Rosh Hashana judgement For Tzadikim? (Aur Torah New York)

1:38If everyone can join us in unison, it would be wonderful so that we don't have 15 different voices everywhere. So... The Prophet says that Am Yisrael, before the Churban Beit HaMikdash, thought that everything was perfectly fine. Why? If you thought that Hashem is angry at you, you would do teshuva. If you thought that Hashem is going to punish you, if you're a normal person, you would do teshuva. You would change. If someone goes to work and every time he goes to work, he knows that the boss is looking at him and is contemplating whether he should fire him today in the morning or today in the afternoon, that employee is going to do teshuva. He's going to figure out a way, how do I keep my job? How do I not get fired? I don't want to lose my job. If every time a person comes home, his wife all of a sudden goes to sleep, she doesn't want to see him, the person does teshuva. He says, oh, how come my wife doesn't want to see me?

3:04if every time a woman calls her husband, the husband is always busy and he doesn't have time to talk to her, the woman says, "I have to do something because my husband doesn't want to talk to me." The concept is very clear: Anytime somebody sees and notices that there's something wrong—that they're not getting the feedback that they want or that they expect—they have to change. But the problem is, Rabotai, the Gemara in Masechet Shabbat says a person does not see the obligation in himself when it comes to Hashem. He may see the obligation in himself when it comes to work, when it comes to his bank account, when it comes to his hobbies, when it comes to his friends. In everything else, he notices if there's something wrong. If his wife doesn't pay attention to him or gives him an attitude, he asks her what's wrong. If the husband doesn't pick up a few times after she calls, when he finally picks up, she says, how come you didn't pick up? What's wrong? If he didn't get the bonus this year, like the rest of the people in the company, he asks the boss, what's wrong? What did I do? Just recently, somebody donated to B'ezrat Hashem, and there was a mistake in the system, and the bank returned him the money.

4:27And he sent me a text, and he said, "Rabbi, how come you didn't want my donation?" I replied, "I didn't know I received one." He said, "No, I sent it on this day, on that day, and they sent me a check back." I responded, "Oh, it must have been a mistake, because you probably sent it to the wrong campaign, or it's some type of technological flaw." But the point is that the person easily saw there was something wrong. He thought, “When I donated money and it was returned, there's something wrong.” With everything else in the world, when we see that we're not getting the right feedback, we recognize there must be an error somewhere. We see that clearly there's something wrong. But the Gemara says, when it pertains to Hashem, that a person does not see the obligation himself, and does not see that there's something wrong when it comes to Hashem. The reason why is because a person naturally thinks that everything he does is perfect. Every single human being on earth, whether it's the biggest tzaddik or the biggest rasha, believes this. A normal person, an elevated person, it doesn't make a difference. Human beings, in their nature, struggle to perceive their own faults in their service to Hashem. Whether it's the biggest tzaddik or the biggest rasha, a normal person, an elevated person, it doesn't make a difference. Every single person wakes up in the morning and at least intends to do the best he can. Even Hitler, he actually thought he was doing the world a big favor by getting rid of the Jewish people because he thought that they invented something called a conscience, where you feel bad for things. He thought it was a bad thing for society, along with communism, which he also believed was bad for society. Now, Hitler thought he was right, but obviously, the rest of the world thought he was wrong, although not everybody acted on it until it was too late.

5:42getting rid of the Jewish people because he thought that they invented something called a conscience, where you feel bad for things, and he thought it was a bad thing for society. Along with communism, which he also believed was detrimental to society, he was in clear opposition. Now, Hitler thought he was right, but obviously, the rest of the world recognized he was wrong, though unfortunately, not everybody acted on it until it was too late. Lovedale, Am Yisrael thought they were right before the churban Beit HaMikdash. Everyone continued with their lives. The women kept dressing immodestly. If you look into the book of the prophet Yeshayahu, the prophet rebukes the people. He yells at the women. He says, "You women are walking around with high heels and your hair showing". ...like, uh, you modest woman, you should be ashamed of yourself. So the woman answered him. She goes, "What, what's the worst that can happen? What, the queen would like us, and they want to marry us? So let them marry us." Now, if this was 15 or 16-year-old girls with no education...

7:02They went to public school. What do you expect from them? The problem was that those people were actually the Rabbanit of that generation. They were the Rebbetzins of that generation. Now, if you think this is a far-fetched story, today there are actually Rebbetzins, or people that call themselves Rebbetzins, that go to the beach with bikinis and kisui rosh in different places in Europe. And they think it's perfectly fine. They think there's no problem with it. Why is it that everyone realizes there are a lot of things wrong with work, with business, with school, with other people? You can point out the wrong in everyone else except in ourselves. The reason why is because a person simply just doesn't see the wrong in himself. His ego gets in the way. Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz, z"l, once gave a chidush. But the chiddush applies to everyone. He says, one time I was on the way to the Beit Midrash. And on the way, I saw that there were people working in the streets. They were working in the sewer. And there's always people walking in the streets. I mean, in New York, I think they've been working on the BQE (Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) for at least 30 or 40 years. You could have built five of them by now. But if you build it, then you don't get paid, so you have to continue breaking it.

