Modern Masters: Elul | Rabbi Sam Shor | September 4th 2025

Welcome back. Good morning. Good afternoon. Um, we're in Neil, so obviously Chuva and those themes are on our mind and I thought this afternoon we might actually delve into some of the fundamental ideas we're meant to think about during this month of Elo during these days of chuva and I'm going to begin with just a few a few words from Rabbi Asher Weiss. Rabbi Asher Weissa is one of the great postkim in the world today. He's also a incredible incredible darian educator. In addition, there's many many many dozens of called Asher on on he also has many volumes of drot by the same name. And this this is uh just a short snippet from one of his mamarim about and this idea everyone is familiar says Rabbi Weiss that our our sages you know try to find different roim to communicate what this word this this month of owl is all about. The most famous one is probably an I am for my beloved and my beloved is for me. So in the discuss this idea he says okay this concept of love of love for one another of love for Hashem of love for our fellow human being of love for humanity that's what we need to really work on and strengthen during these days of [Music] Because when we make that first step and we demonstrate that we want to come close to Hashem and be closer to Hashem what ends up happening we become filled with a sense of over overwhelming love and longing to be in Hashem's presence to feel Hashem's presence in our life to be close to Hashem what happens What happens in these days when we long and demonstrate our desire to be close to Hashem, Hashem also gives us signs that he is indeed close to us, that he we feel his presence, we feel close to him. And he says this is what is meant by the The entire of Shirim which wrote which is reads like a love story like a love poem. That entire safer is all about communicating this idea that just as we want to be close and express our love to Hashem, Hashem loves every single member of Israel unconditionally. Okay. that the shirim is a is a muscle really is a parable. The entire not only for our love for Hashem but perhaps even more so for Hashem's love for us. And with this introduction, you know, every single day there the Yarim that the Rambam lays out for us the 13 fundamentals of what we're meant to believe in. 13 fundamentals of faith. And one of them that often gets overlooked is a one that I think is absolutely critically important. And that is to recognize that everything comes from all life's challenges. Everything that exists comes from himself. Text number one on your sheets. Everything comes from Hashem. He's the source of everything. Everything that exists, everything that occurs, it all comes from the rebon. And really during these days of El when we're trying to come close to God, when we want to feel Hashem's presence, the most the the first step to that is what? Acknowledging that everything comes from Hashem. Now, why is that important? First of all, I'm going to tell you that theidic masters and Ruk also writes this that chuva the we we we we translate chuva as repentance but chuva really means what to return. So listen to this idea and some of us learn about this together on they define this word as what? Giving whatever maim and whatever guilt we maim mistakes we may have made trans would appear to us as being transgressions giving them back to hashem. Okay. Whatever guilt we may be holding on to, whatever sense of unfulfillment, okay, disappointment we may may be holding on to from decisions we have made and the consequences of those decisions that maybe didn't go as we anticipated they would go says that what is chuva is the capacity to let go to give those decisions back to if we believe init like his rebi the rebi who we're going to learn from a little in a little bit in this year if we believe that hashem has divine supervision that means that everything that occurs just like the ra says here everything that occurs everything that comes into existence it's all orchestrated by for whatever reason we were meant to make that decision to make to do that act and sometimes it's a mistake and what do we have to do sometimes we have to face the consequences of those decisions But we shouldn't get stuck. True has the capacity to let go of the guilt, the shame, the disappointment and leave it behind us to give it back to God. Okay? So everything comes from and we have to embrace this idea. And that's the fundamental one the fundamental idea of of coming close to Hashem, feeling close to Hashem is to believe what? That whatever he orchestrates, there's an ultimate good that's going to come at the end of that situation. Even if the the the bash sham in the here and now I may be struggling it may be challenging for me may be difficult for me to understand why we have to have the capacity to let go let that go and move forward okay and that's chuva all right so having said that that's one fundamental idea we're going to talk about numerous ideas we have to have in mind during these days of that's one fundamental idea another idea that's very interesting I came across this morning actually I I receive every week one of the partial sheets. You know, I know everyone likes to read tart tibbits. I'll admit on chabas I don't read tart tibbits and shul okay I submit my articles ahead of time. I read the partial sheets of this is being recorded. Okay. To be careful what to be careful what I say. I read the par sheets of of Rabbi Pinas Freeman the Pinhas was a great teacher in the Bellasid community and in his in his for this week the shares a beautiful idea for the Prague and he says as follows. He says just as a Torah scroll, the written Torah text of the written Torah is written on a cloth on a on a parchment. Okay, on an animal skin, right? A parchment. So to the oral tradition needs a proverbial cloth, a scroll for a parchment for it to be written on. And what's that proverbial cloth? It's the mouth of a human being. It's the mouth of the Jewish of the Jew