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A collection of classes to prepare us for the new year -Rosh Hashana. Rav Shlomo takes on a journey to connect deeper with the avodah of Rosh Hashana through various texts from Rav Kook, the Aish Kodesh, Rav Tzadok HaKohen, Rebbe Nachman, and more.
די די די דם, במ ברה רם במ במ, אה לה לה לה, במ ברה רם במ במ, ברה לה לה לה לה, לה לה לה לה לה, אה לה לה לה, במ ברה רם במ במ, מה במ במ במ, במ ברה רם במ במ, היי יה יה יה, היי לה לה לה, היי לה לה לה, די די די לה לה לה לה לה, היי היי היי לה לה לה לה לה, היי יה יה יה במ במ במ במ במ, במ במ במ במ, היי יה יה יה, היי יה יה יה. די די די לה לה לה לה לה, בם בם בם בם בם בם, היי יה יה יה בם בם בם בם בם, במ בם במ במ. היי, במ ברה רם במ במ, במ היי יה יה, במ ברה רם במ במ, במ ברה לה רם במ במ, במ ברה רם במ במ, היי יה יה יה, היי לה לה לה, היי לה לה לה. במ ברה לה לה לה, היי יה יה יה, במ ברה רם במ במ, היי יה יה יה, במ ברה רם במ במ.
די רה לה לה לה, די לה לה לה, היי יה יה יה לה לה לה לה לה, היי יה יה יה בם בם בם בם בם, ברה לה לה לה לה. היי, היי לה לה לה לה לה, היי יה יה יה בם בם בם בם בם, ברה לה לה לה, היי. בם בם בם בם בם, בם בם בם בם, בם בם בם בם.Okay חבר'ה. That's a beautiful ניגון to a beautiful ניגון.
It's good, it's okay, it's okay. חבר'ה, today is the eighth yahrzeit of ידיד נפשנו, our precious, precious, holy soul brother, teacher רב שלום ברודט. זכותו יגן עלינו. I wanted to dedicate this morning's learning לעילוי נשמתו.
Many of you knew him, many of you remember him. You've heard about him over the years. And he was, he was, you know on שבת we were talking about friends that are just there. You don't have to tell them to be there.
That was, that was Shalom. He was a, he was a חבר. He was there. You knew it.
You knew he was there. You just knew it. So I want to dedicate this today for, in the לעילוי נשמתו and we continue learning the month of אלול, לעילוי נשמת בתיה פייגא בת ישראל לוי בן יוסף. And for רפואה of לאה שושנה בת מלכה, and for the רפואה of שרה בת רחל פייגא.
And the whole week is sponsored by the Reinitz family in honor of my sister's birthday, which is this שבת. This שבת. Yeah, מזל טוב. Okay, חבר'ה.
I have such a יישר כח to our dear חבר, אריה גולדשמידט, who who introduced me to a תורה that I, I must have been waiting for, whether I realized it or not. Sometimes you meet a certain sweetness of תורה and you're just like, איפה היית? Like when you say, like when you meet a girl, איפה היית כל חיי? Where were you my whole life? And that's what I'm feeling with the world of תורה of the טולנא רבי שליט"א. And, I think we're going to see, I'm not sure how much, you know, we're going to start off now this, this זמן, with learning some of his תורות. דבש.
Honey from the רבי. We didn't plan that. We didn't, we didn't plan it. It's sweet.
This is, it's really sweetness. And we begin our march, at least on Wednesday mornings, we begin our march towards the יום הקדוש ראש השנה. This, this תורה that you can give these out, it's from this beautiful, beautiful ספר אור רביעישי, which the רבי gave me when we, when we went to go see him like a few weeks ago, I don't know, like a month ago maybe, something like that, yeah. The תורה here is just so sweet.
It's so sweet. It's a new, it's, it's new but it's old. It's, it's everything. And today, what we're going to be addressing, and I've been thinking about this the last few mornings, what we're going to be addressing today is the following topic that comes up all the time.
You know, we have an, we as יידן, we have this ענין of like, the other nations of the world speak a lot, speak a lot about the שטן. Satan. Big thing. by other חברות, right? And by us, כביכול, it's not a thing we don't speak about, besides on the, on the holiest times of the year, right? As about ספירה, you should know, it's a very, very, it's almost like you wish that הינני should be said all in quiet.
The whole thing. There are pieces I say in quiet. It's a קבלה from my אבא and from others, others do this as well. There are pieces in there that you say quiet.
הינני is the דאווענען, the תפילה that the חזן says right before he starts מוסף. But then there's a moment in the נוסח and the חזן, ר' יוסלה רוזנבלט, who I grew up on a lot of his נוסח, even in his old recordings, and I'm sure many of you that grew up in אשכנזי שולן in America, whether you realize it or not, יוסלה רוזנבלט'ס נוסח penetrated through כמעט like all the אשכנזי שולן in America. I think also in ארץ ישראל. I listen to his, those recordings, that's my, yes of the uncles, that's like, that's for me home.
But then when he gets to the moment of the words that we say in הינני, ותגער בשטן לבל ישטינני, where you're basically screaming, רבונו של עולם, stick it to Satan. Make sure he doesn't mess me up. Why are you talking about this? And also, the whole ענין, תקיעות, the day before ראש השנה. And the שטן shows up through חז"ל דוקא around ראש השנה time, more than any other time of the year.So, I don't know the answer to like why פתאום we're giving him space.
