Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
A series of shiurim series to help prepare ourselves to meet the King. New insights on the pnimiut of these important days.
Boker tov everyone. It's funny saying hodesh tov, it's chof alef elul, but hodesh, the rest of hodesh tov. Thank you Meriman, thank you so much. Hodesh Elul is sponsored by the Silver family l'ilui nishmat Basya Faiga bas Yisrael, by the Bizelles for the refuah sheleimah of Ethel Sara bas Chana, Yaakov Shlomo ben Beila, and zivug hagun for Esther bas Rachel.
And also we're learning in memory of Sarah bas Avraham Chaim, Shiela Magerman, zichronah livrachah. The week is sponsored by Deanna Rosenfelder for the refuah Gavriel ben Taiba, and also we're learning today for the refuah sheleimah of Melech Shaul ben Charna. Okay. Chavra, I'm so excited to jump back inside and begin our learning of this year, of this month, and first I just want to wish us a tfilat haderech.
It should be a nesiya tovah. And the truth is, is that that brings me to another just important hakdashah that I wanted to do for the learning today. Yesterday morning, well for us it was yesterday morning but two nights ago my Rebbe's mother passed away, Rav Weinberger's mother passed away. And she, the only, she only said two words, I was sharing with Bina yesterday, the only two words she ever told, I ever heard from her, she said to me nesiya tovah.
That's actually the only two words she ever said to me when I was at her, I was paying a shiva call when her husband, Rav Weinberger's father passed away, and he brought me over, I'll never forget this, as I was leaving back to the airport, he brought me over to her and he introduced me to her, and Rav Weinberger told her he's going back, she was already older, she was already back then already an older woman, and said yes, my friend, he came from Eretz Yisrael, he's going back to the airport now, and she just looked up to me and she said, I'll never forget she said nesiya tovah. And it was like, so in her zechut, in her memory, that I want to dedicate also the learning, Perel bas Rabbi Yaakov Moshe, that we should have a nesiya tovah the whole year, it should be a nesiya tovah, but bifrat in the month of Elul and Tishrei. I was saying yesterday with the men's chavrah is that it's it's still unfortunate that we don't really live Jewish, meaning what, what does that mean? We live September 1st, right? So we're still meshuabadiym, we're still enslaved shtickel to that calendar. But in years like this year when it comes out like this, it's kind of hard because you're starting to learn this is September, okay, so what's today? The 3rd, September 3rd and it's chof alef Elul.
How nonetheless it actually could connect very deeply to the context of what we're going to be learning today. So we are going to be learning, we are going to be starting today and hopefully have, I have a very exciting sefer for us this year that we're going to be starting after the Yamim Noraim, for two reasons, one because there's a lot I want to do about the Yamim Noraim, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Succos, but the sefer also is currently in New, I have one here but the copies that I know of are in New York, I'm trying to get them to here. So that'll happen after Succos b'ezrat Hashem, but there's never, it's always a good time to just jump into things b'siyata d'shmaya and breathe in Elul in a healthy, realistic, and practical way. Doesn't that sound angelic? Doesn't that sound like a dream that, you know, practical, realistic Elul.
Ay, Hashem should have rachmanus on us and see that we're just trying, we're doing our best, hopefully, we're trying so hard, we're trying to open our hearts and we're trying to, we're trying to be healthy, healthy, healthy Yidden. So in Hodesh Elul that we're in right now there are so many different ways to approach the entry into it, there are so many ways to go inside Elul. Slichos is happening Motzei Shabbos whether we like, for Bnei Ashkenaz it's already, it's starting Motzei Shabbos whether we like it or not, right? And sometimes you hear Slichos or you hear Erev Rosh Hashanah and then it's already like, wow, whether I like it or not I'm I have to I have to figure out what's going on with myself. But when there's a proper perspective as to what I'm trying to achieve, what am I even trying to achieve? It puts things into place.
In the piece that we're going to be seeing today from Rav Steinsaltz zichrono livrachah. A year ago in Elul, I think it was a year ago, we learned one or two pieces of him as our entering into Hodesh Elul. In the piece that we're going to be seeing today by Rav Steinsaltz, I believe that there's a real achizah, a way to le'echoz. Le'echoz means to grasp, to hold on to something healthy, productive, and focused.
The world's going through continuing to go through lemala lemata, lemala lemata, all these different rollercoasters, but that also happens to us every year regardless of what's happening in the world, that happens to us in Chodesh Elul as well. Even how to approach Chodesh Elul. For many years we know the fire and brimstone was the way to go into Chodesh Elul. They say that even the town of Lubavitch, even on Shabbat Mevarchim Elul, people would walk around, the faces suddenly became so stern, so intense.
The color, the shade of color in people's faces shifted and something happened. And there was this seriousness that escorted every single concept that had to do with Chodesh Elul for many many many many years. For many years. I was learning last week, two weeks ago, some of the halachos of slichos and I noticed there that slichos back in the day was something that people only did actually in Aseret Yemei Teshuva.
