Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: Rosh Hashana Symbolism and Meaning

my baby [Music] it's uh you know it's the uh this is obviously the last week of the year and there's an old Messiah that the last week of the year every single day we can rectify the averos of that particular day so this is uh calorifically this is now Wednesday technically Yom Ravi so we could be metaken all of the others of young Ravi and then Thursday Etc and therefore there's a special uh blessing in this week that this is a way that you can rectify the entire year and indeed air of Rosh Hashanah you could be michaken the the entire year baklau and that way a person enters the year in a in a state of chuba and that's a tremendous tremendous tremendous program so it's an important week and uh because I'll say everything is based on how you end it even a Bad Beginning can be rectified by a good end to be as Hashem we hope that all of you all of us should have a good end of the year and by having a good end of the year that kind of helps us have a good beginning of the of the new year the year has been tough in some ways with kovitz still you know from the beginning of the year Etc and there have been a lot of adjustments that people have had to make uh we said covet it looks like rosh Hashem we've turned a corner in terms of the worst of things but still life is challenging and uh the recovery for the dislocations is still there and therefore we we hope that this year will be a year of great great tranquility and of course in the ultimate sense it should be a year of gaula Yeshua mashiach opinion base and the like so we have a lot of dedications and I'm born schlima to Brian Rifka may they have a review Israel I may this year as well be foreign whose yard site is on the 24th of ello uh and then again I want to welcome the gantrys back I understand that you're you've made Aliyah you're here so I think it's very very nice to have you and again uh may it be an Aliyah nashama for for Benjamin as well as his grandfathers Ariel and Ephraim binary and a generous donation was also made by Mark and Hannah Hoffman in loving memory of Hannah's parents Hirsch benona and Sevilla bat David and Mark's parents Israel Ben lay palevi and Ella as well as the grandfather of ramifica who was known as the talmud of haggarh those of you that know Robert bear know what a great great guzzle he was and to be automatic reverse bear and Thomas bear is indeed a very great distinction as well as of Remy's grandmother Robertson whose yard site will be verb Tish rate once again we also have an anonymous donor and we want to thank Mr or Mrs or Mr and Mrs or Rabbi and Mrs whatever it is or Dr whatever but thank you very much for the generosity and finally uh this is the last chance to help people now reach its goal of sudaka for needy families during the holiday season 100 of the funds collected go directly to those in need and right now at this point we've reached 85 percent of the goal so almost there and as as we say in the darling prayer and charity in particular take away the evil decrees and we all need that Rahman so please respond very very generously so should go on these people who are generously supporting our share tonight we'll talk a little bit about Rosh Hashanah you have to know that this is a sacrifice on my part because I try to avoid talking about Rosh Hashanah the reason is when you have to talk about Rosh Hashanah as many times that I have to talk about Russia China I actually prefer not to give Schumer Rosh Hashanah but I will do it for the sake of the banan for the sake of the people that want to hear a yet another share on Rosh Hashanah I hope you hope that made sense but anyway I want to talk a little bit about the Mitzvah of Takia shofar now one of the interesting things I'm not going to even answer this question I'm just going to throw it out to you is that the terrorist does not say anywhere that you're supposed to blow a show for on Rosh Hashanah we only know that from Victoria the Tyra describes first of all it doesn't describe the day as Rosh Hashanah at all that's another thing the terrorist tells me impartials and more that on the first day of the seventh month and in the Torah we always count our months from Nissan so that's the first day of the seventh month you shall make a holiday and it should be a day of that's all it says now we're so used to knowing about Rosh Hashanah that we read everything we know into the verse itself but let's look at what the verse doesn't tell me first of all it doesn't tell me that this is the beginning of the year indeed it's almost illogical because it says the first day of the seventh month how can the beginning of the year be in the seventh month so it doesn't call it Rosh Hashanah that's number one number two it doesn't tell me why it's a holiday at all number three the word true has many many meanings it can mean shouting it can mean singing it can mean blowing a trumpet like a silver trumpet or it can mean blowing a chauffeur the word true eye in and of itself does not connote blowing a chauffeur and the word shofar does not appear in connection with this