Segulot For Rosh HaShana

0:00The Ramban, almost 800 years ago, wrote countless things, but one of the things he wrote was a speech—a speech that he gave for Rosh Hashanah to a kehillah that perhaps needed the message just as much as we do. wrote countless things, but one of them was a speech that he gave for Rosh Hashanah to a kehillah that perhaps needed the message just as much as we do and Here, he didn't waste any words, he didn't give any special stories, but rather got to the point of what Rosh Hashanah is for. Of course, you have the laws of Rosh Hashanah, which are different things that you're supposed to do during the day. You have to treat it as if it is Shabbat, especially this year since it actually falls on Shabbat. You have to make sure that on the second day this year you hear the Shofar.

1:27Usually, if it's not on Shabbat, you would hear the shofar twice. You have the meal, the festive meal you eat; you have to eat meat. Not necessarily to eat meat in every meal, but at least at the meal twice during the holiday. You have to make sure that you're not angry, you have to make sure that you spend your time wisely, which means don't waste your time taking naps and going to sleep like you typically do on Shabbat afternoon. Don't do that on Rosh Hashanah. We say that anyone who sleeps on Rosh Hashanah, not counting the sleep at night that you need to sleep, but anyone who sleeps extra, like he wants to take a two-hour nap in the afternoon in between meals and prayers... Don't waste your time taking naps and going to sleep like you typically do on Shabbat afternoon. Don't do that on Rosh Hashanah. Why? Anyone that sleeps on Rosh Hashanah—not counting the sleep at night that you need to sleep—but anyone that sleeps extra, like he wants to take a, you know, two-hour nap in the afternoon in between meals and prayers... Since he sleeps on Rosh Hashanah, his mazal will also sleep that year too. His fortune will also sleep. His whole year is going to be on hold. Why? You're sleeping. You're taking a nap. Mazal is sleeping also whenever you need it. It's not a good idea to sleep during Rosh Hashanah. In fact, it should be a day that we pray as much as we can. We learn Torah as much as we can. And we have to make sure that we don't waste time. Sure, you could be with the family. You could learn. You could do a lot of wonderful things. There is a segula among the Chachamim that is specifically for the ladies, which is to read the book of Tehillim twice during Rosh Hashanah. Once on each day. Depending on your speed of reading, it could take anywhere from two to four hours to read the whole book. It's 150 chapters or sections. So each day, 150. It's a segula.

2:54There is a Segula among the Chachamim that is specifically for the ladies, which is to read the book of Tehillim twice during Rosh Hashanah—once on each day. Depending on your speed of reading, it could take anywhere from two to four hours to read the whole book. It's 150 chapters or sections. So each day, 150. It's a Segula. The... Gematria value, numerical value of the two Tehillim, spells out the word Kapar or Kaper, which means forgiveness. Hashem will forgive our sins. So that's a Segula: Kaf, Peh, Reish. Reish is 200, Peh is 80, and Kaf is 20. that spells forgiveness and, again, if you're praying with all seriousness, surely this will be good for you. You're allowed to take a break to go to the bathroom or to munch on something, but don't say the words of Tehillim while you're eating.

4:09But most of you know something that you can do to make it even more valuable is don't speak mundane words while you're reading the Tehillim. If you can't, you have to say something, do it. But it's ideal if you can just sit there for a few hours, two, three hours, however long it takes you, without speaking mundane words. For some people, it's impossible, especially if you're a mother with kids. Unless you can pretty much put your kids in a coma for four hours, it's not happening. And I don't suggest you put them in comas or anything, just... Do it at your own risk. I'm kidding. But the thing is, though, that you have to try to do your best. For the guys, try to learn some Torah, try to pray. Most importantly, don't waste time. Don't waste time. And don't violate the Chag. Now, the biggest thing is to do Teshuva. To do Teshuva. And the Ramban brings us here.

5:12in his special discourse on Rosh Hashanah that he gave on Rosh Hashanah, he says the following In Gemara Masechet Avodah Zarah, the rabbis also said, "In the hereafter, the Holy One, blessed be He, will bring a scroll of the Law and place it in His lap and say, 'He who has been engaged in the study and observance of this Torah shall come forward and receive his reward.' Thereupon, aware that they cannot claim any share of the reward, all of the nations of the world will gather and assemble in confusion and trepidation." The Holy One, blessed be He, will say to them, "Do not come before Me in confusion." Why is the Ramban saying this to a bunch of Jewish people? Why is he telling us about how the nations that didn't learn Torah are going to come to Hashem? As it states, because it also pertains to us. Don't come to HaKadosh confused. What am I supposed to do now?

6:24What do you do now? I don't have anything to do. I'm so bored. Don't do that. Why? Today is the day to do teshuva. You don't know what to do? Go pick up a Gemara, pick up a Chumash, pick up a Midrash, pick up Sefer Tehillim, start reading. Obviously, if it's not during prayer time, if you're at prayer, pray. But don't come and walk around aimlessly like some zombie. What do you do now? ...be so confused. The whole point of the day is to do teshuva. Why the Ramban, over 800 years ago, continues to give us this point is so we hopefully get it into our skulls in our preparation. However, this is the explanation of the matter: all that came into the world passed before Him... Pertaining to matters of this world, each one is judged to determine if he is worthy of being granted peace, riches, possessions, and honor, or whether he is to be sentenced to die during that year, or to suffer visitations of suffering, sorrow, and poverty. In short, the judgment of Rosh Hashanah concerns all matters that affect the human body in this world, including life, children, and sustenance (parnasah). However, Rosh Hashanah does not embrace a judgment on matters of the soul, that is, whether the soul is worthy of Gan Eden, an enjoyment of eternal life and the world to come, or whether it is to be sentenced to Gehinom and destruction.

