The Emuna of Rosh HaShana-Sovereignty, Remembrance and the Sounds of the Shofar Rabbi Azarya Berzon

um rabi umori RAB rabar bersan I discussed the learn with Rabbi bersan first as an 18-year-old and then is a 21y old madri and one of the many institutions that raban is responsible for founding the many teror institutions that ran is responsible for founding um ran is a muak of Sal a pric writer and teacher and it's a great to have him with us this evening to share his insights on the mo without further Ado Rabbi bza rashash is a very complicated holiday every other moid is identified with either a specific aod or with a specific Z you know something that we want to remember whether we want to remember the sukos that God protected Us in the midbar whether we want to remember you whether you want to mat Toro or even yur is focused on one single concept and that's kapar atonement but what is rashash about I mean it's very nice I remember as a youngster we would buy a new suit for rashash that's that's very impressive and uh I'll never forget buying tickets to get seats in the Sho on rashash you know many many memories but what is the real deep profound meaning of rashash as the beginning of the year the day of judgment what is it all about what is what am I supposed to be thinking and I believe that the key to unlock rash is in Theos now Theos themselves are very complicated in the case of any other y we have a structure ofon which is made up of seven the first three are what we call three in which we thank hasem and praise him we have then a a middle one single BR and that is the BR in which we mention the the sanctity of the day and the last three are to thank Hashem as if we say well God you're great this is a great day and we know and we have no question that you have hearkened have prayers and therefore we thank you so those are the last three so the total number is going to be what seven three one and three seven however when it comes to rashash the number is not seven because we're going to add three bra none of which appear in any other throughout the entire year once a year and that's going to be in the mus service of rashash we are going to commemorate two days of rashash all over the world so we'll have another opportunity on the second day to get it right and really concentrate on the mus service so your homework assignment after we finish today is to study the mus and what I really mean to say is that you should take and analyze the mus of service it's made up of three what are those three everybody and so we all know these three now if you add three to seven well that's not high in mathematics you get 10 correct and yet I'm going to challenge you when you get a chance to open it up the moar you'll see that not 10 but only nine and why is that this is based on and the gar establishes that the key number here is nine and I'll read to you just one line from the G what is the significance of the number nine and the gamar says that we derive this from teaches us she is the one who gives us the insights and the precedent to she is the great woman of prayer and in her prayer in sa you could count the name of God nine times so the gor says that corresponding to the nine names of the almighty that are mentioned by KH in her prayer we will recite nine on R now there's a problem here we have to figure this out we know that there are seven we're not going to drop any of those seven because those are the basic fabric of any on a day that's Sanctified whether it be shabas so we have seven but now in rash we have to add three and we're stuck over here because the number has to be nine so we can't just drop one BR so what are we going to do we're going to have to do what I call integration what does integration mean we're going to have to take one of the three added whether it be and we're going to take that we'll have to see which one it is and integrate it into one of the seven so that we're going to reduce the number from 10 to n is everybody following me we're gonna have to choose one of the three whether it be and we're going to have to integrate it into one of the pre-existing and by that we will reduce the number from 10 to n so again the magic number is nine corresponding to the is this working by the way I think it's too is it too loud am I it's a bit too loud okay I'll move I'll move away I couldn't hear her I don't know but maybe the microphone there wasn't working well here it's working great and it's too great but I don't like a microphone because I like to jump around the room but I don't know how to do that with the microphone but I probably could if I was sophisticated enough but in any event so here's the again here's the deal we're GNA we're going to summarize everything we said the standard has to have how many on every sh seven we're gonna have to add on three and the deres each one of the three from a different verse in the Torah and now if we add three to the nine we end up with 10 but we have a problem because the says that rash has to have nine so here ensues a great controversy between three T tonight we're going to study two out of the three the third one is going to integrate zos he's going to integrate zon you know somehow he's going to take sronos and he's going to integrate it but according to the the two major opinions that of RAB Yan Ben Nuri and RAB AKA and hopefully by the end of this year you'll be familiar with these names and you'll be able to associate their opinions with these names they put their finger and designate malos malos is going to be the BR of the three that has to be integrated and that's true both according to rabri and according to RAB AA