Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz : The Divine Service of Rosh Hashana

[Music] okay everybody and hope everyone's getting ready for the for Rosh Hashanah and tonight we'll talk a little bit about what Rosh Hashanah is about and what exactly is our Roda what is our divine service on Rosh Hashanah the truth of the matter is of all of us again Rosh Hashanah perhaps is the most schizophrenic because it embodies two very different types of emotions and feelings on one hand we are told that Rosh Hashanah is the Omaha den it is the day of judgment it is the day when a Shem decides who will live and who will die and there's no of course the final decision is made on Yom Kippur but Rosh Hashanah is the preliminary decision and as a result there is a certain undercurrent of terror actually in the Liturgy of the young no rhyme if you think about perhaps what is the most famous prayer in the young memoriam that's the Masonic effing moseph it talks about even the angels are quaking and shaking out of the fear of God's din and in fact even in sweet house I read which you've already started you also find the idea that it's a scary time in the Shiva world that is almost the only thing that is emphasized there's this constant sense that God is going to kill you if you don't behave it cetera better behaved better shape up now I don't mean to dismiss that I mean there is certainly an element of what's called a matzo Den fear of the din and even though god of course is a God of love and a God of mercy and a God of compassion but there is accountability in this world or the next world and as a result what I think about on Rosh Hashanah and this whole season is to try to be meta ken to try to rectify the areas of my life that I need to be rectified in order that I should be zoca together with my family together with Clow Israel in a favorable din so a person looks for what they're called in fact there's a whole phrase that's used eight shots council advise a list coats but then how one cat can merits hopefully there are no guarantees but married a favorable and many of these involve the notion of compassion we talk about charity we talk about hesed we talk about judging people favourably giving people the benefit of a doubt forgiving people that have hurt you and the common theme in all of that is the way we behave towards others is the way that a sham is going to behave towards us I give charity and kindness and forgiveness even to those who may be less deserving then God will give me charity and forgiveness even though I'm not so deserving but that's kind of the media can they get meat up and that's why we say indeed at the very end of the semester keV who teshuva roots feel oats taka repentance prayer and charity particularly charity cressid that includes loving-kindness ma Viren at Tarawa ha Jazeera they can take away the evil decree again there are no guarantees in life we understand that but these are factors that very much work in our favor in that sense only Rosh Hashanah is number one a fearful time on some level but number two it's also in the egocentric time because I'm worried about my life my health my family my kids and even if I'm a bit more generous I think about Kali Israel but essentially I'm thinking about us I'm not thinking about God right that's one aspect of Rosh Hashanah and yet there's a whole other aspect of Rosh Hashanah which is actually very different and that is Rosh Hashanah is the day that weary coronate Hashem and proclaim him as King and the reason that is so is that Rosh Hashanah is the anniversary of the creation of the world after the creation of Adam and therefore the universe so to speak is recreated the by Latanya rights based on Kabbalah that every Rosh Hashana it's a very strange phenomenon Hashem withdraws all of the light of the old year and puts in a new light like the lighting system is changed there's a whole new light it's a whole new universe and seem in this way there's a very intriguing translation you know when we blow the shofar during rusev so after we finished blowing the shofar we say a phrase hi yom her rats olam now every mock sir translates a young Murat Salaam today is the birthday of the world meaning you're focusing on this is when the world you know mankind really came into existence but there's a big problem with that translation although that is the universal translation pirats means conception it does not mean birthday ryone is not and no lay down laid eyes birth right so really listen to this translation instead of translating it today is the birth of the world you could translate it today is the conception of eternity olum itself has two translations there's olum that is a physical world then we say Leo lung forever in fact even the phrase melech ha-olam that you say in every breath oh you know simple things like that it's not so simple how you translate it is melech ha'olam means the king of the world or the universe or does it mean the eternal king melech ha'olam so consequently how young Herat alum is not looking at the past it is making a declaration that today is the conception of a new eternity now that is a different thought that is actually a very uplifting thought it's one of newness his hotshots and weary coronate God because it is a new universe it is a new world it's a new life a new life can be scary it can be frightening you don't