CHAZAQ event with Rav Moshe Meir Weiss on "Starting the Year off the Right Way"

I remember about 20 years ago I asked my my my father asked me what's what would be your wish with your Torah? So I said I wanted to be that 24/7 people should be listening to my sheer. So my father said to me 24/7 you don't want people to be listening to your tapes on Shabbos. So I said yes, I do. I want them to be listening to it in Australia and I will tell you a beautiful story. There was a couple who could not have children and they were in Israel and they went to this world-renowned doctor and he made all kinds of computations with them and they had a unique case and he said this day you must try to become pregnant. And they went home to write it down on the calendar and they saw that that day was Yom Kippur. So at that time they went to Rav Schach to ask Rav Schach if there's any heter for them on Yom Kippur. So Rav Schach said absolutely not you can't it's it's a biblical prohibition but he said I would like you to go to the Belzer Rebbe and ask him the question maybe he has some insight for you. So they went to the Belzer Rebbe the Belzer Rebbe opened a drawer gave them an envelope with $5,000 and told them to fly to Australia. Australia Kippur was the next day. That's that's what we call das Torah as they call chakras of Torah. By the way I know this couple they became pregnant that night and they had a child. So yeah that's it. Anyway I was in the middle of apologizing to you for keeping you waiting. We call this starting off the year right. The acid test of whether our Yom Kippur was a fruitful one is to see if anything starts off differently now. That's very important. The if you looked at the viduy that we said on Yom Kippur all those al chets all those al chets as we clapped our hearts and they say over very nice thing that the reason why you why do we use a fist? So you'll say we use a fist because that's how you punch your heart how you did this you did this right? Right? But the famous pshat is is that Nebuchadnezzar asked Daniel I'm in trouble is there any way for me to buy myself time? So Daniel told him the famous Aramaic statement chato echod bistoka proke redeem your sins with charity. And it says Daniel gave a lot of charity bought himself another year. So the reason why we clap like this is because we're tight-fisted. If our hand would be open we wouldn't have to clap because we would have redeemed the sins but if you're holding that holding the cash you're not giving it so that's why we have to clap. That's that's the famous answer. But there was a rabbi who was killed by the Nazis. What a loss. What a genius. What an a man understanding of humanity. He said as follows there was in the deep areas of Africa a very rare monkey. This monkey commanded a six-figure price tag. Everybody hunted this monkey. This monkey was known to have a taiva a desire for spiced rice. Like Chinese right? Pungent rice spiced rice. So they used to make a trap with freshly cooked rice spiced just the way it liked it. They would put it in a box and then there would be a cover over the box with a hole and monkey could stick its hand into the hole but then when it fills it with rice and the hand was full it couldn't get it out. So you say let go of the rice. Now the monkey wouldn't let go of the rice. Monkey wouldn't let go of the rice. Wouldn't let go of the rice. I could stuff the cup you know. Wouldn't let go go of the rice. So it's trapped there because it wouldn't let go of the rice. So save your life let go of it. No. That's why we do it with a fist because Hashem says just let go of THE SINS JUST LET GO. We don't let go. We're clapping BUT WE'RE NOT LETTING GO. It's a good problem. They say another mushul it's beautiful mushul beautiful mushul. Country hick goes to the big town for the first time. He's in the big city and he sees mannequins. He never saw a mannequin and the mannequins had suits on them. So he he says wow look at this he's in his overall jeans and there's a pin stripe gorgeous suit on him too. Wow. So he goes over to the clerk he says could I try one of these suits? He says sure. Let me take your size. He takes out his measuring spool takes his waist collar his you know some people arms are one longer than the other measures his arms and shoulders. He brings him out he says you're going to look like a million dollars. Farmer goes into the dressing room he comes out this doesn't fit you don't know what you're doing. She says sir you have