okay but now we have the next question where you going to integrate it you're going have to choose one of the and integrate Mal into one of those so we're all familiar if you open with the sheet of the opinion of and Raba claims that we have to integrate Mal into k k being the middle bra so what we do is we recite the first three BR of Chev then after finishing the last of the three which is called which we get back to in then we move on to what's called that's the middle that expresses the essence and the sanctity of the day and RAB AKA says that now now K becomes very complicated because what's K going to now entail not but also what correct correct excellent I I don't know what school you went to but you learned very well okay so then we go on to the to and the last three which are that's rri disagrees rri wants to take Mal and he wants to integrate it into what which normally during the year is but on this day it's GNA be what which word do you want to underline now in order to understand why insists that we integrate Mal into into which word are you g to underline not AOS did you close you had a 50/50 chance you got it wrong but because once you Mel once you mention M you've already described God as a king Now's the Time to integrate Mal fine so again just to summarize accr where according to R G to integrate malus into what [Music] comes along RAB AKA and he attacks rri and he says the following you know what if you're integrating malos into then why should you recite Mal just drop it drop it entirely so the gamar immediately raises the question I don't understand Raba what do you mean drop malus we derived from suim that on Russ sh we have to recite malus that's an absolute unconditional obligation how could RAB AKA attack and accuse R to such an extent that you have to drop malos leave it out so the says hold on a second that's not what RAB AA had in mind we got to rewrite the script what RAB AA had in mind was that according to you instead of reciting 10 we're going to drop the last and we only recite nine now let's understand each one of the three additional benedictions of rashash is made up of 10uk we recite 10 verses comes and he say says I want to accuse you rri of dropping the 10th that's question number one question number two the gamar establishes that after each one of these three malau we have to blow the Schauer according to you following malos we cannot blow the chauffer and in fact thear establishes that a Coter of Y we will delay blowing the chauffeur until we get to so the chauffer of Mal Accord will be delayed we're going to recite integrated into but we're going to delay blowing the chauffer of Mal until we get to so let's ask two questions over here first of all we have to recite 10 why does r accuse rri of having to drop the 10th P or to formulate it differently how is the 10th P different than the first nine second question why does Raba accuse R and apparently concedes that we're not going to blow the chauffer after malus because malus is incorporated Co where everybody into again I wish I had a white board here but are you following K therefore there's no chauffeur but we will blow chur in what's going on so having said that we now want to analyze the structure of each one of these three extra BR and the structure of these three Bros is made up is comprised of three different different parts the first part is what I call a statement of faith so let's go through the three parts we're not going to read through all theim but it works like this we've got malus what's the fundamental principle of malus anyone not coronating God but God is King the sovereignity of God is the subject of the first of the three Bros what's the subject of the second of the three Bros zos anybody what do it we remember who remembers God remembers and who does God remember God remembers all of human mankind God is not the attached God is Not aloof God what we call Divine Providence so again let's summarize the fundamental belief of malis is that God is King what we call Divine sovereignity the fundamental concept ofos is what we call Divine Providence that we get to chofos this is the most complicated all of them what is theod of Chaos begins with what what is that word revelation correct divine revelation so we have three principles of our faith which correspond and are reflected to the three different Bros that we added on rash in the number one Divine sovereignity God is King number two Divine Providence zon God is aware of what's going on in every person's life and number three revelation God reveals himself so the section number one in each of these three Bros what we could call the introduction introduces a fundamental of the faith in the case of malos for example we introduce in ALU if you're familiar with Al the fact that God is Mel now we get on to the second section Roman numeral number two of each of these these three and that is 10im what's the purpose of the 10im I need one word anyone we're all amongst friends what' he say proof proof in Hebrew prove to be that this you saw that this principle is true now if you want to prove truth and you're a religious Jew where do you turn to to prove truth to the Torah itself so we're g to quote 10uk but in truth it's only n I'll explain why when you want to prove something according to the dictates of Jewish law there's a key number it's not enough to say Well it happened once it's not enough to say it happened twice in order to establish a pattern it has to happen Thrice three times for example in the case of a sh if you have an ax the gar establishes based on that if the ax has to be established as a shud which means a belligerent