Hoshana Rabbah - To Live in a Pleasant World

2:51 I'll add in some ideas that I think are my own. But the fundamental idea that I'm sharing with you tonight, I can't take credit for. It's Rav Lapiansky's idea. For those of you that have not had the opportunity to be exposed to the Torah of Rav Lapiansky, I highly encourage you to listen to every word that comes out of his mouth. Stuff is absolutely brilliant. So Rav Lapiansky asks as follows: We know that David HaMelech is called Na'im Zmira Yisroel. He's the sweet singer of Klal Yisroel. The word Na'im is a funny word. What exactly does the word na'im mean? To say that David HaMelech's songs are pleasant It's not exactly what one would expect. Music has the capacity to be powerful and emotionally soul-stirring. To say that music is pleasant, that the music of David HaMelech is pleasant, that he's na'im z'miro sishral It's a funny type of language. What exactly does the word na'im mean?

3:57 In fact The Zayin Hakadosh writes that Olam Haba is called Noam. That the idea of pleasantness is something that Olam Haba will be. Olam Haba will be a pleasant type of experience, which is also something that one would not expect. Olam Haba, we would think that it would be exceptional, transcendent. The idea that Olam Haba is somehow a pleasant place seems to be an underwhelming type of word. What exactly does the Zarah Kadosh mean? And Rvlapiansky explains as follows: When we say that we had a pleasant conversation with somebody So generally, what we mean is it was a difficult conversation, but it was surprisingly pleasant. In other words I'm here tonight with a chaver of mine that I've known since I was two years old. Elliott Steinmetz is here tonight. I would not say And it's been fun spending the last hour and a half with you. I would not say that seeing you was pleasant. I would say seeing my old friend is exciting. Seeing my old friend brings me back.

5:15 I would not say seeing my old friend is pleasant. When you have to have a difficult conversation with somebody and you have to say something you don't really want to say. You say, in the end, it was okay. It was a pleasant conversation. In other words, pleasant is when two things that shouldn't mix somehow work together. It's a pleasant type of experience. In other words Pleasant means that somehow you threaded the needle. That there's these two things that shouldn't go together, but somehow they were able to go together. The idea here is that spirituality and physicality should not go together. You would not expect them to go together, and the truth of the matter is, al piderach ateva spirituality and physicality do not mesh. And at the core of this, there's something we need to understand in a very real way, which is as follows: There's a concept. Every person in this room is working on this, including myself.

6:22 There's a concept called self-actualization. Self-actualization is the idea that there's a gap between who we are right now and who we know that we're supposed to be—a vision of what life is supposed to look like. And there's a frustration that exists in this room because that gap feels deeply uncomfortable, and we have all sorts of words that we use to explain why we're not self-actualizing. We'll say I know that I should, but I'm lazy. I know that I should, but I'm an addict. I know that I should, but this is my genetic predisposition. In other words, the idea of self-actualization—you very rarely meet people that are self-actualized. You very rarely meet people that are the version of themselves that they want to be. Most of us are not. Most of us are, by derech, somewhere along the way, we're in process. We're striving to make our ideal into our real, but most of us are not like that. Most of us, there's a gap. For many of you coming this year for Yeshana Aleph You said, "this is going to be the year when I stop doing X or when I start doing Y." For those of you that are Shana Bet, you already know the frustration of I already had a year and I'm still not there.

7:38 And the truth of the matter is that it could be 30, 40, 50 years from now and you still won't be there. Why is self-actualization so difficult? People from all sorts of different walks of life will give you different answers. I'd like to share with you Perhaps a Jewish approach to this question. Self is a spiritual concept. Self is not a physical concept. Self is a spiritual concept. It's impossible, from a religious perspective, to talk about self without talking about God. Those are the same thing. What is the self if not a ray of the sun? If God is the sun, then we are His rays. The notion of self is a spiritual idea. Talking to each other is one self talking to another. It's not our physical self that's talking to another physical self. It's our true self, a spiritual self, communicating on a deep level with another spiritual self. Spiritual self is not a concept that's tangible in this world.