who is engaged in what? Sharing words, expressing words of Torah, speaking words of Torah. That we see that a the cloth of that upon which the the written Torah is inscribed is on animal skin. a brief okay unless we read and interp interpret the words just looking at the cloth itself and seeing the letters without comprehending what's written there okay we would not what have any proof of the bre the connect the covenantal relationship between us and but what's the proof okay what's the proof of that relationship that the which is given to the Jewish people so they can speak the words of of Torah. They can talk about holiness. They can share an awareness of with others. What what what happens to that when we share Torah and we discuss Torah and we learn Torah together and speak words of Torah together? We are cleansing our mouths. Okay. Unfortunately, there are other things that come out of all of our mouths. We know that we're human beings. We're imperfect, right? So, unfortunately, there are other things that come out of our mouths that maybe aren't so pure or holy. Okay? But when we learn Torah and we share words of Torah, what happens? We are cleansing our mouths. And what happens as a result of that? Okay. Um, I skipped over a line. Okay. We and we elevate our mouth to be the proverbial cloth, the proverbial scroll of the Torah. And through the Torah that we share and learn with one another, that becomes the greatest proof, the clearest proof of a of the covenant between us and Hashem. Okay? We know Hashem, we believe that Hashem loves us unconditionally. We're going to talk about how we know that in a moment. Okay? But in the same token, we have to express what? That the breed is a two-way street. And so, how do we do that? Not by looking at a Torah scroll and without thinking what's written there. No, by speaking the words of Torah. by expressing our desire to emulate the ways of Hashem to share his wisdom to share his holiness to talk about his presence and bring an awareness of his presence to others through the Torah that we share that becomes a manifestation of the breath in the clearest way. Okay. So the okay thei takes this idea of of the power of the speech to of speech and and using our mouths as a proverbial cloth. He takes us a step further if you look on your sheets. Okay? And he's gonna apply not only to the Torah that we share and and express but also to the we utter with our mouths. Okay? Every that we dive in, it's not because we need something. We don't dive in because we need something. Diving is meant to what? remind us that who's in charge, okay? That everything comes from Hashem. It's meant to reveal to us that everything comes from Hashem. By the way, if you we those of us that have taught learned a little bit together in the past, we talked about how the first braha according to the Rambam is the most important of the right. The first is the we talked about how in that you have the names we say if you take those three names Abraham and add up the total number of oto letters that are in those three names we come up with 13 encrypted say says the amar the okay the the tarima's commentary on the sitter encrypted within that First braha and that's why it's such an important braha is an illusion to the number 13. What's 13? It's a reference to Hashem's 13 attributes. Hashem's 13 attributes of compassion that encrypted within that first braha. That's why that's the essential braha that we have to have the an understanding what that is all about says the ra. Why is that the most important braha? Because encrypted within that first is a reminder to us of the that Hashem loves us unconditionally. Every time we die, it's not about us making of hem. It's what? It's reminding us that Hashem loves us unconditionally. He has unending compassion for us. That's what the experience of is about. So let's continue. Having said that, now let's continue in the text of the He says and once we come to that level of understanding then what that it's that that that feel is a vehicle to remind us that Hashem loves us unconditionally then what happens then there's no there's we can really truly d without any without anything getting in the way between us and Hashem and and us feeling close to Hashem and feeling that our words are calling out to Hashem. Okay. as he says in the there's a and I am meaning writes about himself I am now listen the ishitzer how the ishitzer explains that that the person the the person dinging the prayer the prayer not the prayer the prayer okay is himself the prayer He sees and experiences Hashem's presence always. Okay? Because without he realizes and recognizes that without Hashem, he he'd have nothing. Okay? And he wouldn't be have he wouldn't exist. He'd have no life, no meaning in his life without clinging to Okay. So it's very interesting talk about the yoga and this concept of what we're supposed to be how encrypted in the in the is that reminder of hashem's unending love for us throughout these days of one of the things we do every beginning with continuing all the way till the end of the the the end of the entire yam and after through sukus we say the the the mismo every single day twice a day we say the msour of the 27th per of you ever ever wonder why we we say that per twice a day during these days. So sayim the reason why this parak was chosen if you look closely theukim you can just do this quickly on on your own the name of hashem appears 13 times in this par okay encrypted within this parak is again a reminder that hashem of hashem's that hashem loves us unconditionally and today for our purposes this morning I just want to focus on a few of thoseim. But with that as our introduction, this idea of the and how this is a these days of are meant to remind us not only that we should feel that we're coming forward and expressing our desire to be close to we should be reminded and strengthened and comforted in knowing that what Hashem wants to be close to us and Hashem loves us unconditionally. So if you turn your