Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz: Marcheshvan and Shabbat - Creation, Revelation and Redemption

You see your tomorrow. [Music] Okay. Hi everybody. Uh good good to see you after our little break. I hope uh the yum and toim were inspiring and elevating for you all. Uh of course uh there's a little bit of a humorous remark that's actually quite serious where when a rebby was asked if he had a good rash shana he said you have to ask me next rashashana if I had a good past rash. You never you never really know but be hashem it should be a year of of raim hosana rabba cl Israel obviously experienced a tremendous tremendous gula in the release of the hostages and there's great cababalistic significance in the fact that it happened on hosana raba which is said to be the downfall of Ishmael uh we hope and we pray that this will be a lasting peace and a precursor to gula but unfortunately as you uh kamas is uh not terribly committed to any type of of peace treaty. So there's already been problems. Have lost their lives uh since the ceasefire. Um so I I don't want to describe these tragedies as a blip in the in the road or whatever, but but God willing, it should be a an event, but things should get get back on track in a good uh a good way. Uh let me just uh read our dedications here. Uh we're still praying of course for the lasting unity of ami Israel which always needs our tilas which will lead to ultimate victory. And we pray for all those whose health has been affected by the war. A raffle to Kayla Katin Abasa a 17year-old girl who was in a terrible accent in Shallay three months ago. Hashem, she is making remarkable progress in her recovery. She is currently an intensive rehabilitation and needs artos for her continued successful and complete return to full functioning as a vibrant teenager and amirites a kala and to eventually build a bay is again it is kaya bata rael uh aliat the art site of bases the father of of Gary Schiff Um, this is also Alias Nama and Moshe Ben Kalman Hi and Kman Yisf Ben Mosha Hvi. Uh, may they all have an aliyah nama. Uh then we have congratulations Masleto to Abram Fine a good friend of mine and of Ibonet who gives a wonderful shore on his own and his family in honor of his daughter Mary's engagement to Josh Brody from Riverdale. Now I have to say a little personal story here. I I take ale little bit of credit. Uh Josh Brody is someone I know and he just contacted me about this girl that he was seeing and he talked about whether he should get engaged to her or whatever whatever it would be. And I had no idea who the girl was, who her parents were. And we we talked it out and I I was uh encouraging that it should be continued. And lo and behold, it happens to be uh the daughter of a good friend of mine. Uh and I I had no no idea that it was. So that worked out in a very good way. Uh another dedication by Ocula Zati Zlatina for the health of our children and loved ones for our family and parents in honor of a good year for our community and uh Ami Israel and Arit Israel in honor of Abi Raidwood Mrs. Esther Jadik Mrs. Yarzuan. Yes. Yes. I the name was familiar. Ashia was in a class with my son Mosha. Absolutely I remember. and in honor of Mosha and his family. That's Mosha Bridowitz, my my son in Baltimore, of whom I am I and my wife are very very proud and uh it's very nice. This may be a first that uh share of mine was dedicated in honor of of of my son. So I very much appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you Ashia. Um, you know, life is filled, we certainly know this in Erit Israel, with tragedies and blessings, with times of sadness and times of joy. This was the book of Cohellet. Schlom Muhammad says, "Everything has a time, a time of war, a time of peace, a time to build, a time to destroy." And we go through this up and down and up and down and up and down. And the pendulum goes back and forth. And with the sadness will come the joy. And with the joy will come the sadness. Many of you are undoubtedly aware of the fact that on Shini at Seris, the day after the hostage release and the day of Sastora, the day of great great ultimate joy, Kalisel lost uh a very very wonderful leader of Mosha Zakra who was the executive director of the of the OU. Um he was a RV in Baltimore for many many years. I know him. He was a friend of mine for many many years. He died in his sleep uh night. Uh can you imagine this? Uh his family didn't want to tell anybody because they didn't want to mar the yumto. So they came to sh and the only person they told they told the rav of the show and for two days because inra they danced and they rejoiced and only after the holiday was over did they begin sitting Shiva. they began sitting Shiva after the holiday under those uh circumstances. Um I was at the U this morning so I spoke about Rabbi Hower for a while so I'm not going to repeat everything. uh but the one thing that stands out is that uh the U is you know centrist modern orthodox and uh the more karedi right-wing part of of the Jewish orthodox world a good Israel a gooda and auda is and agura and the ou often do not see face to face they have mak different things uh but the auda issued a statement about rivau's death that was so not just respectful but with love and with affection. So on one hand he gets this tremendous praise and recognition as a peacemaker and as a a committed leader even from the agura and on the other side Rick Jacobs who is the head of the reform movement issued an equally affectionate loving statement. He called Hower his kusa they would debate on sorts of issues always with respect. So I can tell you there are not that many rabbis or not that many leaders in Kali Israel that will get respect from both the agura and from the reform movement. That takes quite a knack to be able to work with everybody, see the good in everything and try to find the common ground because