Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz: Does This Path Bring Me Closer to Hashem or Not?

Okay, everybody. Good to see Good to see you. Thank you for coming. And uh the sheer tonight is as always dedicated to pray for the victory of our children and all friends of the war. For the lasting unity of Am Yisrael. And for all of those whose health has been affected by the war. And to be as resourceful for the safe return of all of the hostages that uh are still alive and whichever bodies need to be recovered. Um Before I start the sheer, I just wanted to say a few words of eulogy over the great uh loss that uh was suffered uh this week as as many of you know. Uh Rabbi Berel Wein z"l z"l z"l z"l z"l z"l z"l z"l z"l uh was nifter on Shabbos. And uh Baruch Hashem, he was zocheh to arichas yamim. He did live a long life. Uh an amazingly productive life. Just uh what one person manages to do. Even in 90 years is a pretty uh very very impressive uh He uh started his career life as a lawyer. Actually, he was an attorney in Chicago. Uh and then he became a rav and he became a uh mechanech in Miami. Uh he was head of the OU at one point. He actually managed the kashrus division. Uh and then he when he went to Monsey, he started a yeshiva. Uh-huh. Yeshiva and and a shul. Uh and I I remember I once had the occasion of being in his shul on a Shabbos. And uh as a rabbi, he gave a sheer in his shul. Now, I'm used to when a rabbi gives a sheer, so you'll have a table of 10 or 20 people sitting around. He literally had the entire shul. I never see I've not seen this since. The entire shul came to his sheer. I mean, that's unheard of. Uh but I remember that that impressed me a lot. And then he came to Yerushalayim and for many years he taught in Or Sameach. He taught in Or Sameach. Uh very popular very popular teacher, very beloved teacher. Uh I think the story went though that um he used to teach without a without a jacket, just in his shirt or sweater, just as he dresses dressed now. And I think Or Sameach said, "Well, you know, we we we like our rabbis to wear jackets or whatever it is." So, he didn't like to take orders. So, I think whatever There must be other reasons, but as I say, I think uh he said it was overly regimented. And um And of course, Bais Keneses Tennessee, they're they're they're very fine children in Rechavia. Uh he led for for many many years. Uh the amazing thing about Rabbi Wein, many amazing besides of course his books on history and his videos, many many things, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of uh video and audio shiurim uh around at least 10 books that that I know of and and like. But what is a very amazing about him was that he was a voice of balance and moderation in a society that is so polarized. Uh he understood if he would address any issue, whether it's uh yeshiva students in the army or whatever it would be, he was always able to articulate, to clearly see both sides of it. He saw things in all of their nuances, in all of their complexities. Uh he was not a binary thinker of an either or. He understood that life was complex and he had an ability to respect the different positions on both sides of a question. And therefore, he was always a voice of shalom, a voice of compromise, a voice of peace, a voice of tolerance, a voice of respect. And uh one would think that that should be obvious. Everybody should be that way, but very few people are that way. And as a result of this particular quality, which very much endeared him to me. I I I loved the man as a person. Uh was a very very rare very very rare quality. And yet he possessed it. Uh he had a certain wisdom born from both his experience and his very fine mind and all of the many many contacts, people on all levels uh that he met in his life from the greatest gedolim to, you know, the street uh people who are involved in petty thefts when he was a lawyer and uh and the like. So, he knew all types of human beings from the greatest to the not so great. And he was able to learn. As Pirkei Avos says, "Eizehu chacham?" Who is a wise person? Ha lomed mi kol adam. A person who learns from everybody. And indeed, he did learn uh from uh from everybody. So, uh it is a very very big loss uh again for Rabbi Wein himself. Um Uh he was widowed twice, I I believe, right? He was widowed twice. So, he did suffer uh these losses and as well he himself had a number of health problems, obviously. And now he is with Hakadosh Baruch Hu in Olam Haba. So, his chelek in Olam Haba is surely very very very great. So, it's not so much that we are mourning for him, but we're mourning for us that we no longer have his guidance, his leadership. But Baruch Hashem, we still have all of the shiurim uh that he gave, all of the videos, the audios, the books. So, we can continue to to learn from his wisdom uh even after he has physically left left the world. So, yehi zichro baruch. May his memory uh be a blessing. And um as I say, there there there were not too many are not too many people like him. So, in a sense, uh he was a person that when he leaves the world, you don't automatically have that many people that can fill his shoes. Again, I'm not trying I know that Well, you mentioned he was your neighbor and uh I imagine that over the years many of you have probably come in contact with him. He was a kind of a well-known figure in Yerushalayim, but but uh so, you know, you know what I'm talking about. But if you did not have the privilege, then the chala pacho to you're able to kind of connect to him now by all of the stuff that is uh that is online. So, I just wanted to say a little bit about it. Um I was not able to go to the levaya. I just heard about it like Sunday morning. Uh anyway, it looked to me I I did see a video. It looked to me that what was was this a private levaya? Because because I It was in the shul, but but the shul looked looked like it wasn't even full. Well, it was upstairs was full. Oh. And then downstairs I see Okay. Okay. Okay. So, it was like by invitation only type of thing. