Hoshana Rabbah /Shemini Atzeres - Bringing Hashem Down to Earth

2:08 It doesn't really make so much sense, because what's the inion of kikash eilai pedastim? It's going to be easier if we stay a little bit longer? No, we know the way it goes. If you stay with somebody a little bit longer, it gets even harder to leave. It's like in seminaries when you're talking to your rabbi, and you're like, maybe we'll just date for another month. Sure, because in another month from now, you'll really want to leave. After you've spent a month being with this person, then you'll be like, okay, now it's been great for the next month, the last month, now we'll end. What's the inion of staying? Bechlau, the word atzeres means to stop. It's a funny thing. The word atzeres means to stop. So what is shmini atzeres? It's a day, it's the eighth day, it's the stopping day. What's this inion of stopping? We know that in Galus, where there's two days of yontif, so there's shmini atzeres, and then the next day is simchas torah. Here in Eretz Yisrael, shmini atzeres and simchas torah go together. So what's the inion, what's the interconnection between shmini atzeres and simchas torah? Another question is that we know that Shavuos and Shemini Atzeres are connected.

3:11 Shavuos is also called Atzeres. So not only do we have an interconnection between Simchas Torah and Shemini Atzeres, but there's another type of Torah connection. Because Shavuos is also called Atzeres. In fact, we know that the Medrash says that really Shemini Atzeres is supposed to be 50 days from the first day of Sukkos. Just like what? Just like Shavuos is 50 days from the first day of Pesach. So really Shmina Yetzirah should be 50 days from the first day of Sukkot. Except that we know that we're going to be in the middle of the rainy season. And Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the Medrash says, doesn't want to be Matriach. He doesn't want to bother us to come back to the Eil Eregel, to come back to the Beis Hamikdash with all the rains falling. You know, today it's easy to travel in the rain. You get in your car, right, and you travel back in the rain. But imagine back then to get in your wagon, your horse, your buggy, and to travel back through the mud, through the rainy season. It would be very, very difficult. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu said, instead of making Shmina Yetzirah 50 days later, we're going to make Shmina Yetzirah on the 8th day of Pesach. So we have another question. If Shemini Atzeres is really supposed to be.

4:16 mamish like Shavuos, and they're both called Atzeres, so what's the interconnection between Shavuos and Shemini Atzeres, Samchast Torah? Especially because Shavuos and Samchast Torah are celebrated so differently, no? What do we do all night long on Shavuos? We sin learn, right? And what do we do all day long and all night long on Samchast Torah? We dance. So it seems like on the one hand they're clearly connected, they're both called Atzeres, they're both supposed to be 50 days after their respective Yom HaTovim, but they're celebrated so differently. So what exactly is the point of connection over here? Another question is, what's the imyan of Ushpizen? I told you, we're going through every single thing on Sukkot. We know that every single night of Sukkot we get another very special guest, right? Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, Yosef, Moshe, Aaron, David HaMelech, yeah? So I'm saying, what's the... Oh, what beautiful music, yeah? So such a special thing to give a shir with music. Okay? This is the imyan of being in Yerushalayim, that you can give shir... Nobody, it's true, it's a little ominous, but the... The... The Indian of giving shiur in Yerushalayim, surrounded by Yerushalmi stone and a sukkah, but then to also have the music of Yerushalayim on sukkah,

5:18 so mamash so beautiful. So, Bechla, to ask ourselves, what's this Indian... Oh, that's mamash deep, yeah? What's the... Something so beautiful, you know, when you're in a sukkah and you hear what's going on in everybody else's sukkah. It's true, it's taka ominous music, but it's such a... You hear everybody else's conversation, you hear everybody else snoring in the sukkah, you know? So why shouldn't we hear the piano of Yerushalayim? Also very beautiful. Okay, so what's the inyon, unless it's going to be like somebody's making a simchas beis ha-shoeva, and then we might have a problem. Okay, we'll see if we can get through it together. So what's the inyon of a shpisim? Another question is, what's the inyon of the number seven? The number seven is very, very big when it comes to sukkahs. First of all, we have seven days of sukkahs. Not only that, but we take four minim, right? We take the dalet minim, the lulav, the esarg, the hadasim, and the haravos. But really, it's brought down. There's three haravos, two hadasim, one esarg, and one lulav. So how much is that? It's seven. Yeah, then we have the avudraham. The avudraham points out that we circle the bimah how many times? Seven times. And not only that, we have seven u'shpisim.

