Nitzavim: Awakening from Spiritual Malaise | Rabbi Ari Kahn | September 18th 2025

There is a fellow who's been a longtime participant in this year and uh he only I think actually came physically once maybe twice but I think only once he came to the to the other building and but he he does listen all the time and he uh often participates at night on the zoom share and he's dedicating the it's gabbor and he's dedicating the shar in memory of his mother whose yard site is erum kipper and because there's no sheir next week is why we're doing it today. So the should be Abraham shalom and uh I think we could begin. So here we are last par of the year. Very often it's and go together. So this year they're separate. And let's just keep in mind that we are towards the end of because there's something important about that. I'm going to try to double back to this. So, we're going to begin like I think we almost always do and that is in paracid and it's what's called by some the parachal when all this comes about and then it uses the word and the word or the root of is used multiple times. You have nothing to do you can count them up. and so on and and again it continues and so on and so forth. So over here this idea of return and it's perfect because we are like right before rash shana right before chuva. So perhaps the proper way of doing this would be actually to delineate and read carefully and figure out what each and every one of these elements are. But but first I want to do things which are a little bit broader. The Rambam brings this section source number two. So it's interesting because he speaks about an obligation but an obligation of in terms of the prophets not in terms of the Torah. That itself is interesting. And is one of the essential elements of uh redemption taking place and the Torah has already assured. So that's getting to our section which he's calling an assurance. the end of the exile the Jews will do chuva. So first of all it's interesting because what the Rambam is doing and again he he's not necessarily working over here as a paran although one should really pay attention when the Rambam uses sukim throughout the Mishna Torah because he is actually very precise when he uses his verses and which verse he uses to illustrate something. So over here he calls this a hafta and he also and he talks about this as being something about the end of days. We've noted in the past that the Rambam also says which is nice but not for today which is the Rambam's reading again at the beginning of the section and so on and you're going to be spread out among all the nations at the end there's going to be a uh an in gathering of exiles. call it and so on. So the ra utilizes this section in order to tell us about a an event that will take place in the future. But very notably he doesn't use this section to say that there is a specific mitzvah on the individual Jew to quote unquote do chuva whatever that mean to do chuva to repent to fix their ways and so on or let's even say with the with the holiday yamipura coming up the rab sees this as a historical event and not as an event which is connected to the calendar or specifically having to do with this time of year. So, as I said, quoting our verses and so on. On the other hand, this is the seventh chapter of Hilot Chuba and we're going to look in a moment to the first chapter. I don't know to what extent we realize how remarkable Hilot Chuva is. So just to begin to think about this first of all the Rambam for the most part in his various laws sections books of the Mishna Torah again you have 14 books and I just want you to give it a moment of thought that if you're the Rambam and you wake up one day and you say I want to write the Rambam what would be the most logical way of creating order and the answer is to have followed the Mishna. That would have been the logical thing to do. Why create your own system? And I can say the same thing to the Torah who creates the four sections of the why recreate something with something else. Now the Shanarak on the other hand, he leaves out all kinds of things which are not practical in his day. The Rambam includes all of Judaism. So instead of taking gold duties and putting them into 14 books which he constructs and by the way 14 books and precisely 1,000 chapters to show you how the Rambam fought this out with uh with precision. So he decides that he's going to create something. Now one of the one of the things that does not exist in the Mishna is a book on chuva. There is no Mishna of Mhuva which means the Ramba made something up over here. That's interesting by the way for that for that you can go and look at all of safer mada becomes very interesting safer mada to again I hope some of these things were we have familiarity with but if I would have started with safer aava started with kichma oh look at that that's pretty similar to the beginning of the Mishna when you go back in the beginning of braot and you start going through the mishnayote so therefore the ram put a whole book of introduction and that this book of intellectual processes say for mada which talks about all again rejection of idolatry right that's the second thing and you know even before that we have certain things that so the ator things that you need to know about so the ramen creates introductions but he puts in that book the book of chuva I am unaware of any book that he used as an inspiration to write his book seems very much like he woke up one morning and said I'm going to include this and now you have to think about Okay, how do I structure it? How do I not just how do I structure this whole book and where do I put it within my 14 books? Because there are other places you could have put it, but it's more than that. you know what's chapter one going to be and what's chapter two and three and four and five and and yes there is the famous statement or footnote there of salvage makes where he mentions how imagined that the 10 chapters are to be studied on the serot and that's a a wonderful fantasy and I think people do it because of this uh footnote that he has in passing but you know the briskers do like the ramba and I'm just going to give you an indication now Why? Because the robam was a brisk. Now, we can debate that point. That's highly debatable, but we could debate that, but nonetheless, I want you to see what he did in the first chapter. And and I'm just going to now say another thing. He could have skipped the first chapter of Hiluva and none of you would have said, "Oh, that's strange. Something's missing." Not only that, he could have skipped the second chapter, the first he could have started with the second, and none of you would have sensed, "Oh, there's