CHAZAQ's Torah Talks #169 Rabbi Usher Yisroel Lissauer - The Head of the Year

everything in this world has a kipa shell all of the negative energies that are going on in the world all of these are a type of shell now you never see a person filling his mouth with nutshells what does a person do with a with a nut with a fruit he peels it he cracks the shell and he eats the fruit inside and that's really the whole purpose of a Jew the whole year to see where he has a shell that he has to crack something that is negative a negative influence that he has to stay away from so that he could get to the fruit which is the tah because the toah cannot be eaten together with the [Music] shs today's episode is dedicated in memory of theor Welcome to Torah Talk's program with special guests we have with us all the way from Ben all the way from welcome and we're very excited to speak about preparing for but before we get to the exciting topic we get a little bit back on about the RBI and the great work you're involved with so I was uh born raised in Manhattan originally to Mish Elbas my real name is as Elbas oh Wow real name and Elbas is the same family as I also spoke about it with I have a good friend one of my best friends in so I got a little bit of the history around there wasn't more than one elb so all of the El are related to because the first one that came on the carpet so his name was Elbas before the nest means AB the father like the master of the carpet when he had his nest so then that's when they changed their name wow but they were all I also saw a sa of that put out on Su from also from Moro so it's probably one of my I don't have so much ways to check the because even though my grandmother's from but she didn't come with any papers from Morocco very little memory she barely knows who her grandfather was because her father was very very old when she was born she was born when her father was about 75 years wow so that's uh it's all history but you know at least and my father my grandfather passed away young so I is not really too much to be but it's definitely has a connection so we see that the rabbi's now in NE andem H how did that happen from being and growing up in Manhattan being a today yeah so I think that the question is the answer know when I when I was growing up every I basically went through all of the steps from Al till T so going through all of these steps gave me the experience to really be able to help people on all stages along the way and I think that's what made what it is was there a moment was there a a re a a saer that that that uh that lightened that flame for sure tell you as as um when I was growing up I really started off in public school I went to Park East Preschool my parents Liv this gives us so much just for the record this gives us so much for this is what we do my father was part of the East Side Manhattan fed community of benim benim theab over there he was my S and uh and that's but you know the bus was at my father's house like you know there was nothing special my father had a time with he was really he made a lot of money in the stock market then they moved to then he lost his money moved to Ral Island he lost to he went to R Island and in R Island there's no Jewish school so there's just a public school and it was barely aabad that was operating maybe with one million a year maybe oner like Mish almost nothing they they Hadas you know for shabis small things meals but like nothing really official then and there was a the conservative Temple you know should save us from these people and that's that's how it was so there was no choice so when I was little I would go because I didn't I didn't really know to distinguish I just knew it was Yiddish it was Judaism and that's what pulled me in but I saw that when my father would D and it was very interesting even though my father did not grow up necessarily religious it means that his parents his mother was religious but you know how it was in Israel that they sent them to the kib and they tried to do everything to make them not religious so my father was also a victim of that like the Morocco and these types of things he was in that time so my father really did um have a like a very very secular type of education but when he were Davin it's very interesting that he used to Shuckle he used to sway like this and that's what I also did and people remember me when I was a little kid Israelis over there on R the few Israelis that are there that used to go they remember how I used to just like M when I was six or seven years old they didn't know where that came to like a kid growing up in a conservative environment my father was could call lightly M with a little knowledge that he had about yish kite but he would he would make kiddish he small small things and uh and that was until I became 12 years old when I became 12 years old my father sent me to Parky Day School why because he wanted me to learn Hebrew I have a lot of family and Hera cousins uncles aunts he wanted me to know Hebrew he my mother is an American mother comes to America and she she does know basic Hebrew but nothing special and it's very hard for her to communicate he didn't want me to be in the same position he wanted me to go to the Army and to be able to whatever just like he did K so what happened was he sent me to this par and right as I arrived I felt like I came to the right place I came to my destination and I felt like davening everything are just like full of light full of so that's what I was looking for because I have things that I wrote when I was a little kid was like aini recognized when he was three years old so I recognized from when I became conscious I recognized that the world must have a Creator what brought me to this to this thought when I was in second grade I have a notebook from second grade one of the I used to draw and I used to write on my drawings all types