Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: Why not Celebrate Simchat Torah on Shavuot when the Torah was Given?

Okay, everybody, good to see you and again I do want to apologize. I had forgotten or I had not realized that they share what's scheduled for last night and I was a no show. I was a W O L, so I owe Rabbi Poston one and that's why I've made a special trip this Wednesday morning to be able to give a share that can be recorded. Perhaps I'm still too connected to the galut. I'm not sure because yesterday was of course the second day of Yom Tov, Simchat Torah for the diaspora people in my particular Yeshiva or Semicha. Most of the students actually do keep two days. So in a sense there's kind of a Yom Tov atmosphere. But even so, even so, even that was wrong because Yom Tov was over, you know, by by 8:30 anyway, so I don't really have an excuse. I just things just slipped my mind. But anyway, it's very good to see you all. And I hope everyone had the season of chaggim, you know, in Eretz Yisrael. The chaggim is this huge excuse for everything. When you start asking to get things done in the middle of the summer, so your response will often be after the chaggim. So now we're after the chaggim and uh in some ways it's a little bit of a difficult time because we've been running on adrenaline for quite a long time. The month of Elul looking forward to the chaggim and then Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Aseret Yemei Teshuvah, and then Sukkos with the crescendo of Simchat Torah and Shemini Atzeret. And now all of a sudden, we've been running this marathon and we stop all of a sudden. And the heart is still pounding and the palms are still sweaty. And it's going to be very, very difficult in some ways, at least for some people. I'm not sure if everyone has this type of feeling. You're kind of be kind of a down feeling that's almost inevitable after the crescendo of the chagim. And I want to talk about that a little bit in terms of how do we deal with the letdowns that come when we've reached some very significant, hopefully, spiritual heights. But first, I I do want to read and acknowledge and thank our very generous sponsors. Today's sheer is sponsored for a refuah shleimah for Shimon ben Edel, Mendel Illa ben Freida Freida Miriam, Nachama Mendel bas Shifra, and they Breya bas Chava and Chaim Aryeh ben Rifka. All of these should have a refuah shleimah betoch shaar cholei Yisrael. Again, we appreciate the help. This sheer is also for l'aliyat nishama of Binyamin Yisrael ben Halevi, as well as his grandfathers Aryeh Leib ben Nachman Halevi and Ephraim ben Aaron Halevi. This, of course, is from the Gancher family who uh recently made aliyah and we're very, very happy to have them here with us and may Hashem give them much, much comfort from the great pain that they suffered with Binyamin's ptira that all of us really suffered along with them. Mark and Julia Weintraub are sponsors in celebration of their new granddaughter, Rifka Esther, already has a nickname Ricky, just born. Bassa Vigayo Bela Delova? Delova, okay. Named in memory of her grandmother Rita Phyllis Weintraub, her sister Danielle Elise Weintraub, and her great-grandmother, Esther Anushevsky. And a mazel tov. And uh finally, a happy birthday to the son of Eric Davinsky, Baruch David Davinsky, whose birthday was on Hoshana Rabbah. And finally, uh once again, we have a very generous Mr. or Mrs. Anonymous Donor. And uh thank you very much uh for the Hakafot Torah. And for all of those who support uh the good work of E Bnei may they be blessed with all that Hashem gives for those who support the Torah and support uh the doing of good uh in the in the world. I want to uh in order to kind of address kind of the letdown that we experience when the Chagim are over, uh I want to go back a little bit and talk a tiny bit about Simchat Torah itself. You know, it's very very interesting if you ask a person uh why uh the Torah made a holiday on the eighth day, so people would say because we are making a holiday to commemorate the finishing of the Torah, right? So, how right uh So, in the diaspora, it's the second day of Shmini Atzeret. Remember, there's no holiday in the Torah called Simchat Torah. There's a holiday called Shmini Atzeret, which is a holiday that immediately follows Sukkot. And in the diaspora, like all Chagim, it's 2 days. In Eretz Yisrael, it's 1 day. So, in Eretz Yisrael, Simchat Torah Shmini Atzeret is the same day. In the diaspora, there is no separate holiday Simchat Torah. In fact, in the Amidah, you'll remember, even if you're in the diaspora, it's Yom Shmini Chag Atzeret Hazeh. So, many people think that the Torah made a special holiday to celebrate the completion of the Torah. That is actually not the case, and that can cannot be the case. And it cannot be the case for a number of reasons. Reason number one is that the mitzvah of reading the Torah is b'chlal not a chiyuv d'oraita. The Torah does not require you to read the Torah. I mean, granted you learn the Torah, but a public reading of the Torah is not a d'oraita requirement except maybe for parshas Zachor. So, the Torah couldn't have made a holiday to celebrate the finishing of the public reading of the Torah if there is no obligation to publicly read the Torah. That's point number one. Point number two is even after the sages codified a public obligation to read the Torah, it was not necessarily done on an annual basis. The original minhag of Eretz Yisrael was that the Torah was completed in a three-year cycle, a triennial cycle. In Bavel, the minhag was a one-year cycle. Uh now, obviously, if you were reading the Torah on a three-year cycle, you did not finish the Torah every Simchas Torah or Shmini Atzeres. In point of fact, uh historians are trying to reconstruct the three-year cycle. It's not so clear um when it started, when it finished, but they basically have concluded that the cycle did conclude on Shavuos. Every third Shavuos would be a siyum of the Torah. But, be it as it may, whenever the siyum date was, it certainly was not annual. By the way, this minhag had a lot of staying power. Uh as late as the Rambam, which is way after the Gemara. The Rambam was in the uh the 1100s, the 1200s. Uh the Rambam in Cairo testified that there was still a shul of Yordim, of Israelis, Bnei Eretz Yisrael in Cairo, who kept their separate minyan, and they were still doing the Torah in a three-year cycle. And the Rambam was relentless that he was going to crush that minhag. He almost a little vicious like I know he says, he is going to destroy that minhag because it is connected to Babylonian Talmud and it is very very essential that the Babylonian Talmud be regarded as the source of halakhic authority. These were kind of like the holdouts who still