The Power & Structure of Selichos to Boost Your Prayers in Elul & Yomim Noraim

of Abimai. I want to again thank everyone that worked hard to make this trip from Rabbi Gladston possible. Um, especially I want to acknowledge Vakov Tubi and his family putting lots of time and effort in making this possible. uh Welder. Um thank you so much for taking the trip and helping out and everyone else that has been involved. I see um Mik Novak is here with us. Ai is here with us. It's great to see all of you and um this has been really a pleasure to have Rabbi Gladston with us and um you know a real kickoff of um of so we hope him all the and without further ado um Thank you very much for the kind intro. It's been a great pleasure to be here again in this kahila kadosha. This is already my third or fourth time. So and each time I come I see the growth and the elevation of the kilah under the direction of the you should just continue in happiness and good health. Welcome everyone to Sunday morning live. I would like to speak a little bit about what what is what are we trying to accomplish? What is its objective in aic sense in a lumpha sense there's very interesting haka brought in the rama who quotes the kal that there's a minhag that the the who he should d all the of the day he's almost like a he's a no not he's almost he is even says he takes precedence over a yard site or an the has over anybody else to for the why what's the logic every brings if you start a mitzvah we tell you to finish so the began the mitzvah for the so we say you started the you should for the you should be the for all the it's very unusual ual it's not widely practiced actually in my yeshiva yes they they do follow this where the all for the based on the what's the logic of it let's think about that for a moment do you ever hear that you tell oh I'm talking about as no each is independent each stands by itself so why by Do we say you started the mitzvah we tell you to complete it? We don't find that by other furthermore usually the shy of asks usually when it comes to the mikt or the we split it up. We say okay you brought the amim to the top of the you bring it down. We like to divide it up. Why? Because the more people who are invol involved in a mitzvah, the greater the kdoshm, the greater the honor to God. The more people who are involved, the more rash, the more commotion, the more honor it brings to God. So usually we like to divvy up different responsibilities. Why when it comes to the do we say? This is a very interesting question. And because of this the Schlommo develops an idea that not quite like what the Rama is saying that the reason why the Bal is because was not really valued. It was considered a secondass citizen. It was considered like mafier. So therefore as a compensation prize we say you don't worry we still like you you know but those are not the words brought by the and so we have to try to uncover the of the what do they mean he who started the mitzvah we tell you to complete the mitzvah I made sure to look before I spoke whether the is similar to Ashkanazi. It's basically the same structure. Even the main pim, you have the same basic ideas. And let's just review the basic structure of ashray. Do you say right? That's aes. So the asks a very important question. Do you know what we say in we say or you say or something like that, right? You say hashem accept my request and my intreaty. You know we only say after because it's saying accept my accept my petition. We don't say that after other why do we say after asks the lavush answers is patterned after a then you haveim of praise is like an actual in other words is patterned after an actual you have you have which is you have you have there's a very interesting question that was uh very fascinating to all the years I saw mahar that what if somebody comes late to toot and you're running late and they're ready up to you know in middle should you say ashray or should you say not say ash or should you skip ashray so mahar says you can't skip ash because since says that the pattern the model of is like a just like if you come late to dabing and you want to catch up You have to say a barebones minimum of which includes ashray. Likewise, if you come late to you have to say a bare bones minimum des which is ash but kamki disagrees fundamentally. He says that's not a correct reading of the lavush. If you look carefully, the lavush says the of are theimas. I'm not sure if you say the exact same. You do say the same. That's the ash is more like the kadesh. Let's say by the ash by somebody comes late to min you go straight to you skip the ash. So there seems to be a little bit of what is the model of is it like or is it like if it's like ash is not fundamental if it's like shakar ashray is fundamental. So you could study that with the rv and what your practice is. I'm just trying to bring out an idea that was patterned after the of the day. That's an important understanding of what are you know sometimes just I feel that in in our times there's a lot of talk about inspiration. Everybody wants to be inspired but I'm not into just inspiration by itself. You need education. Inspiration from education is valuable. Inspiration from just like a nice story or a good v is fleeting. It's it's here today, it's gone tomorrow, you know. So it's nice you you say that and it's heartfelt but it's important that it should be based on a fundamental understanding of what you're doing. It is a enacted prayer whether it's like shakar whether it's like that's the basic understanding of the but let's delve a little bit further because what is the meaning of this custom that the one who d for the he of the day this will give us a real understanding of what are let's say you're short on time or you're short on energy and you're not going to