KLM: The Ellul Shofar: A Master course on Teshuva from Yirah with Rabbi Asher Baruch Wegbreit

Heat. Heat. [Music] My birthday [Music] to welcome back to the Cavana Litzos Foundation. What we're trying to do is take things that are seem to us like mundane activities, chores, and uh and turn them into moments of spirituality. So the mundane to spiritual, but we're also trying to take mitzvah that become a little robotic and breathe some nama into them. The Arisal says a mitzvah without kavana is like a goof without a nishama. You hear it's the soul of what you're doing. I'll give you another reason. It's the soul. Where is your nishama? Where do they describe corresponding what part of your body? Anybody? >> Brain. Exactly. That and the Rambam says that your thoughts are kish kadoshim. It's like the holiest part of your being. All right, that's why what you think is huge. Okay, so that's what we're working on. So we're going to uh today we're going to take something that we're going to do 30 days. 30 days every day. So it's very prone to the art of mindlessness. What is it? The LOL chauffeur, right? It's exciting maybe the first couple of times and then it could become a challenge. Okay. So, we're going to try to breathe some nama into the mitzvah of the uh the chauffeur we blow in. Rabbi gold you rabbi besides I it's not a you know nothing's a accident but I happen to be in a yeshiva and the roshiva rabbi gold is one of the greatest to balas there is. So, Rabbi Gold, have you have have you done the L one that that that just one blast that you do after diving in L? Have you blown that chauffe for a uh those blows? >> Tomorrow morning. >> Yeah, you do. Okay. How many seconds? >> I don't know. >> I'm going to try. >> All right. But how many seconds that is that that blow that we do just once a day? It's a tea. Shwarim trua tea. How many seconds? My son-in-law guessed about four to five seconds, six seconds. Okay, so listen to this. Just to give you a a feeling about time. Uh my Roshi Shiva, Rabbi Green, his daughter Nama, when she was, let's say, 9 10 years old, she said, "Aba, I never realized how long a minute a minute is until we got a microwave." You hear that? I didn't realize what how much time you're sitting there waiting for the coffee. A minute is a can be a long time. So that that when when we focus on the mitzvah that are in any situation, we can accomplish so much in so little time. Ready? This chauffeur below is about five to six se. And we're going to learn that you can fulfill four mitzvos. Three mitzvos dissa and a mitzvah what's called mira kabola. Do you hear this? In five seconds you can get four mitzvos. Okay. And another thing we take for granted is we take for granted that we get paid for having the right thoughts and feelings. Independent of any action. We're paid for our thoughts and feelings. All right. So, let's learn what are the mitzvah that you can do while the chauffeur is blowing in lol. Does that do people know what the history is why we're blowing this one? >> Does it have something to do with tripping up the sudden? >> Ah, okay. So, there is an idea and I only learned that a year ago. Rani said that there is an idea that we're blowing it before rashan and then we stop the day before it confuses the satin in quotes that's a deep uh idea but right the other main reason is Moshe tomorrow right this time tomorrow Moshe went up uh to get the Torah for the second time and this was after 80 days right of trying to save us first to save us from annihilation right let us be a people long time Moshe had to do a lot of negotiation he had no he didn't eat and drink for all that time and then he goes up now Hashem is Maruta she favors us so this is a favorable time to do chuva so they blow the chauffeur to remind us of Moshe going up and we're going to blow 40 days okay so now we have to find out what's what's in here Now, one of the other things I just want to explain so we appreciate what we're gaining is there there are concepts like Urus Hashem and a hashem. They're considered very lofty. You know, they're they're like, for example, the Gomorrah says that Hashem it was worth it for Hashem to create the role for one person that is Yur Shamayim. Now, it doesn't we have Shamim on some level. It means someone at the peaks, right? Or a hashem. Hov Rabbi Gold. Did you teach hovos duties of the heart or mind? Did you teach it here? >> Okay. You know what the highest level he has? A hashem. Okay. So these things are like mountain peaks of spirituality and we think who am I? Who am I to to have your shammay or a hashem? So, one of the things I want to show is that these things are easy. There's there's easy steps down at the let's say the mountains up here, but there's an easy path, one of those easy paths up. And we can do it now. We