wanted to go with the old minhagim of of of Eretz of Eretz Yisrael. So, the point I'm making is this, if indeed there is no chiyuv of Kriyat haTorah, and if indeed, even when there is a chiyuv of Kriyat haTorah, it was not inevitable that it be done on an annual basis, then obviously the holiday of Shemini Atzeret has a transcendental importance that is not connected to finishing the Torah because in point of fact, originally they didn't finish the Torah on Shemini Atzeret. So, what is the nature of the holiday of Shemini Atzeret? It's a very strange thing. You have a holiday of Sukkot for 7 days, and then immediately you go into a new Yom Tov with its own shehechiyanu, with its own name. Now, in the diaspora, things are a little confusing because of the calendrical doubt, there's still some holdovers from Sukkot. Most people are supposed to eat in the Sukkot Shemini Atzeret. That's a little confusing, but in Eretz Yisrael, it is absolutely clear cut. It is a separate holiday. No lulav and etrog. Of course, even in the golah, there's no lulav and etrog. No sukkah. A separate chag. What's the point of having a holiday right after another holiday with literally no break in between of even a single day? It is not Sukkot. So, the explanation that Chazal give us is this, Sukkot has a certain aspect of universality. Although it is a Jewish holiday, obviously, but there's a certain way in which we commiserate, we identify, we pray for the um olam. That is why it is said that the bulls that were brought as the musaf offering of sukkas add up to 70 in descending order 13 12 11 and there are 70 nations in the world and on sukkos we bring korbanos not just for am Israel but that God should bless all of the nations of the world. And that's why you find in the haftorah that is read on the first day of sukkas from the navi zacharia that somehow God is going to call the nations to account because they did not come to yerushalayim to observe the sukkas. Now logically that's a very problematical point. There's there's obviously no obligation on a non-Jew to fulfill the mitzvah of sukkah. It is not one of the seven noahide laws. But sukkas has a certain universalistic idea that we're all under God's protection. We have to recognize the fragility, the vulnerability of human life. kohelet is not a distinctively Jewish book. If you look at kohelet, you don't find that much mention of specifically Jewish themes. kohelet is a meditation on the notion that life has to have a purpose and a meaning of serving God. In fact, the netziv even says that koheles was hamelech's musar shmu's that he would give to the ambassadors of the nations of the world that would come to see their korbanos brought. Apparently, the netziv claims we've lost the identification. That specific nations were able to identify which bull was their bull. Like you know, Monday we're doing France, Germany, England, what whatever it would be. The European Union and and the like and ambassadors would show up on that day to be witness to be witnesses for the bringing of their korban, and Kohelet was the mussar sicha that Melech would be giving. So, Sukkot has a certain international universalistic idea that all of the nations of the world have to listen to and absorb. So, Rashi brings a mashal from the Talmud that this Shemini Atzeret is uniquely a celebration of God's relationship with us. Uh the mashal would be that for a whole week HaMelech has uh a party in which all the different members of his empire are invited to come. And then the big party is over. And the king says to his most beloved friend, "Listen, we finished all the ceremonies. You and I, we can have a cup of coffee in the kitchen. We can have a seudah ketanah." Shemini Atzeret is called the small intimate meal that God has with the Jewish people. It's a celebration of the fact that although God is the God of all humanity, there is indeed a special intimate loving relationship that he has with Am Yisrael. And that is the celebration of Shemini Atzeret. So, Shemini Atzeret intrinsically is not connected to finishing the Torah. It is connected to celebrating the uniqueness of our relationship to God. Now, it's a funny thing that um you know, you know, the ArtScroll machzor tends to be the standard machzor in or- there were translations in Orthodox synagogues, but before the Artscroll machzor, there was actually a very fine machzor as well. It's too bad he doesn't always get the credit. That was the Birnbaum machzor. But, if you're older, you may remember a pre-Birnbaum machzor that was called the Adler machzor. It was done by um literary translators in England. So, it actually has In fact, some of the Some of what they did in Adler was quite amazing because they would translate the Hebrew poetry into English poetry to make it rhyme and have the same number of beats and syllables as the Hebrew. I mean, actually it was a a very, very big chachma. It was almost an unintelligible translation because they were really trying to force poetic meter. But, this was the Adler trans- the Adler machzor. Now, in the Adler machzor, they always translated Shmini Atzeres. Atzeres is to come together. But, they would translate it the eighth day of solemn assembly. Now, where on earth do you get the term solemn assembly? Shmini Atzeres, the Vilna Gaon writes, the only mitzvah that's is specifically given in Shmini Atzeres is simcha. That's all there is. There's no lulav, there's no sukka. What is the mitzvah of Shmini Atzeres? Simcha. So, where do you get solemn assembly? Yeah, Atzeres can mean kinus. It can mean an assembly, although it has other meanings as well, but there's no connotation of solemnity. So, the truth of the matter is, they probably put it in there because uh in chutz la'aretz, where you don't have hakafos on the eighth day, so the most noticeable conspicuous ceremony of Shmini Atzeres is Yizkor. So, Yizkor is a solemn time. In Eretz Yisrael, we do run this kind of conflicting emotion between Yizkor, which is kind of a sad time, a reflective time, and then hakafos, or hakafos before Yizkor, uh you know, etc. and and and the like. But, Shemini Atzeret is not at all solemn. It's holy, it's elevated. It is a very, very high and elevated time. But, it is a joyous time. Now, the notion of Siyum HaTorah, finishing the Torah, is something that was superimposed later onto the template of Shemini Atzeret. Okay, it's important. So, may maybe it's an obvious point, but it's a point that I think a lot of people might miss. If you ask people, "Why do we have a holiday Shemini Atzeret?" And they will answer, "We are celebrating the finishing of the Torah." That's not emes. We have a holiday of Shemini Atzeret because of that unique relationship God has with the Jewish people. Chazal later added the idea of