Rinat Chaim: Praying that Awe of Hashem be Placed Upon All His Creatures by Aaron Dovid Poston

[Music] You my [Music] birthday. [Music] Shalom everybody. Welcome back to the Yanbate Madrash. I'm going to say welcome home to Torah. That's one of our uh banners. H we have been learning since the beginning of Elo a very important safer called Reinasim written by Rabim Freedellander on really understanding the tilot. If I would have stopped there it would have been fine, right? The tilot of the yoy. Guess what? We should bring in I'm sure Rabbi Britz might even speak about this Tuesday night. How to bring in the transformation that took place for us into the rest of the year. So the truth is if you open this book and only learn it in Elo, we didn't get very far. When are we going to ever finish it? So this is I'm going to say it's very fundamental. fundamental in terms of hashkafa but more fundamental in terms of even understanding what we're saying when we say these words and many of the words we say right the threehagim it's not just not just on uh on yum rash and yam kiper and sukus but pesak shabuis and we try to bring in the feeling for example we left Egypt in in the in in springtime time, right? So, we left Egypt. We're supposed to imagine if we left Egypt, right? The Rambam says, and everyone explains, you're supposed to feel as if you actually left Egypt. Then, and only then, no, every single day, we say the Schma twice a day. And the third paragraph talks about that the truth is just like we receive the Torah every day, and that's going to be discussed. We feel we should feel that we were released from bondage every single day. So whatever transformation took place or had taken place during the hagim, we're supposed to bring out through the rest of the year. So I'm recommending the safer, right? It's actually in English in the front and Hebrew in the back. And we've been learning the Hebrew. So I made sheets and we have a braad and he explains Hashem is separated and has set apart himself from all of creation, from all of his creation, from all creatures. He's unlike anything we know. He's beyond our understanding. Truth be told, the low rock at not just you, Hashem, but even his name. In other words, if I ask you what does kadosh mean? We all think it means holy and it does. But how does something become holy? When it's separated, it is we'll call it uh unique, right? There's something that is the fact that it's separated. It's unique. Um what other word am I looking for? It's distinct. We're going to use the word sanctified because sanctified I think in English anyway in in in encases these two ideas of sanctified holy but distinct sanctified it's been separated. So is separated or set apart from all of creation and not just him not just you but also and we say his name is holy. What is the name? What is what do we know about Hashem? His behavior, his conduct, right? The midos. We can tell who Hashem is from the way he behaves. But be you know an inkling of of what he is through his behavior. So what is the shame? What is a name? The name of something is an expression and it actually defines the person who's the ma the owner of that name. That's how he reveals himself to others through his huga through his name. And this is actually beyond our sorry it's beyond our comprehension. Hashem who he really is is beyond our comprehension. And who is this with all with all this that was said? We can never fully comprehend Hashem. In other words, the character traits or the the the the attributes that are shy to the creator. How could the create the created understand the creator? It's it's beyond our comprehension. So when we say we're really recognizing that he is separate, sanctified and so lofty, so sublime that it's really almost I mean it really isn't possible for a finite being that which I am. I'm a finite being >> to comprehend the infiniteim. Now what does that mean? Kadoshim we think Kadoshim are the holy the sadikim and that's true there's different views one view is it's themselves the angels another it's theim that's who the kadoshim the holy ones they themselves are also sanctified they themselves are from physicality. So it's easy to understand when you talk about angels of course they're a spirit right they're energy what about us if we're sadikim we also have separated ourselves to a great extent from the physical world of course Judaism teaches that you're mamish involved but nevertheless you're not connected you're not let me tell you about the the the malikav the yates har the evil incarnation has several hats he's the satan and he's the angel of death. When we pass on to the next world, if we're sadikim, we'll pass on through the kiss of death. Usually that sounds very bad, but it means that Hashem breathed into us life in the beginning and he he put his mouth to our mouth, so to speak, and withdrew the life. It's like pulling a piece of hair out of a cup of milk. That's there's no tugofwar that the soul just leaves as easy as it went in through the breath of Hashem. When we're connected to the gashmas, when we're connected to this physical world, there's the death throws the the satin, the angel of death is tug of war and your soul wants to stay in this world connecting to the gashmas. But when you're at sadik, you die with the kiss of death, which is as I described like pulling a hair out of a cup of milk. So the sadikim are they're separate from the the physicality and these are the ones that praise Hashem. Now what does it mean the bane? Because the the comes right before there's right during the we're praying that Hashem should place his fear on