Haazinu: Harness Your Humility

Dear friends, welcome to this week's virtual. This week we have the incredible privilege to parazu and in parenos continues to prepare his beloved flock for their entry into and in this week's para what Mosha does is he tries as he's been doing already beforehand to re-energize resolidify reconqueries the relationship between and to that ends he says literally translated listen heavens and I will speak like ozen like ear listen heavens and I will speak and the earth will hear the utterances of my lips. And explains that Mosha is bringing heaven and earth to be the witnesses to the nature of the relationship to the responsibilities that Israel has to cloud. Whereas if Mosha would have brought human witnesses, human witnesses again we're born and we die but heaven and earth will be here forever. So therefore they are eternal witnesses to the responsibilities and to the beauty of this relationship between and the love of kusk asks a simple question. He says, "Moshenu." It's a pretty dramatic thing that you call upon the heavens to listen to you. Listen, heavens, earth, listen to the utterances of my lips, says the doesn't. It doesn't make much sense. After all, the Torah says in just a little while, we learned it earlier was the humblest of all men. asks the kusker Moshu and the Torah itself testifies that Mosha was the most humble of all men in parish after the episode with Aaron and Miriam speaking about Moshe Moshe was the humblest of all men. So, how could it be that the humblest of all men says like it seems like a little bit of ga seems like a little bit of arrogance you're calling like the heaven the heavens should listen to you the earth should listen to the utterances of your lips son Moshe Moshe Moshe is so humble and yet again he sounds like he has the power to call upon the heaven and earth to testify to what he is saying heaven listen to me earth listen to me so as the katskar how does This how does this jive with the fact that mosh was known as the humblest of all men and the kusker says something so beautiful. He says the more humble a person is more humble a person is specifically in his own eyes the more humble you are the more you have the right to ask the heavens to listen to you. So the katskar is teaching us a tremendous lesson in humility. The more humble I am, the more powerful I am. Humility is one of the most incredible midos, one of the most incredible character traits that a person could possess. Why? Because the greatest pitfall for man is is a feeling of like self-reliance. Everything I do is because of me. All of my accomplishments are because of me. It's human nature. It's almost our default setting to be egocentric, to be self-centered, and to really just focus on our own needs and to assume that our accomplishments are ours and ours alone. You know, it's interesting. Our failures and our faults, those we outsource. I can tell you who is responsible in my life for all of my failures and my shortcomings, but my successes, oh, you know, an like I'm the man th those are mine. The pitfall of humanity is this self-centered egoentricity who pre-programmed us for some reason. Humility is the mida which cause us causes us to go against the grain of our very factory settings and therefore again says the katskar a person who is able to be humble is more powerful than anyone else. A person who is truly humble could go ahead and call the heaven and earth to listen to his word. So his humility gave him the power to demand that the heavens and the earth listen to what he says. But I think the kuskar is really helping to address something else. I think Katuskar is saying that we often misunderstand the mid of humility and that we think that humility means we sometimes confuse humility with a lack of selfworth. Right? That humility means like feeling like you're nothing, feeling bad about yourself, feeling down about yourself. But that's not humility. That's that's poor self-esteem. That's a lack of self-worth. Humility is where a person realizes exactly what they are, exactly what they've accomplished, exactly who they are. But then when I see like who I am and what I've accomplished, I'm humbled by the knowledge that I could be so much more. that for every accomplishment, there's three more that are within reach. And for every milestone, there's so much more that can be done. And for every race and finish line that I cross, there are so many more incredible and beautiful things in life that I could be doing. It's success that engenders a sense of humility, not a lack of selfworth. I recognize what I've done who I right who I have become my accomplishments but those accomplishments then humble me because if I could accomplish X Y and Z that means I could also be doing A B C and D I think that's the Kar saying a person who possesses a mida of humility that mida that trait encourages and spurs me to more action it is the catalyst for dynamic growth and how incredible is it to learn this yo literally yum kipper because I think there are many things we experience yam kipper many different things many different emotions many different moments and no yum kipper is the same right I think we'd all agree that the most incredible thing is although my maker is the same right the tear soaked pages are the same but yet my yumke keeper experience changes year to year but one thing I think that is part and parcel of every yum kipper experience yumkeeper is humbling yum is humbling And why is humbling? Because the truth is when we do vidway, when we have to confess our as much as the goal is not to make that the dominant piece of the but yet it's humbling because I recognize that at the end of the day I messed up. I made mistakes. And the truth is 99% of it could have been avoided and should have been avoided had I been living with a bit more attentiveness, had I been living with a bit more seriousness. And so yum kipper is humbling but in the same tyum kipper that I take inventory of my averas I also take inventory my misus and I recognize that I also accomplished a lot of good and I did a lot of good and there's this humility that emerges from yum kiper that's a combination of two things it's being humbled by my mistakes but it's also being humbled by the fact that I did so much good but could have done so much more this two-fold humility. I'm