always know if it will automatically be better but there's potential in the world and that's why on that level the zou are actually rights we don't possibly make this hour but it says people who spend time asking God give me life give me food give me partner give me out the ZOA are strikingly compares them to dogs who are barking under a window saying throw me some meat Rosh Hashana you just bother God with giving life give me a gimme gimme gimme Rosh Hashanah says this over is not about you not about us it's about God proclaiming a Shamus melon hey yo Marjolein because it's a new universe we proclaimed God as king over the old universe this is a new thing a whole new world a whole new life wery proclaim a Seamus Miller so this gets so phrenic I mean I maybe I shouldn't use the term but this duality of Rosh Hashanah can actually explain an interesting mark locus between the Vilna Gaon and the Ariza what does a person think about when his chauffeur is being blown the I reason says the shofar is a summons to judgment it's calling you it's the alarm that's saying you're about to be judged for your life and therefore the I resolve says the dominant emotion of shofar is pocket I read ah the Vilna Gaon says you almost might have expected a reversal here with the Vilna Gaon says no no no so far is the coronation of the king you coronate by blowing trumpets and therefore the emotion of shofar is joy and simple that we have the king that is the ultimate power in the universe that loves us and cares about us and therefore the key at chauffeur's says the Vilna Gaon is a great myths of simcha not caravan pocket now the truth of the matter is this muck locust finds its expression in the Tiki Oz Show for ritual itself you know before the chauffeur is blown the cousin recites verses actually responds with those verses and the vs. spell out an interesting acrostic they spell out Cara Sutton roof raysh ayin sin Tess nun Ripa may the Sun be destroyed in other words each puck begins with that letter coley right schemata etc so you'll notice among the tube sukham when Patrick says me and my mates are karate exactly this is before the cross Sutton me and my mates are correct I call out to God from desperation and I ask God to answer me that's the pocket but then once we get to the shotgun thus in the park for the sin is such a note the album Resaca from Jaylin Sanofi album Resaca Kim Oates a shallow rough I rejoice over your word such am as if I found a great treasure so you actually have the men are mates are is the actual Edith of the re and sustain Oakland Recife is the film ago now we can take this in many many different directions rev salivate check it says an interesting compromise position you know we blow the chauffeur in two basic groupings we blow the chauffeur before moseph and that is what is called t Chios give me you shove the Takeo Sichel fur before moseph are called the sitting tequila's why are they called the sitting tequila's we actually stand up to them but they're called the sitting to Chios because they are not connected to an Amiga they're not connected to a shamone s ray later we blow to Quixote during the Musa and that's Mike locus when you do it exactly most organized them only do it in the repetition of the Amidah many shall see them and many far game actually do it in both the silent amita which is little great little strange because people are in different places but when the cars and reaches so blow it both in the silence and in the repetition but whether you blow it only in the repetition or you blow it in the silent and the repetition those 2 kiios are called 2 kiios dimmer Ahmad the standing to chaos because they are connected to Schmo Nasri so our soul of a trick wants to say they have two different functions the tequilas before massif are the summons to judgment and the dominant emotion is pocket and harada the key ah steering mussaf are joyously proclaiming a Shem as Melek and it switches to the coronation idea that's reversal of a text Academy and indeed again to explain that the case of muscle and a little bit more detail you know that a standard Moosa whether it's Rosh Hodesh whether it's Shabbos whether it's yom tov only has seven blessings the first three standard the last three and the middle blessing about the holiness of the day Shabbos Rosh Hodesh and the like the Musa of Rosh Hashanah is the only Musa that has three middle blessings as opposed to one middle blessing and the three middle blessings are given a special name mao huo's kingship the Chronos remembrance and shofar house the blowing of the shofar and the format of each of these three blessings is the same we recite 10 verses from Tanakh in a particular order three torah three cassavan all of which are tehilim three in a vm so it's not turin vm consumed in stoic subin the vm and a tenth verse from the torah in Mazzio's we emphasize god's kingship so we have sukham that deal with God is king in the Chronos we emphasize the idea of Hashem remembering the good deeds of our fathers and mothers and in show photos we emphasize versus that deal with chauffeur passed the chauffeur of mattandsarah chauffeur presents the mitzvot that we blow shofar and show for future which is the chauffeur of mashiac resurrection of the Dead and the ingathering of the exile in fact you will encounter because of this you will actually encounter some familiar