6:18 So we see the number seven is very... Was that correct? Okay, so the idea of seven is very, very big when it comes to sukkahs. Is it not big in general? It's true it's big in general. But specifically on sukkahs, we see this inyon of the number seven. And also we have the inyon of the number eight on sukkahs, right? We also have sheva brach. So there's like a seven and an eight that needs to be understood. Then there's another question, a very famous question, that Sukkot is called Zman Simchasenu. We don't have anything, there's always a mitzvah of Simchas Yom Tif, but this specifically is called the Zman of Simcha. What's the Indian that this is the Zman of Simcha? That's another question. Then there's another question. We know that the Gemara tells us in Sukkah that Rishim HaGamliya would juggle eight torches. He would juggle eight torches, that's another eight. Then he would prostrate himself on the floor. He would get down and bow down on the floor. Or he would dig his two thumbs into the floor and he would kiss the ground. That's what the Gemara says. So when we see that a tzaddik like Rishim HaGamliya.

7:21 is doing something like that, these things need to be taken very seriously. So what was Rishim HaGamliya doing? Finally, we have one last question. I don't understand the last question. Which question? The one about Rav Gamliel. Meaning he's doing something very interesting. He's juggling eight torches. He would get down, he would lie down on the floor, he would prostrate himself on the floor, he would dig his thumbs, his two thumbs, into the ground, and he would kiss the floor. What was, yeah, so what was he doing? Like what was, if we see that a tzaddik is doing something very strange, we have to ask ourselves, what's the deeper inion here? By the Simchas Beis HaShoeva. That's what Rishon HaNamlio was doing. And then finally, we have one last question from the Al Shachar Hakadosh, which we see in the Torah, in Parashat Vayikra, it says, as opposed to every other yontif in the Torah, which is called Chag LaHashem. What does Chag LaHashem mean? It's a Chag to Hashem. Sukkot is called Chag Hashem. It's the Chag of Hashem. Not to Hashem, but of Hashem. So what's the inion here, the Al Shach asks, that it's specifically on Sukkot that we find that it's called Chag Hashem, not Chag LaHashem.

8:22 So let's start with that last question, because that's where it all comes from. The Al-Sheikh Hakadosh says as follows. The Medrash tells us that when Hakadosh Baruch Hu first created the world, the Shekhinah was present in the world itself. In the world itself, that was where Hashem was. The indwelling of Hashem's presence, which is called the Shekhinah, it was in the world itself. When Adam and Eve sinned, so it went to the first Rekia. The Shekhinah went up to the first Rekia. You guys know what a Rekia is? In English, it's called a firmament. It means there's levels, there's different levels. So the Shekhinah left. Oh, we're going to be fighting a concert over here. You hear, Simchas Besa Shoeva HaMerkazit. So maybe we should move inside. Yeah, because I don't think that we're going to be able to compete with this. Okay. So again, we'll just apologize for the interruption. We'll speak out this idea again.

9:24 So when Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world, the Shekhinah, the indwelling of Hashem's presence, was found in the world itself. You know, in those days, when they did an Aveira, it was a very big deal. You know, like imagine if something is in an embryonic stage. You know, if you have, let's say, if you have someone's pregnant. So you have to be very careful. The fetus, as it's developing, anything you do to the fetus could have a tremendous impact. So the same thing is true in the very beginning of the world. The world was in an embryonic stage. The world was very, very young. You know, it's like you can't poke a baby on the top of the head because they're still developing. So every aveira that they did, it had cosmic significance. The Al-Sheikh says as follows. The Al-Sheikh said when Adam, Rishon, and Chava did their first aveira, the Shekhinah left and it went to the first Rekia. Then when Cain sinned, it went to the second Rekia. When Cain killed Hevel. Then you had the Dar Enosh and the Shekhinah went up to the third Rekia. Then you had the Mabul and it went up to the fourth Rekia. Then you had the Dar HaFlaga and it went up to the fifth Rekia.

