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Powerful message for Shavuot to apply!! Opportunity for a HUGE change in your life!!

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Rabbi Alon Anava avatar
Rabbi Alon Anava

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When I was young, I had an opportunity to buy stocks of a very successful company the day they came out to the market. I didn't take the advice and needless to say didn't invest and could have had the chance to make a lot of money. I'm not selling you stocks today, but I am selling you the opportunity to change every aspect in your life, to change the path you're walking on to a positive way and to make your life successful in every aspect in your life that you are interested. So, there is an opportunity, pay attention. Is the holiday of Shavuot, one of the most powerful days on the Jewish calendar where we are commemorating the receiving and the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai over 3,000 years ago. We do know that every time we celebrate a holiday and a festival, it's because a certain repetition happens on that day all of the year and the same energy, the same godly light that came down to the world at the time of the event repeats itself every year on that auspicious day. And that's the day that is coming in a few days on the holiday of Shavuot. Last week I gave a very long and in-depth lecture about the holiday, about the concept, about all the opportunities. I wanted to highlight two points in it and to recommend you to go watch this lecture in case you haven't yet. And the reason that you want to listen to it because on the holiday of Shavuot we have a one-time opportunity to change everything that I'm not happy about in my life. Everything that is negative, things don't work. I have the opportunity to receive a blessing. I have the opportunity to build the right vessels and I have the opportunity to pull down godly light with such amazing energy and abundance of blessing through the entire year. I'm not going to elaborate on the opportunity of the day for that I gave the lecture that you should go watch on YouTube, but two things that I wanted to point is that on the holiday of Shavuot what happened at Matan Torah is [clears throat] that Hashem opened everybody's eyes. Everybody was uh in this world but blinded to what's going on in this world. Not only to the corruption, the hate, and the wars, and everything in this world. Rather their eyes were opened of not seeing how everything in this world is the hand of God. It says in the Midrash that when God brought the nation of Israel close to the mountain, he showed them the Torah and he told him, "If you not going to accept the Torah right now, right here on this mountain, this is going to be the place of your burial." Which of course comes a big question, what God forced us to receive the Torah? The explanation is that God didn't force us to receive the Torah. Rather he opened our eyes that we saw the reality. We saw how ain od milvado, there's nothing but God. Everything happens in the hand of God. Nothing moves in this world without the supervision of God. The nation of Israel saw these spiritual pipes bringing the blessing from the world above to the world below. The action that happened in Matan Torah is that their eyes opened and they saw that without the Torah they have no life. That's why the Midrash says that if you don't accept the Torah, here is going where where you're going to be buried. That's when they understood that without the Torah in their life, there's no life. They are not going to They're not going to live. And the miracle that God did is he opened their eyes to see that. And that's what's going to repeat itself every year, and that's what's coming on the holiday of Shavuot, where we have the opportunity that Hashem should open our eyes that we see how everything is by the hand of God. In order for that, then we need a preparation. Uh the day of Shavuot can transform your life, but you need a preparation. The preparation has to be done prior to Shavuot with the counting of the Omer that we are going to conclude. And all the work, spiritual work that needs to be done prior to that. But on Shavuot, has to be done a few things. I explained in the long lecture, I will elaborate on that very shortly that there are three things that you need to have or to achieve in order to come into the holiday of Shavuot with your hands open to receive your blessing. The first thing that you need to master is the concept of Na'aseh v'Nishma, where you take on yourself that you will listen to the commandments of Hashem. You will listen to the decisions of Hashem without asking too many questions, and it's not only arguing about the mitzvot, it's also accepting situations that come from the hand of Hashem. The second thing is that we cannot enter the holiday of Shavuot with hate in our hearts. The Torah is standing on a foundation that is called v'ahavta l'reacha kamocha, that you should love another person like you love yourself. Where I explained many times that the word kamocha, like yourself, can be also that be directed kamocha at Hashem. V'ahavta l'reacha kamocha, you should love your fellow person like Hashem loves that person. The reality is that if a person applies the the the commandment v'ahavta l'reacha kamocha, you should love your fellow person like yourself, then even if the other person is not cooperating, you become one. You did the mitzvah of unity. You brought yourself to a place of oneness. And a person needs to be in unity with his surroundings. You don't need to like everybody. Don't need to agree with everybody, but you shouldn't hate anyone. Even if you don't agree with their with their actions. Even if they you don't agree with their with their behavior. That's okay, but do not hate anyone. Be don't be judgmental towards the behavior of other people. You cannot come into the holiday of Shavuot with hate in your heart. And of course, the third thing that one needs to do is increase simcha and it's not just putting music and starting to dance. Reaching a true level of simcha is