CHAZAQ Event with R' Label Lam on "Shofar So Good" September/01/2013

a number of years ago I had a a gift I considered a gift that it was right before Rosh Hashanah it was in the middle of ello and the chauffeur's blowing all over the place and suddenly I got to notice from a Court an Upstate Court something I had forgotten about a long time ago a traffic ticket I got them pulled over pulled over someplace upstate but they didn't forget and they sent me a notice and so I have to appear in court oh my gosh OMG as we say yeah what's going to be and I was I wish I was shaking inside you know are they going to revoke my license are they going to hit me with a many hundred dollar fine and then after I went through the process and I appeared before the judge and he wasn't too harsh with me and he slammed the gavel down a few times and asked me a few pointed questions it was a few hundred points of I mean a few hundred dollars and and a point or two would didn't damage my uh my rating for the for the insurance so much but then I realized what an opportunity I had that I was being called at the court a few weeks before Rosh Hashanah and reminded me that here we are and I'm about to enter into a bigger Court where there's more things than just a few points on the license and a few hundred dollars that are at stake our gazal tells Gamora and Beya says that call parnassusana Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur that the whole livelihood of a person people running to work running to 47th Street they're going out into the world we're hustling we're bustling with the person's effort he gives up his life in order to make a livelihood and yet it's all determined between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur this big determination not just a few hundred dollars millions and millions of dollars whatever whatever can be granted to the person who's going to live and who's going to die this year that's going to be scripted into the into the year they say it was a famous old story that uh one of the great Bali Musser stood up before his congregation and he said over this following thing he said that one of his one of his the balabatim in that past year had had caught a cold and he passed away said you know what happened he went out without it without a coat he went out without the proper shoes and he stepped in a puddle and he caught a cold and the cold turned into a pneumonia pneumonia turned into something else and high fever and then he passed away he says that's what happened he says no that's not what happened he said he caught a cold during musaf right that's when he chilled out his nashama chilled out he decided he's when the life when the year was being scripted and everything was being written over there so that's when he spaced out that's when he chilled out that's when he caught his cold so to speak so everything is being scripted on Rosh Hashanah so it's a very very frightening day who's going to live who's going to die he'll be saying in San Antonio and as the rabbi said we're celebrating and how can we possibly celebrate on that day but I have a couple of other questions important questions and I'm going to line them up and then I'm going to try to unravel them and hopefully it won't leave the room until we've unraveled and and explained all the all the questions and the Dynamics of what's happening in the next few weeks with each and every one of us so one question is it's not my own question I saw the orgadella Yahoo ask the following question how can a person possibly stand it's the world was created originally within we're going back to that original position that the world was when things started out and then decided I can't run the world according to then I have to insert and include something called some allowance for error din is a standard that there's no allowance for any error the piano players playing suddenly hits one clunker note you know all of a sudden the trap door opens up he's gone you're one day late with the mortgage payment and suddenly they repossessed that's it it's too late it's finished there's no allowance no tolerance for any error there's no negotiations it's finished so it's over so who can live and who can exist in the light of the thing that's what I mean didn't means it's a standard of then not just the Judgment taking place but there's a standard call then that's one question who can live up to that light in in the in the in the examining in the Precision of that examining light who which one of us is so perfect that we don't have a wrinkle or some some some something wrong that that we can say oh I feel confident I can be happy in that day going into yomadin we'll come up with an answer and plus on top of that here we're starting the 10 days of chuva and we go through the whole Rosh Hashanah moxa if I was going to a court case I would talk to my lawyer what do I have to prepare so who's our lawyer our lawyer is the hazal they tell us what to what to how to speak how to position ourselves everything is included in the maxor right so we look at the maxor and what is the maxor advising us we go through the whole Maxwell it doesn't say one time that we said and that we did anything wrong how about that that's one time here the first two days of the ten days of chuva and we don't say anywhere that we did anything wrong it's a little it's a little bit strange the one time when we do mention that we did a hate in avino we said but our lawyers there holding on to our arm he says Don't Give A clap don't don't admit to anything plead the fifth because everybody makes mistakes it's a generic statement that we all make mistakes but don't admit that you've done anything wrong so there's no discussion about anybody having ever done anything wrong so we're starting off the year no discussion about anything wrong we didn't do anything wrong so how do we do true love we didn't do anything wrong and what's the determination being made on who's going to live who's going to die based on what it's a little confusing I'm coming to the court and I don't even know what I'm being accused of and I don't even know how to defend myself again why not being accused of so what's going on with this day so the result tell us what that there's three books that are opened up I have to understand this in a way that doesn't sound like it's a comic book but there's three books opened up right one is a book for Sadiq another is a book for benonium for in between people and there's another