holiday at all it is called yomtrua indeed the karates the karayim who do not have we do not believe in the Torah shabalpath they have prayers on Rosh Hashanah but they do not book over in Rosh Hashanah because they said yomtrua means a day of shouting to God a day of praying to God which of course it is but they actually do not have they have Rosh Hashanah without the key that's over the only place where the terrorist actually mentions shofar is not by Rosh Hashanah but it's by the Jubilee right every 50 years there's the Jubilee year the slaves Go free and the land goes back to the original owners we do not practice Yeovil today for various reasons and the terrorist says on the Yom keeper of Yeovil not in Rosh Hashanah you shall blow a shofar in your land and the only way hazal know that in Rosh Hashanah you have a chauffeur at all is only because they compare the blowing of Yeovil to Rosh Hashanah and they derive all of these things it's very very interesting I mean it really highlights the idea of how important Taurus is to the practice of Judaism you know you might think well really we know the Mitzvahs from the written Torah and the courage about path fills in details or unusual cases sometimes that is the case but here's a very good example without the Taurus about that you would not even know of the existence of a Mitzvah called blowing the shofar except for Yeovil you would not even know on Rosh Hashanah there is such a Mitzvah right if you only know it from the torish about them be it as it may bottom line is there is a Mitzvah chauffeur it is a dorisa a Torah commandment as opposed to the blowing during the month of Elo which is a Min hug blowing on Rosh Hashanah is of course a Torah requirement uh interesting I don't want to get into too many technicalities women are technically exempt from hearing the Shelf around Rosh Hashanah because it is a time-bound Mitzvah which is not one of the exceptions and yet as every woman knows it is universal almost probably 100 Universal that every woman very much tries to hear the chauffeur blowing in Rosh Hashanah and if they're not able to come to show then often they'll be separate chauffeur blowings because the significance of chauffeur goes beyond those who are obligated and chauffeur because the chauffeur resonates with many many important messages so I want to talk about what some of the messages of the kiosk shofar is about there is a famous passage that's printed in many maksaram even the article maksa will have it from your Sadia gone one of the governing that gives no fewer than 10 different symbolic meanings of the Kia chauffeur I'm not going to go over all 10 and we're going to I'm going to add some they're not on this list but for example the idea of a ramshorn reminds the sacrifice of Yitzhak that avram's willingness to sacrifice his son and yet willingness to die which was substituted by a ram the shofar is also reminiscent of receiving the Torah when a the sound of a chauffeur was there there's a chauffeur that will be there to in gather the Exiles we say it in darwining every day tikab is shofar gadol below the great shofar for the engathering of the Exiles there is a chauffeur at the time of resurrection of the Dead there is a chauffeur at the time of the coming of mashiachem the chauffeur is also a summons to judgments I write it's like when when the jury is coming in they put an alarm that It prepares us that God is going to be judging us where the rambam puts a little differently the rambam says the chauffeur is is an alarm clock calling us from wake up sleepyheads from the sleepwalking that we do to life shofar is also the joyous coronation of the king right England while the coronation of Charles will be in a while but you know uh England now has a new king after the passing of Queen Elizabeth again a a person that's worthy of notes who really served her country and the world for 70 years that's quite a great accomplishment and we can learn from her example in many many ways but be as it may chauffeur is also coronation that's why there's actually a machlokis the vilnagon and the arizo what is the emotional state that we should be experiencing at the time of tikiat shofar the irizal rights it is trembling it's fear or at least it's the serious realization that we are being summoned to judgment and God is going to decide who will live and who will die and the shofar is that wailing or that alarm that says it's time to do sugar because we're now being judged that's what their result says you know what the film The Gun says the bill McGowan actually says the opposite the Vilma going says the dominant mood of shofar should be joy and simra because we are coronating Hashem it's a well-known idea that Rosh Hashanah is said to be the day that we reincarnate Hashem every single year we acknowledge Him as our Melech we Proclaim him as our Melech and that's a joyous ceremony and the show for is the joyous so it's very interesting opposite emotions the Ariza says the emotion of shofar is trembling in fear and the Vilma going says the emotion of shofar is joy and coronation who's right well obviously I'm not going to be able to