to take off your clothes. Don't put it on top of your clothes it's not going to fit. People want to do chuvah but they don't take off their old clothes. They don't stop what they were doing. That's a big problem. I'm going to tell you I read mafter Yona this this Yom Kippur. And when I read mafter Yona I was inspired reading mafter Yona the holiest aliya in the holiest day of the year I was inspired and I had some thoughts that I want to share with you fresh off Yom Kippur. The first thing is is there on the boat and this boat was going down like the Titanic except it had no lifeboats. This was going down with everybody. And it was happening soon and the man of God the holy man he's sleeping downstairs. So the captain wakes him up and he says why are you sleeping you're sleeping now? WE'RE GOING DOWN WITH THE SHIP YOU THIS IS NOT A TIME to sleep and I said to myself wow we're hearing this right before Neilah. People come to Neilah they're already wiped out. They're thinking about the coffee and the cake and the whiskey. That's what you're thinking about your whole life is at hanging in the balance that's what you're thinking about. So then the captain of the ship this captain of this ship was no country bumpkin. He was no slouch. You know I don't know if you know from people that know the sea. People that know the sea can smell a storm already 24 hours before. They know they feel it in their bones they know. This storm came out of nowhere. He knew this was not normal. He knew that this was the wrath of God and therefore he said let's cast lots lots what an idea. Let's cast lots to see me who's causing this. Who's causing who's who's causing this? I had a thought. Would it be chilling if a malach came into the room today right here AND SAY LET'S CAST LOTS TO SEE WHO'S CAUSING PROBLEMS? Would that be chilling? That gives a moment to think. It always bothered me. I I don't know what the Sefardi We have Sefardim here, right? Any Sefardim here? Yeah. Is this Sefardi custom also to say Baruch Shem out loud? Yes. Yeah? Okay. It always bothered me. You know, one day a year we belt out Baruch Shem out loud. I think Kol Nidre this year. And so we say Baruch Shem, right? Baruch Shem. Usually the whole year So most people understand it's because the Moshe Rabbeinu surreptitiously stole this praise from the Malachim. So the whole year we don't want to get the Malachim angry, so we say it low. But on Yom Kippur we're angelic. We're fasting, we're not drinking, we're not eating, we're not wearing shoes, we're like angels. So we could say it. It always bothered me this chat. Yeah, the Baruch Shem that we say before Hashem Elokeinu Elokei How we say seven times Hashem Elokeinu Elokei Hashem Elokeinu By the way, what that means is we're escorting Hashem back through the seven Rakias, the seven heavens. Because he's been with us and now he's going back. He was Hashem Elokeinu he's going back to the Kisei Hakavod Elokei. So we escort him Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Elokeinu But before that we belt out Baruch three times Baruch Shem. So I understand after fasting for 25 hours Okay? I could understand that we're angelic. But Maariv by Kol Nidre night we also say Baruch Shem out loud. What kind of angels are we? We stuffed bellies from the whole meal that we stuffed ourselves, brownies and fruit soup and soda and water and honey. We can't even close our belts we're so stuffed, right? Real angelic, right? How can we say Baruch Shem? This kasha always bothered me. So I found another answer. Found another answer. That's what I'm talking about. Remember when Yaakov wanted to reveal the keitz the end of time to his sons. Bikash Yaakov legallos es haketz. Porcha Shechina mimenu. The Shechina departed. So he was worried. Welcome. He was worried. He was worried that maybe this one of the boys, one of the Shvatim were not were not what they seemed to be. So they all said in unison Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad we're one. We cleaned up our act. So Yaakov said Baruch Shem kavod malchuso leolam vaed Baruch Shem. That's achdus. You could only say Baruch Shem when you have achdus. The whole year people have grudges, they have enmity This one's fighting with her sister, this one's fighting with his boss, this one's not getting along with the person next to him in shul, this one's not getting along with parents. Comes Yom Kippur we're all mochel each other. Anu matilin es ha'avaronos avaryonim we make a deal with God. I