And then it became a whole story how it became a minhag to bring it into Chodesh Elul. But really Chodesh Elul became, we kind of brought it in, we had no other way of understanding how to approach the new year and how to hear the word when we hear the word slicha then to go into like a crazy frenzy of intensity and taking upon ourselves a lot and seriousness. Then comes a world that many of us maybe are more kind of found our way into Yiddishkeit maybe, and that way maybe we feel a bit more identifying with, and it's like what the whole, you know, concept of like musical slichos which is something that 30 years ago yeihareg ve'al ya'avor and like no one would ever dream of doing such a thing, you know, where the approach to slichos and to Elul had like a actually a smile. There was no smile in Elul for many years, you understand? If you smiled, you were doing an aveira.
If you smiled, you'd have to figure you have to do teshuva over smiling. What are you smiling? It's Chodesh Elul.
י"ג מידות רחמים. What are you smiling? You're the shofar is blowing, what are you smiling? And we know that we very much have connected a lot to that place of like b'simcha, right? However it is.
And that's also true. But it has to be both together. chayav liyot. It has to be both the seriousness with a smile.
Bless you. A seriousness with a smile. And I think that this is what this piece of today will provide for us to do. I was, truth is I was debating whether to just speak outside from the text today, but the text is is so easy that I'm like I'm finally have an easy text and we're not going to look at it inside? You know, it's not one of these hard difficult things to crack.
So we'll look at it inside. It's not so long. But I think and I hope Siyata Dishmaya each of us will walk out of here being able to answer the question that comes at the end. Not with fear and trepidation and not only with great but with a combination of both, which I think is the healthiest way to approach this auspicious, auspicious time that we're in.
So everyone knows that there's a famous statement, a statement from Chazal that a person has to ask themselves, מתי יגיעו מעשי למעשי אבותי. Sure you've heard this statement before.
מתי יגיעו מעשי למעשי אבותי. When, everyone has, yeah.
Okay, like when will, it's a very presumptuous statement, when will my actions reach the level of my fathers' actions and who are we referring to? Avot. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. What in the world, how do you begin to approach a statement like that? Am I looking to sacrifice my son? aleph, right? chalila. Am I looking to then be Yitzchak Avinu completely removed, it seems to be detached and moved from the world? Or like Yaakov Avinu, am I looking to go into this galut for 14 years being tricked by a father-in-law? All the craziness and the balagan that he had.
So obviously not, but Rav Steinsaltz is going to explain to us that when you when you contemplate and meditate over this statement, מתי יגיעו מעשי למעשי אבותי, and mamash it's a meditation, it's a deep contemplation, מתי יגיעו מעשי למעשי אבותי, that that's during specifically we'll see Elul. It's really our whole the whole year round but specifically in Chodesh Elul when that's the statement that's hovering above me and it's like in with the you know it's like the meme that's coming out of like the my head, מתי יגיעו מעשי למעשי אבותי and understanding the pnimiyut of that statement, אז יש לנו סיכוי שאנחנו נרגיש את המתיקות של השנה הבאה. We have a chance then to feel the sweetness of what this New Year has in, has in store for Amcha Beis Yisrael. So let's look inside.
Katuv, this is Rav Steinsaltz. Katuv b'Tanna D'vei Eliyahu, חייב כל אדם לומר מתי יגיעו מעשי למעשי אבותי Avraham, Yitzchak, v'Yaakov, as we just said.
האם כל אחד יכול להיות Avraham, Yitzchak, v'Yaakov?
התשובה היא שלפחות כל אדם צריך להשתדל להיות כמותם. Okay, so what does that mean that I don't know if I could become Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, but I have to at least try to be like them?
אני רוצה להסביר מה זה Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov b'pash-tus.
I want to explain, he's going to say now, what does this actually mean, what does this look like? And this is a map, what he's drawing right now is the map of Elul, it's the map of Elul and Tishrei, but really it's the map of the whole year, but if we want this to be the map of the whole year, at least we have to set our our our goal for it to be my my guide for the month that we're in, for Chodesh Elul, and then it has a chance to spread its wings over the rest of my year. Avraham, what does it mean that every person has to ask themselves when are my actions going to reach, going to be like Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov? Let's learn who Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov were aliba de'Rav Steinsaltz, the way Rav Steinsaltz is is is learning it out for us. There are two more pages here, if you, do you have? There's right here. It's fine.
There's a few more pages here. Fourth line, Avraham הוא זה שמתחיל בבוטח באלוקים. I know that sounds like a funny thing, but a person has to ask themselves, Elul comes in and saying, do I actually really trust Hashem? How could you say such a threatening statement? Ask yourself. Don't answer me or anybody else but yourselves.
Do I actually trust Hakadosh Baruch Hu? Do I trust God? And if I realize that I don't, I have to sit with that, I have to understand that, I have to talk to Hashem about it, which is a tartei de'satrei, it seems like a stira minei u'vei, like a self, how do you say that, like a self-contradiction.
אבל תחשבו על זה טוב טוב. I may believe in God, I may not trust him. Really? Yeah, think about it.