באמת I, I don't know the, I don't know the, the, the bigger answer. But there's an approach here in this third מאמר in אור לישרים, there's an approach that'll help us understand the עבודה of, of, of אלול towards ראש השנה. אלול towards ראש השנה. There's a deep concept here of תשובה, but geared towards getting ready to stand there on יום הדין, שיבוא עלינו לטובה ועל כל בית ישראל בעזרת השם, לטובה.
And we'll see something very, very, very beautiful all based on a גמרא. So look inside. איתא בגמרא, אמר רבי יצחק, למה תוקעין ומריעין כשהם יושבין ותוקעין ומריעין כשהם עומדין? כדי לערבב השטן. Here we go again.What's the question the גמרא is asking? The גמרא is trying to מברר a certain סוגיא at the end of דף ט"ז.
It's a very interesting סוגיא about why is it this called תקיעות דמיושב and תקיעות דמעומד. And without getting too involved in the technicalities, but and here we do it like this, where there's תקיעות that are before שמונה עשרה and there's תקיעות that are during שמונה עשרה. How many of you grew up with having תקיעות during silent שמונה עשרה, silent שמונה עשרה, that's what I'm talking about. How many of you remember that there weren't any תקיעות during? Interesting.
But you didn't have? Interesting. I grew up always, there always, yeah, I think there always were.So the גמרא is asking over here in ראש השנה, what, what is this ענין? Why do they blow שופר when they're sitting? Now that doesn't literally mean sitting, it just means not עמידה. עמידה, is, עמידה doesn't necessarily hear me standing, it means the עמידה. And then the גמרא says, and also, then why are you doing this also while you're standing? And the answer the גמרא gives is, we're back to what we said in the beginning.
Why? To לבלבל את השטן. חברה, what's the קשר between sitting, standing, this, that? How does this affect the שטן? Like if the שטן's so powerful, is he like, you know, just very low of intelligence? He may be so powerful, but intelligently you could, you could trick him with some like mental gymnastics? Like what, what, what is this whole ענין? So the first. What's that? You figured it out after. Right.
And if he's still around after the first, wait wait, I know what they're going to be doing right now. Actually, you really prepped us for how רש"י explains this. So look what רש"י says. פירוש רש"י בזה לשונו, שלא ישטין כששומע שישראל מחבבין את המצוות, מסתתמין דבריו.
This is really fascinating. It says he won't be משטין, he won't מקטרג, he won't prosecute, he won't say bad things about יידן, when what? When he hears that עם ישראל like מצוות. And when he sees and he hears that יידן like מצוות, he gets quiet. That's, doesn't really help us.
This is a classic Rav Ravender situation. What did רש"י just say? Two answers. One, I don't know. Two, I still don't know, but I'm going to try to figure it out.
Okay? I got to see the ראש ישיבה this week at. at Rav Leo's wedding. It was very, very special. I didn't see him in a while.
He should have a רפואה שלימה בעזרת השם. So he says רש״י tells us we do this stand like before שמונה עשרה and and during שמונה עשרה, why? לערבב את השטן. Why? And רש״י says because the שטן from seeing us do these different type of קריעות, he sees, what does he see about us? This is what's called חבוב מצוה. What's very interesting, and I always wondered about this, it never says אהבת מצוה.
Whenever it speaks about this concept of of מצוות, it always says חבוב. Now in Hebrew, what's the difference? Like and love. Right. So I have a friend that told me recently is like, wow, I love you, but I'm really working hard on liking you.
I said, thanks, I love you too, you know. You know you didn't say you like him. Huh? You didn't say you like them. Right right.
I said I love you too. I didn't say I like you. I said I love you too. It's true.
My wife says the same thing. Love me, but liking is something different, you know. That's for a different שיעור. We'll we'll figure that out.
A whole שלום בית שיעור. I need a רבה. So let's go back to רש״י. מדברי רש״י עולה שחבוב המצוה, this is what the רבה is saying, we see that from liking the מצוה, הוא שמעכב את השטן המשחית מלהשטין עלינו.
Liking the מצוות is what prevents שטן from doing a doing his job. וצריך להבין מדוע דוקא חבוב מצוה הוא שסותם את דבריו, יותר מאשר המצוה עצמה. And he says, we have to understand, why is it that liking מצוות is what shuts up שטן more than doing the מצוה itself? You could have just said, they do the מצוה, and that would shut, that's what shuts up שטן. No, no, no.
The liking of the מצוה is what shuts up שטן. ובכלל צריך ביאור מהו גדר זה של חבוב מצוה. Thank you, that's is helpful. And now he's saying, let's just figure out, what does this mean to like a מצוה? What does this even mean? למעשה, what does this mean? Now he brings here, the rest of this teaching is based on the following teaching from the ספר פנים יפות.
The ספר פנים יפות was from one of the תלמידים of the מגיד of מזריטש, רב פנחס הורוביץ. He was known as the בעל הפלאה. He was the brother, there's a few brothers that learned together by the מגיד of מזריטש. You should tell this to your friend, מזריטשער.
He's a תלמיד of the מזריטשער, and his brother was רב שמלקה of ניקלשבורג. They were both there by the מגיד of מזריטש. The בעל הפלאה, his ספר is called פנים יפות. So he helps us over here.
כותב לפרש הענין בזה הלשון, כדי לערבב את השטן. What does this mean to to mix up, to mess up with שטן? שהוא מעורבב מלהשטין ולהזכיר את עוונותיו מראש. We're trying to cause a situation that he gets so confused that prevents him from bringing up bad things about us before השם. כיוון שרואה שמחבבין את המצוות.
Since he sees that we like the מצוות, he calls it over here, אהבת המצוות, which we'll go deeper into. פן יקובל התשובה מאהבה. What is he so nervous about? That the תשובה from אהבה will be received and accepted. And then what ends up happening? להפך את כל עוונות לזכיות.
