PART #2 The POWER of The 13 ATTRIBUTES of MERCY with Rabbi Kalman Flaks

Heat. Heat. My birthdaym [Music] I I'm n it n [Music] to today we are going to be learning about the 13 midos of it's that time of of year again. Now last time just to remind us we went through the whole biblical history of the 13 mid raim. We contrasted the 13 mid of um in the second set of ten commandments to the first way that presented himself in uh in in the first set of ten commandments. And we gave the whole understanding of how Hashem exactly presented um historically speaking how he changed from to okay so that was last time. Now we're going to be a little bit more grounded today. We're going to just go through the actual words every single mid and do our best to uh to to to make it more meaningful to make it more understandable. Before we do that, of course, we're going to dedicate our Torah study for the of anyone who needs it, for the Yeshua of anyone who needs Yeshua, for the protection of all the for the success of all of our and for the bringing back home of all of our and for all the other Yeshua that needs at this time. And uh we'll sing at the end. We'll sing at the end. Don't worry, we won't forget. Okay. So again, the the is to this whole to why we're waking up in the middle of the night and doing and saying over and over and over the whole season is the rash. If it were not written, I couldn't say it. But what can I do? It's written that it's like the Almighty, Hashem himself wraps himself in a talis like a and showed Moshe the prayer service. He said anytime Israel sins let them perform these 13 mid of and when we do that I shall forgive them. We have a brea we have a covenant inscribed absolutely that when we do these 13 meters of raim we'll never leave we'll never come back empty-handed and we tried to understand what's that all about and we we we we were enlightened to understand which is integral to understanding this year is first of all we have to understand what are of and secondly we have to understand how do we bring that into our lives. So at each stage we're going to try to ask ourselves okay how do we bring this manifestation of into my personal life. Sounds good? That's the mission for tonight. Okay. So let's start from the beginning. It's a good place to start. Hashem. Now the truth is and if this is one mida hashem he hashem or whether it's two separate midas hashem and then even though it's the same word that somehow reflects uh different manifestations of hashem's mercy of his that he brings into the world. Um let's start from the word y. We're all familiar kazal often teach us that elohim is a manifestation of din of judgment and yud is a manifestation of god's rah of god's mercy. The question is why? Why exactly does yud which means God who is was and always will be that's what we're supposed to think about every time we say that name according to the that's how we pass him is was always will be in other words beyond time what does that have to do with mercy being kind what's the connection understand he's timeless wow I can can't even imagine a timeless creature But why does that necessarily imply mercy? Yeah. So there's a lot we could say about this and we're going to leave a little bit for future shears. We're going to we're going to analyze this a bit a bit more. But I want to suggest the approach of Hutner Hutner who is a Russ of Berlin where I grew up in Brooklyn used to learn in his base medish with my brother used to learn. So in his beautiful way says like this the essence is which means existence. God is the source of all existence. Okay. In other words the world can't exist without God. Not just in a historical sense that God brought the world into being but right now as we are speaking famously teaches us God is breathing the world into existence. Right? Shalom right now is being energized through God is breathing him into the world. If he would stop breathing you into existence for one moment you would stop existing. Havaya means existence and that's what's happening. God is existing you in into the world right now. So the question is why did God exist the world? What made him do that? Why did God decide to bring the world into existence? At certain point God it was only God. That's what we mean. He was before the world existed. He was but at a certain point he brought the world into existence. And the question is why did he change and bring the world into existence? So the rah answers we don't know. We can't really ever fathom the mysteries of hashem and that's one of the secrets that we'll never understand. Nonetheless it's brought down by many holies for and I believe is the one who most famously popularizes this idea right that's the world is created for this year right now. What what do we mean that the world was created says through for and through? What does that mean? Why is the world created through? Because God is a lover. God is a giver. That's the essence of he wants to give. That's also why human beings as want to give. Yes. The only problem is let's say I let's say I'm an amazing teacher. I have so much to give. What's the only problem? I have no students. Okay. So how much can I give if I have no