8:35 Actualization means to bring myself, who I truly am, the spiritual concept of me, down into this physical world. The reason why self-actualization is so difficult is because we live in a material world that should not naturally be a host to our spiritual self. In other words, if you really understand this idea, and I hope that you do Then what you'll do is cut yourself a break. You'll cut yourself a break because you recognize that I'm here in this world doing something that's on a certain level inorganic. I'm trying to do something that's metaphysical. I'm trying to do something that's, in a certain sense, nearly impossible. The idea that I can bridge these two worlds—the spiritual world and the physical world, the self and the actualization—and make them into one is an exceptionally difficult thing to do, perhaps almost impossible. I heard a story from Dr. Pelkowitz.

9:38 I hope many of you have heard of him. He's a very famous psychologist. He said that he went to visit Rav Yashiv. I think, if I'm not mistaken, Rav Yashiv was 101 at the time. And he asked Rav Yashiv, "When does the tayvas nashim get easier?" When does a person's desire for nashim diminish on some level? Rav Yashiv answered Dr. Palkuets, "The first hundred years are the hardest." He was 101 at the time. In other words, there's a physical personality that we have. And to transform that physical personality into something that's beyond what we are is almost unfathomable. When you see a very righteous man, when you see a real tzaddik, you look at them almost in the sense of looking at an alien being, somebody that has no shayches to my world. It's difficult to comprehend how that person could be here with us.

10:39 We see this idea expressed in the Gemara in Shabbos. The Gemara in Shabbos tells us. I know many of you have probably heard this Gemara before, but it bears repeating. The Gemara in Shabbos tells us that Moshe Rabbeinu went up to Shamayim to receive the Torah from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Without getting into all the details of the Gemara, the Malachim had two tainas on Hashem. They said, first of all, who is this Yalud Ishah? Who is this son of a woman who's come up here, and what is he coming for? And Hakadosh Baruch Hu said he's coming to receive the Torah, and the Malachim said, 'You're giving the Torah that was created 974 generations before the creation of the world to a person.' And Hakadosh Baruch Hu said to Meir Shabenu, 'New, answer the question.' And Meir Shabenu goes on to answer the question, referring to all the physical things that are within the Torah. You don't have tayva for this. You don't have a desire for that. All the things in the Torah are not shyakh to you. They're physical things. And the Gemara ends by the Malachim giving Moshe Rabbeinu brachos that he should be capable of transmitting the Torah and so on and so forth.

11:39 The question is, what's going on in this Gemara? And perhaps one can suggest that's what's going on is as follows: the Torah, in its core, is a spiritual sefer. It is not a physical sefer. The Malachim are arguing that it's so spiritual a sefer that it doesn't really have a place in this world. It was created nine hundred and seventy four generations before the creation of the world, meaning it's distant from the world. There's no yachas between this spiritual thing and this physical world. A yulud isha, a human mortal, a son of a woman, is not capable, no matter what level they're on, even if they're a person that could ascend to Shamayim to receive the Torah. It's not possible for them to bring it down into the world. And Hakadosh Baruch Hu, in a fascinating turn of events, doesn't answer the question of the Malachim.

12:28 In fact, he does exactly the opposite of what we would think. He turns to Moshe Rabbeinu and he says, "Answer the question" As if to say, Moshe Rabbeinu, the answering of the question that you'll give to the Malachim is the avoda itself, meaning Moshe Rabbeinu's capacity to answer the Malachim. It is exactly what was needed in order for Moshe Rabbeinu to successfully transmit the Torah. And Moshe Rabbeinu's response is not to deny the spirituality of the Torah. But it's to tap into what we'll call the neimus of Torah, the pleasantness of Torah. Torah is deracheha darchei noam. What does that mean? That its ways are pleasant. It means that there's something that's exceptionally spiritual, but that exceptionally spiritual thing has a place within the physical world. And I want to take a moment to express why that is. It's not impressive for a spiritual being to express himself in a spiritual universe. That's not an impressive feat.

13:30 It's impressive if something spiritual can express itself. If it's truly infinite, then it can express itself even in the finitude of this world. For example. They say B'derekh Mashal that there was a very famous professor who was a professor of neuropsychology neurobiology and the greatest students in the university would take his class and one day he announced that class tomorrow was canceled because I was invited to speak at my first grade grandson's Bring your zaidi to work day. They have like bring your father to work day. Bring your zaidi to work day. So my class is canceled. Anyone who wants, the professor jokingly says, is welcome to come to my first grade class tomorrow. Of course, we're talking about students that are learning on a doctoral level. They have no interest in attending this first grader class, except for one student. One student showed up the next day at the grandson's class to take the class.