But Avraham Avinu is the one that trusts Hashem, he starts by trusting God, שמעז להתחיל לעשות דברים חדשים. And he dares to start new things. V'ze kasheh m'od, it's not easy. Starting new.
Not 'I'm starting new, I'm cleaning my slate and now I'm starting fresh averah-less,' but that I'm starting new endeavors in life, I'm starting something new, mashehu chadash, and it's hard, it's very hard. V'ze kasheh m'od.
מצד מסוים אין דבר קל כמו להתחיל, אבל מצד אחר אין דבר קשה כמו להתחיל. So true.
On the one hand, it's the easiest thing in the world. Why? Because what do I need in order to start, like what do I need to do in order to start something, for it to be a successful start? Lehas-chil. Just start. We're always thinking 'How do I know this thing's going to work and last' v'chulu, it's not how it's not how those things work.
On the one hand, starting something is the easiest thing because all what does it take? Lehas-chil. Just start. Something you want, something you want to do in the world. But on the other hand, he it's one of the hardest things in the world to start something new because we're terrified of hischadshus.
Terrified of something new.
בפרט שהדבר הזה הוא לא מקובל על הבריות, specifically when that new thing that I want to do isn't PC. When it's not דבר שמקובל על הבריות, when it's not something that the world is waiting to applaud me for. It's something that the world is probably not waiting to applaud me for.
That if it's a new endeavor, a new besorah that I want to share with the world, and that it's not the right thing, no one's waiting for me, so to start something that no one's waiting to go like this to me is terrifying. Even if I know in my heart of heart that it's the right thing, it's very very hard. You have to understand at the time of Avraham Avinu, the world wasn't waiting there and saying 'Please tell us that all of us are serving idols.' Like 'Please enlighten us.' that the whole hashkafa of the way we live our lives is shvach, and yet Avraham Avinu echad haya Avraham. He trusted Hashem.
And for him to go on his journey at the age of 75. He's a Nefesh B'Nefesh at 75. He starts. Only starts then.
u'maez Rav Shteinman zt"l says, he has the azut to go, he has the holy audacity to embark on a new journey. Can I ask you something? What would you say is just the difference in one sentence? How would you define the difference between belief and trust? It's a trick because if I don't trust Hashem I actually don't believe in him, but I'm under the assumption that I do. So it's actually, in my opinion, it's actually it sneaks in as the same thing. But people say no, of course I trust, of course I believe in Hashem, I believe in Hashem.
But when you're forced to ask yourself do I trust Hashem, you have to answer some hard questions about your faith in Hashem. So really it's the same mishpacha. You see if someone asks me do you believe in God, it's easy for me to say yes because it's like this like non-demanding question. Right? But but then you say do you trust Hashem, that already you have to bring rayot.
Yeah, you have to bring, you have to bring your own like oh yeah yeah, I'll show, I could show myself how I actually really do trust in Hashem. emuna is this like abstract, it's for many people, this even though it's not true, but for most people it's this abstract concept of like I believe in God, I believe in a higher you know, but bitachon is a completely different world of trust means that you actually you're with the program actively, actively. Yeah. Oh.
Trust is more for hashgacha pratit. Like bitachon I believe in Hashem. emuna is ani ma'amin b'Hashem. Right, yes, and bitachon and the trust in Hashem is more like is he actually involved in my particular life? Can I trust him to be, to be aware of me and do right by me? That's what I think is the hashgacha pratit.
Interesting. That's another interesting way of looking at it, nachon. That's in a nutshell. It's a whole, it's a big question, it's a good question.
So Avraham Avinu trusted in Hashem. He didn't just believe there's one God. It's amazing. Avraham Avinu if his chiddush was that there's one God in the world, right? That was his chiddush, but it didn't involve bitachon, he wouldn't need to embark on any journey to let the world know about it, to let anybody know about it.
He wouldn't open up a tent, hachnasat orchim. But he trusted so much that his journey is vital for God's dreams for the world and he set about, you know, he set upon. So really bitachon allows you to follow your new beginnings. emuna doesn't really.
bitachon gives you that azut, that audacity to go out and trust that this new relationship or whatever we want to call it is actually going to be good. Yeah. I think that the way that I'm seeing it, like it brings up the question of like why do bad things happen to good people? And when you think about that, like you can believe in Hashem that like he's behind everything but be angry about it or blame him, but then if you really want to trust him if something bad happens then like you have to be able to look at it as like this is still the right thing. That's like, yeah.
That's not actually bad. Yeah. That's trust. That's more trust, nachon.
As opposed to like believing in him that he's in charge and he does things versus like trusting that like what he's doing is actually yafeh, supposed to be what's happening and the right thing that's happening and the good thing that's happening even though maybe it doesn't always look like that. And in order to embark on beginnings, what do I need? In order to do a start, to start something new, ma tzarich? I need both. I need both. This is Avraham Avinu's world.
There's so much more to say, we're just about Avraham Avinu, I want to go to Yitzchak and Yaakov too. But the key thing here he says בפרט שהדבר הזה לא מקובל על הבריות. It's easy to start something new, it's easier to start something new when you know that people are going to come and tell you shkoach. It's very easy.
