Rabbi Yitzchok Bistritzky | CHAZAQ Tisha B'Av Marathon

So the Mishna Berurah says that a ta'anis the purpose of a fast day is by Ninveh it says "Vayiru ma'aseihem." Hashem saw their actual actions. Velo sakam and not their sack, velo ta'anisam and not their fasting. Cuz Hashem wants to teshuvah. Hashem wants lema'aseh. Ikkar hu ama'aseh. What's the C O C O D? What's the What's the end deal? Are we changing ourselves today or are we staying the same as last week? That's the purpose of today's day. It's a day of changing. We have to become Geulah'dige people. We have to become Mashiach'dige people. Not Galus'dige people. A Galus'dige person is someone that's tied with chains to his yetzer hara. He's tied with chains to the to the to the non-Jewish hashkafa. That's the Galus. That's what a a non- That's a Galus'dige person is. And we have to become Geulah'dige people, redemption people. So I'm just going to take one aspect that I think is has a shaychis with Mashiach cuz that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to bring Mashiach. Tish'ah B'Av after chait ha'eitz is a eis ratzon. It's a time to become closer to Hashem. And I think that if we talk about tefillah a little, it's something extremely appropriate because the avodah in Beis Hamikdash and tefillah are really one. And since they're really one, if we if we better ourselves in our davening and our tefillah, that's a segulah that will bring the avodah in the Beis Hamikdash. Rav Shimshon Pinkus says a martial there was a couple of neighbors that were living in one big one house and two neighbors, Reuben and Shimon, they got into a fight with each other. And Reuben it was a terrible fight them with the families and it escalated and when Reuben said good Shabbos he Shimon didn't even look at him and when Shimon said Shabbos Reuben didn't look at it was a terrible fight. And Reuben one time he goes to a drasha and he gets to hear a chuva got to make shalom. And they decide he decides I'm going to make shalom. What did he do? He said, "Good morning, Reuben. Good morning, Shimon." "Good morning, Shimon." Shimon's not here. No one's home. He knocks on his door he says, "Maybe I could give you shalach manos. Take your shalach manos and go somewhere." And that's how it goes but he keeps it up Shabbos and Yom Tov and in the middle of the week and motzei Shabbos and his wife goes in and the kids go in. And what happens at the end? They break it through. David Hamelech saw there was a mageifa in Klal Yisrael. It was a plague in Klal Yisrael. There were 100 people dying every day. What did he do? He made a takana of 100 brachas a day. One of the 100 brachas are the Shmoneh Esrei where we daven that partial of the 100 brachas. Why did he do that? To save people from a plague. Why? What made him do that? He was Reuben in the martial. He said, "Hashem is angry at us. I'm going to knock that door down. I'm going to say Boruch Ato Hashem, you did this good for me. I thank you for this. I thank you for that. I'm asking you for mechila. I'm asking you for chuva. I'm asking you for refuah." And that's the way to take the mechitza, the partition between us and Hashem, that's the way to take it down. That's what tefillah is. Tefillah is to take down any mechitza that there is between us and Hashem. The nekuda in tfila is the point of tfilas says the Ramban that we should say briosech anachnu to get up to the abishter and say, "Hashem, we have nothing. We are nothing besides you. We are just you created us and whatever we have and or whatever we will have, I know that it's only from you." And if a person does that, that's the connection to Hashem. That's really what Hashem is waiting for us. We have to believe in our tfila. We have to believe the ko'ach in our tfila. We see that Elkana says to Chana, "Chana, I toiv lach me'aseres banim." This was 19 years after they got married. "Toiv lach me'aseres banim." I'm better than the 10 children. What are you so tza'aran about? Why are you so sad? What did Chana do? Says, "Okay, now I'm going to daven." Why didn't she daven till then? Why don't you go to Beis Hamikdash and daven till then? Says the Malbim, you know why? Her husband Elkana was a big tzadik. She relied on his tfilas. But once she saw that she gave up, once he gave up on on having a child, his tfilas won't work. >> [snorts] >> If we want our tfilas to work, we want our tfilas to bring Mashiach, we want our tfilas to for our personal details in our life, every small detail that we need. You know that all the women they go when they cook for Shabbos, "Hashem, I