מתוך כך הוא מעורבב מלהזכיר את עוונות. This is amazing. This is beautiful. What did he what did the הפלאה just say? He says, what do we know about the ענין that the רמב״ם explains תשובה מיראה versus תשובה מאהבה.
תשובה מיראה, what do we know about a person's עוונות? נמחלין. תשובה מאהבה gets switched over. So he's saying, wait a second, I see that they're really liking the like doing מצוות, which means that they'll end up doing תשובה מאהבה, which means that if I give more ammunition, if I provide more things that they do bad, eventually what's going to happen? What am I basically doing? Giving them more. I'm increasing more the מצוה, the מצוה toll.
So it's a beautiful ווארט, right? You're saying, I see they really like the מצוות. Maybe they weren't so good during the year, but these ידלך over here, סופם לעשות תשובה מאהבה. They're going to be doing תשובה מאהבה. The more I load on the tank of all the things they did bad, the more that eventually I'm basically providing them with more of a tank of things that end up being good.
Remember the whole ווארט from רב לוי יצחק מברדיטשוב, why do we do תשליך? Why do we do תשליך? What do we do by תשליך? We take our עבירות and we throw it into the water. And then when do we go back to the water? שמחת בית השואבה. We go back to the water after the תשובה that we've done. and שואב, we draw back from the water all the חטאים that we threw in and we say now we did תשובה מאהבה, this is all, this is all זכויות.
I want to grab back my מצוות now. It's a beautiful בערדיטשובער ווארט. Beautiful בערדיטשובער ווארט.וכך כתבו כמה וכמה מפרשים, שכיוון שחיבוב מצווה ודאי בא מתוך אהבה. Of course when you like and appreciate מצוות, of course it's got to come from a place of love.
Eli, tell that to your wife. When you like something, right, love, liking, it's really all connected. אזי כשהשטן רואה את בני ישראל עושים מצווה זו מתוך חיבוב ואהבת הבורא, הוא חושש שכשישטין עליהם ויביא עוונות פשעים וזדונות, הכל יהפך לזכויות. Exactly what we just said right now.
What's he nervous about? Making us look good. That is something he does not want to do. But what ends up eventually happening from this whole story is they all just, they're all quiet. That's what it's causing.
It's causing the שטן to just simply be quiet. שהרי כך אמרו חז"ל, הגמרא ביומא says like this: שהעושה תשובה מאהבה זדונות נעשים לו כזכויות. ועל כן הוא סותם טענותיו ודבריו ואינו משטין. Okay.We answered one question.
What's the one question we answered over here? How does חיבוב מצווה help silence the שטן? Because when I show that I like a מצווה, that I love a מצווה, that I'm excited for a מצווה, that I have a whole מהלך in my heart that gets, that gets really, really, like, anticipates and is, the general experience is just one that's beautiful. שטן says these types of people, their תשובה will end up being a תשובה of love, not just a תשובה of יראה. I don't want to make them look good. How do I help not making them look good? נשתוק.
Just being silent at all. So you really, you out, שטן's not that smart because you realize you outsmarted the שטן. Now you keep him quiet. Wait a second, there's also a פסוק, it has with the פסוקים, right? The פסוקים before תקיעות, where does it come up the ענין of שטן? ערב עבדך לטוב, אל יעשקוני זדים.
That's one of the פסוקים, but also the קולי שמעת. Isn't there ראשי תיבות cross שטן? Yeah, קולי שמעת. And then the next one? I don't remember it in front of me right now, all the, all the פסוקים. I think it is.
What's the one after that? קולי. What's the one right after that? קולי שמעת אל תעלם אזנך לרווחתי ולשועתי must be a ר. ערב עבדך לטוב. That's ע.
That's ע. ראש דברך אמת, right? ערב עבדך לטוב, ש, שנאוני זדים. It's it's there also. Whatever.
כתוב בספרים. לא אצלנו. לא אצלנו. Okay, whatever it is.Now let's go deeper with this.
What does it mean, this whole עבודה that the Tanna Rebbe is speaking about is gearing us towards doing serious תשובה. And serious תשובה for many of us growing up meant stopping to do something bad. סור מרע. Rav Kluger told us one time, the whole חידוש of the בעל שם טוב is not erasing from the פסוק in תהילים, סור מרע, it's just putting the דגש, the emphasis on the next two words: עשה טוב.
Until the בעל שם טוב came into the world and brought down what he brought down, and a little bit of הקדמה of what we're going to be starting tomorrow, the emphasis, what the only way to get a יהודי to really choose to wake up was with סור מרע. You gotta stop. These מגידים would travel around and they'd freak the daylights out of everyone they saw. They were very, very, they were very, these people that were, they were orators, they were amazing demagogues.
Their ability to to ממש scare the daylights out of you was very strong, and it worked. The problem was after all the עבודה of סור מרע you had no כח for ועשה טוב. So you came for ראש השנה, you're like, \"Okay, I'm not doing anything bad anymore.\" But that doesn't help שטן because שטן gets messed up with what? With עשה טוב, with חיבוב מצווה. That's the עבודה that the Tanna Rebbe is focusing us all right now.
Doesn't start on ראש השנה, it's all אלול עבודה. He continues to explain this. You know, he had a very personal relationship with the גערער רבי. and a lot of these תורות come from things that the different רבי'ס shared with him.
So look what he says over here. ויש לבאר עומק הענין בזה על פי יסוד גדול שזכיתי לשמוע מהרב הקדוש, הבית ישראל, זכותו יגן עלינו. שסח לי פעם תחת אחד השיחים. It's a beautiful, beautiful language.
