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In this shiur, Rav Dov Ber Cohen opens on Rosh Chodesh Av — the yahrtzeit of Aharon HaKohen — and traces the spiritual DNA of the entire month through the lens of shalom, shmiiah, and the inner work o
The Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen Podcast explores Jewish mindfulness, emotional mastery, relationships, and real inner avodah.
In each shiur, Rabbi Dov Ber shares practical Torah wisdom for navigating anxiety, deepening connection, strengthening emunah, and living with greater presence and purpose.
Rooted in Chassidic depth yet grounded in everyday life, these teachings are experiential, honest, and transformative.
If you’re seeking clarity without pressure, growth without guilt, and spirituality that actually changes how you live - this podcast is for you.
Okay, *Shalom Aleichem*. So today is a very special day. Who knows what today is? It's *Rosh Chodesh*. It is *Rosh Chodesh*, which is a very, very special day. But it's *Aharon HaKohen's Yahrtzeit*. Isn't that cool? *Aharon HaKohen's Yahrtzeit*. And the *Yahrtzeit* is a very, very special day. Judaism not so into birthdays. Why not? Because you didn't do anything yet. I always thought on your birthday you should buy your parents presents. Why do you get presents on your birthday? You didn't do anything. But your *Yahrtzeit*, then you've manifested, you've done something. So we are very into *Yahrtzeits*. Judaism, we like, we're into *Yahrtzeits*. And so it means we have now the power of *Aharon HaKohen* pumping into the world big time. And what's the power of *Aharon HaKohen*? אוהב שלום ורודף שלום. He loves *Shalom*. He loves *Shalom*. Now everyone loves *Shalom*, I would imagine. And there's different types of *Shalom*. But the real *Shalom* that *Aharon* is all about is togetherness of opposites. How about that? So if you have an enemy and you kill them all. You killed everyone. Is there *Shalom* now? No. That's not called *Shalom*. That's called no war. *Shalom* is when you have an enemy and then you talk to each other and you understand each other and you see your roles in the world and you get together and you each play your role and you come together. That's what *Shalom Bayis* is. *Shalom Bayis* isn't that you both become men or you both become women. That's not *Shalom Bayis*. *Shalom Bayis* is what's the woman's role? What's the man's role? How do we work together? In fact, we have outside here Chihuly, the world's most famous glass artist. And we see, I don't know if you saw it on your way in, but it's fire and water. Fire and water. So fire and water exact opposites. Fire is hot and goes up. Fire is hot and goes up. Water is cold and goes down. How about that? Perfect opposites. Fire and water, hot go up, so there's a *Midrash* that says that once fire and water, really Michael and Gabriel, they were arguing. And they were like, you're meant to be hot, what's wrong with you? You're meant to have passion. You're meant to go and light up the world. And water's like, no, you're meant to be gentle, you're meant to give life to the world. And then they both looked up and they realized that *Hashem* gave them their *kochos*. *Hashem* gave them their powers. And that fire needs to be fire, and water needs to be water. Now we also have a teaching that sometimes fire needs to learn to be water. You have to do that. We know *Avraham* who was *Chessed* needed to be *Gevurah* to fight the kings and to sacrifice his son. And we always are tested in our opposite *middah*. But it doesn't mean you become that opposite *middah*. It means you be your *middah*. And that's why the word for heaven in Hebrew *Shamayim* is made up of *Esh* and *Mayim*. When you've got *Esh* and *Mayim* working together, that's how you can cook. You need fire and water working together. When fire and water work together, then you can cook. So this is really the power of this day, and therefore if it's the power of this day, it's the power of this month. Because *Rosh Chodesh* is the beginning of the month. It's the DNA, it's the start of the month. That's why it's not called *hatchalas hachodesh*. It's not called the beginning of the month. It's called *Rosh Chodesh*. It's the head of the month. Why? Because the head controls. The head, the desire, the yearning, the thoughts, the reason. That's in control. So your head is in control of the rest of your body. So as long as your head is straight and healthy, and this is where the other meaning of *Shalom* that we really are yearning for is called peace of mind. Peace of mind. Just present. Are you just present? Are you here? Are you connected? *Yishuv hadaas*. Settling your mind. Connecting to *Hashem*. So this is really the power of the month for the rest of the month. Now everyone says, no, *Av* is a really bad month. משנכנס אב ממעטין בשמחה. When *Av* comes in, you should be less joyful. And we all know what the *Chasidim* say. The *Chasidim* say you're reading it wrong. You have to say *Mishenichnas Av mematim*, when *Av* comes in, lessen, so eat less and sleep less and enjoy less *besimcha*. Still do it *besimcha* though. You like it. I don't care if you like *Chasidic vorts* or not, it doesn't matter, but you gotta like that. Take it, leave it, but that's a good one. That's a good one. Do everything *besimcha*. You still gotta be *besimcha*. So you be a little bit less *besimcha*. And also be in pain *besimcha*. It says that if you don't see the *Beis HaMikdash* built in your days, then in some ways