hope it should come out good. The cholent should come out okay." And the same should be in all of us. Every detail of our lives we have to ask Hashem. We have to believe in our tfila. The Bas Ayin, he was a chassidic master about 200 years ago. He went to Eretz Yisrael. He didn't have children and he went up to Eretz Yisrael. And he wanted to go and live in Yerushalayim and he went through Tzfat. They arrived in Haifa. He went to visit Tzfat. And he stayed in Tzfat. What made him stay in Tzfat? He overheard a conversation. He overheard a woman telling his her daughter, "Take down the laundry from the roof because they started the same tallit and tefillin today. So, it's going to rain." That's belief in tefillah. We have to believe in our koach of tefillah. I'll say it in short. There's a Yid in Eretz Yisrael. His name is Rebbe Chanan Weissfish. His wife had cancer and she struggled with it for 3 years and she was nifter. At the 30th day after shloshim, she came to him in a dream. And how did he know the dream was true? Because she told him something private that he didn't know about and he went and he clarified it and he found out that it was true. So, that meant that the dream was true and he asked his wife and that's why his wife came to him. She was a tzadekes, seems to be. And she had a zchus to come to her husband in a dream to to fix something that she wanted that she wronged. And and she and the husband asks her in the dream, "Where are you, Esti? Where are you?" So, she said, "I'm in I'm in the heichal of refuah." He said, "What is that?" She said, "You won't understand. It's very, very high." He said, "Why were you zocheh to something such a big place in Gan Eden?" He said, "Because when I was sick, you went around, you made tefillos, you made Asher Yatzar signs with the with the translation and you went all over the place. All those things that I didn't I didn't survive the cancer, but the tefillos stayed on. They helped me get to this place. Every time they took me to higher heychel because of all those tfillos. That's believing in tfillah. I don't know how your shmona esrei's look. I don't know how your davening's look. I know how my davening looks. There was once a poritz in the old times. There was like he was the boss of the city and you know the Jew had his kretchma his inn and he owed him two to three years rent and he didn't know what to do and one day the poritz calls him up sends his soldiers over bring him bring him over and he's like trembling what's going to be over here. He had a power of life and death the poritz. And he goes and he asks him okay let's Jew let's sit down Mushka and we'll make some accounting. And he brings down all the wines and bromfen and beers that he took from him the last two three years and he makes a list what the poritz owes the Jew and then he puts down the rent and whatever the Jew owes him. And of course the Jews owes him much more than he owes him but the guy made a mistake the poritz made a mistake and he subtracted his amount from the Jew's amount and said how could it be that I owe you so much money and he got so angry how could that be I owe you so much money he took the papers and threw it into the garbage. He burned it up. Okay Jew is very happy open miracle but he goes home and he starts thinking what's going to be? What's going to be? The guy is going to find he's going to reconsider he's going to realize what happened here. So he runs to his rebbe the Tolner rebbe. And he tells Tolner rebbe rebbe I'm afraid what's going to be when he realizes. He says you don't have to be afraid he doesn't daven shmona esrei. It's a good joke about that. But, it's a bittersweet joke. We're standing in front of Melech Malche Hamlachim Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Our tfillos should look better. They have to realize. Could you just imagine if a machshava, if a thought is just like a word by Hashem in heaven, anything that you think of, it's like it's printed out already, right? It's just like it's said. So, just imagine our Shmoneh Esrei. Atah Chonein L'Adam Da'as. Yes, Hashem, I know you give all knowledge to people. Oh, you know, I got an appointment at 3:00. I have an appointment. I better make it faster. And this is all recorded in heaven. All the things that we're thinking about in Shmoneh Esrei, everything gets recorded. Do we want to hear that recording when we come up? And that's something that says L'Netzach Netzcheim. We have to work on our davening. Reb Zalman Auerbach was 7 years old. He brought nash to to the Talmud