But when people aren't going to say shkoach, it's very hard. It's very, very hard. People have this transition sometimes in life that they do something for a long time that does make people very happy and it's good but they themselves don't feel fulfilled from it. And that thing that made people feel good was getting a lot of shkoyachs.
But their heart is telling them I don't I think my besorah is something a little bit different and they have to go out on another journey and then you're not going to get the shkoyachs. So did I need to trust Hashem when I was doing all the good things that made people feel good? Not so much. But if I can't ignore the calling of my heart and I have to follow a new path I have to start something new and I don't know if people are going to stand there waving at me and clapping and saying shkoyach. I don't know.
Then I mamash need so I need desperately to tune myself into the midah of bitachon. And Avraham Avinu had them both. But you need both of them to begin to start something new. Let's go ahead.
Echad haya Avraham vayerash et ha'aretz.
בן אדם צריך להיות מסוגל להיות במדרגה של אחד. A person has to be on the level this is a very hard avoda but you have to be when you say מתי יגיעו מעשי למעשי אבותי when will my actions reach like like Avraham? Well, is there anything in life that ever demanded of you to feel like you're the only you're on one side of the world and the whole world's on the other side? Like we refer to Avraham Avinu as Avraham Ha'ivri, right? What does ivri mean? Not just Hebrew, but that he's on one side and me'ever on the other side is the rest of the world. That's how a person sometimes has to what we feel what we have to go through in this world, right?
בן אדם צריך להיות מסוגל להיות במדרגה של אחד גם כשיש מולו עולם שלם אויב ולא ידידותי.
Halevai Am Yisrael will will implement this fully and not invite, you know, modern-day Hitlers into Sefarim stores in Brooklyn, you know, halevai we should wake up the the whole klal. I don't know if you know what I'm talking about but you'll figure it out by by a certain time today.
ואני הולך בדרך האמת ואני מוכן ללכת בה. And I'm ready to walk on this path of truth, I'm ready to go there, I'm ready to start moving.
That's beginnings. Beginnings. The whole world is on one side, I'm on one side I'm on another side. I don't do it because I can't stand the world, I do it because I care enough about the world and love them sincerely to the extent that I know I have to be me.
That's what it really means to love the world. I have to be my chidush. Not I'm trying to please the world and make everyone clap for me. But I love the world enough this is based on a teaching from Reb Nachman in between Chelek Aleph and Chelek Bet in Likutei Moharan in hashmata it's called Echad haya Avraham if you see it in the Likutei Moharan.
I love the world enough in order to embark on a new beginning and start something new that never was before. That's a beginning. And in Chodesh Elul every person has to start in a beginning. Yitzchak hu madrega acheret מדרגה של מי שיכול להמשיך.
You know, what is Yitzchak Avinu's job with the be'erot? Avraham Avinu dug wells. Yitzchak Avinu, what did he do? Sivan Rahav Meir once wrote such a beautiful teaching on this. Yitzchak I'm going to give it over to you right now just, you know, obviously not with her with her depth but how I remember it. It's based on the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
Avraham Avinu was a total chidush. He dug new wells. What does Yitzchak Avinu have to do? Re-dig wells that were already dug by his father, but what happened to them? It says in Parshat Toldot sitmum Plishtim. The Plishtim they they sitmu clogged them, they filled them.
So you think Yitzchak Avinu would be soneh beracha and 'my inyan in this world is to re-dig things that were already dug once? I'm not going to be a chidush like my father?' Yitzchak, you're the midah of gevura, your thing is much more much more it's it's a completely different world. You have to hold on. You have to continue something that started. Which is a very, very hard avoda, maybe even much harder than starting something fresh.
At times that's actually the situation. He just says it, look at this. Yitzchak hu madrega acheret מדרגה של מי שיכול להמשיך. Ze kashe me'od.
Ulai yoter kashe lihyot Avraham. Lihyot Avraham yesh be'ze eize chesed ne'urim chesed ha'hatchala chesed ha'chidush. You know, when Avraham Avinu there's a chesed that comes with someone that starts something new so we wants we want to say shkoyach you know oh okay it's beautiful lovely. Amazing, we've been waiting for this.
No one comes to you and says we've been waiting for you to continue something that someone else started. People don't usually say that, or they're not really in awe, they're not astonished by people that are just continuing something that once happened by some by something else or by somebody else.
להמשיך הלאה ולמשוך את העול to continue on and to carry out the yoke, the hard the hard work, לא ביום הראשון שבו הכל יפה אלא ביום השני והשלישי והשלוש מאות למשוך הלאה ולא ליפול. That's the that's where things really get deep and hard and difficult.
זהו כח אחר, כח של עמידה. He's saying this is a different power, different strength, the strength of standing up. In the beginning you have to start walking. Now you have to understand okay how do I stand strong and then continue to walk.
זה לא תמיד אותה דרישה מעיקרה. It's not the same drisha. Yitzchak doesn't have the same demand from him like his father did.
להיכרע ממולדתך מבית אביך.