book for him for Wicked people and the khazal tell us that the righteous people are immediately written into the Book of Life the wicked people immediately written into the book of death and the benonim the in-betweeners the talmud uses such a statement like this they said Hanging and standing until Yom Kippur comes along what is this hanging and standing what kind of what kind of thing is that hanging are you hanging or you're standing when I was a little kid Mrs Frankel Bill tells you I used to I used to climb out of the crib I would not remain in a crib every night my mother hold me and I'm hanging on right so what are the person's either hanging or you standing you can't be hanging and standing at the same time either hanging there right or you're standing but you can't be hanging and standing if you don't hit the ground you're hanging if you're standing you're on the ground what's this hanging and standing Yom Kippur and then we have to examine the statement that the sadiki immediately written into the Book of Life what does that mean right when my wife and I were married 28 years ago that year ramosha Feinstein exactly he passed away right so that means that that year he was written into the book of death he said Sadiq everybody's in the cooling nobody disagrees I think that you that you're also the stipler of Israel kanyevsky also passed away everybody agrees he was a Sadiq so what do you mean that Rosh Hashanah was scripted in that somehow he should be written in the book of death it didn't happen how could that be it doesn't make sense to us is this is this some kind of a a game that the Ghazal is telling us we go back and we say we realize also that there's people that everybody who agreed that a Russian for example Hitler 1939 1940 1941 1942 Rosh Hashanah Rosh Hashanah call boy all the creatures of the world not just Jews or being the things that being determined on Rosh Hashanah how did he survive those years shouldn't have been that he was written into the book of death during those years and yet you know he continued to live and he got stronger and he got more powerful how can such a thing happen so so so sometimes we lose faith in these statements when they don't match up with our picture and our experience of what's going on in reality but we want to give some texture and some explanation and maybe two other questions then we're going to go unravel some answers I'll remind you the questions as we as we get to them and in Rosh Hashanah so we have rosh hashan then Yom Kippur why should we have a day of judgment first and then Yom Kippur the kapora forgiveness and atonement seems like it would make a lot more sense to do it another way around right if I was with the merciful one if I was designing it let's do sleekapura first I'm coming into the court and then we'll have yamadin right so first we'll have a uh a chance to clean ourselves up yeah and then and when I'm looking good and I'm cleaned and I'm polished you want to present the diamond you know you got to polish it and work it over and then present and say no now what do you think of it don't present it when it's rough in its role and then later on only polish it up and and and put it into the Showcase first polish it up so I would design Yom Kippur first I was doing it okay and then I would do Rosh Hashanah afterwards and have yomadin the great determination of of what the year is going to look like it sounds a little bit better and only that I would back the whole thing up 10 days here we come into the first day we're starting a new year and we step into brand new Uncharted Territory a blank book and we're on to that beautiful new piece of paper how beautiful is this piece of paper how beautiful is this field a beautiful unplowed field plowed field with filled with potential and we're about to step onto it and the first thing is din imagine the kid shows up for the first day of school and he arrives and the teacher's taking attendance the lamb aren't you the kid who broke the mirror in the bathroom last year aren't you the one who wrote his name you know with a permanent marker on the uh on the wall over there yo we paid for it and I and I and I wrote a hundred times in the Blackboard I will not you know that's a great school property and I and my parents came down and we you know and I did and were you attacking me in the first day of school finish it up before the first day of school right back it up have Yom Kippur 11 days before have your mother then on the last day of the year and then Rosh Hashanah walk in relaxed and comfortable if you're coming into a brand new school with your number two sharpened pencils everything's very nice you know what what do we have to show up last year's business into the new year right it seems like a much more merciful system so let's try to unravel some of these questions I'm expecting anybody to remember them in order so I'm not going to tax your minds everybody wants to relax and have a good time but let's enjoy a brief story I think that will help us understand why the order of Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur comes the way that it does and this is a story I heard many years ago from Rabbi Ozil malevsky is that Sal it was a love in Mexico City and I used to work for samac and I knew him fairly well he told over the following story it was amazing that there was a Shepherd boy and he happened to be on the King's Highway not in Brooklyn King's Highway but he was on the King's Highway he was sitting and he was minding his own business and he was playing his flute and he was taking care of his flock of sheep when Along Comes the king with his giant motorcade and Entourage following behind him you can imagine stretch limos you know going all the way back and this boy is sitting there on the highway he parked himself there so when they see him sitting there and he's blocking traffic and he's blocking the progress of the king so right away they start to honk on the horn if that sounds familiar please let me know okay and if they're hopping away and this guy's waving his hand and kind of stopped making so much noise over here leave me alone you know he's sitting playing his flute minding his own business and they're trying to you know push him off the but he's you know waving his hand at the king in a very dismissive ways very very insolent rude and the people the the King's Men they said you know let's incinerate them let's just run him over let's just get him off the highway you know how