can practice it now. Now, what else do we do besides the chauffeur uh for for 30 days? Really, 45. What's the other thing we do? >> Right. We do the Okay. And we're going to do that for um whatever 40 45 days. Okay, we're going to be doing that a lot. So here's two other concepts that seem really big. There's two types of chuva. There's chuva from yura, chuva from fear of hashem and chuva maava. Right now if you do chuva from your even when you like you did something terrible, hashem looks like you didn't really mean to do it. It's just a mistake. And if you do chuva from love of Hashem, unbelievably, those bad things turn into merits on your behalf. Okay, here's my suggestion. Okay, and let's just tell Hashem this. Okay, by the way, it's good to express your intentions to Hashem. It means a lot. You know, just again the when I say have in mind the mitzvah, it's it can sound mechanical, but I like describing it like this. We we came from a generation where parents took care of us and served us, right? They didn't always say, "I love you. You know, you're great. You know what? The reason I work so hard is for you." They didn't give that extra thing. It builds a relationship when you not just do something nice, but you tell them, "I'm doing it for you." All right? That's the idea behind Kavanaitus. So, let's say first of all, let's tell Hashem we're learning Torah right now because of him. He wants us to and we love him. Okay, but now ready. You can take the chauffeur every day and be doing chuva from yera for all the way up to rash shana to yum kipper. We I'm going to show you we can be we can say hashem I tried every day for three seconds every day for a few seconds. I worked on chuva from from Yura. And guess what? Um if we work on we we do that properly. What what can we say to Hashem? I did chuva from ava the hem or is all about love and devas to hashem. So you hear instead of looking well I got to do this act 30 times boy it's going to get dry somewhere. Look at it this way. You're building your nishama to do chuva from fear of hashem and chuva from love of hashem. Okay. So let's get started with the chauffeur blow. All right. Um I it's an acronym. I I have an acronym and if anybody would like my daughter is going to design a beautiful uh presentation of this acronym where it's just in process right now. But what's the what's the acronym? Below. Below. B L O W. Below. If we if we do this, we'll uh it's so easy to fall into puns. Like we're Don't blow it. But here we're going to do blow. And you'll I promise me you will thank me one day. On may to everyone. You will thank me if you integrate below. All right. So the first uh the first one B beer ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh sorry we're going to talk about fear okay fear of hashem even fear of punishment fear of consequences people it's not very popular these days okay and I understand that and look you know shem's shifted the world that we feel love more naturally you know those of us who've been in Israel or learning Torah it's like not so hard if your body's functioning and you know to feel love. Okay. So, but I want to make I want to point out to you ura can be really an amazing emot emotion. Okay. Really? Okay. Listen to what the gro says. The villagan there's a in mish I think it's yud. Okay. It says fear of hem is to yamim. It adds days to your life. In other words, it's a longevity scheme. Has anyone heard of Peteras? There's a guy now who's he's like um he's come up with a whole science of how to extend your life, right? And it's all it's about intense exercise and eating certain things. It's a mitzvah to do that too, to take care of your health. But listen, as the villagan says, wait a minute. How can you say fear is going to lengthen your life? Listen to now the villagon was in the late 1700s I think. >> Listen to how advanced his understanding is. Ronnie listen to the goon. The goon said that this mish m mich mishlay doesn't make sense because he says worry fear worry and fear anxiety he says they don't extend your life they shorten your life. One thing he says, those emotions of fear and worry, they shorten your life and they make the quality of your life stink. Okay? Now, that's probably why none of us like it. You hear? We intuitively say, "Oh, you're I don't want to worry and get punished and all this stuff." But says the gun. He says what Schlommo, the wisest, one of the holiest men on earth, what does he teach us? is that the if you'll have those emotions that are negative, if you're worried about um some uh uh you're worrying about your finances, you're worrying about how someone spoke to you, you feel afraid of what's going to happen, that is unhealthy. But if you have fear of Hashem, then the those emotions are sanctified and they don't just they