Rosh Hashanah: The Power of Judgement (Ep. 201)

[Music] I and whe you're watching with our friends over attorney time wherever you watch and listen to your podcast Welcome to our special Russia Shana podcast all right so this special Russia Shana episode of the rabbi olski show is being sponsored by Y and aova schmell now I got to tell you you know you say these things but uh the fact is that I mean I remember YY as a little boy this is goes back his dad and I were roommates in Los Angeles back in 19 but uh you know I remember you know when when he got married and uh they were living in Memphis you know and uh and now that he's all grown up with Children of his own wow sponsoring an episode this has special special meaning and CH P going into R going into the new year for foro for aaia Bas per uh that's of course their daughter and uh she uh she actually started joining the shorum together with her father and in the Vish year so it's like really exciting now and M we're part of the family again yeah and they write thank you for your amazing Shum and uh honest approach to real life challenges and battles we have gained much and inspiration thank you so much you and your family have always been part of our family and uh you know in this of being you should be you and your family not just to but to all and good things are and I started with the niggan and I'll tell you why I started with the nigan um I told the story I'm sure at least once but uh I was teaching and uh um there were no classrooms at the time I was to the holy Shiva so we were doing it in the sh and the sh had a very high ceiling and very good Acoustics I was explaining that there's certain on rashash Shana that we do and uh I started with that nigan the that we do by my and everybody joined in and I couldn't finish the class I was shaking it s it suddenly transported me to that moment in rashash where you understand that this is the Yad and I said okay I got to stop the class I went to the office and one of the other reim saw me and said yeah what what's what's the problem and I told him what happened and he says oh I think it was the M he says the nunim that we use on rashash and yer the nunim themselves have the power to be to Chua to wake us up to Chua I've mentioned this in the past that the Z KES says that the sh n are next to the sh Chua and that certain music has the power to reach our Nish and to change our soul so when we talk about uh we talk about the nigun I want to start by putting that in because [Music] it's and everything is going to be decided that's a heavy concept it's a heavy concept A lot of people can't handle R yeah it's it's too intense and it is intense it is intense it is the difference between living a meaningful life and a meaningless life and most people live a meaningless life because they don't have a Kipper so they're never judged so whatever I do is fine whatever I do is fine and I never grow and I never develop I never become a better person because a person who's being judged understands that what I do has consequences and therefore it's not just how I feel it it has to be something that I'm doing that is Meaningful am I doing this right or not not just I want to be accepted for whatever I do did I do this right or not and so a friend will tell you yeah this is this is something wrong that's what D is Den is this uh ability to be able to look Beyond where you are to what you could be so R is a concept of malus it's a concept of making Hashem the me because when you have a king then you know what you're aspiring to no we don't have this today we don't know what that means now there was a time when the Mel was the embodiment of the will and the desire and the and the focus of the people and everybody wanted to be whatever the King was when you had a real king when it was something special not just like the story that they always tell when RBA was in Switzerland and the king of nor was meeting the king of Sweden and he went to make the BR and seeing a king but he says I didn't see a king I just saw two old men there were no Kings a Mel schlomo lost his kingdom but he was still King over his walking stick there's there's a that was there a scene in mi Python and the Holy Grail when they have to cross this bridge yeah and the old man in the bridge if you don't answer the questions correctly you fall into the the abyss of of Destruction or whatever it is so so the uh some of them make it across some of them don't make it across some of them he asked easy questions tricky questions anyway when finally King Arthur comes and says what is your name I am Arthur King of the Britains what is your quest I seek the Holy Grail what is the average velocity of a sparrow that depends European or African he says I don't know that and he falls over into the abyss so his his Aid says uh how did you know that say when you're a king you have to know these things it was a concept of of of a malus that that the King was a higher form of what a person could be they were more they were more intelligent they were they were greater they they exceeded they they exuded something that was beyond everything else and with that comes Den because a Mel has to be someone who is also the den the rambam refers to the Mel as the he's the heart of the people uh I I have a penion for history um I remember I had somebody in one of my shur say I don't know I just I've never been able to follow history I'm just into like you know math and the hard Sciences I said well well good for you well to me history is fascinating because it's all about story it's all about people you know anyway in my quest to try to get a deeper understanding of History I have read some of the most boring books I have to say the most boring book I ever read was called an economic history of the United States and the anti-semitic part didn't come until the last five pages I would never have guessed I guess he figur no one ever gets that far but you know it's amazing but um uh but one of the Deans of Harvard had written a book called uh Andrew Jackson the symbol of an era and he says there are certain people people who capture what the entire era is trying to say the time the place the people