8:30He saw people working on the sewer system and he was fascinated to see that the guys took a break. They're all taking a lunch break and eating their sandwiches inside the sewer, and they thought nothing was wrong with it. Now he passed the sewer and he had to cover his face because it was disgusting; all the refuse of the world goes there. they're eating their chicken sandwich, the salami sandwich, and the tuna sandwich, and whatever sandwich. Well, that's really good, wow. Yeah, what do you think of baseball? What do you think of basketball? And they're in the sewer, like they're sitting in the North or they're in the mountains. I learned big mussar from this; I learned big mussar and big life lessons from this. What's the life lesson? When someone is in the tum'ah, when someone is inside the filth, he doesn't realize it's filth. The reason why the rat eats garbage is because he doesn't see it as garbage. He sees a five-course meal available to him for free.

9:44When we sin and get used to our sins so much, such as when we drive on Shabbat, are married to non-Jews, steal from our customers, or cheat in every way possible because we think that having more money is the most important thing in the world, we fail to see anything wrong with it. Why? Because we've gotten used to it. We've become so accustomed to these actions that we actually perceive them as mitzvot. A lot of people have made so many sins that they've actually turned them into a mitzvah, where sometimes you'll see someone talking in the middle of tefillah, and you tell them, shh, you can't, there's tefillah. The Shulchan Aruch states that someone who talks in the middle of tefillah, this avon is too big for him. It's the only avon in the entire Shulchan Aruch that Rabbi Yosef Karo says, this avon is too big. There are many avonot, there are many sins. lot of sins, there's no good, there's no good. This karet? There's no- there's a lot of sins, but there's one sin that Rabbi Yosef says, "This one is too much for him. It's too much!" He doesn't even say how big he says, "This is too much." Why? Because when somebody talks in shul during tefillah, the Shekhinah leaves. And now all of the tefillot of the entire kehilla are on hold. They're all waiting. Where are they waiting? They're waiting for him to be quiet.

11:13They're waiting for him to be quiet so the Shekhinah can maybe return and hopefully listen to our prayers. However, the Shulchan Aruch says, this is too much. Why? Because one person is praying for Hashem to cure his cancer. Another person is praying for Hashem to help marry off his children. Someone else is praying for Hashem to help send their kids to Yeshiva. Another one is seeking a zivug. Another is looking for a cure. And so forth. Everyone has their tefillot. But now, none of their tefillot are being accepted. Why? Because he wants to have a conversation. He's asking the person next to him, "What do you think of the stock market?" He wants to ask his friend, "What do you think of the new president? What do you think of his wig? What do you think of his real hair?" He wants to talk a bit; it's not a big deal, no? The Shulchan Aruch says not only is it a big deal, it's too big of a deal. But the person you tell this to, even if you show them big signs, doesn't change their behavior. Every Beit Knesset has a sign. Every Beit Knesset has a sign. I've never been to a Beit Knesset that doesn't have a sign saying, "Don't talk in Shul." But everybody talks in Shul anyway. Why? Because no one takes it seriously. Why? Because everyone thinks, "Oh no, I'm just talking for one second. It's only one second. I only said one word. I'm doing it quietly. I'm speaking quietly. I'm not doing it really loud." And every one of us makes the same excuse.

12:28It's quick. It's only one thing. It's only five things. It's in Hebrew. It's in English. Whatever excuse we make up. Why? Because the Yetzer Hara is smarter than all of us. And he fools us into thinking that our aveirot are actually mitzvot. Now, if you notice, the Tachanun, the vidui that we do every day in Mincha, says some interesting things. In the beginning of the Tachanun, it says that we're not so arrogant and stiff-necked to claim before You, our God, that we're tzaddikim and we haven't sinned. Meaning, every single person comes to tefillah. He just did Amidah. He's about to complete the prayer and go into the next big prayer, which is the Vidui, the Tachanun. And he says, "Hashem, I know I'm not a tzaddik. I know I'm not perfect. I know I've made a lot of sins." But then he starts naming the sins: "I've been guilty. I betrayed You. I robbed. I stole. I gossiped."

13:52Accused people falsely. I gave bad advice. I lied. I'm angry. I scoffed. So, one guy came to the Ramban. "I love a shalom," he says. "I don't understand. I didn't do any of this stuff. I didn't steal from anybody. Today, I don't remember lying. Gossip? I don't have time to gossip. I'm too busy." Wicked? I thought I'm doing teshuva. What wicked? It's not relevant to me, this stuff. Pagamnu? What pagamnu? What did I do? What pagam did I do? What harm did I do? Pashanu? I'm not a poshea. He says to the Ramban, I didn't do any of this stuff. Why do I still have to do vidui? The Ramban says, if you actually understood the real meaning of each one of these sins, not only will you realize that you actually committed every single one of them. You made one more than what's listed here. He says, "Which one?" He says, "You deny that you made all the sins; you get even a bigger oy. You're not a tzaddik, as it says, you're not a tzaddik." So now we have to go, and we have to admit to Hashem that we sinned. We have to admit that we sinned now, before we lose any hope because we committed all these various sins.

