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Rosh Hashanah in a New Light - Rabbi Yaakov Hillel
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Follow us: https://www.hidabroot.com https://www.youtube.com/@Hidabrootcom https://www.instagram.com/hidabroot_global https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbCYZjl1CYoa4ulQIK2q What is the significance of the fact that man was created on the first Rosh Hashanah? How can we ensure ourselves a happy sweet New Year? Rabbi Hillel focuses on the impact and influence of our actions on the entire universe. For more inspiring content: @Hidabrootcom
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Auto-generated transcript. Not time-synced to the video.
we're
more or less on the doorstep of of uh
very very special time of the year
probably the most special time of the
year the head of the year
rosh hashanah we know that
everything depends on beginnings
if the if the initial steps are good
and the beginnings are powerful
everything will follow in step
and be successful and good depends where
the first step
is headed the direction
so obviously everyone who came here
tonight is making a very
correct and proper step forward in the
right direction and this means a lot it
means we hope that that hashem
the whole year will be a year of
of moving forward in the right direction
and with continuity and with strength
and conviction
and to grow that's what it's all about
there's a lot to be said about rosh
hashanah and i'm sure everyone is aware
of a lot of that
the point i would like to be
to bear upon and discuss is the fact
that on the first roger shana
adama rishon was created adam was
created on the first rosh hashanah
and that has great significance
because man is the
sen is the most important and central
point of creation the ultimate purpose
of creation was the creation of man
everything else is there for scenery
scenery
to make it a nice attractive world we
have you know
beautiful many countries and seas and
rivers and valleys
and mountains and trees and forests and
animals millions of species
birds fish hashem made it a very
beautiful world
for man to live in but as it says in the
torah everything was created
for man not only man was the peak of
creation
but really and this is a very deep
concept
which would make us feel a lot of
responsibility
man was given control of of the whole of
creation
we can develop and build
the world and the physical world and the
highest spiritual worlds
or we can destroy them our actions are
so powerful
it's like we have what we call
how you say in english remote control
we have the buttons to press
and to what extent do we press these
buttons that we can cause
anything that happens in the world for
good or for bad which puts a very heavy
responsibility on us
to do the right things
we all wish well to every jew but we
know they're jews suffering
and many of the jews who are suffering
we don't even know them they could be
living
at the far corners of the world but
we're connected
as the rabbi say is
israel are responsible for one another
the biggest mistake of
uh of uh
of kind in heaven kane's mistake when he
killed his brother
and hashem asked them where's your
brother he said
i'm responsible for him so that's the
biggest mistake when a person doesn't
realize
yes we are responsible what happens to
any jew in the four corners of the world
it could be that we could have been
uh the cause of his suffering or the
cause of his success
just to make it a little more
practically understood
says one should always regard
the world in the in the scales balance
scales
and the scales are equal to the right
which is good and to the left which is
not good
they're balanced if a person there's one
good deed
he tilts the right side of the scales
and he brings blessing and success and
happiness to all the jewish people
some people need to find their spouses
others need to be successful in like
earning a living
others need have health issues they need
to have cures and and all sorts of
things
everyone has needs if we tilt the scales
in the right way
it'll be a very successful year for all
of our israel
but if god forbid a one person one jew
doing one sin when the scales are
balanced
he tits them the other way and then
what's going to happen it'll be
very negative for every jewish person so
we have to realize this responsibility
man has freedom of choice he is the only
created being who is given freedom of
choice
even angels don't have freedom of choice
that's why the pasuk says the verse says
concerning man.
