Deep Dive Rosh Hashanah with Rabbi Buxbaum 9-24-2024

okay so thank you so much everyone for joining us for this special air vasana deep dive program we are very happy to have as our special guest speaker this evening Raa Buck bound he is the director of The Love experience a Jewish Outreach and engagement organization in the greater Washington DC area he is the author of two books the four elements of an empowered life and the four elements of inner Freedom he also has a weekly podcast empowered Jewish living so thank you so so much for joining us for By Buck bound thank you so much Daniela and good evening everyone and thank you danela for putting together this program and to project Inspire and a shout out to project Inspire we're all the amazing work you guys are always doing mamish amazing amazing inspiring claw iSell inspiring the Jewish people so it's good to be here it's good to be here tonight we're like a week and a half less less a week and a half before rashishana and what a better way to be preparing than sitting together and learning and you're going to see shortly the beautiful packet that project Inspire put together with wonderful wonderful sources to get us in the mood the month of el that we're in the Jewish month of el is jam-packed with possibility with potential it is the month of an V Le and all the other acronyms that go along with L but mainly an I'm to my beloved and my beloved is to me we know that these days of el these days of L you know if you take the last letters of an it's four Ys Y is numerical value 10 so we know that that 10 time four is of course 40 and we know that 40 is such a powerful number in cabala because 40 is the number of transformation we know that the 40 is the measurements of a Mikvah you go into a Mikvah and you immerse yourself and you come out fresh NJ go into a mikah to convert impure comes out of the Mikvah pure so we know that these are days of immersion in which we can we can experience complete transformation Moses Moser raenu went up to the heavens after the Jewish people received the Torah and in 40 days was able to achieve great great tremendous transformation the Jewish people could have achieved that transformation had they not worshiped the golden calf but then they had a second time leading up to Yum KRA so these are powerful power days of transformation and especially this year you know I'm a sports fan I'm a sports guy and you know like sometimes you're you're waiting for like certain CH sometimes you know you're you look at the Championships or the World Series and the teams are like okay you know what all right fine you know maybe I'll tune in and some years you're like no like this is an epic matchup this year with everything that's on the line clol I mean we know last year like we missed you know what we missed last year we missed Kia chauffeur we missed blowing the chauffeur on on the first day of rashishana the gamar says the thas says that the chauffeur protects us and we missed that protection and this year there so much on the line right the entire world is looking at us and rashishana is a day of renewal and how badly we need this rashishana this year so the stakes are high so we want to make sure that when we come in we're coming in ready and we're coming in focused and how does one get ready what is the best way to get ready for rosashana so I want to tell you I had last week um someone in the Washington Post over here or I'm sorry not the Washington Post Washington Jewish week over here was doing an article on how rabbis prepare their sermons for high holidays so they reached out to me and they said you know we're interviewing rabbis how do rabbis prepare their sermons for high holiday it's a good question it's an interesting question right you know there's so much to talk about you know like what how do you prepare so I my response to the person was actually your question is actually the first piece of what my sermon is going to be about you just gave me material for the sermon because the truth is how do you prepare a sermon for rashishana how do you prepare a serm for Yer the same way at least for me the very same way that I think about rashishana the same way I think about y the same way I think about doing chuva repenting and that is stopping and listening different rabbis might do different things some might you know start listening to audio some might look inim might look in books some people might look at the news right everyone loves a good Rabbi that speaks about politics by the pulpit right no you should be shaking your head no no Shir Carol you got it right no whatever but some rabbis right that say they're going to be speaking all about the election my style is I like to just stop and I like to listen and I like to listen what what what life is telling me and what the world is telling me and what the people are telling me and the questions that I'm being asked because if you stop trying to insert your own will your own opinions your own judgments and you just stop and listen and you ask yourself what is the universe what is my Nish what is Hashem trying to tell me during this time so El preparing for a shishana whether you're preparing for a sermon or you're just preparing to write your life script I challenge you to start listening closely because life is Whispering messages as to what we should be working on I challenge everyone now for the next half an hour as you go in to these beautiful sources don't just learn the text but listen listen to your partners meet them get to know them if you don't know them already but listen to What the deeper messages of the sources some of the sources that you're going to see in this packet might be things that you've heard of in the past but there's one source that I'd like to speak about on the other end at 8:45 when we get back together that just jumped out off the page it jumped out to me was exactly what I needed to hear life is always speaking to you I learned as I Was preparing for tonight this one source that jumped off the page what the very same day I saw it someplace else right in in a different speech that I Was preparing I was looking at a different book exact same thing I'm like I think I've seen this before but it it hit different this year and I saw it twice in one day something is speaking to me Hashem is speaking to me the universe is speaking to me learning how to listen listen closely so as you sit with your partners in this one-on-one listen to what's beyond the source listen to listen to the deeper messages that are being whispered to you you know that's what it says it says that you know we we we would all love to be prophets we would all love if God would we like I I would love to get a report card in the mail like a report card with the received from like Hashem like Hashem give me your how do I do this here I want to see where did I get the A's where did I get the a minuses where did I get the B plus it it would be nice to know you know the same way the kids get a report card we don't get a report card we don't get prophecy