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In this shiur delivered in the week of Rosh Hashanah, Rav Dov Ber Cohen explores the deeper meaning of Yom Teruah — not merely as a day when shofar is blown, but as a day whose very essence is shofar.
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, Baruch Hashem. Shavua shechal bo, we're in the week of Rosh Hashanah! It's coming, this week! The highest, holiest, most awesome day of the year. Yamim Nora'im. Awesome, awesome days where we're celebrating. We're celebrating the new King. The King is coming! Long live the King! Long live the King! It's amazing that the world isn't hefker. The world isn't ownerless. There's a King of the universe, and the King is our Father, and the King loves us, and the King told us what we need to do in order to reach our ultimate potential, and we're celebrating that. We're celebrating the new King. As we said last week a lot, there's no teshuva on Rosh Hashanah, there's no feeling heavy and intense on Rosh Hashanah, there's, as Nechemiah says, in the Book of Nechemiah: don't cry, celebrate, wear nice clothes, eat nice food, it's a chag, it's an amazing day, it's a very, very exciting, wonderful, amazing day. And we're going to learn a little bit from the Netivos Shalom, who says this: בחודש השביעי באחד לחודש. It says in the Torah, on the seventh day, on the first of the seventh day, and we said it's amazing and we didn't bless the month. It's the only month where we... this week was Shabbat Mevarchim. The the the Shabbat before the new month, it's called Shabbat Mevarchim because we bless the new month, but we don't, we don't, we don't bless the month of Tishrei, because it's a whole you can't even bless it, it's in a... we're zooming up to a whole new level of reality that the the the month before... in all the other months, the month before leads into the next month so you can bless, but when it comes between Elul and Tishrei, Tishrei is a whole new world. Don't you dare close your eyes. A whole new fantastic point of view. I'll take you... It's a whole new metzius. There's a new King, there's a new the whole energy of all... We're basically, בראשית ברא אלקים את השמים ואת הארץ. Tonight, by the way, is the universe's birthday. Happy birthday, universe! Chaf Hei Elul is the birth- is the birthday of the universe. Isn't that an amazing thing? Yeah. Happy birthday. So, I know that astrology is a little bit controversial, but I do elevated astrology, and I bring it up because... So, it says in the Torah, on the first day of the seventh month, on the first day of the seventh month: יום תרועה יהיה לכם. It should be a day of teruah. Yom teruah. So we said last week, Rosh Hashanah has many names. Yom Hazikaron, cuz we're remembering Hashem and Hashem is remembering us. Yom Hadin, because we we're being judged on how excited we are that Hashem's the King. And it's called Yom Nesirah, we spoke about, it's the day of the the splitting apart of Adam and Eve so that they could choose relationship and choose to come back together. And it's called Yom Hachtarah, the day of the crowning of the King, the coronation day. But it's also called Yom Teruah. That's actually what it's called in the Torah: Yom Teruah. And this is what the Netivos Shalom says: יש להתבונן בלשון הכתוב. We have to to contemplate. Lehisbonen is such a beautiful word, by the way. Hitbonenut, hisbonenus, type of Jewish meditation which means contemplation. Just think deeply about this. Think deeply. And I think when people learn Torah, they read through stuff, but they don't think deeply. They, \"You know what? I learned Mesilas Yesharim.\" You can't do that. You have to read one line, and then just stop, and close your eyes and breathe, and like, integrate that. Mesilas Yesharim tells you the whole purpose of life is kirvas Elokim litov. The whole purpose of life is closeness to Elokim. And then people are like, \"Okay, next.\" And the next line says... but no, you should now sit. This is why you can't teach Mesilas Yesharim, it would take eight years. Because I'd be like, \"Okay, it says, יסוד החסידות ושורש העבודה התמימה הוא שיתבאר ויתאמת אצל האדם מה חובתו בעולמו. Let's just meditate on that.\" And that would be the end of the class. So, we have to misbonen bilshon hakatuv, שלא מצינו כדוגמתו במקום אחר. We've never seen this in the whole of the Torah. שלא נכתב בלשון ציווי לתקוע. It doesn't say you should blow the shofar. Every other day it says you should eat matzah, you should wave a lulav and etrog, you should do a thing, it tells you what you should do on that day. This doesn't say... this is, it is a day of shofar blowing. It doesn't say that on the first day of the seventh month you should blow the shofar, which you would expect. It says on the first day of the seventh month, it's a day of shofar blowing. There's a metzius, there's an essence, there's a flavor of the day which is a is a is a day of shofar blowing. Shofar blowing. אלא בקביעה שזה עצם מציאותו של ראש השנה שהוא יום תרועה, is telling us mamesh the essence of the reality of creation, it's a day of shofar blowing. That's what the day is, that's the essence of the day. It's not just this is a mitzvah you have to do on the day, this is the essence of the day. Velo od, and also, אלא משמעות הפסוק שכל היום כולו יום תרועה שעיצומו של יומא. So it's not just, is the whole of Sukkos a day of shaking the lulav and esrog? No. It's just you have to do it that day, and that is the mitzvah, that's the vessel to receive the light of Sukkos, so you have