Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: Mystical and Kabbalistic Insights into Joy during and after Succot

[Music] okay well thank you it's good to see you all and I hope that the car game were not only enjoyable but inspirational uplifting and hopefully there'll be a carry through for the entire year so I'd like to begin really with two unrelated just stories you know kind of some somewhat humorous stories the first story involves a non Jew who decided to convert to Judaism and he converted in a class in the Hasidic community and literally he converted at a very opportune time of year when there was a lot of party making in a lot of rejoicing he converted I believe right before Rosh Chodesh what so that's pretty fertile Rosh Hodesh there's a very big party with a lot of drinking and then two weeks later is tuba shots big party then Rosh Chodesh a door machine if Nassau Dora Maar bimba simcha we have great rejoicing in adora and then two weeks after that is pouring and then two weeks after that is Rosh Chodesh Nisan two weeks after that is Pesach so this guy goes over to his friend Ivan and he says what a wonderful religion this is he says every two weeks we have the gigantic parties in between their Shabbos and even during the week you know there's for Brennan's and other things and drinking you really got to check it out so I even decided he would become Jewish also again I'm not getting into the Holocaust of what process he went there with but I become Jewish but it took him a little while so he converted shortly before Rosh Chodesh Thomas after school so a Scottish time is already although it's not yet two three weeks but you're approaching the month of the Ave looks the morning over the temple and then there's the fast of shivers orbitales and then there's the nine days where there's no meat and no haircuts and no weddings and no music so he's just hit with fast days and deprivation and suffering and restriction so he goes over to his friends and he says I don't understand you told me this religion is just celebration constantly celebration and here like every other day there's the fast thing there's a deprivation so the first guy scratches his head and says I don't know ever since you joined has been going downhill with the truth but the truth of the matter is that that is the nature of the Jewish calendar right the Jewish calendar really mirrors life there is jubilation there is joy there is happiness there is contentment there is gratitude and then there is sadness and there is mourning and there's a yearning for something better to come into the world and the truth of the matter is life is a mixture of all of those different experiences and in Judaism we go through all of those different experiences now this gets us to the uniqueness of the season that we've just completed what are called the Highgate history because in a sense all of these contradictions and all of this complexity we have actually experienced in the span of a little bit more than three weeks if you can count that little as part of it you have the whole month before that we have the somberness the seriousness of rosh hashanah in which we stand before God and we plead for our lives and remember in the sonnet O'Keefe which talks about even the angels in heaven tremble and of course even Rosh Hashanah is a bit schizophrenic because in one hand we are very concerned who will live and who will die and yet Rosh Hashanah it's also a cog is Yom Tov where we rejoice and then we have Yom Kippur and then we have the joy of Sukkot and the unrestrained joy of the last day Shmi niet Sarat simcha Tova in the Diaspora they had it today or they're still having it today well depending where they have been the United States - still they're still celebrating some tots are out so the point basically is that Tishrei is almost an acceleration of time and acceleration of life because it's the beginning of the year it's the first month of the year so it sets a template it sets a pattern in which in life there are going to be many experiences there will be experiences of joy and Experion of sadness there will be experiences in fact it's interesting thing I mean this may sound unusual or you or you may identify with this there are people who actually say maybe they don't say cuz they're a little embarrassed to say it but they definitely think it that they enjoy tsch above more than Simchat Torah and I'd want to get to other biographically but the point basically is that is not a nonsensical statement there are people who connect more to God with introspection and seriousness and they're not necessarily into the singing and the dancing but what does teacher a teacher teach TV teaches us that a person has to learn to serve God with the entire range and palette of human emotions you have to learn how to cry and to mourn and to grieve and to be introspective and you have to learn how to sing and dance and laugh because otherwise you're simply a victim of whatever type of personality type you happen to have been given and God says you got to be more than that you have to serve Him as a total person and that is why teach Ray which sets the pattern for the year forces us as it were to go through all of these changes all of these different emotions because it is a sea know it is an educational process that teaches us to serve our College Borko as a total person fact by foot nur used to say the greater footing we used to say that the person who cannot rejoice in simcha Tova is not really capable of crying on the ninth of F because when you cry because we don't have something that's only meaningful if you feel the importance of it as a presence in your life if you don't have the joy in the presence you can't have the suffering in the absence right it's kind of connected in that way in fact that's kind of the cost the cost and in life of having deep love is that there's going to be a loss on one side of the equation