Hoshana Rabbah - There is Nothing Simple About Simple Jews

3:32 But different than today's Jews She is the most Jewish person I've ever met in my entire life. My grandmother, Aleih Shalom, lived until she was ninety. Baruch Hashem. In my family, we have the schuz of arichas yamim, at least amongst the women. And doesn't bode well for me. But it seems the women last a while. And my grandmother became a balashtuva at seventy years old. Seventy years old. It's a tremendous thing to become a balash tshuva at seventy. At seventy years old, she started keeping Shabbos. At seventy years old, she started keeping fully kosher. At seventy years old, my grandmother started dressing in its sniest way And she became exceptionally judgmental of the rest of my family that was not observant. And I said to my grandmother Why? Why so judgmental? Why? Up until just a couple years ago, you yourself weren't from. I remember we went to Crown Heights for Shabbos because my cousins were making a bar mitzvah And so where would you have a bar mitzvah if you're not an observant Jew? You have a bar mitzvah in Crown Heights, so the whole family went to Crown Heights for Shabbos.

4:50 And my cousin was walking. My cousin, who was not observant, was walking in the rain in Crown Heights on Shabbos with an umbrella. And my grandmother looked at me and she goes. Doesn't he know he's not allowed to have an umbrella on Shabbos? I'm like, Grandma, he drove here. What are you? It's not like I don't think he's worried about the umbrella. It bothered her very much. I remember my grandmother used to say It's not hard. It's not hard to be a Jew. It's the right thing to do. You know what you're supposed to do, so do it. That was like her whole. My grandmother never opened the safe in her life. I don't know how much Hebrew she knew. She certainly wasn't a philosopher. She didn't learn deep Chassidus. She never learned Maral or Ramchal or knew who either of those people were. But if an envelope came in the mail And said, 'Please give tzedakah,' so she gave tzedakah. My grandmother, who was living deep in New Jersey, was observant, but she wasn't living in a Jewish community. She was giving money to seriously chareidi organizations just because they used to send her letters.

5:52 And so I asked my grandmother, "You're giving money to Beis HaTalmud in Brooklyn. What's your connection to Beis Hatam?" She said they sent a letter. If they sent a letter, it means they need tzedakah, so I give tzedakah. She was a very simple Jew, and her older sister, who was her best friend, my great aunt Ruthie. By my grandmother's ninetieth birthday, just a couple months before she passed away, there was a video And in that video My great aunt With tears in her eyes She said, "Sarah, that was my grandmother's name." You did it right. You started keeping Shabbos and you started keeping kosher, and you don't know how much nachas you're giving our parents in heaven. And you really did it. Where in the world did Aunt Ruthie get this from? Where'd she get this idea that this is the right thing to do?

6:43 She got it from a very simple place. She never went to aishat Torah. She never got any classes. Nobody needed to prove God's existence. And if you would have told my great Aunt Ruthie that there is a proof that our Kadosh Baruch Hu exists, my grandmother Ruthie she would look at you today. What are you talking about? What do you mean a proof that Hashem exists? Of course, Hashem exists. My mother told me that He exists. And her mother. It was very pashul. Simple Jews like this are something that we are deeply lacking in Klal Yisrael today. Daniel Kalish has asked many times. It's a great line. He's asked. Why don't we have holy water carriers today? It used to be that Kallah Yisrael had holy water carriers. There was a Jew that walked around and he schlepped water and he brought water to your house and he said to Hillel under his breath And he was a hero in Hasidic lore. Why today don't we have holy water carriers? Why today don't we have my grandmothers or my great aunt Ruthie?