15:16The Gemara in Masechet Rosh Hashanah says, the Chachamim ask, how come Hashem didn't use His foresight and His ability to see the future to just decide to kill Ishmael? Why? Look at Ishmael! What happened to him? He became the ancestor of two billion people who want to kill us. Two billion resha'im and a few tzaddikim. There may be a few decent people among them, but the vast majority, if given a choice between a million dollars and the opportunity to kill one Jew, would say, "I'll kill one Jew." Most of them want to kill us. So Hashem already knows all this is coming from Ishmael. So why don't you just kill Ishmael? Finished. No Arabs. And the Gemara in Masechet Rosh Hashanah, page 16b, says they only judge a person in heaven based on how he is at that time. Meaning that at the time that Ishmael lived, and at the time that judgment was being given, Ishmael did not become the evil Arabs.

16:16As a matter of fact, Yishmael did teshuva. The fact that his descendants became resha'im me'rush'im, and they used the Torah against him and against Hashem, is a different story. But Yishmael himself didn't do it. This applies to us. Why does it apply to us? Because when we arrive at Rosh Hashanah, Instead of being focused so much on the songs and who has the loudest voice, and everybody competing to see who is going to scream out Hashem's name the loudest, and who's going to sing, and who's going to donate the most, and who's going to show off, we have to ask ourselves: Why are we even here? Why do we even come to shul? Oh, we're here to say, "I'm sorry." Okay, what do I have to say sorry about? If I have to say sorry just for the vidui that I've been saying the whole year, I have a lot to say I'm sorry for. The vidui of Yom Kippur is much longer. The vidui of Yom Kippur is like a half-hour. If we understood what we're saying in the vidui over there, we're like, oh wow, we have a lot to say I'm sorry for. So how is Hashem going to forgive us? He's going to forgive us because there's a secret.

17:28The secret in the Gemara says that he judges us based on who we are today, not based on what we did last year, but based on us today. Meaning that if we start today, We stop doing all the things that we're doing. We stop pretending like we're not making any sins. We stop pretending like talking in shul is not a big deal. We stop pretending like being married to a non-Jew is not a big deal. We stop pretending like dressing with a short skirt is not really a big deal. And not covering your hair is not a big deal, and everything in the Torah is not a big deal. It's a big deal for everybody else; it's not for me. We stop pretending. Then we go and we show up to Rosh Hashanah as ba'alei teshuva. We arrive on Rosh Hashanah thinking, "Oh, I did teshuva." Why? Yes, I committed all those sins, but today, I have admitted them, and I've acknowledged them. I'm working on stopping them. And Hashem judges us based on that day. He says, "Oh, today you're clean. And today you intend on doing teshuva, so I'll judge you based on today." This, rabotai hekarim, is one of the most important things that a person needs to know. Why? Because if he shows up to...

18:38the Beit Knesset on Rosh Hashanah, and he decides that the most important mitzvah is to donate a million dollars because he has some money to burn. He wants to donate a million dollars, and he wants to feel good about it. He wants to make sure that the entire community knows, so he donates a million dollars. Then, he spends another million dollars to publicize that he donated a million dollars. But that's the main mitzvah that he does for Rosh Hashanah. That's the main mitzvah he does for Yom Kippur. And planning a barbecue on Shabbat the next week is not a problem for him. And continuing his sinful life is not a problem for him. Then there's a Mishnah in Pirkei Avot that says, Someone that says, "I'm going to sin and then do teshuva, I'm going to sin and then do teshuva," what's the consequence? Hashem puts him in a scenario where he can't do teshuva. He lets him continue living his life with this type of feeling that he doesn't have to. The Rambam says that this is actually the biggest punishment in this world: where a person could literally live a full life of 70 years without ever doing teshuva because they never thought they had to. He thought he was perfectly fine.

19:51Without ever doing teshuva because he never thought he had to do it. He thought he was perfectly fine. He thought, "Listen, I donated a million dollars each year to the Knesset." I had one kid that I met—a young boy, maybe 20 or 25 years old, and I met him at the gas station—you know, while getting gas—and he asked me for money. He looked well-to-do; he had a fancy, schmancy car and he immediately told me that he lost his wallet. So, I gave him some money to fill up some gas. He's like, "Oh, I'll send you the money, don't worry." I'm like, "I'm not worried, it's fine, no problem." I just started talking to him, and he said, "Oh, I know you, you're a rabbi, you're a Jew." I'm like, "Yeah, I'm a Jew." And he says, I asked, "What about you?" He goes, "Yeah, I'm Jewish, I'm Orthodox, I'm religious." He didn't look exactly religious to me by his appearance, but you can't judge people based on their looks. I said, "Okay, which shul do you go to?" He replies, "No, I don't really go to shul." So that's a little less religious. I asked, "Which community?" Oh, he tells me a certain community in Florida. "Okay," I said. "Where do you learn?" He says, "No, no, I don't learn. I don't learn." Okay, the religious part keeps going lower and lower. I asked, "Wait, you're Orthodox?" He replies, "Yeah, no, Orthodox Jew." I said, "Oh, okay. And you keep Shabbat?" What?