students? So in the olden days the answer is no one. Nowadays, Hashem created something called YouTube, something called, you know, podcast where I can have no students, but I talk to the computer and uh maybe someone out there in YouTube land is listening. Who knows? And it makes me feel like I'm actually giving, right? I don't actually know how many of them are actually listening. They have just clicked for three seconds and then went to some other, you know, channel. But it says 250 views. So, I bet it makes me feel like maybe someone's listening out there. So I'm able to give. You see what I'm saying? But the Indian is if I want to give, I need someone to receive. So Hashem wants to give, right? So there wasn't YouTube back then. So what did he do instead? He created us. He created the universe. That is a conduit, something that can receive his love and kindness. Yeah. That's why we have the world. That's that's the essence of now you're gonna ask the wait a second. The whole point of life is is for God to throw his love upon us, right? So, and how come life is so hard sometimes, right? There's terrorism, there's loneliness, there's pain, there's challenges. And the answer is because we only see a very small piece of the picture. we see in this world. But once we'll see the bigger picture of the next world and we'll understand how this world we earned by having free will, by overcoming all of the challenges of this world, we earn that great goodness, that great love that God wants to give us. If you would just just give it to us, it would be the bread of shame and we wouldn't appreciate the kindness and goodness that gives us. And therefore we need to earn it in this world and then receive it in the next world. Okay, that's uh the whole purpose of life. The point is that the world is created through and that's the first and the essence of the 13 of Yes. Now I want to ask you guys a question. How do we apply that to our lives? Because we're not God. I mean as far as I know you know we can't create um universes in order to bestow um kindness but and I'm asking these not as hypothetical questions I'm actually asking us to you know brainstorm together what do you think how do we how do I manifest this creative giving potential that is manifested in the word v any ideas >> other humans ah So when we give to others maybe we're being like right you know that's a beautiful idea to look for ways to give the ashlag the ashlag this whole safer is based on giving he used to say I would when if I didn't have someone to give to I would pace back and forth and ask myself who can I give to right now how can I give how can I maximize my giving potential potential right if I give someone something physical that's amazing but maybe if I give someone something spiritual I can give them not just this world but even for the next world that's even a greater way to give so by giving in any way that that is unique a unique way that I can give that's a way of manifesting that uk consciousness beautiful what else any other ideas coming down how to bring this rahim into the world when it comes to is by being creative. God when he created the world, he was creative, right? There was no world, now there's a world. And I think we are given the obligation by to bring my unique light. You know, maybe for some it's to create an organization, a base madish. For other people, I don't know, maybe it's to just help people >> for science and for cancer. >> For cancer. Exactly. to be to be a cancer reacher. My my cousin Joshy right now that's what he's doing. I don't know where it comes. He comes he he's giving. He doesn't even know who when God created the world he wasn't distinguishing between righteous and between mashim. He was just giving. Doesn't matter. I want to give to everyone. Right. Also the cancer researcher he doesn't know exactly who he's giving. Maybe some jerk is going to be saved from cancer one day. It doesn't matter. Right now he's just giving. So sometimes in our life to make space I don't really care who I'm giving this to. I mean YouTube or podcast is a great example of that. I'm listen I'm talking in front of the phone. I don't know who's listening. I don't know but I want to I want to give in my own unique way to the universe. Okay maybe it's a we have we're obligated to ask ourselves what can I do? Maybe it's just a friendship just a what can I do? Maybe it's just showing up to the shear, right? If nobody shows up to the shear, it's a different type of shear. What can I do that makes a difference that creatively brings a new energy, something to the universe? Okay, so all these things we're going to have to we're going to have another two weeks to chew upon them. How do I bring this into our my life every every so we can think about it. But our time is short. So let's move on to the second mida hashem. Okay, I know we just did that, right? Sounds like a no says gamashem before hashem after meaning to say before I sin hashem after I sin it's still hashem you're in other words the assumption of this kamar is that if a person either did chuva or at least orients himself towards chuva He's able to return himself to his original relationship with the which