Torah Modiin | Finding Forgiveness | Rabbi Eitiel Goldwicht

I also want to acknowledge have that uh the president of OU Israel, Mr. Steuart Hershk has just walked in the room. Thanks Steu for being here. Um it's my to introduce our keynote speaker, opening keynote speaker and that's Rabbi Tio Golovvic. Rabbi Gvvic's talk this evening is sponsored by Daniellea and Jo Joseph Helerstein in honor of all the Kyle of the community. And we thank Danielle and and Joey for all they've done to make this evening possible be Godul beyond the sponsorship of this year as well. Rabil is the founder president of VLU group a Jewish leadership and education initiative that integrates modern professional tools with timeless Jewish wisdom to help Israeli youth young professionals achieve success with meaning. He previously served as educational director at Aish where his dynamic lectures and programs impacted tens of thousands of visitors annually. A graduate of university and ordained by the chief rabb of Israel also served with distinction as associate rabbi bees nasi under Rabbi Barl wine zaka an experience that strengthened his ability to connect with diverse communities. He lectures widely both wild widely in both Hebrew and English and continues to expand his reach through media media appearances, videos and social platforms inspiring audiences in Israel and around the world. is a great scoop to welcome and introduce Haravatil Go. [Applause] What is to be back here in this and to see it filled for Torah, especially in this week. This is the week that the Nav'i says should call out to Hashem when he's around. You should find him when he's right next to us. It is these 10 days between Shai and Yumiper where Hashem is close to us. These are the days where we have a special mitzvah to search out for Hashem. And that mitzvah is the mitzvah of Chuva. And that's why we call these 10 days, what do we call them? Chuva. These are the 10 days of chuva. Number one, is it really 10 days? That's the So is Rashashana part of the process or not. If it is part of the process, where do we find chuva? Did we do chuva in rashashana? There is no action of vidi of saying I'm sorry even in the gonim the tour brings down that to say shouldn't be there. Not on rash. It's not a day of saying we're sorry. It's a day of saying hashem melik hashem you are the king. So why is it part of chuva? And if it's 10 days of chuva what should the pinnacle be called? The 10th day. It should be called yomach. But we don't call it yom huva. We call it yom hakurim yap. What is the difference between and is kapar just something that hashem does to us and we just sit there or do we need to do something more unique that we don't do during the rest of the days of the chuva and if it's the same thing so then just call it as chuva and if it's not It's something that happens. What exactly is muva? And if you notice, it's actually a transition where we are transitioning from the world of seven that we live in during the week into the world of 10. We live in a week that is seven days. It's not because of the orbits. It's not because of the sun and the moon. We know why there's 365 days in a year. We know why there's 30 days in a month. That's the moon. Okay. 29 and a half. So, we make it to 30. We know why there's 24 hours a day. Because of the sun, the earth spins on its axis. Why are there seven days in the week? It's nothing to do with the sun and the moon and the stars. It's only because in the Torah, it defined for us we're going to be living in a seven-day week. Six days of work and on the seventh day of Shabas. Now, the number seven makes sense. The number seven. If you take the cabalist speak about this, the moral brings this down. If you take anything that is three-dimensional like a cube, how many sides are in a cube? >> Six. Got the four sides of the world in LA. If you ever notice on a dice, the top is number one. What's on the bottom? >> Number six. Here it's two. Here it's three. Here it's five. Here it's three. Here it's four. It always adds up to the number seven. Says the mar. Number seven is when you take the physical world that we live in that we could touch and feel but you infuse it with something spiritual on the inside. Number seven is the spirituality in the physical world. That's why on Shab we're eating the physical food that we worked for all week but we feel that's why when and get married we have because not just a physical union there is a spiritual a soul union between two people that love one another all the number sevens that we have in Judaism represent that the physical but the spiritual within the physical but now we're moving into the number 10 what is this transformation into the number 10. We know that there is the seven midos. But once you enter the number 10, that's the assaros, the 10 attributes of speech that created the world. See, when I was a kid, I remember my mother told me, "Don't play ball in the house." I'm sure we all had that. Why? There was a special vase that she got from her mother, and she didn't want that vase broken. We were good kids most of the time. One time me and my brother played ball in the house and what happened? The vase broke. Emma was devastated even more. We were devastated. We broke the vase. We felt so bad and and we couldn't even look at her. But then we came. We said we're sorry. And Ema loved us. She got over it. She forgave us because that's what parents do. She was able to move on. We were able to move on. Did the vase come back? The vase didn't come back. When you enter the world of 10 of Hashem says the way you process things is not the way I process things. And your ways is not my way. in my world if you come with a broken heart and you say I'm sorry and you're in the world of 10 of that the 10 attributes in which the world was created and you come properly on so then the vase as if it was never broken. How does that work? What is the process? What is the mitzvah of chuva? Why is rashashan a part of the chuva the 