to do it. But it's not a day of shaking. You don't walk around shaking. Although, many people, me, many people walk around all day carrying their lulav and esrog. Because you should, you should just feel like I've got my, it's like my weapon, it's my spiritual weapon. Just walk, why would you not walk around with your lulav and esrog, just all day walking around. But in general, you're not walking around shaking all day. Just like, you know, I'm going to whip out my lulav, shake it. You're not lighting Chanukah candles all day. You're not eating matzah all day, although every time you eat matzah is a mitzvah in itself for those seven days, by the way. Eat, you want to eat, be eating lots of matzah, but all day you might not be blowing the shofar all day, although you could be. But it's not about blowing the shofar, it's about understanding that the day itself is a day of shofar blowing. It also says in Tehillim, אשרי העם יודעי תרועה. Praiseworthy is the nation who knows shofar blowing. Velo kasiv shoymei, and it doesn't say those who hear the sound of the the shofar, or tokei teruah, it doesn't even say that praiseworthy are the ones who blow the shofar. It doesn't say praiseworthy are the ones who hear the shofar, and it doesn't say praiseworthy are the ones who blow the shofar, ela yodei teruah, the ones who know the blowing of the shofar. And we know the word da'as, yodei, da'as means an awareness, an alive awareness, a current consciousness that I know it, I've integrated it, it's just become so part of my consciousness. And then you're walking all day, around all day, and you're just, you basically you're just hearing the shofar. You just walk around all day, this is why Jerusalem is the greatest place in the world. Just shofar. There's a wedding, I'm mesader kiddushin for a wedding tomorrow. Very exciting, and one of the, one of my students who actually knows the chasan said, is there anything, can I help prepare anything? And I said, yes, shofar. There has to be a shofar at the chuppah. There has to be the shofar at the chuppah. Mazel tov, I need shofar, and he goes, all right, we're going to get shofars. We don't blow the shofar on Shabbat. We don't need to blow the shofar on Shabbat. Shabbat is Shabbat! Shabbat is even Basically, the shofar is our protecting, is saying, \"Hey,\" and it confuses the Satan, and it's saying, \"Remember us, and we remember You, and we screw you out.\" But we don't blow the shofar on Shabbat. So people say, some people say, it's a bad year. A year that we don't blow the shofar. The truth is, the Gemara says it's either a bad or a great year. The worst things The Temple was destroyed on that year, but we entered Israel on the year that we it was Shabbat Rosh Hashanah. So it's either, either. So this is a mashal I heard from Rav Daniel Glatstein. The shofar is our defending angel, so to speak. So it's defending angel, so you need the defending angel. If you don't have the defending angel on the Yom Hadin, then you're in big trouble. So imagine, he gives this, he gives this mashal, this analogy. So someone's in trouble. A man is in trouble, and he goes to his lawyer, and his lawyer says, \"I can't help you.\" And he goes to someone else, \"I can't help you.\" No one can help him. So eventually his wife says, \"Don't worry, I'll go for you.\" So she goes, and she knows the king, and she says to the king, \"My husband's a great man, he didn't do it.\" And the king lets him off. But then, let's say he actually beats her, God forbid. So he goes to his lawyer, no one's helping him. So his wife says, \"You know what? I'll help you.\" Goes to the king, but the king says, \"Hold on, how come you got a black eye? What's going on here?\" And she says, \"Well, he hit me.\" And so the husband gets in trouble. So Rav Daniel Glatstein he he brought a source for it. I forgot who gave the mashal? Maggid of Mezritch, someone? He said, \"Shabbat is your wife.\" So on Shabbat itself, when we can't blow the shofar, which is our lawyer, we can't get to our lawyer, so our wife, Shabbat, says, \"Don't worry, I'll go and speak to the king. I'm close with the king.\" So Shabbat says, \"Don't worry,\" they go. But if you abused Shabbat, if you're not loving Shabbat, then Shabbat can't stand up for you either. So if the whole if Rosh Hashanah is on Shabbat, then Shabbat is itself is speaking up for us so long as you love Shabbat and you nurture Shabbat and you give to Shabbat. We've now got basically to the a cut-off point where Shabbat comes out early enough that there's no reason to take out Shabbat when Shabbat comes out. You don't need to take Shabbat out before 7:30 ever. We've said this before in all the Shabbat classes. Why would you do that? Cuz even if you're going out with your friends, you're going out at 8:30. You don't need, there's no reason. It's a bit it's harder for me because I've got a shul right next door to me, so I could daven Maariv, but to if I miss that Maariv, I've got to get on my bike and go, but who's taking out Shabbat at 7:30? Crazy! Why would you even do that? So if you take out if you take out Shabbat the moment Shabbat comes out, comes to Rosh Hashanah, Shabbat Rosh Hashanah, Shabbat Rosh Hashanah is going to say, \"Well,\" It shouldn't be intense. You're cold. The fact that you're Nowadays, that doesn't even apply. Forget what I just said. The fact that you're even keeping Shabbat, the fact you even have Shabbat consciousness, that's enough nowadays. We're at this level where the fact in the year 2026, to turn off your phone for 25 hours is mamash mind-blowing. Hashem looks at us, he's like One of my students sent me his write-up like your phone use during the week. And it has and it gives a whole thing, \"Well, on Wednesday you did this,\" and the whole AI thing says, \"But we've noticed that, excellent, Saturday there's no like something happened on Saturday.