7:44 Every yeshiva guy in the world today, in order to be a top yeshiva guy, you need to be able to open up a Katsayis and a Rivchayim. Need to be mephalpa. I'm not chassidish. I'm denigrating those things. But what happened to the simplicity of a Jew who did Jewish things just because that was a thing to do? What happened to that? Part of the reason we don't have it is because we don't talk about it. The stories, amazing stories of the simplicity of Jews. There's a story with the bnei yissachar. Was the way of the Bnei Yisrael to walk around Erev Pesach and to listen into Jewish homes to see how Jews were preparing for the Seder? And so walking by one home He hears the balabas inside, and he's reading the Hagada, and he's gotten up to the section of the Arba Banim of the four sons.

8:41 And he's reading it inside and listening to how he was reading the words. When it came to the words echad chacham, echad rasha, echad tam, echad sheino yodei lishol He was reading it like we say kriyashma. When a Jew says kriyashma, we elongate the word echad. We're myrich beechad, like Rivkah. So we say echad. So this guy, this simple Jew, was reading echad chacham Echad rasha. Of course, this is not. You don't have to do it this way. But Bnei Yisrael was so taken with this Jew that he walked inside this Jew's house and he said to him, 'Please tell me, where does this minute come from?' Where does this minute come from that you speak this way when you're reading the Hagada? So this simple Jew who knew nothing He said to Bnei Yisrael, "I'll tell you the truth. I didn't grow up with the yeshiva education. Very early on in my life, I had to go to work. That was the way it used to be."

9:41 So my father, when he said Kriyashma, he would be Mirch be'achad. He would elongate the word achad, and I want to give that over to my children. And the Meneh Saster went around, and he was telling everybody how beautiful the simple Jew who's being Mirch be'achad in the Hagada. And today, if we told such a story, probably you'd have some guy in the back of the room going. Lo yama aretz chassid. This is not the right way. There's no reason to do it. Of course, there was no reason to do it. But there was something beautiful about a simple Jew that knew nothing other than to do what his father did in any way that he knew how to do it. There was a beauty to that. And Chassidic lore is full of these really stunning, gorgeous stories about Jews doing Jewish things, but with no sense of intellectualism, with no sophistication.

10:28 With nothing emotional, there was no real emotional attachment. It was because I'm a Jew. Why is that? So I want to share with you something that the Baal Shem Tov said. It's a very beautiful idea. But it needs to be unpacked. The Baal Shem Tov's Chosy Yaginaleinu said that the pashtus The pashtus of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the simple nature of Hashem's existence. Can be found in the avoda of the simple Jew. What does that mean? When we speak about Hakadosh Baruch Hu's pashtus, when we speak about Hakadosh Baruch Hu being simple, being one We don't mean like a human being is one. That's not what we mean. In fact, the Rambam makes it clear that we can't possibly understand the nature of Hakadosh Baruch Hu's oneness. Because what would it mean in our world for something to be one? Even today, where we work tremendously hard to make something one, by its nature, it's still multiple. For example I read an article a couple of years ago when they came out with three D printing. They do three D industrial printing. I didn't really know anything about this. It could be what I'm saying doesn't make sense, but I think it does.

11:53 And they said that the mila of three D printing on an industrial level was that you could make jet engines out of three D printers And why was that so chashuv? Because a jet engine has so many component parts Every single part has the capacity to break, and if one part breaks, it can compact the entire machine. But when you have something that's truly one, it's made from one gush, it's one chaticha, it's one zakh. So then, the chances of it breaking are much slimmer because there's not all these parts that have to work together. When they 3D print something, they can make it into one piece. It's not multiple pieces; it's one piece. There's a mileage to having something being one. But even that's not true oneness because even if we were to take one cup This cup is made of many molecules and atoms. Everything by its nature in this world is diverse. There is no such thing as unity in this world.

