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It's a well-known Gemara in Rosh Hashanah that many of us are familiar with. The Gemara says Lama ta'ikinu marian kasein yoshvim v'ta'ikinu marian kasein aymdim. How come on Rosh Hashanah we blow the shofar twice? We blow the shofar by what's called the tekiot de miyushav Tekiot where we sit. Even though many people today don't sit during these tekiot, They stand. They're still called the tekiot de miyushav. These are the tekiot that we blow before musaf. But we also blow again by what's called the tekiot de meumad. These are the tekiot that are blown during musaf. The Gemara is asking, how come we blow the shofar twice, once by the tekiot to Me'ushev and once by the tekiot to Me'umad? And the Gemara says, 'Kadei la'arbe v'asata.' We do this in order to confuse the sata. There are two questions on this Gemara. They are pretty well-known questions.
Number one, what is it about blowing shofar twice? That confuses the satan. And number two, you can confuse someone once. You can confuse someone twice. Klal Yisrael has been blowing the shofar for thousands of years. At some point, the satan catches on. It's not confusing anymore. I get it. They blow shofar twice. Once by the Tzadikios to Meushav and once by the Tzadikios to Meumad. So whatever confusion the Satan had for the first five years, the first ten years, Misterama the Satan has figured it out. So what is the nature of this confusion that even today, thousands of years after we were told to blow the Shofar, we've been doing this for thousands of years? What is still so confusing about blowing the Shofar twice? Another question. Another Gemara in Rosh Hashanah, we know, ain kategar nasasanegar. Certain halachas, things that we don't do inside of the Kodesh Hakadoshim, because it will remind Hakadosh Baruch Hu of the Chayta Egel.
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So one of the things that we don't do is, or the Gemara says, if that was true, ain kategar nasasanegar, then one of the things we shouldn't do is blow the shofar. Certainly, that's going to remind Hakadosh Baruch Hu of the Chayta Ega. The Gemara says, 'No, it doesn't apply, because it's outside of the Kodesh Hakadosh.' And the Gemara answers, 'No, even though the shofar is blown outside of the Kodesh Hakadosh, it's like it's inside the Kodesh Hakadosh.' The obvious question is, but it's outside of the Kodesh Hakadosh. What does it mean that when you blow the shofar, it brings you inside of the Kodesh Hakadosh? You're outside of the Kodesh Hakadosh. And another question, another gemara in Rashi Shama. What's the halacha if you have a shayfer b'taych shayfer? You have one shayfer inside of another shayfer, and you blow. What's the halacha? So the gemara says, in kol pni mi shama yatsa. If you heard the call, if you heard the voice, the sound of the inner shofar, then you're yotzei. The emkalchitzon shama lo yotzei. But if you heard the call of the outside shofar, then you're not yotzei. What's the difference?
This call, that call. I heard a shofar. So what does it make a difference if I heard the call of the kol pnimi shofar or the kol chitzon? What's the difference? Either way, I heard a shofar. How come I'm not yotzei? And another question. We read on the first day of Rosh Hashanah the story of Yismael, who is dying in the Midbar. And we all know the Rashi. I'm sure everybody in the room knows the Rashi. The Malachim came to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and they said to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, 'Are you really going to save this child who's about to die? Are you going to save him with a be'er? You're going to bring water to this kid. Do you know what the descendants of this kid Yishmael are going to do to Klal Yisrael?' Many years later, when Nevuach Netzar exiled Klal Yisrael, we were being marched through the desert, and the Jews were very thirsty, and they asked their captors. They said, 'We're so thirsty. But we see over there in the distance is the descendants of Yismael.'
So please bring us over to our cousins. They'll give us something to drink. And what did the descendants of Yismael do? They gave us salty fish, and they gave us salty meat. And then we were dying of thirst. And they gave us these empty hides that we thought were filled with water. And we put it in our mouth, and we pushed on the hides. And the air that came into our mouths because it was so salty and so dry in our mouths killed us. So the Malachim come to our Kodesh Baruch Hu, and they say, 'You have an opportunity to kill Baby Hitler. You have an opportunity to let Yisrael die in the desert.' And you're going to save Yisshmal, and not only are you going to save Yisshmal, you're going to save him with water, the very instrument that one day he's going to use to torture Klal Yisrael. And Hakadosh Baruch Hu responds, 'Ba'asher Hu Sham.' We judge a person not by what they ultimately will become; we judge a person as they are right now.