don't just not harm you, they extend your life. So don't be afraid of holy fear, holy worry. Okay? Do you hear this? It it's it's so see that's the thing. How could Hashem command us? He does command us if if we can't stop our tongue. He says, "Think of the punishment. Think of the suffering." Now, how can he command us an emotion that's going to hurt us? It's it's untenable. It's untenable. It's holy. If you go into that zone and you have fear in that way, first of all, you fulfill mitzvah dissa and it's the stepping step to love. Okay? It's all these good things. But we also have to realize it's not going to harm us. It's going to it's healthy, healthy, healthy, healthy. So, I'm about to talk about fear and that's why I wanted that introduction. Okay, I'm going to go through below in in a fast way and then uh break it down. So, beer B for beer with fear. Okay. L is shame minhag is to hear the chauffeur. O ori ori means my light and it means rashash shana. Okay that's o and w wor worry about the judgment of rashash shana. Okay here we are I'm putting it on the table some negatives but let's see let's see how they are. Okay. So, the first one, Beiraa. Okay. Beera. The Rambam says that if there's like a blast, see, they didn't have sirens in uh in the old days. They used the chauffeur as a siren. So, it says if there is a siren blaring in the city, h how can people not wake up and be afraid? Now, for us, >> that was the zero we got from all these. >> You got it, David. That's exactly what I'm getting to. Now, it depends on which ones. Not the ones from the Houthis, right? Yeah. Yeah. Right. >> He Well, actually, I'm going to put I'm going to fit him right into the thing. He he got it quickly. Is the the Rambong says that the chauffeur, even a Russi that says if if a chauffeur goes off in the city, how could you not wake up and be afraid? Okay. In other words, it was their aaka. It was their uh alarm system, right? It was like a siren. So the chauffeer in one way is a siren. Now, as David pointed out, we who lived in Israel, we got a sense of that. There's no question that they designed that siren to be scary. You know, the one that is telling you that missiles are coming is not like a shabus thing or something. It's scary. And and you know, by the way, we are lucky being in Jalam, okay? Because I I I have somebody I I learn with who lives in Tel Aviv. He said I think he said he had to go he heard the siren something like 35 times during the Iran crisis. Can you imagine that? And and we saw that, like I said, the siren for the missiles, the ballistic missiles of Iran, that was serious business that hit buildings that killed people. It was very heavy. Right. So, could you imagine hearing that? He told me he's like dreads ever hearing that sound again. All right. So, but we also heard in your a few times and it really scary. He had to also cross the street to get to where he where he goes. middle of the night, whatever. So, beer, that siren, right, is really so much like this chauffeur. Why? Why does it why does Hashem sound alarms to us? Because he's saying, "Look, you're being spiritually complacent. You're not caring enough about the other person. You're running through doing like, you know, Hashem, that's for sure a siren to wake us up." Okay. So for for for those you in Israel who are hearing this it's not hard just for be for the beer have in mind just think of the sirens that went off and for those you weren't there you know what was happening the the calamities attacks missiles soldiers whose lives are in the balance all of this is Hashem's doing a wakeup call okay so the first one is be your This is a way to do chuva from ura. So that's B. Okay. Mosha, what's B? >> Beer. >> Beera with fear. Okay. So look at the chauffeur as a siren. But what are we doing? This is healthy for your soul. All right. Usem brings kaduca and it helps you grow. So don't be afraid of being afraid and have in mind the mitzvah. That's number one. L. Okay. Leashim minag is what's the source of blowing a chauffeur in it? The bo the chauffeur we blow on Russia shana is a mitzvah dissa. Okay. It's it's yum trua. Where is this come from? This 40-day one. It's really the Torah brings it. It's a minhag a custom that has become accepted practice. Now sometimes we kind of treat mikas much more minhagim much more lightly than we should. You know why? Every every minhag that becomes accepted like this is a mitzvah kabala I'm not talking about the kabala we all love. Dy kabala means it. Where's the source from it? From mish. Okay. It says in Mish alitosh Toriska do not abandon the customs of your mother. Who's your mother? Knessesus Israel. The Jewish people. So when practices get let's say authorized by the leading rabbis of the time like the Tor one of the greatest rabbis of