Vayelech-Yom Kippur - Song of Repentance

You're listening to the weekly parha podcast recorded with Hashem's never- ending assistance in 5776 2015. This week's para is paras. And the para begins with a statement of Mosher of Moses that it's his time to go. He's 120 years old. this statement, this para that we're reading today, next week's para, the para that follows, these paras were said on the day of Mosher Rabenu's death, which was Zion, the seventh day of Adar, precisely 33 days before the Jewish people would enter into the land of Israel. Now, in this final speech, in this final statement of Moshe and of Moses, he talks about a song. He speaks about a song. And I'd like to share with you some of these verses that speak about the song. I want to understand the song because the song is an unusual song. It's not the typical song that we think of. It's not a song per se that's sung with joy or sung in the way that we typically think about songs. It's a different type of song, but it is a song none nonetheless. And we need to understand what is this song. If we understand the song, the depth of the song, we'll we will realize that we actually sing this song and it's the central song of what we're trying to sing about and think about and focus on when it comes to machu the 10 days of repentance and specifically kipper the day of atonement. Now the Torah tells us and this is in chapter 31 and the section I want to read from starts on verse 15. It says God appeared to Moses and to Joshua to Yeshua in a pillar of a cloud and this cloud stands comes to a rest comes to a stop at the opening of the oil of the tent of meeting of the sanctuary. God says to Moses, "You will sleep with your fathers. You will pass on from the world and this nation will get up and they will go after the false gods, the gods of the Canaanite peoples that the Jewish people are about to enter into that landi and the Jewish people says God will forsake me. a fairest and they will nullify their covenant that I have cut with them that I have made with [Music] them. God says when they do this when they forsake me when they step away from me from that relationship that I have with them and they look for other other women so to speak other gods so on that day I will get I will get angry and I will leave them just as they've left me. I will hide my face from them. I think this literally means they will be consumed. But the Unkish translates that they will be embarrassed. There will be an embarrassment and many great challenges, difficulties will find [Music] them. And the Jewish people will say on that day that this is happening to me because my God is not with me. The Jewish people have a lot of awareness. The Jewish people have introspection. They have that ability to look at themselves honestly and they'll say that this is happening because I've left God. God says, "I will hide myself even further on that day because of all the evil that they've done because they have turned to false gods." Now, here's where we get to the song and it gets very interesting. The Torah is going to describe a song and the song is actually a reference to the song which is in next week's para para that entire 43 verses chapter 32 verse1 all the way through 43. So those 43 verses are what the song is speaking about and it's a song full of rebuke. It's a song full of statements uh that the Jewish people need to follow the Torah and if they don't then things that are negative are going to happen. So it's a kind of a restatement of what we're saying here. So the next verse is verse 19 says God write for yourselves this [Music] song. Teach it to the people of Israel. Place it in their mouth. They have to know it by heart. Don't let them forget it. This song will be a witness. It's a witness for me to the the people of Israel, the sons of Israel. What's this? What's the purpose of the song? What does this song accomplish? The Torah continues and tells us, "I will bring them to the land, which I swore to their parents, to their forefathers, land flung with milk and honey, they will eat, they will be satisfied, they will get fat." Like we said, as a result of the prosperity that they will experience, they will turn toward other gods and they will serve them and they will curse me and they will nullify their covenant with me. Now the verse tells us what happens. What's the song about? And it will be when they experience all of these difficulties, these challenges as a result of turning away from me, from God, says [Music] God, this song will be a witness. What's the witness? What is the purpose of the song? What does the song accomplish? Zaro, this Torah, this covenant, this relationship will never be forgotten from the mouths of their children. God says, I know the nature of this people. I know the nature of the Jewish people. Tough as nails. Tough as nails that they are going to that they do today. Who they are, I know who they are. before they even get to that land which I've sworn to give to them. I swore to their great-grandparents, I know them. I know these people. I know their nature and I know what's going to happen. And this song, this song is going to be a witness. And somehow this song is a promise contained in the song is a promise that it will not be forgotten. The relationship that God has to the Jewish people will never be forgotten and never be lost. Now it's an amazing thing. I I saw Rabnasen of Bruss he speaks about he asked a question. He asks a few questions trying to understand what is the nature of this song. We think about a song. What is a song? A song is something perhaps that puts us in a certain mood, lifts our mood, makes us happy. A song is something that we dance to. A song is something that that moves our emotions. A song this song seems to be strange. This song is something which is full of rebuke. It's full of