eventually and there are people that actually have taken a philosophy they would rather not love not to experience the pain down the road and this is a reaction that people sometimes have they didn't want to feel yeah yeah yeah it's very scary because you loved and you lost in such a devastating way you don't want to repeat it that's right that's right but that's not what God that's not God's plan that's not God's desire God's desire is we experience life in its deepest richest way and in that life there will be sadness and in that life there will be joy and in that life that will be struggle and in that life there will be gratitude again let me just remind you of one of the most famous passages in Tanakh and that is in qohelet Ecclesiastes that we indeed read on Shabbat column oh wait King Solomon's famous passage Lamar Mela Lok oldsman there is a time in life for all a time to destroy a time to build a time to laugh a time to cry that's exactly the idea that is being that is being expressed in qohelet don't be afraid to open yourselves up to the richness and the depth of all of the different feelings that a Shem sends our way through the experiences that we have we become deeper we become richer as a result and we develop capacities within ourselves that would otherwise be undeveloped so that was my story number one my story number 2 oh yes let me just finish and based on that idea therefore you know every post dimensions that's we're all kind of exhausted exhilarated hopefully but also exhausted with the plugin and we're almost welcoming Oh ordinary time for a while of course we still have Shabbat you know you never escape you know as it were but one might actually say again with some exaggeration that such fun is the most important month of the year the most important month precisely because nothing special happens because the real test of a kind is not how inspired you are in the passion of the moments but whether it carries over into the undramatic day by god now the southern ish gave a very very beautiful mashallah he said imagine that you have a patch of water and it's overflowing now you want to know you want to figure out how full is the pots so as long as it's on the fire you cannot tell because even if the pot is only half full when it's connected to the heat it'll overflow the only way you could gauge what the contents how much content so there is when it's off the fire and it's not being heated is it still overflowing you look - it says a person who's inspired during a con that's like a half empty pot that can overflow even on the fire that is not really how much roughly atomic spirituality is in a person so really such fun is Hashem is great litmus test have we grown from the Fagin are we different people have we been transformed or was this only a temporary nice experience that simply passes so cash run is back to regular life and have we been transformed are we different are we entering that regular routine on a different plane something you think about you know sometimes I mean I include myself in this you know especially with the intensity of Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur I stare at you mate you've odd the month available before that we kind of sometimes think oh thank god that's this chuva business is over with so yeah but you know not really now it's just beginning you know we made our resolutions we made our promises we made our commitments all of that is wonderful now is the time to begin to carry them out and that's why Testament is such an important month because that could set the pattern for the rest of the year whether we're really taking the elements of him in the serious way that they're supposed to be taken okay so my second story is also I think a bit humorous you know there are two great honors that we distribute on some kata Hashmi niet ceratin in Eretz Israel one is the honour of the ally of course everyone get every all the mannequins every one but at least all the men get called up to our layout depending on my mother and some synagogues women get called up too but again I won't get into the whole ethic complications of that but but the greatest honor is Phaeton toha and that is the person who is honored with the Aliyah to finish the Torah and the second honor is Hassan gracious the one that is given the Aliyah to begin the Torah now this is true in the non Hasidic world in other words in ananka scenic world in the hierarchy of honors Kazan to rise a greater keyboard than hot embrace it I'll explain why in many Hasidic circles including kabadi actually was the opposite the Rebbe for example would get hot embrace it not for tonzura so Cocina may be a bit different view on this maybe the story might illustrate why there's the difference so with that a little introduction let me tell you a story yesterday we had haka folks right people were dancing around and singing and celebrating and a Rosh Yeshiva noticed that a number of his students we're just hanging around either drinking either soda or something a bit stronger and they were not participating in the dancing so the Rebbe said to them there she was said to them why don't you dance with the Torah why don't you also rejoice with the Torah so the students were quite honest they actually said you know Rebbe we haven't been learning that well we haven't been doing that well who are we to celebrate with the tourists not it's not as if we were so devoted to it the whole year so we don't feel worthy and again I I accept that answer resistance a bathroom we don't feel worthy to be dancing with the Torah because we are not scholars we are not learners we are not too much Museum we're not people who really really I devoted to the Torah so what gives us the right all of a sudden when it comes to the fun in the games you know we're gonna sing or sing and dance so the Rebbe said you're making a big mistake because let's compare the two Aliotti santo ha and her