forgive, you forgive me. It's a rare time this achdus we could say Baruch Shem out loud even in the beginning of Yom Kippur. So I had a thought. It's really something to think about. You clap al chet shechatanu lefanacha begiluy yad ve'al oyis. You know what that means? For the sin that we sinned with immorality. Now I was told that this is a God-fearing group. Nobody here is immoral, right? No, they're not immoral. Please don't answer if you are. No. You're not immoral. But everybody here, myself included, al chet shechatanu lefanacha begiluy yad ve'al OYIS AL CHET SHECHATANU LEFANACHA BE'IDAS NOS. YOU KNOW what be'idas nos is? A brothel. I sure hope nobody here visits the brothel. So but you did it and you hit YOUR HEART AL CHET SHECHATANU LEFANACHA BE'IDAS NOS. IT'S NOT THE BROTHEL. I know I'm in the middle of Um uh the uh the the uh No, it was the children. Uh We do it because we have other people in mind. But do you know what that exercise is doing? You would say how could I be mochel this person? How could I be mochel? You know what he did to me? But you just CLAPPED AL CHET SHECHATANU LEFANACHA for the world. SO YOU'RE ASKING FOR FORGIVENESS for those people that you're angry for. How could you have it both ways? How could you ask forgiveness for them and also be angry at them? Huh? That's the objective. That's the objective. By clapping and asking for forgiveness we're saying I can remain angry. I'm asking you to forgive the most hardened criminals. I have a kabbalah. I have a tradition. I'm living. Can I have some Coke? I have a tradition. I have I have a tradition from the great Rebbes of yesteryear, not now. The ancient Rebbes. That punishment comes in this world not for sins between us and God. Thank you very much. Excuse me. Not for the sins between us and God. No, here this is the fun. Not for the sins between us and God. The for that there's Gehenna. Punishment in this world comes as sins between us and our fellow man. Our fellow woman. That's why you'll find primarily all the al chets are about relationships with each other. Lashon hara, tipshus peh sisumas yad which is loans kappas shoychud bribes All so many things with the mouth. Dibbur peh, bitul Torah v'siyum. All about relationships. Cuz that's what people suffer from. And that's what we have to work on in the coming year. We have to work on being nicer being gentler, being more sensitive, being caring, not being selfish, not being self-centered. That's what we have to work on. We have to It's a enu aschala. It says kol aschala is kasha which is a double edged meaning. On the one hand it means all starts are tough. It's true because if you start you want to be different it's tough. But it also means something else. Kol aschala is kasha. All starts have to be hard. You have to really really work hard. That should be it should start good. One of the things one of the frontiers that we have to work on in our time it's one of the the final frontiers so to speak. The we keep Shabbos. We learn Torah. We give tzedaka. We do chesed. But our davening our brachas how are they? I heard a great story this summer. Absolutely great story. You can't make up such a story. You simply can't make up such a story. It ha- I got this story from Rabbi Elias who heard it from Rabbi Newman of Cleveland. I actually wrote up this story. I don't know if it printed yet or if it ran yet, but I wrote up the story. Um what happened was is a Yeshiva boy was by the Kosel, by the Kotel and he saw an obvious BT, baal teshuvah standing by the wall. He was obvious, he had a Jets cap perched on his head with a colorful windbreaker a red windbreaker and green pants. And you know, not your traditional fear. Especially not for the Kotel, you know. And he was davening with tremendous kavana. And then after his devotions, he took out a piece of paper and wrote down a very precise kvitel and stuck it in the wall. This Yeshiva man was, you know, he was a sight, you know. Bunch of tallesim by the wall and you have this green Jets cap, red jacket sticking out there. And he's chuckling more and more. So, Yeshiva boy doesn't know what came over him, but he pulled out the kvitel from the wall to read it. Pulls out the kvitel and it says as follows. Dear God, I find myself isolated for the first time in my life in this place called Aish Torah. It's the first time I ever went without knowing the scores of the Jets. If you're really out there, could you get me the scores? That's what it said. That's his prayer. That was