What Does HaShem Really Want On Yom Kippur? (18 minutes)

0:10Hashem says you have an appeal; it's called Yom Kippur. You have ten days to prepare—ten days, ten days to prepare. So now, what do you do during those ten days? Some people focus on going back to work to make a little extra money so they can afford the next holidays; you buy more food and... Some people completely ignore the fact that there are Ten Days of Repentance. Some people think that preparation for Yom Kippur is to get chickens, put a chicken on top of your head. It's an old minhag (custom) of kapparot. You say, "These are my sins. You're going to be a repentance for my sins." You get a chicken, you put it over the head, and then you slaughter the chicken. They give the chicken to poor people. Rav Moshe said, "You know, it's very ridiculous that people do this." He heard it from his Rav and heard from his Rav, "It's ridiculous that people do such a thing. At least if you're gonna do something that's a kaparah or that's gonna be, in essence, a repentance for your sins, it should be equal." I...

1:38Equal should be at least a cow. Your sins are the size of a cow, not a chicken. A cow, maybe two cows, some of us five or six cows, a whole slew of cows. Chicken—if your sins are only the size of a chicken, you don't have to worry about it. Don't do anything. So in reality, it's better than killing a chicken and... Giving it to some poor person. It's better to give money, the value of a meal anywhere from $18 to $26—debatable—the value of a meal for each person in the household. The reason why is because, number one, the whole business of the chicken, even though some people still follow it, is very strange for many people in the modern world today. But still, it's an old minhag. You want to do it, do it, enjoy it. You'll get much more benefit out of actually giving tzedakah. The chicken full of your sins is not really a nice thing to give to some poor person. They already have enough problems in their life, and now you give them a chicken full of your sins. Why give somebody your sins? Why don't you eat your sins? Why don't you eat the chicken? Are you going to throw it out? That's about the street, then you're, you know.

3:06Wasting is not ideal. It's better to give tzedakah. It's better to give 18 to 26 dollars per person, and obviously there are levels of tzedakah. You can give it either to a homeless person who is, ideally, a Jew, or to a person who learns Torah, or for Zikui HaRabbim to help people do teshuvah. Something for the purpose of Torah is ideal. But nonetheless, each person should do it before Yom Kippur, the sooner the better, simply because you don't want to wait until the last minute, especially since this year Yom Kippur is on Shabbat. So, this is the whole chicken aspect of it. Again, it's an old minhag. Some of the sages are very, very heavy against it. They think it's mamash—you should not do it at all. You should give it to the kohen and that's it. Some still say you could do it as a minhag avoteinu. But again, let's say in today's world, there's a lot of people that use the slaughtering of chickens for no reason—the wasting of chickens for no reason, where you have whole communities slaughtering chickens and just throwing them into the garbage.

4:21They use this as an opportunity to take pictures of all these chickens. It's all dirty and disgusting and so on. They take pictures and say, "Look at this community, how they're wasting so much. There are people starving in different places around the country and the world. How could they waste so much?" So, in my opinion, you shouldn't do the chicken, but again, it's just my opinion. You do what you want. So, The ones that are preparing for Yom Kippur with a chicken said that in reality, you should do cheshbon hanefesh and realize that most likely you should have a cow or two or three or four cows. That's how many sins we all have. But even more so than that, we have to ask ourselves the question: What does Hashem really want? Does He really want a chicken from us, or a cow, or two cows, or five cows, or money? Is that really what He wants? That's not what Hashem wants. The entire generation, when he lived, agreed the Rebbe was very rich, from the family of Rabban Gamliel, in the lineage of David HaMelech. Everyone agreed he was so holy.

5:49He never looked below his belt. Forget waist, chas v'shalom. I think he never looked below his belt. That's why they called him Rebbe HaKadosh. Everyone agreed he was such a chacham, such a tzaddik, such a straight person, such a holy person. They said if Mashiach came right now, he would be ready. Abudana, see, it will be him, everyone, a whole generation. We're not talking about one, two, three, four students. I like him. This is, by the way, one of the requirements of the Messiah: all of the gedolei hador need to agree he's the Messiah. This is one of the best things to disprove this whole stupidity called Christianity or Messianic Judaism or Catholicism or whatever other names they have for this thing. It's all the same thing. Why their "JC Penny" can never be the Messiah? No one agreed that he's the Messiah—not even his own students. The people who wrote about him didn't know him. It's 300 years later, or at best, 70 years later. At his time, when he was alive, everyone hated him.

7:12So forget about Gedolei HaDor agreeing that he's the Mashiach. Nobody agreed to anything. They killed him because he was a Rasha. But in the days of Rebbe, they said if the Mashiach came, it would be him. This, by the way, is also a case against anyone else that's claimed to be a Mashiach, whether it be the Lubavitcher Rebbe, whom some people from Chabad say is the Mashiach even though he already died. Anyone else, are they some other rabbi that the people say is the Mashiach? The people don't decide; the regular people don't decide who's the Mashiach. It's the delay. I don't have to agree. Why? Because they see signs and so on, there's a certain things that have to happen. But nonetheless, everyone said when Mashiach comes, Hashem is gonna choose Rebbe. Why? He's the perfect person. But Rebbe, one day, the Gemara says, he went to the butcher, a big mansion, multi-millionaire, went to the butcher, and one of the calves ran away from the butcher. He was about to slaughter him for the chag. The little calf ran away. Where did he run to? He ran to the Rebbe. And he hid under his, like he had a gown, like a, not a gown, like a robe type of thing.

