Rav Kook on Pirkei Avot: Commitment to Community | Rabbi Aaron Goldsheider | Sep 2 2026

Okay, we wish everyone a good morning. Boker tov to everyone and bruchim haba'im, welcome back. And uh it's wonderful to be back and great to see everybody this morning. Hope everybody had a good break, a nice summer. And here we are back learning together as our zman, our Elul zman begins. And I think we have the next 3 weeks of classes and there's a little bit of a break with erev Sukkos and and the week of Chol Hamoed. And then b'ezrat Hashem, please God, we'll have the coming weeks and months together to to be together, to study together. So bruchim haba'im and I what I'd like to do for the coming year is to study Rav Kook, to to continue our study of Rav Kook. And the way that we're going to do it is in a is in a unique way. And that is through the teachings of Pirkei Avot. And although there is a minhag of studying Pirkei Avot in after Pesach in the summertime, but it's part of the Mishna, it's part of Shas, and one can study Pirkei Avot throughout the year as well. So we're going to use Pirkei Avot Pirkei Avot as our as our foundation, as our basis. And with that we're going to study Rav Kook and the insights of Rav Kook. And with the idea that these that these concepts are inspirational as Pirkei Avot and the teachings of Pirkei Avot are intended to be, to build ourselves and to build our yirat shamayim, our avodat Hashem, and become better and better people. And that is a very appropriate theme as we as we begin our learning today. And we are in Elul and we're actually as we all know, we're towards the end of Elul. We're just about a week and a half or exactly a week and a half away from Rosh Hashanah. We have this coming Shabbos, the last Shabbos of the year, and then next Shabbos, which is Shabbos and Rosh Hashanah. So, we are a week and a half away from Rosh Hashanah. And as all of us know, Elul is a time for we begin the process of introspection. We begin the process of chuvah. And so, that is going to be our theme today. And we're going to look at one particular idea regarding chuvah. And I want to begin with the following Mishnah. So, as we said, we're going to base our teachings week to week in the in the Mishnah of Pirkei Avot. So, you can turn to page one. And we have the following Mishnah, which says, "Kol Hamazakeh et HaRabbim, whoever brings merit, whoever influences the Rabbim in a positive way, Kol Hamazakeh et HaRabbim, ein chet ba al yeddo, a person will not come to sin." So, here we are looking at a Mishnah that speaks about the importance of doing good things, how to avoid sin. So, that's the statement of the Mishnah, Kol Hamazakeh et HaRabbim, those that bring merit to the Rabbim, ein chet ba al yeddo, the a person will not come to sin. Ve Kol Hamachati et HaRabbim, and if you bring sin to the community, to the kollel, to the masses, ein maspikim beyado la'asot chuvah, that person will not be able to do chuvah. You will not be able to attain to achieve chuvah, being that you have brought sin and have brought others to sin as well. And one more line that will that will highlight from the Mishnah, Moshe zachah vizikah et HaRabbim. If we think about an individual who brought merit to the community, we think about individual who is dedicated to the community, if we were to ask that question, who in the Torah, who in our history represents that model, who's a paradigm of of sacrifice for the community? So, the Mishna highlights that it was Moshe Rabbeinu, that it was Moshe who spends his life, his entire lifetime, dedicated to teaching the community, dedicating dedicated to the growth of the community. His life was a life that was community-oriented. Moshe Zacha Bizchuta Rabim, Zchut Rabim Talui Bo, that all of the Zchuts of the Rabim that it really comes back to to Moshe Rabbeinu himself, that he has a part of of every Mitzvah, so to speak, that the Rabim, that the community does. So, here I want to share with you the following interpretation of of the Kotsker Rebbe. And this is our first lesson about Teshuvah, maybe what we can think about in a practical way in the coming weeks, especially these this week, next week, Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, as we're thinking about how to how to bring Teshuvah into our lives. So, this is quoted by Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski, and he quotes the Kotsker Rebbe. And the Kotsker Rebbe says, "What does the Mishna mean? The person who is involved in the community that they're not going to come to sin, that sin will not come to his hand." What it means is, says the Kotsker Rebbe, "that you're going to be so involved in doing positive things, you're going to be so engaged in the lives of others in the community, says the Kotsker, "you're not going to have any time to sin. Like, you're literally just going to fill your life. And if you do that, if you fill your time, if you fill your hours, if you fill your days, that you are always involved in community matters, if you're involved in the needs of others, in caring for others, of your own family, of your neighbors, of your community, of your Shul, the more that you're involved in all of those facets of life, you're not going to have the opportunity to sin. You're not going to have any downtime. Like, one of the