10:25 Then you had the story with Stone, yeah, and it went up to the sixth Rekia. And then ultimately the Chataim that were happening in Mitzrayim at that time, the Mejri says, and then it went up to the seventh Rekia. So the Shekhinah, up until the times of Avraham Avinu, was all the way in the 7th Rukhiyah. I mean, the Shekhinah was very far removed from the world. Until Avraham Avinu came into the world, and then he started the process of bringing the Shekhinah back down. And this really is the entire Yisra'el of all of Yiddishkeit. The Yisra'el of Yiddishkeit is to bring the Shekhinah back down. from its state of separation from this world into our world. And the Medrash continues, and the Medrash says that Avraham Avinu brought it from the 7th level to the 6th level. And then Yitzchak brought it from the 6th level to the 5th level. And then Yaakov Avinu brought it to the 4th level. His son Levi brought it to the 3rd level. His son Kahas brought it to the 2nd level. Amram brought it to the 1st level. And Moshe Rabbeinu brought it back down into the world itself. Moshe Rabbeinu, when he went up to Harsinai, V'yei red Hashem al Harsinai, that doesn't mean that Hashem came down to Harsinai.

11:28 It means that what Moshe Rabbeinu did by the giving of the Torah was not just that Moshe Rabbeinu received the Torah. But he brought the world, back to the state that it was, before Adam and Chava sinned. And the truth is, we see this very much in Chazal. We know that at the time of the giving of the Torah, the Gemara says there was no more Malach HaMavis. That when Moshe Rabbeinu received the Torah, there was no more death in the world. All the poison that had been in the Bria. from the time of the Nachash HaKadmoni, it was gone by Matan Torah. What's the pshat that was gone by Matan Torah? Because the world had gone back to its state before Adam HaRishon sinned. This is the goal of all of Yiddishkeit. The Medrash says to build what's called Adira B'tachtonim, to build a dwelling place for Hashem down below in this world. You understand? So when Hashem created the world, He was in the world. But then when Adam HaRishon sinned, He went up. And now, by Matan Torah,

12:32 He comes all the way back down into the world. Now when we say back down into the world, we don't mean above the world. We don't mean hovering above the world. What is the Shechina? The Shechina means the indwelling of Hashem's presence. Not that Hashem hovers above the world, but that Hashem should be found within the world itself. That's what it means. V'asuli mikdash v'shachanti, where? b'socham, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants the shechino to be where? b'socham, inside. Not above, but the shechino should be inside. Okay. Now, really, history should have ended there. If the whole purpose of Matan Torah, was to bring Hashem back down into the world, and Matan Torah did everything that needed to be done, so then that should be the end of history, right? Mashiach should have come, Mashiach, right? That's it. Eretz Yisrael, and the whole thing is over. No? They wouldn't have agreed. Great. Except what happened? The Geta Egel. The Geta Egel was a very big deal. Because the Geta Egel meant, That the Shekhinah now, whatever was accomplished by Matan Torah,

13:37 was unaccomplished with the Chet Ha'Egel. So now we have a pretty Mesubach story. When Hakadosh Baruch Hu creates the world, where is he? He's present in the world. The Shekhinah is there, right inside, internal. Then seven generations of sinning, what happens? Hakadosh Baruch Hu is in the seventh Reqiyah. Then seven generations come back, and what happens? Hakadosh Baruch Hu is back down. Now you have the Chet Ha'Egel. The Chet Ha'Egel wasn't just another Avera. The Chet Ha'Egel undid the state that we had reached, where the world should reach its ultimate rectification. After the Chet Ha'Egel went back, Hashem... Okay, so now what happened after the Chet Ha'Egel? After the Chet Ha'Egel, which was a very big deal, and now the Shekhinah has left again, so to speak. So now, what happened? So what happened now, this gives us a context, an appreciation for what the Jewish calendar is really all about. What happened on Yom Kippur? On Yom Kippur, we were forgiven for the sin of the Chet Ha'Egel. And what did we receive? We received the Luchos Shanios. Now we received the Luchos again.