7:50concerns all matters that affect the human body in this world including life, children, and sustenance, parnasah. However, Rosh Hashanah does not embrace a judgment on matters of the soul, that is, whether the soul is worthy of Gan Eden, an enjoyment of eternal life and the world to come, or whether it is to be sentenced to Gehinnom and destruction. You know, it's very interesting that all of the giants in Torah mention Gehinom like it's common language. Yet people that write books today say Gehinom doesn't exist, or it's just a fairy tale, or it's just, I don't know, they maybe make fun of you for a little while, and then you go to Gan Eden. Strange. What happened in the last 900 years? Someone showed me a book, a famous book, Just the other day, the guy writes in the book, Life After Death. Everyone goes to Gan Eden, he writes. Just those wicked people, they feel shame. They're embarrassed that they didn't get to a high level of Gan Eden. I said, I don't need to read the rest of the book, but I can tell you you're not allowed to read the rest of the book. Why? It's complete heresy. Once a person says such a thing, you cannot rely on anything else that he says. Now,

9:16The Ramban was very clear. No one disagrees with the Ramban. You cannot say, listen, I don't think the Ramban was right here. The Ramban tells us clearly the whole purpose of the day is to do teshuva, because this is the day that Hashem is going to decide whether you're going to have money in your pocket or not. This is the day that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is going to decide whether you're going to live or die. ...that's a big deal, live or die. A lot of people died this year. Every year a lot of people die, but a lot of people died in unusual deaths this year—dying from Corona or something that the government says is Corona, even though it's a heart attack. It's an unusual death. It's an unusual death that they found a poor woman in Eretz Yisrael, okay? They found her dead on the floor with a three-year-old daughter just yesterday or the day before... For days she's been dead. Our three-year-old daughter is next to her. That's an unusual death, but it was decided on Rosh Hashanah last year. It's an unusual death that they’re constantly finding older people dead in their houses, in Israel and other places that are completely crazy when it comes to this corona scam.

10:31People forget that they even have a family. They don't call. They don't check. Neighbors don't check. Everybody cares about themselves. And the reality is people literally dying in their houses because they don't have food. They don't have care. They don't have anything. And they find out eventually after a few days when the body is starting to already rot. Hashem yishmor. That's an unusual death. And that was decided on Rosh Hashanah last year. It wasn't decided last week. It was decided last year on Rosh Hashanah. Which means that had those people known, had any of us known what this year would look like last Rosh Hashanah, we wouldn't have left the shul. Had any of us known that this year was going to be a year that's going to scare the world to death in a way that we haven't seen in at least a hundred years since the Spanish Flu killed tens of millions of people. This year, we didn't have as many deaths as the Spanish Flu. But the fear that people have might as well be it. The economic damage that small businesses have had...

11:46Might as well be death for many of them. The amount of suicides as a result of hopelessness that we've had this year might as well be that. Why? Because we did not prepare enough last year. Had we known, we wouldn't have stopped praying. We wouldn't have stopped doing teshuva. Had we known that a little virus that you can't even see and you're not even sure if it's real b'chalal, Had you known that such a thing was going to come to the world shortly after the year began and spread around the world and scare everybody in such a way that they've never even imagined they would live through such a thing, we simply would have started and never stopped doing teshuvah. On the good end, Baruch Hashem, this coronavirus debacle that's been happening over the last five or six months, which no one thought was going to last that long,

12:46has helped many people do teshuva. But as the Klausenberger Rebbe said himself, to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, the people that heard his tefillah, he says, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, Ribbono Shel Olam, I was in the Holocaust. I was in the Holocaust. You took ten kids, all ten of his kids and his wife and him, And I saw, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, that even during that crisis, even during that trauma, even during that Gehenom on this world, there were still Reshaim inside the Holocaust, staying Reshaim, still going against you while they're being punished. Not doing Teshuva, even at the gates of Gehenom, just like the Gemara says. mercy on us who give us good, and we will do good. Because obviously, some of them are not doing good. Maybe if you do good, maybe something else will happen. Unfortunately, that doesn't always work. He gives us good, and sometimes we get worse. Who knows what works and what doesn't work? We don't need to give Him any guidance.

14:02But when we pray to Hashem for the nation of Israel, we pray to Hashem for our people, we always pray in their favor. When we speak to individuals, we have to rebuke and tell them to do teshuva. Why? That's what you're supposed to do. That's how it works. You never complain to Hashem about the nation of Israel, but you have to make sure to complain to Israel about Israel. Why? Because that's how you help them do teshuva. Had we known that this year would be this way, we wouldn't have let ourselves leave the same as we entered. we wouldn't have let ourselves leave the same as we entered, where you'll have also newer features where you're able to use the app while you're using other applications on your phone. You'll be able to share the lectures directly from the app. You'll be able to donate online and support our CUVE and our Torah work that we're doing. where you'll also have newer features, where you're able to use the app while you're using other applications on your phone. You'll be able to share the lectures directly from the app. You'll be able to donate online and support our kehillah and our Torah work that we're doing.

15:11And the most exciting feature is that you'll be able to actually ask questions directly on the app and get answers from the rabbis directly from the app. This is something unprecedented, and Baruch Hashem, we will be able to offer it. Thank you again for all of your support. Check it out. Make sure you have the kosher Torah that will re-energize your neshama each and every single day. Kol tuv and b'hatzlacha.