humbled by my mistakes, but I'm also humbled by my accomplishments because I know in myself I know I know that for everything that I did, for every there could have been two. For every dollar of there could have been five. For every act of there could have been another three. For every kind word there could have been kind sentences. I know if I'm honest with myself that I underperformed. I did. I did it last year. I did it the year before. And that's humbling. And I think that sometimes the humility that comes from the underperformance of good is even more humbling than that what comes from even more humbling than the humility that comes from the recognition of our aeros. Because we all sin. We all sin. Sin is part of the dynamic of human nature. But when I look back at my life and realized that it could have been more, it could have been more. You know, the Bashantes says something so beautiful. He says, "Do you know what ganam is? Do you know what ganam is?" You know, we don't really have the concept of like hell, like the Christian concept of hell. But we we have ganam. So what's ganam? There's a lot of different variations of ganam. Bash says and this is the most incredible thing Bash says is that after 120 in Shamayim they show you liked two different videos right two two different two different pictures two different stories one is the story of the life you lived and one is the story of the life you could have lived so is when those two realels line up that the life you could have lived is the same life you actually lived ah that's haba what's ganam Ganim is when there's a dissonance, when there's a disconnect between those two video reels, those two movies and the life that I lived is so dramatically different than the life that I could have lived. And for many of us, the humbling experience of Yam Kipper ultimately again is I know that if I had to watch the video of Shinhei, I know the video that had of the life I could have lived. And by the way, I don't mean when I say the life I could have lived like, you know, wrapped in a talis all day learning kabala on the top of a mountain in that that that that's not I mean that sounds great. I would love that. But chances are that is not in the cards for me and not what has the expectations of. I mean like a regular normal life, but what life could have been, what life should have been. I think for so many of us if we're honest with ourselves the two videos of what tough shin hey 5785 could have been and what it was are dramatically different and that's humbling and that's humbling but what the kudsker says is what do you do with that humility because sometimes it is humility itself that is the very catalyst for the greatest dynamic personalistic achievement. Sometimes when you've been humbled, when there is humility, that is when you are poised for the most incredible and dramatic growth. When I'm humbled by my aos and I recognize I really messed up, but I have the ability to do better. I'm humbled by my misdeeds. Or I'm humbled by the fact that the life I led last year was not the life I could have and should have led. I'm humbled by that. Great. Now says the cutscurt. Just understand you now possess the most strongest the strongest the most powerful medi character trait that a yeid could possess humility. And once you possess humility that is like the rocket fuel for dynamic explosive ridiculous growth. I had you know because Mosherenu possessed the mid of humility and because of that that mida of humility allowed Mosher Rabenu to command the heaven and earth to listen to him because when you have the mida of humility that is the rocket fuel to explosive dynamic personalistic life growth. When you are humbled, you control heaven and earth. And dear friends, we are humbled on Matonkipper. We have this feeling of elation. There's optimism. There's hope. But there's also a strong sense of humility because now I have such clarity. You know, during the year, I like fool myself. I delude myself. But you know, yipper is such a beautiful day of clarity. I'm humbled. And there's two things you could do with your humility. You can feel bad or you can say I'm holding now where Mosher Rabenu is holding. I'm holding by Mosher Rabenu. When could we ever say those words? I am holding by Mosher. Yes, I'm humbled by my sins. I'm humbled by my and I'm humbled by the fact that even the good that I did, I could have done more. That the video for tough shiniar has one version and I have another version. He has the potential version. I have the actual version and they do not line up. I'm humbled, but I'm humbled. I'm humbled. I possess the mida of Anava, of humility. I possess now, now in these moments in the afterloer, I possess the mida of Mosher Rabenu. And if Mosher Rabenu was one powerful man, Moshabenu was able to command the heaven and earth to listen to his words. He was able to get their attention. I'm holding in the same place today after like no other day of the year that you can say like moshenu today I have his anova I have his humility and with that humility there is no telling what I can do with that humility I pledge to make this year different with that humility I'm going to try my best not to repeat the same mistakes. I'll probably make new mistakes, but that's okay. That's the way life works. But I'm at least try not to repeat the same mistakes. And with that humility, my entire goal is that come this time next year, I want the video reel of my life to align. I want the life I lived to be able to align with the life I could have lived. I don't want disparity. I want when he watches the video of what my tough shin 5786 was like. I want my actual life and my potential life to be aligned and I can make that promise. I can make that happen because today heaven and earth are in my hands. Heaven and earth are in my palms because when I possess Anova, I possess the mida that allows me to do anything and everything. Harness your humility. And like Mosher Rabenu, take command of your universe. Mosher Rabenu commanded heaven and earth. I don't need to command heaven and earth. I just need to command silver. Harness your humility and use it to pave the way for a beautiful, holy and bright year ahead. Wishing everyone a year a shabis and a year of great things for us as individuals and great things, beautiful things for all of Israel.