tongue braces first all the words on is very intricate sound of course generally means a bridegroom and the concept is a Jew should feel married to the Torah the Torah is our Asia tile so to speak so the Rebbe said like this in the non Hasidic world at least Santora is given to the most eminent person of the Kahala maybe the Rav the head of the yeshiva some shows auctions around for money okay that's that's another thing but but generally speaking it is a cover that goes to the most eminent person of the congregation it doesn't have to be such a big cover what's the difference so listen to this starts a very beautiful fun Catan toha is a celebration of accomplishments we finished the tower it celebrates what was done what was finished what was completed so who deserves the coton Torah a person who's accomplished a person who's completed we give that to the great Thomas Holcomb but the time for a sheet is not a celebration of what you've done it's a celebration of what you're able to do in the new year it's a new beginning so the Rebbe said to restore meet him even if you can't dance with the Torah like the satin toga you can dance with the Torah like the coton gracious meaning there is promise there is opportunity what you are today is not limited by what you were yesterday and what you can become tomorrow is not limited but what you are today so there's something very very significant with rejoicing with the Torah because what what a Jew is declaring is that I want to be a certain type of person maybe I'm not that type of person yet I'm not there yet but I want to be there I want to be that type of person and God looks down at us when we're declaring with sincerity that I want to be the type of person who's connected to the Torah who learns the Touro keeps the Torah that counts for an awful lot because God sees your heart and God sees your feelings and no gun will give us all hopefully bezzerides - I'm a second chance and a third chance because we're really telling him you know sometimes I'm not what I should be but I want to be the person that is connected to your Torah right so that's kind of a message of the heart on so rather for sound great shades and the difference between the two now maybe it's just just us a little a little aside maybe that's why I see them consider a son brace to be a big around honor meaning it's much more important to focus on your future than to be too connected to youth to the past the past can either make you arrogant if you have a lot of accomplishments or god forbid it can make you depressed and despondent if you don't have that many accomplishments because see they're taught better to focus on the future in fact there's a famous voyage I believe it's from the Balaton in which when Adam and hava ate from the eight Sadat's and God basically says uh eka you know where are you for some time knew where they were but he just see they're hiding and are dumb basically says that he he's hiding because he's naked and he's ashamed and the ballot Anya says when Hashem asked him I eka Hashem was not asking him what did you do Hashem is saying where are you holding what do you plan to do about it in the future how do you plan to rectify the past is the past in many ways we can't change the past he says you know there's other was making a mistake thinking that God wants to cross-examine him about the past when Hashem is real interest is what is your future okay you made a mistake we're not going to condemn mistakes we're gonna ask what are you going to do i yet - where are you in terms of movement on that okay this is from the ballot Anya the alter rebbe reb shanira Zalman of Lee Adi in fact I think the story goes I'm not sure if I have all the details that he was asked by a Russian general as well one of the generals of the Tsar who studied the Bible the Old Testament and he asked Sagem and eve where are you God certainly knows where they are and the alter rebbe said God was not asking a spatial geographical question God was confronting them with a spiritual issue what are you going to do about it and by the way this is actually very relevant to even the way we raise our children very very often you know children like adults including our parents you know make mistakes they make bad decisions sometimes they do things that are wrong but to simply criticize them over the mistake may not be that productive but what can be very very productive is okay you made a bad move what do we do about it now how do you improve this situation how do you try to create a some type of record some type of foundation where it won't happen again how do we work on this problem that's a very different orientation then why did you do that etc etc why did you that may not be that the productive discussion right so those are the two things I wanted to begin with now another thing I want to talk about is and again forgive me for you know we just finished the up this or forgive me for going back a little bit but I think it's worthwhile we still have the Yom Tov spirit so I know I want to rise myself to go a little backwards here because I want to talk about how cuff votes occur further course means going in a circle lyov and we have two different hoc approach rituals that actually have two different origins and I want to both compare them and contrast them for a moment for the seven days of Sukkot every single day in chakras people walk around the Bema carrying the lulav and the earth rogue and for six days of Sukkot except for Shabbat they do once and oceania robber the seventh day of Sukkot which was which was Sunday we walk around seven times and after we walk around seven times we put down the lulav in the a stroke we take only the Arava only the willow and we beat it so uh no Shana rabba there are two distinct rituals but you got to pay attention to two distinct rituals one are the seven haka folks with the lulav and Ezra and the other is kyboots hitting the irobot these