i've given you ways to ascend or to go
down
among these static beings angels are
static beings
they can't go up on their own they can't
go down on their own
their functioning their functioning
depends on us
we give them the power to ascend or come
down
as it's as it says concerning yakuba
vino
akova vino had a dream he fell asleep
on the temple mount on the place which
eventually would be the holy of holies
upon the rock of uh
which was the the starting point of the
of creation he fell asleep
and hashem showed him a dream a vision
he saw
a ladder going up the ladder his feet
were on the ground but the head of the
ladder went up and up and up
and he saw angels ascending on the
ladder and coming down on the
ladder so what is this ladder
the answer the the answer is this ladder
is the jewish soul
true physically
man was created from the dust of the
earth hashem
collected earth mixed some water with it
and made like a clay and made it into a
form of a human being
and it was a chunk of mud
with with the form human form
but then it says
hashem blew into his nostrils the spirit
of life
and this spirit of life is in essence
what we call the jewish soul
so through hashems blowing into this
chunk of mud with the human form the
spirit of life
man was given it's almost forbidden to
say
excuse me that i'm saying it a divine
soul
as a rabbi say manden
says it man when you blow
you blow from within yourself so
if hashem blew where did he blow from
from within himself
and his essence is divinity
his ultimate spiritual being being with
no limitations
of power space or time
and he blew in from his spirit the
spirit of life
into man and
man came alive so now man
has literally two extremes
on one hand he's physical from the dust
of the earth
on the other hand he's spiritual his his
soul is
a spark of divinity obviously
his spiritual side wants to soar upwards
and cleave to hashem
and the physical side comes from the
dust of the earth wants to
enjoy life physically there's a lot to
do
we have beautiful beaches and sun
you can you know swim in the sea
and and lie on the bui the beach and get
suntan and
enjoy all the comforts of life have uh
all sorts of pleasant relationships
and enjoy the physical life but when
that happens really
you're giving vent to all your physical
necessity
necessities more or less like
hippopotamus or an alligator
they also love the water they jump in
they plunge into the water they
wag their tails then they come onto the
dry land and they
lay over backwards or frontwards and
enjoy the sand eh you know
you pat a horse is is an ecstasy
wow a dog same thing
so people enjoy what's physical
physically we enjoy what's physical but
then
there's nothing to differentiate between
a human being
and any other created animal
and of course man was created with two
very very very highly developed
entities number one a human brain
all the animals cannot communicate yeah
if there's a fire and uh so if they
probably have some sort of a
shout a bark which warns and they run
they can that type of thing or if
they're hungry they can
make sounds which people know oh he's
hungry things like that
okay but to communicate
you're never going to see a dog giving a
shiur
you know a lecture in university and
telling all the other dogs
about some very highly developed
scientific
equations maybe einstein's theory of
relativity or some great mathematical or
physical or
in physics or in scientific theory no
they have no way of communicating
ideas man has a brain
and the power of speech and communicate
ideas can communicate
ideas that's why
our rabbis tell us that there are four
levels of creation
domain domain
ah rocks earth anything which has
which doesn't even move it's static
completely static it's like a rock
the rock on its own can't jump can't run
can't do anything
it doesn't even grow but it is it is
okay that's domain it's like
a dead chunk of of stone or
whatever somehow plants can grow
they have a high level where they can
grow
you plant the seeds and slowly it
sprouts
it'll become you know a bush then it'll
go into a tree then it'll yield fruit
it can grow so that's called some
it grows then you have animals which are
called high domains they are living
entities
and plants are not living in essence
they grow but they don't live whereas
any animal
in birds
okay i mean maybe you know how to can
you talk to
can you discuss with a dog sign a sign
excuse me then you're also you're
talking like a 2k
i don't insult him let me explain why
i'll explain why
because the tuki yeah he doesn't know
what you're saying when you tell him boo
and he'll say boom
he doesn't know what boo means he
doesn't know anything what it means
he has the power to repeat what you say
and you're right
there people in this world who go around
like two keys boo
whatever you know they hear someone say
this they say that
that's not called conversation where
speaking mida bear
means the power i said it from the
beginning the power to discuss
to develop an idea and to
say it over that's only man has
so many is called a mida bear it's not
just like any other animal which lives
he has the power of speech and this puts
him on the highest plane
that he has intellect
and speech communication that means he
can understand things
and he can communicate them and say them
over
so that so obviously man even if we're
not going to speak now
anything deeper kabbalistic or anything
like that
just on a very physical plane simple
domains
we understand that man is on a much
higher level than anything else created
so it certainly is not appropriate
that a human being who has this this
power of understanding and
communication will then will live the
life of an animal
true the physical side he's equal to an
animal but already
mentally and with the power of speech
is on a different plane now all this
