The Real Depth of Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Sukkos - Rabbi Mendel Kessin

This year should be a blessing and a merit for the health and success of the families of Regina Bas Yosef Ruben and Yishaya Ben Yisrael Benjamin Wolf uh Ben Zvi Hersh Baruch Ben Benjamin Wolf they should have tremendous mazel and brocha and also wanted to dedicate the sheer to a refuah shleimah for Esther Liba Bas Chaya Yaffa Chaya Yaffa right Okay, we are um I hope everybody has at least four hours. Now I'm joking. But the truth is all at once right all you won't have problems. Um Look, we are in obviously a very important tekufa. Obviously if you think about it um in the entire year uh this is one of the most important times of the Jewish calendar. It's obvious you know. Um now I'm only giving one sheer so I I thought it would be very interesting which I really haven't done. I usually I usually piecemeal them which means I separate them cuz each one really needs you know really a lengthy explanation and many chazals and but I thought I would do something very unique I think anyway. And what that is is to explain the theme of five times in one shot. So you really see what's called the unity and you really grab uh the essence of what is happening in Tishrei in this month. What is it really all about? And I'm thinking that oh I I'm hoping and I also think that you're going to hear ideas that I I don't really know if you've ever heard before. Uh my approach is different. It's very uh I don't know if there's such a word, but it's called Ramchal-ian. Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto. Uh I've been learning him for 65 years, whatever. Anyway, and of course his approach is very unique. Uh so the ideas that I will introduce in many ways uh probably will surprise you, especially when you see the commonality in the theme of what what's going on. So if you'll bear with me, I'm sure you'll find it very interesting cuz it's really in many ways new ideas. And uh in many ways it's fascinating uh because it will allow you to perceive what's going on today, you know, in a much greater uh I sense of uh comprehension, much greater. Anyway, so what I want to start off uh which there's a lot of people that have called me or whatever. Uh I'm I'm One of the things that I do which it's probably unique is I interpret current events based on the divine agenda. Um I don't know how many people do that, but that's one of the things that I do. And there is something that's happening today which is extraordinary, and I just wanted to mention that because it's very much tied to Rosh Hashanah. And so on. So I just wanted to start with that. What is that? We all know cuz we are all believing Jews, um my meaning and so on, that everything that occurs is based on a divine plan. There is nothing outside of the divine plan that occurs that isn't orchestrated by God, everything. Now we don't understand really what that means, the the whole concept of who the Russian really is and why he does what he does, which is always fascinating, obviously. Uh is very important concept. So, that's something we clearly believe in. That everything is from the Ribono shel Olam. But what's more important than I I don't know if it's more important, but what's more uh essential is that whatever the Ribono shel Olam does, there's only one motive. That's how simple everything boils down to. Although it's infinitely complex because of the parts and all the components of that plan. And that is to promote the ultimate Geulah. But the truth is that's not even what the Ribono shel Olam wants. Very simply cuz you have to understand this concept, the fundamental operation of the Briah is called Tikkun. To rectify creation. Which is a very important idea. In other words, without getting into a lot because each idea is really a whole shiur in itself. But what the Ribono shel Olam did is he uh in a certain sense, he was Machsir. He created a deficiency in the Briah, in creation. And what he wants is man, or specifically today's Jews, uh is to rectify, which means to repair, to restore the original condition of the Briah. In the first day of creation, the Ribono shel Olam was completely pervasive throughout creation. That was the deal, so to speak. Uh and the second day, the Ribono shel Olam created what's called a Hester, a concealment of himself. And ultimately what he wants is somebody to bring him back. And therefore that's called Tikkun. Rectification. Correction. Repair. Restoration. They all mean the same thing. But the Ribono shel Olam will not do it. He needs mankind, specifically the Jews, to do it. And that's called Tikkun. Rectification. Very important concept. And that's really all the Bashem wants. Not interested in anything else. He wants to come back. And he created a deficiency in creation in order to give mankind or the Jewish people specifically a zchus, a merit, that if they do bring him back with specific actions, they will merit an eternal life. That's really what it's all about. So, we understand what the concept of tikkun is, which is a very important idea. And we'll see why it's so important. You know, so we have that idea. And now, like I say, you can go on and on. How does the Bashem do that? What does it mean that he comes back? Cuz I'm not talking here about Olam Haba. Olam Haba is much later. I'm talking about Yemot Hamashiach, which is a tekufa, a period of time that precedes Olam Haba by at least 3,000 years, which is surprising to most people. And there's an entire history. So, the Bashem wants to I wouldn't use the word desperately, but it's an interesting word, to come back. He really wants to come back. Cuz the There is a Yalkut Shimoni that says that the Bashem is metzapeh for the Geula. He looks forward. You know, it's not like he doesn't want it. No, he looks forward with tremendous anticipation when he comes back and reunites with Klal Yisrael. That's really his ardent desire. And it's not only that, but really he wants to come back to mankind. Cuz he wants to appear the real truth of creation, who he really is, and that the world is a physical world, but it's only to prevent us from seeing the Bashem unless we remove the physicality. And that's really what we have to do. We have to remove the physicality of the world from a physical world and transform it into a spiritual world. Right? As we automatically see, we know that we believe in his amazing resurrection of the dead. What's fascinating about that is that this occurs in the Messianic era. Right? And the Messianic era is a the last the Kufa of Adam Haza. It's really what it is. It is not Adam Haba. It's really not even Gan Eden. What it is is a physical world that is sort of like it's got everything. But one of the things is his amazing. Now, resurrection of the dead is not normal. It's not physical. How does a dead man walk around? Right? Think about that. So obviously the world is no longer running in its natural course. But ultimately that tells us that the world will be very different than than it is now. Okay? The And the essential difference is there's no barrier for us to experience the Rebono shel Olam. Very important concept and that is the beginning of the Geula or the Tikun uh finality. It's really what it is. Yemos ha Mashiach is the end. And the world changes and then after the year 6,000, which is the English year 2240, the entire Briah changes into a spiritual universe. Right? But anyway, that's a different discussion and so on. Uh anyway, by the way, if anybody wants, uh I am on Torah anytime. I have over 500 Shiurim on Torah anytime. I'm on YouTube for those who have the internet. I have a my own website. And I like I say, I have over 500 Shiurim on a tremendous amount of topics. So if you want to uh curious to see uh to listen to any other topics, you know, be my guest. There's a lot of fascinating material there. Yes. There's a podcast. There's what? Podcast. There is? What What's a podcast? You can download the audio. Oh, you can download the audio. Right. Okay. And by the way, somebody is typing up all my Shiur. And I think over 100 have been typed up. So, you can read it. It's interesting. If you don't want to listen, you can read it on Shabbos. It's a lot of people do that. Okay. Now, why am I talking about Tikkun, right? Uh because of this. Rosh Hashanah, what is Rosh Hashanah really all about? Now, there's obviously something very strange about Rosh Hashanah for many reasons. First of all, it's a Yom Hadin. I mean, we know that, right? Day of Judgment. What's the problem with that? Who ever heard of a one-day a judge Day of Judgment for one day? Imagine if New York had the courts to open only one day. Can you imagine what would happen the other 364 