12:49 When we speak about Hakadosh Baruch Hu being one, we mean in an unfathomable way that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is not a composite of many things. In fact, in truth, there is nothing that we can say about Hakadosh Baruch Hu. For example, if we say that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is wise We don't mean to say Chas v'Shalom that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is wise Because in a certain way that would be limiting Hakadosh Baruch Hu, saying he's finite. He is wise. What we mean to say is the faculty that we would say in this world is unwise is not true by Hakadosh Baruch Hu. He's not lacking anything. Or we can see a manifestation of wisdom. But even to say that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is wise, we can't say it. Because there's nothing about Hakadosh Baruch Hu that has multiplicity. There's no such thing as wise and emotionally intelligent. These things are by their very nature two different things. A human being is a composite. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is one ba'achtos apshita. Meaning, there's no nature of Hakadosh Baruch Hu that we can possibly express in words. Because even a word, by its very nature, is finite.

14:00 This gives us an unbelievable insight into creation itself. What is creation? Creation is a very deep idea. Creation is Hakadosh Baruch Hu, who is beyond comprehension. Screening Himself, so to speak To allow for a diverse world to come from Him A world that has parts, a world of multiplicity. But Hakadosh Baruch Hu himself By his very nature It is beyond any description. But he gives rise to a world that exists within creation. This is a bad example. The truth of the matter is, we have no idea what infinite means. Even to say that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is infinite, we can't say because that's a description on some level. But let's say we had, just as an example, an infinite amount of numbers. To take one of those numbers and extract that one number and say, "here is one number of an infinite amount of numbers" It doesn't diminish the infinity, but it's an expression of one of an infinite amount of numbers. When we look at anything in this world, when we look at the trees, when we look at the ocean, when we look at the forests, anything that exists in this world, what it is one aspect that we've pulled out, so to speak, from a Hakadosh Baruch Hu's infinite expanse.

15:25 But that also means, and here's the catch on a philosophical level: that complexity, by its very nature, hides godliness. And the more complex that something is, the more hidden Hakadosh Baruch Hu is. And so, there's a tremendous value to complexity. There's value to being a complex person. But the moment you enter into the complexity of a person, you also lose something very precious. And what we lose is the simple nature of our Kadosh Baruch Hu's essence. And it's possible in this world for a Jew to be a tremendous Tamachachim. To know Shas cold To daven three times a day, to be sitting on a briskerov and working through a briskerov until he mamish gets every single detail and the complexity of that briskerov and the geshmack that he has from that briskerov. Is off the charts And yet it's also possible that in the process of that learning That Jew will lose something exceptionally precious Because they've become such a complex person.

16:37 They could cash v'shalom lose out on the simplicity, the childlike simplicity of serving Hashem just because you're a Jew. The medrash. We all know we've probably heard it a million times already. The sukkahs. The medrash says that the dalim minim, each one of the dalim minim, represent a different type of Jew. So we know that a lulav, we'll start with an esrog. An esrog has taste and smell, and that refers to a Jew that has Torah and meisim tovim. And then we know that there's a lulav. A lulav, of course, has taste but no smell, because a date has taste but doesn't smell. So that refers to a tamu chacham, but he doesn't have ma'asim tovim. And then we know there's another type of Jew. Who's the hadassim. The hadassim smell very good, but they have no taste. So those are Jews that have ma'asim tovim, but they don't necessarily have tyra. And then finally, there's the arava.

17:36 And the arava has neither taste nor smell. And the Arava is that Jew that doesn't learn Torah And doesn't have Ma'asim Tefil. That's the simple meaning of the Medrash. But there is a deeper explanation of this Medrash. That's stunning, gorgeous. It's an unbelievable explanation. It refers not to level of observance. All four Jews All four Jews, and perhaps all four of these are inside of us. All four Jews are equally observant. All four Jews learn Torah and do mitzvos. The question is not whether we perform the mitzvos, but what our cleave is for those mitzvos. So there are Jews that are esrog type of Jews That they get a gishmak from learning a Shveri Rambam That it energizes them, that they see a problem in a Rambam and they can't sleep at night. It's an awesome feeling. Not every Jew is like that. There are Jews who wake up on fire to do chesed.