something missing over here." So now we're not learning the whole so you may not know what I'm talking about. And then he has whole chapters that don't talk about chuva that rather he deals with and the 10th chapter doesn't talk about chuva at all. It talks about the love of God. So now let's look at source number three positive negative a person broke it on purpose by accident which is a very strange turn phrase that when he does when he returns when he wants to fix this when he wants to change and he used now the and one after the other in return some he's obligated to say to verbally express in front of God is always in relationship to God is not something which a person says to themselves it's not something that you say in the mirror it's not something that you uh that you say to your therapist chuva is something which is in front of God. It's part of the God relationship. And now he quotes a verse. So of course the exciting thing will be where's the verse coming from? Meaning he's bu he's building a case. He's telling you where this comes from. The other thing which is really interesting but you don't realize it yet is he said that you need to do vidoy. You need to say it. You need to express it. Well that itself is interesting. I mean, I could say there's a difference between between a fleeting thought and uh and articulating something. I can also say that perhaps actions are needed. Perhaps it's a question of action more than of words. Because as much as I can say that fleeting thoughts are one thing, I can also say that words are something, but actions perhaps are stronger. How that manifests itself in all cases is another point. So, we're gonna have to look for a second and figure out where he got that from. Moreover, to drive all the commentaries on the Rambam crazy, he writes vidi fat. The positive obligation here is voi instead of saying that the positive obligation is chuva. Now, there are those who are going to say that there's no distinction. The way you do chuva is by doing voy. Don't tell me that void, this technical articulation is the mitzvah. No, void is how you do chuva. And it's a question of linking up motivation together with articulation. But I can assure you that the various commentaries in the Rambam, they go to town on this. And then he says, "How exactly do you do vidi?" And this should be a little more familiar to us. Oh Mary says, again, in front of God, please God, I've sinned. It's recognition of the sin. It's worthwhile to know that. Is it is it on purpose? Is it by accident? Is it a rebellion? Here is what I've done. I regret what I've done. I'm embarrassed what I've done. By the way, that's that's a level that is what we can call today. I reject what I've done. I'm embarrassed, stronger and I will never return to this again. So you have recognition of the sin, you have rejection of the sin, embarrassment from the sin and then you have accepting upon yourself in the future. So you you realize that these elements together and that is voy. But you but the other point is is that the voy that we're expressing over here that's what chuva is. You reject the past. You stop doing what you're doing. Reject the past and you accept for yourself for the future. Whoever does more of this, it's it's better. And moreover, the people who would bring all the various offerings, they would not be they would not be atoned. There's no atonement until they do chuva. So then again if you're wondering this interaction between and they would need to again to articulate it and they need to do voy and so on and all people who deserve punishments it doesn't work until a person does in terms of interpersonal even if repaid them. There's no atonement. So what did the Rambam just now do? He he did something really interesting. First of all, he aligned Chuva with Vidi and wrote for us a verse. The verse comes from source number four. We're in the middle of you could have easily have guessed that he brought something from any person who has sinned. Which is an interesting turn of phrase as well. A sin is because God didn't allow you to do that. You did something you're not allowed to do. So there is ma involved in that and causes that's a really strong term and and and causes the soul as it were to become a place which is desolate the person needs to do to say the vid and so on and so forth. So, what what was so exciting about what just now happened? If you look through the entire five books of Moshe, you'll have a very hard time pointing out the verse that says that you're obligated to do chuva. By the way, chuva may be a very good idea. Pragmatically, it could be a wonderful thing to do. But where did it ever say that you can do chuva? I mean, more than that. Where does it ever say in the Torah that you can do chuva and when you do chuva you've erased what you've done? Where do you see that at all? So what the Rambam does and he's going to continue to do this throughout this chapter. The chapter is his introduction to chuva and what he does is he work walks into the world of corbanote. You also noticed he worked into the world of other kinds of punishments into the bait as well. and he sees situations where a person is going to achieve atonement and then he borrows from those sections and then he's going to use this as an introduction and then he's going to have chuva stand by itself. Now if that wasn't clear what I just now said I'm going to try again. What what the Rambam does is he establishes that there is some kind of a thing called vidoi which works in the world of corbanote and then essentially he raises a problem. He doesn't do it the way that Tossis is going to say hold it but how can you say this because of this he just weaves together a narrative what's the narrative that he weaves together and it's later on in the chapter you don't have it in front of you yum kipper for example works because we have a beta mdash and we have a coingad we have a s mish now what happens when you don't have a coing and you don't have a beta mikdash you don't have a s mish the ram insist that chuva works by itself now that's absolutely astounding on top of that you can ask him well how do you know that okay so I'm sure he would put forth an argument but that's what he does he argues that we can take out of the beta mikdash we can take out of the korbanote the basic core and that is this human element of voy and the vidoy can stand by itself within the world of chuva so therefore essentially the raam builds the world of chuva and the book of chuva and he builds it from this element of corbanote and the vto now it's no surprise now that he says the mitzvah is to do vidoy. Why is the mitzvah to do vidi? Because that is the