of your aas is and your commitment uh to build Judaism and build a better world. And Rafar was a person who lived that life uh in every person every possible way, not only in a public way by the way, but even privately. There are many many things he did privately that were not was not even part of the oo was not part of any public thing at all and he was really an exemplar of of menite of kindness of modesty of humility and he was a great he actually loved to learn he spent hours a day when his schedule permitted learning Torah thinking about Torah and uh every decision that he made was always rooted in the hashkuff of the Torah that he absorbed absorbed in the base medish. Soak may his memory uh be be a blessing. It truly is a very very great loss for Israel. Uh people pointed out that he had such care and concern for the hostages and there was so much that he was trying to do as head of the OU that Hakadesh Boru wanted him to experience the joy of their release. And right after that he was taken. It's as if he finished that mission. He finished the mission. A simp now you can now you can uh come uh come home. Now it happens to be I wouldn't call it a sad occasion. It's really a joyous occasion. There is a yard site tonight as well. It's right near my house near our it is the yard site of Shimonasadic, right? If you're familiar with uh Jerusalem. So Shimonatic street is named after the fact that once you cross highway one into a few blocks into east Jerusalem we have the kev of shimon sadik and uh that is actually a pilgrimage site mad bom people who can't make it to meron there may be tens of thousands of people who go to although is no it's almost a gazer you know it's They're not connected but still Shimanatic became the alternative site uh on Nagba and his yard site is is tonight. Uh just to remind you of Shimanats. Shimanatic was one of the first kohanim gdolim in the Bay Sheni. He was the last member of the AJ Kessus Adollah the great great body that was established by Ezra and Nhemia and Shimanat sadic 120 body member he was one of the last survivors of that great great group he was a cohen guttle for 40 years he is the one who taught in Perkavos the very very famous teaching al- scholosha d'vormade the world stands on three pillars The very famous statement everybody knows is shimatic alra on the study of Torah. Alhavoda on the divine service of sacrifice and prayer algos and on the acts of loving kindness and love that we show each other. These are the three great pillars. These were the teachings of Shimonatic. The Gammorra in Yuma discusses during Shimonatic's time Persia was conquered by Greece. Alexander of Macedonia, Alexander the Great as histo history calls him and Aratisel became as part of the Persian Empire became under the rule of the Greek period. later. The Kaneka story happens later and um the Gummoran Yuma gives a story that Alexander of Macedonia had heard that the Jews were planning a rebellion and he came down to Jerusalem to destroy the Bam Mikdash which had just recently been rebuilt, the second temple. And Shimonatic as the high priest came out to plead and beg uh for Rakamim. And when Alexander saw the man Shimonatic, he got off his horse. Alexander's horse is also a famous subject of mythology. And Alexander bowed down to Shimonati because he said, "This is the image of the man who comes to me in my dreams >> and tells me if I will be victorious or I will not be victorious." And he spared Jerusaleam. And the day of that visit became a holiday. And it is recorded that every male baby that was born that year was given the name Alexander. And that is how Alexander, which is a Greek name. Alexander became an officially approved Jewish name. A person could be called up to the Torah. Alexander because Khazal sanctioned the name given to all the babies in commemoration of that of that great event. Many many miracles are connected with Shimonatic and after his death they stopped. For example, the notion of the namid, the notion that there was one candle of the seven branched manora that never went out on its own. It just burnt until it was put out and reit. Uh that was not always the case. Does that that that was the case when we were under Shimonatic who was righteous after Shimonatic uh we didn't always have that the idea that Any Kipper miraculously uh when the goat the scapegoat was pushed off the cliff so in the B mikdash miles away the red scarlet thread turned white as an open divine sign that God had forgiven the sins of the Jewish people. that was during the time of Shimanatic or earlier righteous times didn't always happen meaning God may have forgiven us but he didn't give us that miraculous sign of kapor so many many miracles and there are others that are connected with shimatic so uh during his yard the day in particular we should we should think about u his teaching of Torah and try to incorporate that in our lives uh tonight of course is also uh the first day of so I want to talk a little bit about the month of uh month of is sometimes the forgotten month uh you know the earliest cabalistic work that we have much much earlier than the zor uh is a book that is called safer ys the book of creation some are mah authorship they attribute authorship of safer Shira to Aramino, a book that Aramavu wrote. Others attribute it to Marishan. You can't get much earlier than that in terms of human human authors. And what Srira does is it is a treatise that talks about how Hashem harnessed the mystical powers of the olive base in connecting in creating the world. Uh it's like spiritual DNA. In fact uh the mfort explained based on safety we read in last week's para that Adam called gave the animals names right all of the different animals were given names. Now what's the basis of the names that Marishan gave? So it reminds me a lot Mark Twain who was probably uh well he was an agnostic for sure maybe an atheist