dare he stopped the king how dare he act like that to the king the king says I have a I have another plan you know what do invite him see if he wants to take a ride with me in my limousine I said what a ride you're gonna invite him in even closer he says yes I want to take I wanted the vitamin for a ride they invite the shepherd voices yeah looks like a nice machine right there sure I'll come in for a ride he sits in the back seat and he's sitting right next to the king is the king with his Royal robes beard it's crown and the shepherd boy muddy with his with his sandalim sits down next to him over there and he looks up at this fella and goes oh wow he's a nice beard is it real he gets a tug on the king's beard very very the people the the driver look in the rear of your mirror who said you know I could just press the ejection button and I'm sending him into another Universe let's get him out here no no no patience patience he said he said oh let those Royal robes let me try that on oh that's that's you know does that fit me it's a little bit he's he's talking to the king he's saying all these different things the car is going and he's saying terrible jokes and using inappropriate language and he's making comments that you know that that the people around the king who know the honor of the king are just very embarrassed about they they just how can the king put up with this and they smoke coming to a small town when they arrive in this small town and they're driving through slowly they slow down suddenly they start to hear that there's people saying the king the king welcome the king and they're waving placards and they're holding up signs and they're yelling The King The King The King and there's all kinds of trumpets blowing and everything and they're slowing down and they open up the windows so people get like a little peek a little Visage into the car and the king is looking out and waving and the people are trying to get a peek at the king and they're all clamoring and the boy says Slow Down slow down there's the middle of a parade over here I want to see what's going on in in this parade and the King says and they keep on going slowly through until they exit the town it's a small little town a little a small little village and the Fellas the boys oh come on it was a parade we should have stopped over there I want to get out I wanted to see the king that everybody was talking about doesn't realize he's sitting next to the king so they go and they continue on the road they come to a slightly larger town they went from upstate New York now they're in Muncie okay and next thing you know whoa this is now this there's a few thousand people out there and yelling The King The King The King they slow down they're going down Main Street nobody's out there waving their placards they're blowing and they're they're cheering and they're accepting and they're honoring the king and the boy says slow down so now maybe we'll get out we'll take a look and we'll wait for the king to pass they're all looking for the king meanwhile they're peering at the car he doesn't realize that they're looking they're trying to get a look inside where he's sitting right next to the king now they come to the big city come to Queens okay okay the people New York all the boroughs they all come into one place and they all start to scream The King The King The King and as they slow down and the ticker tape is Flowing all over the place and people are screaming he sees the tens and tens and hundreds of thousands of people yelling the king suddenly he starts this and starts to Dawn on him he realizes he racing this is the third parade that we've confronted today and the people are all staring in this general direction there's no other cars in the motorcade except us and they're all and this guy looks pretty Regal the one that's sitting next to me and suddenly he gets the shock of his life playing backwards and realizing all the things that he said that he shouldn't have said if he was this is actually the king and suddenly he falls down at the king's feet because it Dawns on him in one moment he grabs the king's feet and he says forgive me forgive me forgive me forgive me I didn't mean you're the king you're the king I was worried he's in front of the king and the King says I forgive you as we had spoken so now with that we can understand why we say have Rosh Hashanah first then the last of the questions that we asked and then Yom Kippur second why Rosh Hashanah first because we can't have Yom Kippur until we have the first Rosh Hashanah right it's impossible until we spent two days pumping up and realizing that's the real single word that we focus in on Rosh Hashanah it's a coronation for courage in front of the Bible says don't look at the size of the hate look at the in the size of the one in front of whom the hate was committed who was the size of that one so we realized that it was done in front of a courage barucho then all of a sudden the person comes to recognition and they say forgive me forgive me for looking because I forgive you as you had spoken so that's why we say in the David Hashem URI the hazatas which is Rosh Hashanah the lights go on and then Hashem ishi Hashem is my one who forgives me is a Yom Kippur first has to come a recognition of that there's a king and that there's a boss in that there's a there's a hamilla that says in the world and we're living in the world of UK and then only after that now we come to recognition that then we better clean ourselves up that's what we have first Rosh Hashanah and then Yom Kippur and now what is the Judgment being made upon what is the Judgment what is the great determination all these different things let's understand just a few dynamics of the chauffeur again I'm trying I want to explain I want everybody to be as prepared as we possibly can I want to prepare myself also I'm going to listen very carefully to what I'm about to say what is the determination I have to remind myself what is the determination being made on and it's interesting that when we read one of the readings that we do in Rosh Hashanah is about yeshu oil and your smile was going to do terrible things to the Jewish people in the future is actually the the town says there's actually a fifth golus right not just four but there's a fifth one and it has to do it's going to be more cruel than all the other ones and has to do with the goddess of Ishmael it's a very frightening frightening things he records recline batal so so