days? Right? I mean, probably is already happening. Right? In New York and all over the United States. But how could you have a Day of Judgment for one day? That doesn't even make sense. And one of the things that we know is that everything everything is judged. Malachim, animals, you name it. Every living being Kol Bo'ei Olam is judged. The question that doesn't make any sense. Why? Because you can only be judged if you have free will. Then you are held accountable. But how can an animal be judged or a Malach? They don't have any bechira. It's a Why Why would they be judged? Clearly, there's something going on on Rosh Hashanah which is much more than the Day of Judgment. So, I wanted to give you that perspective. What is that? And really, you really know the answer. But you got to put them together. Let me ask something. If you open a business, let's say on January 2nd, right? Whatever you want to sell, right? It would make sense that you want to evaluate or assess the business, right? You want to see you're making any money. Maybe you have too much inventory. Maybe you don't have enough advertising, right? You got to check it out. So, when do you do it? You don't do it the next day. There's no time, right? To actualize the business. So, what you do is you wait a year, right? And you have an assessment there, evaluation, right? And you check out the business to see if you made any money. Correct? Okay. Don't you think the Ribasham does that to the Briah? What does that mean? What does that really mean that he checks this out? That means the following. The Ribasham has to, which is what he does, he needs to evaluate where is the Tikun process? Where is it? How much mitzvahs did the Jews do the that year? Because remember, if they do mitzvahs, they bring God closer. If they do averas, then they move God further away. So, you always need an evaluation. Where are they holding of Tikun? Uh so, you know, it's like a boss has a company, right? And after a year, he evaluates the company. It's not that he evaluates each person, cuz each person contributes to that company. What he really wants to do is check out the money situation. Is he making any money? Right? Therefore, he evaluates everybody, because they're all contributors, right? To the success of the business. Very rather very obvious. That's really what Rosh Hashanah is about. Rosh Hashanah is not so much about you as an individual, although obviously that's part of it. Why? Because you contribute to the success. Right? Are you doing your work? Right? Are the Jews doing all the mitzvahs to bring God closer? Or no? They're doing averas. Are the Jews assimilated? Intermarried? Or are the Jews learning Torah? Right? This is the business which I will get to. Okay? To understand the tikkun process, you see. And the Reshon has to evaluate this situation. Therefore, he selected one day out of the year. That's why there's only one day needed. One day out of the year to decide where we're holding. That's the fascinating idea. You see, where is the tikkun process or the status of tikkun holding? Why? Because if it's not holding very far, or if the Jews have in certain ways destroyed creation by wholesale averas sinning, right? Then he has to readjust the briah. Right. He has to change. He has to readjust the entire situation. For instance, if the Jews are in galus in Spain, right? And they're assimilating, which is what they were doing in Spain, the Reshon has to readjust. What is the readjustment? Spain has to throw them out. It's an oinesh. That's why they were able to do it. Why? Because the Jews were assimilating in Spain, so the Reshon had to readjust the entire situation. So, he allowed, well, he allowed, he caused, whatever, uh Spain to eject the Jews by the ridiculous nonsense of forcing the Jews to convert. Okay? Why? Because they were not doing the tikkun in Spain. They were committing too many averas. Now, we don't perceive anything, but the Bashem knows everything. And therefore, he decided that in 1492, I'm just giving you one example out of thousands of years of history, right? He decided that Spain is not the place that they can rectify creation. Not working. I got to throw them out, put them into another land that has a different character structure. And that's the secret of the different 70 nations, so that they can continue doing the tikkun. You see? And the Bashem makes his unbelievable cheshbon accounting instantly where they're standing. That's what Rosh Hashanah really is. It is the day of the assessment Hayom Harat Olam, right? This is the day of the entire Briah. So, it makes sense. Many questions are answered. So, then I have to answer all of them. But, for instance, why is an evaluation only made in one day? Cuz you don't need more than one day to figure out where the Briah is. It's what you all you need. Uh but, the Gemara says that every Jew is judged every day. Right. When they judge personally, not the Briah, so then you need to take a look at what they're doing every day to readjust it if they need a kaparah or whatever, so they can go on with their mission of tikkun. But, if it's the Briah, all you need is one day. And what day is that? Rosh Hashanah. Aleph Tishrei. What's the significance of Aleph Tishrei? Adam Harishon was created. When did the tikkun start? By Adam Harishon's birth. Or I should say his creation, right? Cuz before Adam Harishon, there's no tikkun possible. There's no man. Uh when did the tikkun process start? Right? On Aleph Tishrei. So, one year, remember I said the anniversary date, the Basher now will evaluate on that day when the business started. You see? Why is everything judged? Everything. Not because they're necessarily guilty. You see? Because many things don't contribute to the briah. You see? For instance, there's 300,000 species of beetles. None of them contribute to the briah, right? Why there's 300,000 species of beetles? Species, not beetles. There are quadrillions beetles and they're all crawling in your backyard, right? That's what we we know, right? Why? Because we don't realize that each species, each beetle is needed to proceed with the tikkun. This is infinite and the hochma behind it is beyond comprehension. Why are there so many organisms living organism? Scientists estimate that over 100 million organisms living. Why? Because each one has its place in the mission. But most of them don't have bechirah, they don't have free will. You see? So, what the Basher does is he has to also readjust them cuz it may mean for instance, you know, all of a sudden you know, a country is not doing what it has to do in general. So, Basher has to judge the a swarm of locust in Africa. And he says, "Well, I got to send this swarm to let's say Spain, cross the Mediterranean, and wreak havoc with the produce." Right? That's part of the tikkun. But the locust didn't do anything wrong, but they are now used as part of the assessment that Spain needs or whatever country in the Middle East needs a oinesh. So, I'm going to take them. So, therefore, the locust grasshoppers have to be reevaluated where they will be in order to provide either punishment or whatever to another country. Therefore, everything has to be readjusted. You see? That's why it has nothing to do if you be here. We are judged because we have free will. Everything is judged because they now may have which may now have to change their situation in order that they can do the tikkun fit in a different situation. You see? So, therefore, everything has to be readjusted. Even if they're not guilty. And that's what it means kol bo oilam. Everything is readjusted. It's a very important idea. You see this concept when you begin to realize that it's not a Yom Hadin, it's really a day of assessment of the entire tikkun process. And that answers many, many questions uh and so on which which begin to see uh and and so on. Great. Okay. But there's an interesting concept here. What is the concept? A boss comes into his factory. He sits down at his desk, right? He's got a office in his business, right? He sits down and he says, "Now I got to take an inventory. I got to find out, am I making any money, you know, what's wrong, who's not working, etc." You know, it's a whole evaluation. Does he have to tell anybody? Of course not. He's the boss. He sits down, gets all whatever documents he needs, and he takes a look who's doing what, where am I holding, the accounting, the inventory, the stock, you know, everything. You know, the market, is there enough advertising? He does it himself. Or he has one or two people providing with the information. Or whatever, right? He doesn't have tell the workers what's happening. All he has to do is give them a pink slip if they're not doing the job. That's