21:15No, no, I'm not up to that yet. I'm not up to that yet. I'm not at that level yet to keep Shabbat. So I asked him, what makes you religious? And he says to me, "You know how much money my dad donates? You know how much money my dad donates? He's much more religious than me." I said, "How is he religious? Does he keep Shabbat?" He goes, "Well, he drives to shul on Shabbat, but he's very religious." He drives to an Orthodox shul in Florida on Shabbat, but he believes he's very religious because he donates no less than $100,000 a year. This, rabotai, is a klalah, not a brachah. This is a curse from Hashem. It's not a brachah. At the end of parashat Va'etchanan, Hashem Yitbarach says, He pays His haters cash to their face to destroy them. People think that sometimes if you see a person driving their Ferrari on Shabbat, they're getting blessed, they're exempt from mitzvot. No, no. They're actually just getting punished. How? Hashem gives them so much money that they have no idea that they need to do teshuva. The danger of this punishment is so severe that the person that has it doesn't even know he has it. You have two people. Both have, unfortunately, a disease.

22:44Both go to the doctor. The doctor says to one of them, "Listen, my friend, I love you. You're the best friend I have, but I have to tell you, you have a disease. You only have one year to live, chas v'shalom." The other guy comes in, and the doctor says, "Hey, listen, you're my second best friend. I love you. Everything's okay. Enjoy your life." The reality is, he also has the same disease. Now, was he a good friend or a bad friend? According to the Torah, he's a murderer. Why? Because he told the person who is really sick that he's not sick. He assured someone who is truly ill that there's nothing wrong. So what's going to happen? The person who believes they are not sick will continue living their life thinking that they are perfectly healthy. going to work, working overtime like most people, coming home barely at eight or nine o'clock at night, spending a half-hour with the family as if he's doing them a favor, and then going back to work again. Why? Because he wants to save for this imaginary vacation and the imaginary pension plan he's gonna have next year. Little does he know he's never gonna make it, but whose fault is it? It's the doctor who told him everything's okay.

24:04Sometimes the punishment is so subtle that we don't even realize it's a form of punishment. So when we arrive at Rosh Hashanah, the first thing we need to do is acknowledge and assume that we are sinners. We know we did wrong, and it's time for us to do teshuva. It's time for us to fix something. If you don't know what you're doing wrong, if you think you are so perfect that you can't see your mistakes, all you need to do is look at Masechet Berachot and... Mama said it before, it says, someone that sees that he has yesurim (suffering) and sees that he has difficulty in his life — he got a flat tire, he lost something, his wife doesn't want to talk to him, his kids are failing in school, he doesn't have money — any type of suffering in life. And he doesn't know why it's happening. He doesn't know, why is Hashem doing this to me? "Says you fish fish with myself, take a look at your actions, take a look at your actions. See what you did, see how you got here. Why was something an issue? My says, what if he doesn't find, what if he looks at his actions and he doesn't find? It says, oh, if he doesn't find that it's bitul Torah, then it means it's bitul Torah. That means that he just wasted time instead of learning Torah."

25:26doing something else so he died. Believe it is said, what are you talking about? If he didn't find something, it's Bitul Torah. If he really was looking, then of course he would find that it was Bitul Torah anyway. Meaning he wasn't looking deep enough to begin with. There's many, many things that we have to do teshuva for now. The Gemara also says that on Rosh Hashanah, Am Yisrael is like Bnei Meron. What's Bnei Meron? They give a few different analogies. When Am Yisrael would give Maaser of the sheep, they would pass through one after another. The way they would do it is they would let all the sheep go through an entry to some type of small door, and they would go one by one, you know, count one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. The tenth one they would put some type of paint on him. Why? Because the tenth one is hekdesh. That ma'aser does not belong to him anymore.

26:31Why didn't they just, so they talk about it. I ask, wait, how come they don't just, listen, count? You have 100 sheep. Count 10, take the 10 out. You have 90 left. What's the problem? No. You have to get used to giving on the way. Same thing with people that give ma'aser. A lot of people have a tough time giving ma'aser because they want to give it in one shot. They make a hundred thousand dollars at the end of the year and say, "Listen, I make a hundred thousand dollars a year, so at the end of the year, I'm just gonna write a check to the beit knesset for ten thousand dollars." And it never happens. Every year, something else happens. Every year, they can't do it. Every year, when they finally write any check, it's half of what they were really supposed to give, and they're borrowing the money because the money is already spent. How come? Because they didn't give ma'aser like they're supposed to. They're supposed to give ma'aser along the way, along the way. So the Gemara says that we are just like these sheep on Rosh Hashanah. Why are we just like these sheep? Because Hashem judges us one after another, one after another, one, two, three, four, five, six, and so on and so forth. So then the Chachamim ask, if you could just put it on vibrate, it would be much better. The Chachamim ask,