18:43 I'll share with you. This is not a plug. I'll share with you that I was very privileged when I was in Mevaseret many, many years ago. At this point, twenty four years ago. I had a roommate. My roommate's name was Jonathan Donath. Some of you might know Dr. Jonathan Donath because he's the founder of Daily Giving. Daily giving, Baruch Hashem, is raising over eleven thousand dollars a day for tzedak. Unbelievable! Nobody is surprised. Nobody who knew Jonathan Donath is surprised in the least that he started a tremendous tzedakah organization because the guy loved chesed. I was his roommate. If there was ever an opportunity to do something for another Jew, he was on it. There are Jews that are like that. The Asherov Jew is a guy who's on fire for mitzvos. He's on fire for limud atyra. Not every Jew is like that. Some Jews love the beis medrash. They sit in the beis medrash. That's all they want to do. This is where they want to be. They walk into a beis medrash, and they found their place.

19:43 This is another Jew that walks into a beis medrash. He also sits and learns. He also opens up the Gemara, but he never quite feels at home. You know what I'm talking about? Now we have every one of you guys as Asherovim. I know what I'm talking about. Maybe I'm the only one. It's okay. I'm speaking to myself. Some Jews walk into a basic medrash. It's not for them. It doesn't mean they don't learn, but they don't get excited by it. They get excited by other aspects. They get excited by being in yeshiva. Those Jews that get excited by being in yeshiva just like to have friends. They just want to be around the chaver. They just want to be involved. But to sit and really push themselves? Nah, it's not for me so much. But they want to be there. You tell a Jew like that, where is Yair? Yair, you tell a Jew like Yair

20:31 Yair. I am sorry for embarrassing you. You embarrass me, and I have to embarrass you. You tell a Jew like Yair, Yair. Is the kitchen open? Of course, Rebbe. How can I get you food? There are people that are running to do chesed. There are people that they light. I am not. You are an Esser. I am not talking about you. I am talking about you. You know what I am saying? I am just saying. If you know what I am saying, yeah. Jews that light up when they have the opportunity to do chesed for another Jew—they run, Rebbe. What can I get you? Something beautiful about those Jews. And then there are Jews that are just not. They're not excited to do chesed. They're not excited to do. They're not excited to learn taira. And if you brought them to an amazing sheir, if you brought them to hear a sheir from From my Rebbe, when it was my Rebbe would sit on a difficult Rambam and work it out until it was mamish at the very tail end.

21:24 If you brought these Jews into my Rebbe Yisheir, they would sit there and be asleep in two seconds. And in which yeshiva? This was a long time ago. I learned in Landor College for men, Laafuke women. If you brought this Jew to my Rebbe They wouldn't know to do it themselves. They'd be asleep in two seconds. But they get such a geschmack. They come alive. They become enthused. Enthus is not even the right word. They want to be a part of it. If you tell a Jew like this, you're not. I'll tell you, mice. It's a bad mice. I shouldn't incriminate myself. Incriminate myself. I grew up in Yannisrof Farakow. Many years ago I was a kid. I didn't know any better. Maybe I was eight or nine years old when the story occurred. They have groups for the kids that can't go to shuls. They have groups in the basement. That's where they stuck the kids.

22:31 So Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, there were groups for the little kids that the parents should be able to come to shul to daven, and the little kids would go downstairs. I remember there was a group of kids, maybe five or six kids, that we would only see them twice a year. We'd only see them on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. They were the Russian Jews from Seeger Boulevard. Who would come to their parents would come to Daven and Shul, and these little Russian kids, the little Russian immigrants would come to Young Israel Farakway groups. I was a little kid; I didn't know any better, and I wasn't trying to be mean. I remember I wasn't trying to be mean, but I asked these kids, "I'm like" Why do you come? Where are you the rest of the year?