It's almost incomprehensible what the Rebbeinu Shlom is saying. We judge people. I understand we judge people when they're young. We don't know who they'll become. We're human beings. The Rebbeinu Shlom knows that this child Yisshmael is going to give birth to descendants that are going to torture Klal Yisrael. You have the opportunity to save Klal Yisrael. Just don't save Yisshmael. What does it mean? Right now, by Asheru Shlom, he's still innocent. Right now he's innocent. But eventually, what he's going to do is terrible. What is the Rebbeinu Shalom saying by saying that we judge someone by Rosh Hashanah? And what's the message for us on Rosh Hashanah? I want to share with you an unbelievable Tiferes Uziel, The Ha'eliga Tiferes Uziel. Tiferes Uziel says as follows: He says he had a dream, and in the dream, he says it was revealed to him the secret of the Shaifer. And what's the secret of the shayfar? So he says the secret of the shayfar is the language of two private people who love each other very much. It's like the language he says of a father and a son.
When you love someone very much, you develop a secret language. A secret language could be just like a small look on your face. A secret language doesn't mean like you speak pig Latin to each other. A secret language is like I can tell just from looking at you exactly what you're thinking. You work with somebody for so long, you grow so close to them, you know exactly what they're thinking. One of my favorite things that I get to do with the Rosh Hashanah because we've been working together I've been zayicha to work for Rosh Hashanah; this is my 19th year. And anyway, we all know. The Rosh Yeshiva is not a man of many words. And those words that he does speak, most of us don't understand. The Rosh Yeshiva, when we look at each other, He can just do this Lick his lips, and I know exactly what he's thinking because there's a secret language. It's the language of two people that have spent a lot of time with each other, a father and a son. They know the vibrations. A husband and a wife—they know exactly what's going on in the other person's world.
What's the secret? The shayfer says the two ferrets of zeal. The Rebbeinu Sholom says, "I don't want the satan to know what's going on between us. I don't want the satan to hear you say your words." So he gives Klal Yisrael a shayfer and he says, "Here, use this. When you blow into the shayfer, I know exactly what you mean." What's the secret language of the shayfar? The Sade Yesharim calls it the kol pasht, The simple call. The simple call of the shayfar is we blow the shayfar and we say to the Rebbeinu Sholom, I know I know I wasn't perfect. I have nothing to say. I have no defense for myself. I know I wasn't perfect. But you, Rebbeinu Sholom, you know how much I love you. You know how much inside of my heart the love that I have for you is extraordinary. It's beyond words. And even though sometimes my actions don't reflect the love that I have, when we blow the shofar, the sound that comes from the pneuma of who we are, every single yid loves the Rebbeim Shalom more than life itself.
Like the Altai Rebbe says in Tanya, Put a gun to a Jew's head and tell him to choose between Yiddishkeit and Avaydazara, and he chooses Yiddishkeit every time. He'd rather die, even though he wasn't living for Hakadosh Baruch Hu. He'd rather die than give up his Jewish soul. The nature of a yid is a yid loves Hakadosh Baruch Hu infinitely. We don't always say it with our words. We don't always do the perfect thing. But when you blow the shofar, you're blowing that kol penimi. You're saying to the Rebbeinu Sholom "I love you so much. It's a language that Satan doesn't understand. It's a language that only a Yid can understand." What confuses the Satan so much? The Satan knows that we love each other. The Satan knows that Hakadosh Baruch Hu and Klal Yisrael are obsessed with each other. The Satan knows that. We start off with the Tzchios Tameiushav. We're sitting down proverbially. We're sitting down like a son sits down with his father, having a conversation. We blow the shaykh. We say to the Rebbeinu Shem, "I love you so much." And then it comes time for the Tzchios Tameumot. Now the court is in session.
The din Torah is happening. Eim asadim, we're being judged by the Rebbeinu Shlom. Kipnei marum, we're going by him like little sheep, and the Rebbeinu Shlom is looking at every single one of us as an individual. And it's terrifying. And in that moment, what happens? We blow the shofar again, and the Satan doesn't understand. Why are you blowing the shofar in the middle of the din Torah? The din Torah is about let's examine what you did. We're not talking about who you are. We're not talking about your relationship. When the din Torah is happening, that's the time to say let's look at the aveiros that you did and let's look at the mitzvahs that you did. Why are you blowing shofar? What's this? This has nothing to do with your relationship. The tkiyos to miushav the Satan understands. But to take those same tkiyos to Mi'yu'ach and to bring them in the Dintira when you're standing up at attention and the Rebbeinu Shlom was looking at you, why are you talking about the tkiyos at that point?