10 days of chuva? Why is the 10th day yakurim not called yoma chuva but rather yip? I want to learn with you inside a little bit of the Rambam in Hilos Chuva to try to understand what is the mitzvah of chuva. How does the Rambam see it? How does the Rambam see it? And what are perhaps three steps that the Rambam teaches us that we could go through getting ready for the big day of Yumipra because the mitzvah of Chuva is not so simple. According to most the Ramban theo, they say it's a mitzvah to do chuva. If you messed up, you have to do chuba. It's a Torah. I commit it's not far from you. It's the mitzvah of chuva. You have to do vidi and you have to feel the chuva in your heart to do it. And that's the mitzvah of this is the mitzvah according to the Raman according to the Rambam though it's not so clear says the Rambam this is the famous Ram in a famous discussion and the gives his explanation and I want to ask a question on that and maybe give a different explanation within the Ram says the Ram all of the mitzvah that are in the Torah if you if you transgress by mistake When you do two questions here on the Ramba when you do then you're in front of who? All the all the asking him what do you mean the ra should have said if somebody transgressed one of the mitzvah of the what does that mean when he does chuva you should you should do vi and then who else am I supposed to do vid in front of I I did an aa I was shabas who who am I supposed to sit of course it's what's The rabb teaching us unbelievable over here the understands this you know there's three types of mitzvah there are mitz that you have to do like I have to put on fill in every day if I don't do it I'm I let go of an opportunity of a mitzvah there's another mitzah that I don't have to do but if the s situation arises I I could be I'm to do it which is I don't have to wear a titus be it I don't have to wear a fourc cornered garment but if I wore it so then I have to put on the there's another type of mitzvah which you never need to get to and the example that the say is like the mitzvah of get I got married I don't have to get divorced even if the wedding is not even if I got into a fight with my wife we don't right away get divorced right I don't have to go through that process but if one does decide to get divorced there's a mitzvah of how to do it there's a you need to have you have to give it to her you have to have there's the system how to do it. You don't have to get to it. Says the that's perhaps what the Rama means over here. You don't have to do chuva. If one transgressed, he doesn't have to do chuva. He could be stuck with his if he chooses to do chuva. You have a way how to do it. The mitzvah is to do vid. That's how the explains it. It's very hard to say that cuz if you look at the Ram in the seventh per the Rambam says all of the were to do and even more so in per says the Ramb have to do and he says like this everyone needs to The Ram says you have to do and be he didn't say and also I don't know if you ever if you notice here are the of the Rama there is like the introduction of the Ram that says mitzv what is the mitzvah that these are going to say it's always a oneliner in the beginning of every ra it comes from the safer mitzvah it was actually written by the rabb and says says the Rambam over here in this one liner. What is the mitzvah? Does he say mitzvah or and you have to do the vid. It's very clear that even according to the Rama and Salvich asks also he says theim also are saying that there's a mitzvah to do chuva and he's he points out a lot of these nikudos and a lot of the areing on the saying it must be that the ra has the mitzvah of chuva but if so why does he say chuva and what exactly is the process of chuva so I want to introduce understanding and for me this was a new understanding of what happens happens on your own kipper and what is left for us and it just totally revolutionized my own kipper when when I understood this you see there's two operating systems in Judaism there's one operating system that is very clear it goes from father to son it has very strict rules you have to do things very meticulously you come into work only when you're 25 and then you have five years of training you only start when you're 30 you only work one week a year, twice a year in a very specific location at a very specific job. This is the operating system of the kohanim in the basa mikdash. If you're learning dafomi and you know it is very meticulous. It's got the four major things. You got to do the and the you got to have very very exact of how that operating system works. That we have a whole book for that. It's the core of the Torah. It's called Torah's kohanim. And in the middle of the core of Torah we have paras which teaches us all of the of the very what happens on yakipur in all of Torah's kohanim the word chuva in all of the word chuva does not appear once not once all it says the word that appears in this operating system is and purity and cleansiness. That's it. There's another operating system in Judaism. It could not limited to men or women. It does not get passed from father to son. Any one of us could be operating in this operating system. We don't have set clothes. We could operate anywhere. There's no set location, time or place. That operating system is called the nian, the prophets. When they would come to the basd, it was a place of clarity. They could feel it more, but it could happen anywhere and they could feel that the nim are the ones who spoke about chuva. And in fact, when we had the mdash, the warned us that this operating system of the kohanim will not work unless you do the chuva. Why do I need a thousand corbanos if your heart has not done chuva? And therefore, when you understand that background, we now understand the process. And perhaps this is the mitzvah that the Ram teaches us. three steps of how one gets to chuva and why the final day is called yomap yakipur and not yachuva the first step is actually an rashash onash