all he does, right? The Ba'al Shem does not do that. Why? And this is a very important idea. The Ba'al Shem is not a boss. He's a father. Big difference. He wants his son to succeed. So, therefore, he wants to tell his son, "By the way, I'm evaluating you. You should know." He tells that to his son. He warns them of the impending evaluation of the entire briah. And guess what? You are included in that evaluation to see where do you stand in your contribution to the tikkun. Remember, every Jew has his part in the creation to further the creation. Everybody. We don't necessarily know what it is, but we are all directed in that uh, direction. We have to be, or else we would have been created for nothing. But the amazing thing is not only we, every living creature is is has a mission in the tikkun process. How do you know? Cuz God does not create anything umzist, which means for nothing. He doesn't do that. Every single thing created must have a purpose. And the purpose is the mission. And what is the mission? To further the tikkun process, to bring God back. The problem is that 99% of it we have no idea. We don't even know why we're created, or why what our mission is, let alone, you know, why that bug crawling on your floor, what is its mission. But it has, or it wouldn't exist. I know it's rather remarkable to hear that cuz it's astounding because the hashem is almost infinite. But that's what justifies the existence of everything. It must be part of the mission. The question is does it have free will or not? That's the question. You see, but everything does. Uh so therefore the loves the Jewish people. That is his greatest love. Where does it say this? In Torah, he I have hashem okay. The hashem never lies. He is hashem okay ms. And he says an incredible thing. He says three things which when you read, you need to think about this. What it means for weeks. What is it? He I have hashem okay. God your God loves you. Now, it's not love that we have, you know. Do we even love ourselves? Maybe not. A lot of people hate themselves. How much do you love your spouse? Well, at times you do and at times you don't. Listen, that's what life is all about and so on, you know. That and not only even when you do love somebody, how intense is that love? Come on, let's be honest, right? You know, you may love one child more than another child. So clearly there's a variation of love, isn't there? But when the hashem says I love you, that is the nth degree. That is infinite ahava. You can't love somebody more than the hashem loves you cuz he creates the whole concept of love and he loves us. He says that. He never lies and it's total. Could you imagine what that means? I know it's hard to believe, you know. How can somebody love me? Sometimes we think. How does somebody love me with such a devotion? Far more infinitely more than even my own mother or father. Yet, he does. So, if he loves us, he only wants the best, cuz anybody who loves anybody only wishes the best. Second thing it says, ki you ovi cho, he's your father. Right? Well, if the bonsham said that, he's not lying. He is our father. But, wait a minute. That means he must act like a father. What is a father? I'm not talking about today's fathers. You know, but what is a an ideal real father, right? He loves his kid. He'll do anything for his kid. And I do not exclude mothers. I just the bonsham calls himself a father, not a mother. Uh, you know, but even says talks about mothers. Enough. He says, more than your mother could ever love you, I love you. So, we can't even begin to understand, but he says that. So, that's the second thing. And then he says an astounding thing, ki bonam atem la sham la kechem, you are my children. They're What a threesome, right? He loves us. Right? He's our father, and we are his kids, bonam. Therefore, the bonsham says, I don't want to judge the brea, because all of a sudden, something's going to happen to you and you're going to say to yourself, what happened? Why did I get demoted? Or why did I go bankrupt? Or whatever and so on, you know? Bonsham says, no. I love them. I want them to be with me in oilam habo. Therefore, I'm going to warn them. They were. I'm going to warn them what I'm going to do. He didn't have to. Right? And not only doesn't he have to, guess what? The bonsham, how quick is the judgment of God? It is far less than a nanosecond. It's instant. Instantly, he sees the entire brea in one look. Can you imagine that? To see everything that exists at one time instantly. It's astounding, but he does that cuz he's the Ribono shel Olam, right? Uh but he doesn't do that. He says, "You know, I'm going to take my time." Right? I'm not going to do it in one shot, you know? So, maybe I know instantly what's going on, of course, and you know even in advance and so on, right? But I have to warn them. Where's the warning? Elul. He had to tell us. The only reason why we know is that there's an Elul is because he wants to warn us. Why? Because he wants us to influence the verdict. That's the only reason why we have Elul. There is no other. He wants us as much as possible to do teshuvah to influence the verdict itself. A very important idea. The concept, okay? So, Elul is the first way that he warns us. Okay? So, we got a month. You know, hopefully we get the message. Right? Hopefully, right? But at least we now know 30 days in advance what's about to happen. The tikkun of the entire creation, malachim, spheres, you name it, without getting going all today, is all evaluated, right? That's the first thing. Then the second thing he tells us is Rosh Hashanah is the day itself. And by the way, this is the day it's going to happen. You have 1 month, and you now have Aleph Tishrei, and it'll be the entire day. And guess what? If it's the entire day, then you could be mispallel. You do teshuvah cuz you had a whole day, you know? And Chazal even made a second day, which is even better, that we can do teshuvah. You have to begin to realize the chesed of the Ribono shel Olam. He does not have to do this. And his decree, right, is absolute. There's no bribery here, right? And it's true life and death, you know? It's not a make-believe thing, you know, it's not a game. It's true, right? And it determines the fate of you, the family, all kinds of world, and also the entire briar world, right? America, you name it, right? And so on, right? Instantly. But the Jews determine the fate of the briar. That's their power. That is the power of tikum. Only we can determine the fate of the creation, the world itself. Nobody else can. And there are many khazals that talk about that. So, the second major idea is Rosh Hashanah. It's a whole day we are alerted to fact that it's a court day, right? So, get your act together. But wait a minute. What happens if we don't get our act together? You know, or we do a skimpy job, you know, we pray, but do we really mean it? How much do we mean it? I'm going to do chuvah, right? Boy, am I looking forward to the vacation in sukkas, when I'm going to be able to go to the Bahamas. Oh, who knows what we're thinking on Rosh Hashanah, right? And so on, you know? So, Hashem says, "Look, I'm going to give you an appellate division." You know, there's a court of appeals, right? What is that? You don't like what the court said, so you can actually appeal the verdict. Well, what's the appeal? Aseres Yemei Teshuvah. Isn't that interesting? That's what it is. What happens if we didn't do the job on Rosh Hashanah? We have a third chance, and that is the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, which is astounding. It's incredible. We got 10 days, whatever, to rethink our position. And that's really what Aseres Yemei Teshuvah is. So, that's the third act of unbelievable chesed that the Hashem does that. He's trying to get us to do chuva, desperately. Why? Because he loves us. That's the only reason why. There is no other reason why. And so on. But what happens if we don't do chuva on Asseres Mesirah Chuva? Goes by. Okay, it's nice. But he doesn't really we don't really wake up at that time. So what's next? We would think, well, I could do chuva on Asseres Mesirah Chuva. What's left? So then the Ribbonisham comes up with a astounding solution. What's our problem, really? I mean, it's a great deal to talk about. But the basic You ever wonder, I don't understand, why is there chuva on Yom Kippur? You do chuva every day. There's a mitzvah to do chuva every day. So why is Yom Kippur special? I'll tell you why. Because there's a big problem. Cuz the chuva that you do itself has judgement. Well, the Satan gets up there and say, "You call this a chuva? You know, this person doesn't mean it. Or they're thinking about it, you know? Or they want to do chuva