\" AI didn't know about Shabbat, but he keeps Shabbat. That's your report. So the fact that you got that report, we're going to go up to Hashem with our phone how much you used your phone this week report, and you go, \"See, Hashem? 15 hours a day for every other day, but suddenly for that one day, nothing.\" So Shabbat So don't worry, don't worry about not blowing the shofar this year, cuz it's Shabbat. You've just got to love Shabbat. You know what? Friday night is going to be Shabbat, first day Rosh Hashanah, sheva bracha. Shalom! How about It's going to be My house is just going to be on fire. Like I don't know how I'm going to stay in my body. Here we go. So we got two questions. First question is it's not blow the shofar on the first day of the seventh month. It's It's a It's a shofar-blowing day is the essence. The second question is it doesn't say that you're ashrei, that you're praiseworthy if you hear the shofar or if you blow the shofar, but it's if you know it, if you've integrated shofar into your psyche. You've got to be a shofardike Yid. Are you a shofardike Yid? So one obviously obvious explanation is that the shofar begins small, there's a small hole, and ends up big at the other side. So in Kabbalah, that's called mochin de'katnus and mochin de'gadlus. Constricted awareness, constricted consciousness, and expanded consciousness. So we're saying we're taking all of our constrictions, everything that makes us feel cut off from Hashem and spirituality, and caught in our bodies, in our details of our lives, and pressure, and all our stuff, and we're just expanded, we're just expanding. And that's why every morning, and I shouldn't have to do this, when I walk in, I say, \"Breathe through your nose, relax your neck and shoulders.\" And literally the avodah for your whole life, but especially in Elul, is to expand your arms. Breathe in, expand your arms, cuz then you're being a shofar. I just made that up right now on the spot, but I like it. You're being a shofar. But what you're doing is you're relax- you're loosening the stress in your body. Literally physiologically, it's very important to expand your arms. Most people are crunched over and intense, and so you've just got to be expanding. But that's what the shofar is doing. It's taking me out of my small consciousness into a higher perspective. We said the American, the Native Americans call it mouse vision and eagle vision. Most people are running around the world like a little mouse, just running around in between the little little wheat and and you've got to expand. To see the world, see Hashem in everything all the time. This is what we're this is what we're aiming for. So that's first thing. But he brings a mashal: יבוא על יסוד המשל הקדוש meha Baal Shem Tov. The heilige Baal Shem Tov says a mashal, an analogy, shehevi is brought in the Degel Machaneh Ephraim. L'melech, it's a mashal, it's an analogy of a king. The king, hamelech. Who's been saying the word melech stronger in their brachas? You a bit? Melech. You didn't tell us to. I did tell you to! I told you to, every class last week. It's okay. From now on you can. It's all right. It's never too late. Ein shum ye'ush. I I had this idea, and I do it myself. But someone reached out to me That's during Aseres Yemei teshuva. Pardon? That's during Aseres Yemei teshuva. What? Hamelech. No, it's from Elul. Hamelech basadeh. Hamelech basadeh. Well, in davening. Okay, davening. But, you know what, in the davening, every single time I say a bracha, I say melech. So just during this time I say it with a bit more kavana. So someone on my mindfulness course reached out cuz I said, \"We want to say brachas. Brachas, I believe, are the number one mindfulness tool in Judaism. Because they're short, so you can do them. It's not like a whole Shemoneh Esrei or saying Tehillim. You can say ברוך אתה השם אלקינו מלך העולם בורא פרי העץ. And they're consistent, just throughout the day. So as you're just tapping back into Hashem throughout the day. So you want to say Baruch atah and feel like you're actually speaking to Hashem.\" My daughter, very good question Friday night. She said this, and she came up with an amazing mashal. She learned in school that in the Gemara it says if you do teshuva, your sins turn into accidents. But another place it says your sins turn into mitzvot, merits. Zdonos zdonos, sins, become shgagos, become accidents, or so it said, there's a difference. If you do teshuva beyira, if you're doing teshuva with awe and reverence and then they just become accidental. But if you're doing a teshuva me'ahava, if you're doing it through loving Hashem, then they actually become mitzvot. So she said to me, \"A very, very hard to love Hashem.\" 14-year-old daughter, and she's very cool, she's like she's not anti, she's amazing. She said, \"I can't see Hashem, right? I can't touch What is How do you love Hashem?\" Very fair question. And she she said to me, \"Do you love Hashem?\" And I said, \"I try to.