Strategize Sukkot

0:00The other thing about Sukkot that we're so excited about is the celebration because it's a very significant day. The Torah says this is a day that, technically, if the Goyim knew how significant Sukkot is, they would celebrate. Because this is a day that Am Yisrael brings korbanot for all 70 nations. Every day, they would bring korbanot to the Beit HaMikdash in their name and... So if the goyim knew that we're actually bringing korbanot, we're bringing sacrifices in their names, not only would they not have destroyed the Beit HaMikdash, they would have actually sent their armies to protect the Beit HaMikdash. Because all of their parnasah, all of their good, all of everything that they have depends on what happens now. So they would protect the Beit HaMikdash. But unfortunately, they didn't know, so they ruined it. But...

1:12We get so carried away with the party, which we're supposed to, that sometimes we forget... about the promises we made during Yom Kippur and during Rosh Hashanah when we asked Hashem for another chance for another year. We said, "Let me live another year so I can do more mitzvot. Let me live another year so I can give more tzedakah. Let me do this, let me do that." We all want another chance; nobody wants to die. It doesn't matter whether you're 50 or you're 500; it doesn't make a difference. Noach, who was over 600 years old, didn't want to die. Nobody wants to die; everybody wants to live. So you say, "Hashem, give me another chance." The problem is that we made a lot of promises. We made a deal with Hashem. If you listen to this shiur, you made a deal with Hashem. So the Mishnah in Bava Metzia 49 says, "Whoever paid the punishment to the generation of the Flood and the generation of the Tower of Babel..."

2:16He will pay punishment to the one who doesn't stand by his own words. So what does this mean? What's the pshat here? It says that the same one who punished those two awful generations, who is it? It's God. God punished the generation of Noach for many reasons. They were stealing, they were going against nature, they were going against a lot of different things, and... The last thing that was the killer was also committing murder, both through actually killing people and also by wasting seed, which we learned in the past. Now, Hashem destroyed them. The Tower of Babel, they tried to build a tower—we're going to learn about it in a couple of weeks—and... To go to war with God because they figured, "Listen, Hashem destroyed the world 1,600 years after He created it. So maybe every 1,600 years, He destroys and rebuilds it again. So let's build a tower to be ahead of Him. Let's build a tower so that the next time He wants to flood the world, we'll already be on top of the tower, and He can't drown us." So, only a little over 300 years later, after...

3:34Noah's flood. They're already going against God, and it's not like they don't know. Shem is still alive, telling them, "What are you guys doing? You're going against God. I was there; I saw what He did." But they said, no, no, maybe it's because he did it once every 1,600 years, every day. You know, it's like when people use different numbers in numerology to connect everything somehow. Because everything ends in eight, that means that Mashiach is coming in number eight. People try to connect everything all the time. They said that it's cute, but it doesn't always work. So here we have two awful, awful generations, and... The Mishnah says someone that makes a promise and doesn't keep it is the same as them. It's a little bit extreme, sounds a little much, no? Sounds a little bit, no? Relax a little bit, no? What happened? I made a promise, I didn't keep it. Okay, by comparing me to Dor HaMabul, they were ashamed. They had intimate, you know, not only intermarriage, they went with animals. They did all types of awful, awful things and...

4:54even the animals were sinners. The zebra went with the lion; the lion went with the... all things went against nature. You compare me to them because I made a promise, I didn't keep it. Shem says, "Yes." There's only one person in the entire Torah that Hashem actually writes, "I hated him." Pharaoh killed millions and millions of Jews, millions of Jews, and... ...used to every day take Jewish babies, kill them, and then take a bath in their blood. Why? Because his magicians told him that for Tzara'at, the way to cure it is if you bathe in Jewish blood. It's the craziness of people, so he would kill millions like they were flies, no questions asked. Hashem doesn't say, "I hated Pharaoh"...

5:54Nebuchadnezzar killed so many Jews that there was a river of blood. How much? A river of blood, they say, that reached the stomach of horses. Awful, awful. Hashem says, I didn't say anything about hating him. It doesn't say he's a rasha. It says he has no share in the World to Come. They're both in Gehinnom forever, all that, but I hated him. What is this hatred? Esav, saneti. In the book of Isaiah, Hashem Yitbarach says, Esav, him I hated. Why? His brother is Yaakov Avinu. His father is Gadol Hador Yitzchak. Big rabbi. His grandfather is Avraham Avinu. The biggest. You hate him? Everybody says my father's a rabbi, their father... Esav, his father, his brother, his grandfather, everybody was the giant. Giant, giant, giant. But Hashem says, him I hated. Hated him every night. Esav would make promises: "Tomorrow, I'm gonna go to Beit Knesset," but he wouldn't go. "Tomorrow, I'm gonna do teshuva," but he wouldn't do it. "Tomorrow, I'm gonna be a tzaddik," but he wasn't a tzaddik. Every day, every night, he would make promises and break them. So this Mishnah is referring to him. This Mishnah is referring to someone that acts like him. You make promises and you break them. You're no different than Esav. What happened with Dor HaMabul? What does it have to do with Dor HaMabul?