that's what it said. Yeshiva man pulls out his cell phone. Calls his friend Chaim in America. Chaim, I have no time to explain. Quick, get me the latest standings of the Jets. Oh my. He gets the scores. He sees the man with the Jets cap bobbing. HE SAYS, "SIR, SIR!" The man turns around. He says, "I could always see a fellow Jets fan from your cap." He says, "Yeah, I love the Jets." He says, "I I'm sure you want to know WHAT THE LATEST SCORES ARE. THESE ARE THE SCORES." The man goes like this. So, you think the story is over. It's way far from over. This story makes its way to Brisk to Rav Soloveitchik. Rav Soloveitchik hears the story and he says, "You probably drew a conclusion that was that was a very clever young man." He says, "You've completely drawn the wrong conclusion." He says, "That's not the lesson. The lesson is that the incredibly devote devoted sincere prayer of this baal teshuvah got that Yeshiva boy to take the kvitel out of the wall. Got that Yeshiva boy to call his friend in America. That's the lesson. The lesson is the power of prayer. And that's something that a lot of us have to work on. We We all daven. But we all have to know that davening helps. It makes a difference. There's a lot of people that daven. But they don't really feel that they die got to daven, but I you know, God, he's going to do what he thinks is best anyway. Yeah, but it's not true. God wasn't giving this guy the Jets score. But his feel got him the scores. Right? That's a funny thing to daven for. You know? But you talk about shidduch crisis. Tefillah helps. Parnassa crisis. Tefillah helps. All these things, sincere prayer helps. If you're married you should never go a davening ever without praying for your spouse. Never. It's a turnoff to Hashem that a husband davens and doesn't think about his wife. That a wife davens and doesn't That's loyalty? The davar Hashem means to be loyal to a wife. To daven for klal Yisrael. There's so many people that are sick. Tefillah for aynu. There's a whole floor in Columbia Presbyterian Children's Hospital with children with cancer. Burn units are full of Yid. I had another thought about Yona. Another interesting thought about Yona. Yona listen carefully. God came to Yona and told him "I want you to go to Ninveh and tell them that they have to repent, otherwise I'm going to destroy them. I'm going to nuke them. It's going to be a Hiroshima. It'll be another Sedom. Now, till this year I never realized that in the name Ninveh is embedded the name Yona. Isn't that amazing? Ninveh has all the letters of Yona. Nun, Yud, Nun, Vav, Heh. So, in Ninveh is embedded Yona. Yona's fate was inexorably intertwined with Ninveh. But when God told Yona to go and chastise and warn Ninveh, Yona didn't want to do it. Cuz Yona knew with his vision, he was a great prophet that Ninveh would listen. They would repent. And they would mend their ways. And then that would put us in a very bad light. Because here as a novi he's been chastising the Jews and we didn't repent. And here Hashem will say, "The do it and you don't?" And that would bring a kitrug. It would bring bad on klal Yisrael. So, Yona says, "I'm not doing it." Now, I'm not doing it. You know, you could tell me I'm not doing it. I could tell you I'm not doing it. But you can't tell God I'm not doing it. A novi if he's guilty of being koivash es nevu'ah osai of holding back his nevu'ah he's chayav misah. He's liable for death. Death, death. But what did he do? He booked a cruise. He booked a cruise to Tarshish. You know why? Because he wanted to get to chutz la'aretz. A novi can't give nevu'ah outside of Eretz Yisrael. So, he They booked a cruise to Tarshish. He says, "I'm out of here." And then what did he do? He went to sleep because he said, "Look, I'm disobeying God, at least let me not do it while I'm awake." So, he went to sleep. At least I'm I'm not up. So, he was koivash es nevu'ah osai. He said, "That's what Yosef" Remember when he was given the dream? He told the brothers. Why did he tell the brothers? He made them jealous. He put himself in trouble. But it was a nevu'ah. You can't withhold nevu'ah. But Yona did it. When they threw him in the water, he didn't know a whale would come and swallow him and rescue him and spit him out. That's that's that's far-fetched. He thought he was going to die. But he was willing to die because he didn't want to klal Yisrael to be hurt. That's why we blame it on Yona. Because the story of Yona is a story of ahavas Yisrael. That's