You know, this is something very profound about like what Efrat youth has had to go through. Much of Efrat youth, Efrat youth, many of them grew up in homes where there was tremendous passion by the parents that did an Avraham Avinu move.
להיכרע ממולדתך מבית אביך and it to be to be ripped away from Bergenfield, from, I don't know, Manhattan, mibeit avicha, to be ripped away from there, and then to you know that a person can thrive off that passion of that hatchala. But what is the what is the kid that was raised here or born here, what passion is ah, that's the that's a Yitzchak Avinu level.
That's not simple at all, to discover how that's so precious and beautiful and needed and mamash chiyuni, essential, that's not a that's not a simple avoda.
אבל זה הרבה פעמים דורש מבן אדם לקרוא לעצמו את הכתובות אל הארץ אשר אראך שיכולה להיות רחוקה מאוד ויכולה להיות קשה מאוד. It's true that Avraham Avinu started something and he started walking from Padan from somewhere, but אל הארץ אשר אראך we're still not there yet, there's still a sign that's saying okay now you, the person that's in the middle, you have to keep on moving forward with what was with what had begun without that passion of the hatchala anymore. Listen, it's kaf alef Elul.
No one's flying over the fact that they blew shofar in shul this morning. I've heard it, besides take out Shabbos, I've heard it for kimat, you know, three weeks, so there's no excitement anymore. Oh, Elul, Elul, it's more like okay I'm in it. Am I kimat am I still walking, am I still moving with that beginning? That's hard.
כשבן אדם מגיע למעין התחלה הזאת הוא צריך לדעת להמשיך. When a person comes to this beginning he has to know how to continue.
וההמשך הוא קשה. To keep on going is very hard.
And now he says something so deep.
אם ההתחלות הן קשות, האמצע הוא הרבה יותר קשה. Everyone always says beginning right hatchalot kashot. That's true.
אמצע זה אפילו יותר קשה. Middles are actually much more difficult, much more difficult.
לא מפני שאני צריך לפקוח דברים אלא מפני ששום דבר לא מתרחש ואני צריך להמשיך לעשות את העבודה עוד פעם ועוד פעם להמשיך לעשות את העבודה. Without sounding cynical, what does this sound like? Marriage.
The truth is parenting, no no no, legamre, a hundred percent, all these things all these things that the hatchalot were unbelievable, right, unbelievable and each each person's own level. The sha'ala is the hemshech, ze ha-sha'ala. Listen, we got married on Har Sinai, right? Well it was a beautiful sheva brachos honeymoon, the rest of the time in the desert. The hatchala was unbelievable, right, unbelievable, kolot u'vrakim, naaseh v'nishma, איש אחד בלב אחד.
This is you know this is the way it's been designed for us from the beginning. Yitzchak is the midbar, Yitzchak is the desert.
מתי יגיעו מעשי למעשי אבותי, Yitzchak holds on. He's not sure exactly, but he has to keep on going, he has to keep moving forward.
Yitzhak is the first one born a Jew. Nachon. His perseverance, yeah, the midah nachon. Nachon.
זהו הזמן שאנשים צריכים לעבוד עליו.
זמן שבו לא הכל יהיה ניסים גדולים ולא הכל יהיה פלאים.
ולא בכל רגע אני אראה אור חדש על Zion, אבל אני צריך להיות מסוגל להמשיך גם כשזה לא בדיוק הולך. Hashem teach me the Torah of, of the specialty of the mundane.
Teach me the Torah of, of learning how to flow when I don't have anything really pushing me from behind or pulling me from in front. That's, that's Yitzhak Avinu's world.
אני צריך להיות מסוגל למשוך את העניין הזה כי זו היא הנקודה, החוליה, how do you say chulyah? The link, שמקשרת, שמקשרת, ששומרת את הכל. It's exactly what you're saying, Dalia.
Yitzhak's the link that takes the beginning, shows me what to do after a beginning and then hands it over to the next... I'm thinking about, you know, like with those races, you know, what's it called when they give it to the person? Baton. So how does... so Yitzhak, Yaakov needs a baton.
What is Yitzhak giving to him? Yitzhak's giving him his father's baton, right? Chiddush of starting things, and he's saying and then holding onto things. And now he's giving it to Yaakov Avinu. What does Yaakov Avinu have to do? So this is very... this is very interesting.
אחר כך צריך לא להישאר בעניין הזה. But then, it's not only about preserving what was. You have to... now he says, צריך להתחיל ולבנות דברים חדשים.
Now you have to start to build new things. Again, zeh kvar Beit Yaakov. Ve'et zeh, so I think the Rav Steinsaltz said this in the yeshiva in Tekoa, the sichah in Elul, and he says like this: ואת זה אני אומר לכולכם: יראי Hashem הגדולים ויראי Hashem הקטנים. I'm telling this to all of you, you see he was probably thinking there's probably some like real frum bachurim sitting there being like 'oh this is the mussar shmuess for the guys that can't get it together'.