The גערער רבי once told me something, where? תחת השיחים. What does that mean? Under the branches? It could mean, yeah, like while we were שפּאַצירן, walking, or tree walking the trees, right? Where does it say? בדברי קודשו בתהילים, דוד המלך says, יתיצב על דרך לא טוב, רע לא ימאס. I want you to know this next teaching is foundational in the 12-step program. Look what he says here.
יתיצב על דרך לא טוב, what does that mean יתיצב? על דרך לא טוב, when you set up shop, more or less, in on a bad path. What ends up happening is, רע לא ימאס, ימאס. What does ימאס mean? Despise. נמאס לי.
רע לא ימאס, you're not going to end up being sick of רע. You'll be, if you set up shop in life on a דרך that's not good, like how do you know if the דרך that you chose is not a good one? It's a very basic answer based on this. Are you despising רע? Or you figured out a way to tolerate it? בדיוק הבית ישראל, והנה דוד המלך לא אמר רע יעשה. It doesn't say if you set yourself up on a bad path, you will do bad.
אלא מה? רע לא ימאס, meaning you're okay that it's around. You're okay that it's still part of your life. It doesn't mean you necessarily do it, but you're okay with being, you're okay with a certain לשון, you're okay with different things in life that maybe don't fall into the categories of sin, but you're not מואס, you're not despising it, you're not pushing it away, you're not rejecting it. We say אוהבי ה' שנאו רע.
בדיוק, very good. By אידן, like what are we really trying to do? We're saying בדיוק להפך, if you really love the רבונו של עולם, you can't tolerate it. You hate it, you reject it, you despise it. והכוונה שלו לגלות לנו שהמתייצב על דרך לא טוב, the one that sets up shop, he put yourself in a דרך לא טוב, אינו בדווקא מי שעושה רע בפועל.
We're not speaking specifically about someone that's doing something bad, actually ממש bad. אלא מי שאינו מואס ברע. We're speaking about someone that isn't despising bad. בכל זמן שהאדם מואס ברע, as long as you're rejecting and you're sick of bad, אף על פי שנפל לכל רע, even though you fell into a lot of dark places, but you hate it, עדיין אינו בגדר של התיצב על דרך לא טוב.
You still don't fall under the category of setting up shop, setting up your way in a bad path. אלא אך ורק שאינו מואס ברע, רק אז הוא מתייצב על דרך הלא טוב. I'm going to try to explain this outside. I'll try.
Listen to this. What the תולדות רבי is saying is very, very, is very, very important. A person can be suffering, a person can be struggling, and be doing bad things. But if he hates what he's doing, he's not considered מתייצב על דרך לא טוב.
Because להתייצב על דרך לא טוב means I accept that this is my זאך, that this is my lot, that this is just going to be my life. I accept it. I may not say it, but subconsciously, that's what's going on. My deal, I didn't get that חינוך that that guy that seems like he's about shining holy star.
Whatever, you go through the excuse games, blame it on whatever it is. Here we're saying, but what the תולדות רבי is saying over here is as long as even while you're in the רע, it smells for you, you're going to, you may, you'll probably be okay. You don't fall under the category of התיצב, like להתייצב means to, like in the army, you know, התיצב, that means you have to show up, you have to be present, right? להתייצב על דרך לא טוב. So as long as I can't, as long as I'm doing bad but I, נמאס לי מזה.
You ever ever. You ever like יוסף, הכל בסדר. זה זה מאוד, just just הכל בסדר. Just one חסד in a few minutes.
Come. As long as I'm, as long as I'm not okay with the substance or with the whatever it is. I'm not, this is not, today is not for פרטי פרטים. But as long as I'm okay with that, I'm still.
This is my ענין, התייצבת על דרך לא טוב. But if I'm not okay with it, דוד המלך says, you may be okay, you'll probably be okay. You'll probably be okay. There are a lot of things, a lot of places we can take this תורה to.
Let's see how he takes it. ויש בזה להקל או להחמיר? This goes for קולא, this goes for חומרא. יש בזה להקל, שגם מי שנכשל ועבר עבירות ואפילו עבירות חמורות, someone that's really up to no good, like really no good, הנה כל זמן שהוא מואס ברע שעשה, he could be doing horrible things, but he's disgusted by what he's doing. ואינו מוצא מנוח לנפשו, and he doesn't, he can't find any tranquility or peace in his heart.
והוא מלא חרטה, and every time he does it, he's screaming, I feel so bad. וצועק על מה שעבר, and he's crying, screaming over what just happened, על שנתפתה ליצרו הרע, that he was seduced to his evil inclination, ונפל לתהום רבה, and he went down to the low depths of hell. הנה אף על פי שבודאי יצטרך כפרה על מעשיו, yeah, you'll got to, you need כפרה, you need תשובה. מכל מקום אינו בגדר זה של יתייצב על דרך לא טוב.
Rebbe Leba told us, you don't fall under the category of someone that has set up shop on a bad path. שהרי הוא מואס ברע, because he rejects bad to a certain extent, just not בפועל. He rejects bad the second after he does it. Reb Shlomo once said a beautiful definition of holy.
He said, how do you know you're doing a holy act? If you could do what you're doing in the moment for the rest of your life. And you could consciously say, I would choose to do this the rest of my life. See a ייד when he sins, Reb Nosson speaks about this a lot that חטא has really no שייכות to יידן. We get, we get caught up in this game, this evil inclination game.