decide between the areas I'll move on the ground but the truth is it's a very clear example of both perspectives existing at the same time and I'll prove it to you you may remember and you'll see it in a few days in any event that before the chauffeur is blown the balcore or the chasen different I'm sorry the batokaya or the Hazen says a number of verses from to heal him and from other places and it's interesting that the first letter of those verses actually spells out in acrostic that accuses us be ripped up in other words the first verse is Coley you know Coalition Etc now if you look at the verses you will see a few things first of all you see minha maitsar karasika anonym that's from Hollow what is from the narrow confining places from desperation I call out to God and please answer me with expansiveness so that reflects the the Ariza that there's a tremendous sense of fear of some level again we trust in God's mercy but we understand this is a very serious process on the other hand another one of the sukim is I Rejoice over your Commandments as if I found a great great treasure so you see in the sukin before the Kia chauffeur you're actually combining the two moods at the same time in fact in super Casitas they actually show this division within the sounds of the chauffeur itself the Takia which is a strong unbroken sound that represents joy and confidence in life the broken sounds whether it's the schwarim or the true whichever it is but the broken sounds generally represent the fear and the trembling and therefore in the Kia shall for itself we combine both ideas but the balotanya points out that it's important that the fear and the trembling be bracketed by Joy both before and after meaning the joy should be dominant yeah there is room for the shivirata live but you have to have the Takia of simha before and after so shofar is especially rich in many many symbols it connects to historical occurrences it connects to future events being Gathering of the Exiles it connects to the inner emotional state that we experience whether it's trepidation or whether it's the joy of coronating God and the confidence that we have in God's mercy so there are many many symbolic ideas into Kia chauffeur and again now you should look if you have a master that has rafaja Gohan's list that's a list that one should look at as we say in the art scroll you have it even in English but whatever many Muslim have it but I want to go a little off the Beaten Track and share with you some marshavos about shofar that sajikum does not mention but it's brought down in later swarim that might be particularly interesting first let me share with thought from prescription Rafal Hirsch we know that although the tiger doesn't really give me that much information but we know that one of the reasons why this is called Rosh Hashanah is because it is the anniversary of the creation not of the world the anniversary of the creation of Adam harisha meaning Hashem began to create the world the 25th of Elo the sixth day of creation that Friday was aleph tishray and that was the creation of Adam harisha it's an interesting little anomaly because that that actually means I mean it's not a capture but I'll just point it out an observation that the very first Rosh Hashanah was on a Friday now you know under the Jewish calendar uh Rosh Hashanah cannot fall out on Sunday Wednesday or Friday I mean okay there are reasons for that but but so it's interesting that the very first president fell out on a day that could never happen in our present calendar but be it as it may how did Hashem create Adam he breathed into him his own breath God breathed meaning God made cows and dogs and cats by simply saying let there be dogs but Hashem did not just say Let There Be man he actually breathed into man the Zohar and the balotanya it goes into the sower at very great length says this is extremely significant because man is not just a creation of God within man is the very essence of God because as the Zohar says when I breathe into you my breath I'm giving you my life for it it's very very significant so on the first Rosh Hashanah 5782 years ago Shem breathe the Divine soul into other refers says that one of the symbolic meanings of shofar is a reenactment and a re-ex re-experiencing Hashem breathing into man the spirit of life when you hear the sound of the Takia you are reconnecting to that time that God breathed into man the spirit of Life the spirit of God and just as the Takia sound is strong Unbroken pure continuous the soul that Hashem gave us is pure and good and strong without breaks without deviations but let's go on with the sounds what do we do with this precious pristine soul that Hashem gives us like we smash it we Break It We damage it with aveiro's is the soul that Hashem gave me the chivalry is the breakage and damage that I've done but the truer is the whimpering and crying of my desire to do chuva and reconnect to God and what do you get after that you get a Takia you've restored your soul to the pristine level that it was and indeed it's even better than it was because the place where the penitent stands the place of the balchuva