14:38 And when he shows up, he's sitting there taking notes. And he's explaining what he teaches in neurobiology and what he studies. Here's this doctoral student taking notes. The next day, class resumes at the university. And the professor says, "It's good to see you. I saw you yesterday. It's good to see you again today." And all the other students are perplexed. Why did you bother to go to hear the class of our professor given on a first grade level As if there's something there that you don't know? So the student responds, and he says, "Actually, the greatest class that I ever heard from him was yesterday." That was the greatest class. And they say, "Why? It was elementary." The capacity to take an idea and deliver it in a sophisticated fashion to sophisticated people is not very impressive. But to take a sophisticated idea, boil it down to its raw bare bones, and deliver it with clarity so that even a first grader would understand it.

15:39 That's brilliant. That's truly brilliant. In yeshivas, I don't mean to say a not nice thing, but in yeshivas today, there's a funny sort of thing. If a rebbe gives shir and nobody understands it, that's called greatness. If it's like you walk out of the shir and the talmid go, how was the shir? It was amazing. What did he say? Why is that impressive? It's impressive because you might be astounded that here is such a genius, but a truly great rebbe knows how to communicate the chomer, the subject matter, to his talmidim in such a way that it's palatable and understandable. My rebbe Shlita Shabbos Achter Rav Shlomo is now ninety-six years old. His godless was that he said such a sophisticated she'er in such a clear fashion. The new guys coming back from Eretz Yisrael, when they would come to the She'er, would go, "I don't understand. The She'er seems so obvious," and it would take me time. I was one of the older guys in the She'er. It would take me time to communicate to them.

16:37 The godless of the She'er is that it was obvious, but go try to do it yourself, and that they were never able to do. The infinite nature of Hakadosh Baruch Hu is most beautifully expressed when it's seen in the physical world, when the physical world has the capacity to contain, in some fashion, in some measure, to have some level of grasp of understanding of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That's the greatest experience of Hakadosh Baruch Hu's infinitude, far greater than if Hakadosh Baruch Hu would be understood in the spiritual worlds. And this is what Moshe Rabbeinu was communicating to the Malachim. He was saying to the Malachim "It's true that this is a spiritual book. It's a spiritual book." That's daracheh darcheh noam. The neimus, the pleasantness of the sefer, is that it's somehow able to be found and expressed within the finite world. And that's why the malachim showered him with brachos, brachos from a lashon of brecha that you should be zeicha to connect this to its source, that you should thread the needle between the spiritual and the physical.

17:41 This is what it means that olam haba is called noam, that olam haba is a pleasant place. Olam haba, according to many, is this world. Olam hazeh is the world as it currently is. Olam haba is this world as it will one day be. This world has the capacity to become a finite universe without losing its finitude, and somehow it will be able to contain Hakadosh Baruch Hu in a way that He will be revealed in this world. That's what Olam Haba is. That's the neimus of Torah. It has the capacity to make this world a pleasant place. The soul feels exceptionally uncomfortable in this place. Those of us in this world that feel most uncomfortable with the distance between the spiritual and the physical are what's called addicts. An addict is somebody who feels, in a very visceral sense, the gap. Between the spiritual and the physical, that's why they drink. It's why they do what they're doing. There's a desire for something more. This sort of infinite hole that they have inside of themselves that they somehow can't fill up. It's why there's this infinite need to fill it up because the hole is an inf. It's a god-sized hole. It's a massive hole. So there's almost nothing that can contain it. These people are acutely aware of the distance between spirituality and physicality.

19:01 This is really the idea. Of what singing is. A song, and I was having this conversation about two and a half hours ago with somebody. We have a tendency in our world to And there's something beautiful about this, but it's incomplete. We have a tendency in our world to emphasize math and science. And the reason we emphasize math and science is because it's very easily measurable. It's very easily understood. If I can see this and I can see how it works and I can understand the formula, I don't need to play many games. But in the world of poetry, in the world of music, in the world of art, in the world of love These things are not subject to the truth of math and science. They can't be limited to the truth of math and science. There are multiple disciplines that exist in this world.