friends that we don't necessarily pay attention to during the year so much but they make their appearance in Rosh Hashanah for example mao huo's is introduced by none other than the old a new prayer that we recite three times a day often on the way out of the show I mean we don't really pay enough intention to Elena but Elena comes back as the glorious beginning of mouth Cleo's God's kingship similarly in the shamone s ray we have a brother that is recited three times a day to carb is show for good ole if they were saying who blow the great shofar for our freedom we say that every day and yet you'll see in the Muslim for fresh Hashanah it is inserted in the show froze in the third of the three special breakfast so when we blow chauffeur in Musa we blow at the end of mouth wheels we blow at the end of the Chronos we blow at the end of show froze or shall further out there two pronunciations and that is why we call it Takeo steam.you mod because it is connected with the Amidah as a little a sight reveals a Falbo and i've talked about them all quite quite a lot yeah I don't want to get too much into it into the philosophical issue that he was grappling with other than to we'll just quickly just set the scene as you know the Rambam articulated thirteen fundamental principles of Jewish faith and the Rambam maintained that if anyone denied did not believe any of those thirteen principles they were treated as a heretic a co farinata chorus and they were not considered part of the faith community I mean maybe you're still genealogically at you but you're not a member of the faith community of Israel no the according to the random you cannot be counted for a minion now reveals a Volvo who is a great philosopher in the generation after the Rambam - a great issue with the Rambam not because he disagreed in substance with anything the Rambam said I mean he believed in everything the Rambam said a jew believes it but as a matter of classification Revell boat took the position that the Rambam was combining what are called roots principles with derivative branch principles and he said many of the Rambam so-called fundamental principles are really derivative branches and you can still be a good Jew even if you don't accept the branch so a Volvo famously said there's only three fundamental principles of faith number one with co2 Shem belief in one God that made heaven and earth number two reward and Punishment either in this world or the next one that God cares about virtue and lack of virtue so there's accountability and responsibility and number three that I Shem did not leave good and evil to our determination but there was a revelation of the Torah and therefore those are the three principles now just to illustrate very quickly the difference in your Volvo's approach and the roundels approach let's say I'm a person who believes that after we die our soul goes to God and we give an accounting of our good in our sin and there's a reward in Olam haba but I don't believe in a physical machine and I don't believe in physical resurrection of the body I consider that to be not important according to the Rambam at least the round bones official statement I am a heretic I am a nappy chorus I cannot be counted for a minion according to a Volvo mushiya theater mate them are not in and of themselves fundamental principles they are simply derivative branches of a general principle called reward and Punishment and as long as I believe in the general principle if I don't believe some of the derivatives now Rivaldo people misinterpret about what people will sometimes tell Oh Ravi OC Falvo did not believe in physical resurrection or of Yosef albo did not believe in mushiya absolutely wrong people are not understanding what the book is trying to establish he actually does not differ with the Rambam on anything he agrees with mashiac he agrees with TSM a.m. he is simply saying a man that doesn't believe in Messiah but believes in reward and Punishment is a fool it may be an idiot is mistaken but Rivaldo says mistaken people they're not the same as heretical people there are all sorts of issues that people could be mistaken about but that does not affect their basic connection okay I don't want to go too much into this but the reason I'm bringing it in is Rivaldo has a beautiful structural understanding of the Rosh Hashanah service based on these three principles because he says if Rosh Hashanah is the day that we coronate that then the way we coronate that is by pledging allegiance to the fundamental principles of the faith that he has given us it's like a pledge of allegiance so mouthy of kingship is acknowledging that there is a God that is sovereign that's principle number one zero knows remembrance acknowledges the notion of responsibility if God remembers so to speak everything we do things don't just disappear the good is remember the bad is remembered that's accountability scarbee onus and chauffeur Oates talks about the chauffeur of Mactan Torah as well as other things that's revelation suribabu says his three principles are actually the central aspect of the most of liturgy Mitsy attetion Sekar Vionnet sh and shofar which actually means mausi o s-- is really all three of them meaning to say the following all three are proclaiming God's sovereignty but in different ways mafioso acknowledges God's sovereignty because he is the supreme