סמוך שמחה | הרב אליהו ובר

A. The Gemara in Berakhot tells us that Rav Zera was a man who took joy in the mitzvot. Once, he joined "Geula"( redemption) to prayer, and his smile did not leave his face the entire day; he was joyful all day long. So, for anyone reading the Gemara, it seems that every time one joins Geula to prayer, they should be happy all day, and truly, it wouldn't hurt people to be a bit more joyful when they perform mitzvot. But, the Tosafot there asks: What is the source of all the excitement? Anyone can do it; it’s nothing special. Therefore, he says that this was for "Vatikin" prayer, but today, when everyone has watches and all sorts of things, well, what is the big excitement? Everyone can do it. But today we have a reason to smile— anyone who was here today and managed to stand in the east (we reached the east even a minute before sunrise, we managed to finish the blessing and stand in prayer with the sunrise in the east). So tomorrow everyone—everyone should smile today, and one should come with such a smile tomorrow as well, of course, for tomorrow’s sunrise, even though it’s a little after 6:40, still, a little after 6:40. Today it was 6:39 and 45 seconds, it was at 6:39 . >> So, we—and really, with two weeks of everyone smiling like this, we will merit, perhaps, that through this we will also reach a steady Vatikin prayer here without issues and without interruptions. Today we are on Rosh Chodesh, Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan; today we have a Torah commandment to offer our obligatory sacrifices, we said " Se'irei Izim"(goat offerings) we shall perform with desire... >> Yes, we are in the Temple service, let us all rejoice. We said "Se'irei Izim" we shall perform with desire; we need to perform the goat offerings, the goat offerings of Rosh Chodesh. Today we have a positive commandment to offer sacrifices. Our sages say that we pray the Musaf prayer, and we—every time prayer comes, it is difficult, we did not merit; today, too, we did not merit offering the sacrifices. The prayer is not for nothing, and there is still time, there is still time to make it happen today. The prayer is not just for the chirping of the bird, but the prayer is because we truly arrive here, and we have reached the closest place we could. We say to the Holy One, Blessed be He, "Master of the Universe, we did what we could, we prepared everything, we know we need to bring two bulls, a ram, seven sheep—we know everything, we are ready, we very much want to offer," so the Holy One, Blessed be He, will help us. >> Amen. >> That we may truly merit to offer our obligatory sacrifices precisely as ordered in the Musaf, as it is written, and this month, the month of Cheshvan, in which King Solomon finished building the Temple, let us celebrate the beginning of the building of the Third Temple, speedily in our days, amen. >> Amen.