Rabbi Yitzchok Feldheim: Hoshana Rabbah 2020 Marathon

solar malaysian everyone this is a big school once again to be part of this hoshana raba program i just want to begin with a few thank yous this is my third year speaking on tour anytime but specifically for the ol simha show rabbi and davidoff and of course and the holy kolyakov brothers of torah anytime it's supposed to be part of this asifa this kahila people who are oi and not just any target zebra but it's a supposed to spend with this with this holy oil um that said i was told that this year the the program is looking to try and focus the cohost of the people listening in one direction they spoke to a small cabinet's chemistry you heard already and he told the islam to focus on friendship and they decided that we're looking to create friendship through like we always do to her anytime through torah so i i'll talk about it in the course of this year again but i wanted to start off if i lose you in the middle then at least you should have heard this pitch the pitches that we should reach out to our friends and that call someone and say i want you to call me once a week before shabbos with one two minute tartar build friendship through reaching out letting yourself be the receiver empowering your friend to share something with you people want to be givers to be giver through torah this is the secret this is the way to build habershaft and friendship and uh if we can do that and reach out to our friends a specific request reach out to a friend and ask them to call you before you'll call them they'll call you before shabbat with the two minutes of our time in that sense okay so let let me begin the torah the i've spoken the past few years and i i thought so shauna is a it's it's a topic that it's really the same theme every year so i'm tempted to repeat the speech but you can't do that especially with a cahilla like this that remembers everything you say they're not just here for entertainment they're listening so what i wanted to do is i wanted to build on two different shirim ideas that i've shared over the last year or two but really when i've come to think about it over time i've realized that these two opposites they literally are it's a stira what i'm trying to explain in one torah is the opposite of what i'm saying so i'm going to do a shorter version of each of those ideas and then this year's roshan rabbah the host the edition that i want to add is i want to show how is really making shalom between these two opposing ideas and this way even if you heard maybe one of the one of the ideas that i said i'm going to give you another idea which is the opposite and the real goal is is that now this year we should grow which is really the goal the goal is it not to repeat things it's nice to say you know to say old torah the the best thing is is to build on the past to say the quran to take it to the next level so we're not starting from scratch every year you know um i always say the word of what we build in in torah we build with avanim we go to a alum you go to a cemetery you put a stone on the grave the reason is because the secret of the meaning of heaven heaven is a contraction of the words father and son it's ben means but to build with stones is a unique kind of building you can build with bricks a lavena lavena is a brick you're just building living is le benyam to build with and even though is a contraction of not just the word ben to build but also the word of because an event a brick is a new creation i just made it and now i'm building and evan is part of creation it always was and we're building on the past we have the past we're not starting from a fresh lake i stand on the shoulders of that that came before me on the surround and i take i take it i'm the next link in the chat and this is the mahala it was given a motion to so here are the two div that i wanted to build on number one we have a beautiful idea the torah tells us that when you had the mizbayach in the beta dash in the basin they had an altar and the law of the torah is you cannot rise on the don't climb the mizbaya with steps you have to have a ramp a canvas it was a ramp and the kohanim used to go up the ramp to get to the top of his bed why not so it's a little bit hard to understand what the shot is in that like why where is the ghee first of all walking in a ramp it's hard to figure out technically what the difference in pastures but more importantly the kahana more mishna they were pants they woke up there was no exposure of anything on this deck so i'm sure there are many answers i want to give nancy that's more of a metaphorical idea that what does it mean to climb something with a ramp so i'll give you a massage the masala is everybody's been territorial with a group and one of the classic things you do in irish israel is you you go to masada and on the side of the group you come before sunrise and they climb up the path of the mountain the snake path it's a grueling adventure and you start in the morning and climb it's not easy it's a very steep mountain that's why they built it there it was a safe fortress it was impossible to climb the mountain and today we climb up this this ramp now there's always one guy in the group who looks durant goes there's no way i'm climbing up this ramp but there's a cable car and he sneaks off and he takes the cable car and when he you know that guy when he gets to the top the whole group is there they just went through this experience