of things so one of the pages I still have at my father's house is like a guy with a open mouth and in his mouth he has like this swirly black and white swirl and it says forever whenever I think about forever I think I'm going crazy I just couldn't understand what is this when I see your the the work of your fingers the moon and the star stars that you made then I realiz I realize what is a person that you should even mention him and a person that hm should even should even look at him but that's the M that's the fact that hem does look at us and he created the whole world for us and the answer was when I heard he is he's forever that is that is forever that is never ending that is unlimited that is AEM so that concept that's hem oh and now there's explanation what is HEM how does HM relate to us and that was that what yish kite gave me and it's not like I didn't look into other things I was very curious I had Muslim friends I had Christian friends and I would just like giggle at what they were saying because I knew that the source for everything that they were talking about was in the toah but I just didn't know how to get to that toy I didn't have anyone to take me there at the conservative Temple they would water it down so much that I knew that I didn't have anybody to ask I didn't have I didn't have who to talk to in Park East I had people that had answers to my questions and I was just from the first day I would say addicted to yish I just I was I just wanted to DAV and to learn in every mishna every alas every Nika I didn't know that every Nika has a deeper meaning that a com means this and means that I just knew that it was a part of my had something to do with me and by me it was with a special with a special love love what was the next step after that ER so now so what what what happened over there was I was just I wanted to put on tius right away I found the tius and I asked the principal can I please Mrs etra I said can I please take this TI she said yeah okay and I just put on the tius and I started going with tius but then I saw my father was becoming hostile to my because when I was 12 years old I went to the RAB toing Queens across the bridge close to is in the and uh and I didn't want to turn off the lights when I came home say like who told you that I said that's that's what I heard from the Yesa he said who's B what B who yeah that we went with yes B on the way and they they told me that's it's like shabis and chabas also I didn't know so my father was like you're never going with them again you got very hostile like you know they're brainwashing you and this not and that's how it was my B was at the co my father told me at the co be careful these religious people are going to brainwash you he saw but I was already making BR I was already religious my father didn't he didn't understand what my what my goal was what I was looking towards because I was ashamed to tell him about it because I knew that that was something that he wasn't so enthusiastic about and it's not his fault this is the this is the education that he got in education that he gave him in the K and he he tells it to me today he said he says me he tells me as I never knew that you would become a rabbi I never knew that you would have a profession I never knew that you would actually get to somewhere in your life as a religious Jew now I see that who are all the volunteers n the the religious the Orthodox who are the all of the all of the people that are doing special things in the world these are the and and I didn't know that when I was a kid they taught us that somebody that is just like an animal he's not a person and we have nothing to talk about with him that was their fear of yish kite wow wow wow wow wow wow so so how did what was the next step I know the re the r is very much involved today with kir and getting uh no kids that are on the streets to give them give them inspiration how did that all time so all of this started really when I got to the Nan I I I continued Nash in Riverdale he's the re of Riverdale he in Riverdale what happened was when I was about 14 years old I was in I was in h high school that's where I continued I wanted to go to a stronger high school but P they put me there okay so I was there and I was in there I was one of the big Advocates of the Orthodox minion I I established a Min minion over there and I established a new mus that there's a guy in school then that doesn't talk to girls doesn't hang around girls have nothing to do with girls and I I used to tell the girls girls in h that learned with me remember I I used to say please don't get offended I don't look at you that's a part of the see I would just like to say a because I was very close to father when I just say his name you know you see this light over here know people on the I I see the r the rabbi is very inlight just saying the name yeah yeah so that was what his face looked like that was what I saw on his face and his son I had a B I saved froma boy I saved on from the streets in B put into his Yesa in I found him with long hair without a without y told me in yish he's he's a boy Vis girl from from Vision family I of the T and the and I I uh I I um he was father-in-law and um and she told me that um I told him he's not a go he's he's he's a he's a and I said said like in yish I started speaking to him in yish and he responded in Hebrew and my rabbit like she didn't believe it and he got into the sca in and when I went to visit you know I knew that he was he was called the head of the moist but what would he have to do with institution is in Montreal he had his owna there and I told him that this and this B I told him his family name he said yeah his father's name is this and that and this was his situation and he knew everything that was going on that's how was important to him and it just like so he said Don't Stray after your heart after your