothing. Do that. It's good. But go out to the street and really really really do avat Yisrael. Just practice. Just bring that tachles, to act. I can assure you you're going to really really soften Hashem's heart. You're really going to get on Hashem's best side. That's how we get on Hashem's best side, when we really get along with another person. And like I mentioned before, even the ones who annoy you the most. When you practice this tolerance and mainly when you practice a middah, an attribute that is called forbearance. This is called erech apayim. Now we we're reading every day when we're saying slichot and we're saying we're mentioning constantly over and over the 13 attributes of mercy, Hashem Hashem Kel rachum v'chanun, rav chesed. And then we say another middah of the Kadosh Baruch Hu from the 13 attributes of mercy is erech apayim. What's erech apayim? Erech apayim is forbearance. Is that you are able to forgive a person that knowingly did something bad to you and you are a million percent right and you still find in your place in your heart to forgive. This is the middah that we keep telling to the Kadosh Baruch Hu cuz I annoy the Kadosh Baruch Hu all day long. All day long I'm annoying him. I didn't get wake up for minyan. I annoyed him. He told me, "Don't do this." and I did that. He told me, "Don't lie." and I lied. He told me, "Don't gossip." and I gossiped. I annoy the Kadosh Baruch Hu all day long. It's a miracle that he doesn't destroy me every day every day 50 times. And then I have the chutzpah to come and tell me, "Forgive me." To come to tell the Kadosh Baruch Hu, "Forgive me. I'm very sorry. I want to do teshuvah. I promise you that in 2017 I'll be better." Kadosh Baruch Hu says, "What are you You're making a joke out of me?" So, the same way that we annoy the Kadosh Baruch Hu all day long and we have the chutzpah to then ask for forgiveness and we mention the Kadosh Baruch Hu, we want you to be rav chesed. You got to give us a lot of kindness." But then we mention one thing that nobody ever stops to really translate the word and understand. Erech Apaim. Erech Apaim is forbearance. And that's what the Kadosh Baruch Hu wants from us. We want us to get these 13 attributes of mercy. Kadosh Baruch Hu says, "You do the exact same thing." And I'm going just going to share with you something very short that that that that connects us all together. Is the real in the month month of Elul. The month of Elul is called the month of Slichot. There's many different ways to to to to to to categorize the month. But we know that in the month of Elul are shining the 13 13 attributes of mercy. In the word of Elul is basically what we need to do. That what we were talking about in the last hour. If you take the word of Elul and you break it into two, you take the first two letters as aleph and lamed. Aleph and lamed, if you put it together and you pronounce it the right way, is Kel. Is one of Hashem's names. Hashem has the name Elokim. Hashem has the name aleph dalet nun yud. Hashem has the the name yud kaf vav kaf shin dalet yud. Hashem has many names. One of the names is Kel. Kel rachum v'chanun. The each name of the Kadosh Baruch Hu corresponds to one midah. The name Kel corresponds to the midah of chesed, which is love, kindness. There are many different types of gematriot. Gematria, numerical value. Each letter has a numerical value. The basic gematria is that aleph is one and bet is two and then 10 is yud. Yud is 10 and then kaf jumps to 20. And so forth. But there's gematria b'sederah olah, in a continuing order, which means that yud is 10, so kaf will be 11. And then lamed will be 12 and tav will be 22. This is b'sederah olah. So if you take the gematria b'sederah olah, so aleph is one and lamed is 12. Put them together, it's 13, corresponding to the 13 attributes of mercy. Now, there's another type of gematria that is called gematria ketanah. That you take a a number that has a zero and you remove the zero. So for example, yud is 10, gematria ketanah is one. You remove the zero. Kaf is 20, gematria ketanah, you remove the zero, it's two. So the gematria ketanah of the word Elul is 13. Aleph lamed is three, it's not 30. Vav is six and then another three. 13. More than that, the gematria of the word love in Hebrew, the word love in Hebrew is ahava. 13. So this is the month of love. And when we pray to the Kadosh Baruch Hu to shine on us and to reveal his 13 attributes of mercy, it's not necessarily attributes of mercy, rather is many different ways how God shows to us his love to us. And he says, "You you want me to bless you? Do what I do. Just show your love." There are many different ways to show your love. Kadosh Baruch Hu has 13 ways to show his love. We can also practice ways and find ways in our life how can I show my love to another human being, whether it's my wife or my husband or my kids or my neighbor or a complete stranger. Kadosh Baruch Hu show shows his love in this month then the Kadosh Baruch Hu says, "You preparing a whole month for this day? Just practice your ahavat Yisrael. Don't impress me now with with all these other things that you do. Yeah, you need to do that. Your soul needs that. But you really want to impress me, you practice this unconditional ahavat Yisrael to any human being. Doesn't matter who he is, how he's affiliated, if he is religious, he's not religious, what he did to me, doesn't matter. And by practicing this unconditional love, this is what's going to give us the merit to see the coming of the Beit Hamikdash, the coming of the redeemer, the coming of Melech Hamashiach, and it should happen very speedily in our days, b'ezrat Hashem. With our acts and not with our promises, with our acts, we will be blessed with a sweet and happy new year. And I'll take the opportunity to bless you all to have a shanah tovah u'metukah, that the the name should be sweetened in their source. And we should be blessed with an abundance of health and wealth and happiness and nachat and briut and sustenance and shalom bayit and all the things that my heart desires should be a vessel to dwell into my life. And b'ezrat Hashem, we will merit this year to be the year of the redemption only with our acts of unconditional ahavat Yisrael. Thank you very much for your patience and b'ezrat Hashem.