on one idea and everything else forget about. This is not chuva. In other words, every chuva you you do has the opportunity to be prosecuted in heaven. How legitimate is it? This is the problem. It is subject to dinim. Think about that. Which makes sense. Everything is subject to dinim. Even your chuva. How real is it? How sincere is it? This is a big problem. And this is really the problem It looks like the problem of Rosh Hashanah and so on. Right? So we have three acts of chassadim. But wait a minute. If the problem with chuva is it's subject to dinim, it's called kitrugim, prosecutions by the Satan. So, the Boshan says, "You know what I'm going to do? Something I've never done before in this sense, right?" And not only that, it's against my character. Why? Because I created the world employing the concept called din or judgment. Everything basically has to be deserved at some level. "You know what I'm going to do? Your problem is the prosecutor, the prosecuting attorney. Who is what? The Satan. Guess what? I'm dismissing the Satan. He doesn't work on Yom Kippur. Could you imagine you go to court, you're being tried, and there's no prosecutor? Do you ever hear anything like that? Uh so, I mean, if there's no prosecutor, right? Guess what? Of course you're going to be released, freed. There's no prosecutor. There's nobody presenting an argument why you don't deserve to be forgiven. But, wait a minute. How does that work? Cuz that's unheard of. The Boshan who created the the creation the entire aveda, the entire work of a person is to earn through justice what he did. Without getting into why and so on, okay? Uh so, wait a minute. The prosecutor, which is the Satan, right? He has three jobs. His first job is to prosecute. Or I should say his first job is to tempt. He tempts you. He's he called the yetz hara. He tries to get you to sin. That's his job. Cuz you need to be tempted, or else you'll never do anything. God's wants you to be tempted, and are you going to withstand the temptation or not? And that is your merit. Uh The second job, if you fail, you sin, then the prosecuting attorney becomes what? He becomes the prosecutor, where he will stand in front of heaven, in front of a besdin, a heavenly tribunal, and prosecute you. That's his job. Right? And the third job is if you find you're found guilty, then the Satan becomes a Malach Hamoves, the angel of death. That doesn't mean he kills you, but he's also responsible to execute the judgment of that court. Three jobs for the Malach Hamoves. And that's the problem with our chuvah every day. So what the Bashem does something which is contrary to the fundamental principle of creation, justice. You have to earn through justice what you did. And what he does is he dismisses the Satan first the job of prosecutor. So the HR is still around, right? And the Malach Hamoves is still around, but the prosecutor is not. And that is why the gematria of our Satan is 364. Not 365 cuz he doesn't work on that day. The Bashem sends him on a vacation. He cannot prosecute the Jewish people. So what does that mean for us? Think about what it means. It's incredible. We come to court in heaven, right? All our nishamas are up there trying to defend ourselves, right? We start talking. So in a normal situation, what would happen? The Satan in his prosecuting prosecutorial bench is laughing his head off. Says, "You call that a You call that a chuvah? Give me a break." All right? And you know, think about that. How sincere is the chuvah? Let's be honest and so on, you know? We'd never make it. We'd never make it. I I don't care if you do chuvah cuz he's got everybody's number. He's got your number more than you do, believe me. He knows every fault you do, and he knows every sin you've done. Why? Cuz that's his job. He's got to or else he can't be a prosecutor. So imagine what he feels when he cannot prosecute. And that's what happens on Yom Kippur. It is the greatest act of hesed that the Bashem could do for us to judge us without a prosecution. And it is what saves us. And when you think about it, since prosecution or dinim is fundamental to the briah, it's completely against the character in that sense or the plan of the Bashem to have a day without a prosecution. You have to realize what that means. It's like the Supreme Court was called off one day and they can't do anything. Meanwhile, everybody can do whatever they want. So, any chuvah you do, imagine that. Any chuvah you do, I don't care if the Satan would be laughing it off. It's accepted. Why? Cuz there's no prosecution. How's that for a deal? Right. It's accepted. Any hero chuvah you have, even if it would never pass muster, as they say, during the year, it passes on Yom Kippur. So, the question then for us is that's incredible. How can we let this opportunity fly by? If any chuvah you do, even if you say, "You know, today's Yom Kippur, maybe I should think about what I'm doing. Maybe it's not so good and so on, you know." And maybe I should I should think about it at least, you know. Huh? Think about it? What's that supposed to mean? You know? So, but the Satan is not there to say, "Excuse me, what? You want to think about it? Are you kidding?" You see, but he's not there. So, all of a sudden Bashem says, "Hey, thinking about it is also chuvah. We accept it. Whatever the weight is, it doesn't mean the Bashem is not full, you know. Whatever the weight is of that chuvah, whatever the sincerity is, they will accept it. Right." You can't beat that hesed. You see, you can't. go probably people do not realize how far the love of the version goes for the class Israel. And the truth is that the version like he says a Russia and such as Jews it's even going. The version does not want to destroy going. You see that by by Korea Shams of we said to them a look at him. You're singing she you know they by Korea Shams of the when he was the killing the Egyptians and believe me they deserved it, right? The the started singing Shira. They started singing Shira, right? So version said, "What are you doing? My say you die to be young. My hand at work is drowning in the sea and you're singing Shira. Can't do that. Meanwhile the Jews did sing Shira cuz they're entitled cuz they're the ones that were afflicted by the Egyptians. So they are singing Shira that they were redeemed. But the never suffer of the Egyptians. So you have no right to sing Shira cuz in the end God is destroying his hand at work which he doesn't want to do. So you know the version really is as I say international. It's everybody. But how much more is it for the Jews cuz they're the ones who do the Tikun. You don't realize something. Without the Jews there's no real because there's no Tikun. And therefore the version doesn't come back. You don't realize how central that is. Essential for the why do you think the Jews have existed for thousands of years? Why? Luck? Do you realize that the Jews can never be exterminated? Nobody did it. Hitler they all tried. They all failed and so Iran which is a whole discussion in itself and so will uh you know, and so will Russia and the all these with Sodom and Gomorrah and so on. Why? Because you cannot destroy the only factor in creation that will bring the tikkun. God will not allow it. So, what are they going to do? Fight God? Of course not. Why do you think that's why That's why the Jews are indestructible? Because they're the only ones who can do tikkun. A can also do tikkun. Only if he becomes Jewish. If he remains a and becomes a Noachide, which means he observes the laws, he can get Olam Haba, but he can never get the Olam Haba of a Jew. Never. Because he did not do the tikkun. He could do the tikkun if he becomes Jewish. That's up to him. But without becoming Jewish, you cannot get the reward that is destined for those people that did the tikkun. Even though they'll get Olam Haba, which they will, cuz God is just. The righteous, they will get it and so on. You see? So, we now begin to realize the incredible opportunity of Yom Kippur, which is here in a couple of days. Do anything, you see? Think about it. And that will be accepted. Unbelievable opportunity. You see? So, we realize something incredible. What are you looking at, right? Which is what? Which is the uh elo, the warning, Rosh Hashanah, the tikkun adjustment, right? The assessment and the adjustments, right? And then you're looking at the serissima teshuvah, the appeals process. All right? And then you're looking at Yom Kippur without a prosecutor. I mean, what more can the Hashem do? Anything else? Yes. There is something he does. Right. It's even the greatest Hesed of all. What is that? And that's Sukkot. And that is the reason for the Simcha. We don't realize what Sukkot is. I mean, you