eyes that you stray after that you go after that you do mistakes after so he said what's Zim Zim means string and it also means M it's Aion OFA it means sustain so so he said that if you keep your eyes holy then you'll have you have everything that you need after you keep your eyes you'll see that you don't have any beautiful beautiful beautiful and andem made me be here when his father passed away hasem let me DAV with his father the last two months of his life and to get a fores and for my son that was my first son that was born then and to be by his l two months or three months later and to be by the [Music] of it's very hard to get over this this is a special connection there but anyway so in high school right so when I got to the so I got to through a friend to the Riverdale we went and I say his name just people should know who he is know how to get L sour l s so oh so I got to him and and basically I became a Ben by him he told me he saw me with this like thirsty yish kite and I told him what I was going through at home I told him that my father's very opposite of enthusiastic about me being religious and about me going with tias and about me keeping chabas and and there were a lot of obstacles along the way I was in jwel yard pre-ol for guitar and that was on chabas and I had big mamas to get out of there I wanted to get out of there almost from the first day but it took me a lot of time to get the guts just to tell my father I'm not going anymore and I had a lot of obstacles and challenges challenges I had a lot of also a lot of tricks that I did not to do a like writing with the other hand even though it's not a real sh but I saw in one of the that there is a I think it's even that that writing with the other hand could be a type of a type of sh and it's and my the teacher asked me are you dlex dyslexic so I told him no I'm religious so he said I'm also religious so I understand you and I and explained to him that we're not allowed to write on chabas and um and it was like writing notes so it's even easier because it wasn't words you're writing notes it's symbols it's whatever but it's also not P because if has a meaning anyway and then we were like uh I would I would go through through the Metro so I would have to swipe the metro card so what would I do even though the last mishna in P says that you're not allowed to make yourself look disabled but the the gar says so I used to make my hand shake like I couldn't swipe the card and that would be not a Mir because I didn't tell the anything I just do this and then I always had after a few minutes a come over and just swipe it from me these were the types of things that I would do and I just I would tell you that when just as I touched the guitar which was m at least I would I would cry just cry and I the whole way I would say m that was that that was my you know so that was my battle just like Breaking Free but you should not this give to so many people because we deal with so many youngsters that are going through a similar Challenge and that's what I want to say I want to speak to anyone that's going through this what I went through don't give up Hashem is going to give you better times and you're going to see that everything that you get to in it's all going to be in the Merit of the things that you went through in the harder times when things were darker so so so the rabas the raban are the ones that helped the rabbi get to where you were and yes put me into Yesa it was really he tried to get me into want take he want to get me into regular Yesa so there there was that in the end there was a Rab stra in Lakewood a huge sadic he has an organization to place Boys in yeshivas and uh he has a organization that's called arasan and he got me into rabans in Lakewood I learned there was a boy in a regular Yesa he paid for Kus around clock and that's what got me up to a learning level from nothing like almost nothing like very basic almost less than basic go to learning and getting decent grades on tests in my then after that it was there for about a year and a half something like that after after Lakewood I I moved on to it's a that means all types of s there and it's um half of halfish that means that like the learning is more Lish and it's more bsh so it's like the learning was more and but but the sh were all inish and a lot of boys were there all the types of ma that was a time that those and Alexander didn't have so they would send over there so that was very good to for me to get exposed to all the types of to be together with regular boys that had very very high level and I ended up getting engaged to my K's first cousin wow very very very very very inspiring how how was this how did this happen they heard myish at his and my Reb's family thought that I was son and I miss like oh from America son they thought they didn't know how going to get this type of and then when they heard that it come came from such a family and this and that it ended up working out wow so the r adopted the name Li sth from the yeah because when I came to learn Yesa over there it would be very weird for me to be a speaking yish already because I was living in his house and like I learned yish by him M had a room over there everything just like a kid uh it's like his own son so I couldn't come with a name so as a was going up by him so so give me the idea take take on the name very very very inspiring so Rabbi as we were preparing for R what should the focus be we're getting ready for what should one mind so I would just let's just take the word rashash we make it simple because the real T is simple rash is the head sh is the year rash sh is the head of the year now what do people say when when they do all types of safety precautions protect your head m in any in any case hel put on a helmet protect your head because the head is the most important part of a person the G says that if the of the is