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. Um all right. So, so again, I just wanted to say say a few words about about this particular uh loss that we suffered. Uh we also know of course that uh this Shabbos uh is uh Shabbos Mevorchim. It is the Shabbos where we uh are Mevorchim uh the upcoming Rosh Chodesh Elul, which is only 1 month before Rosh Hashanah. And Elul of course is the month of introspection, the month of cheshbon hanefesh as we prepare for the big big trial of Rosh Hashanah, who will live and who will die. Uh and Rabbi Yisrael Salanter uh stated that uh when he was a child, so Rabbi Yisrael Salanter died towards the end of the 19th century. So, when he was a child, uh it was the beginning of the 1800s, the early decades of the 19th century. And Rabbi Yisrael Salanter said that when he was a child in Lithuania, around Vilna, so uh when the chazan would say this Shabbos, Rosh Chodesh Elul, yehi shall be be yom harishon or whatever it would be, he remembers as a child that from the ezras nashim, from the women's section, there would be a sob, a bunch of sobbing of women, and many of the women would faint. Now, I'm assuming um and this is the way he interpreted it, that they didn't faint because of 2 days of Rosh Hashanah cooking or maybe the dreaded 3-day Yom Tov uh that even in Eretz Yisrael we can have for Rosh Hashanah. This is the only time that it's possible. But rather, he was making the point that in the Lithuania of his youth, in the Litvishe culture of his youth, there was such an eimas hadin, there was such a fear and trepidation of God's judgment that it literally translated into people fainting, crying, fainting, terrified. Uh Rabbi Yisrael Salanter pointed out that already in his lifetime, he no longer saw those reactions. He saw a yeridas hadoros even in that time. But people who grew up particularly in uh in in Lita, in Lita, you know, Lithuania, uh would point out that this is the way they would break up fights. If kids were arguing, kids were fighting, you know, like say, you know, 10-year-old kids are fighting, so the mother would stick out her hand and say, "It's Elul." And they immediately stopped. "Elul, you don't fight. The rest of the year you fight. You don't fight in the month of Elul." And particularly, um the if you go to the Yeshiva in the Yeshiva world, you find that Elul is always associated with a certain amount of trepidation, a certain amount of fear. Aima Saden. We don't like to talk about it so much because we don't like to be scared. We don't like negative scary thoughts. But indeed, uh this was part of what Elul was about. But it's a very important to know that this is not a complete picture. It is part of the picture, but it's not a complete picture. In fact, Elul is also a time of love, a time of very deep connection with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. We know the Sifrei Kodesh tell us that there are a number of Tanakh references, Ramazim, hints in the Tanakh about the month of Elul. Let me mention three of them very quickly. The first, which is by far the most the best known, is actually not in the Chumash. It's in Shir HaShirim. Shir HaShirim uh is an allegory. It is a metaphor. It it it describes the romance between a man and a woman, but in fact, in fact, that's why, by the way, there was an opinion that Shir HaShirim should not even be included in the Bible. It should not be included in Tanakh. It's pornographic or whatever, romance literature. Why does it belong in the Bible? So the great savior who got Shir HaShirim admitted into the canon of Tanakh was Rabbi Akiva, who taught if all of the songs, all of the poems are holy, Shir HaShirim is Kodesh Kodashim, the holiest of holy. In fact, that's even the translation, the song of songs, Shir HaShirim. Rabbi Akiva is interpreting that phrase to mean the holiest of the holy because Rabbi Akiva taught that Shir HaShirim is a Mashal, that the woman is the Jewish people, and the shepherd is God, and the passionate relationship of the woman and her lover is the passionate relationship of love that Hashem has for the Jewish people. See? And that's the key. That is exactly how throughout, you know, there's a whole Midrash Rabbah, a whole Midrash on Shir HaShirim, very big Midrash, and the Midrash consistently follows that approach, that Shir HaShirim is an allegory, it is a Mashal, it is a metaphor for the love that God has for the Jewish people and that the Jewish people have for God in their devotion and their Mesirus Nefesh in serving Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So there's a refrain that appears uh more than once in Shir HaShirim, said by the woman about her relationship to her lover, and she says, "Ani Ledodi, I pledge myself to my beloved one. Vedodi Li, and my beloved one pledges himself to me. Ani Ledodi Vedodi Li." So the Sefarim point out that the first letter of those four words, "Ani Ledodi Vedodi Li," is Elul. So Elul is the month of "Ani Ledodi Vedodi Li." Now this is a very different picture. This is not the picture of, you know, "A month I'm going to be on trial for my life, and God made a site to kill me unless I try to improve my ways, and therefore I'm frightened and I'm scared." This is a different picture. Elul is a time of love, a time of reconciliation. Remember that after the Cheit HaEgel, Moshe Rabbenu went up to and after the the first Luchos were broken, Moshe Rabbenu went up Rosh Chodesh Elul, and he spent 40 days getting the second the getting the Torah and getting the second Luchos. And the 40 days are Rosh Chodesh Elul through Yom Kippur. He came down on Yom Kippur. And these are called Yemei Ratzon, days of grace. Elul is called Chodesh HaRachamim, the month of compassion. Okay? So it's a whole different way of approaching the Yamim Noraim, that instead of looking at these as frightening, scary days, which was kind of admittedly the literature tradition, as it were, uh and that's very hard for a