Rebbi Akiva and the Soul of Yom Kippur - South Africa Torah Tuesday Teshuva Drasha

This Torah class is brought to you by tora anytime.com. Rabbi Shaw and Rabbi Land, Rabbi Gilbert. Always wonderful to collaborate together and to join in the learning of Pra and especially to learn from a ye of the caliber of Rabbi Gladstein. Um it is really a great privilege to join together with all of you and to welcome Rabbi Glatsky um to our Torah Tuesdays and what an auspicious time to have Torah Tuesdays. tonight is already air of your for us and uh please God and we're very grateful to Rabbi Gastine because as Rabbi Landal said is a little bit of a busy time now for all of us um and for Rabstein to give us the time and uh to give us the opportunity to hear from him at these very important moments as we prepare for the awesome and holy day of Yong Kipur. So we are very grateful to him and of course so grateful to Rabbi Akiva and his wife Eisha Gilbert for hosting the webinar. We really appreciate their kindness in facilitating um our Torah Tuesdays. And uh one more thank you a very big thank you to Johnny Rogoff for uh arranging and organizing and being the man behind the scenes does all the heavy lifting um and enabling us to have the to hear from Rabbi Glass. Raas is speaking on Yonipur day of eternity. >> Okay. Thank you so much Rabbi Saxton for the very warm introduction as always. Uh Berserus, distinguished Rabonim, thank you Rabbi Gilbert for hosting this event, Rabbi Shaw, Rabbi Landau. You know, many people in the states listen with very keen interest to the introduction to the Torah Tuesdays because I've gotten many comments that the Rabonim of South Africa are so gracious and pay such tribute to guests raonim that it's really an eye openener for a lot of the Rabonim back in the states. So when this shar goes down the mo the most listened to part of the shar will be the intro and if we could suggest there's so much beautiful Torah in South Africa today it's really remarkable uh how is that how is that possible but we know the Torah stands on good midos on courtesy on manners and the great that your community always displays and your graciousness is such a wonderful foundation to the Torah that proliferates in uh your region. I want to thank my dear friend Rabion Rogoff uh who now had the privilege of enjoying his friendship for many years for helping organize today's events as well as to all my good friends. You can't hear anything. Are you able to hear me rabbis? Okay. as well as to my good friends. I always thank Rabilan Rabininoitz and Rabil Appel and to all of my Yadidim in South Africa. Thank you for joining today. Now I tell you the truth during this season I have many opportunities to speak. There are many chuva drashas and my prepared drussa I canned it. I'm not giving it now because I already gave it too many times and I don't wanted this to be too rehearsed. So I'm going to do something novel. I never gave this before. So in your merit in your we have almost uh 100 people. We're going to do something a little bit different today. And as we hope it will be meaningful. We know that the service begins with the following. Light is sown for the righteous and for the straight-hearted there is joy. That is how yum kipper begins in services around the world. Why do we say this? What does this have to do with yipper? Why do we kick off yum kipper with the recitation of here's another interesting thing. If you were to scan through Shas Mishnas and pick the Mishna that captures what Yum Kipper is all about, we would have to go to the Mishna at the end of says, "Fortunate are the Jewish people before whom do you purify yourselves? And who purifies you? It's your father in heaven. That's what yum kipper is. We stand before our loving father and he purifies us. Why did we need rabbi to describe what yum kipra is? Is rabaka teaching anything novel? Why couldn't it bear mayor? Why is this really such a novelty that it's ascribed specifically to Rebaka? Is Yum Kipper more connected with Rabbi Akiva than anybody else? We know one thing about Rebaka and a lot of us rabbis we uh we suffer from this phenomenon. I don't know about I know the rabbis in South Africa have very um attentive audiences but here in America it could happen especially on a shabas afternoon after a kdesh you know people get a little tired and the medish tells us was do he was expounding he was teaching and his students they started to doze off they started to slumber they started to really fall asleep so wanted to pick pull the best rabbit out of his at he wanted to really wake them up and tell them something so exciting. So Rabika said why was Esther why did Esther merit to rule over 127 Medinois in the zus of Sahu a righteous matriarch who lived 127 righteous years and somehow this woke up the tamidim. I mean come on between me and you is really is that really that interesting? I mean if if I was tired and my rabbi said that in a shir I would be out called I mean that mathematics and calculations sor Esther I mean that's interesting if that was Rabbi Aka's best humorous Torah portion I mean why what is Rabbi teaching his students what exactly is the great lesson of Rabbi Akiva why was Esther rule over 127 Medinos and the merit of Sar's 