what the story of Yona is. That's what we have to feel when we come out of Yom Kippur. You have to bury the grudges. Bury the pettiness. Now, we talk about our tefillos. We want our tefillos to be effective. We want them to reach heaven. You know, there are a lot of tefillos. Somebody says, "You know, I I davened a lot of times for this, you know." I davened. You know, there are there are there are married people that tell me, "Look, I davened for shalom bayis already for 20 years. It's not working." So, let me tell you something. There's a story with the Baal Shem Tov that the Baal Shem Tov went into a shul and they asked him, "How's our tefillos? How are they doing?" So, the Baal Shem Tov says, "Your shul is full of tefillah." So, they smiled. Thank you. He says, "Not so good." It's full of tefillahs because they're all sitting there. They don't have power to go up to shamayim. Bal Shem Tov said there's a Zohar. The Zohar says for tefillah to get up to heaven, it has to have two wings. One wing is ahavas Hashem, and one wing is yiras Hashem. Love and fear. And I I I I wanted to take this and say that's why we daven Avinu Malkeinu. Because we preface our prayer with the two wings. Avinu, our father, that's love. Malkeinu, our king, that's fear. When it has the two wings, then we could say "Tear Then we could say "Shlach refuah shleimah l'chol amcha." Talk about starting off the year right. This Yom Kippur was Shabbos. Shabbos Shabbos. So, I proposed before Neilah when I spoke, that we make some kind of Shabbos commitment. It's a big thing. Going to have the first Shabbos after Yom Kippur, this Shabbos Chol Hamoed Sukkos. Let's make it different. You know, Shabbos is the mekor bracha. It's the source of blessing. Shabbos has therapeutic powers that even a generation that worshipped idolatry, like the Dor Enosh, if they would have kept Shabbos, they would have been forgiven. So, let's do something different Shabbos. So, you say, "What?" There are many suggestions. If you talk in shul, stop talking in shul. Now, that's not easy. If you're always talking, it's not easy. It's like stopping to smoke. So, here's the secret. I'll tell you how to stop. It works. Switch your seat. It's simple. Look, you're talking all the time with people there. You're not going to stop. It's not nice. You don't want to be a snob. Switch your seat. So, you'll say, "Yeah, but I'm not a front kind of guy to the front of the shul. That's I'm I'm I'm a back kind of guy." Don't say it that way. Say, "I'm not a Gan Eden kind of guy. I'm a Gehenna kind of guy." Person that talks in shul goes to Gehenna. Go to Lavoinenu in the side. That's a big yetzer tov. It's a big yetzer tov. Now, let's say you don't talk in shul. That's not your problem. So, then sing zemirot by the table. Talk to the family. Sing zemirot by the table. Let's say you sing zemirot. Okay. Say a dvar Torah by the table. It doesn't have to be brain surgery. He says, "I don't have time to prepare." You don't have to say a treatise. You don't have to say a pshetl. Simple thing. You come to the parsha Bereishis. You tell the children, you know, "If you're jealous, it could kill you. That's what happened with Kayin and Hevel. Jealousy, you have to stay away from jealousy." Or you tell them, "It says that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day. That's what we're supposed to think when we take a bite of cholent or a bite of chamin. That it didn't come about from a big bang. It didn't come about over a billion years. It wasn't always here. It was created in six days and God rested. And so, that's what we're doing on Shabbos. Or here's another Shabbos commitment. It's a nice commitment. Nice commitment. I'm going to make sure to learn a little more Torah on Shabbos. All week I'm busy. But shviei laShem elokecha. I know I like to sleep, and I like to read papers. Going to take a big sefer, and all the children should see. You know, we know that it says that if you say Krias Shema without feeling, it's k'neged edus sheker al atzmo. Like you're testifying false. Because here you're saying Krias Shema, and it says "U'shantam l'vanecha." And "U'vincha u'v'chol beincha." So, Rav Yosef Chaim's on it felt said the same thing. If you don't spend time teaching your children Torah, you're meid edus sheker al atzmo. You're testifying false because it says "V'shinantam l'vanecha." I'll tell you another one. If you never open a sefer in the house, you don't open a sefer in the house. You You go to a shiur, but