14:40 What's the significance of this? This means as follows. It means that, and right away, by the way, what happens after that? We get a Tzivoy to build the Mishkan. It means as follows. Whatever happened by the Chet Ha'Egel, was undone with the tshuva that we did, culminating in Yom Kippur where we received the Luchos again. Meaning, and now Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, In other words, what was broken by Chet Ha'Egel. could be rectified. The mission is not lost. You would think it's over, right? We had our chance. Avram, Yitzchak, Yaakov, Levi, Kahas, Amram, Moshe Rabbeinu. You would think, okay, good, it's over. And now with the Chet Ha'Egel, it's lost. Comes along Yom Kippur and tells us it's not lost. The opportunity to bring Hashem back into this world, it still remains. And in a certain way, we understand this. I'll explain to you what I mean. It's very hard to understand, really. Why do we have this back and forth? This whole thing is very strange.

15:42 Hakadosh Baruch Hu is first where? He's first, so to speak, again, it's a funny thing to say, because obviously there was no Shamayim and no Aretz. But before Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world, he was with himself in a total purified state of existence, right? Then what does Hakadosh Baruch Hu do? He creates the world, a very lowly world. And where does he go? Into that world. Then we sin. What does he do? He leaves. Then we bring him back down. And what do we do again? We sin. And he leaves. Then we do tshuva. Okay, I come back down. It sounds like a very interesting type of relationship, no? Like, we're in, we're out, we're in, we're out. It sounds very rocky. It sounds like a roller coaster. There's a very deep Torah here, though, and the Torah goes like this. The truth of a relationship is found. When you stay with each other in your hardest moments, when you feel most separated from each other. Can you say that again? The truth of a relationship is experienced, not when things are going well. The truth of a relationship is when things are going terribly.

16:45 How loyal are you to each other then? What's your level of commitment when the relationship is mamish, not going well? So Hakadosh Baruch Hu creates the world and he says, what do I want? I want a relationship with you. I want a diri b'takhtonim, to be by himself. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is perfect. What's missing? Nothing is missing in terms of his existence. His existence is fine. But for what? To be with someone. Hakadosh Baruch Hu desires to be with us. So he creates us and he comes down into the world. What happens? What do we do? So we don't behave appropriately in the relationship. To be in a relationship means to follow the rules of a relationship. That's what all relationships are about. And so when Odomarishon sinned, and when Kayin sinned, and when you had the Dar Enosh, Dar Mabul, Dar Aflaga, so each sin drove Hakadosh Baruch Hu away a little bit more. But did he leave? He went up to the seventh rakia, but he was still there. So what was the job of the tzaddikim? So the job of the tzaddikim was to bring him down. And they did a very good job. They brought him down. But then what did we do again? We sinned again, right? So we push him away again. But what keeps happening?

17:49 What keeps happening is we see the truth of our relationship with Hashem, which is that where does he want to be? With us. Even though every time we sin, what does it do? It moves him away from us. But in a certain way, even though when he moves away from us, what happens when we do tshuva? It comes closer. And the emesis, and this might be a little difficult to understand, but it's intuitive. When you make up with someone, if you've really made up with them, the relationship becomes much deeper. No. Because now the truth, of the relationship has been found. Because if we only love each other because of what we do for each other, so what happens when we stop doing for each other? Relationship is over. What happens when we make up with each other? Why do we make up? When we make up with each other, what we're really saying is, it's not about what you do for me, it's about who you are for me. You understand? So the truth of the relationship is expressed more deeply after we mess up.

18:53 So we come to Hakadosh Baruch HaEfti V'chei Ta'igal and we say, and my Shabbeinu advocates on our behalf, but we also, we do tshuva. And what does Hakadosh Baruch HaEfti say? Okay, lucho shnios, and make for me a mektash. Let's do it. Let's build a home together. And really, all of history is about what? It's about going back and forth. It's not about perfection. That's not the nature of history. The nature of history is I made a mistake. I think everybody in this room can relate to that. I know I can. I made a mistake, but I stay with it. The emes is, I think a lot of times in seminary, we do you a disservice. We paint for you a life. You come to Shalai Mirach Ha'adosh, a beautiful apartment like this, beautiful sukkah, beautiful seminary, right? We come and we tell you, life's going to be awesome. The emes, life is going to be rocky. Life's not going to be awesome, but there's a big difference. There are some people that say life is rocky, so they get off the train. Other people say life is rocky, I'm committed. I know it's not going to be perfect. I know when I leave seminary, it's not going to be perfect. I have this pet peeve. I get hired by different seminaries to come at the end of the year.