is even if we didn't have the spiritual
soul which hashem blew into us
the moment hashem gave us spirituality
and and gave us the opportunity to link
ourselves
to spirituality and unto god
so again we're on a much much much much
higher level
now we're not just you know
uh someone who has a brain and can
invent things and create cures or
scientific
inventions high tech and also
communicate them and teach them
now it's something on a different level
you can
you can you can be spiritual you can
make spiritual connections you can use
spirituality to come closer to hashem
but spirituality has to be
developed like anything else if you want
to be a scientist
or a doctor or whatever you want to be
it's not that you're just going to sit
back and lie on the beach and you're
going to be a great professor of course
not you have to work and study
if you want to have a connection to
spirituality
you have to work on spirituality
but there's a problem half of us is
physical
and we are our first tendency
is towards physicality
the biggest professor and the biggest
rabbi
if he's hungry it's over
his mind is on he's hungry he wants
something to eat
so he doesn't function so he has the
potential
but he has to be physically comfortable
if he's sick forget about it
he can't function because physically
he's not well
so we have to have our physical side in
tune
healthy strong and then
to know that the spiritual side
of us is the real important side that's
the highest that's that's our highest
level
it's like someone who has you know he
owns many things
he's got properties he's got businesses
lots of money in the bank okay but he
has
a crown jewel
which was in the crown of some of the
great
monarchs of the world and he bought it
and this
jewel is priceless you can't buy it with
money
and no one in the world has such a crown
jewel so that's our soul
that's above and beyond anything else we
have we have many
assets but our soul is the main asset
but if we unfortunately many people live
only the physical life they go through
life just thinking
you know they want to dress nicely
because that
clothes are physical because it covers
their body they want to
they want to look good they want to eat
good
and enjoy eating a there's an art of
eating also
they want to eat well in the nice places
with beautiful surroundings
everything go for holidays to the
riviera
to wherever nice beautiful places in the
world
but what about denisham what about the
soul
which is the our main essence is our
soul what are we doing for the soul
i mean could we imagine someone taking
care
of you know let's say like today we're
in a situation where they have all these
refugees leaving the arab countries and
going to europe and all over the world
so let's say someone
decides he wants to help the refugees
but his own children and his wife are
neglected they're living like they're
starving to death
he doesn't take care of them that's
wrong
i mean everyone agrees charity begins at
home
first be charitable in your home be kind
to your wife and
and children then take it further of
course you have to take it further
but you don't start internationally and
your home is neglected the same thing
here
if people are taking care of their
physical side
and not thinking of their spiritual side
which is their main
essence really what life is about is our
spirituality
also growing the physical life even if
you go to
a shape or to a is it to a motorcycle
you can get the the life of the creator
in the in the motorcycle you get the
light of the
okay i agree with you i agree with you
but you have to be
i agree with you hashem is everywhere
you're right
but you have to train yourself to get to
that level when you think of
spirituality
if you live a physical life and a life
of sin and indulgement
and say oh everything is spiritual you
know
i have a muslim girlfriend unbelievable
when i'm with her i feel i'm with
with hashem i'm with god you know your
imagination can let you astray to think
wow
you know i'm so spiritual the truth is
our friend who's asking this question is
an israeli
and with no offense meant there's
uh a big problem for for our
for israelis i have this big question to
ask
so many young israelis after the army
go to the far east trekking the far east
there are places in tibet in china
where they have say it says
grocery it says this in tamil
and it says it in hebrew it doesn't say
it in english
it doesn't say it in french it doesn't
say it in latin it doesn't say it in any
language
hebrew why because the the quantity
of israelis trekking the far east is
unbelievable
when the tsunami happened 10 years ago
the there was a lot of talk
about the numbers they were worrying we
don't know the first day the second day
we don't know
how many people maybe people lost their
lives
so they they said very clearly there's
between
very vague but between 300 000 to 400
israelis roaming the far east and all
the different countries
i ask a question why don't you find
you know if we have 300 000 israelis
continuously roaming the far east
why don't we find a thousand englishmen
or 500 frenchmen
no who would roam the far east there
isn't
there isn't what happened
the soul of a jew is spiritual
when jews like what happened here they
were uprooted from spirituality
and they were taught a very very secular
way of life
they were cut off from their jewish
roots
now inside they're suffering they're
thirsty
they're lacking so
so someone's going to tell them yeah but
judaism is all about spirituality
okay let me see it so they go to uh say
yeshiva what
is what's happening here there's a
question and answer
discussion and argument and it's all
very dry
no we want the real thing we want
spirituality
so they go to the far east and you have
pop spirituality
like today in hollywood you have pop
kabala so also you can have
gurus i know some people have been there