creator of the world the Chronos is God's sovereignty in terms of accountability and responsibility of scarbee onus and shall ferocious God's sovereignty in the sense that he gave us a Torah which tells us what is good and what is bad as opposed to leaving it to our conscience of the New York Times or the harvester or whatever whatever whatever it would be so therefore going back to have some of a check he says the reason we blow chauffeured after each of these is it's a form of coronation so consequently this turkey ostomy you shove is a summons to did karada the kiosk mu mont is to joyously be Mamluk Hakadosh barukh o as the mellah through as Rivaldo would say these three fundamental principles so that aspect of russia tion in which the xot are clearly says is predominant remember the Zohar is critical again we don't thought we don't follow this over to that degree the so actually makes fun of people who are like dogs asking God give me this give me that give me that this is about praying for God's glory and indeed look in the governing we pray that God's reverence should be upon the whole world that ever in the aides are called Palkia topple Tomei every creation know that you created him for your vehicle yet Suresh a territory it's our toe every it's org and every creation should know for yo Marco Allah share neshama be Appa every creature that has a breath Hashem a loquacious realm Mela God is God of the God of Israel is the king of Mao who sober call mashaallah 'and this kingship extends and indeed the Vilna Gaon has another point there's a difference between the word melech and Mishelle no shell also means a ruler Michelle is one who rules against your will that is a dictator MELAS is one that we accept as a king so on rosh hashanah hashem is a michelle whether we accept them or not we don't have a choice really but the choice we have is do we make him a Melek in our life now the truth of the matter is this dichotomy between the trepidation of DIN and the joy of simcha which is reflected in the two times you blow show for one before most of and one after myself the truth of matter is you can subdivide it even further that even in a stomp chauffeur blessed you have a combination of these different sounds you have the takea which is a long unbroken sound and then you have various broken sounds this forum which is uh and then the true us the cut out that that that and the resign him already say the takea is joy it's straight its unbroken the true I wish for him are various sounds of crying so yes we cry to God but we bracket our cries with joy with joy and indeed this even is reflected in the way you blow a show for you know the chauffeur has a narrow end and they brought it the halacha is you have to blow from the narrow and from the narrow it goes out to the broad and that's actually based on the pus hook I mean how made circa Rustica I call out to God from the narrow place Nani but Markov he answers me with expansiveness that's a rebus that yes you have to have a certain sadness over your sins but then you have the joy of feeling God's Redemption so what's where things get complicated is this the dichotomy in Rosh Hashanah between the a Maharajah the yireh the pocket and the simcha manifests itself in two different planes plane one is the dichotomy between Yom Hadean and Yom ha whoo ha ha Katara the day of judgment and the day of Coronation the day of judgment is frightening the day of coronation is joyous so yo Medine I'm worried Yo Ma Katara I'm jubilant but then we subdivided further that even the Yom Hadean aspect there's a great simpler because it is the simpler that I can do 2 ver and the simpler that God loves me and God is waiting for me to come to him so it's not just the simpler on the coronation aspect there's a simcha in the chuhwa aspect itself and even beyond that there is a simcha in being judged and the symfon being judged is now we may not always feel this way is I am significant enough in God's eyes that what I do makes a difference the very fact that were evaluated means God takes us seriously our lives matter our deeds make a difference because if we were inconsequential if we were negligible if we didn't matter in the large scheme of things God would have better things to do with this time then scrutinize us so consequently the simpler pops out in kind of unusual corners in the most general sense it's the joy of coronating at a secondary aspect is the joy that through chuva we get reconciled and the third aspect is the joy of being judged actually means we matter and that's very important God takes us seriously you know it's the old story that when your children misbehave you know you want to you need to do something about someone else's kids misbehave you know it makes less of a difference to you because you know we don't care about them as much right so and that's what the passage says in Mitchell II ace share yeah y'all have Hashem yo here he who God loves he chastises there are people God may not care about so you know whatever they do you know they say with the altar of Sobotka the altar of still vodka we have nothing to be thinking who Wednesday yeah it was an ancestor of the later of Muslims to be Finkel toshiba Mir the author of the butler was a very very elusive figure he really was a mystery person no and I mean no one to this day really knows his background knows his history