Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection

You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe, Director of TORCH, the Torah Outreach Resource Center
of Houston. This is the Jewish Inspiration Podcast.

It really is special that we have this opportunity to learn together and to spend time every
Sunday morning, starting our week with a fresh start, with inspiration, hopefully.
And it really is a true privilege for me to be here with all y'all every Sunday morning.
So, without any further ado, let's jump right in, because we have only two weeks till we
will be standing before the Almighty, pleading for our case of life, that it should be a
year of good health, it should be a year of success, with a great livelihood, etc., etc.
So our Sages teach us that on Rosh Hashanah, it is not only the first day of our Jewish
calendar, but it's also the first day of creation, right?
It is the first day of the creation of man, where God created, this is the first day where
Hashem created mankind.
And we know, we've said this before, previously, that there are seasons.
There's a season, I don't know if any of you have favorite seasons, because in Houston
there are basically, there's one season, there's summer and then there's very hot.
That's our constant state.
But you go to other places, you go to Connecticut, and they have beautiful foliage, it is just,
it's magnificent.
And you go to other places where they have winter and there's ice, snow-capped mountains,
and it's just, it's beautiful.
And they have seasons.
And every season brings back certain feelings, certain emotions.
For example, I love spring.
Spring is my favorite.
I just, I'll take spring all year long.
Unfortunately, we don't have that luxury here in Houston, and it's either summer or it's
hotter.
And the seasons of spirituality are exactly the same, in that there's a certain environment
that comes with every holiday.
And when we have on Rosh Hashanah the time for judgment, it's a time of seriousness.
My rabbi would always say, it's a time of accountability.
It's a time of taking responsibility.
It's a time where we say, you know what, Hashem, the buck stops with me.
I made my decisions for my year.
It's my responsibility to ensure that I be productive, that I fulfill the necessary fulfillments,
the necessary obligations of my life.
And this is what we are aiming for every day of our year.
But sometimes we fall short.
So we have another Rosh Hashanah, where hopefully God will grant us another great year.
We have a Yom Kippur to receive hopefully atonement for those mistakes.
But that season every year that comes back for us to make amends, to correct the things
that were wrong, and to get onto the right path.
It's a very interesting Midrash.
The Midrash says that when Moses ascended to the heavens to receive the Torah, he had
to go through all seven firmaments.
And the sages tell us that in each of the firmaments, Moshe was greeted by a group of
angels.
And he reached the first firmament, and the angels were reading of the creation of the
first day of creation.
And then they started praising the Torah, the second firmament, higher ranking angels.
And then they started reading the second day of the Torah, the second day of creation from
the Torah, and praising Israel, the Jewish people.
The third firmament was even higher ranking angels, and they were reading the third day
of creation, and they were praising Jerusalem.
And then the fourth, even higher ranking angels, and they were praising Mashiach, the Messiah,
and obviously read the fourth day of creation.
The fifth day, the fifth firmament, even higher ranking angels, and the Midrash goes through
each one of these firmaments, higher ranking angels, and gives all the names of those angels.
And they were reading the fifth day, sixth day, and then they were praising Gehennam.
Gehennam is a very interesting thing.
Why is Gehennam something that's praiseworthy?
We always assume Gehennam is terrible, like purgatory, it's awful.
But think of it as like a power wash.
We get a soul that is pure and beautiful and sparkling, but sometimes we can get it dirty.
We don't realize how privileged we are to have such a holy, lofty soul, and we can get
it a little dirty.
So Hashem says, I don't want to put a dirty stone, a gem back in my crown, I'm going to
have to just power wash it a little bit.
That's purgatory.
It's not a permanent state.
It's not an eternal damnation like other religions would like you to believe, but rather it's
a temporary state of cleansing so that our gem can sparkle and shine and be placed into
God's crown.
So Gehennam is praiseworthy as well, right?
It's obviously not very pleasant, but it's still praiseworthy.
So we have Gehennam, and then the sixth is the even higher ranking angels, and they read
the sixth day of creation, creation of mankind, and then they started praising Olam Abba,
the Garden of Eden actually.
Comes the seventh day of creation, which is the Shabbos, which is the lack of creation,
and what did they praise?