\" And I said to her, \"But I don't love Hashem as much as I love you, cuz it's true. I love my daughter much more than I love Hashem. I admit that. If you don't want to listen to me teach Torah anymore, now's a good time to leave. But my daughter, I can see her. I can talk to her. I can read to her. We can spend We can hold hands and walk around the park. Every Shabbat, we walk around Gan Sacher together holding hands, me and my daughter.\" And so, so she asked a very, very good question. So I gave her all the answers about the six ways to tap into your soul and say brachas with more kavana, and I said this is But her answer was, it's like saying it was a good mashal, she said, \"I'm in Netanya.\" Your father says to you, \"I'm in Netanya, come and see me. Here are the car keys. But I'm only 14, I can't drive.\" So you said if you do teshuva me'ahava, then it's a mitzvah. But I I ahava, Ahavas Hashem is hard enough. So how do I I thought it was a great mashal. So I said, \"The difference is that Hashem's not in Netanya, He's here, right now, in the room, sitting on your lap.\" So she's like, so which I meditation is the key. Anyway, that's what we're trying to do. So there's a melech: שעשה סביבו מחיצות רבות באחיזת עינים. He made walls, mechitzos, all around him, but they weren't real, it was illusion. He used illusion, and he built all these walls. ובין מחיצה למחיצה ישנם דברים וחיות רעות ומבהילים ויראו מגשת אליו לראות באור פני המלך חיים. And in every between the walls, he had like wild animals and different difficult things, so he's now covered up, he's very, very covered up. So that the only people who really, really want to reach the king can reach the king. And this is really talking about the neshama comes down into this world. Before the neshama comes down into this world, there's just a revelation of Godliness. But once the neshama comes down into the world, then we have all these things that are covering up Hashem. My own physical body, that's hard the fact that I can't see Hashem and experience Hashem, that's very difficult. We always talk about tefillah. And my daughter said, \"You know, I get tefillah, I'm speaking to Hashem, but He's not really speaking back.\" So I've got all the \"Well, no, everything we hear and see is Hashem speaking back,\" and everything. But these are good questions. They're fair questions. You can't just say... So they're good questions. And we got a yetzer hara. And we got financial issues. And we got health issues. And we got other people who are really annoying. You know what, I would actually be a complete tzaddik if it wasn't for other people. It's other people's fault, because they're just so annoying. They get in my way a bit. So we have all these mechizos. So we feel very, very far from Hashem, in general. It's hard to feel very closely connected to Hashem because I've got all the physicality, but it's all illusion. Hashem's mamash sitting on your lap right now, stroking your hair, like stroking your beard. Hashem's like around us everywhere. And I gave my daughter the mashal I gave you last week of the fish. There are two fish in the sea, and one fish says to the other fish, \"Do you really believe in this whole sea thing? I can't see it.\" And the other fish was like, \"What are you talking about? We're surrounded. We're in the sea. Not only are we in the sea, the sea is keeping us alive. The sea is everything.\" And the other one was like, \"Well, I've never seen the sea. Have you seen the sea? I can't see the sea, I haven't felt the sea, can't... The sea's not speaking to me.\" He's like, \"Dude, the sea is everything. It's our whole...\" But the difference between that analogy and us is, with the fish, the sea is all around them, but it's not actually in them. Whereas with us, Hashem's all around us and in us, and every your whole hands are made up of Hashemness. Hashem's everything, all the time, everywhere. ועם כי אור פני המלך מאיר בכל העולמות וכבודו מלא כל הארץ. The truth is that the light of the face of Hashem is in all of the mechitzos themselves. The walls is all made up of Hashem. We think you have to get over the wall to meet Hashem on the other side, or there are obstacles and we have to try get past obstacles to meet Hashem. Hashem's in the obstacle. Famous Likutey Moharan, the people were standing meirachok, asher hu sham. Hashem's really in the arafel. Hashem is in the clouds and in That's where He is. He's saying, \"Look, I'm here. Come and find Me in your challenges. Find Me in your difficulties. Find Me in your pain. Find Me in your health issues. Find Me in that annoying person. Find Me in Just find Me there. That's where I am.\" You got to don't It's not even covering it up. It looks like it's covering up, but really, I'm there. Even teva itself, nature itself, covers up Hashem, but it also reveals Hashem. If you really So my my lemon tree is growing lemons now. I'm not going to get into that. Anyone who knows me, I'm obsessed with my lemon tree. Obsessed with But they're they're coming. So, I'm just sitting there watching my lemon We got a little cactus, and my wife was a bit upset. We brought the cactus home, and somehow there was a little flower on the cactus, and it fell off or something. She was a little upset, not so upset. But like 3 days later, it was like, \"Dovber, come.