in the house, the only thing you open is the Daily News. The New York Times. Maybe the Ami Magazine. The only thing you open. The only time you go to your shul is by the kiddush club. That's the only time. So, then that's meid EDUS SHEKER AL ATZMO. YOU'RE MEID EDUS SHEKER on yourself because it says "V'DIBARTA BAM B'SHIVTECHA B'VEISECHA." YOU'RE SPEAKING ABOUT THEM WHEN YOU'RE SITTING IN YOUR HOUSE. Got to make it. There's a famous story. Famous story. Rav Zilberstein tells the story. He gives an He gives a uh a night shiur. And uh I probably not as late as me. I get very late. But uh he gives a late shiur. Maybe it is. I don't know. He gives a late shiur. And there's a man in the shiur that comes in, and after 5 minutes, he falls asleep and he starts to snore. It's impossible to stay in shiur. They have to wake him up. They wake him up. Minute later, so Rav Zilberstein goes over to him. He says, "You know, I love having you by the shiur, but obviously, you're wiped out. You're falling asleep. Go home. Go to sleep and get up early in the morning." So, he says, "I can't do that." He says, "Why not?" He says, "If I get up early in the morning, my children are still sleeping. They don't see abba going to learn. In the night, they hear abba going to learn Torah. That's chinuch." Rav Zilberstein says to him, "That's a very very proper way of thinking. I just have one adjustment. I think you should get up early and go learn anyway because you're sleeping very good over here. You get up early and go to the shiur." I have it also. I have somebody by me also that as soon as I start talking, I always feel that I I'm I Rav Rav Wein said that certain rabbonim could join the anesthesiologist guild of America. I once asked Rav Moshe Rav Moshe Feinstein, when I brought him water to wash when he came out of the basin kisei. And he said "Asher yatzar." And he said "She'im yifasei'ach echad meihem o yisaseim echad meihem." If one of the organs open or one of the organs sealed, "Efshar l'hiskayeim v'la'amod l'fanecha." It's impossible to exist and stand before you "Afilu sha'ah achas." Even for 1 hour. The "Afilu sha'ah achas" is in parentheses. He said "Afilu sha'ah achas." So, I once asked him, "Why does the Rosh Yeshiva say 'Afilu sha'ah achas'? If a person is constipated, you could survive an hour. I mean, even rachmana litzlan with a tumor, lo aleinu, a person survives an hour. What does it mean 'Efshar l'hiskayeim v'la'amod l'fanecha afilu sha'ah achas'? It's not true." So, Rav Moshe said to me with a smile, he said, "What's kiyum? Kiyum is just existing?" He says, "Kiyum is to be able to learn Torah untroubled. If a person has a malfunction, he can't learn untroubled. He's worried about it. That's not kiyum. That's what he told me. And I was thinking about it recently. And I was thinking I didn't realize the profundity of what he told me. In actually Yatsui say that we have the carbon we have orifices. Many hollow organs. If something hemorrhages a vessel bursts what's on? Or you saw say what there's a cyst blockage of tumor what's on? We invoke Torah. And we say don't do that to us because we want to learn Torah. That's why we make that mention. That's why we throw in that show. And therefore Torah protects us. We need to have Torah. Women have to raise children to make Torah priority. They have to show their husbands that they're proud of them. Comes a Sunday look, you want to do Torah first. That comes first. Then we'll plan anything after that. Comes a lot of Shabbos. You want to start to be said you have for the week before we even get to anything else? Go for it. That's protecting our home. That's a big thing. We have to realize both men and women together. We have to realize that Torah Torah protects us. Torah is everything. I found when I was here the last time that when I opened the floor to some questions the island enjoyed enjoyed it. So maybe we'll do that with a few ground rules. Questions not a debate. I don't have debates. I'm not uh I'm not running for mayor of New York. Also I'll I'll often ask you questions I might might not know the answer. So please forgive me if I say I don't know. I might not know. Um first if anybody has any not you have a rough for that. If anybody has any questions about Sukkot so let's start with that. Does anybody have any Sukkot questions? First yes. What's the main message of faith? Okay. Sukkot the main what's the main message of Sukkot? The main message of Sukkot is first of all why is Sukkot 7 days? It's very interesting. What You see Pesach 7 days because from when we went out to till the miracle of the answer for 7 days. And that's why this in the middle. You see Thomas great miracle. And create answer was a great miracle with middle days were full of fear and trepidation 9 million Egyptians chasing us but we had miracles so it's quasi. But why is Sukkot 7 days? Sukkot we commemorate 40 years in the desert under the divine cloud of glory. 