is a big if you think about it. Let's break it down to right. Let's say you had a good friend and you did everything. You were besties. But then at a certain point he betrayed you. I don't know. He did something that really cut you deep. And then at a certain point he says sorry he does chuva. He says I'm really sorry that I did that to you. So if you're a nice guy and everyone here is really nice guys. You're going to forgive him first of all cuz you're a nice guy and second of all because you know it's good for you cuz you learned your to devorah and you know that when you forgive other people's going to forgive you to you. So you're going to be mater. So, you're gonna forgive him. But at the end of the day, the next time he he says, "Hey, Colin, let's go hang out." Like the good old days, let's go get pizza. Are you going to really want to hang out with him? Most people, not so much. After depending on the scenario, right? Depending on the situation. But I don't know about you guys, but for me at least, somebody did something that cut me deep. I don't really want to hang out with them anymore. I'm not, you know, I'm thinking of some situations in my life. We once had a relationship. Okay, I forgave him. I moved on. Years have passed. I know he didn't mean to. Whatever it was, but you know, and there's a sim I go to the other side. That's how it is. Unfortunately, it's hard to renew that relationship once we've hurt one another. So, says the amazing thing is that's true with us and humans, but it's not true with us and Hashem. That's not what no matter how many times we've sinned, if we do chuva and we're sincere, we truly want to get better, Hashem says, "Okay, fine. I'm going to wipe the slate clean and I'm going to allow you to have that initial relationship like we like it never happened." Like mish, it never happened in the first place. And it's amazing. It's a tremendous and it it doesn't make sense according to human logic. But that's Hashem. Hashem doesn't Hashem's above human logic. His raim is above that. In fact, the whole assumption of truva if we think about it doesn't logically make sense, right? Because let's say I uh I don't know I uh I went to a bank and I stole a lot of money, okay? And they caught me. So I come in front of the court and they say, "Colleman, you're a good guy, but you're going to jail for 10 years." and they say, "Listen, that I I hear you, but here's the thing. I'm really sorry. Um I I regret it. I did it and I'll never do it again." >> And you gave it back >> and I'll give you the money back. So, you have to let me free. You have to let me free. Right. I did the I did the four steps of two and then some. How many people could do you think the judge is gonna going to let me off? >> Maybe California. >> Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. maybe in California, but probably not, right? Maybe he'll give you a little bit less because you were contrite. Sure. But at the end of the day, you still did the crime, but it's not so with Hashem. Hashem is so kind, so loving that he's willing to say, "I'll wipe it clean 100%." Not only that, but if you did, I'll actually turn it into a merit. That's illogical. That doesn't make any sense. That's what the midra says. Chuva was created before the world was here. But that's Hashem. As long as we're sincere in our chuva, he's willing to renew our relationship. Maybe that's why we sing vid. We don't do it in a sad tune. We do it in a happy tune. We say Sounds like a wedding song. We should be like sound like you know like Ashkanazi. What's this uh happy tune? The Indian is that we're so confident that we did such chuva this whole season that we we were and we're going to change that our our sins are going to become mitzvah. That's that's hashemu. Hashem, Hashem with confidence right in the beginning 30 minutes. We do sincere chuva, we're gonna renew our relationship. And of course, what's the takeaway for us? Like we easier said than done. But if someone has done us wrong to take upon ourselves to try our best to truly get over it to truly, you know, move on and to go through the motions at least of really renewing our relationship with them. And if you can't, it's hard. That's okay. The harder we work on something, the more and the greater the merit will be for us in extra look over our bad midos over our us doing this superhuman act of truly forgiving others even if they don't really deserve to be forgiven. Okay, apathy. We're we're talking about it in a in a case where they're not abusing us, where there it's not a continual process of uh of hurting us. But let's say it was a long time ago. Right now, let's take upon ourselves, guys, everybody close your eyes for 10 seconds. Think of someone who hurt you and say, "Hashem, I really want to renew my I want to forgive him. I want to really forgive him. I don't want to feel any anger, any pain towards them anymore. I want to make it like it never happened. We might need mean Hashem's help to wipe our heart clean. But that's the of these of these 13. Don't just talk about Hashem, but do do it ourselves. Yeah. Onward we go. Okay. Let's start with Kel. Okay. Kel is a interesting one because again we're