Ari Goldwag - Nitsavim-Rosh Hashana - Breaking Barriers

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast recorded with hm's never- ending assistance in rap Israel 5776 2016 this week's para is par Nim and I'd like to share with you a thought that's connected to the paraa and one that is also connected to rashash we have the new year the high holidays are coming up beginning of next week it says in our parha chapter 30: 11 a famous verse this Commandment that I am commanding you to it's not too wondrous for you it's not too far it's not too distant verse 12 it's not in the heavens that one would say who will go up to the heavens and grab it for us and make it heard to us so that we do it verse 13 it's not on the other side of the sea laymore such that someone would say m who will go over the sea and bring it back for us and make it hurt to us that we should do it verse 14 this matter is extremely close to you it's in your mouth it's in your heart it's something that you already know intuitively it's inside of you you don't need someone to go to a far off land you don't need someone to go up to the highest Heavens it's right there it's inside of you already now what is the Mitzvah what is the the Commandment that this verse is speaking of so it's it's an argument and I believe that the essence of the two different opinions is really the same one opinion is that we're speaking here about the Mitzvah of chuva obligation of repentance coming back to God admitting the things I've done wrong and finding my relationship with God once again realizing that that is still inside of me despite the things I've done wrong the other the other explanation of the verses is that the Mitzvah is referred to here is not just a single Mitzvah but it's actually the entire Torah the entire relationship that God sets down with us the things that we need to do in order to come into a relationship with him this is something which is inside of us it's something that we also know intuitively it's something that's always accessible to us no matter how far we've gone now I'd like to share with you two important questions one is based on the verse here and's explanation of the verse and one is based on the concept of the the 10 days of repentance which start this coming Sunday night with rashash and go all the way to yam Kipper those days first things first we have a says on this verse points out something really interesting the verse say it's not in the heavens the Mitzvah that we're speaking about is not far away such that one would say who will go up to the heavens and bring it back for us says if you look at the words you take the first letters of each of these words and you take the last letters of each of these words you see something amazing the first letters of me spill out the word the word means circumcision if you look at the last letters of these words it spells out the name of Hashem and then he and then V and then he and the essence of the teaching of the ra is that the concept of circumcision which is removing a barrier which is removing a spiritual barrier is that which leads us to a recognition of hashem's name of the essence of Hashem the essence of what we can understand of God which is expressed in the M now the question that we need to ask ourselves here is what is the concept of Mila the concept of circumcision how does it relate to the concept of chuva what is the connection circumcision classically as we know it or as we think about it has to do with the removal of the foreskin from the male organ that doesn't seem to be something that has to do with chuva doesn't seem to be something that has to do with repentance and coming back to God why is the pointing out that this is hinted to in the center of the concept of chuva the concept of having a true relationship with God why is that being hinted to in this verse so hold on to that question I'd like to ask one more question the other question has to do with the concept of the CH the 10 days of repentance the 10 days of repentance we know that on rashash our Sage H rashash tells us that it's called y it's a day of judgment it's a day when God takes out the books each and every day we we come up to sh we come to the heavens while we're sleeping and we sign off on the things that we have done that day there's a record there of everything and those books are opened up where we have signed and we've admitted that these are the things that we've done with our day and God opens up those books he looks at the books and he says okay this is what happened this past year in 5776 and now I'm going to determine I'm going to make a decision about 5777 what's going to be in this new year what's going to happen who's going to who's going to have success who's going to have Prosperity who's going to pass on from the world who's completed their mission here Who's acting in a way which doesn't entitle them to further life and our kazal tell us that those who are completely righteous they're signed and sealed immediately for Life those who are completely Wicked are signed and sealed immediately for death and then there are those like me and you who are the Bon we the middle type people and God you know sees that it's pretty much even as far as the Mitzvah the a how many good things I've done how many bad things I've done and so there's an opportunity over the Chua for us to repent to say look those things that I done that were negative that's not really who I am I I want to undo those things I want to I want to repent I want to say I'm sorry for those things and as I do that so they get removed and then when it comes to Yumer is a final judgment those who have repented God places them in the Book of Life and those who haven't have forbid are not placed in the book of life but the question that I have is that if this is a judgment