\" And we looked, and there was another flower on the cactus. We just we stood there like it was a child. We just had another child, and we stood there just looking at this little flower on the cactus, just, baruch Hashem. So what do you need? You need God to come down from from Mount Sinai with thunder and lightning? Or do you need the little flower on a cactus? Are you going to What does it take you for You need to hear God's voice in your head to feel that Hashem is speaking to you? By the way, if you do hear God's voice in your head, come and meet me, you're going to need psychiatric help. If you really, if you come up to me and say God actually spoke words to me, I'm going to be a little bit worried about you. But that little flower on the cactus, that's Hashem saying, \"Dude, I'm so here.\" The lemons, \"I'm here.\" Even that annoying person is like, \"I'm here.\" It's all Hashem. Everything is all Hashem. So the whole mechitzas, everything is just made of Hashem's light. asaviv mastirim et pnei hamelech, so it feels like these things are covering up. Teva, nature, covers up Hashem, and then all the biologists and chemists and they're like, \"There's no God. I can explain how it works. H2O, you idiot. H2O and photosynthesis, I can explain.\" And like, dude, photosynthesis is mamash Hashem waving at you. H2O, how how do you get two heliums and an oxygen? I don't even know what those things are. But how is it, are they gases? I don't know what they are. I really don't know. Helium's a gas, no? Oxygen's a gas. Yeah, am I kind of right? I don't know what I'm talking about. So you got two pieces of this gas, put it with one piece of that gas, turns into water? How does that work? Why is it even liquid? How is liquid liquid? Is that weird? And then you got some sun, and then the liquid turns into vapor, and then it gets so awesome. I love I love biology. I love watching like just nature stuff. I'm just like this is so screaming out there's a Creator to the universe. Who even made helium? What is I don't What What is fire? Did anyone think about that? Someone knows the answer. What do you mean? Rabbi, it's combustion, you idiot, when oxygen like, dude, that's mamash Hashem. Right? That's amazing. No? No. Okay. We can learn some Gemara, do you want me we Pnei Yehoshua? We're carrying on with this. Are you feeling Rosh Hashanah, newness, shofar, Hashem, anyone else? You're with me? No? Okay. Can pass out shots of vodka, maybe? You know what, let's get in, let's wake up here! Shofar. Did anyone hear the shofar this morning? Shofar. That's your problem, I think you didn't hear the shofar. I've got it on my phone. I don't know if it What would that do to the recording? Oy, shofar, shofar, shofar, shoyn gut. Let's go. מלך, והנה גם מי שמתגבר ועובר כמה מחיצות, אינו יכול להמשיך, ומוכרח לסגת לאחור. Now, there are some of us who are trying. I'm there. I got up for Shacharis this morning, but then I'm just tired, I tried. Some people get through some of the walls, you know? I got through some of the walls, but at some point you just give up. It's just like, it's just too much. It's just I've been davening the same thing every day for 3 days, for my whole life, it's just too much, I can't do it anymore. So it's like that, have you seen that cartoon of the guy who's digging a tunnel? And then, we can see the the side view, and he's digging digging digging digging digging digging, and then he gives up, but we see that the treasure is just like one more dig! And then he gave up. So you go dig dig dig dig. It's like you know when you're waiting for a bus, and the bus hasn't come yet and it's quite late, and you're like, 'I might as well just walk now.' But you're like, 'No, but I've waited so long, so the bus is coming in 1 minute. So if I leave now, then he's and the bus is going to' and then you're so stuck, there's nothing you can do. What's the right decision at that point? If I leave now, I would get So you just you just have to stand there and like, speaking to Hashem. I don't know what you do at that point. So most people, they push a little bit, but then they give up, because it's like, you kind of By the way, do you know the day you give up is when you're just not in the body anymore? Some people are like, 'I tried, I tried my whole life to give up smoking, and it didn't work.' No, give up for your whole life, try giving up for your whole life! Don't give up trying to give up, just try. 'Oh, yeah, do that and then die?' What else are you going to do? You got something better to do? Just keep going your whole life. Never lose hope, ein shum ye'ush, just keep going, keep going. Just one day you might actually succeed to make one bracha with kavana. That's it, just one bracha. Oh, this is what I thought. So on my on my course, someone said to me, and it often happens, I said, 'This month, we really try and say brachos: ברוך אתה ה' אלקינו מלך, מלך, מלך, you're the King.' Someone wrote to me and said, 'You know, I'm doing much better, but often I find I said my bracha, and I got the food in my mouth and then I realized I just mumbled the words. I didn't feel Hashem's presence. I didn't feel any gratitude. I didn't think about Melech. I just mumbled the words just out of rote, because that's what I do. And I'm already eating my food and I'm like I messed up the bracha.' So I said, 'It's true, and I do that too, because I'm also human. But as soon as I notice that I messed up the bracha, rather than feeling despair and like, 'Oh, I messed up the bracha,' it's like, I'll just do it now! I'll just do the spiritual thing I was meant to do by saying the bracha, which means I'll put the food down, I'll close my eyes, I take a deep breath, and I'll feel gratitude. Why? Because I didn't feel that when I made the bracha, does that mean I can't now feel it? And I can feel So what I'm going to do is the bracha was meant to make me, A, feel