the gimar in kdushian says see it's very when you look at the the rama in also in chuva in in the third paric he says there's still a is about the chauffeur what is The real is in the words of the blowing of the chauffeur says the what does that have to do with with rash because the chauffeur this is the the in when a man goes up to a woman and says you're to me on condition that I'm a sadic. So is he is she mudes or not? What do you say? Ladies, is there a chance that this guy's a sadic? There's no way. But says the maybe he had a a moment of thinking, you know what, I want to be a sadic and that's enough. He's called aadic. If you want to be aadic you're the first step of chuva is that you say that I want this imagine there's a a couple that is fighting have a difficult relationship unfortunately went south and they're fighting and they decide to go to counseling they're going to the rv they're going to the marriage counselor and as they sit in front of the rv they're fighting and they're they're arguing with one another the marriage counselor stops them and they're fighting and they're say why are you guys So the woman says, "We want to know if there's a chance for our marriage." So the marriage counselor says, "I have one question to ask both of you." I need a yes and no answer. Are you in? Is this relationship important enough for you? Are you both willing to put in effort to it? Yes or no? That's it. Before that, we can't start. And there's quiet in the room. They're all like looking at the at their fingers. But after a minute or two, the husband says, "I'm in. This is important for me." The lady also picks her head up and she says, "I'm in." So the marriage counselor, the rabbi, they say, "Okay, now we have what to work with." The chauffear is here to wake us up and it's a it's a pure sound that that we need to sound and to say we are in. You are the Malik. We want this relationship with you. It is the first that thought of I want to be a better version of myself. But that's not enough. It's not enough because this couple they still need to work out all the difficulties. It's not they're willing. They took the first step that they both want to work on the relationship but now we got to work on it. What is it that what is the way we've been talking to one another? the way I've been carrying is am I the husband I want to be am I the father I want to be am I the mother I want to be the wife I want to be is this the best version of myself what are the things that I regret doing what are the things that I want to be better what are the things I don't want to be this person anymore this is not the person I am I got so distracted heavman I got distracted I I got lost in it this is not what I want so I have karat regret. I have a I don't want this. I'm making a change in my schedule. I'm putting a a filter. I'm changing something. Every person with their own avoda and I'm deciding my work is important, but it's not the mo it's not the number one priority in my life. It's very important for our livelihood, but it's not the priority. I'm making a change. I want to and by the way just to understand these three so we can remember it as the process of chuva it's all really saying I want to change in the past in the present and in the future I want to be a different person that is the process of it's a deep inner process that both the husband and the wife need to go through and that we need to go through and to say I want to be a different That's the process of Cuba. But what's missing? I I went through it. The man went through that process. The woman went through the process. Is is the relationship built yet? They want to be different. But if you don't communicate that to your wife, if the wife is not communicating her change and her aspiration to her husband, so then the relationship is still not complete. You need to articulate it. And there are very specific laws of how to articulate it. You can't be leaning like you can't be, you know, when you tell the kids a kid does something to his brother and you tell please say you're sorry to your to your brother or to your friend. They're like half on the couch with their feet upside down. I'm sorry. Right? The body language doesn't show that you're sorry. You need to show it the right way when you need to lean over a little bit. You need to feel remorse. is when I go through the inner process and we still have today tomorrow to really understand and to be that's why we do kabalot I want to be a better p a better version of myself I have a picture of who I want to be this year and I'm taking the first smallest most minute step to be that person and I but now I need to articulate it that's what happens on yoma kipuli and this is where the magic happens I stand there and I articulate the vidi to one another and says the ra it needs to be we had a whole operating system of kohanim in the beta mikdash that they would do a vid over the thing please the co did that vod for us of vidi We don't have the kohani babo dasa. We still have though and this should give to every single one of us. We are the ones the only process all the men that are learn whoever is learning the dafomi and is learning we have nothing of that system. It is so strange to us. We don't know the system of the only thing we have left of the entire of the entire is our vidi on and if you look at the raam the ram says that on the fast we say vidi and when you say the vidi you do it on says the ram listen to the words He needs to tell me all of the there's a question in the Rambam. If a person and they forgot the vidi, do you need to go back and repeat all of the again or just the vidi? Thearim say that according to the Rambam, you cannot say the vidi unless you're dvening in the middle of your silent shona. Why? Because that in it's your walking life. If you look at the tour in we're supposed to meditate that I've walked into the beta I'm in the shakadashim. When I'm standing in my I say vidi I am like a coening in keshadashim saying