They finished saying,
ואיחולו השמיים והארץ וחולצו העם
Right?
They read the seventh day of creation, so to speak, right?
From the Torah.
And then what happens?
And then they stop and they don't praise Torah.
They don't praise Israel.
They don't praise Jerusalem.
They don't praise Messiah.
They don't praise Gehennam.
They don't praise the Garden of Eden.
What is the highest level of praise received on the highest firmament where you have the
highest ranking angels?
It's the closest to God's throne.
Surprisingly, the highest praise from the highest ranking angels in the highest firmament
was Teshuvah, repentance.
And you wonder, of all things, repentance?
Repentance is the highest, most praiseworthy thing?
It really is.
It's shocking.
Of all things, our sages explain an unbelievable idea.
What is repentance?
So most of us think is repentance is I go over to all the people that I may have hurt
their feelings.
I may have insulted them and ask them for forgiveness.
I'm so sorry.
I didn't mean to do this.
It was unintentional.
I forgot.
It was by mistake.
All of the excuses that we give, even if they're sincere, we go and ask for forgiveness and
then we repent for those sins.
Is that really what forgiveness is?
Is that really what repentance is?
So let's take a look at what a sin is.
What is a mitzvah?
A mitzvah is something that brings us closer to the Almighty.
Every mitzvah that we have of the 613 commandments in the Torah, every single mitzvah brings
us closer to the Almighty.
That's its goal.
When a person, when a man puts on tzitzit, on a four-cornered garment, he is finding
a way to bring godliness onto his body.
When a person prays, they're bringing God onto their lips.
They're bringing God into their consciousness.
When a person does an act of kindness, they're bringing God into their hands that they're
doing those acts of kindness.
And our sages say that each one of the mitzvah reflects a different part of our body.
You know, in this week's Parsha, there's a beautiful, you know, we had this past week,
we read how the Jewish people were warned for any sins and they were cursed.
If anyone does these sins, they will be cursed.
And if anyone does these good deeds, they will be blessed.
One of the blessings is if a man does not create and serve an idol.
If you don't create and serve an idol, guess what?
You've got blessing coming your way.
Well, that's an easy one, because all I have to do is stay away from idolatry, right?
All I have to do is not build an idol.
I don't have to, right?
Not buy one of those statues, you know, with whatever it is that would be idolatry.
And I'm good to go.
It's pretty easy.
And yet it says, Baruch, he should be blessed.
Such a person should be blessed.
And this is one of the blessings, right?
They had two mountains, the Har Grizim and Har Eval.
And over here, they were mentioning all of the curses for someone who does terrible things.
And here is all the praises and all the blessings that come to a person who does the right thing.
And one of those right things is one who stays away from idolatry.
Such a great blessing for someone who just doesn't do something.
I mean, it's not that difficult.
I don't know about you, but for me, I never really had a temptation for idolatry, right?
It's not really on my top 10 list, right?
Of all the things I want to do, right, is idolatry.
So yet there's a blessing for it.
So I say to say such an amazing and important idea.
Do you know what idolatry is referring to?
Money.
Of all things, idolatry, we think it's bowing down to some idol.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Do we idolatize, do we idolize money?
Money, financial success, fame.
There are people who idolize, you know, people.
Oh my goodness, this person has so much money.
Oh my goodness.
I want to talk to him.
I want to, I want, I want to be like him.
That's idolatry.
Our Torah tells us, I understand the difficulty of idolatry.
If you stay away from idolatry, the blessing that will come to you will be incredible.
And it's this week's Parsha.
So a mitzvah, okay, and this is a big mitzvah.
A mitzvah gets us closer to the Almighty.
A sin distances us from the Almighty.
That is the reality of how the spiritual world works, right?
We follow God's commandments.
The Torah is a manual for closeness to Hashem.
And when we follow the mitzvahs, what happens?
We get closer.
And when we don't follow, we get distant from the Almighty.
So how does a person who distances himself from the Almighty, how does he
regain the ground that was lost?
Okay.
If I did a sin, now I just distanced myself.
I did another sin, distanced myself again.
And now I'm so far away.
How do I get closer?
That's repentance.
Repentance is the clarity that a person has.
I remember it's an example I give.
I don't know if it's a good one, but it's one that worked for me over the
years to help understand what this is about.