understanding that everything that happens in your life is good and everything that happens in your life is from Hashem. There are much more to focus on and to do on this holiday. I recommend to go see this long lecture. But what I want to emphasize today is a few things. A, the preparation. We stay up all night. We read the tikkun leil Shavuot. I'll explain on that in a second and after that we pray early in the morning and we read the 10 Commandments. Follow all these things. All the instructions are written on my website atzmut.org/shavuot where you'll find all the instructions that you need to to to follow. You'll find a very in-depth but short summary of the entire Sefirat HaOmer of all 49 very very inspirational and I recommend to read it before Shabbat and before the holiday. And it's David HaMelech's birthday, so we read Tehillim all day. That day you want to devote to the Torah because on that day the heavens open, blessings come down, and if you're ready to receive it, the blessings will affect your life that it will change every aspect of your life that is negative, not working, no flow, no success. So, if you're looking to better your life with good livelihood, to find your other half, or to have very good relationship with your wife and kids, to to be able to learn Torah, to be able to work on your your middot, on your their you this this when you want life to flow well, then you need to do an action. And Shavuot is the night where you can set everything up. There's another thing I wanted to mention, which is extremely important because we're doing all this spiritual preparation with Sefirat HaOmer and reading the Torah all night and so forth. But a very strong element here is that in order to receive blessing, one needs to create a vessel. In this case, the vessel is charity. When you give from yourself to others, Rabbi Chaim Palaggi explains that on the night of Shavuot, prior to the night of Shavuot, in order to have the Tikkun Leil Shavuot be effective, one should give charity in the amount of 104. Twice the minyan of the word "ben". Ben means a son. Uh there's many explanations to that where I explain in the class online. But the recommendation is to give charity in the amount of 104, twice 52, twice the gematria of ben. And this charity has to go specifically to a person who learns Torah. Uh or um Torah institute, but better a person that learns Torah, poor person that learns Torah, and should be given to that poor person. So, baruch Hashem, we have the merit A to teach Torah all over the world, to spread Torah, and to support a lot of Torah scholars and Torah learners. So, on the same website, at smooth.org/shavuot, where you find all the instructions for Shavuot, you'll find all the prayers, you'll find all the information you need to know, including the PDF you can download for the summary of Sefirat HaOmer, and everything really that you need, including the video you need to watch. You have also the opportunity there to submit your donation of in the amount of 104, which will go to Torah learning, Torah studies, and spreading Torah. As I've been doing in the last few holidays, we have the honor and the opportunity for the ones who want to support our organization of spreading Torah. For every $180, we offer a bottle of wine of my special wine from Israel. So, there's another opportunity that you can take advantage of that not only that you get an amazing wine from Eretz Israel healthy, no sulfites, organic, and kosher by me and the Badatz. You also get to support my organization that for the last 22 years has been teaching Torah, spreading Torah, inspiring people from all corners of the world to apply the Torah. And as our Mishna says, "Im ein kemach, ein kemach, ein Torah." If there's no flour, there's no Torah. Uh so, you have here another unbelievable opportunity to partner with my organization in spreading Torah. And submit your organization and to show the our gratitude, as I said, for donation over $180, you will receive one of my bottles of wine, premium bottles of wine from Israel. And there's so much more to say, but I want to keep this video short. So, I will finalize with three things. Go watch the long video that I posted on YouTube. Go to itsmooth.org/shavuot and follow all the instructions and do everything to a T. Every little thing, do it, and I promise you your life will change tremendously. A 180Β° change in every aspect that you need. If you need health, if you need your livelihood, if you need good relationships with your with your family, if you need to find your other half, whatever is in your life, your spiritual struggles, you can get up from the the the the mess that you're in. Anything in your life that it is going in the wrong direction, the holiday of Shavuot, you have the opportunity to change it 180Β° to go in the right direction. The explanations are in the long video. I'm going to leave you with a blessing and I'm going to wish you already now hug Shavuot sameach and may Hashem bless you with everything that you need and everything that your heart desires in order to serve Hashem in the best way possible and may Hashem give you on the night of Shavuot your portion in the Torah and mainly open your eyes to see the truth, see the emet, love Hashem, pursue the mitzvot and have a blessed blessed life and success in everything that you do. Send this video to all your friends. Share this video. Go to chabad.org/shavuot. Follow all the information. I will record another video before Shavuot to remind you everything. Don't miss out. I learned 30 years ago that when an opportunity is being presented to me not to brush it off. The minimum of the minimum is to look what is the opportunity, to see what needs to be done. Maybe there's not a lot of effort. Here what is offered to you is a little bit of effort and blessings ad bli dai with no limits. So, listen, apply. It's very simple. Do what you need to do. Hashem is going to bless you with everything that you need to do and you're going to have a wonderful wonderful year. Hug sameach until the next video. And od milvado. Please share this video and I'll see you in the next one.