statements that if the Jewish people turn away from God, they're going to be forsaken. If they forsake God, God will forsake them. It's full of statements that don't seem to belong in a song. What is the song? What is the song that the Torah is speaking about? How is it a witness? And what does it mean that this song saves the Jewish people, takes them out, doesn't allow them to forget the relationship that they have with God and takes them out of the darkness of the darkest places, the the hest there, the the hiding that God does. Somehow this song which is in their mouth causes them to never forget the Torah, the relationship that they have with God. And I like to offer ashot upshot which is not whatnas says not precisely what he talks about but it's upshot which I believe is true which is the essence of what happens on kipper and it's something that every Jew we have this song and it's being sung inside of our hearts we don't realize it we don't know it but there's a piece of us that does you know yum kipper and I've spoken about this in the past but yum kipper is a day which no matter how far the Jew is no matter where they find themselves Almost all Jews yum kipper means something to them. It's a day of atonement. The day of atonement. The Jew finds themselves in a synagogue. You know, right now I'm on the west coast and I'm in a certain town and I on rash shana. We were out doing tashlik. I was there with the shul. I lead the services and and we were out there doing tashlik and there's a family who is here who's come to this particular town and they came from Israel not a religious family and they weren't in the synagogue on Rashashana but they did notice us outside there was some kind of connection that was made and we were speaking to them and they said that they would be coming to the synagogue on yum kipper they would be coming on the day of atonement and it's an amazing thing it's a beautiful thing and and it's something that there's something special about yum kipper that speaks to the soul of every Jew. There's some song that's being sung on Yumkipper that's not forgotten that draws the Jew back to the synagogue, back to his relationship with God. And that happens on Yum Kipper. And I think it's very connected to to this par and it's not a coincidence that we always read this during the time period right before Yum Kipper. And what's that song? I was thinking about it, you know, on on Yum Kipper there's something amazing that happens and and it's so special, so important. And it's so essential for each and every one of us to understand that this is what's happening and that we can use this in our lives in our relationship with God in our relationship with our spouse and our our relationship with our children and our relationship with our parents and our relationships with all of those around us. Any we come to shul and I've marveled at this we come to the synagogue and the entire synagogue together. You know on an individual level it happens first but then it happens all of us together. First we say we we pray and we admit our sins to God. We've we have made ourselves spiritually desolate. We've made ourselves we've we've rebelled against you, oh God. We've stolen. We've spoken slanderous of other people. Slanderously of other people. We admit all these things and we do that personally. But to me, the amazing thing is that an entire synagogue, an entire kahila, a congregation, men, women, and children can get up together and can admit that we have wronged others. That we have become spiritually desolate. And not only do we admit it, but we sing it. We sing it. We've made ourselves spiritually desolate. We've rebelled against you. We have stolen. We've spoken slanderously. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. The entire congregation together is admitting this. And I believe that that's part of what the Torah is speaking about. That's the song that the Torah is speaking about. Ramnusen speaks about it as there's a song here that that that God promises that no matter how far the Jewish people have gone, this is what Rimnusen says which I'm bringing to you know I'm kind of expounding on expounding on it. Renasan says there's a song and this song says that no matter what we have done the sins that we've committed as our kazal tell us our sages tell us when a person does chuva when a person repents when a person is willing to change who they are willing to to admit that they've done something wrong when a person does that when a person does chuva he repents the the a sins themselves become they become merits they they transform the song says that no matter how far I've gone, no matter how I've forsaken my relationship with God, no matter how I've broken that covenant with God, I can still come back. The song says I can still come back. The song is a rebuke. If I can walk into the synagogue and say, "Han, but God knew I've sinned. I've sinned. This is what I've done." If I can, as a congregation, we can sing that together. If we can sing, "I've sinned together to God." Oh my gosh. And if we can do that, Hashem says, "I promise you, you've got this song and you're not going to forget this song. And and you will never ever be so far from me that you can't come back." I believe that that's what draws the Jew. Yum. Kipper is the the day of the most prayers. The It's five. We We usually pray three times a day. Yum. Kipper. We We pray five times. And we're there in the synagogue all day and we're fasting. We don't eat anything. That's the day that all the Jews come to the synagogue. I mean, come on. Shabas. Shabas is lighter. You come, you know, after sh you're going to have a have a kdish, you have food to eat. You know what I'm saying? Come on a happy day. Come come come come come come come come come come come come come on Purim. No no no the Jewish people