then the beh is a tra he's not going to live if the small skin that's around the brain has a hole then there's nothing to do with the B if the skull is pierced then it could be that there's no brain damage but once the damage gets to the brain or things around the brain then there's already aaka that means a likeliness for something to be very very wrong and that's why the beham would not be ker in that mat so for us to be sh to be sikim to be good we have to be careful about our heads we have to be careful about what goes into our heads what we're putting into our heads what we're feeding for our kids and that would be a good time to speak about today's innovation of Internet that has many benefits in some ways but in other ways there are such terrible Danger is that if I would tell you that you have a way to to get a beautiful Diamond but you have to go through terrible dangerous pits and cliffs to get there I don't think that most people that would see or walk on a very tight string between two pits that are like you know maybe a mile deep I don't think that people would be ready to do such a thing even for a diamond so we have to really think think about what are we letting our kids see and a lot of parents think that oh we just we put on a filter on the internet right you put on a filter but you don't know how smart your kid is and you don't know that he's a computer technician and he's better than the hackers in China getting at the things that he wants to see so we have to be careful about what we put into our houses what we let our hands touch and if we are careful about what goes into our heads and what we're thinking and our way of thinking then that would be the first step in getting ourselves into a situation where hem will give us a good year because everything that happens to us throughout the whole year is predetermined rashash every extra step that we take every time that we put our hand into our pocket and we don't find our keys everything that happens to person and and so culture can even more when we're talking about things that are really aish that are that really bring to a true Aug to a true distress all of these things are predetermined on rashash Shana and when big sikim big ranim used to go through hardships throughout the year they were all say it's all about rash all it's all about rash it's all from rash the there stories about the that the whole year was busy with rash and the rabbi just mentioned earlier beautiful V that somebody asked yeah yeah yeah how was your rash they asked and he's like we'll see how the year goes that's how my rashash is that's it so so that's really the focus the focus is on if we I just said like I said at my and I told them that if we would know last year what type of year would be this year then I think that we would have a different L totally yeah we would have prepared more we what wouldn't have we have done I think all would say by for for so I did I tried to encourage people so so R is a very inspiring time many people get a lot of a lot of inspiration the the prayers and the how do we take that inspiration and keep it going for the entire year how do we keep the motivation going so I think that we have to always know that even though things are predetermined but the G says in rash that if you have that people DAV together people pray together so then they could even take a din that was sealed on and they could change it that's also the whole year if a person does CH if he gives it could be that was decreed upon a person and if he's going to give for sure for people that do that save Jewish lives before the soul is more important than the body by us that's how it goes in that's the tells us Say It Go so we should um we should be focusing on the things that could help us to get a get away from these bad decrees and be and immerse ourselves in toyra immerse ourselves in spiritual growth and when hasem sees that our future plans are truly to be better so a lot of times hasem could change the direction in the GPS that is that is destined for us so that we could really achieve a good year and to achieve all the blessings that we need making rash Shana more meaningful for the entire family with a specific emphases on children right so I'll just uh I'll just tell tell the story again I told the rabbi before um I had this in so I have a just like to give a little bit of background I have a and a in I also have a we're talking about that already have for sure older that learn by me and we say over there and and I have a lot of in that time that I'm sitting and learning I'm usually in my from 9:00 at night with I learn whatever over there and then I just continue until about 2 o' in the morning so sometimes in those at those times people come over to me so and if I'm if I'm in the middle of like if I'm between two do so then that's a time for people to talk to me and to ask GES or whatever or I just give them my telephone number and they call me a day later but that's where people know they could find me every day so so um this SP Chua came over to me and he told me that he was by a few families in with his kids and with his wife that wasn't yet from and he told me that you know it's just too dry rash was all dried up dried fruits he felt like it was like Tu bishvat in elementary school so you know he wanted to make it a little bit more flavorful more interesting he said maybe I'll try so I told him okay so we'll we'll take you know we'll substitute the yish with and I I'll try to try to make it interesting for you guys so so they so they came to with and my come see them come to my house I don't do it in show because it's with my kids it's a family setting and rash is really a great time to just show the beauty of yish K because from one side it's a day of din it's the day of of judgment and everyone's you know everyone that knows that he has a big court case so he gets nervous