you are part of the problem. But if you feel the pain of not having the *Beis HaMikdash*, you feel the pain of not having God's revealed essence in this world, then you will have the *simcha*. of seeing the real rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash. So how does that work? Works like this. What do you feel pain about? What upsets you? So about a year ago, I didn't say an after beracha Havdala, you drink the grape juice, the wine, and then you have to say an after beracha and I realized like three hours later I was like I didn't say an after beracha. And I was so upset. Now, I didn't beat myself up. I didn't like, oh, I'm so bad, I didn't do that. But I was like, oh no, like oh, I just missed an opportunity to make an after beracha and I'm not going to have the whole rant of when some people don't eat bread so they don't have to bench. Some people are trying to get out of making... that's a crazy thing to me, I don't understand that. But whatever. I was so upset that I didn't get to say an after beracha, to say the word Baruch, I love the word Baruch, I love the word Ata because I'm actually speaking to Hashem. I love to say Hashem's name. You can't just say Hashem's name, only in a beracha you can say Hashem's name. So I wasted an opportunity to say Hashem's name. So really upset and then I was so happy. Do you know why I was so happy? Because I was happy that that's what I was upset about. I was like, Baruch Hashem. I'm not upset about my car getting stolen, well I don't have a car but you get it. I'm not upset about the football and the... that doesn't upset me. So I was happy that that upset me because it means I'm upset about meaningful things. So we need to understand always in Yiddishkeit, in Judaism, that when it's a tough, painful place, that is actually an opportunity for closeness. And we all know what's the whole... the Nine Days and the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash is there's this separation, the Shechina left the world, we don't feel connected to Hashem. When the Beit HaMikdash was here, then we could feel Hashem. You could literally feel spirituality. Now you can't tangibly feel spirituality unless you do a lot of meditation, a lot of mitzvot with consciousness, a lot of joyful and conscious and healthy teshuva, not beating yourself up but actually picking yourself up. That's what real teshuva means. Tefilla. You have to do a lot of avodah to actually feel your soul. It can be done. But in those days and in soon in our days, hopefully on Tisha B'Av it will be a festival again, we'll literally be able to feel tangibly Hashem's presence. That's very cool. So that's what we're... that's what we're mourning. We're not mourning the destruction of a building, we're mourning the distance. However, I just want to read you this piece of Rebbe Nachman, very important in Tinyana, the second half of Likutei Moharan Mem Chet. It's a very important one, 48. כשאדם נכנס בעבודת השם אזי הדרך שמראין לו התרחקות. Often when you start trying to become a more conscious person, I want to be a holier person, I want to be more conscious, you sometimes feel actually even a bit further away. I don't know how many ba'alei teshuva are here, doesn't look like that many, whatever. So when I was first ba'al teshuva, I was like, this is amazing, it's amazing. But then after a while, I was like, I was happier before. Although I was happy before, I lived in Asia for six years, I was a Buddhist monk, it was pretty cool. But I was like, I don't fit in, I don't feel... I don't... and it used to be every time I davened, I really felt like I was talking to Hashem. I often say this to people whether they come to Aish and they start becoming more observant and they come up and they get very excited, they're like, Rebbe, I can't believe it, there's actually a Divine creator of the universe. That's unbelievable, that's so exciting. I can't believe there's actually a God. And I say to them, I give you a beracha that in three years from now when you're frum, you still know that and you still feel that because it's going to wear off. So often when you start growing, you get a taste and it's good but then it gets taken away. Just a separate point, I tell all my students who are dating that you should not get engaged until the bubble bursts because when you first start dating it's very exciting and they're very nice and it's so exciting and then everyone around you says, okay, get engaged now, quickly. Yes, and I'm like, do not. Let's wait until it's... it's not perfect and then see if you can deal with that, can you communicate and understand each other? And only if you can do that, then you know you're ready to get married. Be careful, get engaged before the yetzer hara's going to come in after you get married and you won't know how to deal with it. So separate point, I just thought I'd throw that out there. It's very important, Tu B'Av coming up, just do it in a healthy way. So here we go. ונדמה לו שמרחיקים אותו מלמעלה. It actually feels sometimes like Hashem is pushing us away. Is that really? Really, Hashem? You know I've been davening so long for this. You know what, Hashem makes us daven so that we get closer to Hashem. I don't feel closer to Hashem when I daven for a long time for something and I'm not getting it and other people are. It doesn't make... I'm being pushed away, it actually feels the opposite. Like what have I done wrong? What's wrong with me? Why are you pushing me away? That's not fair. ואין מניחים אותו כלל ליכנס