But Reb Shlomo was saying this, there's no situation that a ייד while he's doing an עבירה, he has one moment of consciousness and he says, I would do this the rest of my life. Holiness is בדיוק ההיפך. That while I'm doing what I'm doing, like when we're really in a state of תפילה, like really it's on, I would, I would do it forever. I would do it forever.
Okay. Second line on top. ועל כן עדיין יש תקוה ממנו. A person like this that's מואס, still hope שיצליח להתנתק ממוסרי יצר הרע.
There's still hope that he will eventually disconnect from, from the shackles he got, he got sucked into ולעלות מעלה מעלה לדרך הטוב. You go up, up to the good path. ומאידך, that's הקולא. But now יש בזה להחמיר.
But there's also, this can also get, get, get, get heavy. שמי שאינו מואס ברע, אף גם שלא נכשל ולא עבר שום עבירה בפועל. Let's say you're not under the category of being dejected, feeling disgusted by bad. But you're not someone that does עבירות.
Why not? Didn't, לא יצא לך. לא יצא לך לעשות עבירות. It just didn't work out for you to do עבירות. So you're not on the עבירה account, your עבירה account is not like, you know, so high.
But really, it's just because really it didn't, it, it just didn't happen. What could be a good example? There's no opportunity for it. Right, but I don't know anyone that doesn't have, you know, that has no opportunity to really do עבירות, but. You try to stay around here, like, you're living in a flat, it's quite a protected in that way.
It's not like next to Vegas or something, you know. What do you mean? A lot less opportunities to do עבירות for us choosing to live here. It's in your atmosphere, where you live. That's, don't laugh or not.
Yeah, you, you, you probably have, you know, heard stories. Okay, let's say we'll go with that. I'm, I'm, I'm, I don't know, I think we have to develop this a little bit for it to come down to us. What's the Rebbe describing here? A person that is not really doing bad things, but he's not, he doesn't have an an energy of like מואס ברע.
Hang out with bad company, you're guilty by association. You're not doing the act, you're not a criminal, but the guy you are hanging out with five minutes. robbed the store and you happen to run away together or, you know, whatever. Also if you, go ahead.
I wanted to share the story. I showed up at שול when I was not holding, let's say. And I show up and it's יום כיפור. Was either ראש השנה or יום כיפור, doesn't really matter.
I show up in an Orthodox שול, like a good Jewish boy, trying to check check the box at that stage. And I'm sitting next to a guy who's in שול every שבת all year round and I'm there to try to דאווענען, and he's like complaining about how long דאווענען'ס going to be, what's he doing there. Kind of like, he's not doing anything, he's doing all the right things by by coming to שול. Yeah, but.
But he's not מואס ברע. No. That's also very interesting. Okay, that's a good angle.
Do you see what we're trying to develop over here? The type of, I mean, honestly, the reason why most of us can't really relate to this is because we know what it means to fall. We don't know so much what it means to be someone that doesn't really like have any association with darkness. Let let's see if we can we can give him more clarity. Again, ואידך יש בזה להחמיר, שמי שאינו מואס ברע.
הגם שלא נכשל ולא עבר שום עבירה בפועל, מכל מקום, כיון שאינו מואס בעבירה, הנה בכך הוא מתייצב על דרך לא טוב. The Rebbe says a crazy thing. What does it mean to set up shop on a דרך that's not good? He doesn't necessarily mean here that you're a בעל עבירה. It just means that the דרך you're on is not good.
You know why? Because when you see bad, you may not be involved in it, but you're okay with it. It doesn't stir your life. You're okay. Live and let live.
Live and let live. I'm from L.A. they used to say that all the time. Live graffiti all over sunset.
I used to go to college in Santa Monica. I remember the graffiti all right, all over the college campus. Live and let live. Right? That that's not a יידישע concept.
ערבות. I'm ערב. I can't, what does it mean live and let live? You mentioned that that timeline. Live free or die.
Huh? Live free or die. Deep. I'm saying in the same, in the same spiel. כי כיון שאינו מואס בעבירה, ah, you're not sinning now, but you know what? Oh, fun times.
סופו שיבוא לידי עבירה. נמצא שכבר עתה הוא מתייצב על דרך הלא טוב. So it shows us here that even though you haven't done it yet, you're gonna you're gonna get there. וזה היה תורף דברי הרב הקדוש רבי ישראל, זכותו יגן עלינו.
And this is what the בית ישראל was giving over, basically, to the טאלנער רבי, trying to explain to him that תשובה, don't get caught up in just those ענינים of checking the list of bad things and stopping to do bad things. The ענין of תשובה is much, much, much bigger. The ענין of תשובה is something so profoundly deep where we, where we, Eli, I see you, שנייה שנייה אחת. The ענין of תשובה is so profoundly deep that it opens up a completely new gate for us where we have to check in and say, where have I been okay tolerating certain things that wouldn't necessarily become on my חשבון as an עבירה? Where am I מואס ברע? איפה is there any place in me that says I'm מואס ברע? When you start thinking like that, אלול becomes different.
Offense. Absolutely. It's on the offense. Absolutely.
It's, yeah, it's on the offensive. Yeah. Eli. Just to give a little bit of context to how the Rebbe is מקל, because we had a lot of conversations and a lot of private moments.
And he was growing up in quite a בלגן. His father was head of דת. And he was playing football as a young teenager. He used to talk to my kids about it.
You have to have something you love and enjoy as a as a young man. So he was going in that way. And yet, at the same time, his זיידע was was a רבי, the טאלנער רבי, and his, he was, his זיידע was by the בית ישראל and eventually he became a חסיד by the בית ישראל. And I could imagine the conversations they had was sort of like to plot his journey more towards a שטארקער חסידות and helping him with his ענינים.