very very kind of elusive in fact he was decide now his name was nuts on Sui Finkel but if you rearrange the letters it could get spelled so fun the concealed one sigue so it's three Finkle nothing he used to sign herself so for him because he indeed was a very concealed person but he was the great great influence on so many kids Oliver Virant Cutler my Russian hero Ruderman Andrew foot nur reveal Cove kamenetsky was very very close he considered the outer look at receive a therapy and the thing about the altar was that they used to say that if the outer didn't give you muster that was the greatest muster others if you weren't learning well you didn't come to top of me and the outer didn't even talk to you about you felt so bad you would go to the outer you'd even say no Rebbe you know I missed everything today and the altar would say okay that was the worst when he would yell at you when he could scream at you when he would give you mother you knew that you mattered you knew that he cared right so people would actually go there was like beg please you know give me mother I did this I did this and and and alike so with that color Sparkle it's somewhat the same idea so this is why Rosh Hashanah is really schizophrenic even how logically it's that way on one hand we don't say how well and the Gemara asks why don't we say how long Rosh Hashanah and the answer that's given is because since the books of who will live and who will die are open before a Shem it is not appropriate to have the joy of challah on the other hand we know there's a myths for the eat food eater Sudha Ahn jung-geun and if you look in the book of Ezra in the semia when the Jewish people came back after the 70 years of Exile only a small percentage and they were crying on Rosh Hashanah the first Russia Shanda back in a desolate land of Israel they thought God didn't really care about them and they were crying and sobbing and Ezra nfm you said eat and drink and share your food with those who are less fortunate this is Kadosh I am Leah don't I know this day is holy to God and like the persik says said wash em he museum that means the joy of God is your strength now that has two interpretations the joy of God can mean the joy Hashem has in you advantage M the joy of God in you can give you strength and confidence to face the new year or the alternative interpretation is the joy you have in serving God because what that means the joy us in serving God gives you strength so on one end we have this idea for not saying how well and the other way that we have this idea of simpler and even in the laws of mourning you know the halacha de Baca is that if God forbid there's Olivia an era of cog and the person the of lsat Shiva for even a very short amount of time so when the yom tov comes it actually cancels the shiva there's no need to have any shiva because the mitzvah of joy of the octave overrides shiva now it's a little complicated if the death occurred on yom tov or column o8 there actually is no cancellation of shiva you don't sit Shiva during the unders but right after Yom Tov the family has to sit a complete Shiva that's if the funeral took place on column OE or in foot suarez that could theoretically take place on the second day of Yom Tov although it commonly does not but if the Lavanya is arabic so when actual shiva was observed for a very short time people say in honor but it doesn't have to be an hour could even be five minutes yom tov cancels there is not if it was there if the the burial was Erev Yom Tov there is no shiva yom tov cancels the shiva interesting that no that actually is an interesting question that is an interesting question because it's been pointed out many many times that shiva is a very very therapeutic time for people although sometimes grief hits you after ship anyway but but during shiva people tell stories and reminiscences and you get community supports and friends come and the like so it is actually it is actually true that when people do not have an opportunity to sit Shiva they do feel a certain lack but what could be done is theoretically you could organize an informal night of remembrance people can come I mean you know it's not forbidden to say no Tuesday night after Yom Tov you know I'd like to people come over and we could memorialize our beloved whatever but but but it's not a mandatory oh yeah the reason why young Toph cancel Shiva is because young Toph is simpler and simpler is inconsistent with availeth so what about Rosh Hashanah if God forbid there's Olivia era of Rosh Hashana does Rosh Hashana cancel Shiva the halacha is Samak locus in the Gemara actually but the halacha is yes so isn't that a hundred percent proof there's a mitzvah of rejoicing on Rosh Hashanah if there wouldn't be a mitzvah of rejoicing on Rosh Hashanah it wouldn't cancel right so once again this these two these two aspects here are very much tied together the joy the trepidation the concern for my personal welfare and a greater concern for the glory of a Kadesh for who in this connection though let me just mention a teaching of reclaim of a legend there's a famous Gamora it's a beautiful Kumar very important Gamora that says I miss Paul el al cavero food service Lee also dove or Hunan at the Cielo what does that mean I have a certain need but instead of focusing on what I need I pray for my friends Hashem will give me what I need for