but your smile cried and we read about he was cast away from avraham house and it says heard the voice of the of the boy as he was there of course Rashi picks up what do you mean as he was there everybody's got to be someplace you know you have to say as he was there everybody's where they are this is as he was there but not as he's going to be in the future which means if he was broken if he was humbled if he was nullified in that moment over there he was sincere for that moment that's all that counts we're not going to look at the future so we learn from that over there that one of the things about the Rosh Hashanah is that we're not being judged on the future nobody's making a pledge of the future what I promise to do oh I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that you know it's not a day for like New Year's Day when people make resolutions I'm going to lose weight this year oh this year you know this year you know I'm going to do this as a matter of fact it's a famous vote from the cutscarebi he says are in the land from the beginning of the year until the end of year it starts at Hashanah the year and it ends up year because every year starts off Hashanah this is going to be the year and it ends up sometimes being year just another year so the so sometimes these pledges we don't even come through with them right something doesn't mean you can't have dreams and plans we'll get to in a second and also another thing is another quality of the chauffeur just to understand how it works is that the chauffeur has this ability the talmud says to do something called the Sutton confuses the Satan the Satan suddenly the policeman pulls you over he says license registration please he takes your card he goes back to his computer now all the police cars are equipped with with computers and he plugs the name suddenly computers down I can't access the the network can't find anything about the past I don't know whether you have points in your license whether you don't have points whether you have a good driving history or bad driving you say there's nothing in the past so I just have to come back and take a look at the person as he is in the present the the so there's no there's no there's no mention the past so the good news is what we're being judged on has nothing to do on Rosh Hashanah with the past and it has nothing to do with the future which brings up a very very important questions that's not just a philosophical question what is the person standing there on Rosh Hashanah stripped of the resume of the past and naked from any promises and Ambitions for the future what is the person when someone goes out on right they want to know right away you know what's his history what was he you know what has he been doing till now and then what are his plans what is he going to be doing and he's applying to this school and he's now taking a course and getting certification and this we want to know who's the person based upon the motion of their life where they're coming from and where they're going to but if you take that away from a person you want to know who are you without that what is the person very very important question because that's the that's the point on which all the determination is being made who is this person without the past interrupted from the past and without the future what is a person so beautifully we have an answer from miktav male Yahoo from Rabbi Eli Elias or destler and he says the following thing he says that the essence of a person so no this is the rutzel of the person razon means the desire what is the the what does the person want that's the essence of a person in a present moment what do you want to know what is a person is and that deep in the heart deep in the core of that person what is that what is that called the mamadaka that that small sliver that small thin voice that's inside everybody what is it that's the rot Zone who threw US military of the person that's deep inside that's what the chauffeur is digging for that the chauffeur is resonating in the person that's the desire of the person to come close to a coach that's the desire of the person that that's what we're being judged on because another beautiful statement that the organelle Yahoo explains this amazing statement amazing statement is that the reason why we're being judged at that moment like that and this will help us understand one of the first questions we asked how can a person be held to the standard of then to the standard of judgment which is an infinitely High intolerant standard and it's because the following thing because there's a statement a sagely statement that says if that's the essence of the person is the rut Zone the desire of the person then and aimed over almost so nothing stands in front of the will the only question is what does it mean nothing stands in front of the will when I first saw that statement I was a little bit put off because it sounds like a rah-rah statement something that a sales coach is going to tell his team and 80 are going to do 20 better or twenty percent they're going to do 80 better but in order for it to be a true statement that has to be 100 it has to be batting a thousand it can't be you know just something to get you all charged up and to do a little try to do a little better and we all become a little improved from it it has to be a statement that's absolutely true so the organelle Yahoo uh gedalia sureby's father had written the following thing amazingly he says that how does it mean what does it means he explains like this very practically that in the world of action in the world of Miser and of doing we all have limitations right someone comes to me and they you know show me one of those laminated sheets you know that tells a sad story about what their financial condition is and I'm touched by the story so touched that I reach in my pocket and I take out a my checkbook and I start to write my wife is usually standing behind the fellow and giving some kind of a hand signal right and she and I start to write a one and then I put a zero now let me ask you a question is there any limit to how many zeros I could put before I get to the decimal point is there a limit no thank you Moshe I appreciate that you know yeah is it I could put as many zeros as I what if I put one more zero than I have in the bank you know let's say I put what they want I put a hundred thousand dollars worth there but I but all I have is nine ninety thousand dollars in the bank let's say then