whatever. So he would sometimes make fun of religion in his unpublished writings. So Mark Twain has um a little story of Adam and Eve having a conversation after Adam finish naming the animals. So Eve asks Adam, "Why did you call that thing a lion?" He's doing it in English, right? So Adam says, "You know, what type of foolish woman are you? It looks exactly like a lion. So why shouldn't I call it a lion? That's what it looks like." which you know this was intended to be a joke but in truth if we change the English words to Hebrew words why did you call it an arier because it is an arier that's exactly what safer maintains what do I mean looked kind of reverse engineering he looked at a lion and he tried to analyze what combination of spiritual ual forces gives rise to this creature. It was a combination of the kak of alf combined with the kak of ra combined with the kak of yud combined with the kak of of hay. Yeah. And you add them together and it becomes like a chemical reaction meaning when they're combined in a certain configuration certain results happened. So every name that Adam gave to every creature was based on an identification of the spiritual forces of the letters that gave rise. So it's exactly what Mark Twain says says he called it a lion i.e. He called it an because it comes from alf yud hey a something's called a kev because it comes from lammed base right something is called uh a pa a cow because it's a pay r that's exactly it uh that is the notion that god's creation comes through what are called seuf oios the combinations of letters in which they're distinct energy paths uh meld together and create so to speak metaphysical chemical reactions that produce. So safety tries to show what these spiritual einations are and how they can be combined. Now the truth of the matter is theoretically human beings could utilize these powers as well. And indeed the Talmud tells us that there were tano and amoray that would create a calf through the safer process that they would and they would eat on Shabas. Uh Ravakov Mden discusses the Shila of a human being. I shouldn't say you being that's making an assumption of a golem a man a humanoid that is created via safer yet can you count that person as a firm minion right I walk in with safer right can you count the person as a minion some people want to analogize clone cloning to safer but it's really a totally different process cloning after all does involve a birth uh you clone an embryo but but it still is in a woman's body for 9 months so it's a totally different process. Uh the most famous case we know about Golem is from the Maral. Uh and it is said that there's a golem still locked up in the uh attic in the Maral sh in Prague. But many historians uh don't believe in the golem story including from from historians because they maintain that maral died in the uh 1500s and the very first record of a golem did not come to anybody's attention until the 1800s more than 350 years later and the source of that story is a person who was known to be a forger although he was a kash but nevertheless he had forged other things so So the story of the golem does not have a lot of credibility but the way I like to put it is I don't know if the moral created a golem but I believe he was on the Madrega that he could have done so had he wanted to. So he had the kak but whether he actually did it is a bit of a question. So this is safer generally and you can get safer is available in any Jewish bookstore that has you can get it online. Of course the problem always is not uh the inaccessibility of the book but to understand the book it's deep complicated and you know if you're not a cabalist uh we really would not understand it very well but uh there are other things in safety besides the seufosios and that is safer goes through every month of the year and it identifies what is the dominant letter of that month and it then combines the better with a human sense, fragrance, you know, smell, sight, touch or the like. Saddok of Lublin, every roesh in his in his cafer preadic always quotes the relevant safer yet passage and tries to explain it. So for the month of this is what what it says for the month of init [Music] and he made it the melik the dominant letter of the month of and then he was mitzv he combined the letter nun with the harak with the olactory with the sense of smell. So represents non coupled with now saf never explains the meaning of these symbols. So let me share with you what saddok says about nun and rayak and the connection of nun and rayak with the month of kashman. We know that nun symbolically represents falling down, losing a certain level. We know this the word nefila. We know this association from a famous Gmorra and brahos. We know that the hillm 145 that we recite three times a day. We popularly call that ashray. But that's a very big misnomer. Ashray is not in ashray. uh meaning uh tom 145 begins with the words. Uh the ashray is an earlier puss. The second mention of ashray is the p right before 145. And the earlier ashray is even earlier than that. Right? So this is an interesting anomaly. The psalm that is universally known as ashray actually does not contain ashray. It's the hiloid. Uh but we know that ashil 145 that we say three times a day twice in shak and once before mka uh is an alphabetical acrastic in which each puk begins with a letter of the olive bay with the exception of nun meaning the me is right your kingdom is a kingdom for all eternity and then instead If a with none, we immediately go to soim. Hashem supports all of those who are falling. There is no nun in the beginning of a and says why is there no nun? I mean there is a nun in ash but he means why is there no puk beginning with nun in ashray? So then says because David with Ruodes did not want to begin a P with a letter that conotes falling as the PK says in describing Galos and she has fallen