all time that turns them that turns this custom into Torah. And Torah that's ka dissa. All right. So L is for lashim minhag Israel. It's not just a minhag. You're you're doing something that has the status of a commandment from Hashem. The kaduca of a commandment. All right. So B >> Lamesh Israel. Okay. That all right. We we're halfway through below. Okay. Next. >> O. >> O. Excellent. >> Okay. Oi, look. I had another O. I'm going to tell you guys off. I was told not to do this because it's get it going to be too heavy. My other O was own. This is not the O I'm recommending right now, but for those of you are like really gritty. Okay. O means own your mistakes. In other words, now's the time to do chuva, right? And we have to say, you know, I'm not going to rationalize what what is rationalized? It's a rational lie. I'm not going to say that when I snapped at my wife that was okay. I'm not going to say that when I uh whatever looked in the wrong place or wasted time I could be using. I'm not own it. If you own it, you grow. Yeah. From blow to grow. Okay. So, one is to own your mistakes. And by the way, for most of us, what we do wrong is a mistake. It's not like a we're not anti- Hashem. God forbid. So it's just like every we're no we're human. We make mistakes. Okay. So that's the O. That's that O. Here's the O. This is more touchy feeling. Okay. So there's two types of fear of Hashem. If I make it into two kind of general carries. Simka. Simka. You know there's right there's two types of years. Hashem. There's what we call urusa onish like fear of consequences of punishment. What's the other one called? >> Right. Thank you. Urus aromaus. That means I think the best way to translate it is to be in awe of Hashem's awesomeness or exaltedness. just being blown away by Hashem and realizing how how incredible Hashem is and he's a king and all this. So that that's called urus aroma moose and it and it's an when you do it you're really accomplishing such a closeness to Hashem. Some say it's even greater than loving Hashem is to be in awe of Hashem. Okay. So let me connect it to the O in the in that Zion it says Hashem ori she right. So what are the the midr says ori is rashash shana hashem's my light that refers to rashash shana yi hashem is my salvation that's yum kipper yum kipper we're saved from the consequences of our sins but how is rashashana isn't this interesting to call rashashana yaden it's called my light hashem is my light hashem shines a light on rashashana what does that can anyone help me with this what what might it mean? >> Well, we we we've learned many times that there's that that the light switches on that day and we don't we're not necessarily aware of it but >> Oh, I think maybe you're talking about pesak, you know, the night. Oh, no. You heard that by rashana, too. It makes sense because Rashashana is called light. All right. But it switches. So, here's the thing. Um, unless you focus intensively on something, you don't tend to see it right. It takes it it takes some time to re look at this world as a a magnificently orchestrated kingdom that has laws, laws of nature, laws of humans, right? And the world could be viewed as a kingdom, right? And that Hashem's king and he's orchestrating this magnificent thing. is there's a palace there's a kingdom rightashana the prayers the focus we're just dwelling the the king of the universe it's so glorious it's so wellrun it's so magnificent that's the higher level fear it's like being in awe so r we're heading towards the light in other words every day the chauffer blows we're one day closer to ori to rash shana as a source of light really don't you feel uplifted by rashash shana prayers it's so uplifting why it's all about urus aroma moose being in awe of the exalted glory of hashem and begging hashem that the whole world gets this right right it's all about that okay so it so ready you start out you hear the blow bura think of the sirens that went off this year. Think of the wakeup call, right? Then I'm doing a mitzvah of observing this holy practice of hearing the chauffeur. Okay? Then oh or hashem's my light. Rashana is coming where I'm going to get a magnificent taste of the glory of Hashem's kingdom. And by the way, when you just sort of fantasize about the glory of Hashem and Rashenna, you fulfill this lofty mitzvah called Urus aroma. Okay, good. All right, review time. B >> excellent. Okay, Bill Minhagi Israel. >> Lash Minhagi Israel. Torah. It's actual Torah commandment to do this custom. Oh, Mosha. >> Ori. Yeah. Ronnie, explain AI to us. Ronnie Rafo Nman >> actually looking it up right now on the AI. >> Well, like Lou, but because I know that there I I know maybe it's >> great >> that that there is a light that goes out and another one that comes in at the same time. >> Wow. Simple >> that that sounds that's a very deep thing but so we're saying ori means rashana and we're focusing on the glory of hem >> okay >> right yeah the aromaus the the the loftier urus hashem okay so you just what you have to do is just reflect for a second or two just tap into a moment where you really felt such a ex exalted um sense of Hashem on Rashashana and and also that way it's not just isolated one day. You're heading towards the light. Okay. Last but not least, let's get back to the nittyritty. Okay. >> W >> W is WG bright. No W is worry. Worry about the judgment of Rashashana. Okay. Here's another emotion that we can sanctify. Worrying about uh secular things is terrible, unhealthy, uh fruit, fruitless. Okay. But what Rabenu Yona says, ready? When you worry, it's a step of chuva. Worrying about the judgment is part of chu uh the 12 20 principles of chuva. One of them is to worry about your judgment. worry about your sins. Okay. So then so you get back you worry you know rush is only a week and a half rush is 30 days from now. When you worry about that and you you remind yourself everything's decided on rashash shana and you just loves us. He takes any every emotion he put in us he it can be sanctified and healthy and beautiful. So really when you worry about rashes shana again you're fulfilling mitzvah of chuva and yurusem okay so worry about the day of judgment that's what you do now you can do this in 5 seconds okay if you all right so but we're going to do a little longer ver now just to get used to so you're ready tomorrow okay but all right so have someone blow okay but here's what I'm going to try to put my my heart and my mind focus. Okay. So, okay. So, so first of all, before it before when I see he's like pulling it out of the sheath, right? The chauffeur I'm going have in mind I have in mind the mitzvah of below. Okay, which is really yurusmamus minhag is okay. But whatever. I'm just I'm going to do blow to serve. You just think blow to serve. Okay. Now, while it's blowing, okay? So, I So, I Let's just do it this way. I'm going to call out the beer and those things, take a moment and do it. Okay. We We're doing a a dry run. Is that what it's called? Why is it called a dry run? >> Anybody? >> Great question. >> Ask GBT. So, we're going to do a dry run or rehearsal right now. Okay? And but it's not a fake because you can have all these emotions. It's just the chauffeur and the holiness of this minhag will affect our nishas also the misa mitzvah. But right now, we can do it and fulfill these mitzvah. Okay? So, I'm going to uh narrate and just agree with me in your heart or okay or speak to Hashem. Okay? Beer the chauffeur reminds me of the sirens that went off with Iran and the alarm she has sent out. These things come to wake me up to do chuva. Okay. So just think the chauffeur is a siren to wake me up. That's the idea. That's B. The yura the chauffeur is a siren to wake me up. L as I listen shame minhag is I'm observing this holy minhog to hear the chauffeur during lol. Ohi hashem's my light. I'll see that light on rashes shana and I'll see the glorious kingdom. Hashem runs a glorious kingdom. That's yours aromaus. W I'm worried about the judgment rush. La last year was rough. Everything's determined. Whoa. I got to get ready. You hear? How long does that take? Not too long, right? Did you time it? Do you have a time? Does anyone have a a watch um with uh the seconds? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. on your So, let's I'm going to do it again and let's tell everybody how long it takes. Okay, so and I'm just speaking it out, but in your mind you can do it quicker. Okay, ready? Go. Be the chauffeur's a siren. Wake up. The shame mitzvah chauffeur shall ly shims my light. He runs a glorious kingdom. Worry about the den Russia is close. How long? >> Half a minute. >> 22 seconds. >> 22. >> Wait, that means 22 milliseconds. >> Seconds. >> 22 seconds. >> Yeah, 22. >> Oh, okay. So, all right. So, yeah, you'll have to bring it down then. Okay. Cuz I think the chauffeur is a little bit shorter than that. Okay. But all right. Here, let's do it one more time. Okay. Cuz train your minds right now. Okay. Because you get four mitzvah. Okay. Ready? All right. Go. Beer siren lehag Israel or the glory. Uh worry about the judgment. 11 seconds. Okay. I cut it in half. >> Okay. So, you keep working on it. But let's this is not just a technical thing. So besides every day you'll be adding uh you'll be adding uh four mitzvah, three dices and one David Kabala to your hbone as you head there. But you'll be working on chuva from right to have chuva from ura. Next time we're uh we have a cheer we'll work on chuva from ava and we'll look how beautiful uh levied is the the t. Okay. Thanks to listeners to any time in [Music] You see your