what have I done I've sent out a bad check right maybe I committed a a federal crime you know some kind of fraud or something like that the fellow is going to go out and and solve all those problems but he's going to found out the check bounce and I didn't do anybody a favor I'm going to get a big charge for it so it didn't do anything so there's a limit there is a practical limit to how many zeros I could put it's the limit is what I have in my bank account how deep my pockets are how short my arms are to reach into those Deep Pockets even if my pockets were deep so everybody has limitations on what they can do but then sometimes you give the person a little something or other you say here this is for you and then when he when he's ready to leave you shake his hand and you tell my hope that everybody and I wish that everyone should give you when you know people can be generous in words thanks a million I've heard the expression right people can be generous in the world of speech but there's a limitation in my power of speech also because there's only so much I can my language is limited and my power of empathy is limited there's only so much you can say to a person to try to appease them now here comes the crunch time is there any limit to how much I can want to put how many zeros I can want to put before I hit the decimal point right and the answer is over there no and that's really the Practical point over here is that there's no limit even though in the world of action I'm a limited person in the world of speech I have my limited vocabulary and sense of feeling and connectivity with another person but in the world of wanting there's no limit to how much I can want to help right that means that I can put an infinite amount of zeros that's what the chauffeur is pushing over there climb up the ladder of moots of Arts of arushabagiar shamima There's No Limit there's no hot limit to the height of that ladder climb as high as you want in the world of makshava um nothing stands in front of the will means that there's nothing that stops the person from wanting we're being judged in an unlimited way in the world of wanting there's no difference between me and the bearish high between any one of us in the prophet's crying between anybody over here in avram avinu in in Yitzhak and sarimanu and any of the great person that have ever walked on the planet there's no difference between between them and any of us because they wanted to be mom like they wanted the crown of course over the whole world they wanted that and they were able to do more because their hands were better trained and their hearts were better activated in their minds were stronger but we could want the same thing that they want we just can't carry it out the way that they were able to carry it out and therefore a person can stand in Yoma then and can actually be held to that standard because in the area that we're being judged it's in an area of unlimitedness of of limitlessness the only the only limit this the limits that we put on ourselves right they say that with a fella he went he was in the zoo he went with his son they were going around to different uh stations in the zoo there's the walruses and here's the monkeys and finally steps out into the area and large animals there's the elephant right there oh my gosh that an elephant a many many ton elephant big like this room stand right there and the Fellas there and he goes oh my gosh the elephant's right here in the open he's not even contained in anything he was shocked he was scared in front of the elephant was one of those little link chains you know like they put in front of the grassy there's nobody casually walks across the grass in front of the shore right and the CH and the Elephant had around his neck like a kite string that was stuck into one of the little green sticks that's in the ground that you use to hold up a tomato plant and that's all that's holding the element elephants from charging forward and stepping stepping and trampling in a few steps this fellow and his son he calls to the guard he says the elephant is out of his cage he's going to trample us we're all in danger and the guard system he said what do you mean don't worry about it he says that the elephant he he he he's right over here and he he could step forward he says don't worry about it the elephants ain't going nowhere he said how do you know the elephant's not going anywhere he says because we had Dumbo here in our little he was born into captivity right here in our in our Zoo and from the earliest six months of his life we had a big heavy chain around his neck that was anchored into a concrete a piece that was stuck deep into the ground it was unmovable and we put an electrified fence in front of them every time he took a step forward he got an electric shock then when he got big we took away the concrete blocks we took away the big chains and we just put a little string around his neck to remind them we put a little stick into the ground as a remnant of what it was like when he was when he was a little boy and now we don't even have to put a shock there we just put the little little link chain over there he's afraid to move forward right even though he can do it but he's afraid to do it and therefore on Rosh Hashanah the beauty in Rosh Hashanah is that we're getting a chance to stretch ourselves out what would you do if you had all the resources in the world right who would you be if you didn't know who you were until now how old would you be if you didn't know how old you are right what would you do for the world what would you do for hashem's world what would you do for Hashem if you had unlimited powers and resources and communication skills you could speak to the world what would you say right we do the same thing that Abram avinu wanted to do we would do the same thing that Moshe Urbana wanted to do I we wake up in the morning ourselves with our limited capacities and our limited ability to express ourselves and to understand what's going on in the world but on Rosh Hashanah says take off the ceiling there was a Yeshiva that was one time asked what would you do if you had unlimited resources somebody came a consultant came to ask him to follow the question and I was thinking what we do if we could pay our teachers right that's what they were thinking you know who who who thinks like that because they never thought Beyond a certain limit they were only thinking you know we have to borrow from this one to pay back