127 righteous So the harim has a phenomenal understanding of this mishim says as follows that if Esther ruled over a country in the merit of a righteous year of senu that means in the merit of every month of Sor's righteous years Esther ruled over perhaps a state and in the merit of every one of Esther's righteous days, Esther ruled over perhaps a city. And in the merit of every one of Esther's righteous hours of Sorah's righteous hours, Esther ruled over a district. And in the merit of every one of Esther, Sorah's righteous minutes, Esther ruled over a town. And the merit of every second of Sarah's life, Esther ruled over an entire neighborhood. What Rabaka was telling his Tamidim is look how precious one moment of life is. Every moment has such inestimable value. Every moment is so precious. Every moment is the most valuable commodity we have in this world. For every second of Sarah's life, Esther ruled over an entire neighborhood. My dear Talmid, I know you're tired and I know you just want to catch a moment or two of of of rest and slumber, but every moment of life is so valuable. If you miss even a moment of my shir, the the repercussions could be drastic. Rabi was emphasizing the value of time. And now we're still entitled to ask why was it that Rabbi Yaka of all the Tanoim is teaching the world the value of time. And I think this lesson the value of time is something that the modern world has no understanding of at all. Give you an example. You know we look we turn to Kish Batius. Soon we're going to be starting boratious again and we speak about the creation of the luminaries, the sun, the moon and the stars. And if I were to ask you what is the primary function of the moist, the primary function of the luminaries, I think almost everybody would say the primary function is to give light and perhaps to give warmth. And if you examine the simple reading of the the says there should be luminaries in the heavensim for signs for timesim for days for years and they should be luminaries says rashi by the way they'll also serve as luminaries. I know he had a very strong connection to your community. He points out it almost sounds like the fact that the sun and the moon give light is the secondary function of the luminaries. How could that be? Isn't it the primary function of the luminaries says? Of course not. The primary function of the sun and the moon is to serve as a universal clock to tell time to teach the world the value of time. More important than light more important than warmth is the passing of time because that is our most valuable commodity that we have in this world. You know, if we examine say for Yona and Yona was on the ship and there was a terrible storm and Yona realized it was because of him and the only way the storm would be put to ease is if they picked him up and they threw him off the boat. And yona uses the famous expression raise me up and throw me into the sea. And one particular yum kipper kasman was speaking with his students and he pointed out why does yon use expression lift me up and throw me into the sea? Just throw me into the sea. Why does why does he need to be lifted up and thrown into the sea? And Kasman said because even though Yo knew that he needed to end his life, but if he could buy just one more second of life, if he could just delay his death by one moment, every every moment of life is so precious, is so valuable. So he says, I know I need to die, but do me a favor. Don't throw me straight into the waters. So lift me up and throw me into the sea. So you say what could you possibly do in one moment of life listen to a miri listen to the comments of the great miri one of the rishim we know there's a if there's an avalanche if a building collapses and somebody's underneath even if there have theic status of a goes as somebody whose death is imminent and they have no strength left to live and there's no question that their life will not last more than a few moments. Are you allowed to desecrate the shabas to to try to rescue the person prolong their life even by a few moments even though you know their death is inevitable. They will not survive. The isal the is your uncover the mound, the avalanche, the collapse in order to prolong the life of someone even for one moment. the value of Jewish life. But you'll ask, "What could we do in one moment?" Listen to the words of the mir says the miri. [Music] In one moment, a Jew could turn around his entire existence, his entire eternity. One could have thoughts of chuva and transform oneself from a rasha, from a wicked person to a sadic to a precious righteous person in one moment of time. And even though we know this individual does not even have more than one moment left, but maybe if we extend their life by one moment, they'll do chuva. And if they do chuva, their entire eternity has been transformed. I remember my great-grandmother Alah Shalom was in the hospital in her final days and my father Zazunai and my uncle went to spend Shabas with her and I believe she was on a ventilator and she was completely unresponsive. So they're there just to watch out for her to make sure that the doctors are doing whatever they could do and they're sitting in the room and they started to sing of shabas and my great grandmother