talking about mercy. How would we translate kell >> powerful strong? Normally one would not associate the word kell with mercy. In what way is strength associated with mercy? >> Oh yes. >> So who's a deep one? Oh, >> so Hashem is trying to bring himself back to mercy, >> but he has to but it's not so easy. >> It's not so easy. >> So, first of all, we just have to establish always means strength in in in Torah says, "I have the strength not in the name of God, but I have the strength to do something powerful." We see um in the same the same usage we we say in our strength is like the strength of a mighty mountain. So L always means strength which I wouldn't necessarily naturally associate with mercy. Ah, but here's a shot that naturally when you sin, God has created the rules, the system is such that you must there must be consequences. That's how God created the world. You do a sin, there are angels that are going to punish you. That's how God created a system. It's like I I used to run a Nightser program, okay? And I started realizing, you know, it's hard to get 18-year-old kids to come to Night Seder, but the yeshiva expects me to have a 90% attendance. So, what did I do? I had to make a system. I said, "Guys, I'm a really nice guy. I'm telling you, but there are rules. If you miss one time, you get an X. You miss two times, the rabbi talks to you. If you miss three times, the the Roshiva talks to you. And there's going to be serious consequences." And I made rules. I made rules. And I stuck to the rules. I tried to. Did the rabbi stick to the rules? Okay, that's a different story. But I made rules and I said, "These are the rules." And I did it with a smile. But there has to be rules or else and the we the attendants, believe me, it jumped from 40% it went way up because when the rules are clear and people know the rules and you follow through on the rules, good things happen. But what happens when you have a really good kid and he's really working on himself, but something happened and he's going, you know, his girlfriend dumped him and he missed three times in a row or three times, then it's more tricky because you have the rule, right? And for the system, you need to enforce the rule. But on the other hand, what's going to be the consequences if I follow through on my rules here? This kid is going to get kicked out of yeshiva and then who knows what who knows what's what what's going to be the future effect for this kid on his future. Yeah. So, it's tough. It's tough. It was tough tough situations. That's the problem with making rules, you know. So, Hashem made rules. But sometimes God has the strength to overcome his rule and say, you know what, in this scenario, I'm not going to allow those angels to punish you. I'm not going to immediately punish you and I'm going to allow there to be space for you to do chuva. I'm not going to punish you right away. That's what we talked about all of last week. Yes, den. My the ideal world is den. You come to night seder. you miss nights, I kick you out. The reality is Hashem sometimes has to, you know, use a little bit be strong enough. The Gar says what's Hashem's that my mid of my mid of mercy should overcome my mida of strength because that's the way the world needs to function. So that's Kel. The strength of Hashem is that he sometimes chooses doesn't always he reserves the right to punish you at any point. Okay? Because there needs to be a system or else no one's coming tonight. Right? If God said you do whatever you want, there are no rules. Then nobody would be keeping uh the laws of morality. There needs to be a system and God has to enforce it at times. But he also reserves the right at any point you know to uh to to change for the good of the system to be strong. That's the kel the strength like the second we'll talk about it at the right time that Hashem manifests. Yeah. How do we how do we bring that into our own lives? How do we bring the mida of kel into our own lives? I mean, I already gave a little bit of an example for my life. I don't run Nightstator anymore, but there are other ways of uh now I run different programs. It's called having a family. So, if you have a you have a kid, I have a 2 and a halfyear-old. Okay? So, we have to make rules with the kid. Okay? Mommy has to get mad when Alicia takes uh the cup and breaks the cup or takes the pepper and throws all the pepper all over the floor. She can't She can't be like, "Oh, she's so cute." That's what I do. That's what I do because it's so cute. But mommy has to say, "No, Alicia, we don't do that in the house because otherwise the kid's not gonna learn the rules, right?" But there also times and mommy has to know he's a little kid. What can you do? you know, we're not actually going to, you know, be too forceful, too mean to the kid because at the end of the day, he's just a little kid and we have to worry about his future. >> So, each one of us in our own lives can think about how do we apply that? You know, sometimes we interact with people that aren't uh they're not so nice to us and they don't necessarily deserve our beneficience and love and kindness, right? I don't know. Think about the think about the cashier that's