know, we we we know what we do. We have the Lulav and Etrog. Right? We have that. We have the Sukkah. Right? We have the Simcha. Right? That's true. But why? What is it all about? Sukkot. Cuz Sukkot is the greatest Hesed the version ever did for us. What is that Hesed? I will tell you. Uh and you will understand why there's a Sukkah and why there's the Dalet Minim. You see? And that will complete the scenario, the symphony of Tishrei. What is that? There was a big problem by Matan Torah. The Jews left Egypt and they accomplished incredible or remarkable Ruchniyus digger, spiritual task. What was that? Now, I can say it in words, but we really don't we don't understand what it really means. What they did is after Egypt, 210 years, whatever, of slavery, they were able to eject evil from their body. We don't realize it, but we're walking around with a different type of creation that Adam had. When Adam was created, he was created without Satan. The Satan was in the form of a snake. Well, that was the manifestation of the Satan. Right? The Nachash Hakadmoni. Right? And he tried to tempt Chava and Adam to sin. Uh but he had no influence over their body. He could talk to them as a logical argument, but he couldn't he he had no power over them. You see, he was external to man, to the body of man. Once Adam sinned, cuz he believed the sudden what his argument was and so on, right? He believed the sudden. So, the inish was is that the sudden or the evil of the sudden now is able to latch on to the physical universe. You see? So, the sudden now enters the mind of man and he becomes the eight Sahara. No longer is the eight Sahara snake outside of you. He's inside of you. Right? And he gets up in the morning with you. And he's already busy trying to get you to sin all day long. But, that's different. That means the relationship between Adam man and evil changed. Until then it was external. And now it became internal. You see? So, Adam now had the eight Sahara. Uh this was the problem. But, how does the sudden do it? Because he now has the ability to pervade your body literally with some type of a force. That force is called Zoyamo. Pollution. Contamination. It's called the Zoyamo. Right? And it's in us. What is the idea of Zoyamo? Zoyamo is the destructive force energy of the sudden. We don't know how it works cuz we don't even know what Tuma is or Zoyamo or whatever. But, uh he's able to control your body. The entire physical universe is controlled by the satanic entry into the human body. So, therefore Adam had a uh he had a uh he had a Torah. Incredible. What's the manifestation of this eight Sahara? Cuz not only does it tempt us to do evil, but it tempts us to sin. You see? And not only that, the sudden is what's called a demolition expert. He destroys. That's what he's great at. So, once he entered your body, he now can kill you ultimately. So, death now comes, and that's what the blessing said. On the day that you eat it, you will die. Why? Cuz the Satan will enter, and he's the all his whole objective is to get you to sin and destroy you. But now he's inside of you. So, the human body changed. It now became subject to death. And there's actually molecular changes that that happened as a result. There's a whole molecular biology that's part of that, and that's why people die. Cuz the theoretically, the cell can reproduce forever, but it stops reproducing after 50 times. What stops it? Telomeres. I don't want to get into the whole biological structure. But before Adam sinned, there was no telomeres. So, you lived forever. You see? But now, with telomeres at the end of your chromosomes, every time the cell divides, one falls off. And when they all fall off, you're finished. Without that, you don't you live forever. Right. So, that's in the human body, you're subject to death. But it's not only in the human body, all living organisms die. Bugs. Doesn't make a difference. Nothing survives forever. You see? Because of the Zayamol. That's what kills us. Right? But the amazing thing, it's not just in organic, it's inorganic. There's a concept called the the second law of thermodynamics, which means all energy always dissipates. If you're going into a hot room, and you don't give more heat, guess what? Gets cold. Cuz the energy dissipates. That's death. But it's death of inorganic matter. In any case, without getting into a heavy into this, so we're all right walking around with Zayamol. Uh guess what? We got to get rid of the Zayamol. And that's the kiss of Mason. You see? We got to get rid of the Zoyamo. So, what was remarkable is the Jews got rid of the Zoyamo for the first time in history when they left Egypt. And the Gamara says this, it's not even a curse, Zoya. The Gamara said that uh when they left Egypt and they stood in front of Har Sinai, they had no more Zoyamo. Says that in Gamara. It's not even a Zoya. You see, for the first time in history, before Adam said sin, we duplicated Adam. And by the way, that's exactly what the Mashiach does. And that's what Tish'a B'Av means. God will destroy the Satan, get rid of the Zoyamo, and we live forever. But I don't get into that how the whole thing we is returned to what it was uh by Adam Rishon before the sin. But in any case, but here was the problem. Uh the Satan was expelled from the body. Right? I'm I'm telling you what really happened, although it's not, you know, it's written in more uh the Zoya and so on and so on, right? From Chaim. The Zoyamo was expelled. Right? So, they were not the same uh humans that we were. Right? We don't even know what they look what they were. But they were not subject to death. You see, without getting into that. But in any case, so what was the problem? So, the Satan was expelled, which means the Satan, who's still the yetzer hara, he could only influence them like the snake, try to convince them to sin, build an ego. Right? And that's why he made a coffin to go in the midbar, it says. He made a coffin appear in the sky with Moshe Rabbeinu in the coffin, and the Jews thought he was dead. Well, if he's dead, we need a God. He was only able to influence them externally, which is interesting, cuz he no longer had command as the yetzer hara over their body. What did Jews do? They sinned. So, what they did is they reintroduced the Zoyamo back into the body. And that's in the whole concept of what Pesach is really all about. That's why chametz represents the zoyeh mar. Matzah represents what they were before that. But in any case, we're not getting into that. What was the problem? The Ribono shel Olam was very angry. Right? Moshiach ben Yisrael knew, right? When was it? Shiva Asar b'Tammuz. Comes down the mountain cuz the Ribono shel Olam told him, "Your nation has They've done what?" They have sinned. All right, get thee down. Fine. Moshiach comes down and sees the eigel hazahav, right? And that was a rebellion against the Ribono shel Olam, right? And the Ribono shel Olam told him, "I want to destroy them. Achaleh es som, right? I will destroy them." Right? So, Moshiach ben Yisrael was an incredible leader and you begin to understand what a leader has to do, right? He immediately comes down. So, the first thing you got to do is get rid of the eigel, right? And comes down and uh of course uh you know, he did the everything and so on and so forth, you know. But I have to say one thing which is very important. Uh Moshiach ben Yisrael, it's very strange what he said. He really should have said, you know, "All those who didn't sin, come to me." And the whole tribe of Levi would have done that. And and not all the Jews sinned, right? He didn't. He said, "Mi l'Hashem elai." Who is to God, come to me. What do you mean? You should have said, you know, "Whoever didn't sin, come to me." And the rest of the people, whatever, they'll die, whatever, and so on, you know. But he didn't say that. Moshiach ben Yisrael was revealing a profound secret of what your teshuvah has to be. And in many ways, this is one of the greatest arguments you can tell the Ribono shel Olam to change your Yom Kippur. And I will tell you three words. Mi l'Hashem elai. Who is to God? What you need to say is this. Ribono shel Olam, I have sinned. There's no question about that. And I have done that which is not right in your eyes. This is the Haruta, which is the essence of chuva by the way. Uh you have to say that to Hashem. But I want to say something. What chuva I do want to offer is this, that no matter what happens to me in this life, I will never abandon you. Never. I will always be loyal to you, even if I sin. That will save you. And that's what Moshe Rabbeinu said. You did the chet ha'egel. Okay. But who is still to God? Even though you did the chet ha'egel, "Mi Lashem Elai, come to