When I was in high school, we had some pranksters in our class, and they'd
like to play some pranks on the teacher.
And the teacher didn't know what to do.
What is he going to do with this rambunctious group of high schoolers?
And so he told the principal to come in and check up on the class.
Now, the principal was a very, very slick individual and shrewd.
And what he did was, is he slipped into the classroom while everyone was sitting
down, nobody realized he was standing in the back of the classroom.
He's just standing, leaning against the back wall.
And when the kids did a prank on the teacher, he like hit the back wall and
everyone stopped and turned around and everyone's faces turned white.
You mean that he saw us this whole time?
He was right there and we didn't realize he was standing right there.
Or imagine if children are talking and they don't realize that their
parent is standing in the room or, you know, whatever it is, you know, it's
like I've had so many times where people are having a conversation and they
didn't realize that I was already in the room and they're like, Oh, I'm sorry.
Rabbi.
He's like, you know, it's like, it's okay.
All right.
Obviously we don't always, you know, or if you don't realize there's a camera
today, everything is recorded.
Everything's on camera.
You know, it's an amazing thing.
Speaking of cameras, do you know that just about everything on planet earth
is being videoed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Today we have cameras everywhere, right?
Every doorbell is a camera, right?
You walk in a parking lot, there's a camera.
Wherever you go, there's a camera.
It's an important reminder that the almighty sees everything.
Forget about the people behind the camera.
The almighty sees everything.
If a little camera, a little lens can see everything we do, certainly the
almighty can see everything we do.
So our sages tell us that when we distance ourselves from the almighty,
what we're doing is we're creating a barrier.
Teshuvah means to return.
We return to our state of closeness with the almighty without
those barriers in between us.
So now let me ask you a question.
What is the purpose of Torah?
To bring us close to God.
What is the purpose of Israel?
To bring us close to God.
What is the purpose of Jerusalem?
To bring us close to God.
What is the purpose of Messiah?
To bring us close to God.
What is the purpose of Gehenna?
To bring us close to God.
What is the purpose of the garden of Eden?
To bring us close to God.
What is Teshuvah?
Not to bring us close to God.
It is the closeness of God.
That's why it is the highest ranking praise that our sages tell us is Teshuvah.
When a person repents, they are in that closeness with Hashem.
They say, wow, I didn't realize the Almighty sees everything that's going on.
The Almighty knows everything. He was standing there the entire time.
How could I not have realized and recognized that He is right there?
I would never have done that if I had known the principle of standing there.
I would never have done that. I would never have said that if I knew
that the Almighty is right there next to me.
But it slipped my mind. That is teshuvah.
Teshuvah is when we come to a recognition that the Almighty is everywhere.
He was, He is, and He will be.
There is nothing that we say or do that the Almighty doesn't see and record and listen to.
By the way, that's in a negative and in a positive.
Because the Almighty also hears every single word of our prayers.
When we pray, do you know what the Almighty does?
He listens. He listens to every word that we say.
So regardless of whether or not we feel close or not, the Almighty is always there.
And teshuvah is the opportunity to declare that closeness.
Teshuvah is that opportunity to remove the barriers that we have created,
that we have constructed between us and the Almighty.
That is the greatness of teshuvah.
And that's why it's the highest ranking of all of the gifts that God gave our world.
Teshuvah, that you can clear it away.
And I don't know if I mentioned this, right?
I like to say that teshuvah means it's like a pencil, right?
You write with a pencil and you erase it.
It's gone. It's as if it was never there.
There's no marking. There's nothing left.
But there are other things that you can write with and try to erase.
But it still leaves a mark.
The Almighty is like a pencil.
When God forgives us, it's forgotten. It's over.
It's not like, I forgive you if you don't do it again.
If you do it again, I'll pull the file again.
I'll say, oh, you see, it's your second time.
No, it's your first time because the previous time was forgiven.
The power of teshuvah is so incredible.
A person needs to know, each of us needs to know,
the incredible and awesome responsibility of teshuvah.
There's a story told about a synagogue in the West Coast.
They didn't have a rabbi.
For years, they didn't have a rabbi.
One year on Yom Kippur, someone went to the ark
to open up the ark for Kol Nidre.