So it wasn't just, you know, two רב'ס standing together. It was in context of someone growing up in בלגן, doing בגרויות וכו'. יישר כח, יישר כח for the context. Now let's go even further.
ואפשר להוסיף על דבר זה ולומר, שכמו שהתייצבות על דרך הלא טוב תלויה ועומדת במאיסות הרע. Setting up shop on a non-good path is dependent on how much you despise bad. כך גם במידה טובה ומרובה, ההתייצבות על דרך הטוב, so how do I get my act together and say, I am showing up and setting myself up on a good path? What is it dependent on? So you would say it's dependent on doing good. But no.
You understand? It's not dependent on action, very connected to what רב קמחי said to us on שבת afternoon. יוסף, I think you brought it up earlier in the week. It's a very, very good point. We're always into having, the ענין of I have this or I don't have this.
He says over here, if you want to know if you're setting yourself up in a good way, the שאלה isn't how many מצוות do you have in your bank account. The question is, how excited are you to be able to do a מצוה? How much passion do you have for the next מצוה שיבוא לידך אל תחמיצנה, as as חז"ל tell us. Don't miss out on it, don't make it sour. ההתייצבות על דרך הטוב תלויה אף היא ועומדת ברצון ובהשתוקקות לעשיית הטוב.
כשאדם משתוקק לקיים מצוה בכל ליבו ובכל נפשו. When a person longs to do a מצוה with all of his heart and soul, בכך הוא מתייצב על דרך הטוב. He didn't say that you did it. He said that you have passion to do it.
That's the התייצבות על דרך, דרך טוב. Yeah? Is there in כי תבוא? I think that it says that it's not that you that you didn't do the מצוות, you didn't do the מצוות בשמחה that you have all the קללות. Right? It's a little bit, yeah, it's in כי תבוא, but that's a little bit, it's a little bit different. The שמחה, that cuz that that has to do with the way that you did a מצוה.
We're not even talking about the way that you did a מצוה. תחת אשר לא עבדת את ה' אלקיך בשמחה ובטוב לבב is referring to that when you did מצוות, the האריז"ל speaks about this, that when you did מצוות, there was no שמחה in it. Here we're not even speaking about doing the מצוה. We're we're talking about excitement towards doing a מצוה.
הכנה, before that. אלול is all about the excitement towards which מצוה? תקיעת שופר. What do you think we're doing every morning? אלול isn't I'm doing the מצוה, no. I'm I'm preparing.
Every day is להגברת התשוקה. גם כשבסופו של דבר לא זכה לעשות את המצווה עצמה. And the רבי says over here, famously, obviously, we all know this, that when you really wanted to do a מצוה and you were excited about it, but it was taken from you. In חז"ל, in שמים, what does it count? Or not? שהרי כך אמרו חז"ל.
גמרא בברכות, חשב אדם לעשות מצוה ונאנס ולא עשאה. A person wanted to do a מצוה, but he was נאנס, he was coerced, he was forced, something forced him out of the picture of being able to do the מצוה. מעלה עליו הכתוב כאילו עשאה. The Torah says it's as if you did it, which is not the same when it comes to an עבירה.
You thought about doing an עבירה, boy, were you thinking about doing an עבירה. You had weeks, months, sometimes years of thinking of doing עבירות, and it boggles, it just congests your mind and thoughts and everything. It's not healthy, it's not good. No one should want it.
No one should want a lifestyle like that. But if you didn't end up doing it, it doesn't fall under the account as if you did it. It's higher. It goes the opposite way.
Even more, בדיוק. And you're able to prevent yourself. But by מצוות, it's the other way around, right? ולהפך, כשאדם עושה את המצווה. But listen, when you do a מצוה בלא השתוקקות, with no passion, no drive, ובלא שום מחשבה והתבוננות, and without any thoughts, without any contemplation, ובלא הכנה, without any preparation, הנה אף על פי שבפועל עשה מצוה, yes, you ended up doing a מצוה, למאן דאמר שמצוות אין צריכות כוונה.
Remember there's a מחלוקת, מחלוקת ראשונים ואחרונים, whether מצוות need כוונה in order to be considered to be יוצא ידי חובה or not. מכל מקום מצוה שכזו, עדיין אינה מייצבת את האדם על דרך על דרך הטוב. You could do all the מצוות. You could be יוצא all the מצוות according to the מאן דאמר that מצוות don't need כוונה.
But you know what you didn't do? You didn't set yourself up on the track that you really want to be on. That you didn't do. And that's the רבי's saying, the פנימיות הדברים is we want to set ourselves up on a track to feel we are on a good path. We're in a healthy place.
We're doing good. Sorry, we're not doing good. We're on our way to doing it. We're either on our way, yeah, we're thinking good, we're on our way to doing good, we're situated in a good place.
I think that's the probably the best way to say he התייצב על דרך טוב. Yeah, a good setup. We're set up, we're setting ourselves up in a good way. לפי שעניין ההתייצבות היינו העמידה בכח ובחוזק.
What does it mean to להתייצב? By the way, what does the word להתייצב come from? Where do we have this in the תורה? נצבים. נצבים is a great example which we'll have soon. What does what does what does נצב mean? Where do we first have this in the תורה? Before that? That's also true. Before that, where do we have it? עקדת יצחק.
Huh? עקדת יצחק. עקדת יצחק, לפני. לפני. It's a it's a little bit of a trick.