27:51Why don't we just judge everyone at the same time? Is anything above and beyond Hashem? Is there something that Hashem can't do? Why can't He just judge all of creation all at once? The answer that all of Israel says is scarier than the question. Why? Because it says that the way that Hashem judges us is very different than the way we judge. First of all, The tzaddikim automatically get life. The reshaim automatically get death. But then we're confused. Why? Because there are reshaim in the world every day, and the tzaddikim unfortunately leave us. So how does it work? It works like this: the people that have the merit go in front of the line. They're the first ones in the line. The people that do not have merit are in the back of the line. Now, when you say merit, it sounds like you don't have mitzvot. No. When it says merit, the people that have merit, meaning the people that have a lot of mitzvot, a lot of zechuyot in Shamayim, Hashem judges them based only on what they did. Only based on what they did. They went to shiur, they didn't go to shiur. They did teshuva, they didn't do teshuva. They did kiruv, they didn't do kiruv. They gave tzedakah, they didn't give tzedakah. He judges them based on their actions.

29:13...but every time you go further and further along the line, now that person gets judged based on what they did and what everybody before them did also because they are somehow connected to their sins too, which means that the person that's all the way in the back gets judged not only for their own sins but also for everybody else's. So then the Chachamim ask a very serious question. How does a person survive? If the guy is in the back of the line, of course, he's not going to survive. Just his sins alone are terrible. If he's in the back of the line, just his sins alone are terrible. He's getting punished for everybody else. He says this is where Hashem decides to just do whatever He wants. Sometimes Hashem simply does whatever He wants. When Moshe Rabbeinu asked Hashem, "Why is it that there are tzaddikim (righteous people) who suffer and there are reshaim (wicked people) who prosper?" Hashem replied, "I'm not going to give you the answer." Rabbi Meir Baal HaNess explains that Moshe Rabbeinu asked Hashem three questions and only received answers for two of them. Which question will you get an answer for? This one: Why is there tzaddik vera lo (a righteous person who experiences bad), and rasha vetov lo (a wicked person who experiences good)? Why? The answers to these profound questions remain concealed from us, teaching us humility and trust in divine wisdom.

30:32Hashem says, "That's My business." Meaning, how does this affect us? Sometimes we're in the front of the line. Why? Because the whole year we did teshuva. The whole year we were working on doing teshuva. We're learning. We're teaching. We're giving tzedakah. We're doing everything we possibly can. The whole year we're doing good. Sometimes we messed up. Sometimes we only realized we had to do teshuva on Yom Kippur. Sometimes we only realize we need to do teshuva a day before Rosh Hashanah. We messed up the whole year, so we're not exactly in the front of the line nor at the back. So the Chachamim say there's one ticket out. What's the ticket? You do teshuva. Once you do teshuva, that's the get-out-of-jail-free card. That's the one card that Hashem will use. His own Chochmah. To say, "I'm just going to do whatever I want with him." Why? He did Teshuvah. Even though he should have done Teshuvah already on Rosh Hashanah of last year, he didn't. But he did it today. I'm going to judge him as if he did Teshuvah the whole year. So anyone who uses this is a Chacham, a smart person. Anyone who doesn't is a fool. Because we messed up the whole year, so why wouldn't we do Teshuvah now? So this, Rabotai, sometimes...

31:50We have to be reminded of things that we already know. That's why, for example, the weekly parasha that we have this week is parashat Ki Tavo. Parashat Ki Tavo is the scariest parasha in the entire Torah. There's parashat Ki Tavo and there's parashat Bechukotai. Now, I would highly recommend that everyone fulfill the halachic requirement of reading the parasha. You're supposed to read the parasha every week. You're supposed to read the parasha twice, regularly, and once with commentary. If you haven't done it the whole year, make sure you do it this week. And the reason why is that this is the parasha that if you actually understand what it says, you understand literally what it says. There's a particular urgency and significance to this, as the messages within are a reminder of the consequences and responsibilities that accompany our actions and choices in life. Normal person, every normal human being will do at the end of the parasha because they realize that if they don't, what punishment awaits us now. This is not a point of scaring everyone; this is just to show people that there's an alarm sound. This is to make people realize that if we do teshuva, we're good; if we don't do teshuva, we're crazy. That's simply what it means. A lot of people say, "Oh, how come all the things are so scary?" Scary because life is scary and...

33:04Life is scary. But life without Torah is even scarier. Why? Because then you live a whole life and you have no idea what you're doing. You show up to Shamayim and you say, "Oh, listen, we're sorry, sir. You lived 70 years, but you completely wasted your time. None of the obligations you were supposed to do, you fulfilled, and you have to come back again, or Hashem, you have to get punished." Now, when Rabbi Yochanan was on his deathbed, the Gemara in Masechet Berachot says he was crying in fear. And his students ask him, "Why are you so scared? You are the best of the best. Why are you scared?" He says, "If I was going to meet a king of flesh and blood, and I knew that if he's angry at me, his anger is going to last, but not forever, I'd still be scared. But I'm not going to meet a king of flesh and blood. I'm going to meet the King of all kings, where if He's angry at me, His anger is permanent."