issues of of sinning is that a person just has a lot of downtime. So, what am I going to do with this? So, I'll go on to my phone and I'll and I'll scroll on my phone or I'll watch this and watch that and all of a sudden you're doing things that aren't necessarily the most positive things. So, says the Kotsker, that's one way of interpreting the Mishnah that kol hamarbeh zakha et ha-rabim, the more that one is involved in positive things for the rabim, ein cheit ba li yado, you don't even have it doesn't even come to your hand. You don't even have the opportunity to sin because here you are filling your days with positive things, with helping others, with doing chesed, with gemilus chesed. So, lesson number one, I think this is a beautiful lesson for myself and maybe for all of us. When you think about teshuvah, we got think about teshuvah in a proactive way. And that is what more can I possibly be doing for others [snorts] in the coming days, in the coming weeks, and to fill my time, to fill my hours with chesed, [snorts] with good things that I'm doing for others, with a favor that I'm doing for a friend and for a neighbor. Is there more that I can be doing on that front? So, that that that that's lesson number one. I think it's a it's it's an important idea. You know, there's a um there's a beautiful article that was written about Rav Aryeh Levin. Rav Aryeh Levin, the tzaddik of Yerushalayim, he was a great one of the great talmidim, one of the great friends and talmidim of Rav Kook. Uh well known for for his chesed. And uh there was a rabbi after he passed away, he wrote an article about his life. He was actually one of the av bet din in Tel Aviv. I don't remember his name right now. And he wrote an article about Rav Aryeh Levin. And the name of the article, the title was Baderech. Baderech. By the way, I don't I don't know if you're familiar with uh Rabbi Judah Michel. He has a whole series of books and he has that's the title of his series of books as well, called Baderech. What does Baderech mean? Baderech means on the way. So, the article is about Rav Aryeh Levin and he says that Rav Aryeh Levin was always Baderech. Now, what does it mean that he was always Baderech? He was always on his way to do another mitzvah. It was never that he was just like walking or just making his way home. There was always he was always on his way to visiting a a widow. He was on his way to the to the prison cells here in Yerushalayim. He was going to visit the leper colonies. That he was going from place to place and it was always another mitzvah. There was always another chesed that he was doing Baderech. So, I think that's a beautiful way to think about this mission as well. And what the mission says the more that you do that, ein cheit ba lyado, that you're literally says the Kotsker, you're not going to leave any time for sin. Right? Your life is going to be so full of of doing chesed for others that that there isn't even going to be a moment for sin. But, it's not only that, the more that you do for others, the more chesed that you're doing, the more inspiration you have. It the more that it empowers you. The more that it builds you, that you're wanting the the mitzvah goreret mitzvah. The more that you do, the more mitzvah that you're doing, the more mitzvah you want to continue to do. Okay. So, here I want to share with you the following teaching from Rav Kook. And uh this brings us to a very interesting bracha. This is something uh a tfila a bracha and something that we, if you remember, we did this go for those that have been with us. I see we have a lot of returnees, baruch Hashem. Um that we uh that we studied this. I don't remember. It goes back a number of months. But, just one line and one ha'arah, one uh one one insight from Rav Kook about the following tfila. By the way, this tfila is something just to be aware of and that is a special tfila that we say if we're sitting at somebody's home, having a meal in somebody's home, that if you are in ore'ach, if you are a guest in somebody's home, that you can add a special t'filah to the benching. I don't know if that's something that you've seen. I don't know if that's something that you've done. Some benchers have it, some benchers don't have it. The The more The more contemporary benchers, they include it. So, by the way, just something to And that's for men and for women, that if you're guest, you're invited over somebody's home, it's Shabbos, it could be during the week as well, but generally on Shabbos, you're invited over for a meal, and now you're benching, in the benching itself, says the Shulchan Aruch, you should add a special t'filah for the host. You should give a special blessing to the host within Birkas Hamazon. And there's a text for that, and here it is. And that's what the Gemara says, it's And this is taken from Actually, yeah, just the It's from the Gemara, but the I I have it here from the ArtScroll. So, what do we say? Y'hi ratzon, this is what the the guest says to the host, that it should be God's will, shelo yevosh v'lo yikalem ba'al habayit hazeh, that you should not ever feel any embarrassment. Now, listen, that It's kind of a strange way to begin the blessing that you're giving to the host. Why would he just just Why Why would he possibly begin that way? Why would that be the