Tomer Devorah with Rabbi Avigdor Miller 30 Conclusion 2

also means this is my God and I will become like him. When I become more like God, I build a dwelling place within myself for him and at the same time I glorify him because I become an example for all people to observe and say, "Wow, this is what a Jew is supposed to be. This is a son of God. This is the messenger of God in the world. By imitating Hashem, we glorify him. We build a place for him down below and we become like Hashem. Let's say [clears throat] someone was your once your friend and for some reason things soured and he doesn't like you anymore. You should remember the friendship that once existed even though he forgot. Now the way [clears throat] our relationship is with Hashem that the way we treat him he treats us. That's the same way between us and other people. When we feel that someone doesn't like us, we can't help it. We also don't like them. Or when we don't like someone, they cannot help it. They don't like us. And in a positive way, when we notice that someone smiles at us, someone feels positive towards us. We can't help it. We feel positive towards them. Now, we generally say we can't help it, but really we can help it. And here we're learning how you can change this uh pattern and you can actually make the relationship good again. Your friend stopped being your friend. He forgot your friendship. But you shouldn't forget. And don't fall into the trap of doing to him what he did to you. You should remember the friendship that once existed even though he forgot. You break this cycle and start loving him again. How do you do that? Try to recall the times you spent together when he was loyal to you. That should always be before your eyes. And even if he never was a friend of yours, but he did good things to others, you find something good within him, within his character, within his behavior. Even if this person is not friendly toward you, remember the good that he once did, it doesn't mean he was completely righteous. But the good things are still worth remembering. And that's all you should remember for your own good. Not because the world is unfair and others will hurt you and you will be nice to them. No, because even when others hurt you and you are nice to them, you will twist their hand and force them to be nice to you. Why? Because they can't help it. When you are nice to people, they are nice to you. Even though they wanted to be nasty to you, but somehow you tricked them and you made them love you. So is it better to live in a fair world where they hurt you and you hurt them and it continues forever or no? You are the boss of your life and you decide that you want to live in a world full of love, of happiness, of friendship and it all depends on you. Always remember there was a time when you loved each other and only saw the good in each other. Look back and think only in those terms. This refers to if you are married even though subsequently there may be friction but it doesn't have to continue in one instant by changing your attitude and the things you focus on on what you remember you can change your marriage without any therapist. You just flip it on the coin, turn it around, and you have a loving marriage again. That is what Hashem wants you to do. Remember the love of your wedding days. Hashem is not going to judge us by what we are doing now. If he did, it would be very difficult for us. He judges us by what he once saw in us. Whether he saw in the past, in the present or in the future, once he will concentrate on it and he will nurture it. That that should be the focus of his attention. Once we were young, idealistic, we intended to serve Hashem more. We were devoted to him. Then we went into business, became hardened and tough. We got married. But Hashem remembers the previous idealism, how we wanted to treat our spouse, how we wanted to raise our children. and he remembers the virtues of our lives. If we also behave in this manner, he will cause the world in general to benefit by this mida. We will activate Hashem's mercy towards everyone. Now, Rabbi Cordova finishes. Therefore these 13 midot should not depart from the sight of your mind and this verse should never depart from your mouth. And the verse is me who is like you who carries sin. He passes over transgression. For the remnants of his heritage, he does not retain his anger forever. For he desires kindness. He will again have compassion upon us. He will conceal our iniquities. and he will cast their sins into the depths of the sea. You will give truth to Jacob, kindness to Abraham as you swore to our forefathers. And even if there is no merit to the forefathers from the days of old, you will remember uh the kindness that the Jewish people did when they came out of Egypt. Perhaps you will not remember the various traits, but at least try to remember the verse. read it out loud a few times now, few times on Rosh Shah and we we read it every morning in Shaharid. This verse should never depart from your mouth. Try to learn it by heart and repeat it from time to time that [clears throat] it should be a reminder of the 13 midot so that when a situation arises in which you will need to implement one of these midot in practice whether you need compassion from hashem say it. Or you feel that you are getting angry, impatient with someone, say this and remember how Hashem treats us. You will remember and say this situation requires such and such mida. I don't want to abandon that attitude. I wish to stick to it so that it should not be forgotten and that mida should not depart from the world. And now Rabbi Vic Miller uh finishes. If you will always keep that mida alive in your mind and practice it when the situation arises, that mida will be effective in helping you and in helping the whole world. Even if you learn this only a single time, you should know that it has an effect on you. Even hearing it once, even superficially is also beneficial. Hashem will see that you at least try to learn and understand it. And that's the beginning of doing it. You have made a step in the right direction, which is a very big achievement and has a great effect. that we have at least gained the knowledge that there is such a thing as 13 midot exactly what they are deserves to be studied more with more commentaries with more thought exactly how to practice them also deserves study and practice and without setting aside time a ska schedule checklist. Have I reviewed them? Have I practiced them? It will not be easy. There are two aspects of the mitzvah of walking in Hashem's ways. First, you must know the way of Hashem. Then you must do it. By studying the ways of Hashem, you have begun a career of following the ways of Hashem. Therefore, in its full sense, you have already begun the mitzvah of putting these mid into practice also is not simple. But if we keep them in mind, Hashem will say, look, you're trying a little bit. I will consider it in a certain sense that already you are going in my ways because you are studying my ways. We can never be perfect. We can never be like God. But by stepping on the path towards God, we are um creating a possibility that one day we will be more and more like God. And all that is missing is the eternity of achievement. And Hashem says, "It's my responsibility to give you eternity of achievement. And if I take you back into the spiritual world earlier, it's not going to be your fault. Since you stood on the right path and you committed yourself to uh growth, I will consider it as if you achieved perfection. Of course, we have to be honest. And as the last um step of this class, we will compare these midot with the 13 attributes of mercy that we're more familiar with that we say daily and we say multiple times ine and I'm just briefly going to read them in in English. Hashem, you are compassionate before a person has sinned. The person you can say deserves compassion. Hashem, you are compassionate after the person sins as well. As long as the person repents, but the fact that he sinned does not stay stand in your way. You are as compassionate to him after the sin as you were before. This two is an attribute of compassion. Rah. Hashem is um an almighty. He uses his compassion with great strength. Rah merciful to ease the punishment of sinners when they call out to him. He acts charitably to those who ask for it. Even if they are unworthy, it's worth it to ask Hashem for help. Even if you're not worthy, Hashem will help. He is slow to anger and does not hurry to punish a person for his sins. There thereby giving him time to repent. I said he is abundant in kindness towards those who need it but do not deserve it by their own merit. He leans toward favor in judgment. He is faithful in generous to generously reward those who do his will. He guards the good deeds that a person does for 2,000 generations. for the benefit of his descendants. He forgives deliberate sins. He forgives rebellious sins. He forgives even intentional sins. Whichever way a person may sin against God, as long as he does, brings us back to Hashem and Hashem accepts us with love. And he cleanses those who repent of their sins and absolves them of punishment. We see here certain um similarities to the 13 attributes that we have studied uh in depth. Um and there are commentaries on these 13 character traits and there are commentaries that compare the two and um show how one corresponds exactly to the other. There's more to study but the main thing now is to review everything that we have studied and to applied in practice. Thank you for listening. Shabbat. Shalom.