me." Right? It means what Moshe Rabbeinu is saying, the key is, okay, you sinned, right? But you need to do chuva. What is the chuva? You need to say, "I will always remain loyal, never abandon the Ribono shel Olam." You see? That's what he told them. A very profound secret of what is the ikar of chuva. Don't abandon God, no matter how bad it gets out there, and believe me, it's bad. So, what does Moshe Rabbeinu do? He destroys the egels, whatever, kills the Jews, whatever. Goes running back to the Ribono shel Olam. Right? And he says, "Please, don't kill them." So, there's a whole whatever, sichsoch, argument, whatever, and then the Ribono shel Olam says, "Okay, I won't kill them." So, Moshe Rabbeinu achieved the first success. At least God won't kill them. But wait a minute. The Jews are the second name. They do the tikkun. Right? What about that? Okay, you won't kill them. But maybe he'll say, the Ribono shel Olam will say, "Look, they fooled they fooled around they failed. That's it. I'll I will not I will take away the ability to do the tikkun and to give them Olam Haba." So, Moshe Rabbeinu went up a second time. Right? To to beg the Ribono shel Olam, "Don't let them still do the t come please. That's why he went up the second time. Then he comes down again and goes up a third time cuz the version cuz Moshiach was incredible leader. He knew okay it's a bunch of could say okay I'll let them do the t come but guess what? I'm not going to hedge all my bets on guys well I'll give the t come ability to somebody else besides Jews. So Moshiach comes up the third time and says don't give it to anybody else. What a leader. That's what he did and the Moshiach said I must give and therefore the Moshiach did what? He restored the covenant the agreement that the Jews will not die they will do the t come and nobody else will do the t come t come guaranteeing that the Jews must survive. You don't realize what that is. That means there is nothing no force in creation that can kill the Jews en masse. It's impossible. The Jews must survive cuz we're the only ones that do the t come and if Moshiach allows us to be destroyed it's over. The whole universe justification is gone. That was an unbelievable act that the Moshiach did because of Moshiach Benu. Not that Moshiach didn't want to do it. You don't realize something he was not going to destroy the Jews. He wanted to see how much will Moshiach Benu extend himself to save his people. What kind of leader is he? That's why I said I will make you a great nation because he couldn't destroy the Jews. He promised Abraham Yitzchak Yakov if right that they will do the t come they will get the land and so on. So you can't kill the Jews. As the Moshiach said okay I'll make you guy Israel. So Moshiach Benu said no I'm not taking it. So you're stuck. You have to keep the Jews alive. That's what Moshiach did. So, he gave up and he said, "Erase me from your safer." He was willing to die. Doesn't make a difference. Without the Jews, his justification is over. And he was willing that that's the leader that Moshiach was to give up his own life. It's incredible. And the of course would mask him and therefore we are indestructible because of that. So, what did the version then do? So, here's the main idea which the Vilna Gaon says, that on the first day test of Tishrei, the Ananei Hakavod returned. What is the Ananei Hakavod really? The Ananei Hakavod is the physical symbol that we are guaranteed to survive. That's what it is. So, says, "Okay, I'm going to come back with the clouds of glory. And they will survive. That's the guarantee. I will never do that again. Okay? But wait a minute. So, says, "I'm going to reinstate the agreement. Even though you guys broke the agreement by the sin of the golden calf, I'm going to reinstate it. And therefore, you need to have at least two minutes with that reflect that. You need to sit in the sukkah. And this is all about the reinstatement of the agreement and that is why there's such incredible simcha. There's so much to be happy about three times. Because the reinstated this the agreement and therefore he reinstated the that we must survive and get a harbor. That is the guarantee. So, we sit in the sukkah. The main part of the sukkah is the and the means we are always protected by the Islam. That's the guarantee in uh Hashkafah it's called the Hanogas Hayichud. It is the Hanogah of God who is supreme that will always protect us and get us into Olam Haba. But that's his end of the deal, right? That we survive for Olam Haba, right? But what about our end of the deal? We need to do the mitzvahs. That's the rule of an esrog, right? And there are many ways to look at the rule of an esrog, what it symbolizes. But basically, right? Esrog is gematria 610 and then three simanim, right? Lulav, hadasim, and arovos, 613. So what we do is we shake the lulav and esrog in all the directions of heaven saying, "Though no matter where you lead us, we will always do the mitzvah as best as we can." That's the meaning. So the lulav and esrog is our contribution. It's like two signatures. Our signature is the mitzvah of lulav and esrog. His signature is the sukkah. And to seal the deal, seven days or eight days, all right, is the Ribono shel Olam's our simcha and Shmini Atzeres is his simcha. Right. It's the Ribono shel Olam's holiday. And that seals the deal. So what Sukkos is about is the reinstatement of the contract between us and the Ribono shel Olam. And that is why there's such incredible amount of simcha, you see? So take a look at all this. You now understand what Rosh Hashanah is, what Elul is, what Rosh Hashanah is, what Asseres Yemei Teshuvah is, right? What Yom Kippur is, and you now understand what Sukkos is. Look at the theme here. The theme is that we are under a biblical contract, if you want to use that word, with the boy or ilum, the boy from himself, and it can never be broken, cuz that's the shvu'a. It has to go to the descendants of Avram, Yitzhak, and Yaakov. Very important idea, and this in many ways is the month of Tishrei. That's really what it's all about. Now, there was once a rebbe, a rebbe called the Zvhil rebbe, was a very great man. In fact, he was a tremendous baal mofes, which means a miracle worker, you know. I can tell you one miracle from him, which is astounding. A Jew, he used to live in Russia, and a Jew came home, and all of a sudden he comes into his This was on Shabbos, and he sees comes home, opens up his door, takes a look, and there's a a dead Russian, in his kitchen. Obviously, the guy wanted to break in, and he probably had a heart attack, or whatever, and he just died in the guy's kitchen. And this man went crazy, cuz if the Russians find out, they goes the blood libels, they goes everything. Uh so, what did he do? He runs back to the Zvhil rebbe. Now, the Zvhil rebbe was a very interesting person. He was a baal mofes. In fact, they go to his son's kever in Yerushalayim, Gol whatever. Uh and he goes running to the Zvhil rebbe, uh like I said, he was a baal mofes, miracle worker, one of those, right? And he says, "I just found a dead Russian in my house, right? And I He's dead. I can't even move the guy, you know, whatever, you know. And all if the Russians find out, there's going to be a pogrom a pogrom." Uh so, the Zvhil rebbe says, "Listen, be you listening carefully. Imagine go over to my kitchen, right? And uh go over to the cholent, take out some cholent from my my uh kitchen, my the pot." His wife's cholent, right? Take it, go to your house, and put some of the challah into the mouth of the That's all. That's some kind of advice. I mean, his wife's challah must have been incredible. But, can it resurrect the dead? I don't know. You know, who knows what kind of recipe she had. What do you do? Went home, right? Take some challah, put it in the mouth of the The guy guy's dead, right? And all of a sudden, the gets up, dead, walks out of the door into the forest, and then drops dead. That's the Zviller Rebbe what what we're dealing with, right? So, he was an interesting Rebbe. So, the miracle got out. I mean, it's incredible. And he had to run away cuz everybody was now piling in for brochos, right? So, he went to Eretz Yisrael, and nobody knew who he was at all, you know? Finally, there was some guy who came from his town and came to like shul, whatever, and he saw he's sitting there. Says, "Do you have any idea what this person is?" Which course they didn't. And word got out, and Rebbe was caught again, and so on. So, he was an interesting person. He used to work. He used to work for a living. Now, most most Rebbes don't cuz they're involved in ruchniyus, whatever. Apparently, he felt that he didn't want to take advantage of that, and he