beginning of of the the words of of of blessing to the host, of all things to say? You shouldn't have lo yikalem, lo yevosh busha, v'lo yikalem, shouldn't have any embarrassment ba'al habayit hazeh, lo ba'olam hazeh v'lo ba'olam haba. >> He shouldn't be embarrassed to have invited a guest. >> He shouldn't be embarrassed to what? >> To have invited that guest. >> To have invited the guest, okay. So, yeah, one other Yeah. >> That you haven't You shouldn't say anything to embarrass the guest. >> Okay, not to say anything to embarrass the guest. So, one way of interpreting this, and I think Rav Cook has it this way as well, is the experience of a guest, and sometimes the guest is somebody that does not have a place that he himself or she is feeling a bit embarrassed that I'm that here I am, you know, eating of your food that I have to sit at your table. There's a little bit of embarrassment. So, the person is saying, "You should never feel any of that embarrassment that I'm experiencing." There was that I have to rely on your meal that there's a little bit of embarrassment um that you should never feel that. Okay, that's one interpret that's a interpretation. So, that's how we begin. And then the next line is viatsliach b'chol nechasav. And you should have a lot of success financially. Now, why say that? I think that's a little bit more obvious. Why are we blessing the person with fine of all things with financial success? Good cuz he's just exactly. I want to be invited again and again. You should have the money to do that. You should be able to put out all this good food week after week. Exactly right. You should have a lot of financial success. You should continue to to invite a lot of people. You can only invite a lot of people if you can afford to invite a lot of people to your table. So, that's the next part of the bracha. And here is the part that I that I want to highlight that Rav Kook the comment of Rav Kook viyu nechasav mutzlachim ukrovim la'ir. And the next thing that you say to the person the way that you're blessing the person is that all of your dealings your business dealings should be matzliach. Again, we're on that harping on the topic of of of financial success. But, here's the line that Rav Kook uh comments and which is a little bit strange ukrovim la'ir. Now, what does that mean krovim la'ir? Meaning that your business should be nearby near in the city. Now, what does that mean exactly? I grew up in Long Island and I also spent many years in Westchester. So, a lot of people where do they work? They work in the city. So, they're getting on a train. They're going in an hour until they get to there it's an hour and a half until they get to the office and you're spending 3 hours a day. A lot of people spend. If you remember from the good old days, I don't know if anybody did that kind of commute. You did it? Yeah. I also did that kind of commute. You're spending 3 hours commuting every day. And that was before you would you would sell you know iPhones and cell phones. You had nothing to do. You were just sitting there looking at the wall. So um so that's one way of understanding it that you should have success financially. You shouldn't have to It should be close by. All right, you shouldn't have uh you shouldn't have to travel that far. But Rav Kook has a different interpretation and let me let me read and let's look at that together. U'krovim la'year, this is Rav Kook in his Eina Ayah. He says shleimut Adam, when a person wants to be whole, when a person wants to grow benafsho me'od tov, when a person spiritually and in his midot, he wants to become whole, wants to be a better person, shemeheim tosa'ot l'chol minei shleimut avatit, and in this way a person develops to become a uh the best person they can be in every aspect, teilech v'tita'aleh, this will happen and then that ascent will happen, rak b'ofen shelo yasim merkaz chayav rak inyan no'ah pratit. It The only way it's going to happen is if you are not only concerned with your own personal growth, ki'im inyanei hatzibur v'haklal yukrovim el libo. What are you blessing the host with? That you should be involved in communal life. You should be engaged in communal life. It's one thing to pursue spirituality as an individual, but the way that a person Rav Kook says the way that a person is going to achieve the highest levels of spirituality is when we're involved in the lives of others, when we're involved in community, when we're involved in our shuls, when we're involved in our in our neighborhoods, when we're doing chesed for others. Judaism doesn't believe in an isolated spirituality. And the way that a person is going to grow, the more that a person is engaged, involved within the lives of others, the more Hesed we're doing for others, the more that we care for others, the more that we sacrifice for the sake of others, that's where growth is going to happen, spiritual growth is going to happen. And says Rav Kook, that's the bracha that we're giving to the host. You should continue to be involved in the lives of others. And he quotes at the very end, actually quotes our Mishnah, if you go to the very last line, "The whole Zaka et ha rabim." that a person is involved in helping the community, "Ain ba le yadao." You know, it's interesting, I saw a little clip with Oprah Winfrey. Anybody