Siyum HaTorah. So, based on this, and you'll see how this is going to be going to be a segue to Cheshvan. I I And I'm not just going backwards, I'm going to go forwards with this as well. But, based on this, I want to raise three questions about Shemini Atzeret, Simchat Torah, as a Siyum day. Question number one is, "Why do we pick Shemini Atzeret? Isn't Shavuot the most logical day? If Shavuot was the day that God gave us the 10 Commandments and we said naseh venishma and we accepted the Torah, wouldn't it make more sense to celebrate the giving of the Torah? Or the you know, the finishing of the Torah which is really connected to the giving of the Torah on Shavuot. Why Shemini Atzeret rather than Shavuot? That's question one. Question two is the following. Uh the Gemara in Moed Katan tells us that we are not supposed to combine simchas. For example, we do not make weddings on Chol HaMoed even a Yom Tov or Chol HaMoed because since there's a mitzvah to rejoice on a holiday, we don't want the simcha of the wedding to distract from the focus of the simcha of the Yom Tov. And vice versa, we don't want the simcha of the Yom Tov to distract from the simcha of the wedding. Now, we might have thought the opposite. We might have thought the more the merrier. Let's simply add more simcha on top of more simcha. But chazal understood that each simcha should have its own makom. Each simcha should be predominant. Each simcha should be the exclusive focus of your happiness, and don't mix it with other things. Ein marvin simcha besimcha. So, here's the problem. Shemini Atzeres is a Yom Tov, and it's a Yom Tov where Hashem commands simcha. Chazal then say, "Oh, we'll give you another reason to celebrate. Besides the holiday of Shemini Atzeres, we're going to celebrate the finishing of the Torah." Is that not a violation of ein marvin simcha besimcha? The same principle that says you don't marry on chol hamoed because you don't want the joy of the marriage to dilute the joy of the Yom Tov. Then how should I make a siyum on Simchas Torah? Am I not diluting the exclusive focus on the holiday of Shemini Atzeres? Third question is the very last pasuk of the Torah. When the Torah describes the greatness of Moshe Rabbeinu, so the Torah says there never was a navi like Moshe that God had spoken to. And it says lo chol hayad hachazaka, for all of the mighty hands that he did, ve'einei kol Yisrael, in front of the eyes of all of Israel. So, the very last thing this is the last description of the Torah of Moshe Rabbeinu. It describes Moshe Rabbeinu's Yad ha chazaka. Chazal say, what is the reference to Yad ha chazaka? It was the fact that when he came down from Har Sinai on the 17th of Tammuz, 40 days after Shavuot, he saw the Jewish people worshipping the golden calf, he smashed the Luchos. Again, this is not going There There is one tradition that says the letters flew off the Luchos and the Luchos were too heavy for him to hold. But, the way this Chazal was looking at it is he made a decision with his mighty hands to smash the Luchos. And that's the Yad ha chazaka. By the way, in a bit of a pun, you know, the Rambam named his Halachic codification Mishneh Torah, but another name that was later given to it, not from the Rambam himself, it was called the Yad ha chazaka, the strong hand. And that's a bit of a pun because Yad is also 14, Yud Daled, and the Mishneh Torah is written in 14 books. And the Rambam's name was Moshe, so Moshe's Yad ha chazaka is the Rambam's Mishneh Torah. But, Chazal say it's going on shviras ha Luchos. So, the question is of all of the things that Moshe Rabbeinu did, he took us out of Mitzrayim, he got us the Torah, in his merit the manna fell, he prayed for us many times when Hashem wanted to abrogate the covenant and destroy the Jewish people. And now he is leaving the world, tragically not being able to go to Eretz Yisrael. And the Torah is giving you the last glimpse we're going to have of this man. And the last mental picture the Torah wants to leave you with is he broke the Luchos. Why should that be the defining epitome of the life of Moshe Rabbeinu? So, I've uh mentioned three questions about Shemini Atzeres. Number one, why is it Shemini Atzeres rather than Shavuos? Number two, why is there not a problem of ein marvin simcha b'simcha, you don't combine joys? And number three, which is on the Torah reading itself, why in Zos Habracha do we emphasize shviras haluchos as the epitomizing summary, the pinnacle of Moshe Rabbeinu's life? So, let me take the second question first because the second question in a sense has the simplest answer, and that is how could Chazal impose a seyum haTorah on the simcha of Yomtov? Is that not a violation of ein marvin simcha b'simcha? So, the answer could actually be fairly pashet. The problem of ein marvin simcha b'simcha is when the joys come from two different sources. I have the joy of a wedding. I have the joy of a Yomtov. So, when I focus on the wedding, I'm not thinking about the Yomtov. When I'm focusing about the Yomtov, I'm not thinking about the wedding. So, each one kind of detracts from my focus on the other. Ein marvin simcha b'simcha. But where the two simchas come from a common source, there is no problem that it will take you away. The other way around, it will intensify the joy. Now, here, if Shemini Atzeres is a celebration of the unique relationship that God has with the Jewish people, and that's what it is, in what greater way was that manifested than in the fact that God gave us his Torah? His Torah is his will. His will is his essence. When we connect to Torah, we connect to God. So, in a sense, when I rejoice over the Torah, I am rejoicing in the love that God gave us by giving us the Torah. And Shemini Atzeres is a celebration of that love. So, you can't ask a kasha, it's two different simchas. It's one in the same. And that's why Chazal, in their wisdom, saw fit that to put a Siyum HaTorah here. But the question still becomes, okay, but Shavuos should be the day more than Shemini Atzeres. So, here I'll share with you a really a very beautiful thought from the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Now, I'm going to elaborate a little bit, but essentially the core idea is his his thought. You may have heard an expression from uh your mothers growing up, or maybe you've used it yourself, you can only make a first impression once. Meaning, uh you know, if you if you don't make a good first impression, you will never be able to make a good first impression. It'll be a second impression, a third impression, but never a first impression. So, the Rebbe says that the Torah that we that Klal Yisrael got on Shavuos was the Torah that was given to a generation who had become tzaddikim gemurim, meaning it's true that in Mitzrayim we were