about the year 5776 the Year that's passed so how can I do something in the following year that will help me for the year that's passed if I'm already entered into 5777 my judgment is about 5776 how can I do something now in the 10 days of repentance that can help me for the past we even find that our tell us that each of the seven days between rash seven days in between each of those days I should put an extra effort to pray better to do things better to to be on a higher level because it raises up each of those days on on the Sunday of the seven days of of repentance it raises up all the Sundays of my year of the year that's passed on Monday the things I do on that day raise up all the Mondays of the year that's passed and again I ask the question how can I do anything about last year if it's already a new year if my judgment is about the past year and that determines what's going to happen next year how can I do something in this year that's going to change my judgment about last year so to begin to understand this I want to turn you to the verse that we quoted which is verse 14 it says something amazing difficult to understand at first beautiful Mages to share with you about it and a depth of understanding that will help us understand the questions that we asked first says in speaking about the concept of Chua of repentance it's something which is so close to you it's in your mouth it's in your heart you can do it something that's doable something that's so close it's like at the edge of your lips it's it's in your heart it's something that's on the edge of your motion it's something that you can do it's something that's within you it's not something outside of you it's not something you have to reach for it's not something that you have to go somewhere for it's there it's inside of you now besides for just being poetic and beautiful there's also an amazing practical thing that this is saying and I want to share with you the medish it's a med in elut per it's brought here in it says like this this is Elijah the prophet speaking one time I was going from one place to another I found a certain person he was saying things he was making fun he was he was just putting down spiritual matters I said to him Ben my son see how how beautifully Elijah the prophet speaks to this person even though he's speaking negatively about spiritual matters he said my son what are you going to answer God when you come up to heaven after 120 years they're going to ask you you know what did you do with your life why didn't you have spirituality in your life what are you going to say on the day of judgment I'm so the person responded and said that I'm going to say I wasn't giving given intuition and understanding and knowledge by Heaven I wasn't somebody who was g had that gift of intellectual understanding so I'm not somebody who can relate to spiritual things I'm just a regular person person so says to him my son tell me something what do you do for a living what's your work he said I'm a hunter or according to explanation here I'm a fisherman so I said to him my son who told you that you should take flax you should take linen make it into Nets throw it into the sea with and that would help you to be able to catch the fish so he said to me my teacher this is something that I do understand intuitively this is something that the heavens did give me that ability and that understanding to be able to make a livelihood so says to my son if they gave you the intuition understanding to be able to catch fish from the sea what do we find when it comes to words of Torah when it comes to spiritual matters the verse says it's something which is very close to you you think that God did not give you the intuition and understanding the knowledge to able to access that this very verse is telling you that indeed this is something that you have access to this is information that God has placed within you every single person has access to spiritual matters this very same person who before had made fun of Elijah had made fun of spiritual principles he started to groan he started to cry I said to my son don't be upset everybody gives the same answer everyone has the same response whatever they're involved whatever they're good at they say this is something that I have an innate ability a talent and they'll also say that they don't have the talent and ability when it comes to spiritual matters of but that very thing that they are saying that they have the ability to do that very talent that they have shows that God does Place wisdom and understanding into them and Torah is no different and so therefore I would give them the same response I would tell them the same thing that I'm telling you so this mes really just underscores the message of the of the PK of the verse itself which says that the Torah the intuitive faculty of the human being gives them access to the godliness which is inside them which is expressed in the Torah but the question is if that's so then why do people say I don't have access what indeed is the response how how is one who feels the same way as this diog as this fisherman how does a person access it what's the what's the idea and the answer the depth of it is completely connected to the idea of MAA of circumcision ision because classically we think of circumcision as something which is done to an 8-day old boy you know it's it's something that's only only makes sense for for a little boy who has a forkin on his male organ but the truth is the concept of or the concept of this foreskin is not just in regards to that that concept it's also in regards we find that there's a concept of oras there is a forkin on the heart there's a barrier between me and God which is called thear the evil inclination it covers up my heart and doesn't allow me to feel doesn't allow me to connect there's