lot of people because number one, uh when people get scared or frightened, they either respond by trying to avoid that emotion, so they simply shut down. It's almost as if people wish they could somehow sleep from Rosh Chodesh Elul till Simchas Torah, and kind of wake up in time for Simchas Torah and the like, and even if Lema'aseh, you don't sleep that long, but you can sleepwalk through that whole period of time. Or or they get so frightened that they get broken and discouraged and feel what's the point. But if you understand that this is a time of love, reconciliation, where Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants us to become close to him by improving ourselves and becoming better, then instead of looking at these days as days of fear, you look at them as days of opportunity. Rav Chaskel Levinstein, great Mashgiach of Mir in Europe and Shanghai and then Ponevezh, talked about Elul as the golden attack, the golden days, the days that are precious, the days that are beautiful. I mean, imagine if instead of having an annual time of introspection and judgment. Let's assume that God would give us this period every 10 years, or every 20 years, or every 25 years. So that may make all the intervening years easier, but how does one fix 25 years of mistakes? Hashem gives you these frequent opportunities to kind of make it easier, to kind of look at things in small doses, relatively small doses, and try to be Metaken. So that's the first thing, to kind of try to view these in positive ways. As I said last week, no person does Teshuvah out of a sense of how bad they are. You do Teshuvah out of a sense of how good you are. That you're good, you're strong, you're vibrant. Hashem loves you. You are precious. You're needed in the world. And then I want to be the best person I can be. Because then I can live up to the potential that is within me. And that's why Rav Kook says that the dominant emotion of Teshuvah, of repentance, should not be one of fear. It should be one of joy. The joy that I can fix it. I can make it better. Whatever, as the saying goes, "Ma she'efshar lekalel, efshar letaken." Whatever you're able to break, you're also able to to fix. This is why the Alter Rebbe, and anyone that has connected to Chabad has heard this Mashal a million a million times, if not more. Uh Elul is called HaMelech BaSadeh, the king who wanders into the field. The Mashal is that the whole year, the king is in his palace, and he's open to appointments. You can still visit him in his palace, but you have to go through the palace guard, you have to go through the appointments secretaries. But once a year, the king would go into the field, the general streets, so everybody could approach him. Elul is the month when Hashem is the Melech BaSadeh. He is the king that is in the field, very very very accessible. So these hours, as Chaskel says, these are golden days, and we need to utilize them in a positive positive way. Uh again, I guess we'll talk more about this as we get closer to Rosh Hashanah and even after uh Rosh Hashanah, uh but part of this is to be to realistically set manageable goals. Like a person shouldn't necessarily say, "I'm never going to speak Lashon Hara the rest of my life." That might be too big of a challenge. But you try to create some movements. It's like exercise. Spiritual growth is very similar to physical exercise. If a person is trying to get in better better shape, uh they're not going to be able to run a 26-mile marathon day one. Right? You first got to walk around the block. But, by doing a little bit at a time, over time, you get spiritually stronger, and then you're able to achieve significant goals. So, one needs to devote some time to what areas can I become a better person? And it doesn't always mean doing things doing more things. Sometimes it means doing things better. Meaning not necessarily saying more to him, but having kavana for little things. You make a bracha on water, think about what you're what you're saying, uh, and the like. And, of course, needless to say, uh, spiritual growth is not only ben adam l'makom. It is not only in the area between man and God. We sometimes neglect the areas of ben adam l'chaveiro, between man and man, interpersonal. You know, we don't We don't look at that as, uh, spiritual. We look at that as, uh, In fact, I remember it still it still very much, uh, hurt hurt hurt me. Uh, Rav Aaron Rav Aaron Lichtenstein, zichrono livracha, was nifter. So, Rav Aaron Lichtenstein was obviously the head of the, um, of Gush, uh, one of the largest, uh, yeshivot. He was in the TLU yeshivas, which also had many many Americans there as well, and, uh, and, uh, he was a brilliant person. He was a genius. He was, uh, he had a PhD in literature from Harvard University. He was the son-in-law of of, uh, Joseph Dov Soloveitchik, uh, a brilliant talmid chacham who wrote, uh, svarim and kodshim, toros, all sorts of areas of the Torah that are not so well known. Uh, but he was also an extraordinarily sensitive person in ben adam l'chaveiro. There were many many stories about how he took care of his parents when they were older. How when his yeshiva was on a tiyul, he would stay on the bus to clean up the garbage on the bus. Many many stories like this. So, when he was nifter, many of the talmidim would tell over these stories. Which is very very good. It's a beautiful thing to hear how a great talmid chacham was so attuned to human sensitivities and humility. But then I saw that somebody actually registered a criticism. They say, "I don't need to hear stories how nice he was to his wife. I mean, you're just making or whatever to his his father. Uh, that's like Ward Cleaver." You have to be older to remember that. On Leave It Leave It to Beaver. Yeah, well, nice guy. That's what a godol is, nice guy? I tell you the truth, I I I that infuriated me. How could it be that we've we've created a Torah culture that actually considers human decency, derech eretz, and kindness to be an insulting