the group gets closer and it makes the trip more hustle and get to the top there's nothing like being on top of the starter you did it you know be a dime you worked the guy who took the cable car he has push up he knows he's a fraud you know maybe he pours his canteen over his head so he looks a little sweaty so nobody knows that he didn't really do it but you can always tell you know in the group picture on top of the saga you can always tell which guy that is you know he does one of two things either if he's honest he's the guy like in the corner of the picture like like curled up like afraid he doesn't feel like he feels like he really doesn't belong there but unfortunately more likely he's the guy in the middle of the picture with the biggest face and biggest arms over compensating for his guilt by acting on you know he's the party he's the life of the party but this is what people do when they do fraud when they're not really in it so either you you're ashamed and you sneak off to the corners the fringes and you live on the fringes or you live in the middle in an overdue overly dramatic fashion you make yourself into this big big thing so this is how i want to explain that whenever whatever achievements whatever you're trying to reach in life you have to do it with a ramp because the nature of a ramp is a ramp hits every single point in the incline there's no gaps when you climb on a ramp it means that every spot you actually conquered when you grow through life when you actually climb the mountain then the experience you have on on top is you can look down at your journey and you can smile and do a deep laugh look what i do but when you do it with a cable car when you take jumps when you jump and you don't actually cross every step then you're exposed and you're you're you're vulnerable because you didn't really do it and someone knows you have a secret your achievements aren't really earned and you're vulnerable and this is what the torah is telling us that when you want to climb in you want to get close to hashem don't do it with steps don't do it with jumps you have to do it with a ramp that you shouldn't expose you shouldn't be exposed your clearing flaws the the parts of your life that weren't earned are your vulnerabilities and you're exposed you're if you want to live a life where you're not exposed and you feel free and guiltless and shameless your achievements have to be with iran that's the idea of you know and it's a beautiful idea most people understand this idea it's not a hard idea understanding and men definitely understand this idea you know we don't like to ask directions you know somebody gives me a riddle i feel bad they give me a riddle because they're planning on doing something i'm not not leaving till i figure it out and they want to give you hints because they're getting nervous i'm not letting anyone give me a hint we want to accomplish things if one you know everybody would rather earn money than to to to borrow money you know this is how life is we understand the idea of a rap and true achievement is around so that's the first idea and it's an important idea and it's nobody would argue that it's not a true idea you know that achievements in life have to be done rung by one step by step it's constant growth without any cheating without any any borrowing without any anything that's not legitimate i have a different idea which seems to show the opposite and uh you know um i i i'll tell you in two ways because this is the central theme of hashanah and uh it seems to be that not that there are other ways to achieve things life the torah doesn't always demand on us to accomplish things properly and directly and to climb ladders and i'll show it to you in two ways first this year and this year was interesting here we uh i'll tell you i'll make it practical i'm sitting here i'm giving you the shirt from mexico we're spending next i'm here in mexico for sukkot we just we just went through a hurricane we survived i'll throw up on the tangent i'll just say the people here were upset that we didn't get to sit in the cigar because of the hurricane and uh i was telling the few people i was talking to that you know you shouldn't you shouldn't be so upset i think that what we did was almost that we didn't have a super why because what's the whole idea of sukkah the whole idea of this is the clouds of glory in the midpar what was the purpose of the clouds so most people don't realize this but there were two clouds right there was there was a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud and if you think about it they have opposite functions the pillar of fire what it does is it's dark and it creates light when when the world is dark you need light when you're sad you need his hook when you're broken you need to be picked up there's one part of life which is lighting up the darkness and now whatever everyone understands the other one's a little harder to understand the other one is that sometimes when it's too light you need a little shade a little bit too much joy can break you we get by ishmael when claudius gets fat we things are too good we kick that's what the pasta says um sometimes you know bracha leads to not wonderful places this is why and sukkot we even say you say kohele is we're better off when we're not feeling so a little bit of vulnerability and this is why we go in the sukkah the sukkah is meant to make you it's if it's two sun you need a little shade not only you need