The Yom Kippur Change That Can Transform Every Mitzvah - Rabbi Dovid Kaplan

[music] >> A rabbi once came to Rabbi Elyashiv zt"l and he posed a dilemma. A young lady was getting married and this rabbi was the mesader kiddushin. And he had a problem because the young lady was a giyores, she was a convert. And she was concerned that when they read the ketubah under the chuppah, they're going to read the ketubah as written and it says in the ketubah that she has converted to Judaism. She was felt that when they read it the ketubah, so she'll be embarrassed that everybody should find out that she's a convert. So he asked Rabbi Elyashiv if they could write the ketubah as a regular ketubah to save the young lady embarrassment. Now Rabbi Elyashiv was always known for his very brief and to the point answers to questions and totally out of character he all of a sudden let me tell you a story. He says, "I want to tell you a story. In Europe, there was once a small town. In this small town they had to appoint a new rabbi. A new rov. The local poritz, non-Jewish landowner, was the one who was going to determine who's going to be the new rov of the town. And the way he decided to determine the new rov was he was going to have a contest. There were two candidates. And what he decided to do is he would tell each one, he would open a siddur randomly and each one would them to read and whichever one read more fluently, he would be obviously that's a demonstration of his various skills and the parties decided would decide he'd become the rav. Okay. So, the first guy he opens up the siddur randomly and sure enough it's open up to Ashrei. Oh, the guy looks down Ashrei, who doesn't know Ashrei? I Ashrei say three times a day and he just goes breezing through Ashrei. He says like they are parts is very impressed. Second guy steps up and he opens up the siddur and it comes out to the Yotzros on Shavuos. Which if it is said by anyone, it's said once a year. So, the guy breaks his teeth on the Yotzros and a terrible performance of the parties immediately says, "Okay, the first guy becomes the rav of the town." So, Rav Elyashiv told the guy this story. He said, "I want to tell you something. That second guy doesn't deserve to be the rav. He's a fool." Why is he a fool? He's a fool because who told him to read the Yotzros? The parties doesn't understand Hebrew. He could have just pretended that it was said V'ahavta Hashem Elokecha. Look down and read V'ahavta which he knows by heart. Why did he tell him they have to read? Who said he has to read the Yotzros? He's a fool. That's why he doesn't deserve to be the rav. Rav Elyashiv said to him, "Listen, you can't write a ketubah differently than what it's meant to be the way it's meant to be written. But when you're reading it under the chuppah, who said you have to read those words? As he gets to those words, slur over the words. Read it fast. Nobody Nobody will hear you." That was Rav Elyashiv's answer. What's the lesson? The lesson is that sometimes in life adjustments have to be made. Everybody have to make certain adjustments. The time of year that we think about and we focus on perhaps where we have to make our own adjustments is certainly around Elul Rosh Hashanah and certainly Yom Kippur when we're busy clapping our our heart, say I'm not going to do this, I will do this, thinking to ourselves what we could improve. I would suggest, you know, everybody knows Reb Dovid Feinstein, that's how it was, Reb Moshe Feinstein's son, biggest posek in America at the time. And there was a certain community that was going through difficulty, they were going through some sort of a tragedy that's happened in the community, so they approached Reb Dovid Feinstein and said, "What should we work on?" So, Reb Dovid said, "You know, the the community wants to work on something for self-improvement." So, Reb Dovid Feinstein said, "What are we felt in aveiros? Well, we're we don't have We're all so good, we haven't done any aveiros. Everybody should think about where they have flaws." And they should figure out a way to to fix up their flaws. That's what Reb Dovid Feinstein told them. So, a lot of this is individualistic. A lot of each person lay v'yado de'amar nafsho. A heart knows its internal bitterness. Each person knows where they have flaws, what what needs to be improved, whatever the area is. And if a person doesn't know, so they could certainly consult with a rov or a mentor. And probably best better yet is to speak to their spouse, cuz a spouse will certainly be more than happy to point out uh where improvement is needed if improvement is needed. I would only suggest one area uh which is challenging and is something to think about. If it if a person does that doesn't apply to them, then fine, but it's just something to think about. In parshas Ki Savo, we read that Hashem says to the Jewish people, "Because you didn't serve with joy, the punishment for not serving Hashem with joy, we're taken to task for not serving Hashem b'simcha. And what's the punishment? The very next pasuk says that we're going to we're