just a jerk and you want to just lay it into them right there, right? Or I don't know, they give out people sometimes I have people who who uh who are a bit in my shabas meals or in the way they interact with me at my shabas meals. I'll give you an example. I like to give real life examples. Try to be transparent. So like Most people are very nice at my shabas meal and the way they interact me also I say WhatsApp me if you want to come to my shabas meals and they're very appreciative and sometimes they even give donations and sometimes people cancel now the right way to cancel say I'm so sorry rabbi you know something came up is it okay sometimes they even give a donation to cover the cost that's amazing and sometimes people are just like yo found another another meal cool or something like and that's it like Friday afternoon I've like prepared for them like you know a whole a whole they just like text me but like not coming didn't work out in the end peace and then sometimes people just don't even text me at all and just don't show up which is even worked now when they send me that text a part of me one part of me I'm an educator right so one part of me wants to be like actually what you should have written is dear of common I'm so sorry I'm not going to be able to make it in the end love to come another and and here's 100 check. You know, you already spent a lot of money to pay for the food, but but I'm really sorry. I want to like text that to them. But then another part of me says, "Come on. What are they? They're going to take it the wrong way. They're going to feel like I'm, you know, I'mounding them. I'm I'm giving them a hard time. Cole, let it go. It's not worth not every person who comes to my meal are they my uh educational uh person. They're just a random guy who needed to shop his meal. They found the cooler than me meal than mine. Have a little bit of p of of of mercy so to speak. Have a They're just a neb kid never learned social skills and what what can you do? Like honestly I don't know what's right. I'm not. It could be that the real MS is the first approach is the din is a I need to teach these guys a lesson. But something tells me that in the world we live in sometimes I have to just let it go and just beh and just not you know there's a time and place for everything. I don't know if WhatsApp texts are the place for me to be educating people. I don't know. So that's like a real life example and that's number three number three. And time is short because we got 10 more to go. Okay. So let's uh keep going. Ya. Hashem ra. So these are a bit easier. It's strength. How is that? So the are trying to understand how's how's this are obviously 13 minutes of of in fact these are I'd say the primary example of rahim because in the Torah inmu is begging last week's port portion that hashem not wipe out the Jewish people after they sinned and then he decides okay I'll be nice to them but I don't want to bring my myina in their presence like we learned last week and Moshe says no and he begs Hashem uh be closer to the Jewish people and then what does Hashem say I'm forgetting the exact wording but I will have mercy upon those who I will have mercy upon and I will have compassion [Music] something like that and Kanun are the primary examples manifestations of Hashem's mercy. But the question is what's the difference between and and that's what the struggle with. What's the difference between being merciful and by the way I forgot to mention uh much of this this dasha is based on a beautiful safer that I learned over the weekend by Ezra Bick you should learn the whole safer not just we're giving you the spark notes but it's an excellent safer um the 13 m of and also teran has a beautiful shir online that I listen to on the 13 minutes of rahim so just to bring the ghoul into the world to quote my sources is that's where I'm getting this from. Okay. In any case, Rahim's like this. What is the root of? Whenever you want to get to the deeper meaning behind something, we got to go to the chish of the word. So, what's the word? The root of >> Exactly. The rabbi knows is related to what's the womb. It brings us back to that little cutesy wootsy baby that you see in the ultrasound or that little baby that just came out. Now you're walking down the street and you see a baby just kind of lying there and crying. What human without a heart wouldn't come to save this baby and bring him into their home? Why though? Baby never did you anything? You know, he's not even he's never even done any good to the world. According to the strict laws of den, not my problem, but everybody here who has a heart, it's natural for us to to be merciful to this to this little baby. Why? Why is that? Why do we Now, you okay? Because it's natural. Just I don't know. That's the way Hashem created. But let me Okay, perhaps we can suggest the reason why it's natural is because we're created image of God. In the same way God is naturally, we're also naturally. We could also suggest on a related note when we're looking at this baby. We're not just looking at him now and we're not even looking at his past. We're looking at his future. This kid, he's going to be potential life. By