and greater than the person who never sinned that is actually why the tikius at the ends as are slightly longer there's a taquilla godola etc because that represents the balchuva so according to reverse when you listen to the four sounds you're looking at the process of birth disintegration chuva and restoration and repair and that's the model of what we are doing to understand that shuva can repair chuva heals that's right of cook makes this point over and over again that juva is joyous ultimately shuva is about reconnecting to God yeah we got to go that we got to do the Dirty Work of looking into our aveos and trying to fix it and that could be painful but it's ultimately exhilarating because it's renewal it's reconnection it's rediscovery and it first sees this in the pattern of the chauffeur sounds itself and the truth of the matter is each of us can look at our own lives in the same way you know you know granted we don't have a conscious awareness of being with Adam those ears although the mindset says are them included all the souls of anyone who would ever be born but we can look at our own lives even the sense of being a child once right we look back and you know we can remember a time I hope you know maybe not everybody maybe but I think most people kind of purity of simplicity and then life got more complicated in various ways kind of got broken up and we've been through a lot of things for some people that experience can occur very early in life for other people maybe it hits them later in life so from that purity of soul comes a disintegration and a confusion that Chevy but we need to know that through introspection and repentance we can fix it and then we get back to it again we come back to batikia that's that's reverse's idea now let me show you through a second idea from her footner which actually goes in the opposite direction because they're putting their points out wait a second here you're telling me the chauffeur blowing is reenacting God blowing his Spirit into me but it's the other way around I'm blowing my spirit back to God I'm blowing the shofar right so it's almost an opposite movement it's not that which comes into me it's that which comes out of me so our footner has a striking metaphor and I'm going to use a muscle from contemporary life which he does not use you know in the days before computers for before computers were widespread let's talk about 30 years ago 40 years ago there used to be a ritual maybe the older people might remember this if you rented a car and you rented a car for three days and then you needed to extend it by a day there was a certain formalistic ritual you had to give back the car you had to physically show up with the car kind of hand it back and then negotiate a new contract it was almost like a certain type of game now of course everything's online you don't have to do that stuff anymore but there was a notion of giving it back and then getting it back well Rosh Hashanah is exactly that situation that gives us our lives in one year leases the lease is up on Rosh Hashanah I have to go to Hashem and ask for a renewal of that lease well I gotta get back the car refutner says the blowing of the show for is a symbolic death experience you're giving your life back to Hashem like Hashem you own my life it's yours I'm giving it back to you please let me renew the lease in various ways now the process of God's Den is very very very mysterious and we have no real way of fathoming it there are righteous holy people who suffer and die there are young people who suffer and die so certainly nobody nobody there can dare make the statement that when people die it's because God found them sinful or Unworthy of course that's not that's not the case and and On The Other Extreme you know if if some great God who dies at 105 you know it's not like uh oh God decreed he was a Russia I mean I mean in the normal course people are going to die at some point so the mishpat of Hashem is ultimately elusive we cannot pretend to understand what factors go into play but one of the factors one not the only one one of the factors and I'm going to use a a business term here is an Roi Hashem has to determine uh the return on his Investments meaning to say how could a sparkle looks at us and kind of has to determine like any investor is this investment worth keeping or should I cut my losses and that's why we have the emphasis on chuva and on doing good things because we want to kind of Sherlock that we're worthwhile and even if we're not that great now but Hashem sees a potential just like an investor can see a potential in keeping an investment right so return on investment is actually one of the mechanisms not the only one but one of the factors than a college board who keeps in his in his den so refutner says one of the most powerful reminders of that is remembering the day of death and remembering the idea that we're not going to live forever now this is not designed to make us depressed or anxious but it's designed to make us cherish and treasure life because life is not forever in other words Carpe diems seize the moments because you never know if it's your