be able to pull of and for whatever reason which one is more important what's more important the or the is much more important in the safer and he mocks those who are careful to d the whole and then they cut out early for the shakar no the first thing is you have to make sure you're at shakar from beginning to end then to add the but the chumas adds a very important line. This is found in the yosh are the minim of the he says what are it's aim it's a supplication that hashem should accept theos of the day that's what it is you see as rashashan is coming we want to make sure that our are are energized they're given a boost so we give the of the day a boost with the in other words the are really a beginning of of the so as a way of having our accepted and listened to and cherished we say this we're really praying God accept my that really highlights the the folly of dvening the and not saying the shakar you know you're missing the boat how could you say and not say And this also gives us a deep understanding of the of why the dins all the day. You see the guy who davis has nothing to do with the guy who da the guy who dins ma has nothing to do with the guy who ded they're each independent. But is connected to all the of the day. It's a supplication that the that Hashem should accept all the of the day. Therefore, we have this rule. I want to share with you just a very simple idea about this. I I once saw it in the of the Meri wrote an important work on tou. called he says that the purpose of the is to purify you when you come early to or you stay up late and you exert yourself in it's a purification process and therefore it prepares you for the raship and this brings us to an important idea I heard a few years ago a medish I heard raia say over this medish. The medish is found in the shim on it's also found in the medish tom on the pil. God turns to the lone prayer. You ever hear the lone soldier? God turns to the lone prayer. What is the lone prayer? Listen to these words. It's talking about the future generations. We don't have a prophetic. We don't have a we don't have a temple. Right? We're basically here we are when the United States of America, we've got nothing. What do we have? All we have is Reb is today. That's all we have. Right? We have no Cohenal. We have no beta mikdash. We have no prophet. We have nothing. We're left. What do we have? We have none of the great gifts of antiquity. We don't have we don't have we don't have all we have a we have one prayer what a what a medish what a powerful medish that we have nothing left today we don't have a basika We don't have an aro. We don't have but we have one great gift left from like thousands of years ago. We have one great gift from antiquity. That is the prayer of rashy yam kipper. What is so significant about the prayer of rashan kipper? Just share with you very briefly and then we'll part from each other until next time. I'll miss you but you know where I live you know we'll be in touch yeah what is so significant what is this great gift of antiquity of the I share with you just a few a few brief ideas number one you know there there is an opinion in that if you forget you have to repeat the why because the rabbi said to say it and if you deviate you got to repeat the you got to repeat the we don't ask in that way. We say it's an addition and it's not critical. So we say you don't have to repeat the comes says there is an opinion that typically if you forget you don't repeat the but on rasher you do repeat the answer okay we don't pass in that way but there is such a shim what's the explanation and this is amazing I'm not aware of any other lumbus from the altar of slabka the altar of sabatka is one of the bal muser but we have tradition that the altar of explained as follows. We know there's a fundamental difference between regular and regularly Ramban says is the however is the it's biblical Mosha has a chuva that even gentiles are obligated to pray. It's part of amuna. It's he asked but it's not one of the seventh noai laws. It is if you're in a bind, if you're in a jam, you got to pray. Says your life is on the line. It's so therefore whatever you need to do is on the regular doesn't have the same status. That was the lus of the but it just highlights the idea of the urgency the urgency of the ofash and the writes usually usually we don't make you're not supposed to make so why in people come to the and they say $10 million for to build a new you could give more it doesn't have to be only 10 million Why do people make onashipper? Because you're allowed to make an says has a den of a s. So therefore this again highlights the urgency of rashipper. Here's another idea. The nephim has a very powerful idea. Try to try to say it in a nutshell. You know I'll give you the executive summary. Shay basically asks how could you pray to God? Imagine like this. Let's say you need $100,000 a year and God is giving you $90,000 a year. Now, we believe that if this is what Hashem decided, he did it because this is what's best for us. So, how do you have the audacity to go to him and say, "God, you know that decision you made that I should only make $90,000? I humbly disagree. I I disagree. I know you think 90 is good for me. I just want to point out you're making a big mistake. What's good for me is $100,000. How do you have the audacity to pray? Whatever you have is what's good for you. God knows what's good for you better than you do. So what you're telling Hashem, no, I know what's good for me better than you do. So says actually there's only one way for to work says look at the of do you notice we don't ask for one any of our needs. We don't ask for any of our needs on according to the way we pass is only a later addition that's not part of but the actual we're just asking God make your name