me not saving his life, I'm throwing away all the future potential that this kid has. And so I have Rahim on him. Okay. So maybe that's the essence of the 13 m of Rakhman. the 30 of and this is the lessons of itself the lesson that Hashem is trying to embark to Yona which is why we read Yona at the end of is don't look at that how they are now look at them in their future these thousands of people they can change the world don't just judge them for what they are now think about the future have a little bit of think about the whole picture. So that's the essence of rahim. Rahim is not just looking at now looking at the future. It's that natural builtin part of us that just just yes I can kick this kid out of yeshiva. Yes, he broke all the rules. Right? The kid comes, he's missed shakus a h 100 times. Kick the kid out of yeshiva. He's a bad influence on all the other kids. And every rabbi says, "Yeah, we got to follow the rules." But the great rabbis say, "Yeah, but what about Yankee's future? Are you willing to look him in the eye and really understand that this kid when you kick him out of yeshiva, what's going to be his future?" Yes. According to the laws of Vin, you got to kick him out. But according to a different way of logic, the laws and logic of which are more intuitive, less mathematical, according to the laws of maybe we have to save this kid. So that's and that leads us to what's the sh of the word. So many exactly many are shown connected to the word. Why do we have for someone? Why does someone find in our eyes? It's hard to explain, right? It's beyond words. >> Creates affection. >> Creates affection. But why do I feel affection towards one and and not towards another? >> It's a feeling. >> It's a feeling. It's not based on on on logic. It's something beyond anything could explain in logic. It's that's how some say it's free. It's not earned. It just is. Now there are ways even though it's not earned of getting opening oneselves up towards that in his first talks exactly about how when you learn then you find favor in Hashem's eyes and he wants to hear your prayers better and he gives us all sorts of advice how to get and he goes very deep into the what the word is but for our purposes is an undeserved kindness that's beyond word. It's like my kid, we were looking for babysitters uh for my little Alicia and uh it's interesting. It's hard to explain it, but there's some girls who he walk they walk in and he's naturally just connected to them. And there are other girls not as much. Nothing wrong with those girls. They're great people, but he doesn't find the with them. And it's it's beyond something I could uh describe. Now, that's a very like simple example, very physical example could be God's is a lot deeper than my two and two-year-olds. Okay? But the point is is not something that we can explain necessarily logically. And the Gmorrah says what's when someone is in trouble and he calls out to help from Hashem. Let's say imagine is the little baby didn't do anything wrong to you so you need to punish not you don't need to punish but I have no reason to be nice to him but I'm going to be nice to him the garra says to distinguish between this is when I do there was a court case we took this kid to court and the court ruled guilty okay guilty but at the end of the day he screams out this Please judge, have mercy on me. I'm sorry. And I I don't have any justification for what I did wrong, but please. And your heart goes out to him. And the judge will modify. Maybe he'll even pardon the kid. So that's very much the feeling of these days of that should be when we're saying these these that should be our feeling should be saying I don't deserve but please hashem nonetheless despite the fact and the midra says that was what he found the the biggest treasure inim was the treasure of of when you don't feel like you deserve it when he called out for tre treasure that he didn't really deserve. And the true sadik and the greater the the sadic is they're on the level that they realize that all of everything is really kindness that undeserved kindness. If you're a little sadic, you think, "Yeah, I'm pretty good. So, I deserve a little bit." A real sadic understands how great God's kindness is and how little we deserve. So, that's okay. How do we apply that in our lives? because we don't walk through little babies every day and you know find them on the street but how do we practically apply in our lives? So again, I think it's in those situations when logic and justice might dictate I it's not my problem or even he deserves to be treated badly to nonetheless don't look at it in the immediate but turn the frame back. Think about the future of this kid of this person. Think about how we're gonna affect them and think about maybe the past re because all of us are really a product of our past and when we frame it not in the immediate but in the whole picture type of situation there's more space for that rah and type of consciousness to that come into the world and we need not react so quickly it with haste. Okay. What does mean? How do we translate that? Slow >> to anger. Literally a nostrils. The wrath of God is like the nostrils of God. When