לעבודת השם and you can't... you just don't have the peace of mind, you just can't... you just can't get inspired and it's really hard, you're trying your best. ואמת כל התרחקות הוא רק כולו התקרבות to understand any distance is actually a bringing close, is a yearning, is a beckoning. It's like come, it's come. We know the famous teaching that when the Jewish people were doing the right thing, the kruvim, the cherubs, what are they called, those things, they were facing each other on top of the aron and when we were being bad, they didn't face each other. And when we were doing when our relationship with Hashem was good, they faced, bad, didn't face. So on Tisha B'av were they facing each other or not? You would think they shouldn't be, but no, they were. Because Hashem is saying I've got to push you away now but it's not because I don't love you, it's because I love you and you need the distance in order to build the yearning, you start taking this for granted. So I'm pushing you to bring you close. So everything is actually Hashem's trying to bring us close. וצריך התחזקות גדול מאד מאד לבלתי לפול בדעתו. You need a lot of strength to not give up, to not give up. Chas veshalom, כשרואה שעובדים כמה כמה ימים so you're trying really hard and it's not going, and I'm not going to read the whole thing now, but he's just saying that even when we're feeling not connected, Rebbe Nachman speaks about it a lot, ratzo vashov. Sometimes we feel connected, sometimes we don't. That doesn't mean we did anything wrong, that doesn't mean the Torah's wrong, it just means that life has that, life has ups and downs. That's part of life. In when you get married, you're going to feel close sometimes and you're not going to feel close sometimes. That's okay. So when you don't feel close, does that mean you don't have a relationship? No. In fact, that's a test of your relationship. When you're not feeling close, are you still committed, are you still turning up, are you still saying I love you, you're still there. That's actually the real test of the relationship. So we know that this month, what's the name of the month? It's Av. Av. What does Av mean? Father. Av Harachaman. Av is a good name. Av Harachaman, compassionate father. And some of the sefarim teach that obviously Hashem wants closeness. Hashem wants closeness. Hashem wants closeness. Av Harachaman. And a parent, sometimes a parent has to there are consequences of your actions. What actually demonstrates a parent's love more? When you're doing really, really well and they give you a gift or when you're when you need consequences? What demonstrates love more? So the sages teach actually punishment so to speak, it's not aggressive, but punishment is a deeper show of love because the parent doesn't want that. I don't want I don't want my kid to have consequences. So in a way it's a deeper love, it's a deeper compassion. You don't punish someone else's kids. Someone else's kids are doing the bad thing, you don't punish them. Why? Because you don't love them as much, you're not as close. So the punishment is saying I'm your dad, I love you, you need this to be able to come back. So the sages teach through we were in the three weeks, started the three weeks and we just entered the nine days. Is there any other time where we have three weeks, 21 days? Any other period in the year where there are 21 days? Rosh Hashana to Hoshana Rabba. So the sages say it's the same three weeks. It says דרשו השם בהמצאו קראוהו בהיותו קרוב. You should call out to Hashem when he can be found and you should seek for him when he can be found and you should call out to him when he's close. So the sages say when is that? Between Rosh Hashana and Hoshana Rabba, Hashem's particularly close. Hamelech basadeh, Hashem's particularly available. But the deeper sefarim say it really means this time. This is actually a time when Hashem feels furthest is actually when Hashem's closest. And he's totally with is there with you. These 21 days. So what causes the distance? The word for for a sin in Hebrew is aveira. An aveira, as we were saying yesterday, means distance, I've created distance between me and Hashem. So the sages teach there's a main thing that creates distance and that's taiva. Taiva. Every bad thing you do, really the Pirkei Avot says kina taiva vekavod. Kina taiva vekavod. Jealousy, comparing yourself to other people, wanting what other people does, that creates spiritual distance because you're not accepting what you have is what you need and what they have is what they need. Taiva is a misuse of desire. And just self I just want I want stuff. I'm greedy. When any other sin, really, comes from a misplaced taiva. Comes from I want something for myself. I'm a taker rather than a giver. So any sort of abuse is there's taiva in that. Any I'm right, you're wrong. There's because I want to be right and you're wrong. Anything we do, greed, all of it's taiva. lashon hara is I want to be look cool or whatever it is. And then kavod is honor seeking. Putting myself above other people. So the sages connect the word taiva and Av. Although Av has a vet and taiva comes from the shoresh vav, the sages teach that when it has the same sound they're basically connected. So they teach that it's taiva that created the distance. It's taiva that created sinat chinam, is taiva and what is the major taiva? Is that I'm right and you're wrong and I'm... it's ego. Your ego is all about being a taker. What can I get? It's a consumer. What can I get? I want more. Food and