way to remember a talmid chacham? That's an insult. I want to know how many mesechtas he knew by heart. I want to know that he didn't know the name of his grandchild. That shows that he's a real talmid chacham. What? He knows his grandson child's name? Huh? Obviously, he's not a rung a ton enough in the sugia. Perverse. Perverse. As the navi Yeshayahu says, they call light dark and they call dark light. And everything gets so mixed. In the meantime, I remember seeing a picture of Moshe Feinstein, uh, wearing a, uh, a red fireman's hat as he was playing with his grandchildren. So, somehow Rav Moshe Feinstein had time to wear a fire fireman's hat playing with his grandchildren, and he still went through the Pri Megadim 400 times. So, apparently, it's not it's not a contradiction. Right? People think it's a contradiction. How can you play with your grandchildren and be a godol baTorah? Well, at least for some people that seemed to work. Okay. Uh, so, the point is, I don't want to get off on a soapbox here. The point is that, uh, in our cheshbon hanefesh, we have to think about ben adam l'chaveiro, too, and not only not only ben adam l'makom. So, when we come to the parsha of the week, parshas Re'eh is always read either the Shabbos before Rosh Chodesh Elul, or or sometimes when Rosh Chodesh Elul is Shabbos, parshas Re'eh is the kri'as haTorah of the Shabbos Rosh Chodesh Elul. And interestingly enough, there are some very significant allusions in the parsha itself to the season of Elul and the avodah of Elul. Again, remember, as I, uh, said the last week that, uh, the book of Devarim is a series of speeches, mussar, that Moshe Rabbeinu was giving the last five weeks of his life, from Rosh Chodesh Shvat till the 7th of Adar, which is five weeks. And the whole book of Devarim are the last five weeks of Moshe Rabbeinu's life. And he begins with the words, again, it's I mean, the parsha begins, but this is the middle of the speech, actually. The speech began last last week's parsha. Re'eh, look, anochi nosein lifneichem hayom, I am placing before you today es habracha v'es haklala, a pathway of blessing and a pathway of cursing. Meaning life can be conceived as two roads. There's a road that will bring you to blessing, goodness, and there's a road that will bring you to destruction. Now, the Torah then goes on and explains or Moshe Rabbeinu goes on and explains. He says the following. Es habracha, the blessing will be asher tishme'un, that you will listen to the commandments of God. The curse shall befall you im lo tishme'u, if you don't listen. If you look at the language of the verse very very closely, you actually see that it's asymmetrical. Let's take the curse first, although that's mentioned second. The The loshon of the curse makes a lot of sense. The curse will be if you don't listen to the commandments. Meaning if you don't listen to God's commandments, there will be curses either in this world or the world to come. Meaning the not keeping the Torah is the condition, if. The curse will be if. Now, in the case of the bracha, it should have said the same thing. The bracha will be im tishme'u. Im tishme'u. But that's not what it says. It doesn't say the bracha will be if you keep God's commandments. It says the bracha will be that you will keep God's commandments. In other words, the keeping of the commandments is articulated not as a condition to a bracha. Meaning this is the condition to the bracha. It is stated as the bracha itself. You see the point? Meaning meaning, the curse will be death, destruction, illness, poverty, and the condition will be not keeping the Torah. But in the case of the bracha, it doesn't say the bracha will be fertility, blessing, wealth, on the condition that you keep. Rather, the bracha is that you will keep. You see, it's it's asymmetrical. So, one explanation actually can be based on a passage in the Rambam in Hilchos Teshuvah, where the Rambam, uh, where he talks about repentance, the Rambam raises the issue of the famous statement of Chazal that the reward for the mitzvos is not in this world at all. The reward for mitzvos is always going to be in Olam Haze Haba. Right? This is the based on the statement in meseches Kiddushin that sachar mitzvah b'hai alma leika. There is no true reward for mitzvos in this world. So, the Rambam then raises a question on this. How can I say there is no reward for mitzvos in this world? Does not the Torah say explicitly, take kri'as Shema, if you keep the commandments, you'll have rain, you'll have prosperity, you'll have children, you'll have blessing. The Torah doesn't say if you keep the mitzvos, you'll have Olam Haba. The Torah specifically says if you keep the mitzvos, you will be rewarded in this world. So, how can I possibly say the reward for mitzvos is only in Olam Haba when the Torah says you get rewarded in Olam HaZeh, so the Rambam explains the following. The Rambam says, the actual reward for your mitzvahs is only in Olam HaBa. But the one reward that God gives you are the opportunities in life that will enable you to keep more mitzvahs. So, if a person is poor, he can't give tzedakah. So, if the Ani gave a little bit of tzedakah, God will give him wealth so he can give more tzedakah. In other words, all of the things the Torah says, you'll have fertility, you'll have blessing, you'll have prosperity, that's not reward. That is opportunity. Opportunity to do more mitzvahs. That's the meaning of the statement in Pirkei Avot. Sechar mitzvah mitzvah. Mamash, the reward What is the reward of a mitzvah? The ability to do mitzvahs. So, all of the favorable conditions of Olam HaZeh that the Torah promises us are in the nature of opportunities. So, the Chida would say that the Rambam's yesods is mamash what the pasuk says. The blessing that God will give you for keeping the Torah is that you will be able to keep the Torah. You will be given all the conditions that you need in life, health and wealth and prosperity, family, to maximize, to optimalize your