S.S.S.S. Shiur Parshas Shoftim

all right uh first I want to welcome everybody back we're back uh better than ever ready to uh ready to hit the new man and the truth of the matter is as much as many times as much as we we say around here that we think as the year goes on the time flies uh as far as I'm concerned I'm hardly able to believe that the that it's and it's just a couple of weeks in a couple of weeks uh from tonight'll already be rash that's uh it's unbelievable right we ask where did all the where did the time go where did this entire year go it seems like just yesterday we here sh we're making our Cabas for this year how much we're going to change how much we're going to do and before you turn around it's it's it's almost again the truth of the matter is though that ell inaugurates a very very special special time of the year a time with is a unique closeness to there a unique a very unique relationship that we're able to have with during this month of and we know everybody's familiar with the I am to my beloved and my beloved is to me and we know that rash spells out but there's uh it's interesting around Tish time I saw there's a med the medic says that there's always there's this ongoing dialogue between and and uh the first the first part of dialogue goes like this says right he tells you come back to me the get closer to me come back to me then and I will then I will return to you saying and is the other half of the dialog says you come back to us and then after after you get close to us we're going to come we're going to come back and we're going to come close to you so I was just thinking that if we look at this I to my beloved and my beloved is to me if that represents ell I think what we're really saying about ell is okay I know that we know that we had this ongoing dialogue of who should make the first move us or what we're saying whichever way whatever way you want to do it it's okay as long as we get that closeness and as long as we get that relationship that was saying if we have to make the first move we're going to make the first move of course we'd like also to do it but I am to my beloved my beloved is to me whichever way it works as long as an as long as we're close with there's actually a very famous question that everybody asks about El we know that El isman for a person to start taking stock of what he did over the past year it's asman of chva so the question that everybody asks about El is if we change something in ell we're now at the end of the year what are we showing at are we actually uh we actually fooling at doesn't the whole thing look like a bluff it's ell all of a sudden we're changing a br knows exactly what we did the entire year he knows how we behaved he knows what we did he knows what we did in private he knows what we did in public so what what exactly ell how by doing things differently in ell are we showing a that that that were different how is it the whole thing seems to be a bit of a for lack of a better word it seems to be a bit of a game so I heard something very beautiful last week that I want to uh repeat over here there was uh let's let's say a little bit of a story there was a king who let who sent out letters that he wanted to go out to his kingdom and he wanted to come see how the people of the Kingdom were living he wanted to come see their homes come see how they live and he'd be taking a tour and he'd be visiting different parts of his kingdom so the there's a couple in their house they they they a husband comes home from the market and he picks up the pasillas he brings it home and he says they start reading the reading this and then the wife reads the letter and she says what's going to be what if the king comes into our house we we got to we have to renovate the house let's let's renovate the the whole thing so you know so the husband it goes back and forth should we renovate the house don't should we not renovate the house and finally the husband says you know what I think we should fix up the house so the wife says one second I've been asking you for years to buy me new furniture to buy me to fix up the house and you always said listen we don't have the money this is what we are and uh this is the way we have to live so I'm telling you the same thing right now that what's the difference the king's going to come here just tell him we don't have the money and this is the way we live let the king see how we really live said the husband says no he says I want to tell you something if we buy new furniture for the house it's going to be very appropriate now even though that's not really the way we live he says cuz you're making a big mistake he says you think he tells the wife you think that the king is coming to see how everybody lives he just wants to take a survey and see how everybody lives he say it's not what the king wants he says what the king is looking to to see now is the king wants to see how we live when we know that the king is coming so it's not a blow it's not something it's not anything he said the king just wants to see how we react when we know that the king is coming and we know that he's here yeah the king knows that we live in a poor Province and we generally usually we don't have money but that's not what the king wants to see he wants to see how we live when we know that the king is coming and that is El that is El Hashem knows how we live the whole year he knows that we try and sometimes we may not try and hard enough but knows he knows everything that goes on in our lives but still when it comes to El we're supposed to make changes and we have to make changes because Hashem wants to see how we live when we know that now when we're in this close when we're close to and the king is coming hasem wants to see how we live when the king is coming and we're not fooling anybody and it's not love it's a real thing and that's exactly what wants to say that's now is close to us and it would be it's it's the right thing to do to try to change a little bit it happens to be that this week's para gives us a couple of different lessons and gives us a couple of things that we could use to try to to enter I want to say over just this beginning of this week was the yard site of ran says a beautiful beautiful thing from the beginning of this week's para beginning of the par talks about talks about Judges so say is a very interesting thing it always comes out this week I mean basically almost all the time is the first week of comes out the first week of and of course we know by nothing is is a coincidence and the beginning of para talks about the judges says that many of us who grow up in Yesa or in a of Yesa and uh we're going to hear the entire menu behind the on on the share now but it's okay it's also a plug for uh for a Southside sandwich shop we know we got half the menu now though at least we got the other half but uh R says that when we talk about Judges at beginning beginning of this week's para it's also a lesson for us he says b that grow in Yesa or people that go around the yes said we're trained to do a very interesting thing we are trained when we learn not to do anything or take anything at face value right sometimes we learn in gamor we says the gamor says this and how could it be that Rashi says this we can work an hour to work out to reconcile Rashi and we're trained to to justify take a look at and the we could work hours to to work out nothing is taken at face value know we're taught not to take any matter on the surface value says an interesting thing and he says that this is an unbelievable for at the start for he says we should take this lesson of the way our minds are trained to work we should take this lesson and bring it over to many times we'll see something we'll see something that on the surface looks like something that somebody's doing and somebody did and and we right away we want to judge somebody use all your training that you got in all your training of learning of not taking things at face value of always going further in maybe we could find the terrets for this maybe we could find use that all also be a judge be a judge that always tries to judge someone favorably use that in our lives use that for things that says and that is is one of the lessons we can learn from this week's para is a way to come to because that's what we want from we want to see he sees what we do and he sees what we've done we want to try to judge us favorably that is what in when we seek to be close to and we want Hashem to judge us in that way and we should take the lesson of this week's paraa of judging and we should understand that if we judge others favorably and if we don't take everything at Fai value not everything that you think you see you think you see everything you read the news paper you hear all crazy story not everything be down so on the look let's go a little deeper let's use all the lessons that were taught in let's use it to use the out right and go through the and we should all have we could already say only a few weeks left and the will continue next week with more