sultan you need more shade than sun the way a jew lives is again not to live in the darkness if there's darkness and you need light but if it's too bright you need a little darkness we live in the middle in a hut of the sukkah which is shaded and it's not dark but not bright and it's the humility to living in this vulnerable place which is exactly what i said why we thought the whole idea of covered was we had we didn't have our blown down or dismantled because they would have been weapons flying around with a lot of damage here and but everybody was in their rooms we were the only hotel in the whole country over here that that was the whole area that wasn't the vacuum yet because we're gonna put 440 americans so we're sitting here and the money had covered the real ananya cover came with such covert wow you're never so covered like that 140 mile an hour winds destroying everything and the vulnerability that you feel in the hurricane you don't need a seizure you don't need to recreate vulnerability we lived we lived children people were crying we live with a vulnerability this is the real sukkah we have hashem showed us that his cover his majesty of power with his clouds and uh anyone here if you hear my program you listen to you hear me tell you this listen to this don't be upset this is the best focus you've ever had you'll never feel like hopefully you should never again feel the vulnerability felt now it should be enough vulnerability for a lifetime okay besides the fact that also i was watching all the palm trees tom cheese swinging in the wind and i realized you know what's going on every palm tree i sat on the porch and 140 miles an hour winds watching the trees shaking in all four directions it was magnificent okay i don't know why i did that but i'll make it personal so this is you'll know what year i gave this year okay so here's let me get back on track so first i told you the idea that that in the ramp in the basement you the idea that you have to achieve things through constant steady growth but there's no such thing as jumping it's long too wrong to be jumping there's no shortcuts life is to go taffy only one step at a time three feel of the day the way you become a holy person is step by step by step i spoke rosh hashanah and uh the first days of yantov also this is similar to russia because this year when yamda falls on shabbos we don't blow short firm we don't shake so how do you explain to someone who waits a whole year for sure for a whole year for a little that you know you bought your magnificent death room you haven't you know come to an so here's how i explained the significance of the yum tub without its proper it's it's it's device it's tool it's clean it's vessel we read the story of ishmael ishmael is sent that abram sent ishmael away because he was not it says that sir sorrows [Music] right so what does she do right she goes away from you schmo she puts in the bushes and she goes [Music] she puts us on the bushes and she goes far away and she lifts her voice to shamayim crying hashem hears the sound of the boy crying the he lives and he becomes the father of all the all the countries all the children of ishmael everyone knows the story we just read it i have a big question my big question is is that the entire point of this story is that hashem hears the sounds of ishmael as he is he's going to become a russia he's going to become terrorists they're going to bomb preschools and airplanes but right now he was crying that's that's what this one i mean that's what his name is right ishmael hashem the whole story of ishmael is about that hashem hears no matter what level we're on hashem listens to us it's a beautiful idea the only problem is if that's the story then the most important words in the story i'm missing the torah doesn't do things like that what's the most important words in the story ishmael is dying of thirst hugger goes and cries and hashem hears the sound of the cry as boy as he is the caller of trilla that he dives and he cries and hashem hears him and hashem answers him even though he wasn't going to be the greatest what's the problem the turn never said that ishmael christ his entire name is it doesn't say anything about him there's not one word about him but we find i guess you can you can deduce [Music] so the answer i think is very deep and to understand the answer you have to go back to why he was thrown out it says that he was left and that's why he threw him down does that is that that make sense avraham laughs before he gets his born sorrow laughs before he gets up before yitzchak's name is laughter everything in his life is laughter avi melis looks out the window and he sees it he's laughing everything he's dabbing in the field is even called everything's right when she's born she says you know people go off the derek when they see double standards this should have been a terrible thing oh everybody else everyone his family it can laugh right what's the answer that's for sure it's not like that so what's the real story so i have one last question and i'll tell you together the question is is actually why is he attack's name laughter yitzhak's probably the most serious person in the whole terror maybe tanakh what's his trade is called the the fear the english translation is using the worst word dread the dread of isaac and his name is laughter is that a joke joke so laughter so what is it what's the answer's so powerful the answer is no exactly as that as we're