23:06 That was such a bad idea. First of all, do not mess with Russian immigrants, even if they're like eight, nine years old. Those kids are born thugs. That kid was going to take me out. I was nervous. The kid started screaming at me. What do you think you're better than me? You think you're more Jewish than I am? I was like, No, I didn't mean it like that. I felt like the worst Jew in the world. I was like, Eight years old. I was like, That's it. I'm done. Finished in my life. I can't go any. I'm not going to ever become anything in my life. He was screaming at me. The guy knew nothing. He was a simple eight-year-old little Jew. But you tell him that maybe he doesn't have a right to be in shul on Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur, and he'll throw you up against the wall. What do you mean? I'm a Jew. I'm a Jew just like you. You're not any better than me. He didn't get a geshmack from Torah. He didn't get a geshmack from mitzvos. But if you tell him you're a Jew, of course I am. What do you mean? Of course I am. Of course I shall do sholom shoshanim kippur. The medrash finishes. Medrash says that Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, take all of the dalad minim and bundle them together.

24:04 And each one. Together there'll be a kapara for them. The simple explanation of the medrash is that the esrog is like bringing a kapara for all of the other three. That the esrog comes along for the lulav and says, "this is my simtovim also." And it comes along to the hadassim and says, "this teru also." And it comes to the aravos and says, "here's teru and my simtovim." But if you look carefully at the medrash, this is what the Rebbe says, if you look carefully at the medrash It's not what it says. It says each one will be mechaper for each other one. In other words, there is something that every single person has to gain from every single other type of Jew. That the Estherog Even though it's on fire about its Torah and its mitzvos, it could learn something from the Jew who's only on fire about his Torah, or the Jew who's only on fire about his Keset, and even can learn something from the Aravos that are not on fire about anything except for the fact that they're a Jew. That the Estherog, with all of its complexity.

25:02 With all of its beauty, with all of its passion The estrogen needs to learn something from the simple Jew that shows up to the kotel for no other reason than I'm a Jew and I'm here. A couple of years ago, we're running out of time. A couple of years ago, my uncle Al My father's brother-in-law, my father's sister's husband Came for the first time to Eretz Yisrael And they booked a tour. It was like one of these specifically not Jewish tours. They didn't even go to the Kotel. Can you imagine coming on a tour your first time in Israel and not being brought to the Kotel? My father was very upset. And he told his sister, "It's not right. You're coming to Eretz Israel for the first time in your life. My parents live here." He said, "How could you How could you come to Israel and not go to the Kotel? So my aunt was hemming and hawing, and my father finally said, 'Enough! You have to extend your trip, and I am going to take you on a Jewish tour of Israel for a week.'

26:06 And I'll bring you to Kever Rachel, and I'll bring you to the Kotel, and I'll bring you to all the different sites that a Jew should see. And so she extended her trip. And it's the very last day of the trip, and they're going to the Kotel. My uncle Al is walking down the steps right here. My father's walking with him, and he sees that my uncle is visibly shaken. My uncle is not an observant Jew. Probably the last time that he put on tefillin was by his bar mitzvah. He's walking down the stairs. My father sees that Uncle Al is starting to get very emotional. So my father's holding his hand. They're walking down the stairs and they get to the plaza. And Uncle Al is starting to shake. And by the time they get to the wall, Uncle Al is a mess And he's sitting on the wall and just sobbing.

26:58 Just sobbing He looks at my father and he says, "Mitch" I have to put on tefillin. So, what do you do if you're at the Kotel? It's the middle of the day. There's a chabad. That's what chabad is there for—to put tefillin on Jews. No matter what time of day it is, except for Chol Moed. So they quickly called over the chabad and they put tefillin on my uncle. He hadn't had tefillin on since his bar mitzvah. They said shema with him. They do whatever they do. He was so emotional. He was so impacted by just putting on tefillin by the kotel that he turned to my father and he said We must go buy a pair of tefillin right now. So my father said, "Al, do you understand what tefillin cost? This is not like a hundred dollar purchase." It's going to cost you a thousand bucks.

