Shmini Atzeres: Miracles in the Sky, Miracles in the Heart

Dear friends of miscab I hope this message finds you well. It is really overwhelming to contemplate that in just a little while we'll be entering into the last leg of the yam journey. It feels like just yesterday we were blowing the first chauffeer blast beginning and we had a whole beautiful runway ahead of us. Now again it's amazing that it's really coming to an end. The journey I should say the beginning of the journey is coming to an end. The journey of the new year is just beginning but we come to this last leg of the journey and it's somewhat enigmatic is a very strange yiff because you don't know exactly what to do with it. All the mits that we had over kind of fall by the wayside. In fact again we those who have the custom to eat in the outside is only because of a there's no real mitzvah ones all of the voluminous amount of carbonos that are offered up on sukis are really consolidated into one centralized carbon for the of so what's the message of this day what's the message of the day and what does it do for us in other words if this is the last so to speak way station on the journey of the yim what's the message we are supposed to take with us. How does it arm us for the year ahead and what is our avoda on this unique and special day? And I want to share with you perhaps one of my favorite ideas of of all time and it's a beautiful idea by ander tries to provide insight into the profoundity of and he quotes the gimar shabis the gimar is a famous gimar about a series of converts a series of individuals gentile individuals who are interested in converting to Judaism and each of them approached with just an outlandish request. So for example the first guy comes along and he says he first came to Shaman and he says Shamai convert me on the condition that I could become the god. So Shami so Shamai says what do you what's the matter with you? Remember in general conversion is such an overwhelming process. We try to dissuade individuals from becoming Jewish because you can become a righteous gentile. You can have relationship with you don't have to take on the responsibilities of so here's this guy who wants to be the co like get out of here says chase with a 2x4 so he comes to hill takes a little bit more time hill takes a little bit of a different approach teaches him different and the guy realizes oh I can't be the kangel he ultimately goes in and there's a number of stories like this one of the stories the says is there was another gentile who came before Sham and he saidlo teach me the entire Torah while I'm standing on one foot says get out of here get out of here ridiculous you can't you're going to learn Torah on one foot you're clearly not serious about your commitment to Yiddish kite get out of here same guy came before Gay converted him how can you teach him the entire Torah while standing on one foot. So says, "You want to learn all of Torah on one foot? Whatever is despicable to you, do not do to your friend." Or in other words, love your fellow like you love yourself. Or at least do not do unto someone else what you don't want done unto you. Torah that is the entirety of Torah the rest of Torah perusho is simply a commentary on that zilummer now go and learn the rest incredible so the guy comes to sh says get out of here you're not serious guy comes to the hill says you want to learn ka on one hand you want to learn all of Torah on one foot what you don't want done onto you don't do on to others That is the entirety of Torah. That's it. That's all of Torah on one foot. Now the rest go learn on your own. And says something so beautiful. He says there's something so much deeper happening in this. This individual see the understands how could it be that a guy's coming along and saying teach me to cool on one foot. That's ridiculous. Doesn't make any sense that that's what he's asking. If someone wants to convert, they must have done their due diligence. They must have looked into Yiddish. They must have a little bit of an understanding. So what does this mean teaching one foot or somebody's asking the G the individual is asking like this he says what the guy was saying is like this. I've done my due diligence. I've done my research. I've done my studying and I think I understand Yiddish. Of course there's always more to learn. There's one problem. I need to understand this regal aas. There is this one yumiff. This one regal that you Jews have that I do not understand. I understand rashana. I understand yum kipper. I understand. I understand pes. I understand. I understand all those. They all have a meaning. They're all either tethered to a historical event or represent or I should say they are tethered to a historical event and also represent the contemporary meaning. Every all of it makes sense. But you Jews, you have this regal aos. You have this one that doesn't make any sense. What's that one regel? What is this? What is this? What? What? There's no mitzvah, right? There's no specific unique commandment for the day. There's no particular aod. So says theer this gentile this candidate for conversion was coming before Hill and he was saying teach me everything about this regal aos. Teach me everything about this one ytv. Hello says you want to know you want to know what is about