page that I want to focus on today from this peric are he will protect me in his suka meaning his his protection his his canopy of protection on an evil day and grant me the security of his tent. He will raise me high upon a rock meaning he will raise me up and save me. Okay. And then the next I want to focus on is the end of the parant. If I did without the faith the faith I have to see the good of God in the in in the in the land of the living meaning I'd have nothing without that. Okay. I seek God and strengthen put that be strengthened and courageous in your hearts and seek continue to seek God. So with this our introduction I want to share with you an absolutely incredible story from Rabbi Shazam Harit. Raash Zam Haritz um was known as the Pakarv. The Pakarav was a dion in numerous courts in Europe before World War II. Um he himself was Muas. His his lineage goes back to Balentmo. He's a descendant of the Balshav. He ends up surviving the Shawat through numerous miraculous um occurrences, one of which we're going to talk about in a few moments. He ends up after the Shawat coming to the Lower East Side of Manhattan where he lives in relative obscurity even though Ramosha Feinstein becomes aware of who he was and Ramosha was very much mash of him. Um he encouraged him that he should really make himself a Reb, not just a a rabbi, but make himself a Reb. He's the descendant of the Baltov and people should know who he is. and he didn't want any of that attention. But he became a rabbi on a little steep up the lower east side. And my father-in-law, many of whom we've had a chance to meet and learn with him over the over the past couple years, Rabbi Mosha Snow. So Rab Mosha Snow grow grew up in the lower east side. And he and his brother used to dive in at the litivist the pakarov on the lower east side. And they became close to him. They were impressed by him. When he passed away, the family put together a beautiful collection of his teachings on the Khagim as well as on Piravos in a two volume set called Sepher B Aon because he's a descendant of of Rebaron or Guttle of Klin. So that's why it's called Ser Aron. Even though >> Bet Aron even though the the the even though Rebon Kind's safer is also called Bet Aaron, it's not the same safer. And uh at any rate at any rate um in the introduction to the safer there's like a biographical few pages of biography about this about this rabbi most specifically about his life before coming to New York and then and including this story that he shared like autobiographically which we're going to learn together. Now this is where it says the story Okay. A wondrous miraculous thing occurred to him during the days of the sukus as he explained in his own words. By the way, this story we share in our suka in our family. Ever since I came across this about eight years ago, we share this every year. Uh the first in our so He says they this is during a period where he was hiding in the in the in the forest. He together with many of the other partisans and and people that were you know kind of hiding themselves from the Nazis. They were hiding out in the forest. And he said during the days between Yam one night during the days between Yam Kipper and Sukus he went out to get some fresh air at night which was his which was his min you know during the daytime they were hiding underground so people shouldn't see them but when it became dark they went out from their hiding underground hiding place and he went out to uh to get some fresh air amongst the forest the trees in the forest he got wrote whom He says, "I went I when I when I was walking, I got arrived suddenly at this clearing in the midst of the woods." And he thought to himself, "How could it be that in the midst of such a thick forest, there's suddenly a an an opening, a clearing where it's completely clear of of any trees." And he says, He says it must be a sign from the heavens. I came to the conclusion it must be a sign from the heavens. That there's no other reason that this could occur except that Hashem is telling him what you have a place to make a kosher in the midst of the woods. And that's why I first came upon upon upon this place only now during these days between Yamifer and Sukus. Okay. I said this to myself and I did it. I took a number of blankets that we had amongst us. He says the partisans had stolen them from the Germans and we those of us hid in the forest had got it from the partisans and I wrapped them around the trees like a wall and like a fence and afterwards I put on top of it with the branches of the trees which we have plenty have because we're in the midst of the forest and I had there a amongst us those who are warned from they were angry at him. Why? Because they're afraid that by putting a silk in the middle of the forest they're suddenly going to endanger everyone that that we're going to be found that this is our hiding area. But from my perspective, it was exact opposite. Okay. Through the merit of the will be continue to be protected. Just as we say in the in the in the uh in the I said that the is equal in value to all the other mitzvos. And therefore, we certainly can rely on this opinion in a difficult time like the one they were living through, hiding from the Nazis. Most of the Jews hiding there were religious Jews. Here in this context doesn't mean a particular means a a god-fearing Jew. and they were very appreciative to have and recognized the goodness and the importance of having a suka. All right. So now that's the introduction. Now comes the meat and the of the story. And on the third day of suddenly we heard the voices of those those wicked those wicked soldiers. Okay. Stormtroopers. who came into the forest to look for to search for Jews who were in hiding. Of course, everyone began to run and return to their hiding spaces with great fear of the enemy. But myself and my son, we were in the bunker. He says, um, since our hiding place, our underground hiding place was a little bit further away from the suka and I'd have to