What does it say about Lot's wife? נציב מלח. נציב מלח, right? What does that mean? What does all the translations call it? Pillar. Meaning, when this this עניין of the difference between להתייצב לעמוד, is like I could stand or I could like a מצבה is called the It's something that's established, נצב, right. מזוזות are the post in the wall? Right, בדיוק, בדיוק.
בדיוק, נכון, נכון. עמידה, עכשיו עמידה עכשיו יש, התייצבות זה משהו אחר. לפי שעיניין ההתייצבות היינו העמידה בכוח ובחוזק. ואין ההתייצבות מתייצבת אלא על ידי מצוה הנעשית בהשתוקקות והכנה דרבה.
You know how you get to the place of התייצבות? By a מצוה that's done with תשוקה, that's done with passion, and that's done with הכנה. That's why I always say, it's impossible to have a התייצבות דאווענען if שחרית is 8:10 and you show up at 8:09. It it won't it's a there's no way. Huh? Or 8:20.
Yeah, no one shows up here at 8:20. It was later. Yeah. Actually Eugene, it was like more like 8:35, yeah.
Anyway, no, I'm kidding. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I don't see anything. I'm by the wall.
These things don't work. Now we understand why חז"ל tell us חסידים ראשונים היו שוהין שעה אחת לפני התפילה. What was the whole ענין of an whole hour before דאווענען? להתייצב. Not just לעמוד.
להתייצב. Why do we try to learn before דאווענען on שבת specifically? Why? הכנה דרבה. ממש. There's no other way.
ונמצא, next paragraph, שחיבוב מצוה אינו רק פרט בתוך המצוה. Liking, loving, excitement towards a מצוה is not a detail within the מצוה, אלא הוא הוא עיקר עניין עשיית המצוה. This is what makes the מצוה a מצוה. A מתנגד would freak out from words like this, right? A מתנגד, what is he saying over here? This is the עיקר of the whole ענין of the מצוה is the השתוקקות for it.
וחיבוב המצוה הוא שמעמידו בקרן אורה, ומייצבו בדרך הטוב. Being excited, happy that this is your חלק, puts you on the right in the place you want to be. ועל כן, therefore, back to the beginning of what we said, חושש השטן מלהשטין כשרואה את חיבוב המצוה. שטן has no problem seeing a ייד do a מצוה.
That doesn't matter to the שטן. What is what what messes up שטן? חיבוב. That that messes up the שטן. He sees a ייד do a מצוה, זה לא בעיה.
להיפך. If שטן sees a ייד just doing a מצוה, he's like, I got great stuff, why? Because you're not going to end up doing תשובה מאהבה. So your toll is not going to rise. It's the אידעלעך that are that are that are going to סליחות and and הכנות, הכנות, הכנות.
כי חיבוב המצוה לא מראה את אהבת הבורא רק בשעת עשייה. This ענין of חיבוב מצוה doesn't just show how much you love השם while you're doing the מצוה, אלא הוא מראה שכל דרכו של האדם הוא התייצבות על דרך הטוב. It shows us that all the way of man is setting themselves up on a good path. והתייצבות הזו על דרך הטוב, this saying, I'm מתייצב, I am showing up, I am putting myself חזק into this world of תורה by by being excited about it, that's what sets us on the track and this also סותמת את טענות היצר.
That's how you get the שטן to shut up. That's how you get the שטן to shut up. You know by the רבעס, you know, I I remember one of my, one of my great, one of my greatest pains in life is that I never spent יום טוב by by the רבעס. Don't get me wrong.
I'm very thankful that I got to spend by the רבע of all רבעס, my אבא, דאווענען. He's You know what it was to see your father in חודש אלול every year growing up knowing that he's the שליח ציבור? It was it was it was a different, we grew up with a different אלול, something very different. But sometimes I hear ר' שלמה describe what it was like to be by the פרידערקער רבי during תקיעות and I I just melt. Or the הכנה, really the הכנה לתקיעות.
The preparation for תקיעות were much, much greater. You ever hear of ר' אפרים וואקסמאן? He's unbelievable. I think he's in Monsey. You're right, right? I think he's in Monsey.
He is as שטארק as they come. You think יוסי מזרחי is a, he's he's, in a very very different way. He is, he's שטארק, but he's it's it's so beautiful. He does what's called גראמען.
You ever hear him do the גראמען ערב שבועות where he'll write English lyrics to a to a to a song or something that speak about the love of תורה? I'll send you some of the stuff. He actually, someone put on Spotify a loads of his classes and his and his שמועסן. It's amazing. He said, I heard him say once that I never ever read or learned anything about ר' חיים וואלוזשענער's ראש השנה or יום כיפור.
I only know about their אלולס. And he gave a list of a bunch of צדיקים that we learned from so much, he said nothing's written about their ראש השנות, only about their אלולס. And then I started noticing in different ספרים. There are plenty of ספרים that there are barely any תורות on ראש השנה.
But אלול, a מבול. Why? חיבוב מצוה. חיבוב, this is when I noticed, I was like, wow, this is it's really because once you get to do the מצוה, what could you even say? What could you even say?So just one more paragraph. והנה.
כל כוונת היצר הרע היא להביא את האדם לידי כך שלא ימאס ברע. You know what the יצר הרע really wants? You know when the יצר הרע really succeeds? Not when you end up doing an עבירה. You start to be okay with those. When you're okay that there's רע around.
You're okay. כי המאיסות מהרע because that that that pushing away the רע מהווה תריס בפני הפורענות. You all know what תריסים are, right? How do you say תריס in shutters. shutters.
The the the מאיס, to be מואס ברע, that's the shutter before bad things happening. ומונעת מן הרע להיכנס לתוככי הלב והמוח. And it prevents the רע to go inside the mind and the heart. He doesn't guarantee that about a מצוה, but he says about ההכנה למצוה.