and they become that symbol of of what a country is supposed to be or what a period of time is supposed to be and these people are bigger than themselves they're they're symbols that's what a Mel is supposed to be a Mel is supposed to be somebody that we put I was going to say on a pedestal but more than that on a throne and that's who we supposed to Aspire to and that's why to this day gentlemen do not button their bottom button because one of the Edwards when he was King of England was too Stout to button his bottom button so he would go with his jacket with the bottom button unbutton and everyone says well the king does that so of course I'm going to go with my button button unbutton till I could be like the king cuz you had aspiration to be something more than yourself today it's the exact opposite people people get on to Instagram or Tik Tok or there might be some new one that I'm not familiar with you know and they make videos of themselves and they say I'm enormously fat and that's fine it's your problem if you think there's a problem well no it's actually it's unhealthy and it's not really a good lifestyle and you shouldn't be embracing it they do all kinds of different things and they say yeah yeah I'm celebrating me with nor Weinberg uh said an interesting thing he say sometimes when someone's coming they're trying to decide if they should stay in stay in Yeshiva or not I say are you a good person or a bad person so right away they I'm a good person I said who's more likely to say they're a good person a good person or a bad person it's a very clever observation because a bad person never thinks they're bad they did a study of people on death row they had very high self-esteem that wasn't their problem yeah they La they lacked a sense of moral compass but as far as how they felt about themselves they felt very good yeah uh they don't think they did anything wrong I didn't do anything wrong yeah other people have done things for me yeah whereas a good person says I could have been better to my mom I could have been nicer to my children I could have been better to my spouse they look at themselves and say that was good but I could be better yeah it means that you're going to live your life with a certain amount of angst is this the best I could be doing right now uh I've spoken in different places around the world and I love living in arel I enjoy it it gives Mex satisfaction it's hard for me to to to live a full healthy life spiritually outside and yet when I would go to speak someplace they'll say would you consider taking a position here and I always say if you can show me that it's R Hashem for me to come here I'll come here because I'm not living in because that's my value my value is RM I believe I can do RM better in but I went to went to a far far off country and I met with the fellow who is in charge of a very large institution and they said to me uh would you consider relocating here and I said if you could show me there's something I could do that would be different you know so we talked we talked through different options we talked through this we talked through that 45 minutes we were talking at the end they said I think this could really work out and you could make a maor change that was four or five years ago I never heard from them again but but the point is that if you could tell me this is where I'm supposed to be I I want to do I want to I want to do whatever it is that I know is going to bring Glory toat was giving sh to hundreds of people in South Africa RAB be was giving shum to hundreds of people in Toronto and they both wanted to come they came and they were teaching the 12 guys and Shapiro was uh Relentless telling them this is not R AEM so they went rat went to England and Bea went to America and once again they have enormous amounts of people that they're influencing the told him that was russem but if I'm just okay the way I am am who cares I don't have to ask what R hasem is I don't have to ask what's the best I could be doing I'm happy with me don't judge me don't tell me what I should be don't tell me how I should be okay so you will live a life where at the end of your life you will have done maybe nothing in your life because you were always satisfied and you didn't want anyone to tell you anything but when there's a judgment when there's somebody to say to you you could be better than this you're capable of more there's a clip of Sydney portier who was a famous black actor and uh he told the story over and he says I was a dishwasher in a restaurant he says and there was a a Jewish waiter and I was walking and I had a newspaper under my hand and he says so what's happening in the world and I said to him I don't really know I don't read very well so he says you want me to teach you how to read he says yes very much and after his whole day of work the whole restaurant was closed he sat there with me every night and and Sydney poer is tearing up as he's telling this story he says this random Jewish fellow took this black man and Tau him how to read and that's how I became an actor and that's how I went on to do it because I couldn't read the scripts and he just he just took that kindness today Sly put here would say why do I have to read for I'm fine the way I am it's your job to find something for me to do where I don't have to read or you could say I want to be more I want to be better I I could achieve more the there was TFA where um people were saying you know you can't expect athletes to push themselves so much it's not fair athlete the whole idea of an athlete is you're going to do your personal best to show that you're the best no no it's okay you know it's unreasonable to ask people to push themselves everyone knows the story with the nav and the nav brought out one of his SP he says you know I really wasn't a gifted kid I wasn't that smart it was a big sacrifice my parents to have to get re to teach me and I heard them talking one night and they said listen we're wasting our money this kid is never going to be anything yeah let him become a Shoemaker you know Apprentice him let him learn a job make a living when I heard that I pushed myself very hard and that's how I