we don't get a BOS a Heavenly voice but hashem's always Whispering hashem's always whispering and the question is are we making too much internal noise or can we quiet ourselves and really listen to what's being whispered so as we go through the sources listen to the sources listen to the person you're sitting with listen to your life and let's try to go a little bit deeper into that idea when we meet again on the other side at 8:45 okay thank you so much R Buck spam okay I also hope everyone but let's let's see the thumbs how is learning you made it through you made it through the whole packet okay so I want to begin my closing remarks by recapping that one source I I I wonder if it hit you the same way it hit me but this idea that on rashash we're coming in and we know we're being judged we know we're being judged and we want to ask for Spiritual things we want to ask for physical things yeah a little little extra parnasa some more money in the in the wallet would help and you know we have physical matters and spiritual matters but what's the glue what's really going to determine whether we are going to Merit the BR the blessing the abundance that we want it's whether we are willing to accept our mission for the year frander says a powerful thing right we know we're being judged everyone knew that coming in you knew you're being judged on physical you know you're being judged on spiritual but did you know what Freelander taught us did you know that on Rashana we accept upon ourselves a new mission in life a new aspect to our mission the chauffeur which we know the chauffeur the breath that we blow into the chauffeur right we have shower this year let's get excited again I know we had it second day last year but we missed it the first day last year we have chauffer this year and we know that the breath that goes into the chauffeur is reminiscent of the nishas the breath that Hashem blew into Adam to Adam on this very day on Rashana and Adam became a NE Adam became someone who was alive who was vibrant who had Soul who had Vitality what gives a person Vitality in life when you have a sense of Mission when you have a sense of purpose when you have a sense of freshness I know that I'm working towards something and I'm excited I'm excited about the goal I'm excited about the journey I'm excited about the process and rashishana is that time to open up up to open ourselves up what is going to be the new page of our mission what's going to be the new Mission you know I I love the whole concept of mission for those of you I hope some of you on this call have read at least my first book the four elements of an empowered life I know that I gifted it to at least two people on this call so uh I don't know if you read it but the whole book is about discovering one's life mission and the whole idea of the four elements that the entire physical world is symbolically made up of four elements fire wind water and Earth so to our inner World which is a reflection of that our inner world has in it all the entire world is a macrocosm for the entire inner world that we're trying to build and as we go through life we're trying trying to expand ourselves more and more to become a chauffer to be a bigger vessel to receive the energy of Hashem and on on rashishana we stand there before hasem and we say Hashem I'm just becoming a little bit bigger this year I'm willing to take on a little bit more I'm willing to accept a little bit more of a mission you know I I think one of the hardest things for us I the truth is I don't know where everyone is I I think maybe some of you might even be calling it fromel certainly danela is um right but if you're here if you're here and you're watching the news last night I we had a presentation over here a fellow who was evacuated from the north he hasn't seen his house he hasn't seen his home him together with 300 families from his y up north they're rebuilding their life from scratch rebuilding their life from scratch they have left no he left with a backpack and every single member is live with a backpack they're rebuilding their whole life from scratch we're seeing soldiers soldiers that are fathers of children Rim working people and they're going into the most dangerous places we're seeing all people that are really completely totally stepping out of their of their comfort zone things that we could never possibly think of now I don't know if we have any soldiers over here on the call but the but the truth is we do have soldiers on on on this on this call right here because we're all fighting the same fight if we think about What's happen happening in Isel in Israel so it's a war of kesem it's a war of sanctifying the name of hem we say in rash and every single day Inu that the ultimate goal of humanity is to repair the world to find the Tik to find the rectification and for every single person that looks different but every single person if you are breathing then you have a mission and you are part of that war Sak to repair the world in some way and for some it might look different than others but if you're alive you are part of that war you are a soldier in that war and when you see that the soldiers on the battlefield are learning how to play it a little bit bigger then that challenges us to be a little bit bigger in our own life as well not to play small this is not tough Shin what we tough Shin coming into tough Shin I in Hay is not a year to play small it is a year to play big and to become bigger you know if you think about how do we figure out how do we know how do we know what that mission is how do we know what our new mission is so if I could share with you a personal anecdote I took on a a major project right before the summer you know something that I knew would take up a lot of time and in doing so I sort of made a decision in my life is you know what I'm taking on this big project I really want to be focused about it so I'm going to hold off I'm not going to try to not take on any new commitments or things like that I'm just just going to you know like kind of you know stay focused right I always hear from you know lots of the of the motivational speakers like stay focused be focused so I'm like I'm going to be focused and then over the course of the next few weeks sort of kind of right as the summer was leaving somebody made a suggestion to me a certain opportunity it's an opportunity that had come up in my life before but for some reason something in my head said I I'm feeling like now's the right time but on the one hand I thought to myself you know but I took on that big thing beforehand and this would really take away from that time what should I do what should I do but something in my heart said go ahead do it okay so now I got have to juggle now two big things couple of weeks later just out of the blue somebody came over to me a few people from the community over here that came over they said oh can you take on a certain project I'm like there's no way I can take on the project but something in my heart said you have to take this project