on the 49th level of impurity. But during the period of the Omer, we worked on ourselves, we perfected ourselves, we elevated ourselves. We became pure and holy and exalted. In fact, we reached the level of Adam Harishon before the sin of the eight sedras connected to this parsha in which we actually would have had immortality. Immortality much. And Hashem gave the Torah to a holy people, an elevated people. People who had reached an unbelievable madrega of holiness. And that's a wonderful thing. Shavuos represents the Torah that was given to holiness and purity. But tragically we lost that. Tragically we lost that through the sin of the golden calf. And God, we were no longer worthy of that connection to God. We were no longer worthy of immortality. Death came back to the world. And Hashem wanted to abrogate the covenant and even destroy the Jewish people and make a private relationship with Moshe Rabbeinu. But through prayer and tefillah of Moshe Rabbeinu and the teshuvah of Am Yisrael on Yom Kippur the sin of the ego was forgiven and Moshe Rabbeinu brought down the second luchos. And Sukkos and Shmini Atzeres can be understood as a celebration of the restoration of the Torah after it was lost and forfeited. So, if Shavuos represents the Torah of the tzaddik Shmini Atzeres in its connection to Yom Kippur, and I'll show you how you connect it to Yom Kippur, I'll get that in a moment, represents the Torah that one gets as a baal teshuvah even after they lost it the first time. The Torah of the baal teshuvah is a much more joyous event. Because if I get the Torah as a tzaddik, it's precarious because I can only be a perfect tzaddik once. Meaning to say, once I sin, I'm no longer on that level of the tzaddik who never sinned. So, I don't really know if I have the Torah. I'm only in God's good graces as long as I'm righteous. But if I know that even if I lose the Torah, I get it back. I now know it's mine forever. Because yes, I may sin, I may make mistakes, but I can always come back. The gates of teshuvah are never closed. See what the Rebbe is saying? The The Simchat Torah Shemini Atzeret is the restoration of the Torah even after you've lost it. As if to say, in a negative way, shouldn't we shouldn't talk this way. We're kind of stuck with it whether we like it or not. Even if we want to get rid of it, we can't. You know, in one of the 12 prophets, the English calls them the minor prophets. That's That's an awful translation, but these are the smaller prophetic works called Trei Asar. So, the first of the Trei Asar is the Navi Hoshea. Not Yehoshua, a prophet called Hoshea. And the beginning of Hoshea is one of the strangest stories in Tanakh. He's a Navi and he is commanded to marry a well-known prostitute. And he marries this prostitute. And it's not clear what the point is. Now there is a machlokes among meforshim, was this an actual thing that he did? Or was this a dream that that I should know a prophetic dream that God sent him. All right. So that's a machlokes, is it a real maaseh? Is it a chalom? But bankahu bankahu, whether in actual life or in his mind, he experienced marrying a prostitute and even having children from the prostitute. What's the meaning of that story? What's the purpose of that story? So the Gemara in Pesachim gives us a very important backstory that you don't see from the Pesukim itself. Hashem tells Hoshea, and this is before the exile of even the 10 tribes, "Go to the people. Go to the 10 tribes in the north and go to the two tribes in the south. Give them mussar. Tell them to do teshuvah. Tell them they're worshipping idols and there are sexual immorality and murder and dishonesty in business and oppression of the widow and the orphan. Give them tochacha. Bring them back to me." And the navi Hoshea is kind of a little annoyed at this mission. He says says, "Been there, done that. Why do I have to go through this again and again and again? You know, they sin and the navi gives them mussar and they don't listen or if they listen it's only for a short time." He says to God, "God, aren't you tired of this game? Let's just find another nation that you can make a covenant with. Let's push the reset button. Let's start again." Unlike Moshe Rabbeinu, right? When Hashem says to Moshe, "I want to make a covenant with you." Moshe says, "Nope. If you're going to erase them from the book, erase me from the book." Hoshea actually says to God, "Has Lisa and the maharajah?" So, God wants Hosea to understand something. That when you love somebody in the deepest, most powerful way, you can't just drop them even when they deserve to be dropped. And Hashem wanted Hosea to experience that. Marry this prostitute. And she continued to ply her trade after her marriage. Hosea fell. Again, whether it's a dream or real, that's that's a but Hosea fell in love with her. And when Hashem said, "Why don't you get rid of her?" Hosea said, "I can't. I'm infatuated with her." God then says to Hosea, "So, now you know my problem. That's my problem. The Jewish people are like an unfaithful wife. In fact, that's actually the metaphor that permeates the whole book of Hosea and many other books of Nach as well. That the Jewish people that go after idols or go who don't keep the Torah, they're like an unfaithful wife who is betraying her husband." The Jewish people are unfaithful. And yeah, maybe by rights the wife is unfaithful, divorce her, get rid of her. But God said, "My love is too strong. And you, Hosea, you get that now, don't you?" So, the the Simchat Shemini Atzeret is it is the restoration of the Torah to people who had severed their connection to it. But they can get it back. And that means my connection to the Torah is enduring because no matter what I do, it's always there for me to reclaim it. Now, the only question you'll ask is, "Okay, but close but no cigar." I mean, that happened on Yom Kippur. Shemini Atzeret is kind of after that a little bit. So, here I just want to augment the Rebbe's own remarks with the Baal Tanya, his great great great grandfather. Although the Rebbe does not bring the Baal Tanya here. And that is we know that the forgiveness of Yom Kippur and the reconciliation actually came through the 13 attributes of mercy. And the way the Zohar understands it is each day from Yom Kippur onwards God revealed one attribute of mercy. You know, so he didn't tell Moshe all 13 at once. Shemini Atzeret is the 13th day from Yom Kippur. So, it's the completion of the forgiveness and reconciliation of Yom Kippur. It is the completion of the Yud-Gimmel Middos, Middos of Rachamim. Okay? The powerful idea. I am connected to the Torah no matter how far I think I am. In fact, um for some reason I'm focusing on Chabad today, but the the the Rebbe had another thought. It is said that the Rebbe