Rosh Hashana: Bring Down the Walls

Dear friends, it is incredible to contemplate that within just a few short days, we will to enter into rash, the beginning of a new year, which of course on one hand represents a kendrical reality, a new year 5786, a little bit in the rearview mirror 5787. A journey, an exciting journey that is yet to be written in front of us. But of course, there's enormity to these days as well, which is as tell us that of all of humanity, all of humanity, not just the Jewish people comes before the gives three different interpretations today. We'll go with the classic one like sheep and the imagery that gives us is that when the farmer has to take he has to take a tithe from his flock of sheep, he puts all the sheep into a pen with a very narrow opening and each one runs out one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. And then number 10 he has a little red paintbrush puts a little puts a little sign on the tent and that's the micer that's the tithed animal and the imagery of course that kazal giving us is that whereas throughout the rest of the year we find so to speak safety in numbers so much of what we do as a minion as a collective rash as much as we dab together is a very singular experience each of us comes before for judgment for reacquaintance to rehabilitate the relationship because all too often throughout the course of the year We stray not because we don't love Hashem, not because we don't value the relationship, but just because sometimes life gets in the way. And is the opportunity to come one-on-one to reignite and to rehabilitate that relationship, the most important relationship that we have in this world, the relationship with the king of kings, the relationship with our father, the relationship with a mu, the relationship with the center, the center stage of rash is the mitzvah of chauffeur. The Torah tells us that actually the only way the Torah identifies this day is a yumua, a day where we sound the chauffeur. Gives 10 different reasons why we blow the chauffeur. Theic masters give their own reasons deeper insights as well. And says something so beautiful. The says that the chauffeur of rash is to remind us of the chauffeur of we are familiar with this story in Yeshua. say for Yeshua Moshu has died leading the Jewish people into the first city that they have to encounter upon entering into is the city of and tells us was a fortified city was impenetrable and it was in that moment that this this this first campaign was really going to set the tone for what was going to occur afterwards and there's a whole process to ultimately again conquer Rio but on the most basic level they sounded the chauffeur they cirled the city sounded the chauffeur and the walls came down. The walls simply came down. Ra says so beautifully that the sounding of the chauffeurash is to bring down the walls. To bring down the walls, which walls, the Reb says, the walls of life. Because all too often we go through life and we create walls. We create barriers. We create walls between ourselves and other people. Sometimes again we have beautiful relationships and then something happens and as a result of that negative event that negative occurrence we build walls and over time the walls get higher and higher and higher and says is the time to bring down those walls and sometimes we create walls between ourselves. Sometimes we're just unhappy with the lives that has given us the circumstance that has given us. We find ourselves we find God falling out of favor in our eyes. Not that we fell out of favor in God's eyes. Loves us and he loves us unconditionally, but we build walls between ourselves says the time to bring down those walls. And sometimes we build walls between ourselves and ourselves. I build a wall between myself and my true self. There's an ashama inside of me that's yearning to come out. There's an identity inside of me that is yearning to burst forward. There is a title of kadusha that is looking to search forth. But for whatever the reason, we sometimes build walls between ourselves and our true self. And over time, this wall gets higher and higher, thicker and thicker and more impenetrable with every passing year. We block ourselves out from becoming our true selves. Sometimes it's because we're afraid. I'm afraid of discovering who I really am. Because if I discover my potential, that becomes a m that becomes an obligation. Suddenly again if I discover who I really can be then I have a moral spiritual obligation to become that person. Maybe I don't want that pressure. Maybe I just want to set the bar low. So I hide from my true self. I put up walls between myself and my true self. Sometimes we put up those walls because we feel like damaged goods. I know the mistakes I made. I know the wrong terms I made. I know or at least I feel that I know what a damaged person I am. It's because I feel so badly and so poorly about myself. Again, I erect these walls between the person I am and the person I can be because deep down I just go through life feeling like damaged goods. And how could someone so damaged, how could someone so imperfect? How could someone flawed, so flawed, become great, become beloved in the eyes of my fellow Jew of Akadeshu and beloved in my own eyes? And so we create these walls. The walls are there to shield us from the pain of our failures. The walls are there to shield us from the pain of our bad decisions. The walls are there built because I'm so convinced that I'm so broken that there's nothing really I could ever amount to. Says Ra so beautifully. We blow the chauffeur to remember the walls of because when people used to look at the city of they would say oh that is an impenetrable city. That city is impenetrable. Those walls so high, so thick impenetrable. But what happened thousands of years ago the Jewish people crossed the yard. We crossed the Jordan where we came to the outskirts of the city of we blew the chauffeur and the walls simply came tumbling down. We didn't chisel away at them. We didn't break. They just simply came tumbling down. It says Rabbi comes rash. We blow the chauffeur to bring down the walls. Bring down the walls that separate us from each other because we create these walls. We create this divisiveness. We create these divisions that don't