Throw Out Everything You Thought About Teshuvah - Moadim On Fire

[Music] I think it's safe to say that when most people hear the words chuva, their knee-jerk reaction is to take a massive mental microscope out and start replaying in their head every single slip up from the last year. All the lash you said without thinking the braas you mumbled half asleep where you didn't say at all. The stuff you saw you probably shouldn't have seen. the things you did, the places you went, the choices you regret, and suddenly Chuvo becomes this dark and heavy and shamefilled experience, sort of like a spiritual audit that you're pretty sure you're failing. But what if I told you we've been looking at it wrong this whole time? What if there's a completely different way to look at it? I want to share with you a perspective, one that I don't think is just inspiring, but I believe can flip the whole experience on its head. I want to start with a pretty seemingly bizarre writes in that during the you know, you want to know a little piece of advice as to help you out in the days of chuva. So right there, if I would pause and I would ask you what you think he would say, you would probably guess he's going to say something like be mock or be extra careful about doubting or learning or be extra careful with or not hurting other people's feelings. That's not what he says. You know what the says? He says, "Even if the whole year you aren't mockbid to eat only, which means bread baked by a Jewish baker, these days you should go out of your way to eat only bread baked by a Jewish baker." That's what the says. Now, here's the obvious question. Out of all the 10 million things that he could have told us to work on, out of the 15 million different and the 613 mitzvah and the 25,000 deronas, the one that he chose to focus on was past. Like when you're buying bagels from your from the store, buy it from your local bakery instead of shop, right? Like of all the things that's what the chose. How does that make any sense? Are aren't there like far more important things to work on? Of all the huge spiritual issues you could choose to obsess over, this is the big one. You want to know the answer? You want to know why the picked that of all the things to work on during these days of the yum? Because it's not just about the bread. It's about pride. It's about showing up for your people, your team. It's about saying during and I'm part of and I'm proud of it. It's about saying I'm not an American who happens to be Jewish. I'm a Jew who happens to be an American. It's about saying I'm a proud member of Hashem's people and no one will ever convince me otherwise. And if I can go out of my way to support another Yid, then I will. Because the same way I have a 10 billion dollar nish inside of me, so does he. And the same way I'm proud of me, I'm proud of him. And that's what Chuva is really about, says the great Sashmus. That Chuva isn't centrally about pulling out a microscope and obsessing over every little flaw, every little misstep. It's not about counting how many times you said or missed the although there's certainly value in that. Chuva is about looking Hashem right in the eye and saying, "I'm sorry I wasn't proud enough to be the Jew that you created me to be. I'm sorry. I'm walking around with a soul that you entrusted to light up this world and I'm not sure if I did it enough. I'm sorry for the mission that you gave me and maybe I dropped the ball. I'm sorry for letting the Jewish people down. I'm sorry for letting the world down. I'm sorry for letting you down. That is chuva, says the sus. Chuva is not about tearing yourself down. It's about building yourself up. Chuva isn't just about what we did wrong, per se. It's about what we could have brought into this world and didn't. It's about our unique tailorade tapid that Hashem entrusted us with that we may not have lived up to. You said, "Hashem can forgive. You didn't d with kavana again. Hashem, he can forgive. You slipped up. Hashem can forgive." But the real heartbreak, the real sin is the light inside of you that Hashem entrusted you with and you never set free. The holiness that you were meant to bring to the world around you and perhaps didn't. That's what makes Hashem beg us to come back to say I'm sorry. It's not about I was bad. It's about feeling sorry because I didn't live up to the purpose Hashem gave me. The tapid that the whole world needed me to accomplish. apologizing to Hashem because perhaps I wasn't the proud soldier in his army he created me to be. That is the mentality we need to have while saying it's about recommitting ourselves to being the light unto the nations that Hashem wants us to be. You know, we often hear people say the words that the Jews are the light unto the nations, which is a quote from av where it says, "You shall be a light unto the nations." Now, the sad thing is that this phrase is almost always said in the context of the Jewish people have more Nobel prizes than any other group of people on Earth, or how Jewishowned companies comprise of 30% of the New York Stock Exchange, or Jewish economists have received more rewards than any other demographic on Earth. And don't get me wrong, I'm all in for Jewish success, but do you want to know what the NVI had in mind when he said, "Be a light unto the nations." He meant to be an actual light unto the nations. Like real actual spiritual light. He meant to be the people who walk around and hold the torch of godliness for all of humanity. To be the people that are the models of moral ethical behavior to the rest of the world. He meant we are the people entrusted to be the one guy in our office that people are uncomfortable cursing around. That when I'm on a subway, it means I know that people look at me and when they see me, they see God and they expect godliness. It means that while others may have a pass in this world to act like animals, Jews don't have a pass because more is expected of Jews because Jews carry the light of the world. That is what means to be the ambassadors of light to the rest of the world. To teach the world year in and year out, decade in and decade out what holiness is and what honesty is and what harmony is and what parenting is and what love is and what is who God is. That is