and been through the whole system and
got all the way to the top
and believed in it but then found out
it's all fake
it's all fake or
it's as the zoa says if you want to
connect to the to the occult
to the forces of impurity the forces of
magic black magic
it's very easy with the clip of the
finger you're there
so people go to the far east they meet
the guru they're zooming yeah they see
they see the spirits they see everything
you know
okay then sometimes they come back to
israel and they okay i want to see
yeshiva they get very uh very uh
they lose all the inspiration they're
not inspired what's their question
answer
argument what's going on here they don't
see the spirituality
but the zora says true spirituality you
have to work for
pop spirituality is therefore the taking
just the opposite
if it comes easy you know it's faith if
you have to work for it
then you know it's the real thing
you know you can have today uh custom
jewelry
you buy your wife a diamond necklace
diamond like an inverted commerce
uh unbelievable the queen of england
doesn't have such but it's custom juliet
bits of glass nothing but together the
real thing a real diamond jewelry even
one diamond
which is worth a lot it's different
level altogether
so we have to know there's a lot of the
fake and little of the true
we have to look for the truth and
looking for the truth is not easy
so let's come to the you know to the
point
we have freedom of choice every
every step in life is a decision
which is really a crossroads to the
right or to the left
you know to the keeper or to the bare
head to the
good on the back so people don't realize
it that it's a
it's a crossroads sometimes you think oh
it's a very small decision
you know but they don't realize they're
the repercussions and
and what's going what could happen from
such a decision
anyone who wants to be connected and
they come to this
you know this community and are
connected to the rabbis
so that is a positive statement you're
connected to good
and this will bring lots of good and
even if you have other connections
slowly
the trend will be towards goodness and
spirituality
and if you get to a very high spiritual
level after maybe
maybe 30 years of learning kabbalah and
and serving hashem with all the
mid-sport
and working on your character traits
which is the most important thing
the torah makes demands of us to have
good character traits to be
accommodating to be
kind to be charitable to
feel for others to take others into
consideration that's all what the torah
is about the vilna gowan once said
if not to perfect my personality and my
character trace why am i in the world
it's not here we're not here to put on
the best the most expensive pair of
trillian oh
wonderful shining succeed that's not
that's what it's about
after all of that did you change the
human being did you become
correct in your behavior traits so here
we are on the doorstep of rosh hashanah
the significance of rosh hashanah is the
shofar
everyone knows what's rosh hashanah we
blow the shofar
what does this signify it's a loud
wailing voice but it's a voice of crying
their soul is awakened and they start
thinking
rosh hashanah i have to improve i have
to do something
in the right direction so that's
the simple meaning of what the shofar is
about
but if we try to look into it a little
more
we'll see that the shofar
is a is a hollow horn
of uh let's say cow
it's hollow a ram
it's something you know a hell it's a
shell it's a shell
hollow shell that's what's left of it
when you take out the inside
what you left you have a shell which is
the sofa
and how do you make the shofar cry you
blew into it
what significance is there in our
blowing into the shofar
the significance is on this day hashem
created man and he blew into him the
spirit of life
man is like the shell he's hollow he's
nothing
on his own you put the shofar on the
table it doesn't
it doesn't make any noise and it won't
wake anybody up
you can carry on sleeping it doesn't
change anything in anyone blew into it
from within yourself from your
jewish soul which is within you which is
divine
and it will start crying and this is the
whole idea of rosh hashanah
to become aware of what we are hashem
created us
and blew into us the spirit of life and
made us a living
a spiritual being who can do great
things who has control over the world
you know what i see there miku bulimia
we have control over hashem as well
hashem created the world in such a way
that he put us in the driving seat he
gave us the steering wheel the brakes
the
clutch and the accelerator and hashem is
there with us
we're taking them along for a drive god
forbid we have an accident it's not so
nice
we have hashem with us we're in control
hashem will relate to us how we relate
to him we are the ones who open up
the divine channels hashem wants to give
us unendingly
with no limitations but to be able to
receive unendingly
so we have to do the right things which
which cause this divine bounty to come
down
in gigantic quantities of spirituality
so we run the world
hashem is created in that way for good
for bad if we sin
we literally it says
someone who sins pushes the way divine
the divine presence
because hashem says a proud person i
can't live in the same world as him
i move away he needs all the room
he needs everything and even fco he
fills up the world
no room for hashem we have to live
humble lives
know our limitations and use our
spirituality
to connect to hashem and that's the
message of rosh hashanah
when you hear the shofar remember
from where is this wailing sound coming
from your soul which is going into it
with your breath
just like when hashem brew into adam
rishon the jewish soul
has many levels the zohar says
five levels and they resp they
correspond
to how we do a mitzvah among them
we have the actual physical