And the answer is, this is the secret lashon of a yid in Klal Yisro'that the Satan can't understand. Every one of us has a little bit of a Satan inside of us. Every one of us has a Satan that says, You think you're so close to the Rebbe. Look at your actions. Look at what you've done. Every one of us is carrying like a little mechateig inside of us that says you're a nothing. You're garnished. Don't listen to these Hasidish words that Berg is sharing. Don't listen to that. It's nairishkeit. Come on, let's be real. In the name of authenticity, people go, let's be real. These are the averes that I did. What are you talking about the relationship with the Rebbe? How many times can you smack someone around before they say I'm sick of you and I'm done? It's a little bit of a satan that we have. And in those moments, in that din taira, a yid has to blow the shofar and has to say, "You should know, Rebbeinu Sholom, I love you so much." And the Rebbeinu Sholom says, "I know."
The Satam can talk about whatever he wants about all the different aveiros that we did over the course of the year. A yid doesn't live with the technology of din like that. A yid lives with the Rebbeinu Sholom, loves me infinitely, and the Satam will never understand that. The Satam will never understand the love that a yid has for Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and the love that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has for every single one of us. Here's what the Medrash says: Ashrei ha'am yode'a terua. Praiseworthy is the nation that knows the trua That knows the sound of the shofar. And the Medrash asks: Goyim don't know how to blow horns. Goyim don't know how to blow trumpets. There were many amazing gayishah saxophone players. And the truth is, I don't know that many good Jewish saxophone players. Ashrei ha'om yedea teruah says the Medrash. It's not about blowing a horn. It's about understanding the secret of the shofar. There's not many people in the world that understand. Our Kadosh Baruch Hu knows how to, Klal Yisrael knows that when we blow the shofar, we know how to extract the rachamin from Hashem. It's our way of saying Hashem I love you.
This is the inner meaning of what it means that even if a Jew is standing outside of the Kodesh Hakadoshim, when he blows the shofar, he's mamish inside. Every one of us feels, on some level, like we're standing outside of the Kodesh Hakadoshim in our lives. Because we know our averes. There's nobody in this room that's fooling themselves. And Adar Av, one of the reasons I'm so nispol and I'm so inspired by this generation is your generation is so honest. Your generation is so self-aware. We all know our averes. We all know the things we did wrong. We feel like we're standing outside of the Kodesh Hakadosh. But when a yid blows the shofar. He's bringing himself into the kodesh Hakadosh. And ein kategor nasas anegor. A yid, the moment he blows the shofar, he's in the relationship. That's all that a father wants to hear from his children. I just want to hear that you're with me. That's all that a father wants to hear. There's no child in the world, no matter how much he misbehaves, when from the depths of his being he says, "Tati, I love you." There's no father in the world that would ever turn away from such a cry. It's only our lack of emuna in ourselves and our relationship with Hashem.
It's only our lack of emuna in the fact that Hakadosh Baruch Hu loves us that takes us away, that gives kayach to the satan. Every yid, in a moment, it doesn't take time for this. You blow the kol pasht and you're standing l'fnayv l'fnim. And this is the Torah of Yisshma. This is the tirah of a yid is judged by a sherhusham. It's true. One day Yisrael is Mamish going to wreak havoc on Klal Yisrael. They're still doing it. How many? It happened in the desert, but it's still happening today. We're still fighting with the nation of Yisrael. How many of us wish? How many of us genuinely wish in our lives? That the Rebbeinu Sholom would have taken Yisshmael on that day, and then there'd be no October seventh. There'd be none of the wars that we've had to struggle with for so many years.