19:54 and give the shiur how to take it with you. It's such a terrible thing because what does it mean how to take it with you? What have you been learning the entire time? You can't come on the last day of seminary and say how to take it with you. That has to be something we're doing the entire time. We know it's not good. We already had, those of us that are Shana Bet, you already had your summer, so you know it's not so easy, right? You know it's not so easy. You talk to the girls two, three years later, it's not so easy. But the question is not if it's going to be easy. The question is, are you committed to this relationship for 40, 50, 60 years? Is Yiddishkeit at the center of your life? So this is really what Hakadosh Baruch Hu says to us on Sukkos. Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, let's build a home together. A home doesn't mean that it's going to be perfect. A home means this is the place where it's going to be for us. This is what the Al Shachar Hakadosh says. Every other Yom Tov is Chag LaHashem. This is not Chag LaHashem. This is Chag Hashem. It's not a Chag to Hashem. It's Hashem's Chag. It's His Yom Tov. You know why it's His Yom Tov? Because it says, let's build a home together. It's Chag Hashem.

20:56 It's Hashem's Yom Tov. And this is the great Simcha of Sukkos. The great Simcha of Sukkos is, and it's called Zman Simcha Seinu. The great Simcha of Sukkos is, let's build a home together. I heard from a Talmud of mine. He said he got engaged, and he said, when he was getting engaged, he said, do you want to work here? That was the way he proposed this call. Do you want to work here? And it's such a fascinating way of getting engaged. It's not the most romantic thing to say, but in another way, it's such a deep way of saying, do you want to get married? Do you want to work here? To work here means that this is our place. You know, marriage is not flimsy. Today, marriage has become a very flimsy institution. I don't like, so I leave. That's not what marriage is. That's what dating is. So marriage is we made a commitment to each other. This was something that it used to be that people knew very, very well. My grandmother, ala al-shalom, she was married to my grandfather. My grandfather passed away when he was in his 50s. Passed away very young. My grandmother kind of lived until she was 90 years old. Al-Piteva, she would have lived much longer.

22:01 She got COVID and she passed away. She was living in an assisted living facility in New Jersey. COVID wiped those things out like it was nobody's business. So she passed away very early on in COVID. I remember I asked my grandmother, I said, Grandma, why didn't you ever get married again? And then my grandfather passed away when he was in his 50s. She was a little bit younger than him. So she could have had another 30 years with somebody. So she said, I went out on a couple of dates. It was very awkward for me. I said, why? So she said, because I was married to your grandfather. He just wasn't alive. But I couldn't go out with somebody else. There was a level of commitment that she had to her marriage that was well beyond the simple, like, We live in the same house. There was a level of soul-to-soul connection. It wasn't a flimsy thing. This is what Hakadosh Baruch Hu is saying to us. He's saying, I take you in your imperfect state. Let's move into this house together. Is this man simchasenu? We're going to be together. Let's work on this together. That's the Yisroi of Sukkot. The Yisroi of Sukkot is man simchasenu, chag Hashem. Hashem is b'simcha because He's saying, I get to be with you.

23:03 That's the greatest thing in the world. And mainly we can understand what's the Asad of Hashanah Rabbah. If every single day is another level of rectifying the original sins that were done, so let's play it out. What happened by Adonai Rishon Sin? That was the first time that it left, right? So if you follow it backwards, by Moshe Rabbeinu, right? It went all the way down. That was on what? That's on the seventh day, yeah? That's on the eighth dimension. And if you go back to what we said, in the very beginning, remember, with Avram it went down to the sixth level. With Yitzhak it went down to the fifth level. With Yaakov it went down to the fourth level. With Levi it went down to the third level. With Kahasa it went down to the second level. With Amram, which is what? Which is Amram, which is the, which is one, two, three, four, five, six. Now it's on the first level. What day is that? That's the second to last day. What's the very last day? The very last day, is the opportunity of Moshe Rabbeinu.