the Jew that is the job of every Jew in the world. And El is asking Hashem forgiveness for perhaps not living up to the light he entrusted us with. It's about saying, Hashem, you entrusted me with a soul that's capable of changing the whole world. And maybe I got distracted. Maybe I didn't carry the flag high enough. Maybe I didn't live proud enough as a Jew. Maybe I forgot about that divine light buried in my chest. Maybe I was small when you asked me to be big. Every morning when we wake up in the morning, we say, "Thank you, Hashem, for returning my to me." How great is your faith? Your amuna. You ever wonder what do we mean when we say hashem has amuna? I thought we were the ones who were supposed to have amuna in hashem. You know what it means? It means how great is your faith hashem in me. It's about saying hashem you were banking on me. You had faith in me. You had high hopes for me and I don't want to let you down. That is chuva to say hashem perhaps I wasn't proud enough and I want to come back to the palace and polish my boots and re-energize my pride in being a member of claustro the most spiritually transformative group of people on earth and the people holding the banner of light for the rest of the world listen to this story every day I drive from Lakewood to deal New Jersey and I have the greatus in learning every morning with Jakob Schweki nowi goes all over the world doing concerts and he meets a lot of fascinating people from all over and he often tells me stories about the people that he's met. So listen to this story. He told me there's a very wealthy man, a Jewish man in Miami who is extremely proud about being Jewish. And one time he told Yakov that a few days prior he said one of the largest bankers in the entire country of Mexico, a non-Jewish kind of sleazy fellow called him up about a huge property that he wants him to buy as an investment opportunity and he wanted let's say $150 million and he looked at the plans seemed interesting says you know I got to go to Mexico and I got to check it out. say flies to Mexico and the banker comes with his big limousine to pick him up from the airport and he says they were in the back of the car talking but it was a long way to the property from the airport and eventually they just ran out of things to talk about. So eventually they drive through the Jewish part of the town and they stopped at a red light and there is this Jewish man standing on the side of the road and this man Neb, he's missing a leg. He has some disformed body parts. He looks a little strange. And the kind of sleazy banker looks out at this man at the window and he says, "Ah, see that guy? What a disgrace. Why would God make such grotes, disgusting people ah gross?" The Jewish man freezes. He turns to the driver. He says, "Driver, stop the car. Don't go anywhere." He rolls down his window and he says in Hebrew, the man hobbles over. He says, "I want to tell you, you inspire me. When I see you, I see God. You inspire me not to take anything for granted. I want to thank you. And he shakes his hand and he says, "Keep inspiring people with your with your smile." And he rolls up the window and he looks at the banker who's now sweating and looks like a piece of katila fish. And the Jewish man says, "You think that man is grotesque, but God thinks he's one in a million. That man shines light by simply standing on a street corner. That man makes people remember to think about God in life. That man has a role that the entire world needs. He looks at this banker who just realized that he made a big mistake and he says that man does more good in an hour than you'll do in your lifetime. They wrote off in silence. That is the perspective we need to have when approaching the to ask Hashem for forgiveness. Not just for the times that we sinned, but for perhaps not living up to the spiritual greatness that Hashem knew we were capable of. To turn to Hashem and say, "Hashem, there is something that you wanted from me. A tough, a spiritual mission that no one in the entire world could have accomplished. And I want to say sorry for not living up to your expectations." Here's another story. For a long time, I gave classes and did outreach at Princeton University. I had an apartment on the campus and I would go from time to time and I would bring some food. I would give some classes and speeches. And the very first time I gave a class, I brought Mike's chicken from Lakewood, New Jersey. Delicious chicken. So, I bring all this food and I set it all up and everyone piles in, but they barely touch the food. A couple people take a little bite, but I brought enough chicken to feed an army. I'm like, "Oh my gosh, I'm going to have so bring back so much leftovers. It's embarrassing." Eventually, about halfway through the class, the door opens and a boy named Noah walks in. Now, Noah was not your typical Princeton brainiac short future plasma physics professor. He was a 6'5 broad shoulder kind of guy, and he looked like the kind of guy who could polish off an entire platter of chicken in one sitting. So, I'm thinking to myself, "Okay, great. He'll make a major dent in the chicken." He sits down. He doesn't take a crumb. So I'm thinking to myself like that's weird. So I said, "You know what? I'm going to ask him." I said, "Noah, you don't like chicken?" He said, "No, I love chicken." I said, "Okay, so what's the what's the problem? It's not kosher enough for you. What do you want?" He said, "No, I don't keep kosher." I said, "Okay, so so why don't you have any chicken?" Listen to what he said. He said, "I'll tell you why. Because I'm on the Princeton rowing team, and you know who it is in the Ivy Leagues, they don't really care about football or basketball. They're not really good at soccer, but rowing they take very seriously. And before each match, the coach puts us on a scale to see if we are the correct weight for he doesn't want anyone weighing down the boat. Tomorrow, we're racing against Harvard. And if I eat one piece of chicken and I'm one pound overweight, I can cause my entire team to lose. That one pound could be the difference between victory and defeat. And that I'm not willing to do to my team. You hear that? This guy won't eat a single piece of chicken because he refuses to weigh down his