like I'm in Hashem's presence, and, B, gratitude, and, C, that Hashem is the Melech. So I didn't do that for the bracha, but I can do it right now! Fair? That fair? Do it now! And that often that happens. I'd say I'd say 50% of my brachos I actually feel the bracha, do it right, and 50% I don't, but then I do it after, so I get 100% anyway. You get That's what That's the big secret of teshuva and tikkun. If you're like, 'Oh, I messed it up.' We said the other example I gave was you say the whole Shemoneh Esrei and then you realize at Modim that you didn't have any kavana, you don't even know if you said the what, brachos? You're like, 'What, I was just thinking about...' So now you've got the last bracha, Sim Shalom or Shalom Rav, which one you say. So you could either say, 'Well, I messed up the whole thing, so I'll just mumble the last one,' or say, 'No, I've got the last one! You'll be a Sim Shalom'dike Yid! You have the best Sim Shalom of your whole life, and that uplifts the whole Shemoneh Esrei! Because you did such a good Sim Shalom because you messed up the Shemoneh Esrei. If you had a pretty good Shemoneh Esrei, then you have a pretty good Sim Shalom. If you have a terrible Shemoneh Esrei, you can have the greatest ever Sim Shalom, ever.' So, even as we try with him, כי כל חומה וחומה גבוהה חבה מן הראשונה, and because every level is harder and harder and harder, verak ben hamelech, but the son, the king's son. The king's son. Everyone's trying to get to see the king, and everyone, but but the son of the king, אשר בלבו בוערת אהבת המלך, he wants to go and see his Abba. My son and I davened Shacharis this morning together. My son on Sundays goes to school a bit later because the school wants them to daven Shacharis with their father on they daven Shacharis at school, but on Sundays they want. So we davened together, so I have I I usually daven earlier, I can't make him daven when I daven. So Sundays now I'm davening, we did and it was just so good and the Kohanim bracha he was under my, it was so good, and I was showing him the thing, that the son, me and my son were like one. It's an amazing, special yearning and love. My wife says that, my son's a very, very happy, cool, fun, amazing, amazing kid. Sport, music, beatboxing, magic tricks, card tricks, everything, he does everything. Now we've just got to get him into Torah, which I think we're going to get there eventually. And apparently when I go away for Shabbat, he's still very he's just a bit depressed. Not actually depressed, but my wife says to me he's a completely different boy when I'm not there, and I'm quite happy about that, to be that's so nice. And when I come home it's like it's so there's such a deep love between me and my boy. I love this boy and we love each other and we I love this child. So this is what it's saying, the ben hamelech is like, \"I just want to get to see my Abba. I'm not giving up even if there are wild animals and everything, I'm just going to keep going. I get scratched up a bit, I'm just going, I just go, I don't care. This is what I'm here for.\" So בן המלך אשר בלבו בוערת אהבת המלך כשרואה את כל כל הנעשה מרים קול צעקה במר נפשו. So when he sees all this and he's like he just screams. He's like, \"Abba! Abba!\" And you know how an Abba feels when his son's calling him? He's like, \"I'm coming, son. I'm coming, son.\" And he like, \"Forget all the mechitzas. Let's take it all down.\" He's like, \"Abba!\" ובכח לבבו הבוער נשבר לבו על אביו מוסר נפשו ומדלג על החומות. So he's just like, ah! You know those movies where it's like the the the door, the trap door's coming down and you just have to run and then like slide and like roll under it, ah! That's really what Ne'ilah is, by the way. People think Ne'ilah on Yom Kippur, the door's closing, the gates are closing, and we're going to be shut out, but it's not. The doors are closing and we're going to be shut in! We're going to be locked inside with Hashem! So at Ne'ilah you're like skidding, pshhh, you're speeding at the last minute. That's why in any shul, a real shul on Yom Kippur, come to my shul on Yom Kippur, by Ne'ilah, the whole shul has moved forward. Like, everyone like the Kohanim have just done their bracha, the the the Aron Kodesh is open, \"Hashem Hu HaElokim!\" And like, everyone's pushed forward, everyone we're trying to jump into the Aron Kodesh, it's like before they close the door! Someone said that, you know why at the end of Yom Kippur everyone's so squashed together is because we used to have so many sins and a big ego, but we got rid of all of our sins and ego, so we're much closer to each other now. So, we're going, sliding in last second, you get in there. ומדלג על החומות אביו המלך כשרואה מסירות נפשו מסיר את המחיצות מעיני עוללו. So when the father sees that, the father sees the son coming, he's just like, \"Take away all the mechitzas. Okay, we don't need them anymore. We're just taking\" And then the son is like, \"Oh, there was no mechitzas in the first place.\" Nothing can separate between you and Hashem. Hashem is in the in the mechitza. Hashem is in the everything. That's where Hashem is. It's not separating. You think it's separating you, but it's not because He's in it as well. So it's not actual separation. It's just all an illusion. This whole universe is an illusion. ואז רואה בן המלך שאין שום מסך ומחיצה מבדילין אלא עולם שכולו אור. And then the son sees, \"You know what? There's no masks and there's no walls. There's no separation. The whole world is just full of light. Whole world's just full of light.