honor and followers and I just want more. And that's what taiva is. So that's disconnecting you from your soul. How's that disconnecting you from your soul? Because your soul is a giver. Your soul is a piece of God and your soul just wants to give. So the tikkun, the fixing of Av, is to fix your taiva. Because it does say you have to mitaveh, you have taiva for Hashem. So taiva isn't always bad. We always say this, that nothing's always bad. Every power that we have can be used for the good or used for the bad. So you want to start tapping into real taiva and this is one of the reasons we fast on Tisha B'Av. We fast on Tisha B'Av to say I have a physical hunger, I have a physical craving but I'm not going to feed it because really I want to go deeper into my spiritual craving. I have a spiritual hunger as well. I have a spiritual hunger for wholeness and peace and love and joy and God. But we're so caught up in our physical hunger and our ego hunger that we don't tap into that one. So we're going to fix our taiva. And this is a month of doing this. This is a month of fixing. Av, they say as well, is alef-bet. And alef stands for arur, which means cursed. And bet stands for baruch, which means blessed. So it's a month that goes from curse into blessing. In fact, sages teach that Mashiach is born on Tisha B'Av. And that Tisha B'Av was meant to be a very holy happy amazing day and it will be soon. But the salvation comes on Tisha B'Av and the whole month turns around, it turns into matat bracha. Tu B'Av we say is the happiest day of the year and there's lots of bracha for shidduchim. I just gave a whole class on it, fifteen minutes, the sound didn't come out. I'm going to have to redo it. Baruch Hashem. So happy about that. Says that every month has a different pattern of Hashem's name yud and heh and vav and heh. Different pattern. So you have yud and heh and vav and heh. So the one for this month is ה-ו-י-ה. ה-ו-י-ה. So the sages teach that the first two letters are the wrong way round. Usually it's yud, heh and vav and heh. So they flip the vav and the heh to the heh and a vav. So it's the wrong way round which means it's not in flow. But the second half is yud and heh which is in the right order and it's 15 and that's Tu B'Av and that's when it... this is a month of Mashiach. Of something's coming out. We never look at destruction and feel despair. We look at destruction and we say something's coming out of this. Something big's coming out. I've been to Nova and Be'eri and Kfar Aza. I've been to those places many times now. First time I went we were in Be'eri and it really had the worst basically pogrom. And I was with this group of Americans and this American guy picked up a broken tile from one of the roofs and he said, \"I'm going to keep this.\" And I said, \"Why?\" And he goes, \"Because I don't want to forget the pain that happened here.\" And I said, \"Why?\" And he's like, \"Because we shouldn't forget the pain.\" I was like, \"But why? Why?\" And he didn't really have an answer. So I said to him that the purpose of pain is growth. I'm not going to forget the pain so that I can grow, so I can become more resilient, I can be more kind, I can have a stronger Jewish identity, I can help the people who are living here. That's why. So I said to him, I wasn't in touch with him, but I said to him, what I want you to do is go and take that piece of tile but then use it to build something. An ornament and put it in your house and it will be your rebuilt ornament with that tile from Be'eri because we rebuild from the destruction. So the month of Av is really about this rebuilding. And every month the name in this month is ה-ו-י-ה. It actually spells Havayah. Havayah is... we... is Hashem's name that when we don't want to say Hashem's name we say Havayah, which is related to the word chavaya which means an experience. Are we experiencing life on a high level? Are we experiencing Hashem in our everyday life? Are we experiencing spirituality? Are we experiencing our spiritual yearning and our spiritual... what are we experiencing? What's your experience? experience of life. So it comes from a pasuk in Devarim, הסכת ושמע ישראל היום. That's ה ו י ה, which means pay attention and listen, Jewish people, today. Pay attention and listen. Just stop. Stop. What for me, what the nine days and this time is... what don't we do in the nine days? We don't eat meat, drink wine and put on clean clothes. I'm very makpid on that so I actually train all year and I never wear clean clothes and shower. I never wear... but I worked it out, I think it's because you know what we're chasing so much is food and clothes. We're obsessed with food and clothes. So it says stop doing that. Hashket. Just pay attention, just be quiet and start listening. The end of the pasuk, הסכת ושמע ישראל היום היום הזה נהיית לעם לה' אלהיך. Today is the day that you became Hashem's nation. This is the day you became Hashem's nation. So very, very big avodah and we're going to see that this is the power of this month is to just stop, be quiet and start listening. But what do you want to listen to? You want to listen to your soul. Can you hear your soul? So we just said for most people I can't hear what my soul's saying because my body's so loud, it's my body's so needy and my ego is so needy and it's so loud and so I'm just feeding my body and ego all the time, I can't hear my soul. And my soul's really nice. Your body ego is either saying I'm better than other people or I'm worse than other people, putting