40 isn't even divisible by 7. It would be 10 days so then it's 10 is divisible right? 4 days 4 decades 7 days what 7 days? What does it mean? So we're taught the safer which is one of the oldest minhog farm says it's 7 days because there were seven clouds. Clouds? Clouds. There was a cloud above us protecting us from the sun in the day and the cold in the night and also around the four sides of us that's five. There was a cloud underneath that acted as a conveyor belt and it leveled the ground and killed the snakes and the scorpions and there was a cloud in the front that led the way. Seven clouds. Now there were many miracles. There was a well of Miriam. There was a rock. This was some rock. Talk about a water cooler. This was a rock that was mobile and gave 3 million people to drink. It's one of the greatest miracles of all time. Imagine a traveling Niagara Falls all contained in a rock. There was a man. The manna from heaven that fell at your doorstep together with cosmetics Maybelline Revlon. It's written down in the Yuma. But the theme is the cloud of glory. Why? Cuz it's to remind us that it's not the medical luck. It's not the shield that protects us. It's God that always protects us. And that if we want to be secure we have to have in our home. That's the lesson of Sukkot. And the only way to have in the home is That's why in Europe they used to advise a and a advise a and a no go to sleep until you make up with one another. Cuz it's not safe to go to sleep without the in It's not that protects us. That's the lesson that we learn on Sukkot. You had a question. Yeah, I always bother me about Jonah and the whale. I don't know and I said to somebody and they said oh that's a fable. And I don't What bothers you? That does he actually get swallowed and 100% He got swallowed and Hashem made a miracle that he was able to exist in the belly of the whale for 3 days. the digestion and everything. That's correct. He was swallowed and he went straight down into the huge stomach of the whale without the peristalsis chopping him up. It was a huge miracle. But it's not a fable. Yes. Speaking of Jonah Jonah when he says the 13 attributes of Right. But you know how come you missed out on it? So you want he wants to know why obviously didn't say the 13. Right? He didn't say it. And the answer is it is is a very difficult attribute of mercy. The most mercy is that should bend the truth. Here we are it says sin should cause man to die. And we're asking for mercy. That's not truth. Truth is that you committed a crime against God. Truth demands that you should die. Not you. Want you to die. So what how is it that it is an attribute of mercy? So it's a very very very uh unusual circumstance. You see here's a person that makes himself like a topic. He in the front of the he chuckles. As a are judged very strictly. Right? So on Rosh Hashanah the angels of mercy say don't judge him strictly. He's a phony. He's not a topic. Don't judge him strictly. Be truthful. He's a bum. As a bum he doesn't deserve to be judged don't so. That's it. That's it. But that's a very um that's a very very narrow usage of it. Because normally it is would not be an attribute of mercy. For most of us it would get us in trouble. We say it Listen listen to to the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart. And says do you really want me to listen to the thoughts of your heart? Yeah. It gets a person in a lot of trouble. It is a dangerous thing. As a matter of fact as a matter of fact this is the reason why it's the reason why if you notice in a lot of when they say to them out loud the of the in and the of which means hearken to our our thoughts we don't say that out loud. Cuz it's kind of dangerous to say it out loud. It's like somebody says Hashem alenu. Let your kindness be upon us as we hope to you. To the amount that we hope to you. Do we really want Hashem to only be kind as much as we hope to him? What happens if we haven't hoped to him in a while? It's a little dangerous stuff. Little dangerous stuff. I I sometimes