last remember the gamara has uh I think it was rebellious I'll meet him do chuva the day before you die and they asked him well when is that that's the point you don't know YouTuber every day is live every day as if it's your last day in the sense of doing the good that you can do her footner looks at the opposite of her first if Hersh looks at chauffeur blowing as a commemoration of Hashem breathing life into us Rev footner sees it as a symbolic death experience in which you're giving your life back to Hashem and you're asking him for another chance now let me mention the third thoughts these are just kind of unrelated or somewhat related thoughts from these fasemus yeah these are except for uh sort of refers to a footner the misnakedim side Although our footner is kind of a composite figure and then three and four one is from the sauce Ms and one will be from the Sheamus which I'll I'll get to this was is focusing on a very interesting text in the mission of the mishnah says all animal horns our Kosher for a chauffeur the Minogue is to use a Ram's Horn because that's connected to the akeda but if you've ever seen these gigantic chauffeurs that Timonium used and the like they're not from Rams they're from antelopes and and the like and they are Kosher in fact even a non-kosher animal horn might be a kosher chauffeur the only requirement the ramban says and this is an interesting technical requirement that it has to be a naturally Hollow horn meaning uh if you take a ram sword it's essentially Hollow although there's a core of bone that the horn grows around but it is a naturally when you can remove the horn from the bone you have a naturally hollowed horn if you took a bone and you drilled holes through the bone that would not be a kosher chauffeur because a chauffeur by definition has to be naturally hollowed and that's something that you Hollow okay but other than that all animal horns our culture for a chauffeur with one exception the Horn of a cow or a bull or a calf now that's a totally kosher animal what's wrong with it she's like Mark gives a few reasons but the final reason that the Gomorrah gives is an interesting one and that is cow Bo calf are connected to the eagle the sin of the golden calf when you blow chauffeur and you're seeking Divine Mercy you don't want to use the prosecution as your defense this is a an expression in the gemara that has actually entered modern Hebrew that means the prosecutor who is used to seeing everything wrong with you is not going to be the best defense advocate because the prosecutor sees everything wrong so we don't want to use a shofar of a cow or a bull because it's reminiscent of the eagle now that needs a little explanation because sometimes people say it reminds Hashem but that can't be right what do you mean reminds us without being reminded so really it doesn't really mean that it brings to hashem's conscious memories but rather it's kind of an arrogance that you're asking Hashem for cassette and you're waving around something that you committed a sin with so it's really the arrogance of of you know coming to Hashem with your Avera and saying I want now the Gomorrah then goes on and says there's one other example where we apply the rule of Ain category and that is anyom Kippur Yom Kippur the whole Yom Kippur service from morning to night is done by only the common goddess quite amazing it's not only the colors of judgment but the governor does he does everything meaning no other kohanim do anything on Yom Kippur it's like a marathon in fact you get the impression from the mishnah then at the time of the base on mikdish there wasn't even like long governing for people like it was like a spectator sport people would like hang around hang around the basement and watch this guy uh kind of exhaust himself running back and forth back and forth back and forth and then at the end they'd have a big party you know after Yom Kipper was was over like people would just hang around and watch the Cohen guttle going back and forth the only communal ritual that's described in the mission it was there was a Torah reading which the coin God will have to do as well he had to read the Torah and the people would be listening other than that they were just kind of watching okay it's not it's not clear if they were actually diving or whatever it is now the Cullen guttle has two uniforms the uniform that he wears during the year with the breastplate and everything that contains gold thread on when he goes into the cul-de-shock Josh ammonium Kipper he only wears pure white linen and no gold now on Yom Kippur itself he changes five times between the gold and the white the gold and the white the gold and the white the basic idea is when he's doing service outside of the holy of holies he can wear his gold but when he goes into the colors don't you he cannot wear gold why same reason because in the culture me seeking mercy and Rahman you don't bring in the gold of the golden calf and catager NASA senegger of this it's interesting uh it's there's a Minogue now it's not a din there's a minnog that on Yom Kippur number one men and women uh often dressed in white with