did not like the expression that we all use, Kiruv Rechokim. Right? When we talk about reaching out to Jews who are not religious, so our expression is Kiruv Rechokim, to draw people who are far, to draw them near to God. Kiruv Rechokim. We We sometimes abbreviate it Kira, but it's Kiruv as a shorthand, Kiruv Rechokim. It's a common expression. Everybody Everybody in the world uses it. Uh including including Chabad themselves. But the Rebbe didn't like the expression. The Rebbe says, "Who are you to say that a Jew is far from God? No Jew is far from God. Some Jews don't know how close they are. Other Jews know. So, kiruv is really informing them how close their relationship already is. You don't call a Jew rachok from Hashem." Then the Rebbe said a sharp thing, a little sharper thing. And then he said, "And besides, who knows who's further and who's closer? You know, maybe that non-religious person may be closer to God in some ways than the religious person in various ways. So, how can we start labeling people, stratifying people, indicating who's a rachok, who's a karov?" I remember myself many, many years ago, I was uh giving a shiur to a totally non-religious audience in Columbia, Maryland. And at the end of the shiur, a woman went over to me and she prefaced her question by saying, "I'm not as religious as you, but I I don't remember what the question was, but I do remember that Hashem put some I think correct words in my mouth at that moment. And I said, "Why do you say you're not as religious as me? You may be you're more religious than me. Uh maybe I know certain laws that you don't know yet about Shabbos and and and keeping kosher, but you know, maybe you're nicer to your parents, more respectful. Maybe you're uh you know, you you have better control of your temper or whatever it would be. Meaning, how can we say one Jew is closer to God than another Jew? You know, it's really our closed-mindedness, our tunnel vision that we define being a religious Jew as Shabbos, kosher, davening, tfillin. Of course, that's a component. But you know, part of being a religious Jew is also sensitivity and compassion and kindness and goodness. So you can look at two Jews. One Jew might be very very meticulous in all of the rituals, but maybe defective in those aspects. I can look at another Jew who's not knowledgeable or observant of those rituals, but they might be great very great in how they observe those other aspects. So, I'm not able to say who is greater in God's eyes. I'm not saying automatically that the other person is greater. I don't know. But the point is, all of us have mylus. Right? We have strong points. We have hisronus. So to look at one Jew and say I'm religious, you're not religious, you know, the Rebbe was basically saying that's an incorrect labeling. Because who knows who is closer to God than the other. So that's the magnificent joy of Shmini Atzeres, that even when you think you've lost the Torah, you haven't really lost it. It can always come back. Now, this now answers the third question of why does the Torah emphasize that Moshe broke the Luchos. Because breaking the Luchos was the first step in the process that showed us that nothing is ever truly lost. Because breaking the Luchos was we lost the Torah. But that initiated the process of prayer and repentance and closeness culminating in Yom Kippur and Sukkos and Shmini Atzeres. So therefore, what Shviras Haluchos represents is the important proposition that even when you lose it, you get it back. You don't really lose it. And therefore, out of the darkness comes the light, and that's the segway to Breishis. Because what is the new beginning of Breishis? The new beginning of Breishis is that the world was tohu va vohu, jumbled and confused and empty. In fact, there's mixed contradictory metaphors where they're just describing confused and jumbled and then empty. How can it be empty? It's not confused and jumbled. But that's part of the confusion. Confused, jumbled, empty, void. Not a good place. And God said, "Let there be light." From that confusion, from that darkness, from that turbulence, from the absence of things that look good, will be the seeds of all that is good. God said, "Let there be light." And that is the simcha of the Torah, of the baal teshuvah. And that's why Well, okay, let me illustrate this with that with yet another story. Uh There was a story my teacher they tell about um uh yeshiva they were doing hakafos. Everything was lebedik, but there were a bunch of yeshiva students who were not celebrating. They were at the sidelines. So their rebbe or the rosh yeshiva, some say it's a chassidishe story, so I'm not sure. Sounds a little bit like a chassidishe story, but sometimes when they tell these stories in the yeshiva world, they they change the characters from chassidishe rebbe to rosh yeshiva, so it's hard to know exactly uh the origin of the story. But the rebbe or the Rosh Yeshiva went over to the boys and said, "Why don't you dance with the Torah? Why don't you rejoice? It's Simchas Torah." So the boy said, "We feel guilty. We don't feel we deserve to rejoice with the Torah. We haven't learned that much. We haven't studied that much. We're not so connected to the Torah. So what is it? We don't really connect it during the year, so when it just comes to singing and dancing and and having a good time, we should participate? We didn't earn the right to rejoice with the Torah." Like it's very honest a response. But the Rebbe said, "You're wrong. You know, we have two great honors that we give on Simchas Torah. One is Chasan Torah, the one who is given the honor of finishing the Torah. And then we have the next honor, Chasan Bereishit, the one that is given the honor of starting the Torah. Now, at least, I guess maybe right in the non-Hasidic story. In non-Hasidic, at least, Chasan Torah in the hierarchy of honors is considered to be a higher honor. So in a Yeshiva, typically, Chasan Torah you will give to the Rosh Yeshiva, etc. Chasan Bereishit is a lesser honor. Right? You can give it to anybody. So I I like to point out, in Ohr Someayach, you know, Chasan Torah always goes to our Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Nachman Schuller. I usually get Chasan Bereishit. So you can give you you you can give Chasan Bereishit to anybody, right? There there's there's no importance You don't have to be important to get Chasan Bereishit. What's the difference? Why is Chasan Torah a bigger honor than Chasan Bereishit? So the Rebbe said the following, "Because Chasan Torah represents what you finished, what you accomplished. Chasan Torah is a celebration of accomplishment. So Memelo, when you honor accomplishment, you honor people who accomplished. Chasan Bereishit is not a celebration of accomplishment. Cuz