rowing team. Can you imagine if we lived like that? Not just about chicken, but about every single part of our lives. If we truly understood that every choice we make either drags the entire world down or lifts it higher, how careful would we be? How fiercely would we protect the light that I try to entrust at us? We'd weigh every bite and every word and every action like everything depends on it because it does. That's the fire we need when we face the yuman. The time of the year that we remind ourselves that we're not random bystanders in this world doing whatever we want. We are soldiers and Hashem's army carrying a mission the entire world needs us to fulfill. And when we stumble, we don't brush it off or give up. We fall to our knees and we beg Hashem for the strength to rise stronger and to fight harder and to carry that light forward. If you take the words el and rashana and yam kiper and hash and rabba, do you know what acronym they form? The word arier for this is the time of year where we roar like a lion. Where we unapologetically declare our allegiance to Hashem and to spreading his light in the world. That is this time of year that we are entering. And that is the perspective one needs to have while approaching Slas and Yam Kipper and Rashashana. Not that I'm a horrible person and forgive me, but that I've gotten distracted and I want to get back to being your faithful ambassador, the most important ambassadors on earth. I want to end with one more little story. It happened to me recently. I travel all over the world and I meet interesting Jews in every corner of the globe. And every now and then you meet a Jew who is just simply on fire. and I met one of those Jews recently and not long ago I was in the great city of Norfolk, Virginia. I gave a speech there and afterwards I was approached by a young woman probably in her 20s and she says hi I liked your speech. I said thank you. I gave a speech about being passionate about being Jewish and she said let me tell you a little bit about myself. I said sure. She said she grew up in Shahome, but for whatever reason, life got a little challenging. And so she decided to join the United States Marines. She said, "I walked into the Marines. I knew nothing. But the minute I walked in there, my inner drive to be the greatest I can be, it kicked in. And I said, I'm not just becoming a regular Marine. I am making it to the top. I am making it to the Marines special operations team, which is about as high as she could go and one of the most elite forces in the Marines. And she tells me it wasn't easy. Here I am, this Jewish girl who's still keeping, who's still keeping, she's walking around wearing her skirt, her mug necklace, and she's making her own meals. She's being looked at and sneered at, but she said, "I was nevertheless determined. I'm going to make it to the highest levels of the Marines." And guess what she does? She trains. She trains. She outsmarts. She outmaneuvers almost all the other soldiers. And she becomes one of the only soldiers that got selected to become part of this special operations unit. She said by the time she arrived at the special ops base, she was drained. She was worn out. She said when she arrived at her new special ops training base with the other newcomers, she noticed a lot of people looking at her. This is one of the most cutthroat competitive elitist places on earth. And here is a clearly Jewish girl with her skirt, her mug of a necklace. She's holding a bag of Meal Mart meals in her hand. And she said she just knew this was going to just crush me. There's no way I could stand strong here. And she looks at me with her eyes lit up. She said, "You know what I did? You know how I stayed strong?" She said she was walking through the gates and she saw the famous Marine slogan, the few, the proud. She then made it to the women's barracks and she noticed that the girls put up a sign on the front of of the barracks that read, "Female Marines, the fewer but prouder." Then she says, "You know how I stayed strong this whole time? Anytime I feel down, I tell myself, the Marines might be the few, the proud. The female Marines might call themselves the fewer but the prouder, but I'm the fewest but the proudest. And then when I remember that, I stay strong. Can you imagine that? In the Norfolk Naval Base, which is the largest naval base in the world, there's a kid who became one of the most elite members of the Marines, who hasn't compromised even one iota of her Jewishness. And do you know how she did it? Because not a day goes by that she doesn't tell herself that she is the fewest but the proudest. That's the mentality of a Jew on fire. That's the mentality we need to have pulsing through our veins during the Yam. Hashem, I want to be big again. I want to be proud again. I want to be with you again. The Jews have always been the fewest. We have always been the smallest, the ones who are always picked on and spat on and laughed at. And yet, when the dust settles, who's the one still standing? We are. There have been thousands upon thousands upon thousands of religions throughout history and almost all of them are gone and they're forgotten and they're erased and they're vanished. But the Jewish people, we are the longest living group of people on earth. And you want to know how we do it? You know, I don't know how we're still here because we are the proudest people on the planet, the ambassadors of Hashem. And no whim and no ideology and no fad will ever convince us otherwise. That's the mindset we need to bring with us into the run. The time of year to remember and to stop seeing ourselves as ordinary, regular, run-of-the-mill people. No, is the time of year to remind yourself you are not normal. You are part of the most elite spiritual force in history. And now you're ready to come back to the base and to reshine your boots and to open up your sle and to say to Hashem, Hashem, I may have fallen. I may have gotten a little distracted, but I'm back and I'm ready to grab hold to your torch again and bring your light to my office, to my school, to my football team, to my community, or my family or my life. I'm ready to be a soldier in your army. Ready to be among the fewest but the proudest people on the face of the earth. [Music]