became the NV and imagine that I didn't the end of my life I'd get up to sh and say so what' you do with your life I was a Sho maker i d three times a day and I learned I brought my children up from has would say that's it where all the you were supposed to have WR but I never did it cuz I never pushed myself rash says it's not good enough you have to be more than you are yeah we say and in mus of R we say 10im of malus 10im of zos 10 uh suim of Chau the says yeah Hashem remembers everything that we did that's that's how he judges us we make and says that's why we say the is the means which is what makes this R of course particularly special because it comes out of R and we don't blow chaur so we're lucky we here in normally we don't get a second first we do so Sunday will blow Schauer but on R the first day R the we're not going to do it but the whole the whole Scher is the means we blow the Chau and moves from the to the moves from judgment to Mercy we don't have the chauffeur so what happens in a year like this where is that chauffeur so mosha Feinstein says like this he says Sago and famously brings down 10 reasons why we blow chauffer things that we're supposed to remember are things that we're supposed to focus on that comes from and uh one of them is to remember the words of the so it says we don't blow chauffeur on R when it comes out on shabas because the said don't blow chauffer because you might end up carrying the chauffeur and so the the for which is by the way the essence of rash and the Torah rash is not called y it's not called rash it's called y it's the day of the chauffeur and we don't we don't blow it because we're focusing instead on the fact that the told us to do it and by listening to the that's how we get the power of the over that's what we're tapping into so we're going to go into Rana and you could look at yourself and you say I'm fine or you could say you know why there you know way they're to help us become better than we are they have a key to understanding human nature there's a power to it uh I always quote Dr schroer because he has two phds one in oceanography and one in nuclear physics I don't I don't have a degree in nuclear physics orography the government has never brought me to supervise nuclear test I I you know I was in or and uh they brought in all the speakers to give their you know resume to they could write up about them so Rabbi wine went first and two days later they called in Rabbi Godly two days later uh they called in me and they said okay you know this one's listening this this position they held this uh degree they have this you know so I said I'm I'm married and I live in harof they said is that it said and I uh teach they said that's it you don't have any degrees or anything I said I have aan Psychology from Queen's college so I got luuk says really I said yeah it's my wife she's not using it she said I could have it so so I'd rather quote Dr schroer yeah he would explain a kazal from a scientific point of view and he'd stop and he'd say you know there's a reason they're called Sages now these were very smart people when they said something they understood the fact that people are are yeah that they that they they treat it like it's an amazing thing says you know you don't that doesn't say that by why because is only there you could argue Old Fields the but it was the RAB told you to do it and if you're a Cavalier with the words of the you don't take it seriously it leads to all kinds of terrible things consequences the the r were very careful when they set things up there's a uh it's a powerful idea it says by schlomo that the Torah tells you uh don't have too many wives because they'll turn your heart away from Hashem says I don't have to worry about that I don't have to worry about that because I'm so smart smartest guy around I'm really secure you so thousand wives which uh makes you wonder right he had a why Etc take a look in explains what what his whole consideration was but but the the fact that he would uh you know he died at 52 I think it's obvious why because if you make the he spent most of his life in Chas and there's only so B is and PARTA ice cream you can eat before it anyway anyway nobody brings that down but um uh you know he he thous wi and he says because this doesn't apply to me and the Y the little yud comes to and says is ignoring me so Hashem says then he's going to trip up and Hashem made him trip up not that he would have tripped up he was right but you're going to be smarter than I told you not to do it and you're going to say I'm too smart and there's ABA in chabas which is similar where they said do not read by the orir don't on shabas don't read by a candle now a candle is not a paraffin uh um stick like we have today they they're uh lamps were and that's why on N Rashi says in um in old French Lampa you yeah they were think of like an Aladdin's lamp you know where the genie comes out and uh they would open up the little top and put in oil and then they would stick the wick in the little spout where the where the genie came out you know and they would light it and that was a there that was that was what they use for candles and uh the problem is that as the oil starts to get low the the light begins to flicker so the will worry that if you were reading you wouldn't realize it and you would tip it forward to be able to get more oil to the wick and that's an so they made a not to read by such a candle lest you violate the torah's law of making a fire so it tells the Bryce tells the story this one tana who says I'm not going to do that I have pretty good hold of myself I know what I'm doing so he was learning by the candle and um and he saw it starting to Flicker and he reached up to tap it and he caught himself at the last second and he said that's because I went against the words of meaning I was right I wouldn't have done it but because I violated the laws of worked it out that I lost that ability I lost that I lost that normal control I would have had cuz I was too clever by half I'm smarter than than the and as Dr sh says there's a reason they called sages so we're going into Rashana and we don't have our major weapon which is a