\" Now, in order to really do this, you have to get out of your mind. Very, very important to get out. Why? Because your mind's always analyzing. \"Well, Rabbi DovBer, that was a very inspiring class, and you jumped around a bit and it was funny, but really, I've got this issue, and why what about the Holocaust? And if everything is judged on Yom, on Rosh Hashanah, you've got to stop\" of thinking. And oh, but theologically, the philosophical, if we have bechira and Hashem decides on Rosh Hashanah that this, so what's the point of praying if Hashem decided that someone has to be sick, then why are we praying for that person? That's it. Rosh Hashanah's not a time for some philosophical overthinking life. Just ah! Ah! That's what the shofar is, is basically blasting your mind. Just get your mind out the way. That's all of the mechitzos between you and Hashem. It's just like That's a very good question. You have a great question. I don't know. I can't explain anything. I can't explain anything. Holocaust, can't explain. October 7th, don't know. People suffer, no idea. Good people, bad things, no idea. Ah! In fact, it's because your mind is so overanalytical and messed up that you need to just Now what people are doing is drugs and screens to get away from it. I just can't deal with life anymore. Drugs and screens, which is making it worse. Judaism says: Take a ram's horn and just blow it. Just stop it. And it's a yom teruah. It's not It's yodei teruah means to understand this secret, that there's no mechitzah, there's not apart from your own mind. That's It's a whole day of that. המלך שאין שום המלך יושב על כיסא מלכותו והארץ מאירה בכבודו. The King is sitting on His throne and the whole world is being enlivened with His immense light. Vehinei, הפסוק אשרי העם יודעי תרועה באור פניך יהלכון. And how does the pasuk continue? אשרי העם יודעי תרועה ה׳ באור פניך יהלכון. They're going to be walking in the light of Hashem's face. Just walking in light. They're just going to be walking further and further. Teruah milashon shevirah. Teruah comes from the same words as brokenness. שהם יודעים שכל השבירה והמחסום הם רק בהסתר פנים והמחיצות אינם, because someone knows that all the brokenness in the world and all the difficulties and all the obstacles is just illusion, it's not real. Af be'emes ba'or, and you're like: No, mine is real. That's what Because it is real, because you do have your suffering. And you're like: I love this idea, but shut up, because my suffering is real. I'm in a lot of emotional pain. And you're right. You're right. I don't have an answer. Hug, I have I if I can, if you're a man, I'll give you a hug. If you're a woman, I'll get someone to hug you. But this is what the shofar is. It's like, okay, I don't know. I I surrender. But really to understand on a much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much higher level, the whole universe is a is a simulation. And it's all full of Godliness. Even all the pain And we're all going to leave these bodies, by the way, one day. And then you'll see, you'll look back and you'll be like: Oh, yeah. I was so caught up in that. And you'll hayinu kecholmim, we said last week. We were like dreamers. It was It's just not true. We're going to wake up All your life, even if your life is a nightmare, let's say, God forbid, your life is a nightmare, it's still a nightmare. You'll wake up and then you'll realize, oh, thank God that was just a nightmare. And then you'll realize, oh brilliant, that was just a nightmare. And the longest it's going to be, you're not going to live to more than a hundred. Maybe you're like, \"Well, 120, Rabbi.\" You don't want to be. But okay, I'll give you 120. But you're not going to live So even if you have the worst life ever for 120 years, God forbid, and everything goes wrong and you're suffering and everything, your whole life is the worst life ever, firstly the Zohar says it's still worth that life just to say amen once. One amen, what that gives you in Olam Haba, is worth all the suffering of one amen. So that's just everything. But secondly, 120 years, worst life ever, you're going to wake up, you're going to leave your body and then you're going to look back and say, \"Wow, that was just a nightmare.\" And 120 years compared to the whole of eternity, it'd be very little, it'd be like, bang, nothing. Once we Once you leave this body, the whole of your life will be nothing, nothing, it was a second, done. Now it feels very heavy and you're only however old you are and you're like, you know what, I can't make it to 120. When you look back, it's going like Even this year, how quick was this year? It's gone. Actually I feel I don't know, anyway. Rosh Hashanah שהוא בכסה ליום חגנו, everything's covered up. There's no moon on Rosh Hashanah. There's no moon. There's no light. Where's the light of Hashem's The whole moon is shining the light of the sun into the world, and there's no moon. Lashon kisui vehastarah. It's hidden and and hidden and covered over. However, there at us that we just scream and dance. You please scream and dance on Rosh Hashanah. Did you say please scream? I said please scream and dance on Rosh Hashanah. Dance, jump up and down, sing. You have to go to a minyan where there's crazy, joyful singing. You must. Some people go to like intense minyanim. I don't think that's the avodah. I think that's got to be the King. Long live the King! Vaani tefillah, 38 Ussishkin Street. You don't need to book, don't need to pay, but they ask for