that one in order to match our budget in order to keep the teachers even somewhat happy but to think about what would you do in an unlimited World to take off the ceiling and Rosh Hashanah is telling it is opening us up to the opportunities a stretch if we would have just had Yom Kippur first in Rosh Hashanah then we would have said what do you want to be this year what do you want to accomplish what do you want what what's going to come from this person do you say well how many books you want to read how many books did I read last year two I read another two okay how much tall are you going to learn I learned a little bit of Torah a little or learn a little bit of Torah also but since on Rosh Hashanah it says take off the ceiling that I want to learn the whole tour I want to fulfill all the midst I want to bring all the Jews back to Israel I want to bring the whole world together I want to create peace I want everybody to be aware of course I want to clean away all the others and all the numbers from the world don't want to have you see a Smith's Ryan with those Jewish people that would all come together keep us gullies I want all those good things for Hashem for the world hashem's original plan avram's original plan that's what I want for the world let me stretch up and see what I can do even if practically I can't do it we'll see the practical application of this in one second and therefore we come back now and we say that there are showing are immediately written into the book of death what does that mean in this game we set a really written into the book of the Rejoice into the book of death so they came in The Book of Life and then they're hanging and standing so what does it mean that the sadiqi are written into the Book of Life thank you so much thank you so what does it mean written into the Book of Life so we said before 28 years ago remote stepped out from this world on the day before Purim on a Thai disaster one day shy of his birthday of of his birthday in that same year rabbiakov cameras also on the day of his birthday when he became an elderly person they asked him why did you live to be so old he said because I tried my whole life never to hurt another person and they said that he would have also passed away on the day of his briss moshebano lived 120 years from because he was born born in Mahal he was born with without the requirements without the need for Bristol he was born in that state of perfection so he passed away on his birthday but the real Sadiq are passing away on the day of their brisk the day they became Shalom the data became perfect so he passed away on on on on the Tinus Esther because it would have been a stair it would have been a how do we say a disturbance to the joy that people have on Purim had he passed away on Purim is called Moshe because he was he was he was he was actually he was born on Purim which is in Zion Adar which is the your site the birthday and the birthday of Moshe bayner okay so he passed on so what happens is when the chauffeur blows came and maybe some people have some concept of a helium balloon right remember the old the old helium balloons okay I think they still have them around a little bit you know I'm remembering from a from an old show I saw a long time ago right maybe it was you know we're off to see the wizard somewhere somewhere over there right I remember this picture of the of the helium balloon so the tadiq when the chauffeur blows they immediately inspired they immediately want to go up the media wanted it expressed that Rats on that that deep desire that they have and since they have already well-trained hands that are not bound and limited like and since their hearts and their minds have been trained and they're open to understand and to express new beautiful levels of kadusha of Holiness of Hashem so immediately their balloon begins to lift up and they begin to climb I what happens the person ends up exiting the world so higham doesn't mean only life in this world we say what does life mean life means to be attached to a cottage broker that's really life to be attached to Hashem and the talmud says that Sadi came even in the death they're called life so he begins a chart he begins to chart a course that Sadiq that year that maybe he goes beyond the limits of this world and he continues to climb on an infinite curve closer and closer kirver he becomes closer and closer to our shop because the chauffeur inspired him to move in that direction and he continues even Beyond this world he goes into the next world we said what happened yeah Hitler he was living in 1939 1940 1941 1942. how did such a thing like that happen and the answer I think we can understand because when the chauffeur blows don't even hear it it doesn't it doesn't penetrate their stubborn ears it's too filled with with bubble gum and rap music and they don't hear it they're loaded down in this world with bad habits and addictions and nasty emotions brutish angry jealous zealous for the wrong things and that year when the chauffeur blows they're not inspired and they don't lift up and they don't make any step towards Improvement going vertically closer to a code as a matter of fact they become more and more stuck and mired in this world that's why I think of Himmler yamakshimo also one of Hitler's side people he said in 1930s late 1930s he was a mensch in the early 40s he was an ubermensch he was a Superman and by the mid-1940s he was Iceman he wasn't even a person he went from being famous to being Infamous the big difference because when a person is famous oh made the front cover of this but we live in an olum we live in a world in Alma the shikra that somebody became famous became famous he became the poster child for wickedness for the Sutton himself people don't name casually their children Adolf anymore for some mystical reason because he became he became the poster child for ugliness and wickedness and and and and and and decrepitness and therefore his balloon and the and the the bottom part of the balloon is the spiritual part the rookness that that wants to go up and is the other part that becomes more and more weighed down and becomes sunk deeper and deeper deeper into the morass of this world and that's not called life and the talmud says that Wicked people are philobi misasa and even in the lifetime they're called Dead so he became more and more dead so he wasn't written to the Book of Life those years he was written into the book of death all the power that he gained