yourself down. Your neshama is just full of love and joy, it's just nice. So you want to be able to tap in, stop and listen. So the power of this month, the Sefer Yetzirah, which we believe Avraham Avinu wrote, the foundational book of Kabbalah, says that every month of the year has a special name, a special tribe, a special letter, a special power, special energy, so the energy of this month is shmiah, which means hearing. שמע ישראל ה' אלהינו ה' אחד. So the deepest type of hearing really is to hear yourself, to hear the voice of your soul. And the voice of your soul is loving and kind. And to hear other people truly. Can you really, really hear what other people are saying? Most people, they're not really listening to people. They're hearing the words just so that they can say something or comment or that happened to me or... so just be able to hear a lot deeper what other people are saying, where it's coming from. When your kid is crying and freaking out and you just want to like smack it, you're like hold on what's he saying? What's... or some people say no he's just being manipulative, but why's he being manipulative? Just go a little bit deeper. So hearing is very, very deep. They say that seeing, last month Tammuz was all about seeing and seeing was Reuven, reu. This month is Shimon, which is shmiah. Seeing you get the whole picture at once. I can see you all. I see the whole picture all at once, it's there. Hearing, it comes bit by bit. So when I say a sentence you have to wait for the next word until you hear the whole sentence. It's... it goes deeper. Goes deeper. So the Gemara, I still don't understand this Gemara fully because I never met anyone who agrees, but it must be true. Says if you have a choice between being deaf or blind, you should be blind because hearing's much deeper than seeing. Now I wouldn't choose that myself and I don't know if I met anyone who would, maybe a musician, I don't know, but I hear what it's saying. I hear what it's saying. I hear what it's saying, there's some depth, there's emotional intimacy. There's more emotional intimacy when you hear. And music, music, imagine you couldn't hear, you could see but you couldn't hear, there's no music anymore. And music really touches the soul in a very, very deep way. And communication mainly comes through the tone of the voice and... so hearing's very, very deep. So in Judaism hearing doesn't mean just I heard it, it means I'm integrating it. I'm integrating it, it's becoming part of me. שמע ישראל ה' אלהינו ה' אחד. Hear this, make this part of your existence, understand it on a deep level. So the tribe of the month is Shimon and where does Shimon's name come from? It says that Leah felt unloved. She felt unloved. So she had a son, Reuven, which was nice, but then she had another son, Shimon, and she said because Hashem heard that I was unloved He gave me another child. So that's the whole essence of Shimon is hearing people's pain, hearing. She's saying I've been heard, basically I've been validated. Shimon's a very powerful force, it's I hear you, I deeply hear you. And many people they argue because they're not... I really hear you. I might not agree with you. I had this whole discussion once and we were having a debate. And at some point I said to them, do you understand my point? because they were arguing against me. Do you understand, do you at least do you understand what I'm saying? and they said well no actually I don't even understand what you're saying. And I thought, so how can you disagree with me if you don't understand what I'm saying? So you gotta understand, you gotta hear, hear, hear what I'm having all the... I'm not going into a political discussion. But the whole hafganot and the Chareidi and the idea but it's like can you at least hear each other? I just want you to hear each other. So this is what I want to do. I want to make a project, get one of the protesters, get one of the policemen, get a Dati Leumi army guy and get a secular Israeli. And I want them each to say the other person's point. Not you don't have to agree with it. I just want you to say I do understand this. I understand. I don't agree with them. I do not agree with them at all. The first thing though... but I understand. That's what I want. I want understanding. Understanding is the beginning of something. Achdut is a big goal. How are we going to unify when we're so separate? But at least you can have an understand understand what he's saying. I actually spoke in a Hasidic yeshiva for four and a half hours three weeks ago and I started talking to them about it and they were blown... they just never thought of it. They never heard the other side. It just didn't... they didn't hear the other side. I said this is a bit of a crazy thing. One of them said to me because they saw the hafganot and the policemen and the hitting and the... and they said because I was talking about you have to love every Jew. V'ahavta l'reiacha kamocha, you have to love every Jew, even if they're completely against you. You you have to love every Jew. It's a mitzvah from the Torah: love every Jew. V'ahavta l'reiacha kamocha. So he looked at me and he said, well you know you've got the protesters and the hitting them and these people. And he said, I just don't know how I can love Jews like that. And I said, which ones? And he was like, I don't know anymore. And I said, I'll tell you. You love them all because they're all Jews. They all have a neshama. Go beyond. Go beyond the surface. Go deeper. You