foundation of chuva as far as he's concerned. By the way, now you see by the why the raom is a brisker. He's a brisker because he's looking for the dynamics exactly how does this work? And this whole first chapter therefore is breathtaking because he's showing you the dynamics. The dynamics is what is the core of chuva? Well, the core of truth is something which we find in the world of Corbanote because there you have a place of bringing about atonement by the way much more often for things done by accident than things done by purpose. But the Rambam then takes it out of the world of Corbanote applies it to all human actions and all human endeavor whether to sin against God or a sin against man and says that voy is something which can stand by itself outside of beta mikdash. Now that itself is fascinating. Now I I just want to maybe overstate this a little bit. Vtoy is essentially kudchin. What do I mean by kudchun? It's part of the world of corbanote. But we're able to use this part of corbanote and use it in our own sense. Now, by the way, what happens when we misuse it? What happens when we said a vidi and we're not sincere? We said a voy and we come back and we were never sincere when we said it and we come back and we do the thing again. Notice in source number five, this is from the the one of the the one of the if that's plural what we say is that that we do voy for the voy that we said which was inappropriate. And by the way, I'll go one step further. It could be that to misuse a voy is itself ma. Why is that? We had ma a second ago. Why? because I'm using kudship or I'm misusing kudchim which means I want to go back to this raam that voy is the mitzvah voy is something which is somehow can leave the world of corban out I can go and achieve what a cororban can without bringing the corban and how do I do that I take the core which is the voy I take it out of the beta mcdash and I still utilize it but be careful the voy is powerful be careful the voy is the way that we do chuva not that the raam is hyper focusing as some would argue that the mitzvah of chuva is this action. It's much more the Rambam is bringing out the argument about where do you see that there's such a possibility of changing things and the answer is he went into the world of of corporate and that's why I'm going to say it again had all of the first chapter been missing none of you would have said we're missing something no he starts the second chapter as far as what exactly is chuva gamura and then goes on to what is chuva and if you would have just began I'm going to say it again second chapter second you know what is chuva you would have said okay fine that's the natural place to begin but no he felt that he first needed to build this core of where it comes from. Yeah, >> I always thought I may be interested that the veto came from when Moshe and Hashem have so because that's what says and then and then we say the so um >> no no that that's fine but the see the midote are things about God that's not voy that's saying God is forgiving and and and and so on and so forth. That itself is not vidoy. That is saying that because God revealed >> Yeah. that that be >> Yeah. Because God has all of these attributes, therefore it is possible to do things which I would have thought are impossible. Which means when theel takes place, God says, "That's it. I'm rejecting Israel." But then God after Moshe prays a little bit, God reveals and says, "Okay, this is what you need to know." and and therefore the Gomorrah then says and this is what you need to say or do and it's going to create something again all of that is correct but and it would have been interesting I mean your your argument is wonderful you say okay why doesn't the ra start with you give me and say hold it from here we see that things could be changed but I'm going to say it again he is looking at the five books of Moshe and says where do we see that an individual can go and change something and he's really taking it out of the world of Corbonote Which then you meaning again you could have said maybe all of Hilkuba should have been in the Rabam's book of Corbanote aside from at the very end after all the other corbanote. Oh yeah by the way we can accomplish all this but no he puts it in terms of knowledge of God and we're I'm going to try to come back to that a little bit because perhaps the the key over here is that where does the sin come from? It comes from not acknowledging God and therefore it's in the book of Ma as m as much as it could have been in other places. Okay. Excellent. So, let's continue. We'll we'll come back hopefully to source number six soon. The the Gomorra in source number seven says something which I I'm just going to stay on for a second and think about. This is and here it waxes on poetically about chuva line after line after line and a couple of pages here. Chuva is so great, so awesome. It brings about health to the world. We've turned over the next side of the page. Not not in our sources that chuva brings redemption. So now this to me is interesting. Are we now talking about the chuva from dvar and peric lammed or are we talking about some kind of an individual active chuva? And I'm going to try to explain this a little bit more. When the Rambam told us back in source number two that this section talks about a future action, let's remember something. The whole second part of Servarim was dealing with national institutions was dealing with the king and dealing with an army and dealing with shaft and and so on and so forth dealing with war and then went on and dealt with exile that was in Kava. So now following that and by the way that's what the Rabam quotes he quotes all the things come upon you again just realize he he quoted both and then there's going to be this national thing take place which means when it says over here that chuva brings back gula are we talking about a national guula and therefore really perhaps this does reflect what we have in this section or is it talking about individual gahula and if it's the individual gahula do I look at it as being an independent microcosm of the same dynamic or do I say that this is what is going to build about the national redemption all the individuals being redeemed which means if I'm not speaking English yet which means that when I look at my own personal chuva onaship should I see it as part of a national event and again if I'm going to the end of then yeah it's something which is national so here when the gmorra says that it brings about chuva and then it brings a puk from Remember the Rama says that all the they talk about. So this sounds very much about a national the greatest because it turns deliberate sins into things