Right? And then Rav Steinsaltz is like, 'no, no, no, I'm talking to you also, the grosser chacham that figured out how to start things and make sure that I didn't miss one seder the whole year.' He's saying, 'no, no, no, I'm talking to you too. I'm talking to the person that can't really get it together, but I'm talking to the person that's under the assumption that they have it together. The avodah is very deep. Look what he says here: אסור להישאר איפה שהייתי.
It's forbidden to stay where I was. Even if that place was good and holy.
אסור להישאר איפה שהייתי.
מי שלא עולה יורד.
זהו כלל גדול. Whoever's not ascending, he's falling. There's no such thing as status... as stale, as being, you know, stagnant.
אין דבר כזה ביהדות. That's why the halachah is called halachah, ראשי תיבות הריעו לHashem כל הארץ. The way that I can really give my besorah to the world is if I'm going. Halachah, הריעו לHashem כל הארץ.
That's why halachah is halachah. As I'm sitting here learning this with you right now, it's beyond me how much this is exactly the pnimiyut of what Rav Ginsburgh gave over on Monday night with the concept of reform, the need for a reform. This is mamash hinu hach. We're going to send out...
I'm waiting for an edited transcript from his words this past Monday night and this is really the inyan of it, the need for a reform.
מי שלא עולה יורד, זה כלל גדול, וזה המבחן שצריך כל אדם לבחון את עצמו. How do I test myself?
לא רק אם לא נפלתי. And this is what, this is in contrast to the way we understood Elul maybe in previous generations.
לא רק אם לא נפלתי, אם לא עשיתי היום עבירה חדשה, אלא האם עליתי למעלה. That's the question. Did I... The question isn't did I stop doing aveiros, did I kick bad habits, although those are essential, those need to happen, but the question is ha’im aliti lemalah? We're sitting here right now, od me'at three years after October 7th, but let's just go back to Elul תשפ"ג.
Is my concept of God any deeper? Is my concept of God any deeper? What are you talking to me about, did I kick bad habits? I'm asking you, is your concept of God deeper, is your concept of being part of Am Yisrael any deeper? That I could, in the name of everyone, say yes. I can't say about person's, personal relationship with Hashem, but I could say with certainty, at least for the people that are here in this room, that our concept of being part of Am Yisrael is any deeper, I see it from all of you every single day. So that, yeah. But is my concept of being in a relationship with God any deeper?
זה כבר משהו אחר.
Am I still stuck with like my pesel of God? My little format of Hashem the way He works, how really I know I'm supposed to work for Him, but He really I know He still works for me, and all these things, did my concept of Hashem get deeper? Did my concept of my own heart, my revelation of my heart to myself, did it really get any deeper? That is what he's basically going to say to us right now, that's the Bayit Chadash, that's the, that's the question of Elul.
לא רק אם לא נפלתי, אם לא עשיתי עברה חדשה, אלא אם עליתי למעלה.
האם היום היה יום טוב יותר מאשר אתמול?
אם הוא לא היה טוב יותר מאתמול, פירושו של דבר שהוא היה יום ריק. If today wasn't better than yesterday, it means that today was empty.
פירושו של דבר שאני צריך לנסות לעשות דברים עוד יותר גדולים. What it means is the teshuvah for this would be, see if I look at my life and I say my days are not necessarily, have not been really better than what was before, but I'm not doing averas as much. Rav Steinsaltz says, you know what this perush is, is that there's emptiness in your life and now I gotta do bigger things, more daring things, דברים יותר נועזים, יותר יציבים, which you think would be a contradiction. Because what did he say? You have to be more daring, but he also said yoter yatziv, which means stable.
What do you think about that? Does that contradict itself? No, to me it does. Why not? Why? If you go, if you're going to go forward, then do it strongly. Be, know who you are and move forward. Like don't be wishy-washy because then you're going to fall back.
So I'm obviously playing devil's advocate right now. Why would a person be scared, why would a person not be able to understand that no'az and yatziv are not contradictions? Seems like a total contradiction. No'az is going into the unknown. No, but no'az is gutsy.
Gutsy. Gutsy is yatziv, it's not... But of course it's very yatziv, the person who's doing it, along the way, along the way. It's, it's, yeah, but I understand what, I think I understand what you're saying is that gutsy doesn't mean reckless.
No, gutsy means it takes a lot of guts to do something big. Right. Daring with a good business plan. Yafeh.
Yeah, that's nice. Daring with a good business plan. That's very nice. So now look what he says: וזה מה שכתוב.
This is what it means: מתי יהיו מעשי כמעשי אבותי Avraham, Yitzchak, ve-Yaakov?
זאת אומרת, צריך לפחות לנגוע בזה, Rav Steinsaltz says.
אם לא להיות זהה, אז לפחות לנגוע בזה. He's saying, when we ask ourselves when will my life be like Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, we're not looking at the details of their life and say, hmm, maybe I'll try to give birth when I'm 90, that's not, that's not the inyan. You understand? Or, or, I know I'm being funny there, but all the extremes about their life, the extreme details, that's not what the shaylah, that's not what it is.