24:04 to bring it down to what? back into the world. That's where we're at right now. Hoshana Rabbah is the opportunity to bring Hakadosh Baruch Hu back into the world. That's what we're doing, Mamesh tonight. That's why we're sitting and learning tonight. What's the inyun of Hoshana Rabbah and learning? The inyun of Hoshana Rabbah and learning is there's a deep connection to Torah already because we have the opportunity to bring Hakadosh Baruch Hu back into the world kefi the way it was before other Marishon sin. And this is the Yisrael of Shemini Atzeres. Remember we said Shemini Atzeres. What does the word Atzeres really mean? It means to stop. So what is it about? Now that we've brought Hakadosh Baruch Hu back into the world and the Shekhinah is in the world and he's back in the first level, right back in the world itself and he hasn't gone up seven levels. So what do we want him to do on the eighth day? Stay. Stay, don't leave us again. Stay. We want our relationship to be one where it's not constantly on the roller coaster. We want to get to the eighth dimension. What's the eighth dimension? The eighth dimension is Olam Abba. Right? Seven days of the week. But the eighth dimension, that's Hanukkah. Right? The eighth dimension is Bershmila. The eighth dimension is beyond, the physical nature of the world. That's the transcendent.

25:05 That's the Olam Abba. We want to be in a place where Hakadosh Baruch Hu, where we say, can our relationship be stable? Can it just be that we're here together? Maybe we can understand. What does Hakadosh Baruch Hu say? Say, stay with me one more day. It's difficult for me when you leave. Obviously, we know that if you're going to stay and then you're going to go, it's going to be even harder. But what's Hakadosh Baruch Hu saying really? Saying, you want me to stay? You want it to be a relationship where I stay like a level of Olam HaBa? You stay too. Let's stay together. If we stay, then he stays. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu was saying, let's touch,

25:36 even though we're not in the level of Olam HaBa, on Shemini Atzeres, let's touch the level of Olam HaBa, where we just stay with each other. It's like, you know, a couple where they have this beautiful vacation and they know they're going to leave the vacation. They know they're going to go back to their kids, and they know they're going to go back home and they know that sometimes at home things get messy and there could be fights and there could be arguments, right? So they say, let's just extend vacation a little bit more. I want to be at that level where we're just like two elderly people that the kids are out of the house and we don't have those pressures anymore. We can just sit on the porch in our rocking chair, you know,

26:07 and like we could just be with each other. That's the holiest thing in the world, just to be with each other on that level. And maybe we can understand why. There's specifically a connection to Shavuos and specifically a connection to Simchas Torah, in this time. Because what brings Hakadosh Baruch Hu back down? Ultimately, right, we get it back down all the way to the first level. But what takes Hakadosh Baruch Hu and puts him back in the world? What takes Hakadosh Baruch Hu and puts the Shekhinah back in the world? That's Torah. That's what Moshe Rabbeinu did. When Moshe Rabbeinu went up to get the Torah, the Torah is brought down into the world and that's what brings Hakadosh Baruch Hu into the world. So what do we have on Shemini Yatzeres? The day where we say Hakadosh Baruch Hu, please stop, that's also what? The day of Simchas Torah. That's the day of Simchas Torah. That's the whole inyon of Shavuos. So now we can understand why Shavuos and Shemini Yatzeres are both called days of Yatzeres, days of stopping. Because these are the days when Hakadosh Baruch Hu is brought back down into the world and he's held into the world. But we pointed out before that the inyon of Simchas Torah and the inyon of Shavuos, they seem to be very different. They're celebrated very differently.

27:10 Let's examine why. What happens on Pesach, girls? Pesach we're freed from Mitzrayim, right? And what do we do for seven weeks? We work on ourselves, right? 49 days of Sfirah Sa'omer. Girls, how many Sfirahs are there really? There's seven Sfirahs, and each one of the Sfirahs has, seven different dimensions, right? So every week of Sfirah Sa'omer is a different Sfirah, right? Chesed, Gevurah, Tfer, Netzach, Hod, Yisod, and Malchus, right? Those are the seven Sfirahs. What do we do on day one? We work on Chesed Shebe Chesed. What do we work on day two? We work on the Gevurah Shebe Chesed, right? So every single day we work on a different aspect of our Midos, 49 days, and on the 50th day what do we get? 50th day we receive the Torah. So how do we celebrate Shavuos? We put in all this hard work, so what do we do on Shavuos? We learn Torah. So let's look at Sukkos. Is Sukkos the same thing? Well, on the one hand, it has the seven, right? It has this Indian of seven, so it has this Indian of working on our Midos, but what's it lacking? Really, how long should it be? Remember we said it should be 49 days, right?