you're just beginning. Chasan Bereishit is a celebration of potential. Of renewal. It's not a celebration of who I am. It's a celebration of what I can become. So, the Rebbe told some people. Maybe you can't yet dance with the Torah as a Chasan Torah. But you can always dance with the Torah as a Chasan Bereishit. It's a new year. A new potential. A new opportunity. That's why, you know, I I saw on YouTube, whatever it is, I sometimes look at I should I shouldn't admit this. I look at Conservative, Reform, how come I like I like to see exactly how what what they do, etc. And, you know, I sometimes see very spirited dancing. Then the cynical part of me says, "Oh, what are you doing? You don't keep the Torah. You don't learn the Torah. What are you dancing?" But at the same time, there is a genuine joy. There is something in the soul of the Jew that feels connected to this. That understands. Whether I keep it, I don't keep it. I love this. I'm connected to this. And Chasan Bereishit recognizes the potential, the opportunity of the new year. Okay? And that's the joy of the Torah of the baal teshuvah. That maybe I'm not there yet. Now, the truth of the matter is, the idea that I'm not there yet is not just for the person who's not from whatever it is. Every one of us, every one of us, is not there yet. Now, there may there may be a different point that we're not there. One person says, "I'm not yet keeping all of Shabbos. You know, I I still text on my phone." That's one madrega. Another person may keep Shabbos, but he says, "I'm not yet, you know, learning enough or I'm not yet davening with enough kavana or I'm not yet careful enough in lashon hara." Everybody has a not yet. You have to have a not yet. If you don't have a not yet, there's only two possibilities. Either you're perfect, and I can guarantee you that that's not the that's not going to be the accurate possibility, or you don't care enough to try to make yourself a better person. And that's a real chaval. That's a real tragedy. In fact, there's a famous again Or Sameach story in which a boy was introduced to the Gerer Rebbe, and the Gerer Rebbe asked him, "Uh where do you learn?" And the boy said, "I learn in Or Sameach, but he hastened to add right away, "But I'm not a baal teshuvah. I'm religious from birth." So, the Gerer Rebbe said, "You're not a baal teshuvah? What type of Jew is not a baal teshuvah? Meaning, there's nothing that you're working on to try to be better? See, we we we use baal teshuvah in a very artificial sense. Right? So, this is the great great simcha. Now, the other story I want to tell you, which is an interesting story, to know the power of Torah. Uh there is a kibbutz in Eretz Yisrael, still around, Ein Harod. Now, Ein Harod was founded in like the 1930s, a real long time ago, before the State of Israel, and it was a Shomer Hatzair kibbutz. Shomer Hatzair, I'm not sure if there are any Shomer Hatzair people around, maybe some real old-timers, but this was a really really extreme communist anti-religious, anti-anti-religious group of people. And one of the rules in the kibbutz was that no Torah scroll or Jewish religious book or sitter was even allowed on the grounds of the kibbutz. Now, that tended not to be a problem because none of them all of the members were atheist members of Shomer Hatzair. But listen to this story. In the aftermath of World War II, one of the parents of a member of the kibbutz was a survivor of Auschwitz. Baruch Hashem, he miraculously he survived. He was brought to Israel. And he wanted to live with his son. This man for 4 years had kept a small safer Torah in the concentration camp hidden. Can you imagine the personal risk he was putting himself at if the Nazis would have caught it? They would have destroyed the Torah, that's for sure, but they would have killed him on the spot. They would probably would have tortured him before before they killed him as well. For 4 years, he lovingly kept that Torah in Auschwitz, a little little Torah scroll. He comes to the Holy Land. He comes to Eretz Israel. Somehow the members of the kibbutz become aware that this man is harboring a Torah scroll. They burst into his room. They confiscated the Torah. They threw it over the fence of the kibbutz. It landed in the mud. Now, this was considered to be a tremendous tremendous tragedy among religious Jews that heard about it. The Gedolim proclaimed fast days and the like. But even the secular papers, Yedioth Ahronoth and Maariv, I think by that time they were already were publishing, they said, "Well, listen, this is a little too much, you know. You don't You know, you don't do that." Um the Ponevezher Rav said, in the midst of all of this sadness over the desecration of a Torah scroll, the Ponevezher Rav said that that he feels like Rabbi Akiva at the end of Maseches Makos. Remember a famous story, beautiful story, that Rabbi Akiva and the Sages were walking near the Har Habayit, and they saw a fox emerge from the Holy of Holies. And all of the Sages began to cry and weep. And Rabbi Akiva began to laugh. And they asked Rabbi Akiva, "Why are you laughing?" And Rabbi Akiva asked them, "Why are you crying?" They said, "We're crying because the holiest place on Earth is being desecrated by wild animals. As Jeremiah prophesied, our hearts see on Sheshach Main on the Mount of Zion that is desolate. Shu'alim hilchevu. There are foxes." Rabbi Akiva said, "That's why I'm laughing. Because in Tanakh, there are prophecies of destruction and prophecies of redemption. Until I saw how literal the prophecies of destruction were fulfilled, I wasn't sure the prophecies of redemption would be fulfilled. But now that I see the prophecies of destruction were fulfilled, I know that the prophecies of redemption will be fulfilled. The Chachamim saw the world as it was. Rabbi Akiva saw the world as it will one day be. Rabbi Akiva was not blinded by the present reality. Rabbi Akiva saw what that present reality is going to lead to. That's the Gemara in Makos. The Ponevezher Rav said, "I feel like I'm Rabbi Akiva here. Because I see something beautiful and hopeful in the action of these kibbutzniks." What was so beautiful and hopeful? Because here's the thing. If they truly thought the Torah was worthless, if they truly thought that there was nothing the Torah had any relevance to their lives, then let an old man have his meshugas. What are they getting so crazy about? If he was involved in Chinese hieroglyphics or whatever it would be, let him keep his thing. He's a meshugana. But what was it? What are they getting so crazy about? What are they so upset about? Because they know the power of Torah. They know if we let a safer Torah stay in this kibbutz one night, something is going to be a little different. They didn't want that