ability to keep the Torah. So, that would explain the difference. Meaning, the not keeping the Torah is the condition for the curse, but keeping the Torah is both the condition, but it's also the blessing. The blessing will be that you will keep the Torah. Mamash what the Rambam says in Hilchos Teshuvah. In fact, this might even be a bit of an explanation for the very, very difficult question of why do righteous people suffer in the world, right? This is the question of Iyov. And part of the answer is, well, listen, if the whole purpose of prosperity in this world is simply to give you the conditions to keep the mitzvahs, the righteous people who will keep the mitzvahs even without those conditions, they don't need those conditions. Their reward is Olam HaBa. They don't need prosperity to give tzedakah, so to speak. In other words, there's no need for them to have all of those benefits if the purpose of those benefits is not intrinsically reward, the purpose of those benefits is is opportunity. So, that was one teaching, the asymmetry between the bracha and the klala. Now, let's go further. A second point here is that there's a an ungrammatical shift from singular to plural in one in a single pasuk. Re'eh, look, contemplate. That's a lashon yachid, that's singular. Anochi, I Who is the I, by the way? Is the I Moshe or God? It's It's not It's not clear who this It's not clear who the subject of that sentence is. But, whoever the I is, I am placing before you lifneichem. So, in English, you is the same for singular and plural, but in Hebrew, if it's a singular second person singular, it would say re'eh anochi nosein lifnecha. So, you start off Re'eh is a lashon yachid, lifneichem is a lashon rabim. So, why does the pasuk switch in the middle? From a lashon yachid to a lashon rabim, right? So, here the the Kli Yakar uh uh gives a very, very good answer. I give a few answers, but what the one answer I want to just mention is that Moshe Rabbeinu was actually describing very briefly a mitzvah that is going to be fulfilled in the time of Yehoshua when they cross the Yarden, that six tribes are going to be on Mount Gerizim near Shechem, and six tribes are going to be in Mount Eval, and Kohanim and Leviim are going to be in the middle, and they're going to pronounce blessings as they face Mount Gerizim, and curses as they face Mount Eval. And the content of these blessings and curses are actually stated in the Torah in Parshas Ki Savo, but the actual fulfillment of the mitzvah is not until after Moshe dies, after they cross the Yarden, in the time of Yehoshua. In Parshas Re'eh, Moshe Rabbeinu alludes to it. He says, you shall put the bracha on Mount Gerizim, you shall put the curse on Mount Eval. Now, the question would be, we already have in the Torah all sorts of blessings and curses. We have a tochacha at the end of Vayikra, and we have a tochacha at the end of Devarim. Why do we need another ceremony of blessings and curses when they cross the Yarden? What is the purpose of that third ceremony? And the Gemara in Sota explains that the third ceremony is very, very significant because the original tochacha simply means if I sin, I will suffer, and if I don't sin, I will not suffer. But, it did not create the notion of Kol Yisrael Areivim Zeh LaZeh, that every single Jew is responsible for every other Jew. The idea of Kol Yisrael Areivim Zeh LaZeh, that I'm not just responsible for my shortcomings, but I have a chiyuv to help every other Jew overcome their shortcomings, that was created only when they cross the Yarden, and that became operative in Mount Gerizim and Mount Eval. So, the Kli Yakar says, based on that Gemara, we now understand why there's a shift from the yachid to the rabim. Re'eh, God is saying, hey, you individual guy, know that the blessing and the curse is not just in front of you in terms of what you do, but anything that is done by anybody, you have a certain responsibility. Meaning, the notion that I am responsible for the entire Jewish people in whatever level is within my sphere of influence. Now, halachically, this actually applies halachically. The Gemara in Rosh Hashanah tells us, let's imagine that I made kiddush, right? I'm I'm at my home Friday night, I made kiddush. After And of course, we know that just as I make kiddush for me, I could be motzi people. I can make kiddush for anybody there. But, let's say I already made kiddush, and then somebody shows up. Now, they can make their own kiddush, but let's assume they don't want to or they they don't know how to. So, what is the halacha? Even though I was yotzei kiddush, I was yotzei, I can make it again. And I can make it again and again and again and again. I can do it a million times. And it's not treated as a blessing in vain. I can blow shofar to be motzi people, even though I was already yotzei shofar. I can read Megillah many times to be motzi people, even though I was yotzei Megillah. The problem is, why isn't that a bracha levatalah? I was yotzei already. So, I'm simply making a blessing in vain. Rashi explains that since Kol Yisrael Areivim Zeh LaZeh, since every Jew is responsible for every other Jew, if you didn't hear kiddush, it's not only you who are missing the kiddush. My mitzvah of kiddush is not complete until your mitzvah is done. So, this actually has very important halachic ramifications. I am responsible for every Jew. And that's why the yachid is told re'eh. The yachid is told, your responsibility is towards everybody. Okay? That also means a person has to recognize that their behavior affects, you know, um You know, in yeshivas, we sometimes have this issue. Uh you know, a place like Ohr Someayach, for example. So, uh because of the nature of our talmidim, many of them don't have strong backgrounds. So, we have to intersperse the regular learning sessions with trips or parties or get-togethers or, you know, different types of what you might call social events, which, you know, are chashuve events. Now, sometimes you have a guy who's