28:12 And Shemini Atzeret should be, just like Shavuos, on the 50th day. So what happened? So here's a special gift that we get on Sukkos. Because remember, Sukkos is really about what? Hakadosh Baruch Hu forgives us. Hakadosh Baruch Hu forgives us on Yom Kippur, and He says, I want to be with you. So He sends us the Ushpizen. Girls, how many Ushpizen come to our Sukkos every night? Seven Ushpizen come every night. Each night, it's one of the Ushpizen's night. But really, all seven come every night. So what happens? Every night of Sukkos is really what? It's really a full week of Sefir HaSomer. So on the first night of Sukkot, you have all of the Zion Roam, you have all of the Yushpiz in that come, except it's Avram Avinu's night. So we're attacking everything in Chesed. The second night is Yitzchak's night. So we're attacking everything in Gvura. The third night, it's Yaakov's night. So we're attacking everything in Tiferet. So the whole Sukkot is really from above. Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, I know you're not going to get 49 days. It's going to be too complicated for you to come back 49 days from now. Stay with me. I'll give you this Isairis from above. I'll give you this Asist from above. And he sends us the Yushpiz.

29:15 so that every day of Sukkot could be a day of working on ourselves like crazy. But did we earn it in the same way that we earned it, like by Shavuos? No. So Shavuos is characterized by our sitting and learning. What's Simcha's Torah? It's pure Simcha. Because Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave it to us as a gift. It's not something that we earned, so to speak. We didn't put in the work. It's a gift from Hashem. Stay with me. Let's build a home together. I'm bringing you close. That's the Gevaldikas Simcha of this Yom Tov. The Simcha is that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is drawing us close. So that's the Indian of the Yushpiz. They give us Simchas Torah. On Simchas Torah, the girls, do we learn? No, we just dance. And what do we dance with? Even the Pesal of Sefer Torah. Even the Sefer Torah, that's not kosher. We dance with those. And by the way, who dances with the Sefer Torah? Everybody dances with the Sefer Torah. You can be the biggest Tamachachem in the world, you can be the biggest Tamacharets in the world. You know, on Shavuos, some Jews sit and learn, they have no idea what they're doing. They never got a yeshiva education, they never got a seminary education. But everybody can dance on Simchas Torah. It doesn't matter if you have legs, you can dance. If you don't have legs, you can dance. Everyone can dance on Simchas Torah.

30:19 I remember when I was in a certain yeshiva growing up, they had a bacher, a lo'alein who couldn't walk, and muscular dystrophy. So he was in a wheelchair. So they would wheel him around on Simchas Torah, and he'd go, hold this Simchas Torah. Everyone could dance, even a kid who's not lo'alein can't dance. Everyone could dance on Simchas Torah because everyone has an equal connection to Torah because it's coming from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, it's not coming from within us. So now, with this in mind, we can start to understand what's the idea of Nisach HaMayim? What's the idea of the water libation ceremony? So for this, you need to know a deep Torah from the Rabbeinu Bechaya. The Rabbeinu B'chai says as follows. Girls, what happened on the second day of creation? On the second day of creation, Hakadosh Baruch Hu separated, the lower waters and the upper waters. Medrash tells us that the lower waters got very upset. He said, we also want to be with the upper waters. Why should we be removed from Hashem? So they started breaking through the toheim. They started coming up. The lower waters rebelled, so to speak, against Hashem. So Hashem said, don't do that. But I'm going to give you, I see that all you want is to be close to me. All you're doing, this is for Kfayit Shamayim.

31:21 I'm going to give you three gifts. What are the three gifts? Number one, the Aylamas Al-Yoynim, meaning the upper waters, the Mayim Al-Yoynim, they won't be able to sing Shira. They won't be able to praise me until you give them permission. That was one thing. The second thing is, every karban has to be brought with salt. Where does the salt come from? The salt comes from the water, right? From the lower waters. And the third thing is the Nisach HaMayim. So now we see as follows. What's really going on over here? The lower waters want to be connected to Hashem. Why should we be distant from Hashem? So what does Hashem say? And by the way, why would the lower waters be distant from Hashem? Because we do Averas and Hashem leaves, right? So the lower waters say it's not fair. Why should the upper waters be close to you and not to us? So Hashem says three things. Number one, you're still going to be close to me. Why? Because the Ailam HaSalyonim, they can't sing Shira without you. And number two, really, you're still going to be close to me? Because every time a carbon is brought up to Hashem, what goes up with it? The salt from the lower waters. But ultimately, the third level is the biggest one.