ax it's got to gore not once not twice but three times three times establishes truth it's a pattern and we can rely on that pattern repeat repeting itself so now we ask the question how do you prove that God is King how do you prove Divine Providence how do you prove divine revelation and the answer is the following we're g to quote three from the Torah we're g to quote three from theim we're gonna quote three from and now we've turned to every single section of the Torah every discipline of the Torah and we've proved over and over and over again three times that this is true but what about the 10th pule if we've already proved three times over from Torah why do I need a 10th p and the answer you'll find in the M but only if you read the Mas carefully because now we get to section number three ran num number three of each of these three bras and that [Music] is prayer and and let me try to explain and I'm gonna challenge you with the following question is God King yes I heard a lot of people say yes I'll ask again is God King okay I'm going to ask a third time is God King yes all right I failed miserably I tried is God really King well has the world accepted God as king hasas orah accepted God as king do the except God is King there's evil in the world the world is full of evil people who deny God true in the physical universe God is King I'll give you a great example if you climb up to a roof a very high place and you take a wrong step you're going to get smashed because there's a Divine Law of nature called gravity and you can't deny God's gravity but when it comes to the moral law God granted man freedom of choice and unfortunately tragically man abuses that gift the freedom of choice and therefore God's sovereignity and malus is not a reality on the one end we believe that God is King we know that God is King but it's not true in reality it's not so the world has failed to accept God as the king and therefore we conclude malos with a prayer asking God to trans transform that abstract concept of divine malus into reality we desire and we wait patiently but not so patiently anymore for God's Divinity and sovereignity to become a reality when all of men will accept God and by the way in zros we're going to have the same structure number one we're going to introduce in the of that God remembers all of man God you're aware of man we're g to prove this with three from Torah three from and three from the then we have the 10th which we didn't discuss and then afterwards we're going to ask Hashem on this day of rashash we beg you to remember us l and inscribe Us in the book of of goodness same thing in chos we're going to start with we're gonna make a statement a declaration of faith that God you have revealed yourself in the past we're going to prove that with three three and three and then we're going to go on to a prayer in the third section and we ask Hashem to reveal himself again and by the way if we had time to discuss chaus which I don't know if we'll have time today you will see that chaus has two different dimensions to it number one the community as a whole God revealed himself to all of men and number two the individual prayer in which I ask God to reveal himself to me what's the 10th puz now you've got the introduction which is the sodos the fundamentals of the faith you've got nine as proof where is the 10th or does it belong above or does it belong at the end because it's going to connect us and Bridge us to the third section and again if you have a you'll see that the third section always begins with and that's how we introduce the prayer at the end of each one of these three and the 10th p is is Incorporated in that now I know I was going to discuss with you something about the 10th called it's a little bit more complicated because it really doesn't appear after but then I noticed that R ra dra is going to speak about this topic so I'm off the hook in any event what we want to know now is given the fact that the 10th P belongs to the third section Roman numeral number three and it's a now we have a problem why because one of the rules of is that you cannot integrate a and a into the first three Bros are holy of holies non touchable a person wants to ask Hashem for something I want to petition the Almighty I cannot do so during the third first three Bros what is the third of the first three BR K so until I get there's no room for then which do we have to drop according to because takes and he integrates it into what so jumps on and he asks him how are you going to justify the 10th POS because you're still within the framework of the first three Bros which are that don't tolerate any and if the third if the 10th P if the N of a proof is a then we can't integrate it into it can't be part of K because is the third of a set a closed set called she and now at this point rri concedes that there's something 100% right about Rab's argument because what we're gonna have to do is we're gonna have to drop something because we're in K which is part of the first three which is and does tolerate B what do we have to draw I'll give you a hint you guess it the chauffeur there's no room for the chauffeur and here my friends we have to understand what is the essence of a chaur and the essence of the blowing of the chur inau which is really the mitashi says is you know the story of the shepherd boy who wants to pray to Hashem but he doesn't know how to do so he's totally ignorant so what does he do he takes out his flute and he says to the almighty please take these different tones and notes and construct a prayer I don't know how to pray and a rashash when it's a day of fear on this day we don't