you get angry, your nostrils stir up. Thank you so much. Means I'm slow and getting angry. The Gumar asks, shouldn't it be why is it double language? So Gomorrah answers in your God's merciful both for the if a sadic messes up he has mercy but even for the so each mid that we're getting more and more compassionate even for a Russia God doesn't immediately punish them he waits he waits before he punishes the gives in the olden days the Romans when they were angry angry, they would hire soldiers, a legion of soldiers, and if someone didn't pay taxes, if someone made the Romans mad, send off the legions and attack. They they you know, a lot of didn't. But the king realizes that he he wants to have mercy. It's so he sends the legion very very far away so that by the time they do something wrong and the legions are on their way but they still have time to do chuva. So to the says we shouldn't think that God is a vatran that God just can uh let us off the hook. We can sin and he's going to let it go. But we do believe that he holds off. He holds off. He doesn't immediately punish us, allowing there to still be space for for for us to do chuva. Um that's in other words, that's the understanding. We have to hold these both things at the same time. on the one hand not to forget that God actually there is a a consequence for our sins but on the other hand to recognize that God is holding him off to give us space to come back to him. The garra gives a bit of a interesting uh manifestation of this. Says in judgment day the end of day there's going to be three groups. There's going to be the wicked, the righteous and the bonim the middle people. The wicked are going to immediately go to judgment day. the the righteous are going to immediately go to Ganedan and the the Benonim are going to be standing there and then Hashem is going to tilt. He's gonna tilt towards allow them to be towards they're exactly 50/50. and allow them to go into the world of okay that is the mid the garra says of ra which means much a lot of in other words in a purely din world you do a mitzvah you get avo depends how you tilt yourself and that's what's fair. But for some reason, Hashem's he tilts toward kindness. He tilts us towards he has mercy on those bayon. And let's be honest, most of us are certainly not in the righteous camp. If you read the Tanya, you know what I'm talking about. Most of us are in that benon camp. So, we need that. We need a lot of towards Hashem that Hashem is giving towards us. But the question must be asked, why is that fair? In other words, at the end of the day, shouldn't it be that it's based on our deeds? If we do kindness, we do mitzvah, and we should be like the Ram says, we're all a scale. And how is it fair that God is mate? How is that? How is that a fair world? It's a fair question, right? >> There's an idea. >> Yeah. >> So, by us, we're missing information, >> right? We have information missing. So, we fill in the gaps by he's also but he doesn't have any lack of information. He's got all the information. Mhm. >> Somehow Duz is saying he's going to >> he's going to take everything into consideration. Even those things that we could never have thought of. >> Mhm. >> So let's take for example somebody's doing something based. He'll say even that's not based >> still something missing. >> And he'll he'll he'll he'll view the whole scenario and say he doesn't really really want to do it. Deep inside he's still upset about the fact that he's eating that not kosher hamburger. Deep inside he's not actually wanting. He's motivated by something else that is us and he knows every deep thought inside of us. So you do what we would call amazing. We we're doing it on purpose. >> But even when we do it on purpose, we're not really fully doing it on purpose. He >> there's a part of us >> he's gonna find that he has the whole all the pieces of the puzzle. He has all of the information and he can put the pieces and and the same judge can look at the same scenario and one judge can come to one conclusion, one judge can come to the other conclusion and God will choose as long as we're orienting ourselves in the right direction to I'm going to suggest that it might be inherent in who is because God created the world. Therefore, it's built in within him to try to take the puzzle pieces and therefore tilt it towards but he won't always do that because if if we're going to abuse the system, right, the Gar says if you intend on sinning then cha doesn't work. We're going to abuse the system then he's not going to allow that to continue forever. Another way of looking at at based on the is inspired by the Torah Devor the Raach writes gives the following analogy. Imagine you're going on a hike and a random guy is hiking with you and you're on a yamlam and then there's a beautiful mountain down in a lot and he slips and you grab onto him and you hold on to this guy and he's about to fall off the mountain and he's holding on to him and he looks at you in the eye and he says and he spits on you says dirty Jew and curses at At that moment, what do you have the right to do? Let go. You're the only thing keeping this guy in existence. He was a jerk to you. Why do I