on so I'm doing all of this juggling and as you could imagine I'm thinking to myself like I got I got to be crazy like this is some something something is going to go wrong over here like I'm taking on too much and like I said in my introductory remarks sometimes Hashem just gives us little Whispers just little lessons I'm listening to a podcast and uh don't there was nothing that profound in the podcast and then this one line dropped you know sometimes it's worth it listening to a whole you listen to a whole hour class and then you hear one line and this line you could could agree you could disagree but the point is it hit me exactly where I needed it said your mission in life doesn't come to you when you're just sitting idly by in the couch waiting for it your mission in life comes to you probably when you're even too busy to take it on I had every reason and again I don't know if these are my life missions I guess I'll find out but I had every reason to say no to these things but yet Something in My Heart said you know what this year I could be bigger this year I have to be bigger this year I have have no choice but to be bigger and maybe it's time to look back our mission doesn't have to be anything brand new doesn't have to be some sort of new major K some novel idea but maybe you know what your mission is because maybe the universe maybe your Nish has been crying out to you from deep down inside saying you got to do this you got to do this and you've been pushing it away pushing it away pushing it away because you've been too busy because you're too stressed because it it would ask too much of you this is that year this is the year to go back to that thing and say he I'm ready now you know there's a beautiful idea Chua the word chuva which is which is translated as repentance or returning is more accurate what are we returning to and the classic commentary say well we're returning to our self we're returning to our soul but I heard recently an explanation that says you know what Chua is it's getting back in the rink it's getting back on the saddle when you've been knocked down when life maybe didn't deliver fully what you thought it would when a couple of important things you've been pushing off and now you have to get back get back in the rink reopen the doors that maybe you closed behind you in the past that's the idea behind Chua that's the idea behind repentance like I said I've been working very very hard this this L over the last couple weeks just to listen just to listen not to look for my sermon not to look for my Chua but just to be open and hear what hashem's telling me so a couple of years ago I hope it's okay I'm sharing all these personal anecdotes with you a couple years ago I was uh also summertime and I was contemplating back then you know what my mission is and I was sitting at a little Reservoir in Denver Colorado where I spend some of my Summers and this song raise your hand if you know the singer AKA AKA okay I don't if you heard so there a sing AKA I'd never heard him before and it was Spotify so it was just it was just playing you know whatever whatever it wanted to and the song pops I never even heard of aka before and it was this beautiful song called You know the song thumbs up if you know the song Whatever something like that I'm sorry I'm you know little congested so the song deeply moved me it's a Hebrew my Hebrew Is Not Great especially when I'm listening to music I wasn't paying attention attention to the lyrics but sometimes you don't need to listen to the lyrics Right the song touched me I never paid that much attention to the lyrics recently I was listening to a podcast interview with someone and he mentioned the song and he said you know I don't know if you realize but the song itself the beginning the very first words of the CH the words of the chorus are the following the words of the chorus the song itself is about a young girl who has a beautiful apartment beautiful apartment it looks like she has everything she needs but something she feels like something is missing so she goes out in a search to try to find what the thing is that she's missing and her friends are laughing at her right her friends right her her friends are they laughing at her what are you chasing right you have everything and the chorus the words of the chorus are of course it's out there of course there's something there of course there someone there of course you're looking for something I learned recently that this is actually a direct quote from RAB of Brea who encourages people like if you're looking for something and people tell you there's nothing there it's empty it's not in the heavens it's not at the end of the world it's right there it's in your life it's knocking at your door there great things that are coming before you don't let go don't let go of the dream don't let go of the things that you dreamt of the goals that maybe you set for yourself and maybe it never came to fruition or maybe you said that's not me or any doors that you closed Al don't give up on it don't let go this year as we enter into rash let's listen to the words of freedlander all of the abundance that we want we want it for one reason only we want the tools that we need we don't know our mission in life we don't know but we know the tools that we have and we know the little inner voices that are speaking to us and if we have the tools and we have the voice maybe all we're missing is the motivation sh especially as we hear the chauffeur and as we hear the Broken Sound of the chauffeur you know the chauffeur is very intentional because it's a broken sound which is the tears followed by the long strong sound after every time something is broken it's time to fix the world to put the broken pieces back together this R this is the year Hashem is C this Hashem is not Whispering anymore Hashem is yelling at us right Messiah is knocking at the door how could how could we not see it we have to be blind not to see it right it's not the mad it's not the intelligence it's not exploding beepers right it's Hashem that's banging the door down and saying now is the time you're my Army play Big may we be Z this year as we hear the chauffeur to accept upon to open ourselves up accept upon ourselves a mission chuva get back in the ring and this year will be the greatest year for every single one of us individually for cl and to be the entire world thank you and thank you again danela am thank you so much for the very inspiring and those beautiful words are bub thank you so much for joining us thank you haa who did all of our tech support and thank you so much to everyone for joining uh Le almost less than a week before um the we really appreciate you having having you with us and wishing everyone a Sha am thank you so much thank you good night good night good night J J good to see everyone again guys yes Roba somebody's asking Rob buam are you on social media yes schlomo Buck spam looking forward to connecting please we love to stay in touch with everyone okaya danela thank you again hi thank you again