she will not continue basel uh virgin of Israel in other words it's non is connected to nefilik did not want to begin with the notion of nefila now lisa raha statement is actually very very difficult for a number of reasons. Num reason number one is that ashray is not the only alphabetical acostic inim. There are many alphabetical acostics in tailm uh and some of them do have a nun. So you can't say that Dovi does not want to begin with a nun because of nila. Number one, if it's not an alphabetical acic for sure there are verses beginning with nun. But even if you're going to say thatan's teaching is limited to alphabetical acostics, that's still not going to be totally accurate because there are other alphabetical acics that do have a nun. Number one. Number two, a second kasha is well listen uh if you're going to tell me that nun stands for well I mean every every letter can be something good and something bad can mean or could be right so uh nun has good things too right uh so it's a little difficult to understand but this is raan's teaching we don't want to begin the puk with nafil by By the way, as a little aside, this is just a digression. Uh the PK that the Gomorrah quotes that Non is connected to Nila is from and it says, "She has fallen. She shall not get up again, virgin of Israel." So the way the Gomorrah reads it, the comma so to speak is after the word comma she will not get up again. But the Gmorrah mentions as an aside that in Israel they punctuated the P in a more optimistic vein. She shall not continue to fall arise up. So where where you put the comma so to speak can actually make a very big difference in how you understand the puzz. But if we go with the idea that nun is connected to so says saddok we understand very much why the month of kesh is connected to nun because there is no month of the year in which there is such a sense of falling down as in the month of here we had the month of tish and the month of tish is packed full with all sorts of experiences. Roshashana and Aser Shameuva and Yum Kipper and the joy of sukus culminating in the sima of Sarah Simhas tora and we're running a marathon race every single day full of kaduca and then it's like we complete the marathon and the adren adrenaline is still pumping and all we're looking forward to is ordinary life. nothing happens. No yum to fact there's a a folk etmology that technically the month of is called mareshman. So the real reason why it's called maresh uh is that mar in biblical Hebrew refers to raindrops and it's the beginning of the rainy season. But the folk etmology is that mar means bitterness. It's the bitter month of because there are no yumim to him, you know, and a person feels bereft. A person feels that to whatever degree we achieved a certain transformation during the and now everything's lost. So saddak says what is going to be the saving grace reak aroma smell. What is the characteristic of smell? Smell is what remains in the room even when the thing that generates the smell has been removed. So let's imagine you have you know a good roasted chicken that has a wonderful wonderful aroma. Even when the chicken is finished or the chicken is taken out of the room the aroma lingers. So saddak says there is something called spiritual aroma and that is the month of we don't have the yumto but we have the ray we have the aroma of the yumpt those of you that have read I have never read it because it would be too much it's thousands and thousands of pages Marcel pros the remembrance of things past among the goyam that's kind of laavd like a hash you know it's his biggest you know People will boast about the fact that they finished this whatever it is 3,000 multi multi-olume novel, but the one thing I do know is page one of the novel is somebody's walking by a bakery and has a smell of something and that smell triggers the next 3,000 pages. Uh so smell is evocative. It brings back memory cabalistically. By the way, smell is considered to be the holiest of all all senses because it is the only hush that was not misal in the sin of the sadas because the sin of the atas involved sight because it says the fruit looked beautiful. It involved taste. It involved touching touching the tree. Uh so there was vision and it involved hearing because was enticed by the snake. So the hearing, the touching, the taste, this uh all of this, the sight, all of this was involved in the of the sadas. But interestingly enough, although fruits do have aroma, but aroma is not mentioned as having any role at all in the of the sadas. And that is why aroma is considered to be in some ways the holiest of the senses. That might be in point of fact why in yum kipper even though you're not allowed to eat you are allowed to smell the sim and uh and and and and the like. So says this is the aod of even though is a of but we have to have a we have to hold on to the aroma of the young and in many ways one could make the argument that is the most important month of the year because the very ordinariness of is a litmus test how transformative the have been uh Kazimish used to give a a mushel, a very very interesting mushel. He would say the following. If you have a pot of water that's on a fire and the water is boiling and it overflows, you cannot tell if the pot is actually full or the pot is half empty and it's simply overflowing because of the boiling. The only way you could gauge how much water is actually in the pot is when you take it off the pot, I'm sorry, off the fire and then when it's not boiling anymore, how high how how high is the water level? So the says if a person is inspired in times of inspiration, that doesn't really mean there's been any type of permanent change there. the person's going through a high. The real test is how do you carry that out in your regular life and that's important I think it's a kabad story not with this rebi one of the kabad rebies that