do you really want to know what is about is about it's about loving your fellow Jew says the looks at his children and he sees how much time we've spent together because the truth is we're all together and then the says what happens when comes what happens when we get to the end of this yumpt season how who says now we often translate that as Hashem says it is so difficult that you're going to take leave of me we've spent all this time with Hashem but says what are you talking about never leaves never leaves aid says it is so difficult the fact that you're now my children you're going to go your different ways you're not going to be spending as much time together you're not going to be as connected to each other How much time have we spent with one another? How many beautiful relations have been built over this yam season? You see people in shul or hopefully again you invite people for a suda. You get invited for a suda. You see people there's so much there's so much togetherness and says then comesdah and then everybody goes back to life. Everybody goes back into the world. Hashem is like a parent. What does every single parent want to see more than anything? I just want to see my children together. I just want to see them together. I just want to know that my children are sitting around the same table and that they love each other and that the in-law children and these children and the grandchildren, everybody's getting getting along and loving each other. What we want for our own families is exactly what wants for us. So that shalom designed an additional yiff an additional y that doesn't have that doesn't have that doesn't have chauffur that doesn't have fasting that doesn't even have any unique particular mitzvah why just to keep us together for one more day because knows how life works and that when the season is over and we all retreat back into our office spaces into respective corners into our just you know silos and tashkafus and isms and all these different things. Says, "Do me a favor. Just stay together one more day. Just stay together one more day." Because there's nothing more that the father loves than to see his children together. So this convert, this potential, this candidate for conversion was coming to him. He said, "I know everything about your yiddish kite. I learned everything. I can't figure out this regal. Teach me everything there is to know about this regal, this one regal." And Allah says, "You want to know what it's about? It's about it's just about being together. It's just about relishing the bond of what it means to be a Jew and what it means to be connected to other Jews and what it means to be a part of a nation and part of a people and part of something so much bigger than ourselves. Shinyatz is the celebration of our peoplehood. It's a celebration of our nation kite. It's a celebration of what it means to be connected to other Jews whether they're like you or they're not like you. That's the entirety of and so there's nothing else there's nothing else that happens on this day and that's why again you know it's always interesting that right so infl we have two different days it's the same day and everybody always asks the same question shouldn't ultimately be on when we receive the Torah but if you understand that is the of it's the of togetherness it's of what binds us together. It's tora. Now you'll understand some people learn more, some people learn less. Some people observe more, some people observe less. Some people observe nothing. But no matter what your level of observance or scholarship, Torah is all of us. Torah belongs to all of us. Torah is the bond that unites all of us. And so what do we do on this last day of the month of season? We dance with our Torah. And the Torah loves us whether we love it back or not. Torah still loves us. The who loves us whether we love him back or not. But we have to learn to love each other. So on this last day of the Yumpt of season, we dance with our Torah which unites us. We dance with each other to celebrate those bonds of on this reg. On this last Yam of this Yumpt of season teaches us what is it all about? It's all about It's all about says, "My children, it has been so beautiful seeing you learn together and dav together and cry out to me together and storm the heavens together and I'm so scared that when you make on Sunday night, you're going to go off into your respective corner. So just spend one more day together." And dear friends, how profound this is for us. Because for us in our contemporary day and age, it's taken on a totally different meaning in the last couple of years in the aftermath of October 7th. This also becomes the yard site for the thousands of Koshian. This also becomes the yard site for those who are taken from us, those who are taken, those who are murdered on Sukastora, those who are murdered in captivity. And so the day takes on a different light. But who could forget the overwhelming wave of aos that engulfed our people in the aftermath of October 7th? Do we remember those days? You know, I remember I was shortly after October 7th, I was privileged to participate in an OU mission for Raon and leaders to go terra and one of the places we went was the Shura base where the military rabinet. That's where they had they brought all the bodies