have to hold on to him? Especially if it's annoying and painful for me. Butim says, "You're going to hold on to the guy." So too with Hashem, we sin against Hashem. Hashem is regenerating, re-energizing every moment. He's giving us energy and yet we spit on him. Every sin is to a degree a rebellion against Hashem. But nonetheless, he lets his overwhelming kindness allow us to still exist. Okay. Yah. Let's keep moving just because time is short. The em what does have to do with raim? One would think that MS is the opposite. Em is exactly what I want to run away from when I want to uh you know we don't want God to look at our true files. We want to have our mercy files. So in what way do we want emis? We don't want ems. Why do we want right now? There different way one way of explaining is like this. He's em because he made a promise with our forefather that he would continue the Jewish people that he would give us a chance and Emis in this case is faithful. He truly knows our potential and that therefore he will bring into the world ra and this microcosmic level you deserve to be punished. But in a big level, the truth is this kid needs more life. So he's going to allow us more life in order to do have the potential to do chuva. So in the bigger picture, MS is to actually have raim under certain circumstances. Right? Another way of looking at it, let's say like this. Sometimes in our life, I I made a promise. I promise I'm gonna I'm gonna pick up I'm going to I'm I'm going to give a ride to someone. I'm going to pick you up from the airport. Only problem is life gets in the way. I get a million other obligations. I can't do it. I'm so sorry. And I'm about to cancel him. And then I remember the me of emis means the word of a Jew is the word of a Jew. Even though I have an out, it wasn't my fault. This and that, at the end of the day, I always have to lean towards raim and I'll rearrange my schedule. I'll figure out a way to be amistic when it comes to rahim and um and and and and and find a way to to be truthful and faithful to my own words. That's another way of manifesting MS in the real world. Okay, last three for our last three minutes. Preserve gener kindness for thousands of generations. Some interpreted for eternity. Okay, this one's kind of obvious why it's merciful. Obviously, it's it's merciful. But the way that many of the explain it, why is God because he remembers this of the and we God our ancestors brought Hashem into the world and so he's going to be merciful towards their children us even if we don't deserve it. However, there's a there's a caveat. As long as we can still consider them our forefathers and we try to act in those their ways, then he brings a redemption of the when we act like the when we consider them our but we divorce ourselves from our so then they're no longer of us. We no longer have this of us. Let's keep going. No sayar says he he he bears what's the says like this is an act a sin I didn't mean to do it wasn't on purpose is I did it on purpose I rebelled against that I did it in spite of God before he has to to get God back. And nonetheless, God will be willing to forgive all of these sins as long as we do chuva. Even in a purposeful rebellion against God, we're able to do if we do proper chuva, Hashem is willing to restart the relationship. And that brings us to our final of the What does mean? cleans. If you remember in the original of original covenant, God said, "I will not clean you out." You make a sin, there are certain circumstances, which means sometimes I will clean you out. Sometimes I won't clean you out. When when will I clean you out? When you do chuva, when you're sincere, when you want to change, when you orient yourself towards chuva. when won't I uh clean you out? You don't even try. You're not even trying to grow. Then I'm not interested. And what's the difference between forgiveness that we saw in the previous three and n exactly what we spoke about in the beginning of our year? It could be that God would forgive us. He would not punish us. He wipe it off of our slate. But still not our best friend. still don't we don't feel close to us. But what does a keshb do? He cleans us out. He purges us. He puts us through the ringer. And after if we did proper chuva, he makes us feel like we're best friends with him again. And that's the greatest kindness of keshar. And even if I did a purposeful sin, at the end of the day, if we do chuva, he's able to forget it all. Imagine like nothing ever happened and renew that loving relationship which is ultimately why we're here in the world to earn that closeness of in this world and ultimately able to feel that great closeness that we've earned in the next world and because of that great mercy of u we're we're able to renew that relationship every single year. So every day when we do the we're reminding ourselves of the unbelievable potential closeness that we can have with the and we should also remind ourselves of our commitment to bring and manifest this this mercy and bring it into our own lives in our hashem. N it [Music] d nu. [Music] Amen. [Music] Amen. [Music] Amen. May all be blessed with a beautiful week of My birthday [Music] sh Oh my n my