know that name? She actually, yeah, she she addressed a lot of really interesting issues, and she has, you know, she highlights different books on a regular basis. This is a book that just came out, and again, I was trying to find the the the title of the book, but the book is about that in our age today, that we have never been less involved in the lives of others, of community. We're living more and more isolated from one another. We're spending more and more time alone. We're spending more and more time in our homes. We're spending more and more time on our phones. We are less, we've never been less involved in communal lives, in the lives of others. Never before. Life was you were out and about, you were seeing one another. You just you naturally, automatically, that was life. And life has, you know, has has changed. And more and more people are spending more and more time disconnected from other human beings, disconnected from communal life, and how important it is to do so. So, this is on the one end, you know, the Mishnah says the importance of this, but it's really how how contemporary this message is. It's something for all of us to think about in terms of what it means to grow as a person and grow spirituality and growth towards closeness with Hashem is closeness with others. Is the more that we're involved in the lives of others. Harriet, do you want to say something? >> I think sometimes it's related to a crisis and so crisis situation. That brings you >> Yes. Yes. Yes. Right. Yeah. >> kind of forget kind of forget how horrible that was and how concerned and worried >> Right. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. So, one of the one of the beautiful minhagim of these days, and of course the mitzvah of Rosh Hashanah is the sounding of the shofar. So, we can look at the the top of page two. Rav Kook in the early years when he was in Eretz Yisrael, he first comes to Yafo. And um they asked Rav Kook, there was a calendar that was being I just bought a new calendar. I was at conference an hour ago but the You have to buy a new calendar every year. So, um so they they were coming out with a new calendar in Eretz Yisrael, very exciting. And they asked Rav Kook if he could write just like a one-line motto, an aphorism for each of the months, and they would put that on the calendar. And he did that for a number of years. So, in the month of Elul, he wrote the following. And this is And this is top of page two. It's in translation here. Uh aphorisms which Rav Kook composed for every month of the year were published in 1914 issue of Eretz Yisrael calendar in Yafo. Wow. And for Elul, this is what he wrote. Now, by the way, were I to ask you, he want he he writes about the shofar. That's going to be the theme. But what do you think about when you think about shofar? When I say shofar, what does the shofar represent? Now, Rav Kook is going to say something in this one line that I would say is usually not the way we think about the shofar. It's a chiddush. And this is what he writes when he thinks when his first thought, his one line about the shofar is the following: the preparation for collective repentance. And by the way, that's interesting. He's already talking about collective, meaning repentance of the klal, not only on a personal level, but how do we as a community do teshuvah? Is the sound of the shofar. Now, what does he mean by that? He adds one more, which rallies together all of the camps, all the machanot. What is Rav Kook referring to? And this is by the way, one of the few places in the Torah which speaks about shofar and speaks about the sounds of the shofar, of tekiah and teruah. Where is that mentioned in the Torah? There's really one place in the Torah where it talks about tekiah and teruah, where it talks about those sounds. When it talk That's right. When it talks about how the camps, how the machanot come together when they're about to travel, when war is upon them, how we prepare for battle. So, shofar, interesting. Were I to ask everyone, tell me about the shofar, I think, and for myself as well, I'm not sure if I would have thought about that aspect of shofar, but that is what the Torah speaks about when it speaks about the shofar. Speaks of the shofar as a way to bring community together. How do we bring the community together? It's with the sound of the shofar. How do we bond with one another? How do we care for one another? Shofar reminds us that we're part of a nation. Okay. That's very very interesting. So, I now come back to um I come back to Rav Aryeh Levin. So, I'm sure you have heard about the idea of lamed vav tzaddikim. Everybody know that idea? Lamed vavnik? So, where's the source for lamed vav, the 36 holy souls of every generation? Now, I I always thought that it was a midrash maybe somewhere in the in the Zohar, like the idea of 36 tzaddikim, it's in the Gemara itself. So, that was I I I didn't realize that. That was new to me. It's found in two different Gemaras, and I want to read to you one of the Gemaras. It's a Gemara in Sukkah mem hey amud bet, and it says the following, "Amar Abaye, lo pachis alma mi tlosin v'shita tzaddike." There's never less than 36 holy tzaddikim "d'mekabli appe shchina b'chol yom." That they receive the face of the shchina. They're able to see directly the shchina every single