a donation. A huge, amazing women's section, not at the back, mechitzah down the middle. And it's so good. I'm not joking, it's so good. Have you been there? No? It's so Second day especially. First day I'll be in yeshiva, which is so good as well. It's so good. Second day you're at Do it. It will save your life. And there's a whole outdoor section where you can just go and sit under the tree and relax, so you don't have to be in the whole time. In, out, and you'll see it, it's so good. It's so And back, you have to leave your mind at the door. Don't bring your mind in. Don't bring your mind into Rosh Hashanah. Don't bring your problems into Rosh Hashanah. Don't bring your past. Don't bring it. It's just not helpful. Even though you're right, and I validate you, and I get it, and it's sad. Rosh Hashanah, don't bring it with you. Leave it. Leave it behind. No, but last Rosh Hashanah I prayed. I know, so pray again this Rosh Hashanah. You're going to give up? Don't give up. Never give up on yourself. Lahem megaleh So teshukatam, so we're yearning. The people, but I'm still yearning. In fact, all your pain should just make you yearn even more for Hashem. So you're yearning and you're screaming. And the teshukatam, lehanot miziv hashchinah, we're just yearning to bask in the glow of the Shechinah. Lahem megaleh Hakadosh Baruch Hu אור פני מלך חיים, so Hashem will reveal Himself. What's the time? We managed to read a whole paragraph! That's the best I've ever done. It's usually one word. Okay. והנה המשל הזה אינו שייך לענין ראש השנה בלבד. This is not only for Rosh Hashanah, אלא הוא ציור כללי בכל מציאות העולם השפל. It's a it's a consciousness that you have to have all the time. שכולו בחינת מחיצות ודברים מבהילים ומפסיקים בין יהודי לאביו שבשמים. אך שמתגבר וגם המחיצות So everything, everything This is our This is consciousness for our whole life. But we said that it's hard to live with this consciousness, so we have a month and a day where we really try and start the year with this consciousness. The metzius of the day is Yom Teruah. What is Yom Teruah? I'm just screaming out to Hashem from a place of yearning, and I do actually understand that all of the difficulties and the challenges, it's all illusion. It's all Now we hate the illusion 'cause it can be such a painful illusion. Nightmares are horrible. We hate nightmares. We want to wake up from the nightmares. We understand that. But just for Rosh Hashanah, wake up from the nightmare before your soul leaves your body. We're all going to wake up from the nightmare when our soul leaves our body. Rosh Hashanah, sound of the shofar, just for that moment, just for a moment, just wake up. And we've our soul is leaving our body, or coming into our body, I don't know, it's going in and out of our bodies! That's what's happening. It's here, and it's out. Ratzo vashov, I'm like ושוב עומדים בענפיו עוד ועוד דברים מבהילים So more and more things come. Now, just very quickly, our last point. Now that I've told you all of this, understand that the yetzer hara is going to try extra hard to ruin your Rosh Hashanah. Just like get that. Accept that. It's really good You don't want to sleep too much on Rosh Hashanah 'cause it's the start of the year. You don't want to sleep so much. So you want to get up early. What's going to happen? You're going to get up later than normal. Expect that! Expect that it's going to go wrong. Why? To give you the opportunity to let go. Okay, so okay, so I didn't Let go. Let go. You're going to miss the shofar. Some baby is going to scream, whatever. Oh, well, I have to hear all 100 blasts and Chill out. It's okay. It's okay. With this focus on I'm just yearning for Hashem, the worse it goes, the better it is to be able to do the avodah of letting go. If you have the perfect Rosh Hashanah, everything goes exactly how you planned, maybe that wasn't the perfect Rosh Hashanah. Maybe the perfect Rosh Hashanah where something Hopefully not that everything goes wrong, but if a little bit goes wrong, that's a perfect opportunity to just be like, ah! Don't scream whilst they blow the shofar, by the way. That's not okay. But at some point, go into a forest, go into Gan Sacher, and just scream! You don't have to be a Breslever, na nach, scream. Just do something, just scream, \"I'm alive! I'm alive!\" I'm alive! I made a video for my mindfulness course where I jumped up and down screaming, \"I'm alive!\" Just to feel I'm alive. And I said, \"I know people are, will you send me your videos? Will you do it? And especially the person who feels particularly uncomfortable. Person who feels, 'I don't do that. That's weird.' Do it, please. Do it in your bedroom, no one's watching, and you'll be like, even in your bedroom you'll be you'll just be like, 'I'm alive.' Just do it, like, do it! Just scream out.\" The only person who sent me a video, actually, one more person did later, was this older German woman, I think she's German, and she was on the banks of the Danube River or something, she was like, \"I'm alive!\" It was so special. And she was like, \"Modeh ani!\" And she was so I was like, \"Yes, you're so alive.\" So Rebbe Nachman says you can be 16 years old and dead, or 96 years old and alive. If you're 16 years old and you're just like schlepping your way through life, then you're old. And if you're 96, but you're living every day, then you're truly alive, then you're truly young, that's what it means. B'ezras Hashem, we should be zocheh to taste the sweetness of Rosh Hashanah. Much love. Thank you.