which are as if they were an action. means that you did something on per on purpose and now it's called which means you tripped. Also say that if you did chuva then it turns the deliberate sin into a merit. And it says, but the Gmorra here tells us there's two different types of chuva. One is motivated by love of God, one by fear of God. One turns it into an accident if it was by fear, and one turns it into a merit if it was motivated by love. There's more expressions of chuva coming up over here, which again very much sounds like the individual and so on. In source number eight, the told and this is this is just going to strengthen what we've already heard in the Rambam, but it's going to focus us in a way that maybe we didn't think clearly enough yet. So this is the future. All these things going to happen. He says this is about the future. Again, he's writing this hundreds of years ago. This is about the future because it hasn't happened yet. And then he adds in that what we were not thinking about when we talk about a return of the exiles that includes the tenatim that you know we've long ago have forgotten about don't think about by the way the topic of the return of the chhatim and those who've been looking for them at different points in history is a fascinating topic but we'll we'll leave that for now and he goes on trying to show you in the verses themselves how this is referring to the tenatim as Well, as our return from our land, I'll search for them. And he goes on to say that. So he's working all these various returns and those returns and this return that one is talking about the return of the nations of the tribes we know about and one is talking about the tribes that we don't know what happened to them. >> Sorry, could you say that again? >> So that's a really interesting read of uh of our section. Now the Ramban is going to be complex. I know for some the Ramban's very simple, but the Raan is going to be complex because the Ramban is going to say everything that we've heard already and then add more. On the one hand, he's going to start and say I already said in so just like we just now saw this is the future. Now the Rahab already said this is the future. We've already seen the already also said to us that this is the future. Ramban also is the future. Incidentally, the Ramban is of the opinion that the is talking about the destruction of the first beta mikdash and the is talking about the second beta mikdash. But as I said, I don't need you know to do that specifically. But therefore, according to him, at the end of the we did return, but at the end of the we haven't returned yet. So therefore, this section deals with things that just haven't happened yet. So that's a little bit more of the when he says what I already told you there. So that's what he expects that you know. I'm not going to read all of this, but what's boldered, he's talking about the future. He's talking about this idea that God is going to change our hearts. Yates is going to go away. We are going to become like Adam Harishon before the sin. Of course, you can then ask, "So then what about reward and punishment if there's no free will?" Well, next couple lines, right? There won't be reward or punishment in the that messianic age because everything will become natural. Our inner self will change on persecute olive. So maybe just take a quick look back at what said it said. Now use the word mitzvah. That's what's important. This mitzvah which I am commanding you and so on. This is accessible. You can do it. So here the persecute says. Now, essentially what the ra what the Ramban says is that even though this entire section is talking about the future and even though what we're dealing with is a future prophecy where the Jews are going to return to the land and so on and he's talking about the most dramatic changes in human history where we return back to what we were before the sin. He still nonetheless says that embedded in this section is the specific obligation to do chuva. So if you were to ask the Rambam where does the mitzvah of chuva come from he would have told you that it comes from the world of kurbanote and essentially it's built upon the concept of vidoy if you ask the raman where does the mitzvah come from it comes from this section at the end of dvarim which says specifically this mitzvah so therefore apparently not just is there this mitzvah to get to this national redemption which is based upon the people changing But there's a mitzvah for each and every one of us to do chuva independently. The Rambam would say that section is God promised that it's going to happen. The Rambam Ramban would agree. But essentially we have two fundamental different ways of understanding what the mitzvah is. And then again those who will argue that according to the like the argued according to the ra there's no mitzvah of chuva vto is a mitzvah chuv is that a mitzvah I think he overplays his hand a bit and I think that one can argue with that the raam would seem to believe that chuva is a mitzvah but he had to show where it came from and therefore he wasn't comfortable with just kind of cherrypicking that one verse in the middle of this section because he understands that the section is about a national event that will take place. Excellent. We're going to make uh I won't say a dramatic turn now, but we're going to read one of the spiritual descendants of the Ramban. It's the Ran. The Ran is a student of a student of the Ramban. And the Ramban is going to read the same things and he has the Ramban open in front of him. To what extent he's actually exactly or precisely saying the Ramban is interesting, but he actually works out theim in a really interesting way. And that's going to take us in another direction. In source number 10, this is in the famous of the he writes again he's quoting our verses. So now we realize these are our verses. We need to be very careful as we're reading these verses. So he wants to what's all this movement? You're going to return. God will return to you. You're going to return. God's what is all of the movement taking place? And I told you that's ultimately what one needs to do to understand this section. Well, but we're still going to do this in very broad strokes with blurry lines. He goes, I think that the proper way to understand this is as follows. That there will be some kind of a return in your heart. What does that mean? Now, he uses a term of phrase which perhaps is popular to us. It's not used in kazal as much as you would think. It's never, as far as I know, used in the Mishna or the topha or the medal. It's used in the gamarra a couple of times, less than a handful of times. And that's called hear or