day. Shenemar, based on a pasuk, "Ashrei kol choche lo." Happy are those that wait for him. Look at what the Gemara says. Again, surprise. What's lo? Lamed vav. The gematria tlosin v'shita haveu. That's 36. So, these are those that wait on Hashem. These are those that are close with Hashem, the 36 righteous souls. So, this is a This is found in the Gemara itself. It's a Gemara idea. It's found in the Talmud that there are 36 holy souls. Now, in the days of there were many people that said he he he might be one of them, right? That That's one of the the holy the 36 holy tzaddikim that that are on this earth that the world exists because of these 36. So, there's a story that's told of a a young boy. His last name was Ben Baer. He grew up in Geula, and he became actually a a very well-known Israeli novelist. I believe he's still alive today. So, when he was a young boy, and he was walking he was religious young boy in in Geula, he saw Rav Aryeh Levin from the other side of the street. And he wanted to take that moment to ask the father a question. He runs across the street. He steps up to Rav Aryeh Levin, and he says, he's like 8 years old, he says, "Is it true that you're one of the lamed vav tzaddikim? Is it true that that you're one of the 36 holy souls?" So, this is what Rav Reb Levin said. He said one word. He said, "Sometimes." Now, then he But then he went on to explain the following. He said that there are in every generation 36 holy souls. But that's not a group that remains [clears throat] a solid group. It's always changing. It's always moving. He says, "A person does a remarkable chesed for somebody else. At that moment, that person becomes part of the 36 holy souls of the generation. So, there are times that I'm part of it. But then there are times that I'm that I step aside, that I move aside, and somebody else steps up and becomes part of the Lamed Vav Tzaddikim. And Reb Aryeh Levin was teaching such a beautiful lesson that to be a tzaddik, to be a tzadekes, I that's that's achievable. That's attainable. To become one of the the 36 special holy souls, that's for everyone. That's what Reb Aryeh Levin was teaching. It's for everyone. Everyone can be part of that. And it's a question of of doing special chesed, doing acts of of righteousness for others. So, that is that's part of this idea, this very very beautiful idea of of caring for others, of um We talk about as the mission says, we want to avoid sin, we don't want hate to come to our yad, even to our hands. So, fill our lives, fill our days, fill our hours with doing chesed, being part of the lives of other people in community. Um one other teaching from Reb Kook and um you know, we haven't started Rosh Hashanah yet, so I'm not sure if we should be talking about Sukkot. But um Reb Kook says the following about the holiday of Sukkot. Now, one of the ways of looking at Sukkot is that it's a progression. In other words, that we're moving from Rosh Hashanah, then we go to Yom Kippur, and Sukkot to some degree is the is the is the ultimate, that we reach the apex on on Sukkot and the holiday of Sukkot. And Rav Kook has the following teaching about the Sukkot. This is the bottom of page two. The pasuk says, "Kol ha ezrach b'Yisrael yeshvu ba Sukkot." That every citizen, that every member of the Jewish people should sit in a Sukkot. Says the Gemara, this is a Gemara in Sukkot chof zayin amud bet. "Melamed shekol Yisrael re'uyim leshev b'Sukkot achat." What do we learn from that pasuk? That ideally, the entire Jewish people should be sitting in a single Sukkot. How do we get everybody into one Sukkot? That's what That's the Gemara says, "Kol ha ezrach b'Yisrael yeshvu ba Sukkot." What it means is that everyone literally. How do we find that place and space that everyone can share one Sukkot together? So, Rav Kook writes the following. I'll just I'll let's just appreciate the the words of Rav Kook here. If you want to follow along with me, that bottom the bottom part in the first paragraph paragraph. "Kol zman she'avonot mekashrim et ha chayim b'chevleihem." As long as we have sin, and that's creating distance between Jews, "E efshar likabot leshivuy b'de'ot ul'achdut shel shalom." When there's sin, so we have a harder time feeling a sense of unity with one another. "Aval acharei she'or ha teshuvah hofia b'olameinu." But once the light of teshuvah enters, and we feel that beautiful teshuvah of Rosh Hashanah there's me teshuvah Yom Kippur, and there's a holiness, there's a sanctity, there's a purity that enters our hearts, "Al yedei kedushat hayom hakadosh shel Yom Kippurim, v'chol Yisrael nit'haru michalat ha chet." And everybody becomes healed from the sickness of chet, "Az hat'harah hanishmatit mitgaberet b'kirbeinu." Then we feel the purity of soul, and we feel the closeness of souls to one another, "T'chad hayodot hamufradot mit'achdut v'holchot." and all the different opinions that we have, they kind of fall away and we become there's achdut between the between all Jews. That's the way that he sees Sukkot. So, if we see if we see Sukkot in that light of achdut, of how to bring everyone together, that's the that's the goal. The goal is as we're moving in the chuva process, that we're breaking down the barriers, that we're feeling closer to one another, creating more community and more