are two separate things now when we come to shimmy niet syrettes Simchat Torah which is a band you understand of course in Israel it's very very clear that this is the case but even inputs laura's it's the case jhemini at Sarat is not Sukkot at all it is a new distinct holiday that immediately follows the holiday of Sukkot in Erik Israel this is crystal clear we do not eat in this we did not eat in the sukkah human yet Sarah puts larette's the waters are a little muddy because of the kalindra Code out the issue so even though it is a separate Yom Tov but still one eats in the sukkah most people eat this without without a bra so it's a little confusing but but then there it's Israel we really understand it is a young person a yachtsman and I meani at Sarat both at night and on the day and in the Diaspora the second day of community service which is Simchat Torah we also have have Hakka floats right then we do seven aquifer morning at night before the Torah reading so the question becomes what is this business about her comforts and is there a distinction between the Hakka throat of hoshanah Rabbah and the Hakka fault of shamea Surat Simchat Torah so first I'm going to give you a thought that is Kabbalistic and I cannot fully explain but this is what the mokuba Elam tell us the Gemara tells us well first of all in terms of sources let me point out the Hakka float of hoshanah Rabbah are mentioned in the Mishnah at least as being done in the beit hamikdash so the idea of doing it outside of the beit hamikdash is not from the game or athens from the time of the Ghanim who said Zafar Lamech - we should imitate the Alka fault on the other hand the Hakka floats of Shalini at Surat Simchat Torah have absolutely no source whatsoever in the Mishnah or the Gomorrah they are an invention a very significant invention of a much later to Kufa in fact the classic book actually zijn I said hey if you want to explore this it so hard to get the safer's been out of print for many years but in that bookcase in the back there there is a safer by of rom yari that is called told oats ha cog Simchat Torah it tells you absolutely everything you want to know about every conceivable custom of Simchat Torah with every type of aid Ashkenazi Magnum timonium German Hungarian polish Moroccan Syrian Italian it really is the go-to book and you will see precisely chapter in verse when Hakka folks develop so just in terms of getting your knowledge straight remember how Kubota Foshan Arab ah were always done in the beit hamikdash that is in the Mishnah and then it was extended even outside of the beta mag - al-kahf otome niet sarasim qatar is a much later point no not a meme on its from the governor but Solis it's a thousand years old but what I mean is it's post Talmudic it is not a law of the talmud itself now with respect to the ark a photo for china raba the Gemara draws an analogy to the conquest of eureka eureka which may or may not be the present site of the city was the very first city that was conquered by the jewish nation under yahushua been done and the way eureka was conquered was in the a mirage kind of a miraculous fashion we walked around the walls once for six days and on the seventh day which was Shabbat we walked around the walls seven times and in the words of the famous black spiritual and the walls came tumblin down so in a mystical way we don't understand to be mock if to surround a barrier is connected metaphorically with the barrier falling down that is correct so consequently it is said that the idea of Hakka folks is to remove the barriers that separate them from God in the course of a year we have our very close we've made mistakes maybe the FA wrote you're not so big but you know the expression death but it's that been small thing desensitize us make us course unfeeling we have become work hug from a ship bad me dope the Rambam uses the word bad met me don't go to the round I'm said our machine sort of deal out they are like walls and barriers that separate you from God so now at the end of the true vas season we do the haka felt as a symbolic gesture that may these barriers collapse like the walls of Jericho and as Rayleigh Poston said according to some interpretations this is actually the meaning of the mean hog it's a minute it's not a din and not everybody does it of the collar walking around the cotton seven times and there are many reasons but but one of the most beautiful reasons is that when two people get married there are natural barriers between them I mean each of them have different life experiences they've grown in different ways and the kala is essentially telling the coton let all the barriers go down between us now you could ask a good question I'm not gonna be marking this so why is it the caller that walks around the coton why isn't it the Hutton who walks around the collar it's a good question now some say very simple that it is based on the law shown of a posture Kinnear me Oh Nick Ava tis so valve cover the woman surrounds the man again that that's not an answer that just connecting it to the logic of the of the pursuit I'll let you think about that maybe we'll talk about it that at a later time but the notion that the prayer of the kalila katana at that moment is that the barriers that would separate us she collapse is a very very beautiful thought at that point and that's what how Coffelt represents the collapsing of the barriers but the next question is is there a difference in the function of those on arabica fault and the haka photo of Schmidty at Sarat Simchat Torah so here I want to share with you I thought of Rev Joseph dopes organic Repsol reject the great great God though Tony humor University it's interesting a little bit of gossip you know since the high rating world in eric is rel in there it's on to something even in United States doesn't like why you they considered why you not to be religious enough you Shiva although that's almost a slander