thoughts, perhaps fleeting thoughts. Now I don't want to get ahead of myself and define what it means but he says so as much as maybe you think that you think you think that you think in your head he's saying you think in your heart as it were that that there's something again it's this dynamic that we need to figure out he's saying that your actions have not changed but there's something going on within your heart which means your complacency in terms of the trajectory of your life suddenly gets somehow now I don't know what word to use should I say jolted did I say it's dramatic should I say that it's I don't know cuz he he's saying that there's something over here and then subsequently you'll become stronger and then you'll be able to complete the task And that's why subsequently it talks about actually listening to God and doing what he says. be shown that your somehow movement in your heart is going to cause some kind of divine movement. It's that essentially your first act of some kind of breaking your complacency will cause a divine reaction which in turn will cause a human reaction which in turn will cause a divine reaction. Now all of this is fascinating and we need to understand where all of this comes from and he talks about this eventually getting to this place of complete chuva and you can read the rest of this on your own. the faro I could have read by himself or I could have read it through the lens of what we just now read and or I could have read it through the Ramban although secretly the way to read this is through the Rambam and theim in the guide for the plex that's really what he's channeling but he talks about again return in your heart he talks about this dynamic of being able to distinguish between truth and false. Now the reason I say to look in the Rambam in the guide for the perplex is that's what he talks about in the first couple of chapters is the distinction between truth and falsehood. But perhaps a person who lives a life I I'll see I'll say the life of a sinner. Don't don't you know jump on me on that. But they live their lives because their world is a world of of lies. And at some point maybe they break that lie and they're able to distill some kind of truth within it. And the moment that you realize that the life that you're living is this world of a lie and there is an other truth. So that changes things dramatically. So that's what I'm saying is that you very much could understand this from what the Ramban spoke about. Eventually you get to this world of truth and then you can't even enter that world of a lie or for that matter what the Ramban what the Ron spoke about where he said that it's this beginning spark but what is the beginning spark I'm still going to have to come back to that the gum which is the most famous expression of her chuva is one which actually causes the commentaries a great deal of difficulty. So the preamble to this, the source number 12, the preamble is the the Mishna, the Gomorrah on the previous Ammud. And there it spoke about different conditions that a person can set up in terms of a possible marriage. I go over to a young woman and I say, "Hare, you know," and she can say, "I don't like rings, right? I don't I don't need a ring, right? my wife. I mean, if she were here, she would confirm this. I could have gotten her a piece of cheesecake. It would have uh it it it would have worked. AB absolutely. And um certainly the whole cake. And believe me, there's some places in that unfortunately it's Chevruta, right? They uh I can tell you a place to get the best cheesecake. 45 shekels for a slice. >> Whatever. Rabbi, >> not now. Not now. not not uh afterwards afterwards but but I'll just say this that the French they have upped the game of everybody in terms of the baking so to continue if I say I write any if I bring the mukesh or for that matter those of you who like cars I can say on condition that I buy you a 2025 if you do it then you're married you don't do it you don't Marriage could be conditional. So within this wonderful world of conditions, so let's say somebody comes over to this nice girl. He looks at this nice girl and she's a nice girl, but he's not a nice guy. And she's and he kind of wishes that this nice girl would marry him and he w goes over and let's look at and he and and first he says to her, "Would you like to go out with me?" And she says, "Absolutely not." Why? Cuz you're a bum. I don't want to go out with a bum. I want to marry a nice guy. And then he says right he takes out the ring and he says read the words of the garrain on condition that I'm at >> on condition then what >> on a condition that I am at that I'm a righteous man the gurra then says and this is what drives everybody crazy the gurra says au even if he's a completely wicked person they're married how perhaps Perhaps at that moment he had this thought of chuva. Now all of you should say to me, who cares? Who cares about that thought? Meaning what could that thought have done? And on the one hand, this line drives people crazy. >> Well, this is the story of >> maybe >> I mean, >> good good excellent excellent thought on the on the look there. She says on condition that you go in and study and so and so forth. Very good. The says it's a right spirit says I'm a wicked person. Now when the Rambam brings down this law, he says maybe they're married. Why are they maybe married? Because maybe the person had that fleeting thought. But I but let's just follow this up a second. So let's say he had a fleeting thought which means is that enough? What happened to again the other elements? What happened to rejection of the past? What happened to acceptance in the future? What happened to returning the things that he stole? What happened to Voy? What happened to all of the other elements over here? Which means what is the value of this fleeting thought? On the other hand, I can assure you that there are those who wax poetic about this and say, look at this unbelievable thing here. Now remember something. How did we get here just now? We got here because the ran told us that our verses were talking about here chuva. In source 13, the Rakanati Rakanati is also comes from this world again even though he's Italian but is very influenced by the Ramban and he wrote a commentary on the Raman. This is his rulings. He writes now you don't know who Riha is yet. To find Rabi Simka, we're going to have to afterward look in the orua and find out that Rabbi Simka is the teacher of the orua which means we're going back into the world of the Balatvote. that and this is really interesting. This may explain why certain people go to the mikvah or why people go to that anyone who does chuva needs. Now I'm