achdut. Let's go now to the top of page three. And here, this is a very very very important teaching of how to feel a greater sense of oneness and love for one for one another. This is the Gemara in Rosh Hashanah. Appropriately, it's found in Rosh Hashanah, Yud Zayin Amud Aleph, and says the following. Rava Amar, Rava said, Kol hamaavir al midotav, maavir lo al kol pishav. Now, what does it mean? Here you have a translation. What does it mean to be maavir al midotav? I'm not sure if that's a phrase that you're familiar with. Maavir al midotav, what it means is somebody does something to offend you, and what do you do? Maavir, over, you let it pass. Somebody does something, a word that offends you, they don't they didn't respond the way that you wanted, they didn't invite you to the kiddush that you thought you were supposed to be invited to, they didn't say hello in the morning when they left their house and here you are offended. Why didn't they, you know, why didn't you say hi properly? What does it mean to be maavir al midotav? It means that you just allow it to fall away. Maavir, that you let it pass, al midotav, on the measure. In other words, yes, measure for measure, you could measure it and say this person is guilty, I'm going to I'm going to be angry with this person, or maavir al midotav. You say you you just allow it to allow it to pass. They they translate it here whoever foregoes his reckonings, okay. So, Rav Ammar Kol Amav, if you do that as a person, what does Hashem do? Ma'avirin lo al kol pisha'av. Then Hashem also overlooks all of your sins. If you can overlook other people's faults and you don't take offense to that and you continue to to care for that person, love that person the same way, so then Hashem does the same for you. Hashem forgives, he overlooks all of your sins. Ma'avirin lo kol pisha'av. And the Gemara learns this in an amazing way from the pasuk she'ne'emar. What does the pasuk say? Nosei avon that Hashem lifts up sin v'over al pesha. And that he overlooks sin. And says the Gemara, l'mi nosei avon? Who does God lift up sin from? L'mi she'over al pesha. For a person who looks the other way, who forgives other people. That's who Hashem forgives. So, that is a beautiful lesson for this time of year as well and how to be closer to one another, right? Easily, we so easily or often judge others and we take offense and why did the person do this and I'm not going to talk to this person, I'm not going to have the same friendship. The Gemara says, you want to be forgiven for all your sins? This is the This is the key, right? This is the This is the secret. If you can be ma'avir midotav, you can allow what somebody else did to you, to overlook that and just let that fall away, so Hashem does the same for you as well. And then the Gemara tells an amazing story. And I'll just read the opening line and tell you the remainder of the story. Rav Huna berei d'Rav Yehoshua chalash. It tells the story of Rav Huna, this is the continuation of this Gemara in Rosh Hashanah Yevamot that he was very, very sick. Chalash in the Gemara means not just chalash that he was weak, it means that he was very sick, deathly sick. Al Rav Papa Abba Papa to visit him at that time. And I'll just share with you the remainder of the story. Abba notices that Rabbah is very, very sick, and he's about to pass away. So, Abba says that it's time to prepare for burial. He says, "Let's Let's prepare shrouds, and I see that that uh the great Rabbi Rabbah is going to pass away from this world." All of a sudden, Rabbah has a recovery. And he gets better. So, Abba comes back to him, and he says, "I'm so sorry, you know, for what I did, and uh that I that I already announced that you were passing away." And Rabbah says the following. He says, "You know what? I was about to pass away. And I saw the following." He had a vision of the following. This is what the Gemara says, "That the Malach Hamavet was about to take my life. Was about to take my life, and that's what you noticed, that I was about to leave this world. But then, Hashem, God, stepped in and said the following, 'Because Rabbah is Ma'avir Al Midotav, because he overlooks when people offend him, and he allows that just to fall away,' he says to Malach Hamavet, 'Leave at this moment. Give more years to life of Rabbah.'" And that's what the Gemara says. The Gemara says that that was the That was the secret of of his long life. He was about to pass away. It was the time that he was to leave this earth. But Hashem said at the last moment, "You know what? This is a man who is Ma'avir Al Midotav, that he that he forgives, that he looks the other way, that he doesn't take offense, even where, you know, it's it's It may be right, it may be correct to take offense, but that he does not do." So, that is uh I think that's a beautiful lesson saying for all of us to think about as well. And what it means during this time of year to feel closer to one another, to care for one another, maybe to care for those that we've had a falling out with and that sense of of of of of achdus. Okay, I want to I want to conclude with the following with this teaching and one last teaching from Rav Cook. I don't know if this is a a story I I imagine there's something that some of you did see. It happened a few months ago and it's quite in a quite a