used to work. So, a chossid, now I'm telling you this for this part, not the first part, just to show you who we're dealing with, and therefore, the truthfulness of what he said. So, the chossid comes over to him and says, "Rebbe, I have a question." Yes, what is it? So, he says, "I don't understand something, you know? Why What's the difference between you and me? Why is it I'm the chossid and you're the Rebbe? Why? Cuz I say kiddush, you say kiddush. I say kiddush, too, right? You I work, and you work. So, why are you the Rebbe, and why am I the chossid? Interesting question, right? What did the Sefri Rebbe answer? Very profound concept. He said the following. He said, "I'll tell you the difference. When I am in my store or whatever work I do, I'm thinking of kiddush. When you're saying kiddush, you're thinking of your store." That's a very profound concept. What is that? What he's saying is that it's it's not so much where you are or what you're doing. It's where do you want to be? That's your center. What do you think about during the day? Where do you want to be? So, I'm in my store, which is true, but do I really want to be in my store, you know, making money or whatever? No, I want to be learning Torah. I want to be in Ovad. I want to be a dove in the world. That's where I want to be. So, that's really who I am. That's my center. That's my essence. You, however, you're saying kiddush, but where's your mind at? It's not in the kiddush, you know, "Well, did I make enough money? I'm making kiddush. Did I make enough money today? You know, and so on. Enough money, you know, I do I have enough inventory? Maybe I need more advertising." Excuse me, you're saying kiddush. Uh you know, what are you thinking? You ever see, you know, guys sometimes when they small that way? You know, there was once a guy in a shul saying sh'ma Yisrael and he was, you know, shuffling around to the re- The rabbi of the shul comes over to him and says, "Shalom aleichem." So, the guy says, you know, when he got off the sh'ma Yisrael, he said, "Shalom aleichem, why?" He says, "You look like you look like you've been traveling around the world." You know, I say I say shalom aleichem, you know, what are you thinking about? That's your essence. That's what the Sefri Rebbe said and it's a very important concept. You know, many times we think what? Well, you know, what do we do? You know, I got to go to work, I got to make money, you know, and so on. That's not the issue. The Bashem wants to test us in many, many different types of situations. That's why life is so varied. Now, some people have a mission. Their mission is to learn Torah. To give shiyurim. To be a rav. That's their mission. So, their mission is to be ruchni, to work ruchni. But that's a mode of discourse. We don't know why, but that's what the Bashem assigned them. And therefore, they have a mazel. Their mazel is that they're offered a job as a rebbe, as a rav, or whatever. Not because they worked for it. This is what the Bashem did. This is your mission. Your mission mission is Yaakov. Yoshev be-ohalim. Kedusha. Then there are other people that got to go to Wall Street. They got to go to the diamond district. I mean, wherever Jews have to go, all right? And you think, who wants to go to these places, you know? There is There are so many nisyonos and so on, so, you know. Uh, their mission is Eisav. To combat evil. You see? But they both have the mission, right? Of what's called hispashus kedusha. To bring kedusha. And the other one is kfias harah. To subjugate evil. To be tested. And still. Now, you're going to ask, well, what's the mission of the guy learning Torah? His mission is how much Torah is he going to learn? You know, how many coffee breaks do you take? You know, we don't realize everybody has an nisayon. You know? How many times do you see guys talking and learning, right? Then they take a break for 3 hours. A coffee break. Right? But that's their tafkid. How long or how much are you going to devote to the Torah? You see? Whereas the other guy's mission is more what's what's called more mundane, more prosperous, whatever you want to call it, and so on. We don't know why. It's all it's all the shiyurim and shalom. We don't know why he's assigned to that, you know, and why he's assigned to that. Uh, but the critical thing of all of that, no matter where you are, the key is where do you want to be? That's the key. Do you want to be in ruchniyus? Right? And doing things, so when you come home at night, you learn Torah, you learn with your kids, right? Or you learn in kollel, whatever you're doing, so on, right? At night and so on. Then now there's many kollels that learn at night. Or, right? You want to um not do that and watch TV, you're on the internet all night. Or whatever the nisyonos are. You see, where do you want to really be? And so on. Uh that is the key. And that's what the Zvhiller Rebbe really said. Now, what's very important, which I really s- say, I want to tell you something. What is the weapon of the Satan? What does he want to do? That is the question. I want to tell you what the real strategy of the Satan is. And if you're aware of it, you can beat the Satan. Most people are not aware of this. What is the greatest enemy of the Torah? Of the Excuse me, of the Satan. What is it really? Uh and therefore, what is that which the Satan does not want you to do? He will try anything to stop you. What is it? And the answer is ignorance. Don't think about what life is all about. Don't think that there's a God. Uh don't think that there's a spiritual world long beyond this. You see? Think of the world. Think of you know, uh jobs, money, Wall Street, investments. Think of that. Think of pleasure. Think of vacations and so on. That's what he wants. Uh but how? So, he has to get you to stop to learn Torah. Because all the wisdom of what we know is in the Torah. That that's what it says in the Kedushin. Tavlin. The Bas created the Torah as a tavlin, which is an antidote sort of to the Satan or sinning. Why? Because the greatest weapon of the Torah is knowledge. It tells us of what's real. That's it. But besides the kedusha of the ruchniyus, I'm not even going into the power of what the the Torah the kedusha the holiness of the Torah. But just on a simple level, it tells us reality. It's an incredible book that is a revelation of what reality is. The Satan does not want you to learn. That is the greatest enemy of the Satan and therefore he's going to try to stop you at every turn. And there's many ways he can do that and I don't want to even want to go into that. How he actually stops yeshivas from learning Torah. I don't even want to go into that. It's a whole discussion in itself. And so on. But that's what he does. But the next question is, okay, that's his strategy. Keep them ignorant or else I'm finished. Maybe. But wait a minute. How do I make sure that you won't learn Torah? How? How do I make sure you won't think about ruchniyus? You won't think about God. You won't think about doing mitzvahs and chesed and everything that the Jew that Jew is supposed to do in Torah. Right? What's his strategy? Now you're dealing with the probably the greatest malach that ever lived. Right? Which is astounding. His knowledge of human behavior is off the charts. Cuz he knows everybody's weakness. So what does he do? I will tell you what he does. So you'll be one ahead. Okay? You know what the greatest danger to the Satan is and that is knowledge. Torah. That's his greatest danger. Right? But how does he stop you? And the answer is one word, distraction. I got to keep him busy. God forbid that they start thinking and they have free time. Right? So, he's an illui, a genius, right? Why do you think there's an internet? Why? Do you have any idea how many people fall cuz they're all day on the internet? Right? It's the greatest distraction ever known to man, bar none. That's number one. What about smartphones? Whenever you go on a bus or anything, you ever notice what you see? Everybody's looking at their phone. It's like, whatever happened? It's like, it's it's like attached to their hand. You know, it's becoming a a human organ. It's called a phone organ, right? And it's astounding, you know, they have these pictures where three or four people are sitting on a bench, and they're not talking to each other. They're all looking at their phones. And that's the reality today. You see, smartphones. Then there's all other kinds of stuff. There's movies and there's television, right? There's all kinds of this then there's music. All right, there are people that have a 10,000 records on their smartphones, and guess what? They listen all day. And then of course there's sports. I can't even begin to name