a real stark learner, very devoted masmid. And he doesn't want to go to a shabbat tall and he doesn't want to go to a melaveh malka. He doesn't want to go out for any TL because he'd rather learn. It's very noble. He wants to learn. He doesn't He doesn't want to go to uh some social event. And he says, "I don't get anything out of it." Now, that may or may not be correct, because the truth is there are things you get out of experiences which are different than the conventional base measures experience. But, one thing that a person has to think about is okay, "I don't get anything out of it, but what can I contribute to it?" Meaning to say, it's not always what I get from something. What do I contribute to it? All right? Or to to take take almost an opposite extreme, uh somebody might not show up in a base measures, might might not learn, and he says, "Well, that's my business. If I want to go to hell, that's my business. Why does anyone else care?" The answer is because of call Israel a raven Zella Z. So, in effect, we're all going to be accountable for the failures of this person. And it works in both ways. See, it's an interesting thing. Number one, that person's failures drag us down because it creates an atmosphere which is less rigorous and less kadosh. And number two, we're also held accountable for that person failing. In other words, it works both ways. He drags us down, and we get drag You know, and we get dragged down because of his failure. Uh the Talmud Yerushalmi gives um the mashal, the famous mashal, of call Israel a raven Zella Z, that people are sitting on a boat, and under somebody's seat there's a hole, and water's entering. So, when we try to plug up the hole, he says, "Mind your own business. The hole is under my seat. Why do you care?" The answer is the water enters the boat. The whole boat is going to sink. Call Israel a raven Zella Z, and that is the idea of why we move from the yachid to the rabim. The yachid impacts on the rabim uh in the sense of affecting them, because we're part of a community, and the rabim will be responsible for the yachid. The yachid is responsible for the rabim. Call Israel a raven Zella Z, but that didn't happen until we crossed the Ardein, and we had the ceremony of Har Gerizim and Har Ebal, which is exactly what that pasuk is referring to, "Re'eh anochi nosein lifneichem." Now, let's go further. Yet another interesting remez in the pasuk. It says Hashem says or Moshe says, there are two pathways. The pathway of blessing and the pathway of curse. These are the two blessings. I'm sorry, the two pathways. Now, the emphasis isn't there Isn't there such a thing as neutral? I mean, we know in a halachic system, right? Some things are forbidden to do, and some things are mandatory to do. But, there's also a big middle level in which something is mutar but not chayav. Meaning, there are things that are mitzvahs, and there are things that are aveilos, and then there are things that are neutral. Right? Uh we could classify um do I Well, truth is, Rav Chaim Kanievsky used to used to get these questions, and I think they irritated him a little bit, which I fully understand. Like, people would ask him the type of question, although I never saw this particular question, uh for breakfast, is it better to eat Cheerios or cornflakes? And his answer to Again, I I I'm not aware that he got that particular question. I'm not sure if he would know what Cheerios were. It reminds me of an another thing that somebody once asked him, because he was so Baruch Hashem, so much in the world of Torah, he didn't necessarily know the normal issues that people face. Someone asked him, "Are you allowed to play basketball on Shabbos?" In kadur sal, mutar be Shabbos? So, he said, "What What's basketball? What is kadur sal?" So, he says, you know, "There's a basket, and people throw the ball, and it goes through the basket." So, Rav Chaim was said to have remarked, he says, he doesn't know why there's a shaila, why can't they just put the ball in the basket before Shabbos? And that way that way they could avoid the shaila, right? So, he was a man of another world, but but his short answer, cuz he gave very short answers. In fact, even when people asked him real shailos, he would often give just a very short answer. But, he would often say, "K'irtzo'necha." Do what you want. This is a neutral. Yeah? So, why does the Torah say there's only a pathway of blessing and a pathway of curse? Isn't there such a thing as neutral? So, I believe the Seforno says, on the highest level of spirituality, there is no such thing as neutral. Every decision a person makes in life has to be predicated on will this bring me closer to Hashem or will it not? And if it brings me closer to Hashem, it becomes a mitzvah to do. If it does not bring me closer to my after What Now, let let me explain what this means. Cuz you might be saying, "Well, that means what I'm saying is the only things you can do in life is learn, daven, chesed." Not necessarily. There is room in this perspective for vacations. There is room for jogging. There is room for basketball. There is room for football. As the Rambam explains, if a person relaxes with the intention that I want to be stronger. I want to dissipate tension. I want to be more relaxed. I want to be more serene, so I can serve God with greater devotion, then the recreation itself becomes a mitzvah. The eating, the sleeping, the going to a museum, walking around the block, going to a garden. In a formalistic sense, that's not a mitzvah. Right? There's no mitzvah that says I should see the Grand Canyon, or go hiking. There's no such mitzvah. But, it's not neutral, because you turn it into either a mitzvah or the opposite by what is your intention. If I need to take a break in order to be able to learn or daven better, it's not just the learning or the davening that becomes avodas Hashem. It is the break itself that becomes avodas Hashem. This is what the Rambam says in Hilchos De'os. The Rambam says