Torah. He brought nash for his class, good sweets for his class. So, they asked him why. He says, "I was matzliach to daven a whole Shmoneh Esrei without thinking of anything else." There was a tzaddik in Yerushalayim, his name was Reb Nota Zenvirth. Reb Nota Zenvirth said, "I can't understand how you could think of anything else when you're standing in front of the king." And then I saw someone asked an 80-year-old, "How's your davenings all these years? You're already an old man." Says, "I never davened the Shmoneh Esrei like should be." Who are we like? Are we like Reb Zalman Auerbach? Or are we like that 80-year-old? I'll tell you the truth, I think we're not even like that 80-year-old. The 80-year-old was chashuv b'rachamim about it. He was brokenhearted about it. He was trying to get better. We have to put in thought into our davening. How do we make it better? How do we How are we able to bring ourselves to really we should be clear by ourselves we're standing in the one that has all the power in the world. We're not standing in front of a president. We're standing in front of that our full lives and the lives of all our generations and a full cloud Israel is Hashem. We should be standing there not be able to think about anything else. But that's not the case. Why is it? First of all, the emunah. The emunah. Realizing that that's the case Hashem is all over. I'm really I'm really talking to Hashem. We forget about it. We don't really realize it. We don't see anyone in front of us. So we forget about it. We don't We don't have the real realization of it. We have to really acknowledge and really bring it into our chushim in our minds we should really realize that we're standing in front of Hashem. The Rambam says that the way to do that is think before you're davening. So maybe he's talking about a big a big preparation. Let's not go that far. Let's be mekabel on ourselves that before we start davening we're going to think to ourselves for 10 seconds I'm going to stand in front of Hashem. I'm going to talk to the one the almighty power of this world and all worlds. That's who I'm going to talk to and for think about it. Think what you're doing. Then our tefillos will already be different. Another thing. We say out the shem Hashem. We say the name of Hashem. Do we think what we're saying? You're calling to Hashem by his name, and you don't even have the decency to think what you're saying? You're saying the name of Hashem, you're calling by his name. You're not even You're You're saying the Shem Havaya, this is the name of Hashem, the Shem Etzem of Hashem. Why don't we have the decency? Imagine you're calling the president by his first name. At least think what you're saying. The Mishna Berurah says that the Ikar Kavana of when you say the Shem Hashem of Havaya, Adon Akol. Think he's the boss. And if we'll think about Hashem, you know what happens to other people, not me, but you know, other people, they sometimes they start the Shemoneh Esrei and yeah, yeah, they're starting, and by the time all of a sudden they find themselves in the middle of Sim Shalom. What happened? If we'll be Mekabel on ourselves to work on having in mind the Shem Hashem, at least we'll stop somewhere. At least every Bracha we'll stop, okay, I'm going to say the Shem Hashem. Hashem, Adon Akol, or Hashem the merciful. Hashem Havaya is mercy, it's chesed, it's rachamim. Hashem, you're the Rachman, have rachmanus on us. Another Eitzah, another solution to have a good davening is Im HaSefer Yashuv Machshavto. The Steipler said, use a Siddur. Look inside. You're saying an Asher Yatzar. You're saying a Bracha. So I don't Not everyone could do it by every Bracha, but at least the Shemoneh Esrei, at least the davening try to look inside. So we have three solutions to better our Tefillos. One solution is Hachana, prepare. Preparation could be a 20-second preparation. The second is focus on the same Hashem. Decide and be mikabel on yourselves on ourselves the same Hashem. I'm going to remember I'm talking to Hashem. I'm saying Adonai the boss. I'm going to say something but at least I'll realize when I say that sham at least I should realize that I'm saying Hashem's name. And your whole our whole davening will change. And then we try to say davening a sitter. The Gemara says in Rosh Hashanah Zeh al ha mitah Reuben got sick and he died. Shimon got sick with the same and he lived. Why? Zeh al ha gardon Reuben had a a criminal case against him. And Zeh al ha gardon and Shimon had he was saved and he wasn't. So the Gemara asks why? What