KLM: Repentance From Love on Yom Kippur with Rabbi Asher Baruch Wegbreit

[Music] I'd like to welcome back the listeners of tah any time and Y for a special three-part very short series to get us ready for y Kipper short part number one is we're going to discuss why it's hard to do Chua and what we can do about it part two we're going to discuss how we can magnify the joy and Simka and and kadus of eating on Arab Yom toop and finally we're going to discuss yon Kipper itself and how to maximize the day so let's uh with no further Ado let's get into why is it hard to do chuva I don't think too many people disagree with me that it seems to be hard to do so I think the best way uh to tackle this is to share with you a story that happened almost 20 years ago when I was in yiva I was part of the shaas Tor which is in the old city and on AR of chabas we would have the KOA sadaka would go around there were like 13 roots in The Old City collecting Sedaka so I was so happy I was zoha to do this uh um collection for the needy people with my Reby so when you get time with your Reby you want to be ready so I was ready with what I thought was a great question I said something like this I said Rabbi I've been working on hes bone and neish and I have to be honest with you try as I may it's like it's so superficial and it's inconsistent I stop and I start you know you know I'm so frustrated I'm not doing it the way I'd like you know what he said he said that's CU you don't want to do it reie what do you mean I'm I I plan this question to figure out how to do it well right I'm working on it said you don't want to do it I'll explain what that means the depth of it it says in per AOS right this is the AA of rebi he said Reby says you do this you are going to succeed he said calculate the reward of a Mitzvah against I mean of a AA against its loss and this is the one I'm focus on calculate the loss of a Mitzvah compared to the reward you get now here's the question we have to ask what does rebi want he wants me to not do a veras and he wants me to yes do Mitzvah so why is he let's focus on Mitzvah why is he drawing my attention to the loss involved with Mitzvah why just say think of the reward of mitzvas and compare it to the loss involved with the AA he was saying the same thing if we don't look inside ourselves and find out there's a part of us if we're not succeeding to do something part of us doesn't want to part of us has a resistance to it okay so says says Reby and I think the bartur says like this what what when you think about the loss involvement is okay it's going to take time it's a hassle I'm tired right so you now know why you may not want to do it and then youis Yourself by thinking of the incredible reward now that's good because that now we can reflect and we can think well what am I concerned about okay so that's number one I think that's a important secret when we're having a hard time doing the Mitzvah say to yourself why don't I want to do it okay so that's number one number two is and I I don't think going to be anyone who disagrees I just don't have time right I I don't have time I'm so busy I'm preparing for yumove I'm taking care of the kids I I'm learning I'm teaching I'm you could go on and on and on we don't have time that's how we feel the third one is um we don't really appreciate the bigger purpose in doing chuva if we understood the bigger purpose it would be easier y Kipper is a phenomenal uh day in that it gives you atonement for so much now the day is so powerful and holy that there was a debate amongst the tonai one of them said you don't even need to do chuba unfortunately he lost right ring one and said no y Kipper's power is Unleashed if you do chuva and so that means you have toach says you do you can do it before uh y Kipper like now okay you're already entering in with a a way to maximize the atonement and the cleansing and the kadha because whenever you express your intentions to hasem it elevates the uh your connection to the Mitzvah and it makes it more of a relationship Hashem so everybody Hashem let's have this in mind we're about to do chuba because you command us to do chem uh let's say arer Yumer we're about to do this Kem and also let's add this because we love you okay let's do this because we love Hashem in order to get you into the um process of Chua we're going to do right now I have to tell you a story this is a true story it happened maybe 15 15 years ago uh let's say 15 years ago uh when I was in the Shiva in Ella we would turn the mus shim into total focus on chuva we do uh the saf for Shar chuva and all sorts of exercises okay so there was this one bck he was there that L I think he only was there for one month three years later I'm invited to the Citadel for his wedding and I'm I'm there enjoying the wedding and then suddenly when the guys in Yeshiva says he spoke to the father of the husten and and he asked the father you know making small talk who was the shotgun and the father said without hesitation he says Rabbi wedb me I I never met the woman okay I didn't know he was dating I didn't know anything and he said I was the shotgun why it turns out it is true okay there's uh I told you we don't do chuba as well we find it hard because we don't realize what a significant thing it is okay it's not just like cleaning up our act and um getting into our problems and what we're doing is we're realigning our relationship to Hashem it's about a relationship and repairing a relationship now we proba heard that but do we approach Chua as a repairing of a relationship you love very much so listen in order to do that um I had the students write two letters love letters I call them okay so the first one was pick someone that you're close to and you know you haven't acted properly to them and you care about them and what do you do you open up by saying how much you do care about them what you appreciate appreciate about them how how you love them and then apologize so this fell who came 15 years ago he writes the letter he was going out with a non-jewish woman and he broke it off probably is the right thing in the context he broke it off and so but he didn't feel he did it properly so he said you know you are a very nice person he expressed his appreciation and he apologized she was so touched by this letter that she started taking conversion classes completed the conversion classes and they got engaged and married so I was the shotgun thank God okay that's the power That's The Power of repairing a relationship what I'd like you to do right now is we're going to write a letter to Hashem okay so I want everybody and includes you whoever is uh listening get a piece of paper and a pen all right and R at the top dear AEM so we said we're having in mind the mitah of doing Chua but we're also um have in mind the Mitzvah of AEM loving Hashem okay because really uh if you do tra has tell us it's a whole different game and also if we just reflect on a little bit of what AEM does for us how could we not feel Lov towards Hashem so also have in mind the Mitzvah of hasem all right open up by sharing uh from your heart all the things you appreciate you could go on forever but some of the things you appreciate that Hashem does for you okay so let's open it with appreciation and and then just apologize for some things okay all right so without further Ado take your dear shim letter and do this as a Mitzvah of chuva of repairing the relationship okay I'm going to do it as well um where this uh class is being recorded people are um writing um feverishly and passionately I was too it never fails to touch me uh and the thing is this sometimes we need uh a different orientation to recognize that um we have feelings towards Hashem and that we are aware of hashem's existence so that's part of the beauty of this is that by writing a letter we don't usually write a letter to Hashem d a milk that he called it to Hill a series of Love Letters um but when you do this you see it becomes real and I encourage you hold on to this and read it on this whole holy day okay and as the day progresses um and and our body's drives go down I think your heart will open up so this wraps up part one of the three-part series on getting ready for you Kipper we just did chuba together and a chuba maava and um this will lead us to the holy day as it approaches [Music] oh