pushed them further and further underneath into the mud of this world and it was lost so he's lost forever the in-betweeners the use and miss the planet so those people are lifted up because they hear the blowing of the show from ah and we become inspired we want to do more we identify with the with all the good ideals that are that are laced into the musaf and we hear the beautiful Baltimore and he lifts everybody up and the whole congregation is in his balloon and we want to go up that's the beauty of Rosh Hashanah we want to go up but as we go up the balloon is Lifting Up into the world of the ideal the unlimited Direction and all of a sudden as the balloon goes up suddenly it feels those heavy ropes that are pulling the basket and holding it in its place you ain't going anywhere like the elephant you're not going anywhere you're staying here with me because there's these big Stakes that are driven into the ground and then there's these heavy sand filled bags that are hanging off the edge of the basket that say you can't go anywhere what are those ropes they start out like little threads but they were repeated at the time that happened over and over again you double the thread and you double the thread you double the thread and suddenly becomes hard like a rope I say just tell us and you take that little bag some repeated action it may not have seemed so bad that it filled up a giant heavy bag and now it's hanging there now what do we do I want to go up but I'm stuck what do I do Thailand told him they're hanging because they want to go up on the stuck now there's two ways to break that tension one is I can't take the pressure I don't like feeling guilty it's all about guilt too much guilt it's not arbitrary guilt it's real guilt it's real responsibility but the person something feels you know something I don't like this tension I can't take the tension let's shoot a couple of holes into the balloon let's get cute and funny make some good jokes with my friends we'll go out to the club we'll have a good time and then all the energy and accomplishment that Rosh Hashanah goes out oh I relaxed it I relaxed all that pressure but then I'm not going up I'm gonna get sunk deeper into this world that's what happened well the other way is that the person over the course of the next eight days after Rosh Hashanah says I need to go up I need to make a step in the right direction so he takes out his little magnifying glass when I was a kid we used to go out in the backyard on a sunny day we take a magnifying glass and we're just the light of the sun if it would be focused on to a little point we would be able to burn ants I mean leaves right and and we could focus it and the person I'm going to take the light of Truth and some achievable point in my life I'm not gonna hang around with those people anymore I'm not going to speak lashon hurray anymore I'm going to take on a discipline I'm not going to eat you know this questionable hectare or I'm not going to go to this place where the people are not dressed appropriately the intermingling of the I'm not going to look over here I'm not going to hit that button not that icon I'm not going to go to YouTube I'm not going to check my email all day I'm gonna pull myself back from it I'm gonna put a gruel I'm gonna put a discipline over here and I'm going to regret having done it go through all the steps of chuva and by that the person puts a little hole into the sandbag and begins to bleed out some of the sand where he puts his eye into one of those little ropes that's been holding him down some practical rope and it begins to shred until in Yom Kippur it breaks and when it breaks then the balloon goes up a half an inch and Mazel Tov the person's been written into the Book of Life he's going up he didn't take one giant step forward mother may I bit even an inch he's pulling up in the right direction that's what it's all about that's what we want to accomplish on Russia between rosh hashan and Yom Kippur wants us to stretch ourselves stretch ourselves out back to the ideal on Rosh Hashanah and then he wants us to get it back to the idea he wants us to get real between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur until we make some change some practical even if it's a small change if the person feels that real ideal that's in his heart that real idealism the original idealism of the whole world and he can attach himself to it and take a a a hitch with a rocket ship take a hitch with the whole Jewish people then matofa manai that's the most unbelievable thing and if you can do some practical thing to improve himself and to get himself closer to a courage then that healthy tension between the is where we happen to be and the author when we ought to be on those type of strings you can play the music of life you can right if you sit and you try to play music on on guitar strings harp but the but the that the strings are not you know they're all mushed together you can't make music on that only when there's this tension between where we are and we ought to be and that we begin to play the music of life I'm going to finish up with two brief stories there are actually one minute stories but because I'm so verbose it takes me two minutes to tell them so excuse me and one of them is a story about I heard from one of my rebbies many years ago about a fisherman and he was bringing from the river he was bringing his giant Harvest of fish he dragged his big net and he pulled up you know a big load of fish and he dropped it onto the dock and the fish are jumping all over the place and he has a big sign he's selling the fish freshly harvested freshly caught fish fresh fish of course in the marketplace is always a skeptical guy some guy looks you know is that a diamond is a cubic zirconium it's not this how do you know what's this it's not the same it's only on the outside he says it's Killjoy he says how do you know that they're fresh fish he said maybe you caught dead fish too and the and the fisherman says no I have live fish yeah I just caught fresh live fish he said how do you know he says you know something when fish die they float on the river and they go down maybe your net picked up the dead fish with the live fish and how do you know you have fresh live fish over here how can you guarantee such a thing and the fisherman was unmoved and he says I promise you I can guarantee that I have live fish he says how do you know you have live fish he says very simple he says I drag my net