this is the meaning of the Mishnah in Pirkei Avos. "Kol ma'asecha yiyu lesheim shamayim." All of your deeds, not just your mitzvah deeds, all of your activities, should be for the purpose of serving Hashem. And this uh Mishnah in Pirkei Avos is based on a pasuk in Mishlei, "B'chol derachecha da'eihu." To know Hashem in all of your ways. So, therefore, the Seforno says in this pasuk, there really are only two pathways. There is no neutral. That which I do to bring me closer to Hashem is the pathway of blessing. And that which I do not to bring me closer to Hashem is the pathway of curse. Because anything that doesn't bring you closer will bring you further. The Vilna Gaon actually says that when a person is not going up in their spiritual level, they never stand still. They go down. To use a modern example, life is like a downward escalator. If you stand still, you go down. Okay? So, this is what the Seforno says on this pasuk. In a purpose-driven life, where everything has a purpose, and again, I I will repeat once again, that within this life there is room for fun, there is room for games, there is room for travel, there is room for all of these things. But, one needs to have the mindset that they're doing it so this will contribute to their avodas Hashem. If one looks at nature, and one sees the the godless of all right, the greatness of the creator, that becomes avodas Hashem. Like, there's a famous vort from the Kotzker Rebbe. It's a little drash, homiletical, but he says there's a Mishnah in Pirkei Avos that says, if a person is learning Torah, and he stops the learning of his Torah to admire a tree, and he says, "Mah na'eh ilan zeh." How beautiful is this tree? And he stopped his learning. So it says in Pirkei Avot, harei zeh mitkhayev benafsho. He deserves to die. So the standard interpretation is, what are you admiring trees if you're in the middle of learning? Torah is more important than trees. That's the simple explanation. But the Kotzker Rebbe, who always has surprises up his sleeve, says, you know what? The Mishna Mishna means the opposite. He's learning Torah, connecting to God, and he stops that connection to God to admire the tree. That's why he's chayav mitah, because he should have admired the tree as part of his learning. Meaning part of his learning is to see the greatness of Hashem in the tree. And then it becomes a good thing. It shouldn't be mafsik mishnato. It should be a chelek of the of the learning itself. Right? So that's the Sforno's observation on the notion that there's no third path. There is no neutrality in life. Something either brings you closer or it'll mean that you're further away. Which is a fascinating point because it can actually mean that two people could be engaged in the identical activity. The identical activity. And after 120 years, one person will be rewarded for his avodat Hashem, and the other person will not. Two people looking at the Grand Canyon, doing the same thing. Not that one is learning and one is not. They're both looking at the Grand Canyon. One person says, "Wow, how great is Hakadosh Baruch Hu that created this." And the other person just said, "Hmm, really, really nice view here." One person did the equivalent of a mitzvah. The other person did not. So that's the Sforno idea that there is no neutrality. There's no par here. Now, there is yet another point, and that is the word hayom. Moshe Rabbeinu says, "Re'eh anochi nosein lifneikhem hayom." I'm putting these two roads, two pathways in front of you today. Today. Rabbeinu Yonah, who wrote uh the the classic book Shaarei Teshuvah, The Gates of Repentance, and he also wrote shorter works like Yesod HaTeshuvah, The Foundation of Teshuvah. Rabbeinu Yonah was one of the great He was I mean he was a great Rishon in all areas. He wrote in other areas, too, but he's best known for going over the philosophy and the the steps of repentance and the like. Rabbeinu Yonah writes in Yesod HaTeshuvah, which is not uh that's the short shorter work, not the Shaarei Teshuvah, that the you know the saying it's in it's it's interesting. I mean there's a saying in English, "Today is the first day of the rest of your life." Rabbeinu Yonah says exactly that point. He says the most important step, or the first step that a person has to do in order to change himself in a good way, is not to be overly obsessed with the mistakes of the past. I look at the mistakes I've made. I've looked at the pain that I've caused. I've looked at the damage I may have created. And often that paralyzes me. Often that immobilizes me. I often get disillusioned dis- and and and I feel that I'm not able to change because there's so much in the past that has been negative. Rabbeinu Yonah says, "The first step is to forget about the past. Every day is a new opportunity." Now this is fascinating because on one level, one of the requirements of teshuvah is you regret. You you have remorse for the mistakes that you made. But Rabbeinu Yonah says, "That comes later. Once you're strong enough to embark on the process, you then look at your past and see what you can do. But initially, you have to imagine, Rabbeinu Yonah says, that you are born today. Today is a new beginning. What you were does not dictate what you are. And what you are does not dictate what you can become. Don't allow yourself to be paralyzed by the mistakes of the past. And that's the wisdom of hayom. It's a new day. The Lubavitcher Rebbe uh once gave a talk on Yeah, I'm I'm not sure if it fully answers the question, but the discussion is, "Why do we need so much sleep?" I mean, think about this, you know, a person might sleep I most people don't get 8 hours, but whatever but the the Rambam himself recommends 8 hours. So we're talking about 1/3 of my time on Earth should be sleeping? Okay, so if it's not 8 hours, it's 6 hours, 5 hours, even so, I mean, yeah, the way God made me, I need sleep. But God could have made me that I don't need sleep, right? So why did Hashem create a need on the part