difference. But the Ponevezher Rav said, "They were not indifferent to the power of Torah. They knew the power of Torah. Albeit they rejected it." Ponevezher Rav said, "Because they know the power of Torah. In fact, maybe more than we know the power of Torah. But we may keep it. Do we really recognize the power of the Torah? They did. They did." Ponevezher Rav said, "One day, there will be a shul in Ein Harod, and there will be a kollel, a yeshiva in Ein Harod." If we fast forward 60, 70 years, Ein Harod is not Mea Shearim, it's not even Malo Dafna, it's not even Baka. Um most of the inhabitants are totally not religious. But, there is a show with minyanim three times a day, Shacharis, Mincha, Maariv. There is a part-time kollel where avreichim do come in. They are very well received, respected. They live in shalom. So, the Shomer Hatzair kibbutz has also become a makom of tfillah, a makom of Torah, a makom of Kiddush Hashem. there, too? I I'm not sure. I'd have to check. I I I've never visited Ein Charod myself, but I'll say maybe there's a mikveh. It'd be a beautiful thing. And the Ponevezher Rav said, "That's because they were makir the koach of Torah." You know, there was the great um man who was niftar just uh a few months ago, uh Uri Zohar, zichrono livracha. Uri Zohar, zichrono livracha. And of course, everyone knows Uri Zohar's story. He was the Johnny Carson of Israel, uh most famous comedian in the country, totally secular, obviously made fun of religion as well, uh very wealthy uh cuz he was an entertainer, and he became, to the total astonishment of his friends, he became a chareidi baal teshuvah with a long beard, etc. Uh he left the entertainment world legamrei. Uh although he did keep some friendships with people because he cared about them as people, and he became a very eloquent teacher because he was very talented, he was very dramatic and etc. So, he became a very very good teacher of Yiddishkeit, Machon Ora, he worked I think for Aish HaTorah, uh other places uh as well. Um and the people would come to him for advice because he understood the secular world very well. So, people who were involved in kiruv, I'm violating the Lubavitcher Rebbe's edict here, but people who were involved in kiruv would go to Rabbi Zohar, and they would ask him for advice about how to deal with secular Jews. So, Rabbis said, "What should we teach secular Jews? Uh Kabbalah, uh sexuality secrets, like like what should we teach?" So, he said, "Take a book of Gemara, take a book of Mishnah, and learn Gemara with them, and that will bring them to the light of Torah." So, the outreach workers protested, "But that's technical, and it's boring, and it's detail. It doesn't deal with the big philosophical questions of life." So, what he told them is, "You don't believe in your product. You don't believe in the transformative power of Torah. You think you got to be flashy. You think you got to be showy. You think you have to be dramatic. You think it's only the flair that's going to get them. You don't believe. It's not a problem in they don't believe. You, speaking to us, you don't believe." And it is well said that the first law of salesmanship is you can't sell what you won't buy. If you don't buy it, you're not going to be able to to sell it. The power of Torah to transform people. This is the story of Ain of Ain Harod. Now, let me just add with another story. So, today is a lot of different different stories, but I think they kind of give us a little chizuk. Um again, I don't know the origin of the story, but they they tell the story about a Russian peasant decided to convert to Judaism in a Hasidic community. And uh Hasidim have parties with some frequency, and he converted to Judaism, I don't know, the base in the Halacha I don't know how any of this works, but he converted to Judaism at a very propitious time of year. He converted around Rosh Chodesh Shvat, shortly before Rosh Chodesh Shvat, so think about this. Every Rosh Chodesh, great party with drinking and eating and dancing and singing. Two weeks later is Tu Bishvat, the wild deck, same thing. Two weeks later, Rosh Chodesh Adar, two weeks later, Purim, two weeks later, Rosh Chodesh Nisan, two weeks later, Pesach. And of course there Shabbats is in between, so parties and singing and dancing and drinking, what a religion. So he tells his friend Aaron, he says, "You got to join this religion. Every two weeks we have a massive party with a lot of vodka, and in the middle we have Shabbatses, and during the week it's not so bad either. I think things are great." So it took his friend a while, again, I I I'm not addressing the Halachic issues here, uh but Ivan finally converted. Uh he converted shortly before Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, after Shavuot. So the problem is Rosh Chodesh Tammuz is already you're approaching the three weeks, so they don't uh make a big simcha then. Then you have the three weeks, you have fast days, and you know, I don't get haircuts, you don't bathe, and you don't listen to music, and you don't make weddings, and you don't then the nine days, and then Tisha B'Av, you know, it's just going on and on and on and on. He thought he was signing up for a life of parties, and he's getting fast days and deprivations. So he goes to his friend and he says, "You know, I thought you told me we would have these parties all the time, and now every every day there's a new restriction. Just when I think things won't get worse, you know, the three weeks, no weddings, you know, no music. Okay, nine days, you know, no meat. You know, what's going on?" So his friend looks very confused and says, "You know, I you really don't know what's going on. Ever since you joined, we've been going downhill." He says, "I I don't know what the story is." He says, "But you know, anyone that looks at the Jewish calendar understands that we go through a multiplicity of emotions. Just as Kohelet says in the very beautiful famous passage, la kol zman, everything has a time. A time to grieve and a time to rejoice. A time to make peace, a time to make war. There are different emotions and the Jewish calendar reflects this. There are times of introspection. There are times of sadness. There are times of seriousness. There are times of joy. We need to go through this because God does not want us to serve him kind of automatic pilots. Most of us have kind of a standard personality. Some people are more introspective and thoughtful and some people are more outgoing and extroverted. But God says, "There are times that the extrovert must learn to be reflective. And there are times that the introvert must learn to rejoice and celebrate. Because we have to experience the totality of emotions in avodat Hashem to serve God as an ordinary and as a complete