And as they opened up the ark, the Sefer Torah fell out.
And we know a community has to fast for 40 days.
It's really devastating for a community.
So they said to themselves, you know, this is a wake-up call.
This is a wake-up call.
We all have wake-up calls.
And they said, you know why God possibly did this to us?
We need a rabbi.
They took a look. They reflected upon themselves.
They said, something's got to change.
You know, we're living in a world today where we,
for many of us, have been irregularly inconvenienced by this COVID-19.
And we have to figure out a way to not return to ordinary.
We must figure out a way to not let this be just another day.
Well, we were inconvenienced, you know, COVID, this and that,
and then we just returned back to our regular way of life.
God is trying to shake up this planet and tell us,
wake up.
And we've said this before.
But it's collectively as a community, it's as a society,
and as individuals, with our own families.
What are we doing to change?
Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur is a very powerful time.
You know, one of the prayers that we read,
and it's going to be frightening to read this again this year,
in our prayers on Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur,
is Nisanat Tokef.
Nisanat Tokef is a very, very powerful prayer for the High Holidays.
And in it, we say basically everything that you need to know,
is that God, you created the world.
We may have lost focus, but we're begging for another chance.
God, only you know who will live and who will die.
Who will die by famine, who will die by plague, who will die, right?
And all of these things.
And then we say three amazing words,
U'teshuvah, Tefillah, U'tzedakah, Ma'avir, Nisroah, Gezerah.
Three things that remove and annul the bad decree.
Teshuvah, repentance.
Tefillah, prayer.
And Tzedakah, charity.
These three have the unbelievable power to reverse any decree.
And, you know, it really is frightening,
because in 14 days from today will be the second day of Rosh Hashanah.
And that's it.
That's the day where we are standing in judgment before the Almighty.
Our sages, in our prayers, have inserted the words that we are Kivnei Marom.
And that is, just like the sheep, when they're being counted by their master,
what happens is, is that, you know, the sheep are in their pen, right?
And they go through a narrow doorway, and the shepherd counts each one of their sheep.
So although we're a community in Rosh Hashanah, we're also being judged as individuals.
And our sages tell us that we stand in front of the Almighty one at a time.
One at a time, right?
So, yes, we're judged as a community, but we're also judged as individuals.
There's no one else to blame.
We can't turn around and say, hey, where's everyone?
Everyone did it with me, right?
That doesn't work.
You know, in school, that would be one of the defenses, like, I wasn't the only one.
We all did this, you know.
Well, that doesn't work on Rosh Hashanah.
We stand as individuals.
And it's a time for us to take that responsibility and to recognize that we are responsible.
And in Judaism, it's a very interesting thing.
We mentioned this previously, that we celebrate responsibility.
Contrary to other, you know, there are people who, before they undertake any type of responsibility, you know,
the Amish, what do they do when they have one year where they go out and they do any sin they want
before they get into real life and adulthood?
In Judaism, that's ridiculous.
Why?
We take responsibility, and we love responsibility.
We cherish it.
In fact, we make a bar mitzvah.
We don't have a bachelor party.
Well, last day of freedom, right?
No, we don't do that.
On the contrary, we have a bar mitzvah, right?
It's a celebration.
What is the celebration?
That now this young man at the age of 13 and this young girl at the age of 12 undertake responsibility.
And we make a party for that.
It almost seems ridiculous that the parties that are made today for bar mitzvahs out in the world, right, Bobby, right,
they're anything but taking responsibility, right?
They're crazy parties with no reverence, with no seriousness whatsoever.
And that's a terrible thing because we're missing the point.
What's the whole objective?
The whole objective is to take responsibility, to realize this is a serious thing.
I'm being held accountable now as an adult.
We celebrate that in Judaism.
We celebrate responsibility.
Rosh Hashanah is one of those days, which is why on Rosh Hashanah we eat the best foods, right?
Everyone go out and get your briskets, right?
We get the best foods, and we invite our family.
We dress in our finest clothes.
Why?
It's a day of judgment.
Shouldn't we be with trepidation, with terror, can't sleep at night?
Well, although it's a judgment, it's a celebration of responsibility.
It's a celebration of our closeness to the Almighty.