34:04It doesn't change. If He punishes me, the punishment is permanent; it doesn't change. For all those people who think that Hashem is, oh yeah, El Rachum V'Chanun - you're right, He is El Rachum V'Chanun - He's a merciful God, but that's why we're still alive. It's not that He's merciful over there. Once we leave this world and we go to the real world, there's no more mercy. Mercy is here. Mercy is being given an opportunity after an opportunity after an opportunity to do teshuva. Sometimes a person faces various difficulties and wonders, "Why, Hashem, why are You doing this to me?" The reality is that the Chachamim explain to us that Hashem is doing it because He is trying to communicate with you. He says, "Listen, you have problems in your life? Good. That means I'm talking to you and I'm telling you that in order for you to not have problems, you have to fix something."

35:05If your life is perfect, and all your kids are tzaddikim, and your wife is a tzaddika, and you're a tzaddik, and everything is good, then ashrecha, you're already living in Olam Haba here. How many people actually get to see that? Most people have some type of difficulty. Why? Because Hashem is talking to them and is trying to tell them, my son, my daughter, you have to change. You have to do something. If you're driving on Shabbat, you have to stop. If you're not eating kosher, you have to stop. If you're not watching your eyes, you have to stop, and so on and so forth. The list goes on. But if we continue to ignore the message, then we can't show up and complain to Hashem. That's why the Chachamim explained to us that a person who has no opinion, no knowledge whatsoever, you're not allowed to be merciful on him. If someone has no knowledge whatsoever, you're not allowed to be, oh yeah, you know, he's miskin, he doesn't know anything. So I feel bad for him, he doesn't know. You're not allowed to be. You're not allowed to show mercy for him. Why? Because he chose not to have chochmah. When it came to his business, he learned for 20 years. When it came to his cars, he's been learning about that for 20 years. When it came to the baseball team, he knows the salary cap of every player that ever played for his team.

36:35When it came to all of the other things that he likes, he knows everything about them. But when it came to halachot Shabbat, he wasn't sure. When it came to halacha of what you're supposed to do on Yom Tov, he wasn't sure. When it came to parashat haShavua, he wasn't sure. He says, for him, you're not allowed to be merciful on him. Why? He chose to be that way. So if we're not allowed to be merciful on him because he chose to be that way, and the actual instructions are coming from Hashem, then we need to reflect on our own choices and actions. It's essential to understand that through tshuva, repentance, we can return to the proper path and align ourselves with Hashem's will. Who's the most merciful of all? Do you think He will be? These are some of the things we have to consider before Rosh Hashanah. Doing teshuva, rabotai, is not so difficult. All it requires is a decision. It's a very simple decision. People make it a big deal that I did teshuva. It's not really that big of a deal. It really isn't. Especially when you have a lot of suffering. When Hashem tortures you and makes you feel like you're on fire 24 hours a day, and you go through surgery after surgery after surgery, and on the last surgery, you feel like, oh, yeah, this one, I'm not going to wake up from this one, it's kind of easy, it's a little easier to do teshuva in that case. The smart person doesn't have to go through that.

37:54A smart person says, you know what? If he went through that, that means it's available for all of us. I feel like I shouldn't go through that. Doing teshuvah is a very simple thing. Why? It's in your mouth, it's in your heart to do it. You were meant to do it. You were created to do it. Doing teshuvah is a simple decision. Do I want to be a lover of Hashem or an enemy of Hashem? There are only two choices. There's no "friends of Hashem." There's not one word in the entire Torah, in the entire Tanakh, in the entire Gemara, anywhere in all the Sifrei Kodesh. I haven't read all the books, but I've asked plenty of questions. Nowhere in the world does it say you have an option of being friends with Hashem. There's no such thing. Only some people today say it. I don't know what they are, but they're definitely not good teachers. There's no option of being friends with Hashem. There's no option of being brothers with Hashem or sisters with Hashem. The option is being a lover of Hashem or an enemy of Hashem. Those are the two options. Why? Those are the options that Hashem gave us. He says, I pay my lovers for thousands of generations. The haters, I repay them for eternity.

39:14So that's a decision, that's teshuva. Teshuva is deciding whether you want to be a lover of Hashem or a hater of Hashem. So what does a lover of Hashem do? A lover of Hashem thinks about Hashem before themselves. When she wakes up in the morning and she says, "Thank you, Hashem, for giving my neshama." She's acknowledging something. She's acknowledging that Hashem gave her another chance to live. Because technically, when a person goes to sleep, the Gemara says it's one sixtieth of death. The Neshama goes up to the Shamayim and tells Hashem, "Listen, Hashem, today she walked around with a tight skirt, she didn't cover her hair, she had no sleeves on, and the mouth that she has—you don't want to hear what she says. She doesn't stop talking Lashon Hara, Hashem. I don't even know if she has enough time to say anything other than Lashon Hara, Hashem." And the neshamah complains to Hashem about her. Hashem, in the end, the neshamah says to Hashem, "Hashem, I don't want to go back. I don't want to go back. Why? Look what she's doing to me. You sent me clean. She's ruining me. I don't want to go back." And Hashem says to the neshamah, "I command you to go back." "No, but Hashem, I don't want to. She's ruining me." "I command you to go back." Why, Hashem?