remarkable story and and uh outcome of this story. There was a young girl in Monsey, New York. Her name was Charlotte and she was on her bike on her street and uh there was a car that came by and hit her and she was killed. Now, it turns out that the man who was driving the car that hit this young girl was the best friend and chavruta of the father. It was the father's best friend and chavruta, learn with him every day, and he was the one who killed his daughter. So, that happened just it happened in June. Just happened a few months ago in Monsey. I think it was in Pomona. If you What's that? In in Pomona, New York. And um the name of the parents the name of the father is Yudi and Chumi Hertzberg. Yudi Hertzberg. And after the death of their daughter um they started a project in which they asked the Jewish people, reaching out to the Jewish people, to be forgiving of others, to be ma'avir midotav. And he said the same way and and I'll read it to you it's in front you have it in front of you, but I'll read it and just share it with you. The same way that he was able to forgive and that was such an important part of what happened that he was able to forgive his friend and to say that there's not going to be any difference in our relationship. The the way that we learned together and the way that we loved one another before and it's going to be the same after this incident is well, which is really quite a remarkable thing. Let me just let me just read this this is really this is a letter that he writes as you see at the very at the very top the dear klal Yisrael June 2nd 2026 started out as the most regular day of recent memory. That afternoon I picked up my son from school and was nearly home when I got a frantic phone call from my wife. She was hysterical screaming that our 8-year-old daughter Charlotte had been hit by a car. The panic in her voice was terrifying. Pulling up to the house 2 minutes later, I was relieved to see my dear friend my chaverusa on the scene. He's a Hatzalah guy, the person I rely on whenever we have medical a medical situation with another close friend and a Hatzalah volunteer there as well. Seeing the two people who are always there for me on the scene made me feel like everything was going to be okay. But then I saw my chaverusa look away from me. He was looking at his car and suddenly everything clicked. He was the driver. My beautiful daughter who never stopped moving was laying motionless in the street and standing there filled with fear and heartache I kept asking myself how could this be possible? How could it be that my chaverusa the person I love like a brother, the husband of my wife's dear friend, someone who stands for chesed in our community how could he have been the driver of the car that hit Charlotte? At first it didn't make any sense, but then slowly even at that moment things started coming together. I knew that people would talk that fingers would be pointed and that all too soon our community would be torn apart and I couldn't let that happen. My friend, my brother couldn't be the reason for our community to become divided. Not him, someone who stands for shalom, someone who is the polar opposite of a reckless driver, someone who is always the first person to speak to others about driving carefully. At that moment, I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that this incident that I'm sorry, that this accident was Yad Hashem and that something greater was happening here. Before leaving to the hospital with my wife, I hugged my friend and let him know that this wasn't going to destroy the close bond we had built over the years. He was so torn up over the accident he couldn't even look at me. The whirlwind that is every parent's worst nightmare continued. My wife and I rushed to the hospital and saw with our own eyes how Itzala and the hospital staff did everything they could. They worked 40 minutes for 40 minutes trying to revive Charlotte, but it was clear that she wasn't meant to come back to us. The next day at Levaya, I spoke about how the Satan was testing us, how he wanted to show Hashem that our beautiful neighborhood, a neighborhood which the epitome of achdus couldn't handle a machlokes. But the Satan underestimated us, I told everyone, and we're going to prove him wrong. The response we received from the Levaya and the Hesped were beyond anything we could have imagined. People started asking themselves if Charlotte's parent if Charlotte's parents could be mochel the driver, how could they allow grudges and machlokes to fester in their own lives? People began forgiving as a zchus for Charlotte's neshama, with dozens pouring in by with stories pouring in by the dozen. So now, in Charlotte's memory, we created Shalom for Charlotte. An initiative encouraging every member of Klal Yisrael to forgive, to forget, and to move on. Do it for Charlotte, do it for yourself, do it for Klal Yisrael. The Beis Hamikdash was destroyed because of sinas chinam. Right now, we have the opportunity to rebuild it with ahavas chinam. We ask all of you go to our website, take the pledge, resolve to end machlokes, to drop a grudge, or not to speak nega- negatively about people because together in Charlotte's memory we can bring Mashiach Yudi and Chumi Hertzberg. So, I went to Yeah, it's quite an amazing I went to the