for identification. And I remember that we were there. We were there sitting and you know ostensively we were there to give but of course it never works that way. Whenever you try to give you get much more and I remember again there were these probably hundreds of soldiers there and we were there for for lunch and then afterwards they asked me to speak a little bit extemporaneously and in my American Hebrew I spoke and I said that you know to me the scariest thing is not what our enemies will do to us because we've been through everything and whatever our enemies try to do for us to to us we always know Every generation they rise up against us. I said to me the scariest thing is there was such a palpable such a palpable such a palpable unity. I said my greatest fear is that the war will come to an end. The hostages will be returned and the aktos will dissipate. So was there and he said don't worry there'll be another war. But in all seriousness, you know, it has to a certain degree it has dissipated. Crisis brings us together. No one comes together in crisis like the Jewish people. We just saw it yesterday. We just saw it yesterday on the fly Dubai flight. A nace. A miracle. A miracle. What could have been so overwhelmingly catastrophic incredible miracle when those holy Jews stormed the cockpit? You know, no one asked, "By the way, you know, you you you keep tossus, what's what's your feeling on the draft? You're voting for Natano, against Natano. You know, in crisis, we know how to be crisis. We know how to storm a cockpit, take over a hijacked plane and take our people, land our people in safety. In the aftermath of October 7th, we know how to blend together. And again, no one asks any questions about where you affiliate or what you do or who you are. In times of crisis, no one no one knows how to do like. We just have to try to copy the recipe in times where it's not crisis. Well, you'll say it's always times of crisis or cali. So, okay, that might be true. But there are times of more acute crisis, less acute crisis. When I saw I think all of us woke up to that news of the fly Dubai flight yesterday again just days before the yard site of the kidoshim of Simas October 7th. Jewish unity is the most powerful force in the world. Jewish unity could do anything. Jewish unity could pick up in the aftermath of one of the most catastrophic contemporary events of the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Jewish unity could storm the cockpit of a flight and take it back from a terrorist Jewish unity could do anything. And you know I believe like looks down and he says children don't you see what you can do when you act together? Don't you see who you can be when you can act together? Don't you see that there is no power in the world that could stand against you when you act together? When there is Jewish unity, it doesn't make a difference if it'sah, if it's Iran, if it's Mdani, it doesn't make a difference who it is. It doesn't make a difference who it is. At the end of the day, when we stand together, when there is when there is Nothing stands in our way. Gave us one extra day of y. Why? Not to take, not to do chuva, not to fast, not to blow the chauffeur, not to sit in the suka, but to dance together to take the s to out of the ark. Do you know what it means to take a safety to out of kesh? It's not so posh that you just do that. Even even for a shiva home, there's so many different do you relocate a safer Torah yet? What do we do? We take out all of the cif to. And by the way, we take out the kosher cif to we take out the plea to Torah. And what do we do? We just dance together. There are kosher Jews. There are puzzle Jews. There are these types of Jews. There are these. So all the Torah come out all of the Jews come out and says just spend just spend one more day with each other because says you know like I've seen this I've seen this script before sometimes when ends the unity ends also and dear if we could just keep the unity going if we could just keep holding on to each other dancing with one another then No terrorist could hurt us. No enemy state could hurt us. No hijacked flight could hurt us because when we are together there is nothing that stands in our way. So it makes perfect sense. This gentile who wanted to convert he is like what is this? Because the truth is from the outside looking in it makes no sense. It makes no sense. What is this yantive? But to us it makes perfect sense. Because at the end of the day, anything and everything we've done has all been to lead us to this day of it's all to lead us to this last day. This last day of this last day of dancing together, of being together, bringing the cif Torah out and just being who just wants one thing started on that but carry it with you throughout the year because with that octo we are simply unstoppable. With that octo we are unbreakable. With that we can do anything in the should continue to provide for us flows incredible miracles like we saw yesterday on the fly Dubai flight in the of our we should give to all of the taken from us on October 7th and for all those who are murdered and died in captivity in the of our give us a year that is filled with beautiful braha beautiful sheff and most of all may it be a year finally of Msiach of the third Bikish of Gulah. Amen.