19:55 To sing It's not just the vulnerability of singing But when a person sings and they close their eyes They're having a uniquely spiritual type of experience down here within the physical world. It's why the Gemara in Megillah tells us we're meant to learn Torah with a song. It's meant to be learned in a pleasant way because Torah is something pleasant, and because it's something that has the capacity to bridge our physical world and our spiritual world. A song is an expression of uniting these worlds. It's why there's a certain rebellion that's occurred in the last twenty years, and I think you guys are probably the culmination of that rebellion. And it's a beautiful rebellion. There's a culmination against this sort of dry Judaism. There's an intellectual component to Judaism. But I would say at least for me, I think it started rolling in the early '90s, mid '90s. There started to be this rebellion from the youth, which is always where the holy rebellion takes place, of this rejection of intellectual Judaism. Not rejection in the sense that we didn't want it to be intellectual, but that it wasn't enough. It didn't. It wasn't na'im. It wasn't a pleasant experience. And there's been a corrective measure in our community. We see it, where there's much more of an emphasis also on a fabrangi and also on a kumsitz and also on dancing.

21:29 And we'll call it the more poetic side of Judaism, which of course the great gadolim of the last generation had. There's no doubt. If you listen to Rv Salivichik, now we have the opportunity to hear a lot of his stuff. They're bringing a lot of it out. If you listen to Rv Salivichik speak, it's clear that passion was there, but it wasn't expressed in the community in an obvious way. And today we've done a much better job of that, and talmidim rightfully so are pushing for it. They don't want a dry Judaism. It's because they're saying this has to be a shayna with zimra. It has to be speaking with song. We could not have planned it better. The Rebbeinu Shlomoh smiled on us now three times today. The first two, I got a spot in my mila just as it opened up, and then someone left just as I was coming, and just as we're giving a she'er about singing, Baruch Hashem, these beautiful Jews are accompanying us.

22:26 Don't tell them to stop. It's good. This is like background music. When a person learns without a song It's. It's lacking. If you ever go into the real mussar yeshivas, you ever had the opportunity to go into a yeshiva that really learns mussar? If it's a real yeshiva with a real mussar seder, they have a nign for learning mussar. They don't just say the words; they actually sing it, and because they sing it, it penetrates in a deeper way. It's possible to make fun of this. I know many years ago, there's a story. There's a story of a certain person who's now very chashev a rebbe, but back when he was shana bet, he was leading the tish of his yeshiva on Thursday night. And his point was that he was telling the guys You guys are like shuckling and closing your eyes and you're having this spiritual type of experience, but you have no idea what you're saying when you sing the songs, so maybe inappropriately he started a niggun and this is how the niggun went. Ya des ketana chazi mechal, ya des gedola mecha male. And the whole place started singing and was going arm in arm, and everyone was dancing.

23:45 For those of you that don't know, on the old Israeli toilets, there were two handles. The smaller handle made a half a flush, and the larger handle made a full flush. And he was singing, Ya des ketana, the small handle chazi mechal makes half a flush. Ya des gedola, the large handle mecha male makes a full flush. And you had to see the guys in the yeshiva. He tells the story. They were like, "Yo, this ketan ha'chatsim, guys." And afterwards, he got up and he smoked. He said, "Guys, the words matter, right? It's like just thumb to be like moshuga about something is not a spiritual experience. But when a person learns Torah in a pleasant way, we see that it has a penetrating type of impact. It's an emotional experience. Nobody would get down on one knee in front of their wife and go. Nobody makes me secrete oxytocin like you. The serotonin that I experience when I'm with you is the greatest serotonin I've ever had. It's not untrue. It's just foolish."

24:39 It's the discipline of science trying to apply itself to something that can't contain science. In a certain way, the language of poetry is higher than the language of science. It's not that one is more true than the other. It's that the language of poetry can give meaning to science, but science doesn't necessarily give meaning to poetry. And there was a pushback, a rebellion from the youth that they needed more of the other side, and I think it was a beautiful rebellion. But it's really what we're supposed to do. This is the godless of David and Melach. Of course, when Moshe Rabbeinu sang Moshe Rabbeinu sang Shiras Hazinu. Moshe Rabbeinu's songs were exceptional songs. But David and Melach is Neim Zmirus Yisrael. The godless of David and Melach is that he's somehow able to bridge the gap between infinite and finite with his music, which is why even though the Beit Hamikdash was Perhaps born into the world of Shlom HaMelech, but it was conceived in the world of David HaMelech. The idea that David HaMelech could thread the needle with his song and bring down a Beis Hamikdash into this world is a uniquely David HaMelech type of experience.