doing of the mitzvah which is nephesh we
learned the halakhord
and we say the pasuk when we blow the
shofar we read
that's already the boo that's the we
connect the speech
and the torah to our mitzvah then
kavanagh
you have to have intention when you do a
mitzvah that you're fulfilling the
mitzvah
to fulfill your obligation that's
kavanagh then makshava
you have to think about the mizvah while
you're doing it if you know
the reasons behind the mitzvah think
about them think about what the mitzvah
is achieving mitzvahs are not just
dry actions they achieve something they
do great things in the world
that's makshava and finally the highest
level is
the highest level of the jewish soul
which is happiness
we're meant to do we're meant to serve
hashem with happiness
and all this is going into the when we
when the tokya blows the shofar and you
hear this crying sound we have to
remember
hashem is reminding us today i created
man i made him
a being who has freedom of choice he can
go after spirituality
and be connected to god and
achieve wonderful things in the world or
you can go after physicality and
and live a life like you know like we
said like a hippopotamus or an alligator
and enjoy life so we have that option
but as human beings and as jews who have
this
nishmati israel which is
divine we have to make the right
decision
and follow in the ways of spirituality
that's the message of rosh hashanah
how do we improve we start living more
spiritual lives
we we neglect a little bit
physical comforts and you know all sorts
of uh
tendencies that human beings have to be
very very very very physical
and we live lives of spirituality
but i must say and this is very
important
our religion is different from all other
religions
many other religions there is no way
to to combine the physical with the
spiritual
so let's say priests they have to be
selling what's it called
sellable they can't marry nuns sellable
can't marry forget about the fahees the
sadhus the gurus
they they don't they don't eat they
don't you know
they don't get married they all why
because
their way of thinking is you can't be at
once physical and spiritual you want to
be spiritual cut
out physicality from your life but the
jewish religion is just the opposite
the torah teaches us to sanctify
the physical to make your body holy
by putting anti-feline unset seed and
having a keeper on your head
you make your when you do mitzvoth with
your body
you're making you're sanctifying your
body we have 248 positive commandments
corresponding to 248 limbs in the jew in
the body
we have 365 negative commandments
corresponding to 365 sinews of the body
every mitzvah that we do positive or
negative brings perfection to one of our
limbs
and that's why when we say abraham
before
who has sanctified us and made us holy
through the mitzvot
every mitzvah we do brings holiness into
one of our limbs one of our sinews as we
do it
so this is what it means our our lives
are
spiritual but everything is connected to
physicality
jews must get married there are many
singles here we're going to give you
alabraka this year
eating on shabbat is a mitzvah even on a
weekday whatever you need you should eat
but on shabbat it's
even to the extent that the rabbis say
you should eat more than you need
enjoy it because
functioning as a husband as a wife a
couple are meant to be happy together
make each other happy fulfill the wishes
and desires of one another
we encourage that that's how it's meant
to be but the ultimate purpose
is not just to take
for my fulfillment and my enjoyment the
ultimate purpose is giving
and beyond that to realize that we're
creating the image of god and everything
we do
is holy and it's holy spiritually and
physically
so our work and in life is to
connect the spirituality and then and
then
to sanctify the physical world
that's why we know eric israel you're
here
you met living here it's a holy land
because it has spirituality
a relationship of a husband and wife
marriage is spiritual
more than it's physical people have to
know that they're not marrying a
chunk of flesh they're marrying a
spiritual being with a soul
which which wants to attain perfection
through marriage
marriage puts teams together
a soul which was once together in the
higher worlds
the zwar says when they come down they
split and they come down when they meet
their soul mates
they're uniting a soul and they're
achieving perfection
so of course we are
we are spiritual we are physical and
we have to serve hashem with our bodies
as well doing the right thing
but always giving preference to our
spiritual side
and not neglecting it as most people do
unfortunately
we have to make put their accent on the
right thing to know yes we're physical
we're here to have a lovely time in this
world and we should
be happy in every way but the main thing
is our connection with god and this is
the concept of rosh hashanah
when we hear the wales of the shofar to
do
we should feel that these that with the
voice
with the air the breath of the one
blowing the sofa
hashem's breath is coming into the whole
of creation and filling up the whole
world with spirituality for the new year
we're getting a rejuvenation we're
getting our batteries
retoned and regenerated with
spirituality which hashem is bringing
into the world especially
on rosh hashanah for us to enjoy and to
link up to and live our lives as jews
and i want to give you all a blessing
everybody
and without hashem if you all want to be
in touch in the future
we have here our very special rabbis you
can tell them and if they
if they want from time to time we'll
find the opportunities and come and
maybe
speak more specifically maybe we can
answer questions and
whatever we'll try our best to to be
part of the community here and to
help people get closer to
good wishes and tidings are understood
in all languages