40:36Because I have emunah in her that today she's going to do teshuva. Today she's going to do teshuva. That's why we say thank you, Hashem, for having emunah in me. You had mercy on me and you had emunah in me. What emunah did Hashem have in us? He had emunah that today we're going to do teshuva. And He commanded the neshama to go back into the body. The neshama didn't want to go back to the body. But the King of all Kings commanded the neshama to go back into the body because Hashem has emunah that we're going to do teshuva today. So when a person actually says, "Thank you, Hashem, for having emunah in me," now you have to deliver. Now you have to deliver. Because if you don't deliver, there's a verse. The prophet Isaiah says in the name of Hashem: "With their lips and their tongue they paid Me honor, but their hearts were far away from Me," meaning, talk is cheap, Hashem says.

41:53They talked a big game. They said, "Oh, Mi Shema'amin Lo Mefahed, Hashem, we love you. HaKadosh Baruch Hu, we love you." They sing to Hashem, "I love you. Oh, no one loves Hashem more than me. I'm more religious than you because I love Hashem even though I go to the beach on Shabbat instead of the Bet Knesset on Shabbat." Hashem says, "Save me the lip service. Your heart is far away from me." When a person says, "Thank you, Hashem, for giving my neshama back," they're also acknowledging that Hashem did them a favor today. When a person says, "Thank you Hashem for giving my neshama back," they're also acknowledging that Hashem did them a favor. Today, He gave them the neshama back because the neshama of all of us, with no exception, myself included, didn’t want to come back. It wanted to be in Olam Ha'emet. Not a single neshama wanted to come back. Every single one of them wanted to stay there. Why? Neshama doesn't want any sins. It's not interested in any sins. So when we say, "Thank you, Hashem," at the beginning of the day, we're thanking Hashem because He has emunah (faith) that today we're going to do teshuva (repentance). Today we're going to choose to be the lovers of Hashem. So what does the lover of Hashem do? Instead of wearing the mini skirt, she wears the skirt that reaches her ankles. Instead of wearing...

43:17The T-shirt, she wears the long-sleeve jacket, the long-sleeve shirt. Instead of going to the baseball game, he goes to the kollel, he goes to the yeshiva, he goes to the beit knesset to learn with Rav Ze'ev. Instead of spending overtime doing nonsense, he learns Torah. Why? That's the only way he can become a lover of Hashem. Because doing everything else is simply not a lover of Hashem. Now, what if you say, listen, I need to work? No one says you're not allowed to work. Work, enjoy work. But there's working, and there's slavery. Slavery, Baruch Hashem, ended for Am Yisrael 3,300 years ago. If you're working past normal hours, to the extent that you don't have time to learn Torah, because you're so tired from work that you don't have the energy to learn Torah, then you're not working. Then you're simply a slave. But there's working, and there's slavery. Slavery, Baruch Hashem, ended for Am Yisrael 3,300 years ago. If you're working past normal hours to the extent that you don't have time to learn Torah because you're so tired from work that you don't have the energy to learn Torah, then you're not working; you're simply a slave. And Hashem made you a prince. He didn't make you a slave. You're choosing to be a slave. Why? Because we don't have emunah (faith) that Hashem is going to give us parnasah (livelihood) if we work less. We think we have to work overtime. We think we have to work till 10 o'clock at night in order for us to become successful.

44:29We don't realize that the Gemara in Masechet Beitzah and also in Masechet Rosh Hashanah both say that Hashem already decided on Rosh Hashanah how much parnassah we're going to get, regardless of what profession we have, and regardless of how much time we work. I know plenty of people that were in the financial services business who were millionaires and plenty of them that went broke. and when plenty of people that started a business and made a lot of money from dog food and selling Q-tips to hotel chains, and plenty of people that started a huge manufacturer went to zero. Meaning that it doesn't really make a difference how much you work, or what profession you have. The only thing that matters is whether Hashem decides to give you money or not. So that means that whatever time you spend above and beyond your normal effort, your normal hishtadlut to work, It's not a mitzvah. There's no mitzvah there. All you're doing is you're following what the Yetzer Hara is telling us, to go work overtime. It's because he wants us to work instead of serving Hashem. So when we're deciding to be lovers of Hashem, these are the reality checks we have to give ourselves. This is the type of stuff we have to say to ourselves. First of all, am I learning every day?