going to end up servitude to our enemies." That seems like a harsh punishment. I mean, okay, we didn't serve with joy, but we served. I mean, we did it. Why should we be punished fall to the enemies and serve the enemies? So, one of the commentaries explains, well, if you do something without joy, if you do something grumbling, under duress, it's as if it's forced labor. That's how we feel. If we're doing something which we'd rather not do and we do it and we do it with a frown, that's like forced labor. And therefore, the way Hashem pays back, mida k'neged mida, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu, person gets what he deserves, that mida k'neged mida will cause that we will then end up in a situation where we're literal forced labor, where the Jewish people fall to the enemies and then have to serve the enemies in the most unpleasant way possible. So, what is it that the Torah wants from us? The Torah says, because you didn't serve Hashem with joy. Now, obviously, it doesn't mean that we're always just going to be in a wonderful mood. You know, life There are hassles in life and there's traffic and trying to get kids into schools and parnassah and shidduchim. There are always hassles. It's not that a person is not in a great mood. That's not what the Torah is addressing here. The Torah is addressing the attitude towards the mitzvahs in general. Does a person see 613 mitzvahs or a person see 613 problems? The Torah is addressing our attitude. If a If somebody you love needs something done, a husband who rolls up his sleeves to attack the crusty cholent pot and other dishes on a motzei Shabbos, he's happy to do it for his wife. It doesn't mean it's easy and it doesn't mean he's necessarily feeling well. But he's happy to do the job because he wants to please the person who needs the job done. We're happy to have the benches. We're happy to have the opportunity to serve our college borough. Classic example. There are many many people who when you offer them, "Would you like to eat?" Yes. "Would you like a roll or would you like a toast or would you like a pita?" No, no, I don't want to wash. Between me and you, it's not the washing that's the problem. Washing doesn't take that long. That's a couple of seconds. It's the benching that's the issue. Person wants to avoid I don't want to have to bench. Got to get up, you got to get a bencher, and you put a hat and a jacket and my my chrome. It's a lot of work and then you have to take It's going to take up about 3 minutes of our time, also. Now, think of what benching is. Benching is the only brocha that's a del rice. It's a Torah command. V'achalta v'savata u'verachta. A person has the opportunity to take on the yoke of benching. And then to do it happily. And what do we do? We run away from it. That's what it means that we're not serving Hakadosh Baruchu b'simcha. Rebbetzin Steinman Towards the end of her life, she was very very ill. And Rebbetzin Steinman had to be on a feeding tube. And somebody asked her, you know, she was very very sick. And somebody asked her, "How are you handling all this?" And she said, "Look, you know, it's uh obviously it's it's uncomfortable, but it's the will of Hashem. Therefore, it's obviously for the good. But the truth is, I do miss being able to bench." That was her attitude. She couldn't eat. And she didn't say she misses eating. She said she misses benching. When Yom Kippur comes around and a person is looking, there are a lot of individual areas that need improvement. Honoring parents, uh honesty in money, uh uh lashon hara, uh all sorts of all sorts of areas. But as a general rule, something that affects all of our voters Hashem is the idea, the attitude of serving Hashem b'simcha. A person who serves Hashem b'simcha experiences simcha when they serve. That's how it works, it's a cycle. And therefore, on Yom Kippur, when we clap al cheit, for all the various underlying it is often the attitude, I don't really want to be bothered with this. That's what Hakadosh Baruchu does not want for the Jewish people. He wants us to realize that the mitzvahs are a privilege. We've been honored to be given the mitzvahs. Ratzah Hakadosh Baruchu l'zakos es Yisrael. Hashem wanted to give us multiple merits. L'fi chach hirbah lahem Torah u'mitzvahs. Therefore, he gave us many Torah, a lot of big Torah, and many mitzvahs. Hakadosh Baruchu should help that our attitude should be to serve Hashem with joy, and we should have a year full of joy and simcha, and a g'mar chatimah tovah. >> Hi. This is Baruch Beracha Hecht. A proud alumnus of Ohr Someayach. Now, what you just watched is one of the many programs that Ohr Someayach provides. Leaving its impact on hundreds of thousands, with so many more waiting [music] to be reached. Ohr Someayach Central Campus in Jerusalem has over 300 students presently learning there. And now, you can be a vital part of spreading that bounty of knowledge worldwide by logging onto donate.ohr.edu. We can step up to the plate at this pivotal moment of Yeshiva Ohr Someayach's growth and bring the next generation of Jews home.