shauer so we don't have that so what are we going to do instead we're going to DAV we're going to recognize that it's rash that it's and we're going to say you told us to blow Chau and told us not to and we're listening to the like you told us to you know the amazing garzar amazing where they're arguing over whether or not a particular um earn wear oven could become ritually Pure or not there's the whole argument anyway RZA could not convince everybody and so he uh he says if I'm right Let the River Run backwards and yushua who was leading the opposition said sorry we're don't pass him by Rivers he says if I'm right the tree fly through the air and the tree flies through the air and Yeshua says we don't P by trees says if I'm right let the walls of the B Med fall in and they start to fall in R Yeshua says you stay out of this so they didn't know what to do so they say it stayed curved then he says if I'm right let AAS come out from heaven let a say I'm right and a Heavenly voice comes out and says razar is right and Yeshua stands up and points and says he stay out of this wow the gamar concludes that somebody who was learning with elvi elvi comes down every now and then to learn with people if you're on the level and uh and he said what happened in Shay at that moment so K says my children have defeated me says listen to the to the point that if I say it's not like that they have the power to overrule me and that's really the nature of rashash you know gar rashash spends a lot of time talking about the mites right how do you um make the month so now the Calendar's been set because we don't have a Bas in anymore but in the good old days you never knew when a y was going to come out because you didn't know if a month was going to be 29 days or 30 days so today it's said but back then Witnesses would come and they would say if they saw the moon if they didn't see the moon which means rashash could have been today could have been tomorrow so uh the uh That's the basis of course for y Shing why we have two days of so um so so the say that sets tells the Angels tomorrow is y and they open up the books of life and death and they open up the books of all the actions of all the people and they set up the court and the prosecutor is there and the defense attorney is there and everything's all set and K is not there so they go to the parod you know they knock on the parod they say hey God where are you he says the B sh M decided that tomorrow is rashash not today they said but you a God he says I know but I gave this power to them they make this decision and so that that's the power the have when it comes to even though is the me he's the king the king makes all the decisions but the king said listen to the sages listen to the when R was in prison one of his uh one of his uh T was bringing him water so enough water so he could wash his hands so he could eat his bread and water to drink and the God said this is too much water and he spilled out half of it so he brings it the Rika and he washes his hands and he eats the bread that's how much starts crying he says Reby you're not going to have any water to drink he you're not going to be able to live without water he says I'd rather die than go against the words of the someone told me a fascinating thing I don't know if it's true that there are from people Orthodox people they say you the they wash every time they have bread they're Ultra Orthodox anytime they eat bread they they wash and uh not from Jews they never wash and uh we we wash on shavas during the week we don't wash what what could that possibly mean remember you keep said I'd rather die than not wash and go against the words of an amazing thing that people will just play fast and loose loose with with but the whole reason that we're able to get through rashash without blowing chauffeur is because we're listening to the Rabon instead we're following the words of the sages that's why I always try to wear a gold tie in because gold represents din right silver is RA gold is din because you know red right red represents D blue represents R and gold is really uh yellow and red mixed together that's what gold is so it's a type of red and that's why even though we brought the which was gold we make up with theuma which is red because red and gold is an inherent relationship between the two so uh so that's the idea the idea is that um we uh we're going in for din and you want to make sure that when you walk into Yad especially when comes out on chabas that we know that we've done what we're supposed to do to make sure that we can say to even though you told us to blow chauffer today the say not to my children have defeated me and it's in the of that that we're going in and that's going to take the place of as says following the is one of the ideas of what represents so as we go into this R which is shabas you uh is going to write everybody either Into the Book of Life for the book of death but we know that Hashem keeps the Torah right um when they asked R How Could hasm Make It Rain he's carrying says no hasem only has one R so for him it's not carrying but he didn't say wait do not to keep the Torah Shem keeps the Torah he follows by his own rules so he says how is he allowed to write into the Life Book of Life and book of death you're not allowed to says Vice say he can only write into the because you're allowed to do that on chabas because of to save a life but he can't write into the book of death he can't do that so it's a special schooler when rashash comes out on chabas for us to know that is going to write us in a book of life and we should all be this year to a good I give you the that my mother used to give me I wish you everything that you wish for yourself and us and cl should all be it's the rabbi orlovski show Torah and S ready to go the rabbi orlovski show knowledge and wisdom will help you grow lots of fun in every episode and we don't have to rhyme no we it's the rabbi orlovski show on Rabbi ori. comom Tor anytime YouTube and more it's Rabbi orlovski show Tor and S ready to go the rabbi orlovski show till next time so we need again the rabbi Orlowski show it's the rabbi Orlowski show it's the rabbi Orlowski show