recognized and appreciated in the world and then the rest of the year we say give me money give me health give me what I need but it's all about God says like this there's only one way to pray we say to God, I know that you think $90,000 a year is what's good for me, but you know I'm in pain. I need another $10,000. And I know that when I'm in pain, you're in pain. So I know that even though what's good for me is 90, but I know what's good for you is 100. So God, even though I know I know what's better for me is 90,000, but I'm such a sport. I don't want what's good for me. I want what's good for you. That's how til works. That's the only way you're allowed to dab in. You can't dab in. God, give me a zug. God knows right now. It's not the time. But he knows you're in pain. And as much as it hurts you, it hurts him more. So you say, God, I know what's good for me is maybe this should take longer, but what's good for you is that it should happen now. So I want now what's good for you, now what's good for me. The says that's the only mechanism of so therefore we only what's good for God. We establish the engine of the and then the rest of the year when we say we say see the it's not for us. We're not asking for us. We're asking for you. That's how we started off the year. That's the in a nutshell. That's the importance of the of because they establish the foundation of the the whole operational principle of for the entire year. Here's another amazing idea found in the Moy of Faji and actually Ravid Cronass who was the Mashk and yes where your eminent Rav learned he was also the father-in-law of the RV of the show that I grew up in chron glass of David Kronglass was a father of Rabitzk is I I grew up in flatbush When I was a kid, Rabbi is my and David Cronass quotes this idea from the show. So the I've never been able to find it in the but writes this explicitly and says it about prayer in general. First let me tell you what I says. He says, "You ever pray for something and it wasn't answered?" It happens sometimes. Why doesn't the get answered? Because of the atmospheric pollution. Yeah, there's a lot of pollution in Los Angeles. Because, you know, people have uh they need to go green. You know, all the problems of society are because people don't recycle their plastic things around soda cans. That's all the problems of societ. No, I'm joking. That has nothing to do with the problems of society. The only recycling I believe in is using a shear a second time. Okay? Butish says the atmospheric pollution is created from har from improper words and especially idle conversation in the bases certainly talking by it creates a cloud theos can't get through however says if afterwards you pray with tears and with weeping it could cause thousands of that are stuck in the atmosphere to penetrate. You hear the concept? The concept is sometimes don't work. And a later could cause those to get through. In other words, nothing is ever lost. It just sometimes takes time for a trapped to get through the heavens. Doesn't say which has the power to get through. He just says if you pray and you cry the the prayer with tears could bring up all the other that are stuck in the atmosphere. But writes in gimmel says the first thing I want to tell you is that people come to shower and they get very in the into the of I don't know what your pim are. I don't know if we have the same pim. Now I'm sure you have beautiful pim and beautiful tunes, but the ikar is not the pim the and see he says you know people come late and they skip our and ashray and the halalucas and they get straight into the high holiday prayers. Thear are the regular tilot that we say the whole year. The main tilot and kipur are the regular filot you say the whole year. All the are additions. But then he says something amazing. He says especially you need to put your soul in your hands. Meaning you need to give it all you got when you pray. vote to have when you say the words and letters that with the you have the ability to bring up all the prayers throughout the year that maybe they got through they didn't get through they were said with kabana maybe you mumbled them you were half asleep you were there you weren't there you were present you weren't present sometimes we run in By the way, sometimes brother says, you know, why should I go to min I'm so scattered. I'm so, you know, I can't I won't be able to focus. Maybe it doesn't have value. It has value when it's going to get through. It will get through at the right time. Maybe later on when you dive in with all your heart, you'll get all those mas through, all those mars through. You know, sometimes sometimes in life, a person, I'm only going to do the mitzvah if it's perfect. No, you do the mitzvah, you're having a good day. you're having a bad day with a little kavana, a lot of kavana, just do it. Just do it. Nike says you do the mitzvah. You do it as best as you can. And if it's not with full kavana, maybe it will make a difference today, maybe it will make a difference tomorrow. Faji says this principle that of rasher have the ability to bring up all the of the whole year. Actually in the writings of the of the student of the of the many of his farm he brings this idea that the rasher have the capacity to bring up all the of the whole year. So we have this special gift from antiquity. We don't have an we don't have a we don't have a ni. We have these powerful rasher and theos purify us to be able to offer those properly. So hashem may all of our beel all of our all of our throughout especially and hashem hashem should give us all a year of happiness and good health and success and continued aliyah innas under your esteemed rv. Thank you raakov tubi for making arrangements for bringing me over. Thank you Rabbi Natan for uh coming along and helping out.