have to be there. It's true. Maybe we had differences of opinion or have differences of opinion. Maybe on a personal level we had certain relationship falling out. But just because just because there was disagreement, just because there was difficulty doesn't mean there have to be walls. Bring down the walls with our fellow Jews. We create these walls with like we said before bring it down. There is nothing like says the greatest thing in the world is closes. The greatest gift in this world is relationship with Hashem and the greatest comes the greatest joy comes relationship that bring down the walls that separate between yourself and most of all most of all because the wall which ultimately obstructs us from our self-actualization are the walls we build within ourselves. Bring down the walls the chauffeur has the ability to bring down all of these walls. that when I bring down that wall, that inner wall inside of me, and I realize that despite all of my mistakes, I am still great. Despite all of my poor and bad decisions and wrong life turns, I can still be something absolutely incredible. And even more than that, I am who I am and I could be who I could become. Not despite all of those mistakes, but because of those mistakes, because I can learn from them. I could grow from them. I don't have to I don't I don't have to hide anymore from the true me. I don't have to build up walls anymore. I can get comfortable in my own skin and I can become the best version of me. This is Ra is the power of Rashana. Rash is the day that we could bring down all of the walls. So you might say to yourself, that's beautiful. But this year is on Shabas on Shabas and there's no chauffeur. So what do we do? And there's much written in rabbitic literature about what happens in a year where there is no chauffeur and rash shana. But I would posit that when there is no chauffeur is teaching us a very powerful lesson. Just because you can't blow the chauffeur doesn't mean you can't tap into the power of the chauffeur. The chauffeur reminds us that we can bring down walls. And dear friends, I want to share with you something important. The secret is it's never the chauffeur that brings down the walls. A chauffeur can't bring down a wall. A chauffeur can't do anything because a chauffeur is an inanimate sound. It's never the chauffeur that brings down the walls. Just like thousands of years ago, it wasn't the chauffeur that brought down the walls of it was our ancestors. And every single year when we sound the chauffeur, the chauffeur is the clarion call to remind us that we have the clock to bring down walls. It's never the chauffeur. The chauffeur is the reminder. The chauffeur. The chauffeur is the blast that shakes us out of the slumber of mediocrity and reminds us that we can bring down whatever walls we can. But it's never the chauffeur that does it. It's always us. So there's no chauffeer this year. You write on the first no chauffeur. But you'll excuse me. It doesn't matter because it's never the chauffeer that does the work. It's us who do the work. We do the work. We bring down the walls. chauffeers the reminder, but we actually do the deconstruction. So this year, we won't have the acute reminder. I won't have the blast to shake me out of that life stuper and remind me to bring down the walls. But that's okay. We'll do it ourselves. And dear, this is the greatest privilege of the year to bring down the walls because we need a year of greater aos. And so the relationships in life in which you've built walls, bring them down because the walls don't help. They only get taller and thicker as time goes on and only serve to alienate us from one another even more. You've built up walls with that because maybe you're unhappy about the way things have gone. Instead of building walls between yourself and God, talk to God. You could even yell at God. You could scream at God. You could wag an accusatory finger to and ask him why me? Why are these my circumstances? Why is this occurring? And that's okay. has thick skin, but you don't need to build walls. Bring down the walls between yourself and reignite that relationship because that relationship is the most important thing we have in this world. And let's stop running away from our true selves. Whether we run away because we're afraid of facing the fact that we could be more or afraid of facing the fact that maybe I've broken so many things inside myself over the years. The walls never do anything. The walls just accomplish one thing which is they alienate our present selves from our potential selves. Bring down the walls on this rash. Let's bring down every wall. Let's create greater greater unity between ourselves and our fellow Jew between ourselves and between ourselves and our true self. We may not be za to hear the actual physical sound of the chauffeur but it was never the chauffeur that brought down the walls. Not in and not now. We bring down walls. That's our kak. That's our power. That's the greatest gift that has given us. Let's bring them all down. Let's take them all down. Become reacquainted. Fall back in love with one another. Fall back in love with Shalom and get reacquainted not just with who we are, but who we can be. And in that of bringing down each and every wall that stands in the way of great life accomplishment, we should pave way for a beautiful year. A year filled with maz with a year filled with shalom. A year filled with mending broken relationships and creation of new ones. A year where we just fall into the loving embrace of and we never let go of him and he never lets go of us. A year when we are finally brave enough to look in the mirror and not just see who's staring back, but to remind ourselves of who we can become. A year of bringing down walls in the same way that thousands of years ago we brought down the walls of entered in and embraced our our destiny of bringing down all of the walls. This year should be we embrace our destiny as well. A year in which we embrace our personal destiny, our national destiny. A year of beautiful for a year of for us as a nation and as individuals. But most of all, a year in which we will finally be z to receive the ultimate brah. The of the mikdash, the of the of the wishing everyone and a beautiful, uplifting, holy and sweet new year.