going to say this again parenthetically this is fascinating. Do you need require or is it simply a really good idea psychologically to have some kind of a right of passage when a person changes from being a sinner to being a belcha. So there actually was a custom of people to go to mikvah. And by the way, I can take a more extreme example that happened in the times of valvot. We have the crusaders. The crusaders forcing people to convert to baptize. So what happens when they want to reenter the Jewish community? So what's the reality? The reality is a Jew is a Jew is a Jew is a Jew. You don't have to do anything. A convert on the other hand needs to go to mikvah. So they actually had a custom that a Belchuva goes to mikvah. Why? I don't know if it's because the hala requires it or perhaps the person needed some kind of I'll say it again of a right of passage to feel that they've changed or maybe that going to the mikvah an error of uh yum kiper is something along these lines but I'll let's read those words and he quotes a source in mu on the other hand he goes let's be honest this is not does not If you didn't do the then it's not like you're lacking anything. As soon as a by the way this this should be the most really the most outstanding thing that you've heard in terms of the ability of chuva. You just need to think about it. you're sad it's still a person again this comes from the German balot those who believe that there needs to which is not the raom's world they believed very much that all pleasure needs pain in order to take away the things that you enjoyed so it is coming from that world a much longer expression of what we just now read is in the orzour but one of the things that I want to stress is if you go back to the gamorra there are different authorities who have different texts of the garra in front of them. Some say that the garra said I'm not sadic. You notice the line over here on unconditional I'm complete sadic. Even if the person was wicked and they just had these thoughts of chuva that's enough and that's perhaps reflected by what we just now saw in the rakanati person's wicked and they had thoughts to change the gum said right the gum later on the flip side. So there was a little bit of a discussion among the various manuscripts about the gumar but again I don't think it changes things for us all that much. It just perhaps makes it even stronger. Over here in the zerooa he goes on to say any sin which a person may have committed including murder person has thoughts of chuva he could be the okay try that out in your local uh in your local sh it's bolded in the middle of the page a murderer who deliberately murders he's better than But it's not the same thing somebody did to vodar. There is a specific law that if somebody was a cohane who was a coin for vodara can no longer be a coin in the beta mikdash and he discusses this a little bit in the middle and he considers that to be more of a moon but again along the way he quotes our uh text and again for us this should be completely uh completely shocking but the reason I'm bringing this is that all this is built upon this same concept of that if a person has thoughts of chuva That's it. Thoughts of chuva are enough. I still need to come back to the run and I need to come back to our verses. And Jerry is extremely troubled by something. >> I'm trouble because I want to know where are the verses coming where he jumped at all. That's what that's what how did we get before he went through the Bible it very exactly one line >> the very first Pakasha very first towards the end right end of the line the return that he describes is in your heart not actions doesn't say anything else >> you to know that and then you have and so on which means that he was trying to work out this whole dynamic. It's interesting to take the run and now read it together with the verses but yeah he says that there's something in your heart and he says it's not actionoriented yet all that it is is a thought. Now, it should come as no surprise to you that a whole bunch of commentaries are going to, I have to say this nicely, twist themselves into a pretzel to avoid everything we just now saw because they find it way too radical. So again just to look for an example of this in source number 15 this is a footnote in the bay and I I pronounced bay because I think that's how is how he pronounced it and not and not it's a wonderful book by the way it's a it's a book which isidic teachings going through the calendar And there's a footnote here. You notice that this is tish and it's talking about gdola chuva. How great is chuva which is exactly the gummoras that we had seen there before. And in a note it says right and so on goes how can somebody he goes and this will help explain how could it possibly be if somebody is a wicked person and says I'm know that we should be married on condition that I'm sadik but he's not how can it work and he writes perhaps he had this fleeting thought of chuva hu look at what's written in parenthesis This is only to this is only because again he can't contemplate that this is possible otherwise. Now if you said it's because it's goes and focuses on love of God and so on it's much more than that. I I think I think it's much more than that is essentially there is this whole continuum of chuva. Let's admit something. The difficulty that we've been having the last 10 minutes or so is that this fleeting thought of chuva which is in the in my heart or in my mind but not in the world of action should be you know all the way at the very very beginning. It's Rafuk would call this the nits, the spark of chuba, right? You don't you don't have a fire yet, right? You you you haven't not, right? Imagine that you want a cold night. You want to sit in front of a you want to sit in front of a nice warm fire. The first spark which doesn't catch necessarily yet is and it's chuva. But that's not chuva. If I go right back with my continuum at the end of the continuum would be this chuva of an entire generation which brings the gula on the other hand I can talk about more on an individual level I can talk about the spark of chuva I can think about the pings of guilt I can think about the thoughts that a person has of lost chances lost opportunities lost relationships I can think about again moving on from guilt and so on to perhaps fixing relationship with God maybe moving from fear of punishment to actually getting to this point of what am I crazy? You know, God created this world and God has so much compassion for me and look how much he's taking care of me. Moving over towards this idea of love of God which on our continuum is much higher. And as we saw before Ra Lakish taught us