the vidi and I'm entering an operating system which is in the set of 10 which we do not fully understand. It's the world of kap that Hashem says if you do this process the right way and then you stand in front of me and you do the vidi the vase that you broke was never broken the ara the transgression the you know it's called cuz I had aspirations to be a certain person I wanted a certain goal for myself for my life for my marriage for my career here. [Music] I I swayed off. I missed my my goal. And now if I realign myself, Hashem says, "You've never missed your goal. You could hit the mark all over again." And that's the power of yakim. And according to the Ramba and this salvic adds, he says, "The whole year if you do a you have an option to do chuva. When you do chuva, you have to do vid. But on kipper, you're to do chuva, you're but even the rest of the year when you do chuva, there's a mitzvah to do chuva, but it's not a you're not by not doing the chuva. And of salvation, a very profound when I do a mit, when I take the lul, I'm y the lulv that's the action and it's also the feeling. Even if I don't have kavana but anything that has to do with my feeling for example what is the of the mitzvah of being happy the is to be happy what is the what is the action that I do for I buy gifts to my wife we eat basim there's a mitzvah there's the and the are two different things when I d the aod of the le is standing in front of the the pula though is just to say the words it's two separate things. The same thing with chuva. He says the reason why it says the mitzvah is because it's an inner process in your heart that you need to do and that hashem can't say do this you need to do it and then you have the of how to do it is to do it with the vid. The entire week is called we're entered. We're already at the end of it. A new time period which is unique to this week. It's not the way we process things. There's an option for us on a personal level and on a national level to make a shift and to make a change. And that couple that said I'm in and that couple that started working on themselves like I want to be a better version of myself and they went through the inner but now they communicated to one another. There's a kapara their relationship could go to a new level like they've never experienced before because they were both able to re-enter that relationship to enter the uncomfortable place where I wasn't perfect. It's very hard for us to say I made a mistake and it hurt you. Those all three elements are very hard. You could say two of them. One of them all three is very hard to say I hurt you with this mistake. Very very hard. But when we do it with a l shelling with uh with real sincerity and in a certain way with a broken heart. So we're able to mend the relationship with one another. And it by the way yom kipper does not work unless you actually do it to one another. And But the is when we do it, it's as if we've never sinned. And it's a we need to do it on a national level as well. This is a very strong community in Modian. It it's able to hold a lot of different shiot in a certain way. A community like this community in Modí is the future for it is of the few communities that is able to hold so many different and to say I can relate to this and to this and to this I can connect to the people who are learning Torah and and to say the for and to connect to the people who are working and even the people who are anti-religious I understand everyone And this community is needed. We need to transform at the 7th of October. In Israel, you put the day first and then you and then you say the month, right? By the end of this week, what are we entering in the Hebrew calendar? The 10th day is yum kipper of the seventh month of tish. This is what yung kipu is about. It's on a personal level to make that transition, but it's also on a national level. We got to a low point in our physical world and unfortunately we've been living with it and with the pain of it and this kahila knows about it for two years. Maybe it started really on that yum kipper, not just on that. But this yum kipper is our chance to turn it all around, to put the 10 first, the 10th of the seventh month. [Music] We're standing in front of a turning point in Jewish history is like never before. Israel is what's going to be but we said on they're doing the and it might be happening right now actually right now in the White House decisions are being made and we know that he's running the whole show but it really comes to our aod we are walking in And we're saying vidi on our personal aos on our personal relationships but also thinking about the entire national situation that we're in. And we're thinking outside of ourselves. And yes, I could complain about that group and I could complain about this person and the way they're acting and then I could just be busy complaining or I could say we are different. We are going to be the change that we want to see in our is going to gather together. We will create the change we want to see. And if somebody speaks negative, we're going to we're going to say this is not the way we speak. This yipper, we're turning the whole thing around. And if we're able to turn it around on our personal level, on our family community level, on the national level, we'll be to enter the days of Yumiper is not a sad day. It's a day of it's a day of coming back home. It's a day of understanding. It's like I'm excited. Aba is taking me back home. I was away for a while. I write I write him a text. Is it okay if I come for Shabbat? You know that kid that like hasn't spoken to us in a while? And then like he writes that text. You're like so excited. Oh my god. For sure. Come on in. So, we're coming back home and Hashem takes us and he forgives us and he's excited about us and we're excited about him and we're pure and we're this and we're so excited about and we'll take the of the and we'll be in the mdash. May we all celebrate it together. Thank you very much.