also an oress on the mouth a person speaks negatively of others is also referred to as a barrier creates a barrier between me and the other person so wherever there's a possibility a potential for connection whether it's the the male organ or whether it's the heart of a human being to another person or to God or whether it's the mouth the way that we speak to each other the way that we relate to each other the way that we communicate in each of those places there's a barrier that's placed there that stops me from being able to connect and to be able to relate to another person or in the case of this fisherman in the case really of all of us to relate to the godliness which is inside of us to who we really are and that barrier is the ego it's the a of har the evil inclination which sees us as separate from God which sees us as unable to access spirituality but what Elijah the prophet was showing this this fisherman was is that just like you're able to access something innately that you know to be true that you have a special talent for because God gave you that intuitive faculty that intellectual ability so too it's true in regards to Torah so to it's true in regards to your relationship with Hashem and all you need is you want access to Y which is at the end of the words you want access to Hashem to God to Godliness to that amazing spiritual essence of who you are you need Mila you need to circumcise your heart you need to remove the barrier you need to get rid of that ego you need to take away that which is on your tongue the you need to access what's really inside of you what's inside of your heart what's really the essence of your speech of what you really want to say of the thoughts that are inside of your mind now what comes out of all of this conversation is that the the heart the heart is a place the the the feelings of the person the intuition of a person is that which you know you see that there's a penetration so to speak that God godliness spirituality the soul the ruach of a person is inside of the heart in its purest State a person has complete access to Godliness the essence of the human being is godliness it's the soul it's the spirit it's inside of one's heart and we even find explicitly it's brought down the that the of a human being there are different aspects of Soul one aspect of soul is Nish the Nish of the person is inside of the brain but it's only the lowest lowest levels of the Nish the Nish extends as it were it's Transcendent it transcends beyond the human being beyond the mind and and it's only the lower aspects of the Nisha rest inside of the brain so the the Nish the soul the spirit of the person penetrates from a higher realm down into our realm rests inside of the human being in a similar way the thoughts of a person we could say that which a person thinks about you know it could take a few seconds and I can think about ideas that in order to explain them to express them with my mouth to express them in words would take many minutes or even could be a half an hour an hour to express the idea that I've thought about in just a few seconds so in the concept of thought as well we could speak about the fact that there's a penetration of the thoughts themselves into my speech the speech manifest something which is higher which is my thought and if I don't have the ability to speak properly to express my thoughts well we see mosu for example refers to himself as he's uncircumcised his lips are uncircumcised he can't speak well he had a speech impediment he didn't have the ability at the beginning to be fully expressive but when we remove when there's a Mila when there's a circumcision when there's a removal of that barrier mosenu is able to speak he's able to express the most lofty Concepts the most spiritual ideals the word of Hashem the Torah itself he's able to express who he really is who the essence of who he is his purpose his mission in life he's able to do that because there's Hashem says I'm the one who placed your tongue in you so you just have to go back to who you really are that's what this PK is saying all you need to do in order to be spiritual is just remove that which is blocking your mouth and your heart from doing that which you really are that what you really are at your essence when you do that when you remove that barrier when you start believing in yourself that's when you can be who you really are at your essence which is a spiritual being and that's the Torah and that's the repentance that's the concept of chuva now I want to point something out that based on this we really have an amazing depth what's going on S Chua in the 10 days of repentance we asked what what are these 10 days is it the previous year is it the next year and I want to show you that when you have a relationship between two people when two people walk hand in hand instead of facing off with each other and being at odds they're walking hand in hand they're on the same side they're on the same team so if you look at them holding hands and I ask you in that space where their two hands are holding each other who is that who is that in that space is that person a or is that person B so you'll have to answer that it's both of them because they're holding hands there you can't really say it's one or the other it's the place where they are connected it's that place of interface between between them and that's why by the way uh a good friend is called a yid yid means absolutely you know my best friend I call him my yid myid my heartfelt friend the word yid is made up of two words Yad Yad hand hand when we stand hand in hand we are udim we are beloved to each other when we have that relationship so you you see yeah you can see where I start and where you end but you see the point of interface between us and that point of interface is a place where it's