come on kipper because every Jew knows the truth. Every Jew knows the truth. We know where our relationship stands with God. We know the Tory promises us. The tells us as we just read the says you know the Jew knows that the reason stuff is happening to him that's not good is because I have forsaken my God. I have forsaken my relationship with my God. I've given up spirituality. I've given up what I know to be true. I've given up integrity. I've I've become spiritually desolate. And that's the reason that I have all of my problems. That's all the challenges that I experience in my life is God calling me to wake up and and God is hiding himself, so to speak. And God is God is doing that. Why? Why did this all happen? Because I have made myself desolate. And I am a Kipper. I come into the sh every Jew can relate to this. Every person can relate to this. Here is a chance for me to admit that I've done something wrong. Here's a chance for me to get back into a real relationship with my God, into a real relationship with my fellows, to a real relationship with my children, my spouse, with my friends, with my parents. Here's the chance. Every Jew wakes up and it's a song. It's a song. It's a song. Have you ever sung this song? Ever sung the song, I've sinned. I've sinned. God, please take me back cuz I'm so sorry. Have you ever sung that song? If you've sung that song, you know how amazingly joyous is that song? Can I come to somebody a a a sibling who I haven't spoken to in 30 years? Can I come and I say, you know, I was wrong and clean up my side of the street. Can I do that? Can I get up and admit the truth and have integrity? What a galing. What an amazing feeling. What an amazing experience it is to say to somebody, I was wrong. I was wrong. And it's a song. I was wrong. Please take me back. I was wrong. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. I was wrong. I was wrong. And and if I can sing that song, and that's what I get on Yum Kip when I walk into the synagogue. I can sing that song. That song is a witness. That song testifies that no matter how far away I am from God, no matter how far away, no matter how I've sinned against my fellows, no matter what I've done to my children, if I can admit I was wrong, if I can admit I spoke slanderously of you, I I judged you, I was selfish, can I admit that? If I can admit that, gives me a chance to admit that. If I can admit that, then what a song I get to sing. What a song I get to sing. And the ty testifies that no matter how far away from God, I will never forget this song, the power the Jewish people, the message the Jewish people brings to the world and specifically during this time of the year is that there's judgment. Yes, there's judgment. That's there's judgment. And I don't know what's going to happen in the coming year, but I promise you that no matter how far I've gone, no matter how bad I've been, no matter how bad it looks, I can always say, I can always come back and say, "I was wrong. I was wrong. I was wrong. And if I can come back and say that, I'm going to be singing because if I can admit that, there's no greater song than the song that happens. There's no greater joy than the joy that happens when I come back into a relationship with somebody who I've wronged and I admit and I'm willing to change and I'm willing to be different. You know, we can read this para. We can read the way God speaks and can come across sound like God is so mean. Oh, the Jewish people, they're going to sin and I'm gonna I'm gonna hide myself from them and bad stuff's going to happen to them and d it's so easy to read it that way, but that's not what the Torah is saying. That's not what the Torah is saying. The Torah is saying, "Here's a song." Hashem is saying, "Here's a song. You can keep singing. Don't stop singing. Don't stop singing. No matter how far you think you are, no matter how far you've gone, no matter how deep the darkness is around you, don't stop singing." There's a song. I promise you. And you won't forget this song. This song will always be with you. I promise you. It doesn't get more deep, more beautiful than this song of Hazenu. This song of the Jewish people, the song of chuva, of repentance, the song of admitting that I've done something wrong. So, I want to bless you and please bless me back. Hashem should help us that we should be able to sing this song. We should be able to admit it. It's so hard. It's so hard to admit to someone else that I've wronged them. I wronged somebody 10 years ago. I wronged somebody 20 years ago. I never admitted it. This is our chance to sing an amazing new song, a different song than we've ever sung before, but the song has always been inside of us cuz we know and that song hurts us. The song hurts us cuz we know that we've done something wrong. We know that that's not it's not okay how we behaved with that person. We know it's not okay that we tried to control our children. Hashem should bless us to be able to admit it. to be able to admit that we've done this wrong. Hashem should help us that the song that that is hurting us now, the song that's hurting us, that's hurting our hearts, we should be able to sing the song with joy, with gladness. We should be able to admit to Hashem, to God that we've been spiritually desolate to our children, to our spouses, to our parents, to our friends, to all those that we know to be able to come into Yum Kipper clean, to be able to come in, come out the other end through the mikvah, through the purifying waters of Yam Kipper that day when we get to sing that song, the song of I'm sorry. Thank you so much for listening. Have a wonderful shabas and an inspiring yum kipper. This podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you. For more podcasts like this, please visit www.rigoldwag.com or search on iTunes Arig Goldwag. [Music]