website. You can take a look at it as well. There's over 4,000 people that share a little story about their lives, how they forgive somebody else, how they sent a text to somebody that they haven't spoken to in a long time. And this is what they wanted to do. This is the way that they wanted to to memorialize and bring a zechus to uh to her memory, to Charlotte's memory, to Sheindel bas Chaim Yehuda Leib. Really a very, very beautiful story and what it means to be um to be mochel somebody, to be ma'avir al middosav. Okay. And you can Yeah, I I encourage you to take a look at it. And uh if you like, you can be part of that There's 4,000 I think it's up to 4,100 or so uh people that have that have Again, it's not signing up for anything. You're just sharing that this is what you've done. Many, many people share just a short anecdote. This is somebody that I haven't spoken to, somebody I haven't reached out to, somebody I had a falling out with. And to be mochel another person. Okay. Let me conclude with the following. And this is uh one of my favorite favorite teachings of Rav Kook. It's also a Sukkos teaching so we can we can put in our back pockets and we can we can bring it out also when when Sukkos rolls around, please God, in a few weeks. And it talks about making peace. It's one of the one of the I think one of the famous teachings of Rav Kook. So, one of the brachos that we say and we say this on Shabbos and we say this on Yom Tov, we change the nusach just a bit at the end of Hashkiveinu right before the Amidah in Ma'ariv. Again, this is every Friday night we say this and we say it on Yom Tov as well. We say Ufros Aleinu Sukas Shelomecha that Hashem, you should cover us with a sukka of peace. That's right before the Amidah. You should cover us with a sukka of peace. Now, what does that mean a sukkah of peace? Why why a sukkah of peace? What are What do sukkahs have to do with peace per se? So, Rav Kook has a beautiful teaching. Let me read it to you. And you can see it here together. Uh we can see it together. Matzinu be sukkah, we find in the laws of sukkah nishnu by hilchos meyuchadot, we find very particular laws different from all other laws when it comes to the law of sukkahs shehein machshiro so that you can have a kosher sukkah in many many different ways. Lo rak keshe'einam bishleimutah el a gam keshechasirin bachalakim gedolim, you can be missing many parts of a sukkah and it's still kosher. What does he mean? Shteim mechizot kehilchatan, you could have two walls ushlishit afilu tefach, and the third wall is just a tefach, right? That's a small amount. Dofen akumah ad arba amos, you could have a wall that's small and yet it's considered to be a full wall. Lavud gud achis, all of these different halachic principles that allow a sukkah, even though it's not a full sukkah, to be a kosher sukkah. Now, we don't say that anywhere else. We don't say tefillin if you're missing one of the parshiyot that that's kosher tefillin. We don't say, "Well, it's almost it's kosher enough, you know, there's like one ingredient that isn't kosher in there, but it's it's just a We never say that for any other halacha. But for sukkahs, we say when it comes to a sukkah, it could be less than four walls, it could not have the full wall, and allows for it to be kosher. Vehi hu din midat shalom. And he says this is also true when it comes to making peace with others. Hashalom hu kol kach yakar, shalom is so precious vechol kach chiyuni, it's so essential to life shegam ilu nitan lasigo bishleimutah, even if we can't achieve it in fullness, in whole. We've had a falling out with somebody. Can you make that perfect again? Not necessarily. But does that mean that we don't try to be a little bit closer? That we don't reach out and say, "I'm sorry and I forgive you. I know we haven't spoken." The relationship may not be whole, it may not be perfect, but a little bit more shalom, a little bit more shalom is so important. Habakkuk says, "It's appropriate, how important it is, even if it's not whole, to pursue peace." Even if it's not whole, we want to make peace between one another. Who been you had to see more. God all our shalom, greatest peace. That's what we're praying for peace. God in your act of bikini not suka, even if it's just a suka shalom. That's what he says, that's what we govern on Friday night in the Yanta. Even it's just like a suka shalom. That suka that kind of shalom is also so important. Shiraka and you kind of mashiro so this I think is a is a very very beautiful lesson as we're thinking about chuva and thinking about these days in the coming weeks. A chuva that we should be more and more involved in the lives of others, more hased, to try to make up in any way possible with others. And in this in this way bring greater afters. And as the mission says, the more that we're involved in the lives of others, more we care, the more merit that we bring. And Bali I don't we will not have any sin and I shall should uh bring us a a year of bracha and of peace and of good health and I must I shall we will continue our study we have next week as well and then the following week, which is at series of chuva, and then we go on I think a two-week break. Then then we start after that. Wish everyone a good day. Great to see everyone again. And so wrote to vote culture.