Last Shabbat of Year: Teshuvah with Shabbat = The Highest Level

Shabbat shalom to everyone. I'm hoping you are well. Here at zone the district's parashah parashat nitavim. As we know nitavim at the parashah that I'm nitavim is always read before Rosh Hashanah. And as we know it's the last Shabbat of the year. And due to that we decided to make a video recording of the shih for the last Shabbat of the year. And you are at zone the bemet. School of the Shabbat should be for us with all the sham we should all have a shanah tovah um evorachat and up and coming year filled with all the baruchot all the hatslachot and you are at zone the normal amen. As we we know we're about to enter a new year as well as the sham next Shabbat will be the first Shabbat of the new year and it'll also be Shabbat and Rosh Hashanah and this is the last Shabbat of the year so these two Shabbatot are very very very essential for Am Yisrael as we know the Gamara tells us that if Am Yisrael would keep two Shabbatot they would immediately be redeemed. So bemet on behalf of all of our rabbis all of our gedolei Yisrael everyone is very much encouraging if possible not not possible but to bemet to take everyone should take upon themselves this Shabbat to have an extra chizuk whether it's lighting Shabbat candles a few minutes early whether it's accepting Shabbat a few minutes early entering Shabbat in a calm way not entering Shabbat in a pressured way entering with a special simcha doing something special Shabbat keeping the Shabbat well and we should have all the baruchot and you are at zone the normal amen. Speaking about the Shabbat so we know that in this week's parashah, in parashat Nitzavim, we talk about the the Torah talks a lot to us about the mitzvah of teshuvah. The tremendous mitzvah of teshuvah. And the pasuk says, uh in in aliyot shishi, uh the pasuk says, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, earlier, pasuk says, "Veshavta ad Hashem Elokecha veshamata beqolo." You have a We have a special mitzvah to come back to Hashem. "Veshavta ad Hashem Elokecha veshamata beqolo." It's to listen to what Hashem says, to come back to him, and to hear his voice. And uh and with that, we are back being hugged by Hakadosh Baruch Hu in a loving fashion, as the Rambam tells us. The holy holy Chida, Rabbenu Chaim David Azulay, he comes along and he tells us, as we know, that the words of "Veshavta ad Hashem Elokecha," you should come back, is the word of veshavat. And the Chida tells us that it is impossible to have teshuvah without Shabbat. That's why it says, "Veshavta ad Hashem Elokecha." Veshavta is veshavat. To tell you that it's through the Shabbat that I'm actually able to properly do teshuvah. Why? Why only through the Shabbat is it proper is it possible to do teshuvah? Question number one. Question number two asks us the holy holy Chida, Rabbi Chaim David Azulay, so why does it have to say "Veshavta ad Hashem Elokecha veshavat"? And you should come back. Why the extra and? Say, "Shavta ad Hashem Elokecha veshamata beqolo." You anyway are saying the vav. Says the Chida that the "Veshavta ve" is the next to Shabbat. What Chachamim tell us? Two Shabbatot, that's hinted by the "ve shavta", that we have to have two Shabbatot in a very in a very powerful way in order to really reach that level of teshuvah with the Shabbat. But, asks us the Chida, why is it that only through the Shabbat I'm able to do teshuvah? And the Chida comes along and tells us something so beautiful. He says, whenever unfortunately whenever a person does an aveira, there's two elements that happen through the aveira. Element number one is that there's a element of tum'ah, there's an essence of impurity that now is internalized into my heart. And my job is I when I do teshuvah, I need to take away that element of impurity. Otherwise, that element of impurity could awaken me to do other things. Aveira goreret aveira could bring me to do other things. And second of all, and second of all, when a person does an aveira, with whatever limb he did the aveira, then that limb gets a very strong element of impurity also. And now I need to go ahead and to take away that limb of impurity and to take away that that impurity on the limb and to actually internalize the limb with a special kedushah, with a special purity. Says the Chida, we sometimes have an aveira that a person sadly does with his entire body. Whether he ran to do an aveira, whether it was a aveira that he put his entire body into the aveira, whether it was an aveira that he mamash put did it with his heart and soul unfortunately. Wow. So, then now the whole body gets a tumor. So, how am I going to go ahead and take away that impurity and not only take away now add a whole purity it >> [clears throat] >> add a whole into that entire body that I did the aveira with. And says the Chida, that is where Hakadosh Baruch Hu came and gave us the gift of Shabbat. The first thing we said is that when a person does an aveira, there's an internal impurity that goes. In