example if a person doesn't have a and of course they should pray for themselves too but if they really really pray for other people to have a oh and they have real component this is not a game this is not like a game where you really care about yourself no but if you really genuinely are Miss Powell for somebody else Hashem will give you what you need you don't have a child you pray for somebody else and the proof of the matter is that went and the Gemara says the proof the proof is when a beam LF the king of the pushed him took Zara thinking was Abraham's sister and a sham punished of MLF and his is family that all of their orifices were sealed up so among other things they could not have children and a brown prayed for our Vemma left and right afterwards Sarah got pregnant with yet Scott which happens to be by the way on Rosh Hashanah so from there we see your Miss Powell for somebody else your friends God will give you what you need this is the Gomorrah and this is a well-known gomorian Moustakas bava kamma says reliable uh dinner who is your greatest and dearest friend in the universe it's none other than our Kurdish Park now this is quite striking because we described God with the wide variety of terms taken from human relationships avi no he is our Father volcano he is our king in she Reshiram we used the metaphor of lover and beloved he is the lover and then the woman is the beloved etc other times Hashem uses the metaphor of husband and wife that's why in Hosea's prophecy when he took a prostitute of the jewish people are often compared to a an unfaithful wife who goes away from her husband so we talk about husband wife we talk about father we talk about King but this is a different image God is your friend do you see it Tanakh any to any term that God has called your friend actually you actually do it says in Michelin MELAS rioja Barea of visa I'll toss off do not abandon your friend who is the old friend of your father and your father's father don't abandon your friends a friend it's a very different image God is my friend God is my king God is my parent God is my lover God is my friend my friend comforts me when I'm lonely gives me courage when I'm scared I shall miss my friends so we're finally Lesnar says quite ingeniously you have to keep the Hebrew in mind here if you're Miss Powell I'll carve a row and you need something Hashem will give you what you need when the focus of your Fela is on the glory of Hashem your ultimate friend then that itself will give you what you need in your personal life so that's what revolution are right one should not focus again it's based on this hour one should not focus on Rosh Hashanah so much and all the gimmies that we want one should focus on the glory of God and even when we ask for life that can be our focus because what does a person mean when they ask for life you know he says a crane over Higham remember us for life Mela our fates behind him the God who did the king of desires life for cost of a noob is safer I am inscribe us in the book of life the mantra for your sake I locate my meaning we may not deserve it but for your sake so depending on where you put the comma instead of saying inscribe us in the book of life comma for your sake here's how you translate it inscribe us for a life that will be lived for your sake it's the type it's not saying give us life for your sake rather give us a life that will be for your sake meaning it's the type of life that you're asking for you're asking for we are asking for a life of meaning a life of purpose a life where we could be a vehicle for chido Shasha we could be a soldier in God's army we can accomplish something for the glory of the rabona shillelagh that's ultimately the focus of ours Fela give us meaning give us purpose give us opportunity give us the tools that we need to be able to do something significant and beautiful that's the type of vitae so therefore in a sense the personal part of Rosh Hashanah correlates to the coronation part of Reza Shah know because you're asking for that type of that type of life so in this connection I just want to augment reply and vulajin or statement with two later statements one by the carpet William and one by Abraham Lincoln maybe Milan because as you say the puppets crimes second but I'll go in the disorder you know when the coverage time died in 1933 so the perfect I am had a son Roble who was a customer and when people were trying to write biographies of the coffee time so somebody went to ablate and said listen because I'll tell us sadiq goes there a Sadiq decrees and Hashem fulfills the degree of its attic ecstatic decrees by Nasser you get by nuts children Rasheeda Sadiq geyser so can you give us some examples of the coverage I am like giving a broker than a Shem listen to sad it goes there it's almost a decree that the own IT have to keep that goes they're not killers work on makalya through a blade said a very beautiful thing Roble says I'm sure there are cases but I want to tell you to my father it was much more important a college boy who goes there but Sadiq McCallum it was much more important that God decrees and the SAVAK obeys instead of the Sadiq decree and God obeys that wasn't my father's life my father's life was not about giving orders to the Rabbinical of them it was about accepting the rabona Shah Alam's well and living with it and using it for