7:23Don't worry, because Hashem made a promise to Noah. He said to tell the generation that if they don't do teshuva, He's going to destroy the world. And He kept His word. Even though it took over a hundred years, no one did teshuva. Hashem kept His word. That's it. Hashem showed that whatever He says, He means; He hasn't changed His mind. Same thing with the Tower of Babel. Hashem didn't destroy them right away. He gave them a chance, another chance, and yet another chance. When did He decide to destroy them? When they started going against each other. When He changed their language so they couldn't keep each other's word, they would make promises they couldn't keep. Once you don't have a word, you don't have the right to exist. So the same thing with Esav. Esav made a lot of promises, but he would break the promise. He says, once you don't have a word, you have no right to exist. There's no point in you. No one knows if you're going to go right, if you're going to go left. There's no point. Hashem says, et Esav saneti. Why? He goes against My nature. What's My nature? I say something, I keep it. I make a promise, I keep it. So now, this is very, very important she'ur to know.

8:40All the promises you made on Yom Kippur, on Rosh Hashanah, whatever you plan to do this year, you have to do your best, your absolute best, to keep them. Of course, there are going to be certain things you're going to mess up. Of course, there are going to be certain things you're just not going to be able to do. Hashem is not paying you a reward or punishment based on execution; He's paying you reward and punishment based on effort. He knows if you're going to succeed or not. He knows if you can do it or not because all of us, we go to beit knesset. You have to be in your beit knesset for a couple of days. You start feeling like an angel. You start feeling like you can fly. Maybe Moshe Rabbeinu is going to talk to you. Maybe Hashem is going to start talking to you from the sky. Everybody thinks Hashem is going to talk to them. You're in beit knesset for so long, you're sure He's going to talk to you. Or maybe I'm the only one who thinks Hashem is going to talk to them. I don't know. Maybe I'm the only crazy one. So, the thing is though, is that you think at some point you're a tzaddik. Sometimes you make a promise. I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna do this. Tomorrow, I'm going to fill up knesset at five o'clock. At one, I'm there. Six o'clock, I'm there. Make it four; I'll go there also. Next day, you sleep till 11. What happened? You said you're gonna come at four o'clock. Shemayim wants you to stay asleep. Why? I want to remind you you're human.

9:53I know you felt like an angel for a second, but the first day I want to remind you you're human. You're going to go to the Knesset tomorrow, the next day. But relax. You're still human. You're going to fail sometimes. It's okay. It's not the end of the world. So He's not rewarding you or punishing you based on whether you succeed in everything you say. He's rewarding you or punishing you based on whether you keep your word on trying. Are you really trying your best? You're trying your best if you're trying your best, shkoiach. You're not trying your best; you're making a joke of the system. And that's actually one of the things for which Hashem punished Yaakov. You know, we're going to learn about him in about a month from now. Yaakov Avinu left his parents' house and ran away from Esav. Even though Hashem hated Esav and loved Yaakov, as it says, "I love Yaakov and I hate Esav." When Yaakov was planning on returning to his parents, he made a vow that he would go to them. But on the way, he decided, "You know what, maybe I should take a stop and go somewhere else first." At that moment, Hashem sent him a punishment. Why? Because Hashem said, "If you don't go and fulfill this neder (vow) that you made to go see your parents now, you and Esav are the same."

11:17That's how important keeping your word is to Hashem. So even Yaakov was in danger for this. So whatever promises you made to Hashem during this holiday over Sukkot, you have to start strategizing how you can actually do it. Party, enjoy, eat, whatever you have to do. But remember, you have to actually fulfill this promise. We're very excited to offer you the new Be'ezrat Hashem app 3.0. It's a newer, faster app, full of Torah, lots of kedusha by the shiurim that we do. Myself, Rav Ephraim, Rav Chaim, where you'll have also newer features where you'll be 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. And 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 b'ahavat l'kol.