About מואס ברע, that guarantees that there's a shutter put on from all the בלבולים that constantly congest our brains and our hearts. ומי שאינו מואס ברע, if you're still okay with being around bad, and and I'm בכוונה not getting into detail, because really, yes, there are things that are שווה לכל נפש, but there's a lot of things that I'm sure you understand that certain עניינים that people are dealing with that you never dealt with. Many years ago יוסי shared with us something that I guarantee you no one else ever dealt with besides him, but for him it was real. And that's why I don't want to go into detail about what someone deals with.
It means מואס ברע is whatever whatever that is, whatever you're okay with, whatever you're not, whatever you're okay with in life that still exists and you just accepted it to be, that's the biggest problem in the world. Because that's the gateway towards שטן saying, I got you. I got you.ומי שאינו מואס ברע הגם שלא עשה רע, but if you don't have מאיסות ברע even if you didn't do anything bad, מכל מקום הוא מסוכן ליפול לעשיית הרע, רחמנא ליצלן. והעבודה המוטלת עלינו היא.
So what is the עבודה? Now I wanted to get to this, למעשה. Like we always say, we want to walk out of שיעור, have a vision of what we just learned in a practical way with passion. What are we taking from this for today? Just for today. Because the עבודה of אלול is also do not think about ראש השנה right now, and do not think about י"א אלול.
Make sure all you're thinking about is י' אלול, just today. Just today. All you got to worry about is today. העבודה המוטלת עלינו היא.
מחד להשתדל בכל כוחינו להמאיס את הרע בעיני עצמנו. You got to ask this hard question. The hard question is, where in my life have I been okay with רע being around me, even if I haven't fallen into it? That's one. So מחד להשתדל בכל כוחינו להמאיס את הרע בעיני עצמנו, but on the other hand, It's just that's סור מרע, that's not enough.
What's the עשה טוב? ומאידך להשתדל בכל כוחנו להשתוקק לכל עניין שבקדושה. To train ourselves, to try really hard to develop a pattern of excitement towards the next opportunity of holiness that's in my life. Right now. Whatever, to start thinking, what is the next opportunity of holiness I have in my life? So for us in ארץ ישראל, it's very, very easy.
Very easy. I walk out of a שיעור and I'm in השם, give me a second of consciousness over the fact that I am living in ארץ הקודש. I know, I know it's holy, I talk about it, I want to live it. I want to להשתוקק.
I want to be more excited about מקיים the מצוה of ישוב ארץ. Just like that. And that's what we have to ask with he says over here, להשתדל בכל כוחנו. It's listen, this stuff takes a lot of כוח.
השם, I'm really exerting my energy here to develop a pattern of getting excited towards the opportunities of קדושה. ולהכין עצמנו לפני כל דבר שבקדושה בהשתוקקות הלב. And to prepare ourselves for any matters of קדושה with excitement of the heart, longing of the heart. ובכך נוכל להתייצב על דרך טוב.
And this is how we will be able to set ourselves up on a good path. ואף אם חלילה ניכשל, and even if God forbid we fall, עדיין תהיה תקומה למפלתנו. You'll still get up, you see, חבר'ה? מתייצב על דרך טוב doesn't mean that you don't fall. It means you fall, but the getting up is much easier because you you set up shop.
Cliff used to always tell me, drop a pin, drop a coordinate, drop a pin on the moments where the rhythm's flowing. Drop a pin, say I was here, I know what this is like, I like this. This is good for me. This is good for me because it feels good for us.
Get acquainted with that. Drop pins on moments where the קדושה is happening in your life. Right? Drop a pin there. Huh? We learned in בני מחשבה טובה? Yes, פיאסצנא was big on that.
That's very good. נכון. So many years ago already, but yeah. Drop a pin there.
Why? Because it doesn't mean that you're never going to need, it means, it means the person that's מתייצב על דרך טוב means, yes, שבע יפול צדיק וקם. That's the point. ואף אם חלילה ניכשל, עדיין תהיה תקומה למפלתנו. כיוון שאנו מואסין ברע, since we are dejecting evil, ומתייצבים על דרך הטוב, and we're setting ourselves up on a good path.
To end all this, you realize that as much as this is the עבודה in the פרט, the שאלה for עם ישראל in ארץ ישראל is the same exact thing. Have we had enough of רע? Are we מואס ברע? Or are we still going to tolerate the contamination of cancer in our midst? And as long as we're still okay with the reality that we're living in, to continue to be, we're not מתייצבים על דרך טוב. So I believe that when we do this more on a פנימי level on עבודת הנפש, on the פרט, it gives כוח for the עם to have enough to decide, we had enough of this evil. Someone asked me after שבת, what did it feel like having שבת סעודה with the ambassador? I said, honestly, it felt like we're all the biggest leftists in the world.
It that we're the just the just like it, it's like, sometimes it takes a brother from ממש another mother to come and show you like there are people that they're in certain areas of life they're מואס ברע, right? I hope that our our באמת, our עבודת הלב of this אלול is a זכות for all of עם ישראל to continue to get healthier and healthier and healthier. Like the like the פסוק that Rebbe mentioned, אוהבי השם שנאו רע, and that our march towards the שופר every single day right now. We still we're going to continue this because we still haven't explained the following. What's the question we still have to understand? How is תקיעה's מעומד and מיושב still, how is that קשור to the story of חיבוב מצוה? We have to explain that clearer.
Hopefully we'll continue that next week. Alright, חבר'ה.