Four Species, Four Kinds of Jews, One People - Rabbi Lazer Brody

We see that Hashem created the world . Hashem is the greatest director and choreographer there is , and we see the rhythm of our spiritual life and the rhythm of current events; We see the connection between the High Holy Days and the upcoming Israeli elections. We see that we have Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, and especially Sukkot, and immediately after Sukkot are the Israeli elections. What is all this supposed to teach us? It teaches us that during the High Holy Days, even for Kol Nidre, the holiest prayer of the year, we are prepared to pray, and as far as I am concerned, to pray with the condemned. We are all convicts, because at a certain moment in the year none of us is perfect and we break the rules. So as offenders, and perhaps we have not performed the perfect penance, we still have this label; We declare that even the greatest Tzaddikim will now pray together with the greatest sinners. And without that, we cannot enter Kol Nidre. This is something Hashem requires of us. Absolute unity between the greatest Tzadik, the greatest righteous, and the greatest sinner. Next, we continue five days after Yom Kippur, and Sukkot begins. We have Sukkot, we have our four kinds, our four kinds, namely the lulav, the etrog, the myrtle and the hadassim, the willow; This one has no taste and no smell. The willow represents the bad person, the person who has no special privileges or rights and has done nothing good. The lulav and the etrog are Tzaddikim, and the myrtle also has its merits. But we must pray together. Someone might ask: "Why pray together? You can have a lulav for which you paid 100 dollars and an etrog of 300 dollars, but if you do not have a willow for which you spent 1 or 2 dollars , then those expensive things are worthless. And we see this in the holy temple as well. We have the 11 spices of the incense offering. The incense with 11 spices contains, among others, chelban and levona; the chelban tastes bitter and smells terrible. It smells like a skunk, excuse the expression. But without this, all the other ten are invalid and worthless. What do we learn from this? We learn that we must be together. The Hebrew word for public is tzibur. We must pray in public , have a public quorum, which we call a minyan. Tzibur is an acronym for the tzadik, or tzadikim, as the Baal HaTanya says, the righteous. The bet stands for beinonim, the people who stand in the middle . There is a bit justice and a little bit, well, not so justice. And the resh stands for reshaim, the wicked. When they come together, that is a tzibbur. It is only called a tzibbur when all three are together. You can have nine Grand Rebbes or nine Grand Rosh Yeshivas together, but they still don't have a minyan. Okay, my apologies, Venerable Rabbis, but you cannot say Borchu, no Kaddish, no Yehai Shma Rabbi. That is not possible. Okay, and then suddenly the lowest in rank walks in, the sewer cleaner from New York, or perhaps someone who just came out of Alcatraz after a 30-year sentence, and he walks into the synagogue and he is a Jew who believes in Hashem. Number 10, that is it. Now, Rabbis, you can pray. But without this tenth person who came out of the sewer or the prison, you cannot pray. You cannot do anything. This is the power of the Tzibbur, the power of togetherness, the power of being united. And this is what we must learn from elections. We do not learn...we do not spend time on elections. Do not talk about elections. Do not talk about parties, this party, that party. First of all, it is bitul Torah, neglect of study. It is a sin to waste time. What we do do: a person must fulfill his civic duty , go to the polling station. Close your eyes, open your eyes, whatever you want, throw your ballot in, and that is it. Done. Done. For elections stem from political parties. Political parties is miflaga ; miflaga means to separate in Hebrew . And we want achdut, which means to unite, derived from echad, one. Miflaga, separation, we have divergent opinions. That comes from peleg. Peleg is a difference of opinion. Peleg is a disagreement. We do not want that. We want to be together. What we must do: we know that Hashem knows what is true. But meanwhile, while we seek the truth—and the Zohar This world is called alma d'shikra, the world of lies—until we establish what the truth is, when Melech Israel comes, King David comes and the revelation of the Messiah is there, and we shall know what the truth is, we must respect the opinion of another . We must show respect; we do not have to adopt what others do, what we consider wrong in our eyes . We must act according to what we deem best, what our spiritual leaders impart to us as best, what our rabbis present to us as best, and that is what we must do. But in the meantime, there are also other people. Perhaps they do not have the upbringing that we have. Perhaps they do not have the background that we have. They do not have that, but they are other people, not only other people, the other nations. We respect the other nations, and that is being human. And this is a light for the nations. Light for the nations means that we bring this light, that we show that we are all children of Hashem, that we all believe in Hashem. This is what we must bring. We must bring a light. Unity is light. When there is separation, it is darkness. It is therefore our task to bring the light to the world, and may Hashem help us to illuminate the world to the point where it is a fitting place for Hashem to dwell among us with His divine presence . Soon in our days. I wish you the best year of your life. Amen.