his creatures on all of his handiwork. First of all, what's the problem? Everything is in the hand of heaven except for fear of Hashem. Right? We were we were given the greatest gift which is Bakira. The mission perkavo says that God gave uh us the great a great gift called free will. We're created in his image. His image. He's the ultimate in free will. And we're like this miniature if maybe it's even illusion that we have free will. Where am I going with this? that everything is in the hand of heaven except for the fear of God. So maybe there's a lot of things are going to happen, but it's the attitude. Do I am I doing this for the sake of God? Do I have the fear of God? That's going to make or break all the difference in the world when it comes to free will. So everything is in the hand of heaven, whatever that means, except for fear of God. So how are we coming and asking God to give free will to place free will on humanity on on people on ourselves even so that's like a question I don't know if is it clear that it's a question all he's doing now is going to explain the connection between you are holy separate and then the request that Hashem places his fear on his creatures from the very fact since we desire to understand, right? We're finite, but nevertheless, we want to improve our understanding of God and to praise him. We would love to understand God. Therefore, we're requesting, we're asking from God himself. We're asking to place this awe this well we're going to call clarity when you have clarity you're in awe of Hashem this is a very high level of fear as well as which may be on a lower level but we're asking for both ama and that we should have it that this is absolutely vital for us we need to have fear of God, right? The beginning of wisdom is the fear of God. We feel it's a ne it's a necessary thing that we should have fear and we're asking God to give it to us. Remember, starting in L already, we feel we're approaching judgment day. Now, there's a huge makus. When is when are when is man judged? The Gomorrah says three different opinions. One, we're judged once a year. It's very nice. So why are we learning this? There's another opinion. We're judged every single day. And there's a third opinion. We're judged every moment of every single day. And there's really no makas. There's different levels of judgment. Right? But it's absolutely vital then as we approach specifically when we're standing before the seat of justice. that we understand that through having and this clarity that will merit will merit to have proper yamayim through proper shamim we'll be able to stand before the the judge and to praise him continues on toil alert. How is it? This is really the question I asked earlier. How is it that we're actually praying for your chimay if it's not in our hand? I mean, it is in our hands. Why are we asking him to do it for us? Isn't it something that we are obligated to do? In other words, if everything is in the hand of heavens except for your shim, how is it that we're praying for it? So, he says like this. So this is the question. Of course we can ask the following question. How are we how were we able to ask that God give us the language of a gift, the expression of a free gift. We're asking God to place his fear on all of his handiwork or as if to say We're actually asking God, place on our hearts a healthy, proper fear of you. And also in many of our other, we're actually asking for things that we're obligated to choose. We want to choose the good path and to do them. and having your chim is obviously the proper thing. So for example, right in our daily we're asking God to place in our hearts and that we should be able to understand and comprehend in order to have proper fear and proper love for your name. So tell us and this is the where the the question really hits home in a how is it that we're asking if everything is in the hand of heavens except for and yet this is what we're asking for. So he says there's two answers there's two answers that he gives two different answers. The first one is with absolute certainty. There's no question absolute certain certainly the obligation is placed upon us. Anything that relates to heaven, we're obligated to do all of our ability. That's first. So if it's all of our ability, what are we asking Hashem for? But we do know, we have to recognize we're not doing enough. Whatever God gave us to do, right? As Rabbi Kessen explains, look, plan A is mitzvah, right? You want to live a perfect life, you do mitzvah. Stay away from the things you're not supposed to do. You do the positive. You stay away from the negatives. The instruction manual, it's all laid out for us. But God knows that we're not perfect, right? We don't do it all. So, he gave us truvaem. He gave us an an out so to speak. But he also knows we're not exactly perfect. So what's the third option? If we don't do all the mitzvah and we don't do chuva properly, he gave us suffering. That's how we atone through our suffering. So we're not doing enough. [Music] After the fact that we make all the efforts and whatever efforts we do, what could be the end result? We open up the size of the needle, you know, the end of the needle where you thread it through the eye of a needle. I think they come up. That's pretty small, but at least that's that's what we can do. Minimumly we get this opening the eye the size of the eye of a needle and that's when we turn to Hashem and in his great mercy and kindness he opens up for us the size of a hall maybe even the size of the base a mikdash itself and that's the kindness of Hashem so that's the first thing number one we have