sort of roused from her semi comoto state and she began to wave her hands and and bob and participate in ziro shabas. Do you know what kind of mitzvah it is to sing the writes it's almost biblical because it says inov that cursed himself that there should not be found any song in his home says so we see the definition of is the absence of song. So if the Tory says that God blessed the seventh day, in what way is the seventh day blessed? It must be it's it's manifest through song. So when we sing on Shabas, we're being fulfilling. So my great grandmother in her final moments of life, she participated in Shabas. You know what kind of value that is? You know what you could accomplish in one moment of life? Even without full consciousness, you could sing on Shabas. The value of every moment of life. By the way, the Mashk of the Slab Yeshiva Rebinski in the Holocaust. He was beat by the Nazis and he was put in the hospital. But he begged his tamidim to drag him out and carry him into the ghetto because he knew the Nazis would burn down the hospital. And if he made his way to the ghetto, he may live an extra few moments. And he said taught that Yona said, "Raise me up and throw me into the sea." So from there we see how precious every moment of life is. what we could accomplish in every moment of life. So you say what could we do already in a moment of life? What could we accomplish? You know in a certain sense the modern world has no understanding of this concept the concept of value of time. probably in a certain sense one of the biggest challenges that we have today is the endless amount of time that's wasted on our phones. I know that in March in 2017 they did a study in the UK. What's the average amount of time that people spend on their phones a month? And in 2017, the study showed people were spending 65 and a half hours on the phone a month. That's over 2 hours a day. Obviously, it fluctuated based on age group, but that was two that was 3 years ago. February 2018, Time magazine discovered that the average American checks their phone 47 times a day. My studies show that almost anyone I've asked say says they check their phone more than 47 times an hour. And I think most people would will acknowledge that. So you say, "What else am I supposed to do?" Or how about this? People find themselves in an elevator. Well, great. Why waste the time going up in the elevator when I could just be on the phone? Or I'm waiting for my kids outside of school in Carpull. I could just be on my phone. Or I'm waiting in the store. I could just be on the phone. And the Yateshara has successfully co-opted and stolen from us our most valuable commodity and that is minutes. You know how many minutes the Sahara has stolen from us on a daily basis, on a weekly basis, on an annual basis. You say, "What else am I supposed to be doing?" You know, if you open up the first page of the Mishnaba, the Mishnaba quotes from the safer that there's something called mitzvah to six constant mitzvah that the Mishnab says, "Every moment we think about these six ideas, we fulfill a mitzvah. in the Torah that the reward and the connection to is eternal and immeasurable. And the six constant mitzvah are to believe that there's one God, that there's no other god, that Hashem has no other parts, the mitzvah to love, the mitzvah to fear Hashem, not to stray after one's heart or after one's eyes, not to be led astray of immoral or idolatrous thoughts. The says every moment that a person thinks about these six concepts, one earns eternal reward that one cannot imagine, one cannot measure. And what does the sahara do? Every free moment we have, you know how many mitzvah the sahara steals from us on the hour daily. You're waiting outside a carpel. It's six easy mitzvah you could grab. You're on the line to the store. You're driving, you're walking, you're sitting, you're in an elevator. But no, says the Sahara, check your emails and check your WhatsApps and check check your notifications and check your missed calls. Nobody's nobody's calling you. Don't worry, it's nobody important. They just want your money. Probably nobody's asking for anything important. You know the if you look in the primagim wrote a called there he writes that the six constant mitzvah are analogous to the six ar miklat the six cities of refuge the same way that if somebody needed to run away to a city of refuge if let's say they killed accidentally and they step one foot out of the city of refuge they're endangering their life Because our protection, the safety is in the city of refuge. God also gave the Jew six cities of refuge, six states of mind, states of being that when we're focused on these ideas, we're secure, we're safe, we're connected to Hashem, we're connected to Haba. But the moment we so to speak let the Sahara strip us, take away from us all of these precious moments, these minutes, these opportunities to connect with, we're endangering ourselves. We're endangering the identity of our existence. I want to share with you an amazing teaching that was introduced by the alter of Kelm. It's really a mind-boggling teaching. We don't quite know what the source of this teaching is, but he said as follows. He said, "God created the whole world for one purpose that we