don't have to love what they're doing. You don't have to love what they stand for, but you have to love them. And I think when we can get into that place, we can heal. We can heal and then we can work together. We need people learning Torah all day and we need people in the army and we need everyone. We've just got to find shalom. Let's find our place. So why was the temple destroyed? Sinat chinam. I don't like your kippah. I don't like your... I don't like how you're doing... It's like we're just destroying the temple again. This is that's what we're doing right now. So we take Shalom, Aharon HaKohen, אוהב שלום ורודף שלום. You've got to run after it as well. Don't just love it, run... I'm chasing this. I'm chasing peace. Peace of mind. Peace amongst the Jewish people. If we don't have peace, Hashem's like, I can't... I don't want to be around you. That's what's really going on. Hashem says, I'm not hanging around. The Nefesh HaChaim says, how was the the temple destroyed? It's Nebuchadnezzar came in, but Hashem says it's already destroyed. I'm out of here. So there's no shemira anymore. I'm not protecting it anymore because you guys aren't... Like when my kids are fighting, I don't want to be around them. When my kids are getting on... I want to be around them. I love being around my kids when they're getting on. When my wife keeps saying, well we have to you know help them, and I'm like, no, let's go out. They're old enough now. They'll fight. I'm a good parent. Good parent. So this is what Shimon is. Shimon is I'm comfort. Also what Shimon... people say bad things about Shimon because he was fiery and Moshe didn't bless him openly at the end. But I love Shimon. And this is very politically incorrect what I'm about to say. And you don't have to listen to any of my classes after this if you don't like this. But the whole thing with Dinah. Shimon and Levi get up and they mamash kill everyone. Yaakov's not so happy about that. But I'm like, yeah, you go. Kill every... God forbid if that... God forbid someone's daughter... something happened to someone's daughter and they had sons. I'd like: kill everyone. Kill them. Kill them. Kill them. I'm a very spiritual, peaceful, loving man, but I'm like... Now the Torah calls them achim, her brothers. Doesn't call any of the others. It says the Torah recognizes there's something about that. And Yaakov also didn't say anything when they said, look, are we going to let them do that to our sister? So Yaakov's like... But anyway, they still got in trouble for it, but I think there's something... I think there's something to it. I'm fire. Fire. Fire. So this is it. Fiery... how does this work? Because this is a month of... this was a fire month. We know there's earth, wind, fire, and water. These are our elements. And this is a fire month and how obviously when you think of fire... And you think of the destruction of the temple and Yerushalayim was on fire and that's where the idea of the fire comes from. But Rashi also brings the final Beit Hamikdash will come down be made of heavenly fire. So fire is very, very powerful. We have earth, wind, fire, and water but really they come from the foundations of stability is earth, wind is flexibility, fire is destruction, and water is vitality. So you've got these are opposites, vitality and destruction and then stability and flexibility, spirituality. Each of them can be used in a bad way. So earth in a bad way is laziness and depression. Earth in a good way is stability and reliability. Fire in a bad way, fire's destruction so it's bad if it's egotistical and anger, but it's good if there's passion, motivation, and growth because in order to grow you have to destroy who you used to be, you have to destroy your bad character traits, you need to... so everything can be used in the right way. So we're also tapping into this power of fire. Find the fire within us. Now, not everyone is naturally a fire person and you don't have to become a fire person, but just look for the fire in us. Look for the fire, what am I, what am I living for, what am I fighting for, what do I care about, what part am I... Now, with no guilt and shame and comparing ourselves, but it does say if the Beit Hamikdash isn't built in our days, then we are kind of a bit to blame. Kind of, whatever that means. You're cool, I like you, you're fine. Don't have to put that on your shidduch resume. I'm partly responsible for the Beit Hamikdash not... it's just teaching an idea. It means what do you have to fix in yourself? Judaism is very, very into fixing. So the whole destruction, destruction is fire, the whole destruction of the Beit Hamikdash, it doesn't scare us because we know it's going to, firstly we know it's going to be rebuilt. This is one of the greatest things about being part of the Jewish people is we know the end of the story. We know the end of the story. So use this example, imagine on Sunday the World Cup final, England against Spain. We'll see. So imagine I can't watch it. Imagine it's on Shabbat, I can't watch it and then after Shabbat I record it. After Shabbat I say right I'm going to sit down, I've got my beer and I'm ready to watch my foot... I don't do this by the way. I've got my beer, I'm ready to watch the football and I say don't tell me the score. Just whatever you... I don't want to know the score. But then one of your friends calls you up and says Mazal Tov we won before you watch the game. How do you feel at that point? Well you feel upset but you feel happy. You feel upset. So