kind of question is that? He's a big tzaddik. He wasn't such a big tzaddik but the Gemara doesn't answer that. You know what the Gemara answers? He davened and he didn't daven. So the Gemara says what do you mean he davened? No, they both davened. Zeh tefilah shleimah. Rashi says he had the right kavana. He had tziyachas halev. When he davened he knew 100% the only one who's going to save Hashem. They both wanted to live. They didn't want to die. They both wanted to live equally but one recognized and realized he's the only one that's going to save me. And therefore the tefilah was tefilah shleimah. The tefilah was with kavana with the right kavana. I'm going to wind it up. So first of all I got to just thank these the the Ar Chaim Vital says that who's going to be Mashiach? Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu is going to be Mashiach. That's what it says in Ar Chaim. Mashah Hu Shiyya. So, why doesn't he come? So, the Ar Chaim Vital says, he doesn't want to come to Am Ha'aretz and Am Ha'aretz people. People that don't learn Torah, he doesn't want to come to. That's why he's not coming. It says in Ar Chaim. So, I think we all Klal Yisrael owes a debt both to Chazak and to Torah Anytime because they are bringing Mashiach by what they're doing. So, let's just wind it up. Parshas Pinchas is always in the three weeks. Some say that Parshas Pinchas uh we don't know what we're missing, right? That's one of the big problems. We don't know what we're missing with the Beis HaMikdash. We we don't have any We all know there's one thing that we could realize. Sometimes a person feels sometimes closer to Hashem at Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, he feels some type of opening of his heart to Hashem. So, in the when the Beis HaMikdash is around, when Mashiach's going to come, that's going to be a steady times that by a million times. You're going to feel so Nothing's going to mean anything. You know, some people are afraid that Mashiach's going to come. Because I don't know what's going to be, you know, I have my uh you know, my status here. I don't know what's going to be if Mashiach comes. Some people are afraid. Don't be afraid. You know why? Because when you're going to feel that Dveikus to Hashem, nothing else is going to mean anything to you. Even if you'll have it won't even mean anything to you because you're going to feel such a closeness to Hashem, you'll give anything and everything away for that. I just saw a story There's the Rebbe Nachman of Breslov that that he was he was uh there was there was someone in his class. You know, I don't know if you know in Yerushalayim, a lot of kids went went off the derech. And there was someone in his class and he he had a brother-in-law that was very matzliach in business. And the guy met up with the brother-in-law, so he asked him, "What's he with your battling, your brother-in-law? What's doing with him? He has parnassah, he has a livelihood?" So he saw that he was like laughing a little. So he says, "For my shvager, for my brother-in-law's asher yotza, I would give away all my businesses." Because he knew that this tzaddik felt such a geshmak. And that's what's going to be when Mashiach comes. We have to live with Mashiach live, we have to bring it into our lives. Tav shin peh vav, I'm I'm sure someone mentioned it by now, we can say it again. Any good thing it's you could chazer. In the when tav resh sameach vav, there was a biggest tzaddikim, the chassidishe tzaddikim, they all said that they a shana a shana she mesugeles Mashiach. And then Satmar Rav in tav shin chof vav said that it's every 60 60 years. It started because it's every 60 years from somewhere, I don't know where it started. But the 60 years come out on tav shin peh vav. Reboisei, Tisha B'Av is one of the most mesugeldik days to bring Mashiach. In Eretz Yisrael it's not Tisha B'Av anymore, but here it is. It's on us. We could daven still. We could beg Hashem, "Stop with all this galus. We want to become close to you." The Rebbe Reb Bunim of Peshischa said, "Why does it say osi mallei schok pinu? They're going to laugh when Mashiach comes?" Because it's going to be a laughing matter that Mashiach came to such people like us. He didn't come to the Ben Ish Chai. He didn't come to the Baal Shem Tov and the Gra. He came to people like us. We're the generation that's the closest to Messiah that was till now. It's a fact. So, therefore we got to do ours, live with Messiah, make it part of our lives, and Hashem should help us all. We should all see it in our days. Amen.