somebody asked the rebi after the intense yim of chuva and everything else and then the sim of sukus which is very much connected to the joy of yam kipper right there is a connection sukus is god accepting our chba and giving us joy. So he says, "What's the avod now? What do we do now? We're going to" And the Rebi said, "Very simple. Now is the time to do Chuva." Huh? Yeah. To do Chuva. We make resolutions. We did prayers. We asked for forgiveness. Very important. Now >> take all of that, carry it into life, transfer it into your normal existence. Do chuva, not say chuva. And therefore is an extremely important month. It's maybe it's no accident that there are number of makuros that say that the third basa mikdash the the permanent third basa miktach will be built in the month of there are different sources I'm not going to say all sources say that but there are makos that the bay shalishi is maybe the biggest prize of all so to speak is got to be connected to the month of because really the test are we truly servants of Not. So that's something to to think about. You know, uh it is interesting that um they tell the story about uh a Russian peasant who lived in a kidic community and somehow he converted to Judaism. I'm not sure who the basin was. I'm not going to ask any questions, but he converted. You know, have parties all the time, right? They're into etc. So he was very fortunate. He converted at a very uh auspicious time of year. He converted um shortly before roesh kislife. So if you think about it, you have almost an unbroken thing every two weeks. Ro kodesh there's a party and then there's Kaneka there'll be parties and then you have Rokesh which is still Kaneka and then okay Sarah is a little bit of a blip in the radar but then you have party two weeks later Tishvat party two weeks later Adar party uh two weeks later the big one Porim party then you get into Nissan party Pesak party Great, great, great. And of course you have Shabases in between and other events. So this was great. Plenty of drinking, plenty of eating. Great. So this Russian guy tells his friend Ivan, he says, "You got to join this religion. This is the greatest absolute religion." He says, "Every two weeks we have tremendous parties and then we have shabas. Every chabas we have have a thing." He says, "You got to join. There's nothing like this." So his friend wasn't able to join until after a pesak and it was already the period of Omare when we already have morning restrictions. So you know already they didn't make parties etc. Uh then eventually there was tamuz and the three weeks and the nine days and tishabove. So he goes to his friend he goes to the first guy and he says I don't really get it. He said, "You told me there was rejoicing like every two weeks and I become a Jew." Again, I I'm I don't know how he became a Jew, but I become a Jew. And you know, one day I got to stop eating meat and then no wine and no parties and no weddings and no dancing. He says, "What is going on?" So the first guy looked very confused and he says, "I don't know. Ever since you joined, the religion has been going downhill." But again, it goes back to the idea that I started off my remarks with that life is mixed with the bitter and the sweet and the Jewish calendar reflects the rhythms and the rhythms are very much connected to each other. Rafner used to say if you cannot cry on tishabove you cannot really rejoice on Torah and vice versa because here's the thing if you don't have a joy in your connection to God then why are you going to be so sad if there's no B mikdash >> or if not having a b or put it the other way if not having a bas mikdash doesn't make you sad then a relationship with god is not so important to you so what's the big joy The joy and the sadness are connected. It reminds me again La Mahavdale but a very beautiful remark that Queen Elizabeth made. I I don't think it was her original remark but but uh I heard it from from from her uh she had said when Philip died her husband of of so many years she said that uh grief is the pay is the is the price you pay for love. You know if if a person didn't love there would be no grief, right? So grief this is this is your choice in life. Love and then possibly experience pain or not love and then don't experience pain. Right? What's the choice? Right? Zafner says this is true in Yiddish generally. The more you love something, the more you'll have pain when you don't have all that's there. So the the sadness is connected to the joy. And what's interesting about the month of Tish is that in the month of Tish, we experience all of those different moods in one month. We start off with the somberness and introspection of Roshashana and then Yum Kipper. These are yum noy days of awe. And then we have joy. So we have sadness, fear, trepidation, terror coupled with joy, jubilation, triumph, all of it together. And psychologically the way it works is this. Just from a psychological perspective, because the month of tish is the first month of the year, it creates a template which gives us ways of serving Hashem in the course of the year. whether there are good times or bad times or difficult times. So we kind of have to experience in an accelerated way all of the different ranges of human emotion so that when we confront those experiences in the course of the year, we will have a a an emotional way of responding to it. Because here's the thing. Essentially, the message is to serve God with the totality of your personality. Most people have a certain aspect of their personality that's dominant. Uh for example, there are people who love to sing and dance and joke and be ledic and lively, right? To like their greatest day of the year. There are other people who are more introspective. and thoughtful. They might enjoy enjoy maybe is not the right word tishov. They get to think they get to reflect or yum kipper. So each of us has