men of course it's the Kittle and women also wear white I guess it's not it is not a clear but it's very common that uh women also wear white and some people even wear white keep up Etc and there's also a minig on the negative side that you don't wear gold jewelry on Yom Kippur whether it's a woman's jewelry or a man's watch or ring or whatever it would be because once again aim katega NASA's neck but again again it's important that you know the difference between the did and the minute the din of not wearing gold is limited only to the Cohen Godot going into the codashop darshan which the cloud doesn't apply today we don't have that the minnog applies to anybody wearing gold onion Kippur and there's all sorts of shylists is that only yellow gold or even white gold and what about fake gold looks like gold but it's not really gold all right so ask your local Rabbi about all of these variations but that's the basically the event can take your NASA senegger so it turns out I'm still giving you an introduction to the specific so so it turns out there are two scenarios where we have a concern not to invoke when we are seeking Mercy from Hashem one is we don't use the shofar of the cow and the other is the Cohen guttle does not enter Dakota shim with gold and both of them are the principal event now you might think these two examples are consistent the gamara actually asks a tremendous question they're actually contradictory because here's the problem when the coming got all is not in the kodachem even on Yom Kippur he does wear gold in other words for whatever reason we're only worried about encantegra NASA senegger when he's in the Kardashian if that's the case then why is there a problem by chauffeur when we're blowing shofar nobody's in the code of succession in other words why by shofar am I concerned for reminiscence even outside of the kodachem when on Yom Kippur when the Coen God was outside of the curriculum I don't care it's a contradiction so listen to what the gemara says the Gomorrah says quite an amazing thought since shofar is a mechanism that causes Hashem to remember us in a good way it is as if every one of us is standing at that moment in the Koda shakadashim and therefore because Shem rules are the ones that apply to shofar which means anyom Kippur Halloween godo and only on that day could enter Dakota all of us are transported to the level of intimacy of the kodachi and that's why we can't bring in the categor now all of this is the Kamari this is not even yet this fasemus so now this vasemus says the following turns out at the moment of the chaos shofar we are standing in the presence of Hashem to the same level of intimacy as the kodesh on Kardashian and that's why we can't bring to God anything connected to our sins we don't bring the cow because they ain't got tiger nuts as an acre so says chauffeur is a type of Prayer without words and this is what he says you can't pray with words when you're in the Kardashian does not pray with words why because the same way you can't use a cow shofar and the same way you can't bring gold into the Kardashian because the vein category NASA snegger you can't bring in your very speech because our speech itself we've corrupted in so many ways we've corrupted it with Russian horror we've corrupted it with insincerity with falsehood with a lack of sincerity in our prayers to God in the holy of holies I can only bring to God that aspect of me that is pure untainted not affected by sin not connected to Avera and that is the inner recesses of my nishama that remain holy and radiant no matter what happens and what is that the chauffeur blowing is from the kishkas it's from the guts inarticulate cry from the depths of your soul coming from a place that has not been tainted by the hypocrisies or the behaviors of a more conscious level this is but again it's in other form as well that there is part of us that is deeper than any sin or any mistake that we've done there is a part of us that can never be tainted so it's true when a person does a veros they create blockages they cover their neshamin with dirt and mud but underneath the dirt and mud is in essence and you see it has to be that way because if an aveira would destroy the very essence of the nishama then chuva would be impossible because there's nothing left to revive there has to be something that hasn't been killed off there has to be something that's still alive and from that we can regenerate the entire organism and that's called the famous phrase the pintolete the spark of the Jew but in a more formalistic sense it represents the essence of the nishama that is God's Essence because it's God's breath that is not tainted by sin from which all regeneration is possible so this was when you're in the code of you can only give God the part of you that remains pure and that's not verbalization that's a level that is deeper than the verbalizations all of us have this experience you know it's it's interesting that we very rarely you know thoughts go through our minds sometimes it's like fish swimming in and out of Consciousness and then when we if we say something it's like we're trying to