So that is what we're looking for on Rosh Hashanah is for it to be a day that is unique and special,
a day that is holy, a day that is pure, and a day that is filled with joy
because we recognize that we're accountable, and we love that accountability.
So I want to just talk a little bit and start preparing ourselves for Yom Kippur as well.
So we'll do that, and then next week we'll talk about Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot,
the triple header that we have and how they come into perfect connection between one another.
It's not random holidays, and it's like we almost have it outweighed.
On Tishrei we have so many holidays, right?
Beginning of Tishrei is Rosh Hashanah, then we have Yom Kippur, then we have Sukkot and Simchat Torah,
and it really is outweighing, and then two months later we have Hanukkah,
and then two months after that we have Purim, and then a month after that we have Pesach,
and then a month and a half after that we have Shavuot,
and then three months after that we have again Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot, right?
So it's a lot of holidays packed into one.
So the truth is that if you look at it with the right perspective, we're going to talk about this next week,
we'll see that it really is one big holiday.
Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot.
Rosh Hashanah is the day of perspective, like wow.
Yom Kippur is the day of accountability, and Sukkot is the day of putting it into action,
the days of putting it into action.
That whole paradigm shift of recognizing our accountability and our responsibility
comes into play on Sukkot when we leave our homes and we say we're not going to get caught up
with our materialism.
So why do we blow a shofar, specifically from a ram's horn?
Because we know that Abraham and Isaac, when there was the binding of Isaac,
Abraham found a ram stuck in the thicket, right?
The horn was stuck, and he dislodged it, and because of that ram, we blow a shofar.
What does one have to do with the other, right?
Was it also a Monday, and then we'll have that celebration on a Monday?
Just because he had a ram's horn, therefore what?
What's the connection?
So our sages tell us is that the ram's horn is symbolizing that we're willing to sacrifice,
even when we're stuck.
We're stuck.
In our lifetime, we have many things that we're stuck in.
We're stuck in the mud.
We're stuck in our habits.
We're stuck.
It's a symbolism.
That ram symbolizes us.
Those horns.
We can do great things for this animal, but it can also get him stuck.
We have unbelievable abilities, unbelievable power, but we can also get stuck.
And what we show in Rosh Hashanah is that we're ready to break free of them.
We're ready to sacrifice our own whims, our own wishes, our own desires for the will of Hashem.
We're going to pull ourselves out of that stubbornness that we have.
We're going to pull ourselves out of our habits.
We're going to pull ourselves out of the things that will bog us down and limit us
and push forward to become great free people, free of those limitations.
And that's what Rosh Hashanah really is.
It's an opportunity to break away where we say, you know what?
The only reason I'm not the person I want to be is because I limit myself.
Rosh Hashanah is a time we say, you know what?
I'm not limiting myself anymore.
It's like someone who decides to begin a new diet.
What's stopping us from that diet?
Our own selves.
We limit ourselves.
We can get inspiration from the outside.
People can tell us anything in the world.
You can go to a doctor and the doctor says, you know, you're going to die if you don't lose the weight.
You know, you're going to die.
You're going to have a heart attack.
You're going to have whatever it is.
And yet people don't change because the only time a person can change is if we change ourselves.
If we don't change ourselves, there's no way in the world that anybody can change us.
And we're our own worst enemy when it comes to change because we doubt ourselves.
I don't know.
Could I?
Could I not?
Is this something I'm able to do?
No, I don't think so.
But there's nothing that we're not capable of.
The thing that we need to remember is that when we reach for Hashem, we pick our hand up.
We say, Hashem, please help us.
You know what Hashem does?
He grabs our hand and pulls us up and says, here, I have you.
But all we have to do, you know, that's why one of the blessings we have about repentance
is that we're saying, Hashem, please return us in our repentance.
When we return us, we got to do the job.
What are we asking?
We're dropping it on Hashem now?
He has to do it for us?
Sages tell us we can never attain full repentance.
We can't get to that level.
But you know what we could do?
We can say that we want to and desire it.
And then what happens?
Hashem says, here, I'll bring you closer.
All you have to do is want it.
And if you want it enough, Hashem says, I'm there to assist you.
I'm there to pull you out of the mud.
I'm here to pull you out of everything that you are stuck.
There is a promise, right?