25:43 And that's why David HaMelech is really the bechyna of Hayshana Raba. This whole season This whole season, where am I holding on time? So he knows the time. Thirty four. Finish up the whole season from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur to Sukkot is a world of self actualization, but it's also a world of imagination. The idea that we can imagine ourselves on Rosh Hashanah being Mamlech Hashem is a very strange type of imagination that we're having. That a mere mortal could stand before God and declare Him to be King for otherwise He would not be. What does that mean? That's an exceptional imagination that our malchus of Hakadosh Baruch Hu matters, and that we stand on Yom Kippur in this imaginary courtroom, and we're being judged. That's a very unique type of imagination, as if our actions matter. We're imagining that our actions matter, and not only do they matter, but they have infinite matter.

26:41 And then we imagine ourselves in the sukkah, and the sukkah is actually a world of imagination. The entire sukkah may tchilav ad sof is imagination. First of all, those for those of you that have been learning the halachas of sukkah, so the notion of lavud and gadasik and even the walls are imaginary, right? The entire notion of a sukkah is an imaginary type of experience. And what are the yushpiz in there? Imaginary guests, right? There is a world of imagination that's going on within this entire period. But what's really happening underneath the surface? A buildup And the buildup actually starts by Pesach. Pesach is called Chag HaAviv, which means that our wheat is now reached a level of maturation where it's shyach to the world of being harvested, but it's not yet fully mature. And then on Shavuos, it's Chag Hakatzir. Now it's able to be harvested. It's reached a level of maturation. And on Sukkot, we have Chag HaAsif. Now we're ready to gather it in. What do these things mean?

27:37 So the Bavuchar Rebbe's Echitzalik of Racha expresses that Chag Haviv means the world of Emuna, the foundation of everything. It's not yet something that's tangible or practical, but it's something that we have with us. On Shavuos, it starts to become actionable. We're given the mitzvos, so now we can bring it into the world. But there is a gap, and I think this gap is really what we're highlighting tonight. We've been given the world of mitzvos. But are the mitzvot? Do they truly belong to us? We had tonight a siyam shas. What an incredible way! First of all, to start Oshana Rabu with a siyam shas And what an amazing achievement from, of course, such a special family. But there's an old Yiddish saying: Do you know shas cold or do you know it warm? There are some people that know shas cold, but it's something extrinsic to their being, and there are some people that know shas warm. It's a part of the very fiber of who they are. It's the difference between a habit Which is just something that you do, but it's external, versus a worldview. That's the way you see it. It's naturally who you are.

28:47 To know shas warm means it's part of you. In this zman between shvuas and sukkas, all the grain is lying there and it's being cooked out by the sun. On Chag HaAsif, on Sukkot, we bring it into our homes. In other words, we're saying a mitzvah is no longer an external thing, but it's a worldview. It's the way that I'm behaving in my life naturally. Kaviyachol, I'm just using this as an example because we've almost spoke about it within the last hour. But I was talking to Coach Steinmetz, and I had asked him because I heard a rumor and we occupied the same court many years ago. Because you were playing much better than I was. I was there on the court. But Elliot hasn't called a play. Would you say six, seven years? Because there's a difference between calling a play in which I'm surmising.

29:45 I hope I'm right. Please just don't say anything if I'm wrong. There's a difference between calling a play and then having to mechanically act it out versus knowing the way that the game is supposed to flow. There's a natural, organic type of experience when something becomes a part of you. That's really what we're here to do. We're here in this yomtiv to actualize what was given to us on shavuos And that's a very difficult thing to do because, as we said, it's quite unnatural. If sukkah is the chag haasif Then hoshaanah raba is the final stage of this asifah. It's the last moments of inculcating these ideas into ourselves. Which is why it's appropriate that David HaMelech is the one to be present in Hoshana Rabbah, because David HaMelech is the bechinner of being able to actualize everything that was in the world of potential up until now. All the ushpies up until now are actualized within the world of David HaMelech's malchus. Malchus means to actualize what came before you. So David HaMelech, who's Neim Zmiros Yisraeli, has the capacity to thread the needle to merge the physical and the spiritual in this final moment of self-actualization. Of course, it's Davar HaMelech who's present.

30:56 And that's why Mechemes Gogu Magog takes place tonight. Mechemes Gogu Magog is the final stage before Mashiach comes. It's the final battle of bringing in Olam Habayit. It's the world of actualization. And this is really how we started. What does it mean that I have the capacity on Hoshana Rabbah to undo that which was done on Yom Kippur? It's not a cute var. It's not just like a like. It's almost like in our heads, at least the way I grew up. When I heard this idea that on Shana Raba the Petek was delivered, so I was like, that's like a cute thing to say. First, Hakadosh Baruch Hu signs it, and then he seals it, and then he delivers it. It sounds like a nice vart. But when you understand it in its depth, it's saying something much more profound. The whole idea of what we're doing here is we're standing in front of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, saying. Let's examine ourselves where we are and where we want to be.