45:43Am I learning 15 minutes, a half-hour, an hour, two hours a day? There's 24 hours in a day. If somebody gave you a box of 24 chocolates, and he said, can you give me one chocolate? He gave you the whole box, a brand new box from Belgium. Kosher, a nice box of delicious chocolate. He says, there are 24 delicious chocolates, each one is a $100,000 chocolate. Can I have one? What are you going to say, no? Oh, you're going to say, of course, take two, take three. It’s your box; you gave me the box. Hashem gave us 24 hours. He says, can I have one? One. Just one chocolate a day. I give you 24 every day. Can I have one hour? Can I have half a chocolate? Can I have half an hour? Can I have a bite? Or do you want to keep everything to yourself? Because you forgot I gave you the chocolates. These are the things we have to think about. Lover of Hashem thinks about these things and realizes, okay, I need to learn Torah. I need to learn what to do, how to be a Jew. There's a to-do list to be a Jew. A Baal Teshuva and a convert is exactly the same thing. They both were non-Jews and are starting to become Jews.

46:56The truth is, today, rabotai, is that everybody in this generation has to be a ba'al teshuva. Everyone. Whether you were born into a religious family and your father's a big rabbi, or you were born into a family that's full of notzrim, full of Christians, and you realize it's all shtuyot, avodah zarah, and you became a convert. It doesn't make a difference where you started. Today, Is what we have to worry about. Today, we all have to do teshuva. It doesn't matter if you live in Lakewood, Miami, or Arkansas. Everyone has to do teshuva in this generation. Everyone has to learn how to become lovers of Hashem. The lover of Hashem thinks about these things, contemplates about them, and arrives at Rosh Hashanah with a game plan. Not a game plan that says, "Oh yeah, I'm going to do this next year." No, the game plan is about what I have done so far, Hashem. I know I only started a week ago. I started, I know, only recently. I didn't start the whole year, but I began last week. I started two days ago. I started before Rosh Hashanah. That's a game plan. A game plan is what you do before the game, not after the game has started. If you're doing it after the game has started, the game is already over. You've finished, you've lost, and no one knows what they're doing.

48:07So you have to show up to Rosh Hashanah with a game plan of things you already did. That's the game plan. That's what the lovers of Hashem do. Hatred of Hashem? Do the exact opposite. And the exact opposite is ignoring the problem and acting like there's nothing wrong. And about them, the Prophet Yirmiyahu says, Hashem says to them, "I judge you. Why? Because you say, 'I didn't sin.'" You're even denying that you sinned; your sin is much greater than you even imagined. Rabotai HaYekarim, it's time we all take it seriously. It's time we all start taking the mitzvot seriously. Baruch Hashem, you have an amazing rabbi, a huge Talmid Chacham, who's very anav. There are many people who know Torah in the world, but a lot of people are scared to say it. Many people are too busy trying to make money, trying to do other things. You have someone who's committed to you. You have someone who's willing to learn with you whenever you want. You have an opportunity to learn Torah in this generation more than any other generation in the world. All you have to do is open a book. You have access to more Torah than the Rambam. The Rambam, 900 years ago, didn't even have access to the Zohar. He didn't have access to many of the Torah texts that we have today. Today, all you have to do is press a button; you turn on a lecture. Press a button, and you have a book.

49:25Call the Rabbi; he says when you can meet him and learn Daf Yomi with you, whatever you want, it's at your hands. Meaning that when we show up to Rosh Hashanah, we can't say, "Oh, Hashem, it was a tough year for me, I didn't have time for You." Because that obviously, rabotai, is starting the year with a lie. B'ezrat Hashem, this will give us the chizuk that we need to start doing teshuva, to aim to become real lovers of Hashem, not to make excuses, not to pretend like we're not sinners, and really start keeping the mitzvot like Hashem wants us to, and b'ezrat Hashem succeed. Baruch Adonai le'olam. Amen.

50:28Amen. Amen. By the way, anyone who wants to download our app can do so by taking a picture of the QR code on the back of the card, and...

51:32There's an app of all our shiurim, all the fine shiurim. So you have the cards over here. And also, there are CDs for anyone who doesn't have a CD or wants to give out a CD. It's for free. Everything's for free. B'ezrat Hashem. Eruv mitzvot before Rosh Hashanah. Thank you for joining the shiur today. Let us delve into the topic we're discussing. One of the first things to consider is the concept of 'emunah', meaning 'faith'. It's said that in the Torah, 'emunah' is essential for our connection to Hashem. In Pirkei Avot, we read the teachings of our sages, who emphasize how crucial this faith is in our daily lives. The Vilna Gaon, a monumental figure in Jewish thought, taught us about the importance of Torah study with 'yirat Shamayim'—a fear or reverence of Heaven. He emphasized that without 'yirat Shamayim', learning can become hollow. It's crucial to maintain this balance as we grow in our own spiritual journeys. Remember the words of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, who once said that dedication to Torah study is the cornerstone of a life devoted to Hashem. His life itself was a testimony to his unwavering dedication. As we continue, let us strive to incorporate these lessons from our gedolim, our great leaders, into our own lives. May we merit to grow in Torah and mitzvot with 'emunah' and 'yirat Shamayim'. Thank you again for being a part of this journey, and may we all grow together in our learning and in our commitments to our traditions.