capture the fish but like something misses there's always a disconnect between what we say and what we thought the words never capture fullness of the thought and on a deeper level the thoughts do not capture the fullness of in essence now this is a this is an idea it's very foreign to us although with psychology about the subconscious we're aware of it that is you know we think that thought is that is that is as abstract as we get there's thought and then there's speech in action but you have to understand thought itself is already very tangible there is something Beyond thought there is Will and then there are levels of will and then there's essence and our thoughts can become our thoughts can also be contaminated but our Essence cannot there's something in there that is the mother of everything the mother of thought right the origin of thought is still very mysterious why do certain thoughts come to me at certain times that's a very mysterious subject right why do I think of something at a given moment there may or may not be an external trigger to that okay so this is shot number three that the shofar is a prayer without words coming from the panemiots the innermost level of one's the shama and that's the only prayer that's acceptable because you're in the kodachin katagar everything else has been tainted you got to give Hashem that which is pure let me mention a thought from another Hasidic rabbi and this is the shame mishmuel for those who know a little bit of the history the shami shmuel was the son of the sakachava rabbi the avne Nasir and the other nature was no not only is the great Christina Gravity the other major was quite literally one of the great godolm of the generation that whether your nature was considered to be a great great guy in Allah interestingly enough just a little a bit of information about the Abney nature the abni Nasir I remember Brown Bornstein was his name uh he was the son-in-law of the cutscar rebbe now we know the katsuravi is a very enigmatic figure who had very sharp statements and who was a recluse for 20 years he didn't want any casino he said they're all no good whatever it would be and uh there's so many stories about the cutskarabi but we normally don't think of the cutscarebi as a great as great in talmudic studies so I just want to point out that the Avenue Nasir who absolutely was makubala as a goddal in all segments of qualisrael right in the introduction to his book on hilko Shabbos the eglaitau that all of his Derek in learning he got from his great father-in-law ravanaka Mendel of cutsk so all I can tell you is if the Abney Naser says that his father-in-law was his teacher in Kamara then you can see from that alone that the cutskarebi who was not known for talmudic learning so much there must have been a phenomenally great as well but beat as it may the Sheamus of small Bernstein was the ebony Nature's only son and he wrote an extensive series of swarim called Shame Ishmael and Hamish and on the holidays and the moadam and for those who are interested in learning Hasidic books it is often recommended as one of the best introductory Hasidic books for people to learn because it's written on a fairly accessible level it is not as kabbalistic as other Hasidic works but be this had made the Sheamus Moore points out the following you know we've given all sorts of meanings what is a truer what is it to Kia but the Tyree itself does not tell you the meaning of these sounds but there's one place where the Tyre does give you the coat that is remember that in addition to the shofar the Torah gives a commandment to Mosher of ano to make two silver trumpets and these were to be blown on holidays they were to be blown in time of War Etc and when there was a base on mcdush these were blown even on Rosh Hashanah on Rosh Hashanah there was the sofa blowing and the khatsotros flowing outside of the basement we only do chauffeur but in the base of mcdush they did so katochos were blown more often than chauffeur chauffeur is only Rosh Hashanah khatsotras were every roshkosh every yantiff as well as time of War but what's interesting is the Torah also assigns the khatsotro's other functions when Moshe rabenu needed to gather the congregation together he was told to blow a Takia and when it was time to Journey forward he blew it through so the Sheamus shmuel is giving himself a homiletical license that even though khatsotros and chauffeur are two different mitzvahs perhaps we could take the meaning of the sounds and apply them to chauffeur in the following way if the Takia of the khatsotros was the symbol of coming together perhaps we might say the tequila of the shofar is asifa coming together if the truer of the khatsotrotes is to Journey forward the true and I include the schwarim the broken sounds are the sounds of Journey now to go back for a moment why would the trua be associated with the journey so he says the following idea an interesting idea which is different than what we said before the truer can be described as both a crying sound and a laughing sound laughing and crying are not so far apart as we sometimes think we say in English I laughed until