say when I give a sheer and everybody runs out afterwards. I say, "What happened to you?" We have to watch what we say. Yes. This year was the 40th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War and also 9/11, both of which happened around the same time. Is there any message that backs up by those in the back cabin at this time of year? Well, they happened around the time of Kislev. Kiss, the parsha of Ki Savo. Which is the time of God's chastisements. And we must know that this is a time of when Elul is Ani Ledodi Vedodi Li. I am to my beloved and my beloved is to me. And that's a direct proportion. If I'm not to my beloved then my beloved is not to me. It's a dangerous time. You know, it's like a father tells his son, "You know what? This week I decided I'm not spending enough time with you. This week I'm taking off from work. I'm yours." And the son decides to go away that week. That's chutzpah. Father made it. Hashem makes it his business to be available to us. And people go on a business as usual. That's dangerous. Now, I uh First of all, I want to thank all of you for coming. It's very very nice to start off the year together with you. Um we have over here my my sefarim, um my uh my uh Passion Judaism, Meaningful Living, Power Bench. But we have something new this year to show you. Uh my Power Bench came out pocket size. Uh It came out in two different editions. It came out in a simple edition and also in a regular edition. Um they're each $10. Uh I am actively looking for people to sponsor it to get it into high schools. Because uh like some people sponsored it in certain high schools in Flatbush. If you sponsor it in a high school, this edition I'd be willing to give multiple copies for $3, which is less than my cost price. But I'm anxious to get it into high schools. So if anybody wants to sponsor for any kind of high school, please talk to me about it. And uh and um uh that's available. Uh I have two CDs here, one on Sukkos and one uh on Bereishit if anybody wants. Um I want to conclude with one thought. Um I want to conclude with one thought. We have a lot of people that are in very big need. People are houses are facing foreclosure. People just can't make ends meet. With with the medical costs and the tuition, they just can't make it. If you have money to help people, opportunity knocks. And the truth of the matter is is it's a way to become rich. There's a three-word recommendation by Chazal. Melech mammon chaser. Now, in order to understand what this means, in the olden days when they didn't have refrigeration, when they went on a boat journey, if they wanted the meat to be preserved, they salted it heavily. Salt was the preservative. Melech mammon chaser. The salt, the preservative of money is to give some of it away. People don't understand that. We're talking about there are people that children, they can't afford to give snacks to their children. You want a great idea? You have to do it cleverly not to embarrass. If you know how to do it not to embarrass. You have a family in your community with a large family that is struggling. Tell them you want to buy the shoes for the children for the new year. You know how much it costs to take a eight children to the shoe store to get them a Shabbos shoe and a weekday shoe? You know how much it costs? And they don't have the money. And if you could help them with that, then every moment that the child walks, you're getting a blessing there. I learned this idea from my wife's father. My wife's father, Aaron ben Moshe Gelbter, alav hashalom, used to pay for shoes for a family. What a beautiful idea. There's another thing. There's a shidduch crisis. One of the reasons for the shidduch crisis is not talked about a lot. Nowadays, you got to be very proactive. There's a lot of girls that their parents are, excuse me, quiet like mice. They don't know how to network. They just can't do it. And these girls don't get phone calls because nobody is really looking for them. Some parents know that, you know, tumblers. They're going to call this one, they call that one. They bother this one, they bother that. Other parents, you know a family like that. Take the girl under your wings and make calls for her. Don't take anything away from the parents. You turn it over to the parents. But promote them for them. It's a big chesed. In the merit of our Torah, our tefillah, our chesed, with appreciation to Chazak, may we all have a year of good health, no scares, happiness, and everything well.