How To Save The Ones You Love?

0:08Okay, it's a good question if everything is written in the Torah. Let's say somebody is sick. Why would anybody pray if it's already written in the Torah whether this person is going to die or not? Right, so what's the question? The Gemara in Masechet Rosh Hashanah says there are a few things that can change a decree. There are a few things that can change a decree. There's a bad decree that came into the world.

1:37Very common in the Western world, but it's also common for people not to use the middle name. So most people call themselves by their first name, and the middle name is just something that's on their passport or their driver's license. But in reality, nobody knows what it is. In Judaism, if you have a middle name, you have to use it, meaning if your name is Yisrael Meir. Reuven, you have to use Yisrael Meir Reuven. You can't just say Yisrael. Why? Because your name is Yisrael Meir. Your first and middle name are not separate; they're part of the complete name given to you. There's no concept of a 'middle name' in our tradition. That is your name, and you have to use the full name. Don’t shorten your name—why? Because shortening a person's name can shorten their life. It’s also not advisable that if your name is, let's say, Benjamin, to tell people your name is Ben. Don't abbreviate your name. Shortening your name can shorten your life. If you have a name in the Torah, you have to use it, which means that before you're going to add a name, don't add a name if you don't plan on using it on a regular basis. The second point is about doing teshuva. If you do teshuva, you can change the decree. Why? Because the decree that happened in Shamayim, that such and such, chas v'shalom, was going to be sick, was given to a certain person, a person who had a hundred pounds worth of sins, let's say. Right?

2:56But if that person did Teshuvah, Changed his mistakes, stopped violating Shabbat, stopped wasting seed, stopped this. What ends up happening? He's no longer the same person. The decree was given to a person that's full of sins. Once he did teshuva, he's undoing those sins. He's even turning some of those sins into mitzvot. This means that, yes, the decree was given to this person that's full of sins, but he's no longer the same person. He's a person that already did teshuva. That's what David HaMelech says to Hashem in Tehillim. He says, "Hashem..." They're lying about me. Who's lying about you, David HaMelech? He says, the angels. Why are they lying about you? They're lying about me because they say I sin. No, they're talking about somebody I used to be. I used to sin. No, now I did teshuva. So they're still talking as if I didn't do teshuva, but I did teshuva, Hashem. Meaning, rabotai, that if a person does teshuva, he can change the decree. Not because Hashem changed His mind, but because we changed our actions. And we are no longer the person that deserves that decree. It's the same concept as tzedakah, the prayer.

4:00The prayer is that when a person or a group of people pray for rachamim from Hashem, they pray for mercy from Hashem, they're increasing that sick person's merits. When that person was getting sick or had some type of negative decree, they had, let's say, a hundred pounds of merits, but also a hundred pounds of decrees. That's a negative decree. So those merits matched. Once people started praying for that person, once people started learning Torah for that person, once people started doing good things for the sake of that person, they increased the merit side of that person. Now it's no longer a hundred pounds. Now it became two hundred pounds, three hundred pounds. And Hashem says, oh, three hundred pounds doesn't deserve this hundred pounds. but also a hundred-pound decree. That's a negative decree. So that decree, those merits matched. Once people started praying for that person, once people started learning Torah for that person, once people started doing good things for the sake of that person, they increased the merit side of that person. Now it's no longer a hundred pounds. Now it became two hundred pounds, three hundred pounds. And Hashem says, oh, three hundred pounds doesn't deserve this hundred pounds. 100-pound type of guy, yeah, deserved it, but the 300-pound didn't deserve it, meaning that there was a change that took place. But sometimes, as a last thing for this specific question, we do things a little too late. Most of the time, we do things almost too late, and sometimes we do them too late, meaning after the decree has already been passed and it's too late to undo it.

5:19The person already died. But sometimes we're really close to that. So the Gemara says that one time Rabbi Eliezer Ben-Horkenos was walking in the street with his students. Since he was part of the Sanhedrin, one of the biggest Tanaim that ever lived, he knew 70 languages. One of those languages was the language of animals. He saw a very dangerous snake pass by them and... He said, "Hey, where are you going? There's a snake. I see a snake. I run away, by the way." He sees a snake. "Hey, where are you going?" he says. "I'm going to do my job." He goes, "What's your job?" "I'm going to kill that Jew down the street on such and such address." He says, no, no, you're not allowed to kill that Jew. He goes, why? I have a job, Hashem already sent me. I have the memo, I got the email. He says, no, no, you got the message from Hashem to go do it, but since you got it, I already met with that Jew earlier today, and he did teshuvah. He already decided he's going to stop violating Shabbat; he's going to stop doing what he's doing. So he already started doing teshuvah. He didn't complete teshuvah, but he started doing teshuvah, which means he doesn't deserve the decree that you already received. Go somewhere else.

6:32Somewhere else, someone kadosh, or someone holy, says go somewhere else, you go somewhere else. The snake turns around, goes somewhere else. Moments later, they heard he killed somebody else, got somebody else. So the talmidim, the students of Rav Elia, say, "Rabbi, how come he went to kill somebody else? Didn't you tell him to go away?" "No, no," I didn't tell him to go away. I told him to go somewhere else." "Why did you tell him to go away, Rabbi?" "Because, no, I can't tell him to go away." It's not my business. Hashem sent him. Hashem sent him. I just told him to go somewhere else because he doesn't have the right to be here anymore. But he still has a right to be here because Hashem sent him. So now, since he doesn't have a right to be here, the decree was already passed. The bullet was already shot. All I told him was to change directions. Once the bullet is shot, there's no undoing it. You can't put it back in the gun. You could change directions. Divine assistance - that's what happened. I'll be able to say the decree already came to the world. Just go to where it does belong now. Somebody else belonged in it, which was somebody that was a murderer, and he ended up killing him. The point being about this is that sometimes the decree already comes to the world. But we can still save the ones we love as a result of prayer, as a result of teshuva, and as a result of doing good things.

7:56But most importantly, we shouldn't wait too long. Because sometimes we don't have the merit of Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurcanus in us when we know that this is the last chance. But nonetheless, HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives us a lot of opportunities to do teshuva, especially today. Especially today.