order to get that out, I need to go deep internal. And to go into the deep depth of the neshama in order to really take out the impurity. Comes the Shabbat and the Shabbat gives us a neshama yetera. And that neshama yetera and cabalistically there's very very deep ideas here. On Shabbat when the world of Atzilut, we go into the world of the holy of holies and we internalize to the most internal part of the neshama and in that I have a neshama yetera and now comes the Shabbat. And the Shabbat through teshuvah, through my repent through my regret, I go ahead and the Shabbat takes that teshuvah and goes internal mamash internal. The Shabbat goes to the most internal part of the neshama and eradicates the negative and now brings a tremendous kedusha to the positive. Second of all, we know that there are only a few mitzvot that my entire body enters into them. Shabbat is one of the mitzvot that I'm entering the Beit Hamikdash. As I enter into Shabbat, my home turns into a Beit Hamikdash and I'm entering my entire body enters into the holiness of Shabbat. Comes the Shabbat and takes away through the teshuvah, through the regret that I have, now with the Shabbat, Shabbat puts my entire body, no matter how much of my averah I did, how much of the averah I did, with how much with how much of my body, whether I did it with one limb, with with two limbs, with my entire body, the Shabbat now takes away the impurity of the entire body and brings into it the the holiness of the Shabbat to now eradicate anything negative and to completely bring a tremendous tremendous holiness onto my entire body. The kedusha of Shabbat say say the mekubalim is in such a deep deep level that that's why only Hashem said to us, only Hashem could say, matana tovah yesh li be vet ginazai ve Shabbat shmah. I have a tremendous gift in my treasure chest. What's What does Hashem have to tell me in my treasure chest? The treasure chest is very deep, very deep deep deep. You got to go into the room, into the treasure chest, and pull it out. And Hashem goes into the most deepest part of his treasure chest, takes the greatest gift, and gives us us that great internal gift. Many of the mekubalim tell us that it's a very big thing before Shabbat comes in to regret our averot. We see We see why that's such a big thing. Because when I enter Shabbat with a regret on my averot, I did the teshuvah vashavta, I did the teshuvah, and now comes the Shabbat and internalizes that teshuvah. And comes the Shabbat and sanctifies my entire body, and it takes me into the most holy of holies, and suddenly my whole nefesh gets a tremendous kedusha. However, comes the Be'er Mayim Chaim and takes this even a step further. Takes a step further. If we take a look something very interesting in the beginning when the Torah tells me about regretting my averot, right? The Torah says regretting the averot that I did from the sefer Torah hazot. Right? The sefer Torah, I did terrible things. I let go of this terrible avera. After I do teshuvah, the pasuk says Hashem will come back and he'll rejoice to give you goodness. Ki yashuv in perek lamed pasuk tet ki yashuv Hashem lasus alecha letov ka'asher sas al avotecha. Hashem will come will rejoice again to give you the good like he rejoiced on your fathers. Ki tishma bekol Hashem Elokecha lishmor mitzvotav u'chukotav because now you've come back to keep the the rules haktuvah besefer hatorah hazeh. Which is written in this sefer Torah. Comes the Be'er Mayim why? bekhol levavkha u'vekhol nafshekha because you come back to Hashem. Right? Again, the first pasuk, right? The in perek chaf tet in perek in perek chaf tet pasuk chaf chet it says hanistarot laHashem Elokeinu v'haniglot lanu u'l'vaneinu ad olam la'asot et kol divrei hatorah hazot. Right? Negative. I'm sorry, hazot is feminine. Now after I do teshuvah, it says Hashem will come back and will rejoice and will give you all the goodness because you did teshuvah that's written with all your heart that's written in sefer hatorah hazeh. Comes the Be'er Mayim Chaim and says, "What's the What's the point? [clears throat] Why does it have to say first feminine hazot and then masculine hazeh?" Says the Be'er Mayim Chaim something enormous based on a yesod that amefarshim tell us. We know that Shabbat has so many halachot. It is almost impossible to go through a Shabbat and not make one mistake. We all know that. And it's brought down in the Sefarim that the Kadosh Baruch Hu said, "Don't think I gave you the Shabbat for the negative. I gave you the Shabbat for the positive." What does that mean? We know We know that yes, there will be mistakes that we make throughout the Shabbat. So then, if Shabbat is so big if Shabbat is so great if Shabbat is so special, so why is it that it's almost definite that I'm going to make a mistake? Why Why Why does Hashem make give me something that it's so definite that I'm going to make a mistake on? Why is Why is that such a Why did Hashem make it that it's almost impossible that I'm not going to to make