so if somebody knows what's going on in sh so he also gets nervous but at the same time tell us that you should eat good meat you should drink good wine and you should be happy hasem is giving you now an opportunity to just to get to him and to shake the to shake we can't sayem's chair because there's no chair over there but that's the figure of speech and to and to tell hem please give us a good year and Hashem hears us that on that day more than any day in the whole entire year so that's very happy thing for us so that's why we sing happy nun we sing happy songs and and we're very happy with this opportunity to to make a better year for us and for the whole Jewish people in the whole world so so I just um focus on the fruits and what is the idea of the fruits the fruits just like says in they have a shell and then they have a they have a fruit inside everything in this world has a kipa shell all of the things that are that are negative all of the negative energies that are going on in the world all of these are a type of shell now you never see a person filling his mouth with nutshells what does a person do with a with a nut with a fruit he peels it he cracks the shell and he eats the fruit inside and that's really the whole purpose of a Jew the whole year to see where he has a shell that he has to crack something that is negative a negative influence that he has to stay away from so that he could get to the fruit which is the to because the toah cannot be eaten together with the shells and that's all the Mitzvah that's a said don't do this and that's said please do that don't do this is peeling the shell and throwing it on the side and then we have to do make we have to talk and learning about the is more and then we're talking about the fruit the fruit is something is is something beautiful in of itself we say on the fruit and we use the fruit with the we're able to with the telling what we're not supposed to do so so learn of that then we're learning then we're being we're taking out the K the the the soul that is in those shells because everything in this world has a soul we're taking it we're bringing it back to hem and by saying a and eating the fruit we're bringing the fruit back to hem but if we're going to be eating the shells then not only we're not going to be doing anything positive with the spirituality that is hidden inside of the shells which that is our purpose to take out and to derive to bring into our our like a magnet we're just putting them even lower down if we're doing things that we're not supposed to do so we're taking that kadus and we're sinking it deeper and deeper into into that mud that hasem destined for us to take the Kusha out of the M instead of doing that we're putting the in the mod even more so we have to focus on what we're doing with our and I think that that's something that if it's explained correctly even kids understand we're eating the fruits we're we're taking we're putting the shells aside and that's why we say that's why we say that we're we're privileged to come to this time to understand what good is and what not good is and to emphasize the good to emphasize the fruit because nobody talks about the shells the shells are just on the table we put them aside but then we talk about the fruit and the Mila the the beauty the beauty of the P of and we eat these fruits for sure if Master Chum whatever a good we have to have on the P MIT is involved and we tell the kids that these fruits these are our like says the main point of aad is theim that he does and that's that are those are his fruits those are his pis so we want to have good pis sweet pis just like we're eating now in rash a whole year so how could we achieve that by staying away from not good things and by emphasizing and doing good things powerful and that's 100% And we have a we have a custom and Torah talks which is a final message for our broad on and so many beautiful germs we've had throughout so I would like to turn here to all of the boys and girls that are going through a similar situation where they want to grow in their spirituality in their yish kite and their parents just don't understand them I know your parents don't understand you but just be patient respect them love them and on the same time you should know that the Torah entitles you to keep the entire Torah anything that's at least you have to know exactly what's and what's a and what's not to do things that are more than but at least what says you could for sure stand for for yourself even in your parents house even at a young age and don't give up be be cons consistent and keep on praying to Hashem and pray for your parents too and you'll see that Hashem has beautiful ways of making things turn around and everything that you're going to achieve in your life I I'll just say it like from the beginning the says we learn here in so he says in just say for the of the words there is no chance of getting to light if it doesn't come out of a certain type of Darkness the only real light that comes into the world is something that comes out of a dark place just like came out of and came out of so we also have our darkness in our lives but that's all just a way for hem that's the way of hem to show us how beautiful the light is and that will give us the opportunity to really appreciate the light when it comes very inspiring very very nice and and keep asking for and for the amen complete Redemption talks Tuesday nights 830m Eastern Standard time.org hq. RG special thank you to our friends at Daily giving a dollar day goes a very far away to all the different uh platforms that host kak to our talks special thank you to you with emphasis the T any time our friends and not behind the camera thank you very much and kazak team always looking for to do more get involved with the kazak revolution chq.org join us spr the word and until next time beautiful verying [Music]