that if you do chuva made by motivated by fear of God it turns those actions into an accident. Why did it turn it into an accident? Because again karat what is karata that you reject what you've done. You what's the English word for karat? regret. You regret. Now, when you have karata based upon fear of God, what do you reject or what do you regret? You regret that you're going to be punished because you're afraid. So, what do you regret? You regret the punishment. Do you reject the action? Not necessarily. So, what kind of action do you not get punished for something you did by accident? So, therefore, when you did something on purpose and you regret that you're going to be punished and you say, you know what, I'm going to be punished. This is terrible. God, please help me. God says, fine, I'll take away the punishment. But the action is still there. And that's the dynamic of why that according to the racial law if you did chuva by fear of god it turns into an accident. But you did chuva based upon love of god which then theoretically you say well there must be some positive energy that I can distill and turn this action into somehow servicing god. So therefore you've retroactively have turned the negative into something which is positive. So then you've turned the negative into that's a whole another level of this. So again, I go on my continuum. I can have that fleeting thought, then I can have the rejection of the punishment. I can move over to the love of God. But that's the problem of what he did just now. The Gomorrah talked about this fleeting thought. And he says, "Oh, this is really, how could this possibly work?" Because it's the other end of the continuum and it's talking about the greatest level of chuva of love of God. Now, that's wonderful. But why is he saying this? Because he can't understand how is it possible that the Gomorrah said what it said. So now what's the problem? is the gammorra said what it said that's the problem and the gammorra is saying that this fleeting thought is enough so it's here that I want to pause for another second salvetic very much like this idea of hirova before I read what we have in front of us let me just tell you a couple of things one is that he thinks that rashashana is embodies here her chuva yum kipper is chuva versus sha is he chuva where does he see this from the raom what did the raom say it's not in front of you the raom said that even though the Torah said he blow the chauffeur there is nonetheless a hint and what is it wake up he goes it's a wakeup call it's this sound it's it's this jarring sound that wakes you up from this I don't know what do you want to call this this lethargic existence that you uh may have had until this particular moment and and that's what the chauffeur does the chauffeur wakes you up so rashashana is just this wake up and you just can't continue on the path that you are and therefore he calls rashashana a day of hero chuva and again notice something which really is what should bother you and bothered him that rashana is during the seru Do you know what we don't do on we don't say vid there's no hope right there's no there's no it's all of this is missing >> where the r down old masa from the um and it had in it and he added it to the he said that >> I can't remember >> right right no I can understand why he did it but rep salvage apparently thought He misunderstood the nature of Russash Shana. So we don't want to pick on the right on the we don't pick on the right. No, but but what he was doing is looking exactly what it is that we do in Russash and the truth is the norm the normative approach is not to say voy and that's exactly the point and and by the way this is really based upon the verses ina where the people start to cry and the people upset and I will tell you if you look throughout the history and it goes into the goes to different opinions look at the history of rash there's always been attention there are those who wanted to fast on rashash shana and there are those who say how again how can I eat it's yadin and others no what are the PK say because they know they said they took out the Torah, started eating and they see the day the day that set and they all start to cry. He says, "No, no, no. Go back and celebrate and and and share and and eat good things and sweet things and so on and so forth." Which means this tension of Rashashana of being one of the machuva and nonetheless pushing that aside and saying no, this is celebration which means ultimately rashishana is about a coronation. Ultimately, it's about accepting God as the one who's going to judge us and that itself is somehow redemptive. But maybe the secret of rashana then will depend upon understanding what is here. I I'm saying that's exactly part of Salvation point is going to be if you don't know what Hirochuva is, then you kind of get stuck. Hold it. What am I doing on Rashashana? So therefore, let's uh let's continue a little bit more. So here's a shar that was given in 1976. this particular reconstruction and the words over here the way that it was written is is mine and here he's talking about erbular and the structure of chuva and he's going to be moving really from rash to yum and and he says as follows drawing upon the raan and the benezra based on bation the very beginning talking about right right from the beginning explore the symbolic meaning of arav and boke now the word erv evening what what is The word come from evening is a time of confusion. Why? What is it? It's arov. >> What is arrav? Arv is really twilight. Arab is a time of confusion between light and darkness. And it's not a time of clarity. When forms blur and distinctions fade is the moment when man loses clarity, when moral categories collapse into ambiguity. Bulker. Morning is a time of discernment. When light reveals the contras of reality and man regains his capacity to distinguish between good and evil. This division of time is not arbitrary. The taught that the human condition is structured around this dialectic. Man sins in the erv no I'm not saying exclusively but it's a good time to sin. But he doesn't necessarily only mean the time that the night is a time of sin or the erv in a fog of confusion in the existential disorientation that accompanied freedom. Again, man is created with free choice. Now, that's going to be part of what we're going to have to try to unpack. But it is precisely this confusion that makes Chuva possible. If man were always in a state of clarity, he would be an angel, not a human being. The greatness of man lies in his ability to emerge from error into the bokeh to transform confusion into insight and failure into growth. Now hear her chuva. The gmorra teaches