now you're watching the game and you go one-nil down. How does that affect you? Not so much. You're like two-nil, three-nil, five-nil down. In fact, the worse you're doing, the more excited you get because you're like this is going to be some unbelievable comeback. This is some... this is the Knicks against... I don't know. But this is going to be the most ridiculous comeback of all time. So this is how the Jewish people view brokenness in our lives. It's like this is painful, in the moment it's painful but how's Hashem going to sort this one out? I'm pretty excited to see because I don't see how it's going to work now. Like what percentage of Jews are keeping Shabbat and what percentage of Jews who are keeping Shabbat are keeping it besimcha and consciousness and what percentage of Jews love each other and what... like how on earth are you going to... and the Gemara says that Mashiach comes if everyone's bad or everyone's good. It's like oh no because now we're... there's so much good and then there's so much bad, we got no chance. There's absolutely no chance of salvation for the Jewish people. There's no chance of peace in the Middle East. It's impossible. Forget your political thing, there's absolutely no chance. It's pashut nothing, which is why it's so exciting because we know it's going to happen. How? I don't... I don't know. אין לנו על מי להישען אלא על אבינו שבשמיים. Hashem's going to have to do some crazy thing. I'm very excited. I'm personally very excited about this. So, how long do we have? We don't have so long. Let's do this, there's lots. The letter is Tes. Yes? We actually call it Hashem's... crazy things that's happening, we'll be watching, we'll call it seret like Seret Shel Hashem, like Hashem's movie. Watching Hashem's movie and it's just... But we know that it's not a horror movie. Well it is kind of, but we know the end, it's a good... that's why history is really his story. So Hashem... Let's do this, it's a good one. Is the the mazal of the month is is the Aryeh, Leo, I guess that is, they took it from us, I think is Aryeh. So the Aryeh works in this way. Firstly, he's very fiery. He's got that power. But secondly, a lion can get all its taivahs. A lion's all about eating, sleeping, alpha male. Alpha like Shimon. I love Shimon. Alpha male. You always go say well I heard about this rabbi but he's not at all what I thought he was going to be. They said he teaches meditation and now he's like love Shimon killing everyone. Anyway, I do teach meditation as well. You gotta have the balance, see, in the balance. I do kickboxing as well. Anyway, so so the Aryeh, the lion gets whatever he wants but that's where you have the power of self-restraint. Power of as we said the whole class began with with fix your taiva. Fix your taiva. How are you going to have self-restraint? You don't have to feed your body and your ego everything it needs the whole time. You don't need to feed yourself, feed, feed, feed, feed. Disconnecting you from your spirituality, so restraint. So the the sages, the deeper sefarim say that Aryeh is gematria 216 and so is Gevurah. Gevurah is gematria 216. Because the Aryeh needs the Aryeh has Gevurah but also needs Gevurah. It has Gevurah but therefore because it has Gevurah, it has a lot of strength, it needs the greatest strength and what is the greatest strength? איזהו גיבור הכובש את יצרו. So we you the same power can be used for good or evil. So we gave this class about a month ago that where does anger come from? Comes from Gevurah. You want to overpower people, I'm right, you're wrong. So what you have to do is every time you feel anything negative, you have to say to yourself, להחזיר את זה לשורשו. I have to take it back to its root. Where is my anger coming from? It's actually coming from Gevurah. But Gevurah's a good thing. So Hashem's pumping Gevurah into me right now, I've just misused it. It's been filtered through my ego and now it's coming out in an unhealthy way. So we say the Torah is like pure water. But if you pour pure water into a dirty funnel then the water that comes out of the funnel into the cup is going to be dirty. It's not the water's fault, it's the funnel's fault. So if you take Gevurah which is holy but you put it into a vessel that isn't pure which is your own mind, your own negative character traits, it's going to come out as anger. But understand that even this anger started off as something good. So take it back up there and bring it down and what do you need to to deal with anger? Gevurah. Need self-restraint. So the exact negative power that is forming your your bad trait is the one you need to overcome it. That's my point. Very powerful. So so this is what the lion's doing. And says that that 216 is Gevurah but it's also three times 72 and 72 is gematria Chessed. So Chessed is 72. And they say because of the we have the three Batei Mikdash. We're going to have three temples, so three times Chessed is Gevurah so everything comes back to Chessed. Even the pain in our life, even the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, even the things we're going through in our life, everything is just really all Chessed. Chessed that's coming down into life, what does that mean? It means that Hashem loves us. Hashem loves us unconditionally. So when we feel pain and when we feel like it's basically going back to Rebbe Nachman here, you just need immense strength. Strength to just keep going, strength to have emunah. This is actually I'm now about to go into my whole class that I