That on this day, on Yom Kippur, on this day, all of your sins will be forgiven.
All of them.
But all we have to do is ask.
And that's, again, one of my fears.
One of my fears of this coming Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, with it being for many people virtual,
is that they may feel distant from their own selves, from their own.
And I think it's going to be a big challenge for people who typically would get their inspiration for the year on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur,
where they're just sitting on the couch with their family.
Like, what should we do now?
Watch television?
Follow sports?
Follow politics?
Or watch, you know, on two dimension, a chauffeur blowing?
And I'm afraid it's a very difficult choice for people.
It's a very difficult choice for people.
My hope is that we are all granted our wishes for the coming year,
and that we are able to connect with the real essence of these days, of these awesome days.
It's not simple.
It's lofty.
It requires, like this morning, the chauffeur blast that we did this morning,
I said that what we need is this.
See this?
A blank piece of paper.
A blank piece of paper.
And what we need to do is start writing down the things that we want.
Start writing them down.
Today.
What do you want?
You need good health?
Write it down.
So that when it comes Rosh Hashanah, you don't forget what it is that you want to ask for.
And every day we should ask.
In every one of our prayers, Rosh Hashanah, the doors are wide open.
You know what?
If there's someone you need to ask forgiveness for, from, write it down.
Hashem, help me forgive someone.
I'm having a difficulty forgiving them.
Help me.
Hashem, I'm trying to seek forgiveness from this person.
Please open their heart so that I can attain forgiveness.
Write those things down.
It doesn't have to be a small post-it note.
You can have a sheet, a long sheet, and write it out.
You need livelihood?
Write it.
You know someone who needs to find their soulmate?
Write it down.
You know someone who needs a healing?
Write it down.
You know someone who's trying to have children?
Write it down.
Ask.
Think big.
You want to accomplish something great?
You need help, you have no idea where to start?
Write it down.
You need a job?
Write it down.
Don't limit yourself.
It's private.
It's yours.
Don't share it with anyone.
It's between you and the Almighty.
And every day you get a chance, leading up to Rosh Hashanah, to stop.
I say when we blow the shofar, one of the things I try to tell people
is shofar is like clicking send.
You draft the email.
You draft the email.
You spend time thinking through every word.
But then comes that moment you just click send.
That's the shofar blowing.
We're writing an email to the Almighty.
The whole month we're preparing ourselves.
We're trying to get connected.
We're trying to get elevated.
But do you know when we click send for that message to the Almighty?
With the blowing of the shofar.
We stand up.
We concentrate.
We focus.
And when you hear the shofar blow, it's like it's blasting it into the heavens.
So let's not wait for the day of Rosh Hashanah like,
Uh-oh.
Oh, my goodness.
Oh, I know what I need to ask for.
And we can forget things.
Think through your whole year that passed.
And if this is the first time, you may want to think five years back,
ten years back.
Sit and think.
You know what?
I met this person.
Maybe I wasn't respectful to them.
Call them up.
I got an amazing phone call last year before Yom Kippur.
To me, it's still a mystery.
But someone I know, not very well,
someone I know called me up sobbing, sobbing,
saying, Rabbi Walby, I did something terrible to you this year,
and I'm so sorry.
Please, please, please, please, please forgive me.
I really had no idea what they were talking about.
They're nice people.
I don't really have much to do with them.
But they're crying, crying, crying.
I did something so terrible to you this year.
Please, please forgive me.
I said, Listen, I don't know what it is.
But someone who's so genuine, someone who's so real, so sincere,
how can you not forgive?
I still don't know what they did.
I have no idea.
But apparently they, in a very, very beautiful way,
made an accounting of their soul.
And they said, for whatever reason,
they feel like they did something wrong.
And they want to seek forgiveness.
100%.
So, Ronnie, let me address your questions one at a time.
Thank you very much for an excellent question.
The first question is, what do you do with the three-day-a-year Jews?
And I'm inviting you to join the mission of Torch.
That's exactly our mission,
is to make three-day-a-year Jews to every day-a-year Jew
and to get people inspired.
And that's part of our mission.
I'm not trying to convert people.
I don't have a synagogue.
I'm not a rabbi on a panel that converts people.
I don't do anything.