the amount of distractions. Now, I'm not saying you can't do anything. No, if you feel you need a break, I'm not going into that parsha. If you need a break just to come down and relax for a minute, that's one thing. But these are addictive. They're all addictive, every one of these things. But what's the purpose of this? To distract you. That's what it is. You know, it used to it used to be, you know, I I remember I'll never forget you have to excuse the muscle. You know, I once went into the bathroom, right? And all of a sudden, and there's a stall there, right? It wasn't a hair voice. In the stall, some guy's talking on the phone. So, I said to him, I don't understand something. You finally have one place that you can have a new car. Right? You got to talk on the phone even in the bathroom? You know, I come on. I didn't say anything, but that's how much the sudden has captured the human imagination. It's unbelievable. You know, it used to be that if a guy was in his car, what can he do? You know, so if he didn't have the radio, so he drove. And while he was driving, God forbid he's thinking about Kadusha. He's thinking about God. Or maybe where are you Where are you in life? You know, you realize that there's a purpose and a mission. Today, forget about that. Today, it's all about smartphones. You know, you have immediately the people talk on the phones all day long, and they can't stop. And meanwhile, they're going to the street and they get them killed while they're on a smartphone. I mean, we you know, what is that called? It's called distraction. Why? Don't think. Because if you think, you will do chuvah. It will dawn on you that there's something wrong. What am I doing with my life? You see. That is the incredible distraction of the of the of the sudden. That's his major strategy. And one more idea. Did you ever notice Yom Kippur comes, we try to do our best, right? And all of a sudden, next day, which is going to be Sunday, we go back basically to being exactly what we were before. So, do you ever ask yourself a question, why doesn't it work? Why is it It's like spinning your wheels. Why is it Yom Kippur is great, it's so serious, you know, maybe I shed a couple of tears or whatever and I'm inspired. Why doesn't the chuva last? You ever wonder why? It's a good question. You know, why is it we are so vulnerable to sinning or not doing chuva? Even though we we are ants, as they say in Yiddish, we are sincere. So, then why doesn't it work? You want the answer is? I'll tell you the secret of that, too. Why it doesn't work and why it may work, but it's much harder. Uh in psychology, there's a certain concept called cognitive dissonance. What is cognitive dissonance? Uh that means if if you have a belief system that believes in a certain thing, right? And something comes along and contradicts it. Guess what? You are going to, in many ways, either resist seeing that, you are going to deny the existence of the contrary idea. That's called cognitive dissonance. Okay? There used to be a popular theory, whatever and so on, but it's an emes. We don't want to know things that are against our belief system. That's human nature. Here's the problem. We don't want to be kadoshim. Think about that. We are we are our physical beings. We love physical, right? We are physical, we work physical, we need money, groceries. Then we go to restaurants, right? All right? I mean, it's incredible. I hate to I hate to mention this, but now you go to a restaurant, costs $150 for a steak. Uh that tells me what every what that Well, how do these restaurants make a living? Obviously, they have a clientele. And so on. This is the problem. Many of us Many of Deep down, we love physical. You know, even though we celebrate, for instance, okay, I want Pesach, but guess what? I'm going to Italy for Pesach. Right? I got to combine uh you know, I don't mind going to a beach, right? As long as I have a kosher hot dog. Uh what we've done is in order to minimize the ruchniyus, we combine it with tremendous physicality. I mean, just look what's going on with the Pesach, you know? It's billion-dollar industries now to go everywhere, and it always includes a tour. You know, I don't want to put it down, but I'm just saying this has become a tremendous emphasis. Uh you know, uh whatever. Okay, I I don't want to get too much in that, but uh this is the problem. And therefore, it's cognitively dissonant. Since we love physicality, we love materialism, basically, cuz we are physical creatures, it's against the ruchniyus of Yom Kippur. Think about that. What is Yom Kippur about? No eating and so on. It's no no no no no, right? And it's all day davening davening davening davening. Right? You know, after a while, how many of us can keep it up even for 1 day? Forget about 2 days. Uh you know, the miracle is Yom Kippur is more than 1 day, right? Cuz we can't do it. This is the problem. Why do you think Pesach is only couple of days? Cuz how many days, unless you love matzah, can you eat matzah? We love chametz. We love to go to a bakery and eat chametz and so on. The problem is ruchniyus is against our nature. In the olden days, when you had tremendous gedolim, so then everybody, you know, you could walk down the block and you had five gedolim who lived on your block in those days. Today, you're lucky if you can find one godol in the whole city. Uh they're all gone, whether be COVID or whatever. We live in an unbelievable darkness. And we supremely uh organized physically in every which way. And what we've done very cleverly is to combine the physical the spiritual experience with the physical. God forbid we should give up the physical and so on, you know? When you look at the old stories of people of old, the ruchniyus, they fasted all day, but not only that, they you saw the ruchniyus of these people and so on. And today we're lucky, you know, everybody wants what's called in Yiddish bakavod and so on, you know? That's why. Because it's very hard to change if you don't change your belief structure. Right. Cuz it's cognitively dissonant from who you are. So you can tolerate for a day, but that's it. You see? And that is why we make all kinds of promises, called New Year's resolutions, right? I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that and I'm not going to speak lashon hara anymore and so on, right? You know? And the next minute Sunday comes along, your friend comes over and you chat lashon hara for the next hour and a half. You see why? Because it's not enough just one mitzvah. You got to change your goal. You need to become more ruchniyus'dik. That's the answer. So then it won't be cognitively dissonant because you've changed your goal. Your your goal is to get to know God. Is to get to know what Judaism is really about, what to know the plan of creation. What does God really want? Is it just the mitzvahs? No, it's much more than just the mitzvahs. It's a relationship with him. That's what he wants. And that takes far more than just shaking the lulav and esrog. You know, it's realizing what's the pnimiyus of Sukkos. And I always bemoan that fact. Why is it most people, you know, what is a Yom Tov? Well, first of all, you're off from work, right? That's the first thank God for that, right? And then, wow, I hope my wife is really going to kill cook a great meal, right? And then I got to I can schmooze with my friends, right? In shul or whatever, you know, it's basically a physically it's a physical holiday that's enhanced slightly with spiritual additions. But that's not really what it is. And it's unfortunate and I don't I I have to tell you I don't believe in God as well. The problem is people don't know anything. They do not know the hashkafa of what Judaism is. Uh, you know, I always find it remarkable, I hate to say, when a rav gets up and gives a Shabbos, let's say Godol Godol, right? It's It's It's not only that it's halachic, that's fine, but there's hardly any ideas of hashkafa. What is Pesach about really? Why is there chametz and matzah? What is the version telling us? What can we do? What is our avodah? You know, you always hear, you know, whatever gedolim or rabbonim saying, "Well, we have to be this." Okay, how do I do it? Nobody ever says. You notice? They don't say, "That's what you need." It has to be very practical. You need to learn hashkafa. So, therefore, I would recommend grab this forum of hashkafa, especially Ramchal, and you learn what does God want? Who is he? And so on. What does he expect? That's when you can change your goal. If you change your goal, there's no longer cognitive dissonance, and guess what? The teshuvah that you did on Yom Kippur will actually last till Tuesday. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.