kind of a natural personality type. You can call it introvert, extrovert. You you can classify it in a million different ways. But what God is saying is the introvert has to learn how to express joy. The extrovert has to learn how to be reflective. And therefore, you got to go through all of these experiences so that each part of your personality can be developed as a way of serving Hashem. Serving Hashem as a total person, a complete person, not simply living in your comfort zone >> and staying there. You got to go through the entire range. So tish is a template is a structure is our first opportunity really other than the week after sukus maybe but that's still you know after is the first opportunity to take the template and translate it into concrete action and that's the importance of the month of let me tell you yet another story that that's actually very beautiful and we know that somera whether it's as it is here or whether it's an extra day as it is in is the day that we both finish the Torah and we begin the Torah a new uh and uh the two alios every the minute everyone gets an aliyah all men I should say everyone I mean men uh all men get alos some places women too, but our min is generally not. Uh, but the two honored alos areas to and braces tora is the honor of the person who gets to finish the Torah and Bit is the one that's given the honor of beginning the Torah. So they tell the story about a bunch of yeshiva students who were not participating in the hakafos. they were not dancing on sinas tora. So their rebi went over to them and said why aren't you dancing on sas to Torah. So the boys gave a very honest answer which makes a lot of sense actually. They said you know we don't learn so much Torah during the year. So what gives us the right to rejoice? I mean it's not like we've been learning the whole year and now we're rejoicing. He says we haven't taken advantage of learning the Torah. So what gives us the right to rejoice and dance with the Torah? So the Rebi said to them, you guys are making a big mistake. There are two honors. There's the honor of Torah and there's the honor of braces. Now in the literature world are different. The honor of Torah is a bigger honor. Kassan Torah is commonly given to the Roshiva or the biggest. You know Torah is an honor given to someone based on his Torah learning is often going to be auctioned off which means you're not necessarily going to have the biggest saddak even but you know you'll have a rich guy whatever who gets bra who may be very charitable I'm not I'm not against rich people you know I mean uh you know some of my best friends uh you know um but but it doesn't automatically correlate now he says what's the difference why is Torah given to a great person in Torah and braces were less uh less committed to that. So he says Torah is a celebration of accomplishment. What we have done, what we have completed, what we have finished. It looks back at the past year and it says we have done this. As a result, it is a celebration of accomplishment. So you give it to a person who accomplished a lot. You give it to a one who learns, one who has done so much. is not about celebrating accomplishment. It's celebrating the hope of renewal and potential in the new year. It is celebrating beginnings and not endings. So as a result even if a person is not so learned they can have braces because everybody has the potential for a new beginning and a new start. So the Rebi told his even if you cannot dance with the Torah as aanassan Torah, you can dance with the Torah as a berious you can celebrate renewal new possibilities. a great great idea that you know as I mentioned from Rev Cook you know we talked about this before um Rashashana after Rashashana that Chuva is not supposed to be depressing sad putting yourself down chuva is about hope it's about renewal it's about optimism it's about recognizing new potentials new opportunities and one should approach this with joy and enthusiasm and that's the braces and that's why even if a person going back to the story uh was not so involved in Torah learning or whatever it is they dance with the Torah because they're braces were celebrating the new opportunities that Hashem gives us uh in uh in a new year. Okay. So these are some thoughts I wanted to share with you. They're not uh directly connected to any any para but they are connected to the month of uh that we are editing. Although I do want to mention this is an interesting point people don't realize when you have two days roesh as we have technically even though we do say we we say all the roes but technically the first day of roesh is the 30th day of the old month. So if somebody would be getting married tonight or tomorrow on the Kuba we would not we would not even put first day of we would actually put some people will put both but the one thing you have to put in you have to put in and the second day of is now interestingly for reasons I don't want to get into because it's a little too complicated for the time that we have. The only exception to that is Roshashana itself. It's very interesting. Rosh right Roshesh tish is also two days. Those are the two days of rashashana. But the first day of rashashana is alfish not 30th and the second day of rashashana is bae tish. But that is unique again for reasons I I can't get into that is unique to the month of Tish. Remember every other two-day roesh including the two-day roesh of uh the first day is the 30th day of the old month and uh the next day is alf. So the sec it is the second day of that's olive. uh this would be important if you dated a cassuva and you simply said alfresh whatever uh to for tonight or tomorrow the kassuba would be puzzle that's the wrong date so if any of you are planning on writing aubua tomorrow uh please be forewarned about being sure that you have the uh the the proper the proper date. Now having said all this, I