trans go through two different paths in the forest in order to get there. that if we walked on those paths right now will put us in great danger. So I decided we decided what to stay in the suka and put our give our give our our our safety over to Hashem himself to decide. He says, "What what did he what did he say?" The raph continued to explain. He says, "I never had the level of and faith that I ever had at that that moment. Never before had I had such total." I said to myself, if it's Hashem's will, thou'll be found and I will be killed. I am ready and prepared for this. But I asked I made one request of Hashem that that shouldn't happen now while I'm stay here in the because what greater could there be that I should be able to say that I should be able to say to my brothers that I was saved because of what? I kept the mitzvah of and that the those who don't the non-believers amongst us would see then they'll learn that they will ultimately hopefully not experience any wrong. All right. Now he says the follow he continues the story not for me not for me don't don't don't save me but do it for yourself your name should be sanctified in public I started to recite to him quietly and I began to recite the names of my generations or going all the way back to and that hopefully though they will they all this will be accepted for us as a for protection. Okay. And we saw suddenly, okay, how those wicked Germans were coming close to us. Their footsteps, okay, became clear, louder and clearer as they came closer and closer. They walked around the walls of the suka three times. They came back and forth three times around the and they didn't see anything. It's like they were suddenly struck with blindness. We peered through the cracks between the blankets. Okay. And we saw them literally very literally right in front of us. We recognize very clearly those wicked those those all too familiar SSR uniforms they were wearing but they didn't see the suddenly one of them said let's go to another place I think I see I see something hidden over They immediately left and they disappeared and we could breathe a sigh of relief and we we and give our thanks to Hashem that he rescued us from death and gave us life afterwards when we returned to our hiding place and joined together the other Jews that were there in the forest hiding with us. They asked where we were. And when they heard that we were in the every single one of them, religious and non-religious alike were gave thanks and acknowledged the miracle that had happened for us. Even the theoren the heretics amongst them they acknowledged and admitted that it was only through the hand of God that this miracle occurred and it was a fulfillment of the puk the puk we just learned that you protected me with your suka on the day on the on the day of wickedness. Okay. So what do you do with that story? How do we understand that story? And how do we understand that story given what we're living through? Everything we've experienced these past couple of years. How do we approach these days of these days of coming close to Hashem, of acknowledging that everything is from Hashem, that even even the difficult challenges we're meant to experience for whatever reason that all comes from. How are we to contextualize to understand all this? Mosha, one of the great masters, not on your sheet, says says the following. He says we have a we have an illusion to this all another illusion to this in the words of the the the theim of this of this mismo itself. He says the days at begin with this with the just as we know as we began with that the words are the word the letters make up a ro that I to my beloved as my beloved to is to me. But then he says something else. He says just like that we have another roshote that people often overlook. He says we have a what was the other we wanted to learn the word lle without my faith in God I and my capacity see the good what would I have okay so look look what he says lle toe the word lleaf if you turn the word lle around it's also spells the same letters Okay. That what does it teach us? That if we embrace this idea of being a time to leave behind the past and have the capacity to move forward, then we'll merit to what? To see Hashem's goodness as well. Meaning the p the past is in the past. We may have struggled. We may have done things. We may have experienced things that are challenging us. We may be going through difficult times. But if we can embrace that what that there's something bigger there's something beyond that then what we'll be able to merit that what to seem lleanti if I didn't have faith and the capacity to leave the past in the past I wouldn't be able to see what to because I do have faith and the capacity to do so because I do have these days of el lle these days of el capacity to be reminded to but to not give up hope. A Jew never loses hope. Okay? And these days of remind us of that. And because we're reminded of that, we have the capacity, even if we've been depressed, even we've been struggling, even we've been afraid, we have the capacity to what hopefully if we use these days correctly, to be z to see to hashem, to see the good of Hashem. I just want to close to this idea of seeing the big picture with two last with two last teachings. We're going to learn quickly the very famous gamarra and makos the last few lines of garam makos. Okay, we all know the story of Rabbi Aka. We every every night every year on the sedar we have we read the story of the sedar and benbra where it was the marbra he was he was the host of that seder and these other all gathered together okay they leave their families behind they leave their communities behind they leave their students behind and they all gathered together to be with raba on the le and the question is why okay so every year on the on the lea I share this idea this gamarra this famous gamarra it's another time when Rabbi Aka many of these same sages gathered together and it's a clue I think to understanding why those sages were