kiddush Hashem now it's interesting Lahab dill Abraham Lincoln said came out the same thing earlier the bacopa time and this was and one of his cabinet their meetings during the soup of the American Civil War so one of his cabinet officials said huh take it the lesson dying around me I'm saying the carpets carpets time public sign of his time was 1933 yeah although I don't know how well in through the matter of the prophets time was alive in the 1860 so I mean if he said it early enough it's good even earlier to about that yeah yeah no well becomes no sir I was born around 1830 1838 een 60 he was already a mature person so I don't know but beat us at night during one of the cabinet meetings in the Civil War one of the I think of Secretary of War said mr. president we shall surely be victorious for God is on our side in this struggle and Lincoln responded it's much more important that we be on the side of God then God be on our side you know sometimes people look at God as kind of you pay him off you bribe him that he's gonna give you what you want and you have God in your pocket cause for Shalom so so so to speak like your mafia protection money or whatever it is and that's not always the case I mean if you remember mrs. Franco you know the the repet sinner who lost though you know when I went with three boys were brutally murdered so she loved one of them one of them were hurt was her son Naftali and she became like a spokesperson more or less she spoke about it many many places and she just said that God is not doesn't it's not does not work for us so to speak God is not in our employ that we expect you know I you know I'm paying you I'm paying you with mitzvahs I want a certain result so we're back to this idea I miss Paula law cavero when you pray for the glory of God who is your dearest friend that itself is a sigil out for Hashem giving you what you need in life and that should really be our Quran on Russia now after I say all this I do have to qualify it by statement rivers also longer reliable lodging is basically going with the Czar's approach that Rosh Hashana is primarily about God and not about you and that's based on the Zohar that talks about people like barking dogs etc and certainly that is a mess that is the fundamental avoider of Rosh Hashanah however if we saw Salinger said in the next generation that for many people as the generations get spiritually weaker it's very very hard for us to concentrate on the glory of God in the abstract and therefore it comes out of our personal predicament that causes us to turn to God meaning to say when i'm marga shhhhhh in my life that I have a problem whether it's a health problem or a marriage problem that kind of brings me to God so although in a sense it's an inferior way in other words the theoretically highest prayer is I think about God's glory and I'm indifferent about me but where we saw slanter says as a practical matter most of us are not necessarily on the level of only thinking about a sham so we can use kind of our private sufferings or our private needs as the stepping-stone in the ladder so when people ask me are you allowed on Rosh Hashanah to pray for your personal needs so although the Zohar does not consider it to be ideal but your resource ladder actually says it may be totally appropriate for the moderator that we are on because most of us connect to God through a sense of the personal struggles that we have so in a sense we need to utilize a lower madruga to try to reach a a higher moderate so now let me just say very very quickly some concluding thoughts about the different sounds of the chauffeur that are very very interesting obviously I already mentioned one idea the takea is joy and the truest varnish firm true our forms of crying and sobbing well since Noel Hirsch says a beautiful thing the shofar symbolically represents the whole process of chuhwa sin and Shuba the takea represents the pure soul that Hashem gave us and keep in mind the soul that a Shem gave us was through breathing into us the spirit of life so when we blew on Rosh Hashanah when we blow we're reenacting that blowing of the soul into us and that original soul was holy was pure was unbroken so takea rashanna represents the purity of the soul that God gave us as we say every day in governing hello Kai the shamash and eSATA be the neshamah that you gave me to her he is pure but then we do have a rose of a rose our sugar rim we break up the soul wheat it's as if we took a precious vase and we smashed it ie that which was so precious and good gets broken and smashed but then we do Tuva by crying to God that's the true right so the showroom is the hate the true aah is the crying of turning to God for forgiveness and what do you get as a result of that true ah you get the takea you have restored the purity of your soul and indeed we know that the final takea that is blown is longer than the first the Kieth and that's the reminisce to the teaching of Cazale that the place where the ball Juba stands is greater than the place of the Tzadik who never sent right so that is refuge Norval Hirsch who analyzes the sounds of the shofar my pure neshama that God gave me my breaking and destroying it my crying and turning to God in chuhwa and then the restoration of the purity of my cell right that's one interpretation a second interpretation is offered by the specimens and this was Emma