You know many, many, I'm talking about myself also, and many of us that got really turned on to Chasidus at a young age. Some of those sefarim, because we didn't have the, what did you say? The proper, very good lashon? Daring with a good business plan. We didn't have a good... we dared, we didn't have a good business plan, but we dared because we're like, oh my God, I learned that Reb Nachman stopped chewing at six.
You know that? Yeah. You know, just to... little detail. Reb Nachman stopped chewing his food at a young age because he didn't- he didn't want to be involved in the lust of the chew of the ta'avas achila.
Whatever. So you hear stories like this and you're- and you're like, hmm, so what or- you start comparing yourself to like those crazy, those wild stories of- that's just one example, right? But some of these chasidishe sefarim really messed us up, not because the sefer, not because the sefer, it's because we didn't understand how to do it atziv. We didn't understand, we didn't have the business plan. We didn't know what- what that meant.
Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, the three elements, are the- are the healthiest business plan: initiation, starting, holding on strong until it becomes something kavua in you, and then understanding that you have to start again. Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. So Rabbi Steinsaltz says like this: The question isn't when can you read a pasuk and say, oh, yeah, I'm like that also. It's not that.
It's more what it took for them to be them. Where is that in your life? What it took for them to be them. Is that part of your ratzon to have in your journey in this world? Now, obviously this shmuess could have been said any day of the year, but the yichudiut, the significance of it being right now during Chodesh Elul, that's the most important, important thing over here, which is what we're trying to see for today.
אם בן אדם צריך לעשות משהו בחודש אלול.
Now he gives us straight mamash like- like a direct, this instructions.
אם בן אדם צריך לעשות משהו בחודש אלול, זה לא לשבת ולחשוב כמה פעמים עשיתי עבירה פלונית וכמה פעמים עבירה אחרת. The Chodesh Elul avoda isn't let me do a real cheshbon hanefesh and go back and count how many aveirot I've done and what types of aveirot so I can tell Hashem I cleaned up shop. You know when you're supposed to do that? Every day.
Every day you're supposed to do that. What's Kriyat Shema al Hamita? What's סלח לנו אבינו כי חטאנו? Those are- that's avoda for every single day. That's not what a person's supposed to be immersed in in Chodesh Elul, but there needs to be a much deeper concept of cheshbon hanefesh. And what's that?
האם אני עליתי למעלה? Bigger picture.
האם אני עליתי למעלה? Is my concept of Hashem, is my concept of Torah, is my- my understanding of humanity, my relationship to the meaningful things in the world, have they האם הם עלו או לא? The aveira tally, that- that's every day. The Elul is- that's not what Elul is all about. Remember we always say, we always say this, that the Bnei Yissaschar brings down, Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech of Dinov, the Bnei Yissaschar says Elul is gematria of Binah. Chochma, level of Chochma, is teshuva like what we spoke about right now, like I gotta kick that bad habit, I have to stop doing those aveirot, זה לא טוב בשבילי, זה לא נכון.
It's not good. And teshuva of Binah, of Elul, is- is not that, it's more האם בכלל עליתי למעלה? Is my concept of this world deeper? Is- is the preciousness of being alive any more precious to me this Elul than it was last Elul? And if not, boy, do I have to do teshuva over that. Now what does that mean, to do teshuva over not appreciating life? If you want to ask that question, Hashem says now you're ready. Now you're ready for hitchadshut.
Because we take life for granted. Despite having epiphanies at funerals and all these shock moments that we've suffered from, life is still taken for granted. We need to do teshuva over taking life for granted, over just preciousness of life. I mean, Adina, you could talk about this much more.
How many people have- including myself, have had any appreciation and preciousness for any breath you took since you walked into this room? It's just- we're not used to it. We're not used to thinking like that. But really, now you all did, I see. Now you- everyone just went like this right now.
But really these things, this is the- This is the type of teshuvah, this is what Elul is. Mevinot? This is what Elul is. Again, אם בן אדם צריך לעשות משהו בחודש אלול זה לא לשבת ולחשוב כמה פעמים עשיתי עבירה פלונית וכמה פעמים עבירה אחרת.
צריך לשאול שאלה והשאלה היא לאן אני הולך וזה אני יכול להחליט.
This is something I could choose.
לאן אני רוצה ללכת לאיזה כיוון אני רוצה ללכת. It's amazing. Rav Steinsaltz says teshuvah, teshuvah of Elul is owning bechirah chofshit.
Owning free will. What led me to a lot of mistakes in life is that I feel like I have no choice. I don't really have choice. I'm dragged, I'm schlepped by the waves of the world, by the waves of society, by the waves of community, by the waves of certain social norms, and by the waves of the, of the chatterbox in my head that tells me 'Don't even try, because you're just gonna disappoint yourself'.
I don't have bechirah. But Rav Steinsaltz is saying the teshuvah of Elul is acknowledging and owning the fact, the fact that God granted me bechirah chofshit. He gave me free will that I can choose where I want to walk to. Now that's an, that's an awesome thing.