a mistake on it? And here, the Baal HaMussar tell us something enormous. Something enormous. We all understand Everyone understands that in a marriage, all right? There's a There's a There's a There's a very famous joke that they say that there was one time a a Moroccan wife who says to her husband, "Honey, how come you don't tell me you love me?" And the husband says, "On the day we got married, I told you I loved you. That's status quo. If anything changes from the status quo, I'll let you know. So then there's no need to say anything." Of course, everyone hears that and laughs and everyone understands no, that's not how it goes. Marriage is not meant to be a snag stagnant thing. Marriage is meant to build up and we build and we build and we build and it's great and it's But to build, we need an awakening. Hashem Yitbarakh gives us the greatest day of marriage, Shabbat. We wrote the book Shabbat Chaim. And that day of marriage, Hashem gives us an ability to have an up and down. I may make a mistake. After I made the mistake, the point of the mistake is not that now I remain stagnant and now I okay oh, it's terrible. No. I made a mistake. I learned from the mistake. I built from it. I have a friend who every time he made a mistake on Shabbat, he went, he looked it up and he learned a new halacha, he wrote a book from the halachot that from the mistakes that he did. Why? Again, the point is not that I stay stagnant in my marriage. I stay no, I make a mistake, the point is good. I learn from my mistake and now I get even closer. No wife wants that after a mistake happened, we remain negative. No, she wants that afterwards, okay, we made a mistake, we fix it, great, we get back together, we're extra happy. We get back together, it's great. This Shabbat is given to us that even after a mistake happens, I learn from it, great. Now I'm even closer to the Shabbat. Because I learned from the mistake, I get even closer and now I'm in a very very big simcha. Says the Ben Ish Hai, "I'm Says the Ben Ish Hai, "I'm saying enormous." Sefer Torah is zot is feminine. Feminine, a lady is a receiver. I we go ahead, we start from the Shabbat. We we we have that connection. A mistake can happen. A mistake can can happen and it's not the end of the world. But my job is now Hakadosh Baruchu tells us after you do teshuvah, there's the masculine. The masculine is the giver. Hakadosh Baruchu comes and gives us an enormous feeling of simcha. When you do teshuvah, when you messed up on something on Shabbat, great. I messed up or even before Shabbat, I did teshuvah. Now Hashem gives us an extra level of simcha. Now my job is to pick up. Now my job is to even feel closer to Hakadosh Baruchu. And Hakadosh Baruchu gives me that bracha of simcha when I when I learn from it. Right? As we are entering the last Shabbat of the year, it's an enormous enormous Shabbat. It's an enormous Shabbat with so much power, so much of availability. Let's go into the Shabbat with a tremendous tremendous simcha. First of all, to do a little teshuvah before Shabbat comes in, and then go into the Shabbat with a simcha. And if throughout the Shabbat, I make a mistake, great. I learn from it. I learn what was my mistake. I look up better half of next time, and then I'm back and even closer with the simcha with the Kadosh Baruch Hu on Shabbat. Now it's sefer haTorah hazeh. Now it's a even greater connection. When a person learns from that, he his whole Shabbat is so much filled with simcha. It's so much filled with happiness. Our job is be'emet to now enter the Shabbat with a teshuvah b'simcha, with a tremendous simcha, tremendous happiness, and go into from here, go into a week of tremendous closeness to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Right? This whole week of the last week of Elul, and then we enter Shabbat Rosh Hashanah. We enter the second Shabbat. We enter Shabbat Rosh Hashanah, which which unfortunately we do not have shofar, but but that's not unfortunate because we have the greatest zechut on top of the shofar, which is the zechut of the Shabbat. We know everyone knows that on every year that Rosh Hashanah fell on Shabbat, when they washed me out of Shabbat, we had a great year. When there was no shmirat Shabbat, unfortunately, I don't want to go through October 7th, Corona. Right? We know that those towns in October 7th that kept Shabbat, they saw mamash nisim v'niflaot. The the Shabbat is our greatest zechut. The Shabbat with the teshuvah is the greatest power. We are filled with tremendous kedusha, we're filled with tremendous happiness. Y'ratzon that this last Shabbat of the year, should we should go into it with the teshuvah b'simcha, go into the Shabbat with the simcha. I really advise if everyone to take something small, a small hisuk for Shabbat. And if I make a mistake up on Shabbat, good. We learn from it, we get close. And b'ezrat Hashem, we're going to have all the brachot of the Shabbat. V'chen yehi ratzon v'nomar amen. Shabbat Shalom with all the brachot. >> Hot tamale.