recorded that didn't come out so I'm going to wait for it. But you need to have that balance. It's also nine times 24. There's nine days, nine days of 24 hours that's also 216, whatever. There's lots of 216s now because this is for these nine days. We're having we're having self-restraint when it comes to eating meat and wine and clothes and showers, we're we're holding ourselves back, but in order to tap into a much deeper fire. We're going to rebuild the Beit HaMikdash. So that's why it says ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם. You should make yourself holy so I can come and dwell in you. Which the sages say that teach many things about that but it says even before the Beit HaMikdash is built speedily in our days, say amen, you can have the divine presence be shoreh, could be in you. If you make your mind and pure and holy, and your speech, your thoughts, and your speech, and your actions, blvavi mishkan evneh, you shall build me a dwelling place within your heart. So that's really what we're doing. And the heart is the ratzon, the heart is the desire, the heart is the fire. So what we're trying to do is we're trying to fix our fire, fix our yearning. What are we yearning for? Why are you yearning for the Beit HaMikdash? Why are we yearning for these things? We're yearning for shalom. Let's finish with Aaron. We're yearning for shlemut. That's why Yerushalayim is yireh shalom, to see peace. That's why Yerushalayim, and it's yireh shalem, which means complete awe. And there's many things that Yerushalayim are, but that's what our whole purpose is, is to bring everyone together. And that's actually why we say that the Beit HaMikdash is for everyone. To fix our what? Was the word you used? You said ratzon, we're trying to fix our what? Was the word you used? Desire? I don't remember. It was a long time ago. Sorry. I just don't know what I'm saying anymore. That's okay. Fix something. Fix something. Build the Beit HaMikdash. Fix our yearning, our desire, fix our whatever we're fixing. Let's just fix something. I don't know what you're doing in this world, but I'm trying to fix something. I'm trying to fix myself, fix the Jewish people, fix problems, fix everything. But it says that the Beit HaMikdash is a בית תפילה לכל העמים for everyone. So shalom is when Hamas apologize, and they say, and we know that Yishmael does teshuva. The Torah says Yishmael mamash did teshuva. Hamas is going to be like, oh my goodness, what an idiot, I messed up big time, I'm going to go and daven and we're going to go... there we go. That's a crazy idea. How's that going to happen? It's going to happen. We know it's going to happen. Everything's going to happen. That's the purpose of the Beit HaMikdash. We don't want to wipe out other people. We want to bring everyone with us. We want to be a light, a fire unto the nations. That's what we're doing. So bezrat Hashem. So if you feel the nine days is a bit annoying, I can't listen to music and I can't do this, remember the Beit HaMikdash was all about music. It was all about music, connecting. So how about being quiet and listening to your inner music? Most people are distracting themselves with music all the time and controlling their mood with music. I feel down, so I'll put on some music. I feel this, I'm going to put on music, music. So Hashem says, let's take away the external music, the external soundtrack that is controlling your life, and הסכת ושמע ישראל היום. Just, just pay attention and listen to your inner... the music of your soul. What songs are your soul singing? The soul's singing Shabbat songs all the time, by the way. And you have to do it hayom. And that was the whole class yesterday. Hayom means start again. Every day... you've got to be new every day. מחדש בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית. Today, I'm going to be new today. It's called the nine days. Why is it called the nine days? It could be called the week and two days. Because it's saying every day, hayom, hayom. This is another day. This is another... Rebbi Nachman says that hayom, we said this yesterday, also means that you're just doing it for today. Don't take on too much. Many, many people say that when it says the word hayom, it means the avodah... there's two types of avodah. One is the avodah of I'll start again, mechadesh, I'm going to be new today, which is good. A Rosh Chodesh is all about being chadash. Rosh Chodesh means a new head, a new perspective. I'm going to start with a new perspective right today. But then Rebbi Nachman says, and only for today. I'm going to do the right thing just for today. Maybe not for the rest of my life. But for today I'm going to be a tzaddik. Today I'm going to do my best. Today I'm going to daven. Today I'm going to do what I'm meant to do. And we'll see what happens tomorrow. I'm not committing to tomorrow. I'm just committing to today. And then all you have to do is commit to today every day. Bezrat Hashem, we should all be dancing in the Beit HaMikdash soon. Do you listen to a cappella? Not on purpose. I think... no. I'll tell you something. The a cappella that is like dance music seems ridiculous to me. What... what's the point of that? The whole purpose is not to have this music. My Rosh Yeshiva says there's no issue at all listening to meditation music during the nine days. It's just the dance music and happy dance music. So a cappella happy dance music is like, what... what are you doing? Can I ask a quick question? Yes, please. Okay, so like, by committing to...