And it's a, you know, just thinking about him so much. Rav Weinberger told me before we built the shul, he said, 'Just remember one thing, you could do whatever you want to do'. I was like, 'What does that mean?'. He's like, obviously mochin de-katnut says, 'Oh, he's saying you can change around Torah' and that's not what we're talking about.
We have, we have the healthy basis, hopefully we have the healthy basis yatziv. He's saying, 'But if you're starting...', he says, 'Remember if you're starting something new, you can do whatever you want to, you... meaning you can fill it with whatever light, the way that, the way you feel you want to fill it'. And it's a very, I have to do cheshbon ha-nefesh on this because I have to, I don't remember that enough.
Because all of us get stuck in like, 'What are people gonna say? What are people gonna think?'. We're all stuck in these things, you know. We gotta do teshuvah on this because bechirah chofshit means owning the fact that God gave me bechirah chofshit and it wasn't a mistake that God gave me bechirah chofshit. Hashem knew what He was doing when He gave each of us the power to choose where we want to go, where we want to move forward and how we want to move forward.
That's the teshuvah of Elul. Get out of the... Be-seder. I know all, so many people Rosh Chodesh Elul, deleting every app from their phone.
Be-seder, you could have done that in, I don't know, if you wanted to you could have done that in November or in March. Be-seder. But it's much deeper question than that. It's like, where am I, where is my life going? Has the concept of life been elevated? Has it gone higher at all? Has it been higher? Ani yakhol le-fachot fourth line in this last paragraph, אני יכול לפחות לכוון את פני לדרך העולה בית אל.
So this, this is Yaakov Avinu. He's saying over here, 'You know what? I don't, I can't say that I have the, I'm strong enough to get to where I want to be. But you know what I could do? I could set my eyesight towards that place that I now want to go to. At least I could at least go like shammah.
שמה אני רוצה להגיע.
אני יכול להיות שאני לא אגיע, and maybe I won't get there, אבל אני יכול לפחות להגיד התחלתי ללכת'. This is so deep, so simple but so deep. I may not be able to get to the place that I'm setting my eyesight on, but at least I could say I set my eyesight on there.
שאי סביב עיניך וראי. Lift up your heads, right?
התחלתי ללכת יתן לי HaKadosh Baruch Hu את הכוח יתן לי את החיים. I'm gonna start walking. God will give me the strength, that's bitachon.
I'm gonna start walking and God will give me the strength and God will give me the life. Adina, back to your question, emunah is I believe God exists. You know what? There are people that believe that God existed before Avraham Avinu. Avraham Avinu's not the one that brought down to the world that God exists.
There were people before Avraham Avinu. Chazal speak about this. But what was Avraham Avinu's thing? If God exists, that, for real, it must mean that I...
ואפילו כשאני בן ארבעים.
And even when I'm remember he's speaking to, you know, eighteen year olds, that's why. I was thinking of taking out this last sentence, it'll make me feel bad, or to change it to ben shmonim or tish'im. But he's speaking to younger people here. So this is what it means.
I just want to, I want to clarify one thing. What does it mean "I'll get there"? I'll get to live a higher state of consciousness and awareness of life. That's what we're talking about. You know anything about that, Daniel? That's what we're talking about.
Not "I'll get there to be a tzadik" that doesn't do aveiros.
אין צדיק בארץ אשר לא יחטא. That's not a Jewish - it's, it's more, we know where that concept comes from. It's not that.
It's I will get to a place of living a life with such a deeper appreciation for what I have. And my concept of Hashem, of godliness, and of my whole metzius in this world, u'lehitromem lema'ala. The other stuff of aveiros, kamuvan, those things need to be taken into account because those clog the eyesight, they clog the system. But really, the pnimiyut, b'pnimiyut shel hadvarim, it's much more than that, and we all strive so much to, to live a much, much more, or a much more rich life.
And rich over here, kamuvan, we're speaking about, you know, we're speaking about tasting how precious all that we already have. Just tasting we already have, we're filled with goods, we're filled with gifts. To be able to taste the preciousness of it is the avoda of the teshuva of Elul. And this is the way to come and mamlich hamelech.
This is how you carry the crown of the King. So, this is how we're embarking on our beginning of our learning. Be'ezrat Hashem we should have the koach to, to think about these things, to ask these questions. The deepest teshuva question you could ask from this shiur is, "I know I believe in You, but do I actually trust You?" And if I trust You, what's stopping me from embarking on a new journey? Right? What's stopping me? I feel like this whole teaching was a perush on the passuk Kave el Hashem chazak v'ya'ametz libecha v'kave el Hashem.
Which is every day we say in Elul, nachon. Yeah, but it's to start the Kave el Hashem and then Yitzchak, chazak v'ya'ametz libecha, the gevura, and then start again but on a higher, in a new place with the hitchadshus. I, I wish he was alive just to tell him this chiddush. It's meduyak.
I think it's exactly what you're saying. Okay, everyone should have a beautiful Shabbos and please, please join us for Selichos Motza'ei Shabbos. Join us before Selichos for the, I hate the word concert, it's a hachana. But it's one of the most special nights of the year, please join us Motza'ei Shabbat.
Join us for everything.