saying you know who can laugh the only person who can truly laugh is the person who's totally dim every single thing in his life was burned he woke up early and worked hard the guy who every single thing in his life was hard work that guy because laughter is the expression of total guiltlessness no shame i'm secure if i cheated or i jumped and i took shortcuts i took the cable car off message and i can't really laugh the person who everything is legitimate there's no scandals and there's no skeletons in any closets so he can freely laugh because nobody knows there's no secret he can't be exposed he's impenetrable that's true the proof is that the guy who laughs like the guy who who's embarrassed or ashamed we have this fake this sheepish laugh the fake laugh that we do that sort of masks my insecurity when i want to show you that i'm unfazed that you didn't embarrass me i laugh because laughter is the sign of confidence because what it is is a real children laugh little kids giggling giggling is the expression of an innocent person with no shame who's never done anything wrong and they're optimistic they just laugh every day is a halloween trip waking up early bouncing down giggly giddy that's chill but don't but how do you do that when you're 50 years old only yitzhak could still be laughing at his age because he didn't do anything to be embarrassed of all those years and all of his accomplishments were climbed with a ramp not not with a shortcut not with cable cars so only you're talking left so that's an affirmation of my vote on the ramp laughter so what's ishmael is another laugh the first laugh is the giggle the sign of innocence another laugh it's the modern laugh we see all over the world today these the left making fun of married families with children and religion and spirituality i call it the cackle it's the laugh of late sun the laugh of the person who also when they were young had dreams big plans and big expectations but the person who took too many cable cars too many shortcuts and all the bounty in his house was unearned stolen faked that person can't look at the world where his eyes were he can't look in the mirror he can't enjoy the beauty of his life and what he does when he thinks of his dreams he has to learn how to do the sneering cackling laugh laughter means everything that it's a way to mask your pain but i so much wanted to feel pure that laughs a very very deep laugh but it's a different level the giggle and the cackle the laugh of the innocent laugh of yitzhak and the sneering laugh of the lettuce trying to make fun you know the guy who drops out of yeshiva and he's sitting on the stoop watching his old friends walk to yeshiva little boys a big huge gamora that weighs 40 pounds kovats inversion and he's laughing what are you doing one come join us chill with me we're having fun where you going that laugh is laughing that's why ishmael has to be thrown out it's a laugh that destroys dreamers the giggling of a child the laughter of justice is the most beautiful sound in the world and the sneering cackling laughs that white joy and hope from people's faces shames the people who deserve to feel pride that's the ugliest now in the world and that's why ishmael he can be canon and why hashem says listen to sarah she's right so this is ishmael's life and that answers our questions there's two different laughters the giggle and the catcall so now we can go back to our original question it's so powerful the water gets used up from the thermos from the flask and she goes away and she cries hashem hears the sound of the child so we asked why doesn't it say that he cried hashem hears the sound of the child never said he cried do you know what the answer is can you figure out the answer the answer you know the answer is i don't know if it's beautiful or terrible i don't know if it's both the torah doesn't say it because it already told us what ishmael does when the going is tough when life doesn't go the way he wants we know what he does he doesn't say he cried because he didn't cry he already told us that he's when life doesn't go the way he wants he cackles he's probably sitting in the bushes dying of thirst saying what a messed up world evil there's no justice there's people who laugh in the moments of tsar that's his coping mechanism to deal with his suffering and his frustrated dreams and the life that he wanted is not going to happen some people cry but some people can't bring themselves to cry and they can't come they laugh and they stare and that's ishmael [Music] you know what it means hashem heard the sound of his laughter hashem listened to the laughter of yeshua even though he wasn't crying and he was putting on a tough face and gritted his teeth and a firm jaw stoic laughing at the world a ishmael the kid who's laughing is a sad broken person inside he's not brave enough to cry because he's afraid no one will answer so all he can do is laugh hashem does hashem hears the boy crying laughing not crying hashem hears in the laughter everyone else in the world hears russia everyone mouth and the thoughts of my heart what's the difference between in ray fee and heggy and libby imracy is what i'm actually saying if i'm crying or i'm begging young nibi is the iron sight it's in my heart i didn't have the guts to say it hashem and now it goes even further not only is it not when you say the words and it's just in your heart [Music] such a heavy thing ishmael is laughing and hashem here's the