27:51 Al, it doesn't matter. I must have tefillin. And they went to a cipher right here in the old city. They bought tefillin. Why did Al go to a she'er? Did he hear about the value of uniting your heart, your mind, and your strength every single day? Did he hear about the dvekas that comes and the shmirah that comes from putting on tefillin, of connecting yourself, wrapping yourself up in Hakadosh Baruch Hu's presence? I promise you, Al never heard any of those words in his life. He had no idea what was written in tefillin. He didn't know what tefillin were made of. All he knew is that a Jew should wear tefillin, and I should wear tefillin because I'm a Jew, and I should own a pair of tefillin. And I'll tell you, I have no idea. I've never had the courage to ask my uncle if he's ever put on the tefillin since, and I don't want to know because it's a better story this way.

28:42 But even if my uncle never put on tefillin again How incredible is it that he needed desperately? To own a pair of tefillin, why? Because he came to the Kotel. Those of us who are on fire about our Yiddishkeit, who are sitting in the Beis Medrash Yom and Velaila Who is doing Chesed Ma'isim Tovim We would do well to learn from people like Uncle El. This says the Balshemtov is what happens when a Jew In a simple way, serves Hashem. He has none of the complexity. Of those other types of Jews, and because he doesn't have that complexity, he's exactly like Hashem. Because remember, this world conceals Hashem with its complexity. But it's the simplicity of a Jew that reveals Hashem in this world. And this is why there are two different types of aravos. There's an arava of dalad minim An arava that's a simple Jew, but it's impacted. It's impacted by being with an esrog. It's impacted by being with a lulav. In a certain way, it's raised up. This arava lives in the world of diversity. It lives in the world of complexity. Even with its simplicity, because it's tied together with all of the other dalad minim.

29:59 And because it's tied together with all of the dalad minim, it has to reflect the complexity of the world. Which is why this arava has multiple twigs and multiple leaves. But then there's the arava of osana arava The arava that's not connected to any of the dalad minim. The arava that stands alone stands by itself in its total simplicity—one twig, one leaf. This is an arava that cannot be bound by time; it cannot live within the world of time. There cannot be a mitsias where it's impacted by the world. So Rabbi Shuman says, if we have a choice between Rosh Hashanah and Shofar Or Hoshana Raba and the aravos, make sure that we don't lose out on Hoshana Raba and the aravos. Better for us to lose the da'uraisa of Shofar. Than to lose out on the simplicity of a Jew Who reflects the ultimate pashtus, the ultimate unity of Hashem.

30:53 I want to read to you from the Hesped of Rav Chaim Heller from Rav Saloveitchik. Listen to the words that he says, because they're incredible words. The great man, whose intellect has been raised to a superior level through the study of Torah, is gifted with well-developed, overflowing powers of depth, scope, and sharpness. But should not be viewed as totally adult. The soul of a child nestles within him. On the one hand, he is sated with knowledge, strong of intellect, rich in experience, sober-sighted, crowned with age, great of spirit. But on the other hand, he remains young and playful. Like a child, naive curiosity, natural enthusiasm, eagerness, and spiritual restlessness have not abandoned him. If a man has aged and become completely adult, if the morning of life has passed him by and he stands in spirit and soul at his high noon, bleached of the dew of his childhood, if he has grown up completely in thinking, feeling, desire, and trust He cannot approach God.

31:58 The adult is too clever. Utility is his guiding light. The experience of God is not a business-like affair. Only the child can breach the boundaries that segregate the finite from the infinite. Only the child, with his simple faith and fiery enthusiasm Can make the miraculous leap into the bosom of God. Rabbi Sighet says, "Shani Raba, we should be blessed with childlike innocence" With simple faith, To do Jewish things just because we're Jewish To be on fire not only with our Torah, but with Yiddishkeit itself. Perhaps to be a little less complex But just in a very childlike way, with the wonder of a child, to be able to say I'm a Jew. That's a wonderful and beautiful thing. Rabbi say to be a good and ma'id, a good and young, a good and klip. That's great.