bring honor to him. It was worth it for to allow the world to exist for 6,000 years just so that one Jew could respond who shi if a Jew if only one Jew was ever created and he lived for one minute and he responded one time blessed is he blessed is his name the entire creation was worthwhile but says The altar of Kelm. As valuable as Baray is, one Am is a thousand times more valuable. And as valuable as a is, one is even more is a thousand times more valuable than one A. Wow, that's a lot. That means amenish is a thousand times a thousand more valuable than something that could have been the purpose of all of creation. But says the altar of Kelm, as valuable as Rabba is, one word of li is a thousand times more valuable than and you know the made a calculation that in one minute a person could learn 200 words. Do you understand the value of a minute? Do we understand the value of a moment? In one minute you could learn 200 words. Each word is a billion times more valuable than Rabi turns to his dearim and he says to his I know you're tired but life is short but there's a lot to do. You may not value one minute of time, but I tell you now, every moment of Sarah's life was so valuable that merit Esther ruled over an entire neighborhood. Please don't miss out this word of limatra. It's so precious. It's so valuable. Rebaka taught the world the value of time. You know why Rabbi Aaka taught the world the value of time? Let's analyze the word aka. The Rami pano, one of the great Italian mikubam. He reveals that Akiva is rash is an acrostic is an armanic coas. One can acquire the world to come in one moment. That's what the word aka means. And I bet Rabbi Gilbert's going to like that. The word aka the word aka is so the says and even if you spell hey it still stands for the bay says. So, however you spell Aka, the name Aka, we know in Judaism a name captures the essence of that which it it refers to Rabi Aka personified the concept of the value of every moment of life, the value of every minute that blesses us with. And it had to be that way because Rabaka started so late in life. He didn't start learning until 40 years old. And yet in his final years he reached the madrega that in a certain dimension was greater even than moenu. How did he do it? In such a short amount of time was able to raise himself up from who hated and elevate himself to be greater thanu. How did this answer personified? He didn't waste a day. He didn't waste an hour. He didn't waste a minute. And he told his talidim, "Please don't sleep. I don't want you to miss out." And perhaps if it was any other Rebi, they would turn to the Rebi and say, "Rebi, come on. You never you never take it easy." But Rabbi Yaka was the one who if there's anyone who valued and showed the the importance of time was there anyone greater than Rabbi who when he finally understood and recognized his mission in this world did not let one moment fade away represents the value of time. So here it's Yum Kipper and you say, "Come on, I have a whole year's worth of, you know, goodies of bad stuff that I did this year. You expect me to make major changes in one day? You expect you expect in one day of yum kipper to really make it? What could you accomplish in a day already? What could you possibly uh change in one day? Really? Is today is yum kipper going to make such a major impact on my life? And therefore we begin yum kipper. Huh? >> Oh, I want to tell you something. There's a safer from one of the name of the safer is of and he was writing a book of how to spell names in gan in documents of divorce and he had a question how to spell the name until God showed him in a dream the following and he finally understood if you look at the last letters of each word of this puk or be ends in a r. Zaru ends in an ion. Ladic ends in a ends in a yud. Le ends in a bay. Simka ends in a hey. It spells out rebaka. I would suggest that yum kipper begins with a hidden reme to make sure we understand what we could accomplish on this day. how we could take advantage of even one moment of yum kipper. Raisel Salant writes that if we take advantage of even a minute of yum kipper to make the most minor change will bring us eternal salvation. So yum kipper begins with a hidden tribute to the great rabbi. Yes, it's only one day but you know what you could do in a day? You could change your life in one moment. And perhaps that is why Rabaka was the Tana who taught us the importance of Yumiper by teaching. This is the great teaching of Rabaka. But friends, fasten your seat belts because we just got started here. I'm gonna get you out in time, but brace yourself for the following. Rabbi is much more connected to Yum Kipper than you ever thought. When did Rebika pass away? So if we look through Shas, we look in Tammedi the end of one thing we know the last word on his lips were Shama Israel which by the way is how we end. And the Gomorrah tells us Rabika was teaching Torah Barabim. He was teaching Torah publicly. And the the Romans had ruled that anyone who teaches Torah will be murdered. And they took Rabika out to be tortured. And they rad his flesh with combs of steel and at the last moments of his life he died saying Israel and they said even at a moment like this you're still unifying the