person. Now, what's interesting is the multiplicity of emotions that is reflected in the Jewish calendar is actually front-loaded in the first 3 weeks of the first month of the year. This month of Tishrei. Think about the different types of emotions we are called upon to experience. In the month of Tishrei itself, we have the fear and trepidation of Rosh Hashanah, who will live and who will die. We have the introspection and seriousness of Asseret Yemei Teshuvah, the 10 days of repentance. We have Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur, granted, is a joyous day, but it's a day that is menutak. It is separated from physicality. No eating, no drinking, and we have to focus. I mean, there's a joy, but it's a kind of a joy that's a very introspective, thoughtful type of joy. And then you have the unlimited, unrestricted joy of Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret. Because this is the first month of the year, it is the template for the whole year. So, God makes me go through every type of emotion, so that in the course of the year, when there will be times of joy or times of sadness, I will know how to deal with it. Because I've been educated. Uh it's been front-loaded. Uh so, almost downloaded, in a sense, to kind of train me to serve God with that multiplicity, to be a total a total person. And the truth is, all of these things are connected. You know, different people prefer different things in life, naturally. You know, there are people, this may sound very strange, but there's no question. Uh there are people who actually enjoy Tisha B'Av more than Simchat Torah. Now, when I say enjoy, I don't mean in the same way. Uh they're not dancing around a table on Tisha B'Av. But they enjoy an opportunity to meditate, to think, to be serious about about life more than the levity of Simchat Torah. Other people enjoy the levity of Simchat Torah. But it's all connected. My partner used to say the the person who cannot dance with the Torah on Simchat Torah cannot really cry on Tisha B'Av. And the person who cannot cry on Tisha B'Av cannot really dance with the Torah. And the reason is very simple. I cry on Tisha B'Av because I feel the loss of my relationship to God. So my relationship to God is important to me. So that's going to give me the joy of Simchat Torah. If I don't have the joy, I'm not going to have the sadness. If I don't have the sadness, I'm not going to have the joy. It's all connected. I am sad when I feel I don't have a relationship that I treasure and I'm joyous when I can experience that relationship. So it's all connected. It's all connected in that way. So after the roller coaster that we've been through on Tishrei we now come to the month of Cheshvan. Now the month of Cheshvan, it's Yadua its official name is Marcheshvan. And although Mar is connected to a biblical word for rain, that's actually what it's connected to, but the folk etymology and again, folk is not really an authoritative makor is that Mar means bitter Cheshvan because it is the only month of the Jewish year that does not have a Yom Tov. Now let's test that for a moment. Tishrei of course has a zillion Yomim Tovim. Cheshvan does not. Kislev has Chanukah. Teves has the second half of Chanukah. Okay? Shvat Tu B'Shvat, you're already stretching the definition of Yom Tov a little bit. Adar is Purim. Okay? Nissan is Pesach, okay? Iyar, Lag B'Omer, again, you're stretching it. And if you're a Tzioni, Yom Ha'atzmaut, we can count that in the year. Um okay. Then we have Sivan, Yom Yerushalayim as well in the year, Chaf Cheshvan Iyar. Then we have Sivan and Shavuos. Tammuz. Now, Tammuz actually does not have a Yom Tov. It has a fast day, but Chazal tell us that all of those fast days will eventually become Yamim Tovim. So, that's a potential Yom Tov. Av, the 9th of Av, of course, is a fast day, but it is also the day that Mashiach is born, and the 15th of Av is considered to be the happiest day in the calendar. Elul, interestingly enough, does not have a a Yom Tov, but once again, it's so close to the Rosh Hashanah that we treat it as already part of the festive. But, Cheshvan is bereft. And that's why it's called bitter Cheshvan. I don't have a Yom Tov. But, in many ways, Seforim point out Cheshvan may be the most important month of the year. Because Cheshvan is what you call ordinary life, regular life, non-special life. And the real test of what Yom Tov is is not how you live during Yom Tov, but whether the Yom Tov has elevated you in your regular life. Have you taken Yom Tov with you? The Chazon Ish used to give a mashal. When a pot is on the fire, and the pot is overflowing, you don't really know if the pot is full or the pot is half empty, because even if it's half empty, the heat will cause the water to bubble over and overflow. The only way you can tell how much water is in the pot is when you take the pot off the fire and then sees if it go the water goes to the top. I If I see water rising to the top of a pot on a fire, I don't know how much is in there. The same thing is by Yom Tov the Chazon Ish says, if you're inspired during the Yom Tov, that doesn't mean you've really incorporated something. That's simply the artificial high of a pot being on the fire. Yom Tov is like the fire. The real test is how do you apply it in ordinary life? And that's actually the test of every Yom Tov. Uh meaning, it's not enough that we have been through a Yom Tov. The issue is has the Yom Tov been through us? And the hope would be that as we enter ordinary life, we will actually see something very, very deep that there is no such thing as ordinary life. The ordinary is also extraordinary. The ordinary is miraculous. The ordinary is beautiful. We say in the Amidah three times a day, al nisa'acha shebechol yamimanu, because of the miracles that are with us every single day. And the hope would be that the elevation that all of us hopefully experienced to a greater or lesser degree during these chagim will give us strength and inspiration to understand the beauties of the life that Hashem gives us every single day and to use those lives in a good, noble, beautiful manner. So, I wish you all a shana tova umetukah, a good and a sweet year, as the Yiddish saying, a gezinte vinter, as it were. Uh but you know, winter, too. Winter on one hand seems like dormant, things are not growing. Certainly when you live in snow countries for sure you get that sense, but even here, you know, it's a period of dormancy where things aren't happening. But in reality, it's all the preparation for the growth of the spring. There's a lot of growth that happens during the winter. So in this winter of the year, may we use it as the springboard for the spiritual growth that we will carry over into this new year. So thank you and shavua tov.