All we do is teach Torah.
And Torch is an organization that welcomes every Jew from every stripe,
from every background or no background.
Everyone is welcome because all we do is teach unadulterated, unfiltered Torah.
That's it.
And that Torah hopefully inspires people to connect more, to learn more,
to invest more in their Judaism.
So I invite you to join our mission
and invite everyone listening here to join our mission
and bring even one person with you to the next class that you come to.
Call a friend and say, hey, I have this class.
I think you might like this.
We're talking about Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur,
preparing ourselves for Sukkot, getting ourselves into the frame of mind.
Why don't you just join me?
And if everyone did, guess what?
We'd have double the attendance.
And if each person, the idea is it's all a numbers game.
It's not a membership game.
We don't charge for these classes.
You're welcome.
Donations are always welcome.
But it's not a fee for service.
We are in a very, very frightening downward trend with American Jewry
where we're losing Jews left and right to assimilation, to apathy, to ignorance.
And it's devastating.
We have Jews who prefer giving money to craziest displays of museums, right,
instead of giving to the vibrancy of Judaism.
It really is crazy.
What's a museum?
It's about what happened in the past.
What's about what's happening now?
What's about the present?
The present is falling apart.
It really is a problem.
There's only one demographic today that is growing in the Jewish community,
and that's the Torah observant community.
They're having children.
They're engaged in their Judaism.
They're three times a day Jews, morning, afternoon, and evening,
praying every day.
And we see our synagogues are dwindling smaller and smaller,
less involvement, less involvement, less involvement.
We've got to wake up ourselves.
We've got to wake up our communities.
We've got to wake up our friends and be shaken up to our core
that we're losing people.
So that's question number one.
So the second question that you presented is why do we have to wait for Yom Kippur?
We don't have to wait for Yom Kippur, and we shouldn't wait for Yom Kippur.
But Yom Kippur, we have to remember, is the day where, like we mentioned earlier,
the doors are wide open, where Hashem says,
Whatever you want, I grant you.
These are the days.
We say, The king is in the field.
He's waiting for us.
He's among the people.
He says, Let's work out a deal.
Let's work out an agreement.
Let's get this done.
We can do this.
And we can.
But Yom Kippur is a special day because that is the day where God said,
for the sin of the Jewish people, the golden calf,
you know what God said?
I forgive you for everything you've asked.
I forgive you for everything.
It's the season of forgiveness.
And that's what we're aiming for.
We are aiming for total exoneration, total forgiveness.
And that is really the highlight of Yom Kippur, which is why,
at the end of Yom Kippur, many people have celebrations,
not only breaking the fast.
That's the body.
But the soul, there are many places where you go at the end of Yom Kippur
and they dance.
You know why?
We were forgiven for our sins.
It's a promise that if you come and ask for forgiveness,
you'll attain forgiveness.
But we can't just show up.
We've got to prepare ourselves, make our case.
You don't find a lawyer representing any side, any party,
where they just show up in court without preparing for their case.
They prepare their presentation.
They prepare all of the arguments.
You can't just show up.
And that's what these days are for.
These days are to prepare us for the things that we need to change,
for the things that we say, you know what?
I made a mistake.
I went down the wrong path.
I was stubborn.
I was mean.
I wasn't nice to that person.
I wasn't friendly as I should be to that person.
I cut the line.
I played a trick on someone.
It was just a joke, but it hurt their feelings, whatever it may be.
Or, God, I didn't properly respect you.
I didn't realize that you were there, standing right there in front of me,
in the back of the classroom.
You were right there the whole time.
It really is a special time,
but it's a time we need to stop and not just let fate take its role.
What happens, happens, Rosh Hashanah.
Take the time.
Take a piece of paper.
Take a pen.
Sit down after this class.
Turn everything off and start writing down.
I have a sheet I have every single year.
I start writing down the things that I want to pray for,
the things that I need, the things that are the success.
And if it's for specific people,
if it's for specific friends,
for humanity,
for health,
for the Jewish people,
there's unbelievable opportunity.
Let's not waste that opportunity.
All right, my dear friends.
Have an amazing week.
Thank you so much to our friends listening on our podcast.
Thank you very much for listening.
Have a terrific week and a Shana Tova.