so whenever they quote whenever they have occasion to quote rabbi Sol of a check they always identify him as the alphabet din of Boston is also a check you know live in Boston the community so they don't say Roche he/she but it's gonna be really funny which is where I use official name so whenever you see as I said so there so there are farm that are based and rough so great chicks teaching that I then it wouldn't be Boston hell okay babita's it may well solve a check offers a beautiful insight and here you have to have a bit of a mental picture here when we do hakoda no Shana raba we circle with our lulav in our a stroke and in the middle there are people who are holding the sofrito so we are encircling the Torah while we're holding our lulav in our throat on Simchat Torah we encircle the Bema while we're holding the Torah Seraph so basic suggests the following the Hakka photo Foshan naraba and the cathode of Simchat Torah represents kind of going up a level and the way it works is the following I know Shanna raba really all of sukkot because we did one hot cover every day we are basically saying through the doing of our mitzvahs Lula was a mitzvah practical Mitzvah we are eradicating the barriers that separate us from understanding God's Torah because a person can truly understand God's Torah only if they have the erection I am what do we say what is Mitchell I say ray hokhmah errata Shem the beginning of wisdom is Here I am Loretta means I keep God's mitzvot so what you're doing and sukhasan Hashanah raba is we are other words cathode is collapsing the barriers right that's the common denominator but what barriers you're collapsing the barriers that separate me from the Torah should collapse by my commitment to the mitzvah of Hashem that exemplify erase it hokhmah Loretta chef but on Simchat Torah you're now collapsing a different barrier technically when you're dancing with the Torah what are you dancing around see I know Shana raba you're dancing around the safer Torah now I understand the way people dance you can also be dancing - no but that's kind of just your private dancing but the official ceremony of our couples is people are holding a Torah and they are just walking around the Bema in which there is no door on the Bema so what are you circling on Simchat Torah says the Vilna Gaon you are circling the Shekinah itself you are circling God's the Vilna Gaon says that although the haka photos Simchat Torah came became later as I said before it is based on the Messianic dance around the Shekinah that is described in different sources in fact the real McGowan was so took this so seriously that he actually said that if you had a Bheema then that steps that kids could sit on says children were not allowed to sit on those steps during the haka vote around the Bema because this was the macomb of the Shekinah so look at the progression here this is a brilliant brilliant insights again kadar College of soloveitchik so inside some are always really brilliant cochon araba we connect to the Torah through our commitment to mitzvahs and Simchat Torah we connect to the shekinah through the limit of Torah and therefore it's at the higher level of a direct connection to God and that's why how couples are very very serious stuff yes happy joyous leva dick but it's very very serious in that sense mm LF you used a phrase Gill ooh gillo beer aha ah da ki lupara de rejoice with trembling that's why those of you that are aficionados of Kazan adore no suck know that throughout me nyet Saracen pratyahara at various points in the service an experienced causing about FEMA will use new gunam from the UM the run from Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur now some people think that's just simple story stick that stick meaning you take the very serious name and you put it in a plan a time and place where it's fun and games it's a parody so to speak but that's not that that is absolutely not the case for number one the carbon Moussa of Shmi niet Sara's happens to be the same Corbin as Yom Kippur it's the same Corbin as Yom Kippur the Moosa of meanieheads eros is the same most of as Yom Kippur saying what night night I mean the Holy of Holies I mean the one that's not brought in the coalition and this is also the idea of seriousness that in a sense this is a day of in fact it's interesting that you know those of you that have English maximum from the old country whatever it is so now of course arts either art scroll or core in their every sex is the master of choice but before kourin there was art scroll right and before art scroll there was Birnbaum remember Birnbaum yeah my offering to Americans England have their own have their own Miriam and before Birnbaum there was a blur which is indeed a product of England now in the Adler mock sir when they have inserts force meaning at Sarat they translates meaning at Sarat the eighth day of solemn remember that that phrase the eighth day of solemn assembly now where where on earth do you get solemn assembly you can get at Sarat different translations but one of the translations of at Sarat the day of ingathering assembly at sur meaning don't go home stay in town that's Eric lot sorry but so I'm knitting the happiest day of the year more ye saw action 1/2 the gun the gun says the only myths rubbish me niet sir it is to be happy no loo love no cerca what's the Mitzvah be happy she way around earth do they get solemn assembly doesn't fit at all and I don't have an answer to that but but if we could make a dress on an English translation maybe there's a connotation that in that joy there's an awesome solemnity at the same time at the same time so they tell the story that there was a man who went to the producing a trim and the first Gera reveille a bit sick mayor alter and he felt he felt cheated because he was not given a hot copper with the safer Torah there people complain that why didn't I get out cover and the fiduciary room