name of God said I've been waiting my whole life to accomplish this. I think most of us imagine that Rabika died if it was the time of Kesha. It was the morning. >> It was the morning. That's our picture of it. But if you look in the medish in the alkut shimony, Rabi Ka had a student and the name of the student was Rab Yeshua Hagari and he was with Rabi Kev in prison prior to his um his murder and he was with him erum Kipper and the night of Yum Kipper Yeshua Hagari gets a knock on his prison cell. Who's there? It's a coin. Which coini what happened your what happened to him? Yrebi was killed. So in the safer sh I saw in the name of mayor of Israel that putting the bi together with the ifika died at the time of keshma it wasn't kishes shakas it was kishma and when which day of the year raka was murdered the night of yam kipper that being being the case mayor says that we begin yum kipper. We begin yum kipper with a hidden eulogy for the great Tana Rabaka who has murdered the knight of Yamakipur. Okay, that's what he says. It's a rem to the murder of the great Tana Rabaka. But I would humbly add that it's much deeper than that because I want to ask you a question. You ever notice if you look in the gives us a number of dates that are fast days. For example, the first day of Nissan is a fast day for the death of Aron. And the 10th day of Nissan is a fast day for the death of Miriam. And on the 26th day of Nissan is the death of Yahoshua bin. And the shar says on the 28th of ER is the death of Shel. The lists many many fast dates of the death of various um figures of the of the Tory. And yet there is a one particular um yom hap one particular yard site that we celebrate that we rejoice. It's one of the happiest days of the year. Unfortunately this past year it was also a day of mourning. But in general we know um the 33rd day of the omare which is the yard side of the raj the one who initiated kabala that day is a yula is a happy day is a joyous day is a day of sim and it seems quite inongruous asks he just doesn't get why would the the seventh day of the day mo died is a fast day and the day died is a fast day and the day died is the fast day and the day Yeshua Benoon died is fast and the day the Rajbi died is a happy day. I mean make up your mind over here. It seems quite inongruous. It seems quite inconsistent. That's the question and says he doesn't really have an answer to this. He says the time of I have no idea what everyone's dancing about. Theamer writes I would not participate in what's going on over there. But we know for generations the the writes about this. They participated in the festivities of how is that consistent with what that which the says the day of the death of Mosa of Aaron of Yeshua are days of mourning comes and listen carefully and of lublin advances a wondrous teaching he says in the sadik in parikra a wondrous thing he says there's a fundamental difference between the sages of the written law and the sages of the oral law. The medish tells us the words of the sages are like pegs that are firmly implanted. And the medish asks when are the words of implanted in the hearts of the student? The medish says on the day that they die on because says the medish until a Torah sage dies while a Torah sage is still alive his teachings are not firmly implanted in the hearts of the students because the student said okay if I didn't understand this I didn't understand that I could always ask the Rebi but on the day that the Rebi died the student finally says I must integrate and ingrain my Rebi's teachings in my heart because I don't have him anymore says the medish When is the Torah of a Rebi implanted in the hearts of the student? On the day of the Reb's petira says, and therefore there's a major difference between the sages of the written law and the sages of the oral law. The sages of the written law when they die, their teaching is not implanted in the heart of the student because their teachings are written down. So the student at any time could study the the teachings of the Rebi because everything is on black and white. It's written. It's Kasov. It's it's already already it's already written down. And therefore when any of the sages of the written law pass away the only thing that happens on that day is the sage died. And therefore the day of the death of Moshe is a tragic day. It's a fast day. And the day of the death of Aon is a tragic day because nothing happens when these sages die. Their teachings are not ingrained in the hearts of the student because their teachings are written down. But the sages of the oral law, we rely on the oral transmission. And on the day that they die is such a joyous day because that's the day that their teaching is engraved in the hearts of Clal Israel. And that's why the day of the sadic is a festive day is a joyous day. So says really the death of Rabbi Aaka should be such a festive day because Rabbi Aaka the garra says is the backbone of the oral law and as we know the primary Torah toal Israel is the oral law and therefore the death of Rabbi Aaka should be a joyous happy day says but he was murdered and because he was murdered we're not going to celebrate that day instead we'll celebrate the day of the death of his illustrious student and