32:23 What happens in the Nisach HaMayim? In the Nisach HaMayim, Hakadosh Baruch Hu comes down on Sukkot all the way to us. And how do we celebrate Sukkot? With this Nisach HaMayim ceremony, with the water libation ceremony, where we draw the water and we pour it onto the Mizbeach. So where is Hakadosh Baruch Hu found on Sukkot? Because he's found down here in our world. That's the deeper significance of the Nisach HaMayim. But mainly we can understand what Rosh Hashanah was doing. What was Rosh Hashanah doing? Remember, girls, we said that he was juggling eight torches. Why eight torches? Because this is the whole inyon. He wants to bring down. Remember, what goes up when you juggle? You throw something up and it comes down. And then what do you do? You throw it back up again. This is the whole inyon. The whole inyon of the roller coaster of history is what Rosh Hashanah is doing. I told you, nothing that tzaddikim do is stam. So he's juggling these things and they come down. He's bringing down the eighth level. He wants Hakadosh Baruch Hu to come stay permanently. And then what does he do? He lies down on the ground. Because where is Hakadosh Baruch Hu going to be brought ultimately?

33:24 Down into the world itself. And when Hakadosh Baruch Hu is down in the world, what does he do? He sticks his thumbs. He, so to speak, holds Hakadosh Baruch Hu down into the ground. He sticks his thumbs into the ground. And then what does he do? He kisses the floor. This is a big deal, girls, because it means that the direction of Yiddishkeit is not for us to go up. What's the direction of Yiddishkeit? To bring Hakadosh Baruch Hu down into this world. The whole idea, everything we do, yes, we make mistakes, but when we make a mistake, what do we have the opportunity? If we brought Hashem down into the world, so now we have the opportunity to do tshuva. and keep Him in the world. That's the whole inyon of what we're doing here. The whole Rosh Hashanah, really, before Rosh Hashanah, the whole inyon of Elul, Rosh Hashanah, Tzarsimei Tshuva, Yom Kippur, is to come to Hakadosh Baruch Hu and to say, stay with us, stay with us. We want to bring you back down into the world. Now that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has forgiven us on Yom Kippur, Zman Simchasenu, stay with us, stay with us. Aishan HaRabba, learn Torah all night. Shemini Atzeres, dance with the Torah. Keep Hakadosh Baruch Hu down here in this world. This is ultimately the goal of all of creation. It's a very beautiful, complicated tarot that ties together a million different things.

34:32 I think we answered all the questions. I think we answered every single one of the questions. But I think really, just to be messiah here, because we've said a lot tonight, just to be messiah in one thing, this is now to take with us. Shemini Atzeret, ultimately will end. And we'll be in Cheshvan again. And we know what's coming. We know that it's a long winter. We know that we don't have... It's been a great Yom Tov season, no? Every time you turn around, especially if you're keeping two days, it's like three-day Yom Tov, three-day Yom Tov, three-day Yom Tov. So much Yom Tov, so much Chalamayit. A person could feel like they walk into Cheshvan, it's like, and now there's nothing. It's like a big drop-off. But you should know that's not true. The whole inyon of what we're dealing with right now, of HaShana Rabbah, bringing Hakadosh Baruch Hu down into that last level, and keeping Him in that last level, is that when we get to those dark days of winter and things are not posh, we don't feel that Hisayurus. We have to stick our fingers into the ground like Rosh Hashanah. We have to hold Hakadosh Baruch Hu in our lives. We know that there's going to be a rollercoaster. We know we're not yet in the final stages of Moshiach.

35:33 We're in the beginning stages of Moshiach. We're somewhere in this parasha of Moshiach. But we're not in that final stage yet of Olam HaBa. But our Avaida, Rosh Hashanah teaches us, is to prostrate ourselves on the ground, to hold Hakadosh Baruch Hu in, to kiss the ground, and to bring Hakadosh Baruch Hu into every physical dimension of our lives. Girls, a good yontif, it should be a good yar for all of us and it should be ba'ez Hashem a yontif of growth that lasts with us the entire year.