strategically Downstream facing Downstream the fish that I'm catching are going Upstream and if a fish is going Upstream then we know that he's alive right the fish that died they go down they go down the street the ones that are alive are going up the stream we want to go Upstream it could be that's why there's an old saying you are what you eat right it's a Jewish concept it could be the the Malibu says by the why we don't eat the pine quarter of the animal if the yakovino had a wrestling match because he was damaged over there is because there's something about the hindquarter the animal the malibim says that inspires certain passions that we want to limit because even that part of the animal might wake in certain passions that we don't we want to try to contain as much as we possibly can and use so therefore not only are we what we eat but which part of what we eat so it is such a concept like that and that's why Jews said they came Jews are eating blocks right because the salmon is swimming habitually Upstream we want to go up we want to go against the tide to get back to the source to get back to where we belong that's Story number one another story is a sweet story about a little boy Jewish boy in the Bronx his parents didn't give him a Jewish Education they were Communists whatever and now came the day of his bar mitzvah and he realized the clock ticked and he became 13. and he wants to celebrate his bar mitzvah he feels he wants to do something but there was no celebration there was no Kiddush there was no laning there was no reading of the Torah he had nothing had no way to celebrate but he felt he wanted to do something so he went into the local candy shop and he had his eye for weeks on a kite a beautiful kite the largest kite and he says I want that kite that big one over there he says to the shopkeeper the shopkeeper says oh that'll be five six dollars six dollars the fellow regions is pocket boys and he put six dollars on the table and then he says I'd like the largest bowl of string that you have he goes oh that'll be a few more dogs the boy had saved up all his money from his paper route that he had and he pulled poured all the change onto the table and he says okay he gave him a kite string so with all his money he got a beautiful kite and the largest bowl of kite string and he went out into the park in Cortland Park and he was running along it was a blustery windy day with some beautiful clouds decorating the sky and he was letting the kite string out and it was going higher and higher and higher it was going so high that actually penetrated the clouds and disappeared but the boy was running along near the edge of the park and he was skipping and he was singing saying today I'm a man I'm a Jewish man and it's my bar mitzvah my mama I'm so happy it's my bar mitzvah I'm a Jewish man and as he gets near the edge of the park where the cars are running a bus is there at a red light and this fella drops the window I think it was the same fella that was bothering the fishermen he says little boy what are you doing boy says I'm a Jewish man today's my kite I'm gonna find the karma I'm a Jewish man and I'm flying my kite and this man looks up into the sky picks his head out he's a little boy maybe you're just fooling yourself maybe it's just all imagination he says because I don't see no kite the boys heart skipped the beat and he got said for just one second but then he recovered and before the light turned green and the bus took off he answered the man and he told him he says I can still feel the tension I can still feel the taut and the string over here and as long as I can feel the tension of the string he says that I know that the kite is still there right there's a little part of us there's in the shama Yiddish kite right which is way up in the sky sometimes it seems like it's distant from us it's far from us but on Rosh Hashanah we feel that tension we awaken that tension the tension between where we are if we feel settled if we feel okay if we're having just a relaxed time that's the joy that's going to happen on Rosh Hashanah is that we begin to feel that tension that's the music that's the song that's going to be created when we get inspired we said we want to do more but we have to do something very very practical over here any little practical lead that we did even small thing movino he brought he was willing to bring up his son he was willing to give up his son which was everything yes was everything nobody ever had in everything like this like avrah mad at everything in its it was his whole future it was his whole past it was his whole reputation it was his son your son his beautiful son his whole future all the promises that will come in the future we're in Yitzhak and and everything that he raised in that beautiful son and all his reputation he told people Hashem doesn't want us Human Sacrifice willing to give up everything ah that was the ideal and in the end he ends up bringing what a ram big deal the ram so we go back and we blow the show for his is that he wanted to do everything but he ended up doing something and that little something he did is considered as if he did everything that's accomplishment that's the beauty of the chauffeur we step up we say look with the chauffeur if this chauffeur means that I want to do everything but I'm willing to do anything I'm willing to do something for you I'm willing to take one step forward being willing to take one step forward is a guarantee especially if we're willing to do we would in our hearts would want to do everything but this is what we can afford to do right now this is the next step that we have to take the next practical step if Rosh Hashanah brings us to take that next step with Yom Kippur then it's considered as if we did everything and that's the beauty that's how the chauffeur means chauffeur means actually to beautify we're being beautified by their shofar when we present it remember what yes did we're remembering with Abraham India did they're willing to give everything ah but they did something whatever it was that was in their hands anything that you're able to do within your ability to do it because with your ability to do it do it then that's that's going to be our accomplishment to consider as if we did everything we were mom we crowned the courage broker with our small tiny steps and with that there's Hashem that's how we're going to be written a healthy and a Happy New Year and a year of Life possession for all of us