8:40one of these things that kings wear or wealthy people of that day wear, and the little calf hid under the robe, like "protect me from this butcher." What's the halacha? The law says the calf, why did it come into the world? For some kosher Jew to slaughter him. In a kosher way, feed them to other people after they do a blessing, and that is a tikkun, and the soul of that calf gets raised to whatever level it is supposed to reach. That is a tikkun; that's its purpose in life. So the Rabbi looks at this calf. It's hiding under his robe, and he says, "Go back, go back to the butcher, because this is the reason why you were created." That's the halacha. Rebbe was right. But in Shamayim, they said, you were right. You're right. But you're wrong at the same time. You're right. That's the halacha. That's why the calf was created. But in reality, at your level, you didn't show enough mercy to this animal. What about a person?

10:05Hamid cham Rabbi, nothing. What about a calf, a little cow? They said you didn't show enough mercy, and for the next 13 years — 13 years — they decreed that Rebbe Yehuda HaNasi would have major, major problems when he goes to the bathroom, to such an extent... He would say he had many, many horses. And he would instruct the person in charge of the horses to feed them at a specific time—when he was going to the bathroom. Why? Because when he went to the bathroom, he would scream such loud screams from pain. He didn't want to upset the people. He fed the horses at this specific time because when the horses eat, they make a lot of noise, so hopefully their noise would override his noise. So no one is sorry and upset from hearing their rabbi upset and in pain. But the Gemara says despite feeding all these hundreds of horses, Rebbe screamed every time he went to the bathroom, and they were able to hear it in the middle of the ocean. Such was the pain of Rebbe. I can tell you from experience that...

11:26Going to the bathroom peacefully without any screams, without any yells—anyone that experiences this, all of you, should thank God 500 times every day just for that. Just for that, every day. You should thank God 500 times. I know I gave you guys the posters. I say it's up. You should read that blessing extra just, just, just to thank Hashem because you didn't scream once. Forget the whole time, you didn't scream once. Spain, you guys want to show about Gehenom all the time. It's pain, we're in Gehenom. No, I mean like, you know what? It's better than the upgrade. Rebbe, 13 years he's suffering. 13 years. He's suffering, screaming his lungs out. Now, let me ask you guys a question about Rabbi Akiva. I heard this derasha from him several times. He asked a wonderful question.

12:27He was holy. Not just holy—everyone says this is my Rabbi, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi. He wrote the Mishnah, put together the Mishnah. The whole Oral Torah that we have today is based on him. He put it together. Holy, a tzaddik. Nothing missing. feeling every day, Shacharit, Mincha, Arvit, Sukkot, Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, waiting to sleep. Of course, he did sleep at five o'clock in the morning. All he did was Rosh Hashanah judgment. He had every year like us, Yom Kippur. Why didn't he say I'm sorry? He didn't do teshuva. What happened? Why did it keep coming back every day for 13 years? What happened? You say, "I'm sorry," okay, and you go back. What happened? Why does the suffering continue? Why didn't he do? He didn't say, "I'm sorry." What happened? Tzadik, Mashiach, no forgiveness for 13 years. Why? It's not about saying, "I'm sorry." It's not about chickens. It's about changing your middot.

13:54Only 13 years later did the Rebbe actually change that minhag, where he realized his real mistake. Saying "Chatanu, Avinu, Pashanu" is nothing when you don't know what you're saying "Chatanu, Avinu, Pashanu" for. Just saying it blindly, "Chatanu, Avinu, Pashanu." But in the meantime, you're looking at your phone. "Stock market's up today, good guys." You said I sinned against Hashem. I didn't know I sinned against Hashem. I didn't know I sinned against Hashem on purpose. That's what you said. That's what you're saying. Just the last one should scare you to death. I sinned against Hashem on purpose to make a man. But why do they look at the phone? Well, they talk in Beit Knesset. You know, it's not a Beit Knesset if people don't talk in there. If you go and everyone's praying in a Beit Knesset, it's not a Beit Knesset. It's something special. That's maybe the Knesset today. You can't walk into a business without everybody talking, but not talking to you; they're talking about other things like baseball, football, the stock market, sometimes daily news. This is the time to pray, the time to learn. If everybody's learning, you learn. If everybody's praying, pray.

15:18Reb, he knew this. What do you think, he talked to a Knesset? He didn't talk to a Knesset. But Hashem didn't forgive. 13 years, He's given him pain. Why? Because only 13 years later did he realize the real mistake. Yes, he did chatanu avinu pashanu. Yes, he did teshuva and he did that, everything. But in reality, it only changed 13 years later when he saw one of the cleaning people... mentioned she was trying to sweep off some seats. Some say it was little mice, others say it was kittens. Either way, little animals she was sweeping off with the broom. But, my note, mercy—you know, they're living beings. You can't just hit them like that. I Is it okay? Now, you have mercy on animals. That's even if it's not a sheep or cow or anything—a little mouse, a little kitten—you have mercy. Do you know what? The teshuva (repentance) means nothing if you didn't change. If you didn't change, stay home if you're continuing to talk in beit knesset (synagogue).

16:39While everyone's praying, stay home. If you're still continuing to be a Mechalel Shabbat, Yom Kippur is not going to help you. There's actually a Mishnah written for people like that. Someone who says, I'll make a sin and then I'll do teshuva. I'll make a sin and do teshuva, but Yom Kippur is going to help me. The Mishnah says, no, no, no. Not only is it not going to help you, not only is Yom Kippur not going to help you... I'm going to help you, but if you continue acting like this, making a joke of the system, Hashem is going to make sure you're not going to live long enough to do to them such a joke you're making of the system. So, Yom Kippur is our time to appeal; it's a time to say to Hashem, "I'm ready to change. I'm ready to change."