he doesn't explain every single sound of the chauffeur but the basic idea about chauffeur generally is this the Gemara says the mission of the mission says in the surface Rosh Hashana that every animal horn is kosher for a shofar except the Horn of a cow or a bull you cannot use you use antelope the minnow gives we use Ram because the ram is reminiscent of the akkada of youths cut but you can use the antelope different types of goats sheep all of them are kosher but a cow although cow is a kosher animal you cannot use the Horn of a cow or a bull for a chauffeur why not what's wrong with the Horn of a cow or a bow so the Gemara says because cows Bulls calves are reminiscent of the sin of the golden calf and when you plead to God for mercy of course God remembers our sin whether we bring it up or not but it's a big hutzpah to come to God and wave your sin in front of him and use that to beg for mercy this is the famous expression ain't category NASA son egg or that means what the prosecuting attorney cannot become the defense attorney the Eagle the Karen of a para is category and he cannot become the son a car and the garage draws an analogy to the up Kippur Service on Yom Kippur normally during the year the Kohen Gadol wears garments containing gold but when he goes into the car they suck - Jim it has to be white linen no gold is allowed to this very day many people it's not it did but many people have a custom they will not wear gold jewelry or a gold watch on Yom Kippur to commemorate that because gold is also the Phaedo ego and category gnosis an acre ah but now listen to this the Gemara asks a very brilliant question wait a second here but even on Yom Kippur even on Yom Kippur when the Kohen Gadol is not in the holy of holies when he's doing the service and the rest of the temple he actually wears gold it's only in the coat a shock to him that he doesn't have gold so since the shofar is not blown in the codification right I mean we blow it everywhere then why is there in other words if for whatever reason the rule that you don't bring the sin when you're asking for mercy is a coda Chaka dodging rule then why would it apply to chauffeur the Gemara ask the contract and the kumaras answer is quite astounding that the moment of takea shofar it is as if all of us are standing in the code of suggestion and therefore just like the Kohen Gadol on yom kippur does not bring gold into the coalition because a vain categor Nasus an egg or we do not blow the horn of a pirate even though we're not physically in the codification we have that intimacy and that connection with Hashem this is what the Chimera teaches us so here's what this fuss MSS if the kiosk shofar is the level of intimacy of the coalition and when you're in the collosseum you cannot bring that which is sinful you can only bring that which is pure so at that moment I don't pray with my mouth I don't utter words my words themselves often have hypocrisy my words themselves open up check air I often don't really know what I mean and what I feel what I have to give to God is that which is totally pure and totally untainted and that is the deep recesses of my soul so show for says discuss ms is a prayer that is not verbal a nonverbal cry coming from the part of you that is good and untainted and not affected by sense because in the codification that's the only thing you can give a sham you give a Shem that of yourself that is pure and that is holy so according to this verse ms the shofar is the prayer of the soul that is not yet concretize in two words which may have falsity may have insincerity may have hypocrisy but there's something in us that is genuine something in us that is real something in us that is not corrupted and that's what I give to God at that moment of the Kodesh akatosh am i that is the swass emesis thoughts third thought I'll just end here very quickly we're foot near points out I had already mentioned from our parish the idea that the blowing is a kind of a simulation of God blowing the soul into us but your foot nur switches it around a little bit because really it's the opposite on Rosh Hashanah God blew his breath into us on Rosh Hashanah we're blowing our breath back to him Ref witnesses the kiosk shofar is symbolic death it's giving our life back to Hashem we're saying Hashem you gave me a year I am grateful for it I know a new decision is being made I am giving you back my life and I'm praying that you'll give me you'll give me life back so therefore th offer itself is an akkada it's kind of literally giving your life to a college proper so we have three again these are overlapping ideas we have reverses idea that the chauffeur sounds are the chuva process we have this vos MS it is a prayer from the part of me that's pure and uncorrupted and we have rapid nur it's giving your life back to our College Barker you are reversing what a sham did on Rosh Hashanah because once again you are being recreated and hyoma rattle um it is a new conception of reality not the birthday of the world here a young a new reality is being conceived so I just want to wish all of us all of call Israel all of the world a kashiwabara Sumitomo should be a year of Brocklin Shalom and growth and may all of us find in our lives the potential to serve others for who to sanctify his name and to live lives of meaning and purpose and significance so good a job [Music]