to do everything we possibly can even though it's never going to be enough. And that's okay. That's okay. He promised us, you do your part and I'm going to open up the rest for you. The second answer he gives, the very fact that we're praying for free will, right? We're praying for your that is using our our free will that through the of asking. This is a using our choice. We're already going in the right direction. God will grant you the direction you choose. You want to go in the right direction, you pray for it, you make that's already the efforts, that's already in the right direction. And if we really truly feel this is something we're lacking, we were asking for it. We know that we could have more, so we asked for it. The right address, the single address, the only address that is able to fill all of our lackings is. So the result of knowing our lack is the it comes out that the prayers and our requests with a full heart asking God to please place fear on your creatures. This is the best uh productive effort one can make and this is the most efficient thing to do. Now this particular principle this principle that we're talking about that even though all the connection between to have proper year and to fulfill his Torah both of them what did we speak about right before with Rabbi Flax we need to turn to Hashem Only he can fulfill our requests. And we learn from the verse in Deuteronomy 5 26. The verse says, "If only," this is God speaking through Moses, "if only they would always have this kind of heart to fear me and to keep all my commandments all all the time." That's what God wants. So teach us when God said these words, if only they would always have this kind of heart to fear me. What was he saying? I'm going to go back. When Hashem said this to Israel and we know the phrase already, right? If only that God was telling them that's what you're supposed to say. You give it to us. You grant it to us. And that's Gamora vodar explains that. Now the beard devar is the follow just as kadeshbar who says you should right. You're requesting who's giving who's giving what exactly is this request? It's seems like it's only God that's able to give. God is coming and saying this to the Jewish people. God wants you to say you give it to us. God wants like like a father, okay? Father knows what his children want, but he wants to hear it anyway, right? The little tug on the jacket on the pants pocket. Aba. Aba, buy me. Buy me. I want this. I want this. And God. Right. We talked about this maybe at dinner. Does God have needs or wants? He wants. He wants the prayers of the sadikim. That's why sometimes he gives what we call. God wants you to ask. You give then. Then we'll be able to receive this gift from Hashem. What is this gift? It's a gift. Now, since if we didn't ask, there would be a claim on us. Okay? When the Jewish people did not request, there would be a claim, which means not grateful. The opposite of gratitude. They would have a in ungrateful ingratitude. Ingrateful. How do you say it? >> Ungrateful. Um, why wouldn't they ask? According to Rab Freellander, you know, who likes to be in a position where we owe we to say thank you. If God gave it to us, maybe we would have to use it, utilize it, and we'd have to say thank you. You know, we have a lot of ego. We a lot of pride. Why would the Jewish people not ask for it? because they don't want to be in a position where they're requiring the the uh the the kindness of God that God would give them your because then as a result they would have to thank Hashem for granting them the shay because of his kindness which is not horrible. They want to reach it on their own. They want to be able to reach the proper all of God on their own without any help from heaven. Problem with that that this idea that they don't want to be in a state of owing Hashem anything causes them to have this problem. It's it's a mistake. is brought the truth is in order to really merit proper you have to ask Hashem for it that he should give us a gift God is demanding that we should say you give it to me it's only something that can come from him even though we start by saying everything is in the hand of heaven except for your Don't think you can get it yourself. You need to ask for it. The asking the is the steps that are necessary in order to get it. And that's how he ends. Nevertheless, we find we learn from here that the causes the possibility and even the necessity in order to merit proper shay. It sounds crazy, right? If everything is in the hands of heaven except this one thing. So why are we asking Hashem? Because that's the necessity. That's our evod. That's the histadas. The histadas is that we ask for it, that we want it so bad and Hashem will grant it to us and will carry on next week. But this is something that it's not just for the yoy. It's not just for the high holidays. This is something that every Jew needs to understand in order to get proper healthy and we you know we when we make the right the before the new month before the new month right the not the we're asking God grant us again you have to say if everything is in the hands of heaven except your why are we asking for it because God wants us to he wants that relationship and this is something that can only come from him but it starts below everything we start below we we awaken from below and it shakes the heavens and Hashem grants us this unbelievable can't even value it invaluable gift of righte wisdom is the fear of God when you realize you need this that is the beginning of wisdom wisdom. With that, I wish everyone a great week and we'll see you next week. You see your sh