of really all creatures to sleep? Sleep seems to be dead time. So one of the answers he gave is that sleep and then awakening gives a person a sense of renewal. In other words, if you would just be up all the time, you would never have a sense of a new day. It would never be new. You would just be continuing. And then you might become overwhelmed by mistake, by failure. The fact that you go to sleep, you wake up, gives a person a sense of newness. And that gives a person encouragement that yeah, things were not good yesterday, but they might be better today. And that's hayom. Hayom is to recognize that you're never you know, I It reminds me a little bit I I remember um I think I once got lost or something uh from the Jersey Turnpike to the Garden State Parkway. Somehow, I don't know. I don't even remember if I was driving or someone else was driving, but whatever it is, I was on the wrong road. But I noticed on the Garden State Parkway, they I guess a lot of people made the mistake or something because they kept on having signs, "This way to the Jersey Turnpike. This way to the Jer- kind of addressing dumb drivers that you know, "Hey, you know, you made a mistake, but you know, you can still correct it by getting back to the Jersey Turnpike." And life is that way as well. We often go on the wrong road. But Hashem puts so many signs and so many exits that even when you're on the wrong road, you'll have the signs that will tell you how to turn off and get back on the right road. Okay? And that's the meaning of hayom. Every day is a new opportunity. Don't allow yourself to be limited by what you were. Positive change in good ways and healthy ways uh is always is always possible. Uh the final remez uh to Elul that appears in the in the parashah is the emphasis on re'eh. Re'eh uh is a verb that means see, contemplate, notice, look at. And uh in the Sefer Chasidim, they point out that you sometimes need in life a berakhah that you should see the berakhah that you have. In other words, see that I've given you a berakhah. That's another berakhah. May I give you a Hashem says, "I give you a berakhah that you should see the berakhah that Hashem has given you." This is actually very profound and simple at the same time. Pirkei Avot says, once again, "Eizehu ashir? Who is a wealthy person? Hasame'ach bechelko. One who has joy in the portion that God has given him." Hashem has given us a chelek. And often we're bitter. We're not satisfied. We wanted more. I don't just mean in money, but in all sorts of things. And as a result, we don't see the blessing that Hashem has given us. And a person can have all sorts of blessing. All sorts of blessing. But if they don't see it as a blessing, then it doesn't lift them up. So, you need a bracha to have the eyes to see the bracha that Hashem gives you. They have a story they tell that it's not a Jewish story. I think it originates from the special education community. It's around maybe 30-year-old mashal or something. Uh a mother a parent of a Down syndrome child was describing the challenges and the joys of raising a a special needs child. And she pointed out, you know, people get married, they hope for children. They obviously want normal children. They want children without handicaps, without disabilities. And as a result, they sometimes look at a situation that they were given with anger and resentment. But the mother said quite wisely that this prevented her from seeing the blessings. And she gave a story that's a very well-known story. You may have heard it about somebody who really had a very strong yearning to travel to Italy. And uh they were saving, you know, dollars, you know, nickels at a time to get enough money to buy a ticket. Apparently, as the story goes, a ship, whatever. Uh to buy a a a a a a an ocean voyage to Italy, whatever it would be. And for some reason, there was a mistake. And instead of the ship going to Italy, the ship went to Holland. What? Holland. Holland? The Netherlands. A different country. Haha. Not not nearby. So, the initial reaction was, "I am so angry. I am so upset. I'm in Holland. Who wants to be in Holland? This is not what I paid for. This is not what I wanted. This is not what I dreamt of. What a world. What a lousy world. What a lousy deal." But then the woman said, "But you know, Holland has its beauties as too. Holland's a very pretty country. A lot of good stuff to see. Holland is not Italy. It's different than Italy. But Holland has its blessings. And this woman applied it to her particular situation. She says, "Yeah, I wanted Italy. I wanted a certain type of child. I didn't get it. But how can I allow myself not to see the blessing in what Hashem did give me?" Again, I when I tell these stories, you know, as they say, I uh it wouldn't be appropriate for me necessarily to talk down to somebody, but I'm I'm quoting a woman that was facing this very situation. So, in a sense, she has the credibility to make the statements that she's making. And this goes back to the idea of I ask Hashem, "Let me have eyes to see the bracha." The Bnei Machshavah say that you see this from Hagar. When Hagar is wandering in the deserts with Yishmael after they were expelled from Avraham's house, and Yishmael is dying of thirst, and Hagar prays, and uh it says Hashem opened her eyes. And she saw a well. So, again, the this this forum tell us, "The well was always there, but we don't notice it. We have to pray to God that he opens our eyes to see the brachas." So, be as it should be, Hashem. You know, uh living in Eretz Yisrael, obviously, to take one example, has its hardships. It has its challenges. It has its sacrifices. It has its difficulties. Some of them are extraordinarily difficult. War. And some of them are merely inconvenient, like the the awful heat we had a few days ago. But we have to attune ourselves and train ourselves to see the brachas in what Hashem has given us. So, may we be zocheh to uh reach that that madregah in our own lives. Thank you. Sure. Sure.