that even a wicked man who betrays a woman on condition he's righteous may be considered righteous. Perhaps he contemplated repentance. The sour in this principle a profound psychological truth. The first moment of chuva is not action but thought not confu not confession but contemplation. Here at chuv is the moment when a man becomes aware of his brokenness. It's the silent cry of the soul, the shame that precedes speech, the pain that precedes healing. It is the error of chuva, the moments of existential crisis that opens the door to transformation. Any kip remains lives through both error and boker. The night is filled with introspection with the weight of memory and regret. The day brings clarity, the possibility of renewal. The emphasize the truth is not merely a return. It's a creative act. The penitant does not revert to his former self. It becomes a new being. As the Rama writes, yesterday he was hated by God. Today he's beloved. This transformation is what makes Yipper a day of unity between past and future, between sin and sanctity, between man and God. And I'm going to try it again to unpack this, explain a little bit more. A person who's involved in a world of sin has their own way of looking at the world. Yes, this person has free will, but they don't. The reason they don't is because they're not able to contemplate that anything other than what they're doing is desirable. So what's desirable to them is the fog which they live in. That moment that they realize that their existence is actually within a fog. That's here to realize that that realization that there is something else. By the way, in another talk, we'll see if we have time to come back to this. In another talk, he spoke about the personality of Terra who does something incredible and that is that Terra begins his trip to the land of Kanan and he says Tak is somebody who experienced here her chuva. Now whether he completes it or not is something again which we would need to come back to and he actually was very optimistic about Terak. He goes terra is somebody who is an idoltor and at one and his son embarrasses him by being a monotheist and at some point he is shaken out of his confidence and he has this really jarring thought. What if Abraham's right? By the way, that possibility, what if Abraham's right is here her chuva, which means what if there's this other possibility and my life has been a lie and I'm doing something which is wrong. which means hear her chuva which you know we saw the bay sus he can't even contemplate this he's saying no it must be it's chuva which again on our continuum was just so far down the line and now we realize that what the rv is saying and again ruff to a certain extent it's the spark of chuba the rv I think is incredibly precise by saying it's the moment when you wake up with confusion from the clarity that you thought that you had prior to this and this confusion is actually clarity clarity because this confusion at night is going to allow you then to wake up and to complete the process and then to get to a new level of clarity which will be to complete the chuva. So and and now the remarkable thing is that person who has that fleeting thought that no the world that I'm involved in is a lie that person is no longer the same person who was involved in those sins. That person is somebody else already. Yes. To complete the process of chuva, you need to reject the past. You need to change who you are. Again, I want to focus on that. You need to change your actions. You need to accept upon yourself you change and you need to change. But nonetheless, if we think about chuva in the safer of mada within this thought process, now you realize that here her chuva is something which is phenomenal because it's till this point you've misused your free will to create a world of illusion. And now you've used your free will to realize that you have been using your free will and to realize that there's this other possibility where clarity can yet be achieved. But that moment of confusion that night, that moment of confusion by realizing I am in confusion, what I thought was made all the sense in the world, the life that I've lived till now is not the life that I want, that person is no longer the same sinner. And to the extent that if he says I'm not sadik that person at that moment is it sadik because he's not part of that previous world he has just taken his first step to the next world. And that perhaps is the most dramatic. And that by the way is what should give us incredible hope on rashash because in rashasha you hear the blow of the chauffeur and you wake up and you say hold it a second how many lies have I embraced? How many lies do I love? How many lies in my own life have I taken and made at the very core of my being? And how many of those lies now do I realize that are lies and if I realize that those are lies now the first step comes that I can start using this free will again and then to change yes when this takes place on a national level then we'll be looking about these verses that over here in the ver but again maybe that's the first step on the national level as well is that a generation of people realize that you know how many people think that the greatest thing in life is that next football game coming up on Sunday I I had to have a meeting with students this coming week and looking for a right time between Israel and West Coast here. I said, "If you have it at 1:00 p.m., people are going to be watching football at the same time. They're not going to they're not going to really be paying attention because, you know, or so uh and so on. People live their lives in in illusion. But that moment that you realize that it is in fact an illusion is that moment that you've taken that first step to be able to now find what reality is and that itself is redemptive and that itself is where Shauna is and that's the blow of the chauffeur to wake you up and say I've been sleeping and I've been sleeping on this and there's something else which is there in front of me and therefore the RV called rashashana the day of here her chuva and that day called that turns us into its sadic and we're written in the book of life on without anything else. I'm sorry. I just really want to stress that without having to say anything. No, at that moment and I woke up and I said, "Okay, I have a direction." Yeah, I need the rest of the chuva and yes, I'm going to need but at that moment when you had that here her chuva we're all sadikim at that moment and at that moment we're all written in the book of life all of us all should be written in the book of life and all of us should wake up and reject the illusions that we have accepted as reality.