I cried with children sometimes you know it's a funny thing with kids that a kid gets into a tantrum crying crying crying so you try to amuse the child and some of the trouble like start laughing in the middle of the crying or sometimes he or she will give you like 30 seconds to see if this is worthwhile I've always loved that like they'll actually stop look at what you're doing and if they like it they'll laugh and if not they'll just come back they'll go back exactly to where they work they'll give you a chance okay you got 30 seconds I use these slush you got 10 seconds to impress me right you don't do that you know that's it I'm going back to the old to the old way but be it as it may the nature of a journey is both scary and exhilarating the Journey of life I don't mean even the ultimate questions of will I die or not I mean that's obviously but I'm talking about life generally a person makes Aliyah how does a person feel right they live in America all their life they come to Israel you sell your aiding exciting wow but it's scary you know how will I adjust I don't know the language that well I don't know the culture right so true is very very sensible sound for journeying in life because there's the laughter of new opportunities and there's the trepidation of leaving the familiar the old saying you know the hell I'm familiar with is better than the hell I don't know I mean sometimes I'm familiar with things okay I can live with it yeah well it's risky to do new things so the Sheamus shmuel says let's apply it to chauffeur we're beginning a new year Hashem is giving us instructions what we need to do in that new year Kia everybody comes together come with actors come without us Israel let's give strength to each other let's support each other and then we are ready to Journey forth to Sally Forth into the challenges of life some of which will be exhilarating and joyous and some of which will be frightening and scary and some of which will be both at the same time so with the Sheamus doing is he's borrowing the code of the khatsotras and he's applying it to the chauffeur so these are four explanations that I think are a little off the Beaten Track besides rafajigan's explanations rev Hirsch the shofar is the symbol of the chuva process Rev footner the chauffeur is a symbolic death of returning our life to our creator this fasemus the chauffeur is a prayer from the part of your nishana that has not been tainted by hypocrisy or sin and the shame ishma schmuel the chauffeur is a message of unity as we undertake the Journey of life which is a combination of Joy exhilaration and trepidation you know new the only the only thing you could say about new is new is always different can be good exciting different can be tough right so uh you're crying you're laughing you know you don't know what's going what's going to uh what's going to be but on the other hand if you're not willing to make a journey then you'll never grow you'll be stuck Wherever You Are right so life requires the notion of some amount of risk some idea of going Beyond our comfort zone maybe we'll fail but the truth of the matter is failure is not so bad either because we learn from our failures we learn from our mistakes it's been well said many times that we learn much more from our failures than from our from than from our successes because a success just confirms what I already knew right so I didn't learn anything from being successful because I thought it would work out it worked failure can be one of the great teachers of life in which ah now I know this is not the right way to go I think about other things other ways other other opportunities right so this is kind of the ultimate message or some of the messages of of the kiat shofar and um again I just want to wish everyone a kissimmatova a good and blessed year a year of bracha a year of Yeshua year of gaula a year in which each of us finds our place and this is also an important idea you know um there's an expression of you're in the zone and whatever that means exactly but there's a concept that when you're in the right place and you're doing the right thing that doesn't mean that it's easy it can be very very hard and you can be aware that it's very hard but you have a sense that it's worthwhile and it's good and that is a deeper level of happiness than what we normally call happiness we associate happiness with oh everything's great everything's good and that's happiness but that may be a superficial happiness a deeper happiness is you know you are struggling but you find you feel you're in the right place and sadness occurs when you're struggling and you don't feel you're in the right place just things are not where you should be so I guess the greatest product we can give is not that we should all have an easy life but we should have a life where we feel we're emotionally in the right place doing the right things doing the good things and even if we have to struggle as we go through it we should have a sense that we're doing something good and we're making proud of who we are and we justify the return on the investment it's a good good year [Music] yes [Music]