neither me nor you it's both of us it's a place of synergistic Union between us because we're walking hand in hand because there's no barrier between us the beginning of the month of Tish those first 10 days if I would ask you what what is the character of these 10 days is it the previous year is it the following year how can I do something now that's going to help me for last year the answer is that it's a place where the two years stand hand in hand so to speak it's the point in time where you can't say who is it is it this one or is it that one is it the previous year is the following year it's the beginning of the next year it's the rash like I explained to you in regards to the soul the Nish sits inside of the head the RO is the place where it's the crossover between the Transcendent Realm of the soul that which animates the human being and the physical aspect of himself which is his head which is the place that animates the whole entire body the same way in the very same way the rash the beginning of the year is the place where the previous year penetrates into the following year everything that happened in my previous year all that's gone on in my life until now in the near 5776 is going to be a springboard for whatever I'm going to accomplish in 5777 and that's why it's a time when there's a judgment what's going to be in the coming year what do 5777 have to do with 5776 obviously everything that's going to go on in next year is based on everything that I've accomplished and done in the previous year and that's why there's a judgment it's a statement look what have you done what's the foundation what does it look like what's going to be in the next year and you can see that in the place where the two years join where they are hand in hand where there's a crossover where there's a penetration and that's why in aaras chuva I can still do chuva I can still repent I can still go back to who I really am I can still remove the AA the the that barrier between me and God because the essence of my relationship even the sins that I've done they're just a cover for the truth which is all the good things that I've done and I can still remove that or I can still remove that barrier during the the 10 days of repentance why because it's still part of the previous year even though it's the new year it's the beginning of the new year and the previous year penetrates into the new year and I can still remove those barriers I can still return to the essence of who I am which is through chuva and it's also through the mitzah themselves the command themselves the purpose of the Torah why did God give this Torah to us why did God give us 613 Commandments the answer is because when I fulfill the Torah it's the same it has the same effect as when I do chuv I repent I return to who I am the Torah is just the the way that gave me an opportunity to to remove those barriers between myself and others to remove my those barriers between myself and myself to remove those barriers between myself and my God to go back to the essence of who I am just like in so many places I see that God gave me an intuitive understanding a way to accomplish those things that not everyone else has a talent for but everyone has some Talent everyone has an intuitive understanding it's clear that they were blessed with that ability to do that thing and in the same way Hashem says you are blessed you are blessed with an ability to to be spiritual to have a relationship with me to be a true human being to be a man it's it's in you all you need is the you have to remove that thought that I have to go so far I have to fly up to the heavens I have to go across the seas to find God no it's it's already inside of you all you have to do is remove the barrier remove the ego let go of all of those things that I've done based on my mid my my my Character defects my negative character all the places that it seems that I'm separate from others and that I'm separate from Hashem at this point before I give my final blessing to you and ask you to bless me I want to ask you to open your hearts and it's it's in your mouth it's in your heart to do it you know I've been putting out these P podcasts I've been sharing this Torah with you for over nine years and I can Shar with you um working on the book the book is completed the book is at the final stage just some final edit has been has been done I just need to look at it and then the the book is ready to go I have a cover for the book beautiful cover the name of the book is perfectly imperfect it's about personal growth some of the ideas that we've spoken about here expressed in writing such that it can go out to many more people and I need $10,000 to be able to print the book and to be able to make it known through PR that this book is available collected already over $1,700 so we're well on our way but I need your help this is a time to open your hearts and move into action you can go on to my website arold wg.com go on to the page that says contact and on that page there's a button that says donate and please when you give the donation please make a note of the fact that it's for my safer for the book I thank you so much for your support i' like to bless you and please bless me back hasm should help us that we should be able to remove the barriers between ourselves and others between ourselves and ourselves between ourselves and God help us to see that that intuitive faculty is within us that we have that spirituality we have that connection should help us that we should see that is in our mouths in our hearts should help us to be able to do it to be able to fulfill that which we know thank you so much for listening have a wonderful week a wonderful chabas and a wonderful rashash this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.wag.com or search on iTunes Ari goldwag