left similar idea not that you needed a similar idea but it's foreshadowing the lord from is that the torah tells us that i want to explain the arava why do we beat the arab on the ground what is the meaning of an aram is so somebody else should clap it so here's the story of the arrow the story of the rava is is that the torah describes that erupts israel is not like eritsen's right this is the torah's definition of israel everything he has and they plant all their crops around the nile israel doesn't have any miles in israel you need rain and the problem is like this that a a farmer can do everything he needs to do he can buy the best seeds and the best cows and the best plow and he can work from morning to night for months chilling his field and sowing his field and pruning his field do you know what happens if it doesn't rain you you'll see nothing there's one thing you can't control you can do everything he wants to do if he doesn't have rain everything will you won't see any produce it's very hard a farmer has to go to sleep at night vulnerable and wondering yes the lion is dead this is what the prosthetic says you have to wait until with hashem the problem is that most people can't live like this it's very hard to dream if you don't know it'll come true being vulnerable and being vulnerable you can be rejected so much easier to say who needs it or do what material does mitsurayan plans only around there anything the aurora will give me i'll have but if it's too far from the earth i can't get the water from the air there's not enough water in there i will not plant it because i can't put myself at the mercy of rain because i will not be able to sleep this is how we understand the difference between the child and israel it's not about water and rain it's about vulnerability it's the ability to dream for things that aren't here right we say in order for him to wake up in the morning and work he needs to know disability around the children can do that now if you understand this about messiah and you'll understand what is because the torah what is the torah called the torah calls willows of the creeks of the streams of brook brook willows it grows by the banks of the brook and gets irrigated by the waters of the brook and that's what feeds the arava it does it also also doesn't need rain what mitzrayim is to geography our revolt our tabotany it's the planned version of mitsura it doesn't need anything it does it can sleep that night without any worries it doesn't need any but you know what happens to an hour but what happens when you live like this what happens if in life you only embrace things that are in your hands or anything things that are guaranteed and in the bank only if your ducks are in a row and your eyes are dotted your keys are crossed you can't long for something that's not here yet what happens then is you can arrive and you have no time and no smell and no taste character and depth comes from longing if you live your life safely around the are then you'll never have any character it'll do nothing about you deep and powerful that's the same exact thing with it's ryan paro has a dream and there's no one in the whole country who can explain powers dreams because in the time they don't know what dreams are nobody dreams the dream is the dream is to be vulnerable to long for something that's not here i am not if they are doesn't provide it we can't want it it might not come i might feel pain so messiah doesn't know what dreams are and their lover doesn't know what death is para has to go find the jewish kid from jail he knows what a dream is he can translate his dreams this is the secret of of the arava and this is why the last step is the beating of the arova and the the beating of and the beating of the arova and the beating of um of messiah the marcotte of missouri in the makkah of the arova are on the same thing they're both the tsar of living in the darkness and feeling nothing is so great that we hit the bottom the arrows were saying that has nothing when aroma feels it's tsar of being alone without dreams it gets so bad the lack of dreams that eventually that they are over i'll tell you the punch line in a second but the rubber lives without anything and it's ryan is that the point is that when you live without longing then your life ends up being so brittle and so dry and everything gets lost and then the becomes the holiest thing in the world this is the medrash tells us that there are seven levels [Music] and that means hashem's above the seven levels of shaman so the question is is how does dharavs become the highest thing in the world is the lowest thing it has no time because when there's two ways to climb a ladder one way is to climb steadily to climb a ramp to go up every day incrementally up the ramp and the last and the worst but the other way is that you don't climb is that you live with nothing and there's no satisfaction there's no [Music] turn to the glorious it's a shortcut that gets you to the top of the ladder you go from arou we beat it on the ground you hit the bottom and you hit the bottom and you jump instantly to the top it's a shortcut that gets you places the guy who climbs the ladder has to go from shamayim this nation i am talking you have to climb your ramp we said you have to climb rams life is about ramps but then this is the opposite there is something called a revolt that you beat it on the floor it has nothing and then it goes instantly it's the highest level