31:50 On Rosh Hashanah, we're being mamlech Hashem. That's the beginning of the stages of tshuva. Aseret Yemei Tshuva, there's a self-examination that's happening. On Yom Kippur, there's a psak. This is how I've done. But now there's a question that exists after Yom Kippur. Who are you? On Yom Kippur, you sat there screaming at the end. Shema Yisrael, Shemolkeinu, Hashem Echad. You were saying Baruch Hashem Kbeid Malchuso out loud. Like, who are you? We've been given a period of time since Yom Kippur to be able to definitively answer the question of what direction our life will take. That's the question that's being asked of us. We think on Yom Kippur it's over. We were all singing Lashana Abayishalayim. It's the culmination. It's the beginning, and the trajectory is everything. Because what you'll learn as you get older, and for those that are a little bit older in the room, I think you'll confirm. Remember when we were 18? Remember when we were 19? It was a long time ago for us already, right, Mr. Asman? It seems like only a couple of minutes, but it was a long time ago already. And what you'll see is At the very young stages of life You and your friends might be like this. You'll notice a slight move this way and a slight move that way.

33:06 And at nineteen years old, I would call it barely discernible. At twenty three, it becomes a little bit more discernible. By the time you're forty three, Rebbezi, that small That small tiny trajectory could take you to two very different places in your life. There's nothing wrong with that. You're supposed to go different places. But the idea that there's a trajectory to your year is an important one to focus on. What does this year look like for us? Hoshaanu Rabba has the opportunity to undo anything that was done. Because we're saying to Hakadosh Baruch Hu in a very beautiful way, whatever psakdin you gave us, however you saw us, you should know lemaisa this my trajectory. We have a tendency in this world; it's a very dangerous thing. We have a tendency in this world to stamp people and say, "This who you are" And 'This who you are.' We look at a fifteen year old kid and we write him up. We go, 'This kid's an ADHD kid. This kid's an athlete. This kid's a nerd.' This kid plays chess during lunch. So he's going to be an accountant. Everybody has their thing. We stamp, sign, seal them and deliver. This who you are, and it's not true.

34:10 It's not true. Elliot and I were talking earlier today. We were reminiscing about our classmates, and it's true that for the most part we could have predicted it, but there were a couple of people that we definitely couldn't have predicted, and those people are, in some ways, far more successful than we ever could have dreamed. And I guess what I want to share with you as we finish tonight is: don't let anyone put you in a box. Don't let anyone tell you who you are. The trajectory of your life—yes, it might have been written about you, and it might have even been sealed about you—that you're one type of person. But when you make the decision, la ma'isa, this my trajectory. You could go wherever you want. It doesn't matter what's been written about you until now. A person who spends Hoshanah Rabbah night learning, a person who says to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the trajectory of my year is different.

34:54 It doesn't have to be the way that I thought it was going to be. I'm open. I'm patuach to all the vulnerability of all the decisions. You should know that's a life-changing decision, not the decision that you'll make, but the decision to put yourself in a certain trajectory is something that you'll look back on thirty, forty, fifty years from now, and you can't possibly have an appreciation at eighteen years old of what these small moves will look like. A small move tonight to come to Oshana Raba and Yeshiva Lakotel to participate in this Ha'el Ga'asifa. Of all these different yeshivas coming together. You might think it's nothing. You might think, "I came Moshe and Rabbanite. It was a yeshiva league thing to do." It's not true. You didn't have to be here. I'm sorry I used the word yeshiva league. I see many of you got to snicker because I used the word yeshiva league. Later we can have another shiur describing what yeshiva league isn't, is, and isn't. I've been told there's multiple shiitas. Depends if you play ball and you're out of town, but you went to Morasha. Do you have the din of a yeshiva league? I'm familiar with all the permutations of these svaras. Don't let anyone tell you that your trajectory doesn't matter. You made a decision tonight. It's one move, God willing, in a series of moves that Be'ez Hashem will take us to an exceptional year, a holy year, a year of being Mamlechah Kadosh Baruch Hu.