just want to point out that the statement that nothing special happens in is not totally true. Besides the fact that every day of life is special, that's that's also true. It's the holiest of all days. Keshin has shabas kesh. Kashhin has shabas. And I will prove to you that Shabas is the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Shabas is holier than Yum Kipper. What's my proof? We normally say Yum Kipper is the holiest day of the year. Well, two proofs. Proof number one is the number of alos to the Torah. The number of people who are called to the Torah corresponds to the level of holiness. Shabas, seven people are called to the Torah plus but seven Yamipper six. Every other Yamiff five and four and a regular Monday Thursday three. So Shabas has more aliot than Yum Kipper. Moreover, the sin in terms of punishment of desecrating Shabas is a greater a than the sin of desecrating Yam Kipper. If you desecrated Shabas and witnesses warned you not to do it in the time of the B mikdesh, you could be put to death by a baston. Shabas is a capital crime like murder. Violations of yum kipper do have spiritual punishments. But in the hierarchy of onchin hierarchy of punishment, misas is more than kur. So it appears that shabas is even holier than yum kipper. Now ah you'll ask me the question is not yum kiper called Shabbat Shabaton which is always translated as the shabas of shabases. Well I think people misunderstand exactly what that phrase means. The shabas of shabas is not meant to suggest it's holier than shabas but rather the word shabas or shabbat refers to refraining from things. So on Shabas we refrain from doing mala refrain from doing work. On yum kipper not only do we refrain from doing work we also refrain from eating drinking wearing shoes. So when it says Shabbat Shabbaton it means the refraining of refrainings simply because the shita the resting is more encompassing than Shabas. Now Yum Kipper is unique. I mean it is true that Yum Kipper has a singularity that Shabas does not have and that is Yum Kipper brings atonement, forgiveness that is unique. So certainly yum kipper has some stuff that shabas does not have that are very very important unique. So in that sense yum kipper absolutely is a very unique day. But in terms of abstract generalizations of kadusha, shabas is the holiest day of the year and we get it every week and we get it even in the month of so the the statement that's often made that there is no sacred time in the month of is ignoring the tremendous gift of shabas kadesh. And another singularity you see in Shabas is Shabas is literally the only day in the Jewish calendar where the shimona estray the Amida the middle braha that talks about the holiness of the day is changed for my chakras and mka every yumpt every yumptive shakra Musv is different but shaky shaka is always exactly the same. Even it's exactly the same. But when it comes to shabas the middle braha is changed from arvit to shak to m. Now the conclusion of the braha is the same. That's the paragraph that says accept our restu sanctify us with your mitzvos purify our heart that is the same although even there there's a difference because Friday night we refer to shabas in the feminine vuv we shall rest in her shabas morning we refer to it in the masculine vuvo we shall rest in him it and we shall rest in them and I'll I'll I'll get to that uh I hope uh but other than that the last paragraph is that was that guy okay right that paragraph is the same other than that change but before that paragraph there's a different introductory paragraph Friday night dashta And we we we we we say the paragraph. God created the world in six days. Shabas morning Moshe rejoices as he brings down the uh for you are one. Your name is one who is like your nation Israel. In other words, there's a unique opening for arvet for shakrit for again I want to emphasize there is no other that operates that way even on yum kipper okay I mean yam kipper has an is different but if you if you're just looking at arvit shak it is the exact same amida all the So why is Shabas unique in that way? So the Torah offers an interesting explanation. The Torah says that the filot of Shabas represent three pivotal shabases. Two of them are in the past and one of them is in the future. The two pivotal Shabbat of the past are the Shabas of creation. God created the world in six days and he rested on the seventh day. And that is the theme of Shabas as a celebration of the creation of the world. And that is the theme of Friday night, the Shabas of creation. And that's why what does the Friday night doning talk about? That God finished the creation of heaven and earth and rested on the seventh day. So the theme of arvit is the shabas of creation. The second great Shabas is the Shabas of Matan Torah of God giving us the Torah because say we have a tradition although it's not explicit in the Kum that the Torah was given on Shabas. So therefore if the theme of Friday night is the Shabas of creation the theme of Shabas morning is the Shabas of revelation. And that's why it talks about Mosher Rabenu bringing down the loot, the tablets of the Torah. Now those are the two Shabases of the past. The Shabas of creation, the Shabas of revelation. But there is a third Shabas that is not here yet. And that is not a single day. That is a whole the whole the whole week will become Shabas. Yomo Shabas, the day of the eternal Shabas. And that is the coming of Mashiach, the redemption, where the whole world will reach an altered spiritual level of feeling the presence of God every single day. Yomulo Shabas. The theme of Mina is devoted to the messianic Shabas. Now the messianic shabas is described by on that day God will be one recognized as one his name will be one. How does the blessing begin? You are one. Your name is one. And then it goes on and says, "And who is like your nation? I'm Israel Israel. One