together with Rabbi Aka on the seder night and please God once we learn this you'll see where I'm going with this so just very quickly let's learn this together another time and those some of those samea sages went up to kan again this living under the time during the time of the Roman occupation Okay. And the destruction by Aeni. When they arrived at Mount Scopus and they looked out at the city below them, they ripped their clothing. Why? In morning they saw the destruction. And when they got to Haray itself, they saw a fox running wild in a place where the holy of holies once stood. They began to cry and began to laugh. They said to him, "Why are you laughing?" And like any great rabbi, how does he answer the question? With a question of his own, he says to them, "Why are you crying?" the place where the verse says that one who's impure comes close will be put to death and now foxes are running wild there and you're and you don't cry he answers them that's exactly why I'm laughing he brings a verse he says they will come before me as reliable witnesses or the cohain And the prophet Zakaria the prophet Zakaria is contemporary. He lived during the time of sheni. Okay. And lived during the time of and now we get a parathetic note in our zakaria. What possible connection could there be between zakaria? Ora lived during the time of the first temple and zakaria lived during the time of the second temple. So what connection is the verse is the verse trying to make and what lesson we meant to learn for the fact that the verse connects these two together. So here's the answer. It must mean that the verse of teaching has the later prophecy that prophesies is dependent on what the fulfillment of the earlier prophecy first that Ura mentioned. Or what did Orura write about? And and because of your iniquities and mistakes, Zion will be leveled like a plain and prophecy prophesized that men and women will once again grow old in the streets of now. That's the end of parenthesis. Yeah. says, "Until I saw the fulfillment of the earlier prophecy of the utter destruction of Jerusalem with my own eyes." I remained what? Afraid that the more contemporary prophecy of predicting that we will come back and we will experience redemption that that might never come come true. But now that I've seen the fulfillment of the prophecy of the earlier prophecy, I know with certainty that the of also come true. And with this they turn to and they said you have you have comforted us you have comforted us. This gabar is the clue to understanding why these all gathered together on the l of sedar and that famous sed we recall every year at our our sedar. Why? Because during the ro time of the Roman occupation on the night when we're supposed to be happy and celebrating Yeshua and gula how do you celebrate gula redemption when you're living under the Roman occupation seeing destruction all you around you? So Rebecca was the great optimist. Maybe Aka was the one who had the capacity to put the current challenging events and difficulty difficult moments that they were experiencing within the greater context of seeing the big picture of the greater drama of the Jewish people unfolding that every every step of the way. Okay, is part of that process. Every every the process of redemption of gula is filled with peaks and valleys. Okay, there going to be great moments when we achieve greatness and then there going to be challenging moments where maybe it's we we experience difficulties had the capacity as we learned from this gamarra to understand that to put the challenging moments they were living through within the greater context of the big picture and therefore in the seder the wanted to be with the rebi how do you celebrate gula how do we look of look talk about gula redemption on this night when we're experiencing such hardship and such such pain and such destruction So R Cook just the last piece just to bring this all together. Rook in a beautiful he really brings this all together for us. He says the redemption of the Jewish people is continuing and ongoing the redemption from and the great future redemption is one activity that doesn't cease. It's the work. It's the of the out of Hashem's strong hand and outstretched arm that was first extended in Egypt and it continues to weave its ways through all eventualities. Moshe Moshe and Elahu meaning elyah who welcome Mashiah senu they're really working in tandem for one the one process of One served as the as the one who began the process. One will serve as the one as the go as the one who will complete the process. The one who opened the door and the one who's going to close the door after we welcome Msiah together. They fill the entire package and the and the spirit of the people of Israel, okay, needs to hear the proverbial voice calling to us each of these steps of the way, bringing us actively to redemption that continues to weave its way through all life's challenges and occurrences until we see the complete blossoming of our redemption in its completeness and its goodness. My friends, these days of El are meant to to really remind us that Hashem has unending love for us. That despite whatever difficult moments we've experienced, believe me, we've experienced a lot of difficult moments this past year, whatever challenging moments we experienced this past year, we've also seen incredible miracles in this past year. And we can't forget that. And we need to be strengthened in our faith and our trust and believe that Hashem indeed will bring a better a brighter picture, a better tomorrow. These days of are meant to help us get to that headsp space. And as we learned to as we learned from the Mosha that if we if we have our the capacity to get to the headsp space to believe that Hashem indeed will bring us those better days. Okay, these days of remind us that if we have that level of faith and trust in Hashem and please God, we hashem to indeed see Hashem's goodness to experience Hashem's goodness speedily in the days ahead. Have a great Shabas.