said maybe it's better than you don't have a hot cover you know when a person takes an oath in a based in a shooooow and today basins don't even make allow you to take it off because because if God forbid you take a false out that is such a tremendously great sin to swear falsely in the name of God fact this concept that Jews don't take oaths even if it's true it's people misunderstand it there is no sin to swear in the name of God if you're telling the truth in fact not only is it not a sin the Rambam counselor there's a mitzvah it is a mitzvah to swear in the name of God's if you're telling the truth so there is no how luck or whatsoever that you're not allowed to swear in the name of God to something that's true so why is it so that religious Jews routinely will not swear the answer is because they're never a hundred percent sure if it is true maybe they're missing something right so the fear of a true lot checker is so so great among a religious Jew that the manag Israel has been we do not swear and even in a baked in I mean in the Gemara there are numerous cases where you have to make a sure check every time a widowed collector kasuga she's supposed to make a shrew up we just don't do it today we way we're moko the shrew there is no sure now even in shavoo out there are different hierarchies of how severe an oath can be the most severe oath is when you swear in the name of God holding a safer Torah he do she I Rim said you know what a hot cuppa is you're holding the Torah you're making an oath to God that you will live by this Torah the doozerium said are you ready to make that oath if you're not ready maybe it's a good idea but you didn't have our cover not so bad now I'm not giving this proceeding my sir as a jacala myself at all I mean of course we give our covers to people who are not able to make this commitment as most of us maybe are not able to make a commitment in that way but it just shows you how elevated in a whole and holy the idea of our couples are to collapsing the barriers and that's why sometimes when her compass gets a little bit wild and the like it's not it's not truly in the spirit of what some customer is sara is joyous singing dancing but it should be with a sense of purpose and feeling and that's simply an excuse to get drunk poram is the same story Papa will talk about porn when it's time for for him but obviously there's an overlap here with how one approaches poor him as well so in this connection I want to share yet another thought about our thoughts and these are the out covers of some cuts or wrap and that is the mokuba the mokuba an eraser the mokuba will teach us that the seven hacker felt corresponds to what are called the seven lower Sufi hearts which are manifestations of God's divine energy in the world now there are 10 sphere out altogether but the first three are called God's brains God's mukhin good caviar Oh God's thought processes caca mabini das Kesser so my focus is it casts air karma bina karma being a dot then it's not so important for our purposes but those are God's mental operations whatever that means they're called Mugen we don't really have any perception of those but the seven lower spirits are called gods from adults God's emotional characteristics which are manifested in his running of the world and I'll first just list them again many of you might be familiar with them the seven spirits lower spirits that said loving-kindness guevara inner strength to ferrets beauty net sack is victory or eternity code glory is the English translation you sewed foundation and mallets and each of the haka vows corresponds to those feareth again I'll try to explain briefly what that means operationally now Kabbalah also teaches that there are seven great personalities who in their lives exemplified that particular aspect of divinity and thereby brought it into the world Avraham represents the sphere obsessing of loving-kindness yes luck is guevara which is referring to introspection and discipline which is needed in fact too much class ed you write you give your kids candy whenever they want they lose their teeth too much press ed produces Ishmael we needed Guevara as the corrective but too much Guevara produces in Asaph so chesed is her cover number one eyebrow Guevara - number two your truck now the third sphere ah is to ferret now to ferret this beauty beauty is said to be the synthesis the harmonization the balance between NASA and Guevara and that is exemplified in the life of Yaakov Aveeno and because he synthesized and combined rezidentura all of his children of the holiness of the Jewish people there is no excluded segment TIF eret is also called Emmet's and it's connected to Torah now I don't know you know the British dear famous English poet John I think he pronounces Kate's right it's spelled ke a TF but I think it's pronounced John Kate's I remember and he wrote in his famous poem truth is beauty and beauty is truth Wow that's exactly what Kabbalah says TIF eret is Emmet Emmet is to ferret because Emmet is not going to one extreme or the other but the ability to synthesize synthesize think about our own lives raising a child you have to combine the passing with the discipline and the structure too much discipline you crush a child too much I said you spoil a child which is pretty bad as well there needs to be the balance and the synthesis and the harmonization and that's Yaakov Avena before is net suck I'll go back to explain what that's a face that's Moshe v is hold that's around the sixth is you showed that's Co safe you'll notice is out of order and the seventh is mouth hood which is doubled again in Kabbalah Moshe and our own are four and five and Yosef is six and you may know as well that for the use piece and on Sukkot many follow the Kabbalistic order in which Yosef is number six even though he was before chronologically motion now I'll explain the logic of that in a moment and that's why even the songs of