have the ability to EXP express our prayers so we blow the chauffeur and the sounds of the chauffeur go up to sh as a prayer but we can't do that according to we're in deep trouble because has malos in Kad and Kad is the third of what entity CH no room for chauffeur chauffeur is chauffeur is bakha chauffeur cannot be integrated into any of the first three Bros including K and at this point agrees we've got to postpone the blowing of the chauffeur we cannot blow the chaar in connection with we have to wait and delay it until when now how does get away with and once again we turn to the m and if you look into M you'll see that in we speak about and we pray for oh I'm sorry I'm sorry you're asking [Music] is integrated why so here I think I have to end that 8:40 what time is it now 8:31 okay so I'm just trying to Pace myself at this this point we have to introduce R when I say Rim I mean r brisker salv Rim was told about a ruling of the I don't know if you heard lived about a century ago a little bit more many of you may have the minut of reading his prayer on kidra night which is called faka recommended for men I don't know about women but anyway parts of that there for men but be that as it may he was asked the following question somebody finished and he said what did he leave out says the he doesn't have to repeat and said no you cannot have without if you don't mention the fact that is then you haven't Express the and your is invalid so what do we learn from as I said at the outset rash is a very very complicated today but if you have to define the essence of the the sancity of then has given us the Insight says it's the fact that hem is me but as we said before is theoretically in abstract terms the answer is yes as you all said but in reality Tas as we say it's far from em the universe has not accepted God as Mel so when we recite malus and I beg of you not just for this rash but for any rash but especially maybe this rash please have in mind malos that God you should become a that is what we're desperately needed and we're going to get to the point in which where is and where is he reveal himself all this is going to take place when the Mal becomes universally accepted and here I want to ask you how is that going to happen what I'm really asking is does man have the capacity on his own without any help on his own initiative to accept God as his Sovereign King and this I believe is the most fundamental controversy about number one rashash and number two about all of our philosophy of man optimistic man says man has the capacity to do chuva man has the capacity to open his eyes and see God on his own initiative as we said pessimistic man says no man on his own will never be able to come universally and accept God as king there'll be individuals but not man as a whole and this issue lies at the heart of the complexity of rash for example if we take the vision of malos it says anyone who has a soul every man is going to declare hasem is Mel there's no cisic effect impact that's going to wake up man from his slumber man on his own is going to come to it but then we get to Chau and we get to Chau we're talking about Divine punishment we're talking about Chau a great chauffer on high that's going to awaken man because man doesn't have the capacity of on his own to accept God as Mel and if you take a look at K which is's version of Mal you will see what I mean because over and over the theme of is one word the same over and over again is fear overwhelmed by fear something's going to happen in this earth that's going to terrorize man and wake him up from his slumber man cannot come to do Chu on his own but RAB has a different philosophy R's malos in the is radically different as we say and we say and over again that man will come to accept God but that's R and R and then we fast forward to chaos I wanted to discuss with you a mismar and toim that we recite over and over again but I'm afraid we're running out of ta but if you can take a look at M which we repeat over and over again and you'll see that describing man there are two different words used one word is and then it says and my re pointed out that there's a fundamental difference V is like you know when you force the bottle cap to open up man is totally passive at this point but if you look at man is active and on his own he comes to find God and accept Divine sovereignity I would like to read to you since we mentioned R Dan the that hopefully we will all recite the Min on a y the what are we focused on what are we asking for what are we saying to Hashem with this you know we have something called bonai M we talk about having children raising them we speak about parosa having the wherewithal we speak about asking for life but on these holy days when we are focused on on accepting God's sovereignity listen to the authored by that I mentioned before love and fear love and run and pursue tah to always look forward how can I serve hasem how can I make hasem my M on my life and then even when we finally get to one word about paros listen to this everything our entire focus our entire purpose our goal we want to make hasem our King and accept his Mal and if each one of us makes that step if each one of us in our own personal individual way will accept Mal will be aware of hashem's closeness to Usos we'll hear the chaar of rashash and if each one of us in his or her individual way will be awakened by that chofar the chofar of that we in our individual way can reveal Hashem to ourselves in our own lives and teach our children and pass on that Legacy that will go from generation to generation a legacy of Mal of of and then as this ends [Music]