that's why we celebrate I would humbly take one turn from what says says really we should rejoice greatly on the day of the death of Rabbi Aka because think about it if we rejoice on Shivus because that was the day the written law was given then what day of the year should we rejoice like no other day the day the oral law was gi what day was the oral law given the day rabbi aka passed away that's the day the oral law was ingrained on our hearts forever so asks so really we should rejoice on that day and I would humbly suggest we do when was the day of the death of a yam kipper friends what's the happiest day of the year the garra tells us is the happiest day of the year. The garra says why we know the second tablets were given on yum kipper. But now we're learning not only was the written law given on yum kipper the oral law the was forever seared onto the hearts of Israel on yum kipper. You know how you know when when Rabbi Yaka was murdered. When Rabbi Aka was killed, that is when the oral law was seared onto the hearts of the Jewish people. I believe that Yom Kipper and Rebaka are inextricably bound. They are tied together. Rabbi Yaka is the soul of Yom Kipper. Rabbi Aaka is Yum Kipper. With the murder of Rabbi Yaka, the oral law, the Torah was seared onto the hearts of the Jewish people forever. You think it's a coincidence that you know how we start? You think it's a coincidence that the first thing we mention as Yum Kipper begins is a hespit for Rebaka. It's not incidental or coincidental. It's fundamental. It's definitional. You know what yum kipper is? Yum kipper is reba with the pet of rebaka. You know what was seared onto the hearts of klra? The teaching of rabbi the value of every moment of life. You know what was seared onto the hearts of Jewish people with the pet rabbi? the entire Tyra. I want to tell you an amazing of the Sanskar says about this that even though this kosh does not seem to be consistent with shas but because the said it and he pas in this way down here in this world that's how they pin upstairs in the says that even though if you look in the gar the garra says chuva does not work for every kind of sin Chuva works. If someone violated mitz, someone violated a lav, they need chuva and yum kipper. Someone violated a cardinal sin a lavish byes then the garra says a person needs chuva yum kipper and travails and difficulties in life and then there's sins that like desecrating god's name that even more severe penalty the garra says is needed says the this is for someone who is not involved in learning Torah learning Torah for its own sake but somebody who is immersed and connected to Torah study that itself erases all the says. Now that's a high level. It's not easy to learn Torah purely for the sake of learning Torah purely to bring. But the says the highest form of chuva is a connection to lira. And now we understand what's fueling yakipurim. Yakipurim is the day that god gave us the second tablets. Yakipurum is a day that the oral law was seared onto the hearts of the Jewish people with the passing of Rabaka who now we see from behind the scenes is playing such a pivotal role in the very definition and the fabric of Yakipur. We allude to him in the beginning of the day. He's the Tana of Yumiper says the great Tana Rabaka is how fortunate you are Jewish people. Before whom do you purify? And who purifies you? Represents personifies the value of Yakipurim and the value of every moment of life. If Rabi was around, he would say, "My dear children, look at the life of Sarah Eeno. Look how every moment of her life spelled eternal repercussion to her descendants." My dear children, God is giving you 24 hours with which you could change your eternity. You change your reality. And it doesn't matter what was ever done before in sha in one moment of time you too could elevate yourself propel yourself to come to do a cha give us the heavenly assistance to take advantage of these precious moments and the this precious day and help us in our journey of chuva if we could make even in one small adjustment in our life that has eternal value. I wish all of you I'm so honored to be able to participate in this uh Torah Tuesdays. Thank you for thinking of me. Thank you for the wish everybody and hope to see everybody in good health. Amen. >> Thank you very much Rabbi Gladstein for sharing your words of Torah with us. This is the time for especially for you know the person who's named Akiva and feels this uh this energy and this is really the culmination of 120 days now that we've experienced 40 days 40 days and the last 40 days which is the concept of and hilar and zaka were the only four people that lived 120 years and they lived there last 40 years doing this, 40 years and then finally 40 years leading to Israel. So this is the time where we are all have the ability to be there. So thank you for giving us the word of and bringing this terror to Israel and to us down deep dark in Africa over here. Thank you very much for enlightening us and to thank you very much to the rabbis, Rabbi Saxine, Rabbi Land, Rabbi Saxine, to my wife for facilitating. Wishing you all a wonderful, wonderful year ahead to a call. >> Okay, call everyone >> record. 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