the Hakka folks are not an accident ride of it Malik Israel Hiva Khayyam whichever you sing it is a standard simplest or so on - some people think oh I can sing it any time I'll sing it I cover number two I saw this and somebody sent me a song sheet of recommended songs for Simchat Torah and you know and the rabbi wanted to be very specific like which song will be sung so he put in a cup for number three let's sing david malukas archive acarya and maybe i'm being pedantic was a no dubbing Melanie shall Hiva Khayyam is only hackathon number seven that's where it belongs there's a Piet's that people sing aim at the air catch em an idea right that's a very very popular period people sing it with a even if they're recognizing they sing it with a so I did have our roster I did which is very very strange because the Pierce is not at all from spartina the pH was written by because mr. Rebbe the publisher Christine is a rabbit and I'm not sure if he started the idea of singing it then thread it or not but a not the AirCam and the second line is a murukku Kevin mhmm so part of this is a praise of measurable so which I cover do you have to sing it in the fourth cover there's a reason why it's in different places it's connected to this idea not what you're trying to do cabbalistic lee when you're collapsing the barriers we're now getting into a much more specific clef you're trying to bring into the world that particular media a couple one of Abraham's Mita it's Lakshmi that number to yahko moshe our own dove it in other words it's not just the general collapsing of barriers but it's very specific so what are you trying to do so the first three are the easiest to understand something that's it you're asking Hashem give me the power to be a kinder person so I could bring more of your kindness and your benevolence into the world that's the qivana of haka for rachona the second toughie give me the ability to be a more focused disciplines person you know presence could be about cousin but he's all over the place Guevara is the idea of prioritizing your time and it sometimes means taking a nap and it sometimes means not having an open house if for a given hour of the day so Guevara is helping me be a stronger more focused more disciplined person Serna kapha help me balance them appropriately so I don't veer to one extreme or the other extreme that's the meat of to ferret the notion of synthesis harmonization balance so that's the first tree and that is actually the most fundamental tree at now nets ah how'd you sewed which is a second interesting a different problem and that is how do I survive external pressures in life that could crush me even if a person in his own internal personality has successfully navigated that said given to ferret but we often get crushed because of outside pressures we sometimes live in families that are not so supportive of our decisions sometimes it might even be a spouse parent a work situation are you Shiva our college situation so even if a person that internally has made all the right judgments and all the right decisions they don't always have the wherewithal to be able to carry it out because they get crushed that's net second net son which is endurance victory eternity is asking a Shem give me the strength not to be dissipated or crushed by the negative pressures out there and that of course is maschera benjamin cerbai now represents a net sucked person what did there was a very infamous quote of George Bush Senior yeah II didn't mean anything by it but it was interpreted as kind of an anti-semitic remark at one point he was sick and tired of AIPAC and the Israeli Lobby pressuring him for something so he said just one lonely guy against he's piteous one lonely guy against these hordes of the Jewish lobbyists it's the opposite instead of the Jewish people are always called the one sheep against the seventy wolves he was portraying himself as I'm the one sheep against these Jewish wolves that are trying to get me again he you know whatever he I don't think he meant anything particularly bad but that this was this is what he said so Moshe Rabbeinu literally is one guy against three million people who very very very often gave him a very very difficult nuts are give me the power to persevere in spite of external obstacles now Haute is the opposite quality because that sucks has a deficit that SAP gives me focus it gives me intensity it says I'm not going to be dissipated by anybody but that can result in what you might call a steamroller of a personality in which I no longer pay attention to what other people need I'm too fixated on my projects my goals my accomplishments right I want to get up 3:00 in the morning you know to learn the fact that I make noise and wake you up that's of no concern to me I gotta do what I gotta do so Haute is the opposite quality of stepping back to see the other that was our own the Oliv Shalem the lover of peace the pursuer of peace so the same way too much Cosette needs to be balanced with Guevara and that's up and hold net sack is the quality of ignoring other people to carry out what you have to do and sometimes that's necessary Haute is the quality of being receptive to other people now that has a deficit too if Moshe has deficits so to speak is the steamroller our owns deficit is being overly sensitive to other people resulting for example in the state or ego they wanted again I'm simplifying here they want to build a rail sure Who am I to stop them so the same way to ferret is the capacity to balance Kathryn and Gomorrah your soul of you're safe is the balancing principle of you know going full steam ahead and being overly receptive and again that's why it's not chronological because in yo safes life we indeed see this idea that on one hand Joseph was a net sock person because in spite of the fact that he's in the worst most immoral environment in the world mitzrayim he remains faithful to God and Torah and all