of shrine what do we do with aromas after we beat them you put them on top of the aroma it goes in one second it's a cable car and this is the question do you have to do the work or can you laugh like ishmael all the people who are crying get the shania became all laughs and he also gets to shania there are you people who work their whole lives climbing and doing that vote out learning and this guy all he does is he hits the bottom which one is it does the torah want my old torah of the ram to climb the ramp to do everything yourself and to sit like the laughter of yitzhak earned everything can you get away with doing nothing yeah rather has nothing yeah rub is broken so how do you get to the top he gets magic it's a cable car it seems like the torah is advocating a ramp at the same time the torah advocates represents the ramp and our rover represents the cable car how do we reconcile it so in the last few minutes i want to tell you the punchline how do you reconcile it's a real question all right we tell the yeshiva to climb to work hard to learn and then if all the guys who drop out can wholesomely get to the top you know so they know it's not here right if there's cable cars who want to climb mountains so the answer is extremely deep you know they did on hashana what did they do with they did something people don't know but today we don't do it they took this is what the mishna says they took this very long hour of hope maybe 11 i'm not long and they lean them on all four sides from this says used to lean over and like like cover from all four sides the mizbeh in this vehicle they put it on top of the base of this map that was already off the ground and then the taps not only they go over them as they actually leaned over it so visualizes they are surrounded by our offer our rather shading is there we have to understand the imagery of this because this is where they to meet not just my i said of arthur the torah puts them together on the rabbit there was the joining of the arova and the ram so what is the message and i think the message is the biggest point in the world is that when the rover hits the ground it changes its name my question was i have to work hard to climb the ramp how can i have a shortcut to hit the bottom and then go to the top it's not fair so the answer is that aloha changes its name what happens when the person lives with nothing and no dreams and pain and loneliness doesn't belong for anything so you end up drawing out single alone you know you don't have jobs i didn't go to yeshiva because i didn't want to compete i didn't want to learn so hard i didn't do because i didn't want to get rejected i didn't get a job i didn't want to get fired i run away from everything because i'm normally vulnerable so that person lives with loneliness because he can't face yeshua he couldn't cry he wasn't able to cry so again hashem whoever cried it's not fear you'd never cry go about the person of christ so this is the difference it's not a shortcoming what happens when you beat the arab on the ground it stops being called an arava and it becomes called hoshanah save me the opposite of everything it was the entire point of me i love us i don't want to need anything i don't want to be dependent i want to i don't want to ever say words of need but the tsar got so great that it just breaks and it screams out hoshanah hashem they're called do you understand the change there's no greater change in personality in the world the guy who never the coolest guy in the world he just rolls his eyes and laughs at everything never invest he doesn't care and all of a sudden now he says save me don't think for one second that they are shortcut there's no shortcut there's only a ramp so you know it's taller than the ramp on this vehicle the hardest avoidance in the entire world is the avoidance to say you save me it's it's not it's there's no cable car you can do the entire avoidable humanity in one shot this is a ramp these are rubbles to lean on them don't think it's the steering's there this is the crown of the mazda you know what the greatest rant is the hardest job you can do the greatest climb is to get rid of all your fears and insecurities and scream out as loud as you can hoshiyama hashem save me i need you that is the vulnerability before the gloriola say hashem save me our kasha was that hakko would talk about ramps and shortcuts how can one guy have to climb over life and one guy goes from the bottom of the top in two seconds and the answer is the bottom to the top in two seconds you don't get from the ground to the top of the uncovered star of a it's not a cable car it's the most grueling hardest i've learned in the world you should find that to end this with the idea of friendship [Music] is everybody wants friends everyone wants to be loved it's very very hard to to need somebody to be motivated you say you need someone you can get hurt you have to be able to peel off the the fence mechanisms the gritted teeth the sharp jaw firm the stoic arava and peel off those layers the hardest in the world it's a little sugar to make the vulnerability easier to return hours need nothing cool safe a robot to raw vulnerable because there's no feeling like that to live on top of the ability to meet someone solves every problem you have you'll do one with hashem do one with yourself look in the mirror and give you one with all your neighborhoods and your friends and your relatives should make your name vulnerable good