unique nation. This too is connected to Mashiach because the gula is not here. The second temple was destroyed because of hatred, polarization. So we can't be z to the bikdash until there is unity and aus and togetherness meaning we have to be a We have to be one unified nation. So essentially what's going on is you go through the shabas of creation, you go through the shabas of matan tora and by the end of shabas in your mind's eye and in your heart you're focused on the ultimate redemption of mashiach. By the way the notion that shabas prepares us for mashiach. You already see in the song the famous song that is sung by Ashkenazimard all a do very unusual because is a I mean it was added in the 1500s. It was not ancient. So to have something like that adapted by all the ad all the congregations is very very rare. But this was the song of Schlommo alabitz and it spells out his name Shalom Halevi. But if you look at the content of the one of the things you will notice is that most of the song is not about Shabas at all. Uh the first stanza is Hashem said observe Shabas remember Shabas. Okay. The second stanza is Shabbat. Let us go and greet the shabas. The last stanza bashal mater. The crown of your husband Hashem come to us in peace. That's Shabas. But everything in the middle from the third stanza until the very last one is not about shabas at all. It's about the rebuilding of Jerusalem. It's about bringing the Jews back from the gulos. It's about praying for the mashiachi, the son ofishi from I mean that's so a song about shabas is a little bit strange if it's not about shabas, right? Uh some editor should should have, you know, red pencil some of these things. But the answer is no. To the cabalist, and maybe in our level, we should try to feel this a little bit. When you experience shabas, you're experiencing, your soul is experiencing what it's like to be in a state of redemption, a state of closeness to God, a state of intimacy, a state of joy. Shabas is described as mayain haba a taste of the world to come. So what was that a potato chip commercial? Bet you can't eat one right. So when you eat one when you taste Olabah which is only mayain a taste of mabah your soul yearns for the whole thing. So the poet cannot control himself. He's talking about Shabas. But then he says to Hashem, "Give me the whole thing. I want it all." And that goes on and on. But then he says, "But I also know we're not there yet. So I got to remember at least I have Shabas." That's how he ends it, right? So it's kind of shabas gets him connected to something much bigger than even shabas but then he becomes realistic again and says okay I don't have that but I have this and this is good too this is what shapes now I just want to end with with the idea that the tour is three stages creation revelation redemption are not only things that happen to Ami Israel as a nation. But every single Shabas we can go through those three stages. Right? The very first stage that one experiences when Shabas comes is they're liberated from the distractions of the work week. Right? You just put it aside. That's like being reborn. You're reborn. You're liberated. So the very first stage is being freed of the demands of the world. Unless you're a rabbi, whatever. Okay. Now, but that's not enough. The same way that you can't celebrate Pesak, the holiday of freedom, unless you link it to the holiday of that's the meaning of counting the because freedom has no value. Unless it's linked to submission to God. So too, the Shabas of liberation, which is the Shabas of recreation, right? Recreation cannot become recreation, although it's it actually is the same word. Rather, you have to use your freedom to submit to God. So you got to couple the Shabas of creation with the Shabas of revelation, submission to God's law, Torah study, observance of mitzvah and the like. But then there's a third stage and that is you know the idea of galut. The idea of exile inus and kabala is a very multifaceted idea. It is not only the loss of political sovereignty or living geographically outside of Israel, although that's aspects of gullus. Gulus can refer to an estrangement within your own soul in which there is a disconnect between the mind and the emotion, the head and the heart. In which intellectually you know what your life should be and who you should be, but emotionally you're not there. There is a kera, a rip, a disassociation between the moak and the le. You are in exile within yourself. And part of gula is not just the externalities of mashiach and binyan miktdash, but it's also emotionally connecting every part of yourself. So you're working with authenticity, with passion, with joy, with love. So the theme of the isus unity but unity does not just refer to although it does refer to that but unity within myself to kind of fix the ka the rip the terror that exists within my personality. So every single shabas you start with liberation you proceed to a disciplined submission to God's will and you culminate in creating a unity within yourself and then and only then you're ready to leave Shabas and confront the challenges of the week. And that is actually why Havdova begins with the verse he god is the God of my salvation. I have trusted him. I will not be afraid. Because when you are integrated, when your emotion and your mind are working together with Hashem, you can face any challenge and you will persevere. You will get through it. Without that I live in a state of fear because I'm not unified within myself. So these are some thoughts about the preciousness of Shabas. And as we enter the month of even though on one level it's marshesh but Hashem has never let let us bereft he has given us the great gift of shabas and as kazal say there is a precious gift in my treasure house the shabasma shabas is its name may we be za to to understand that so thank you very You see your tomorrow. [Music]