when I told me whatever Torah meant that all that he learned from Yaakov Avena he did not allow the environment to affect him he had the image of his father in front of him at all times and that sustained him that's the quality of Nessa I'm not gonna let this environment drag me down and at the same time we find that Joseph's great success his miraculous success in rising from a slave and a prisoner to the most powerful man in Egypt other than pirate maybe he was even more powerful than Pharaoh in the sense of the decisions he was making came because he was always open her to the needs of the other right he asks the baker and the and the butler why are you why do you have such an unhappy countenance he noticed now why would he what what if the whole thing was miraculous but nobody toss them didn't tell y'all safe to ask you know we see people with you know don't look so happy we don't necessarily ask him what's bugging you today that's kind of the capacity that I care I care about you I see somebody suffering I want to help in some way yeah didn't want to embarrass his brothers the end remotion share the legendary leader of a goodish israel from many many many years really with a legendary prison once it a nice voice a nice thoughts joseph is described as ish matsui aha now we translate matzah yet even in modern hebrew as a successful person but in its original meaning and motts li f means to make other people successful that yo safes secret and you'll find this in business books to this very day is he made his subordinates look good and that actually is a fundamental rule in successful business management the manager who takes credit for all successes and blames everybody else for all failures will tend not to be a very successful manager but the manager who was always there to build up the people who work for him they're going to be loyal they're gonna love him Yosef had his fans again I mean you could reckon you know safe of course God directed a lot of this miraculous thing but on a very simple level Yosef was almost there that's the Haute so what's going on in the her coppice is such an interesting abode Oh God make me a kinder person God make me a more focused person discipline give me the capacity to balance them give me the strength not to be discouraged by external pressure but give me the sensitivity to be open to people and give me the capacity of balance when to use one when to use the other so that takes us through Siksika foot and now we're at the very very last aquifer and the last Rock a flaw is dr. frog darvid MLF and the name of the severe ax the last fira is mullet kingship so we've explains what each streamer represents what does the last one represent so the sower says a fascinating thing the sower says mullets has nothing of its own it is simply a receptacle meaning after all of these qualities are mixed Besant words affairs that's a hold you so it goes through the prism of God's mouth hood and God's mouth hood is revealed in the world Giovanna nella exemplifies the idea of simply being an empty vessel for godliness because Deborah developed realized that even his very life was not his own now the truth is that's true for all of us but David realized it Mahesh because you'll recall that according to the Midrash Dov it should not have lived at all but are dumb Harish on who was supposed to live a thousand years even after the Senate gave 70 years of his life to the neshamah of Dov it so that Dov it could live in the world that's why other Mauritian only lived 930 years so Deborah Donella had an awareness that life is a gift and his whole purpose in life needs to be nothing more or less than a reflection a conduit for the glory of God and that is how we end the hackathons that with all of these barriers collapsing let me live a life that is devoted to the glory of our College Sparkle and bring Hashem small hoods bring his kingship into the world so this is a serious thing now in many muscle room art scroll is an example you will actually see that after each outcome five there's actually fairly lengthy prayers that I recited that are based on these themes I am not aware of a single place that's actually says these things but they are very very very worthwhile to at least study or learn before our covers just to know what it is that one thinks about during the heck of us so that was interesting you know when I was a rabbi in Silver Spring you know I don't want to get too politicized so there were various issues you know women sometimes felt excluded from her cutouts because uh in many shows and right they were not dancing with their separate or etc so as is often the case when they were and many women were not many but some women were complaining so what what I myself did was I took off two hours from the show lack of us and I gave women this year I'm the hawk of Oz and I actually thought the women got a better deal but in that way and in that shear we went over we went over beasts felis so in a sense maybe the men did more dancing but the women that got a a deeper more meaningful understanding of what the dancing was it was about so it's hard to do both that that's true it is hard to do but because if you're doing all the dancing there's literally no time for these feel outs so unfortunately we live in a world where you have to make choices but hopefully if you could study it before some kotoha you never better understanding of what all of this is about again it's a very very beautiful very very powerful idea of collapsing the barriers and connecting them to the severe courts and as I say that's why the Kabbalistic order has Joseph's number six because yosef although he was earlier chronologically Joseph represents the synthesis between the Nets of Moshe and the whole government so anyway I wish you all a good good year shall not allow me to cop and may it be a year of gula and peace and for us and for all of qualies rail and the whole world [Music]