How could the Rebbeinu Sholom not have killed Yisshmael? You know what the Teretz is? Because if a child cries out to his father, you don't make any cheshbinus about the future. Just in that moment, you say, 'I love my kid.' That's the lesson that Yisshmael teaches us. That the cry of Yisshmael was so powerful that Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, 'I can't look at anything else but right now. Right now, He's so precious.' However, so many of us are sitting there and we're asking ourselves the following question: What's going to be this Yomim Noraim? I'm going to come to davening. I'm going to shackle like I'm having a seizure. Rav Nachman Seltzer is going to lead us. The singing is going to be gevaldik. We're going to be dancing in front of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, but I know exactly where I'm going to be on Matzah Yom Kippur. I know where I'm going to be on Sukkot. I know where I'm going to be on Chanukah. Am I really that guy that Matzah Yom Kippur is screaming Hashem Hu Elokim? Am I really going to be that guy on Chanukah? Probably not. I'm probably not going to be screaming Hashem Hu Elokim on Pesach.
And probably in the interim, a lot of things are going to be not aligned with the highest truth of who I am. So there's a feeling, but take me now, Rebbe Nachman, because I know that ultimately I'm going to do damage. And the Rebbe Nachman says Chas v'shalom to think that way. It's not the way a yid thinks. A yid is not sitting there saying, 'But in the future I'm not going to be perfect.' Okay, in the future you won't be perfect. But right now are you real? Right now are you real? One of my favorite stories of the Lubavitcher Rebbe is that a yid came to the Lubavitcher Rebbe and he said, 'Rebbe, I'm so fake.' I don't go to shul 364 days a year. I should go to shul on Yom Kippur. And the rebbe said, 'I agree. 364 days a year is so fake.'
One day a year you're real. Stop avoiding the one day that you're real. We have to ask ourselves, who are we really? Are we really our lowest moment? Chas v'shalom. A yid is never his lowest moment. If in one tkiyah, I can call out to the Rebbeinu Shalom and say, 'I love you, and I know you love me.' That's our reality. And the biggest yitzhahara in the world. The biggest yitzhahara in the world is not taivas nashim. The biggest yitzhahara in the world is not a taiva for bittul tayro. The biggest yitzhahara in the entire world is the belief I just don't matter to the Rebbeim Shalom. Even Yishmael, whose descendants would one day torture Klal Yisrael, was worthy of being saved because he had one honest moment of connecting to Hashem. I think in our yeshiva, if I'm being very honest, there's a sense, there's a feeling And I know that one of the chevra who's here, Shana Bet, one of my guys I mamish look up to in a very deep way, I mamish respect him tremendously. I know sometimes there's a feeling that why don't we have a Rosh Hashanah davening that's like all year round. Why don't we have a Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur davening that's like we're mamish trembling before Hashem?
What's with all the dancing? What's with all the singing? What's with all the simcha? And the answer is for us, it's because there's two shayfaras in our lives. There's the sound of the Kol Chitzon and there's the sound of the Kol Penimi. And if you have a shayfer inside of a shayfer, and you hear the sound of the kol chitzon, if all you hear is the external, you're not yotzei. But if you can hear the sound of the kol penimi, if you can listen to the voice inside of yourself, that's true and that's deep and that's real and that's authentic, and that says, "I yearn to come close to the Rebbeinu Sholom." If you can tap into that voice, then Rosh Hashanah is the most gevul de kedayim simchah that exists. It doesn't mean that we're not taking it seriously. We do take it seriously.
Shulchan Aruch writes that the yit has to be besimcha in Rosh Hashanah. We eat and we drink and we be besimcha. But the Shulchan Aruch also says we don't finish all of our food. We don't eat all the way to satiation. And yerus Hashem al penechem. On our face, there's yerus Hashem. It's true. On our face, there's yerus Hashem. Because on the inside we're so besimcha. A yid knows how to live in two worlds at once. I can live in the world of I'm absolutely terrified because I'm going to be held accountable for the ways in which I didn't live up to my potential. But I'm so besimcha because I know who I really am and I know how much I love the Rebbeinu Shlom and I know how much the Rebbeinu Shlom loves me. So in our yeshiva we dance. We tremble, but we dance. We dance because the Kol Nimi has been heard inside of ourselves.
My bracha for every one of us this year, as we stand Bez Hashem on Rosh Hashanah together, and Bez Hashem we're going to be dancing our heads off. My bracha for every one of us this year is: we're dancing not for the hype. We're not dancing because we're looking to have an experience, a chavaya. We're dancing because we're tapping into the kolpni mi. We're being brought l'fnayv l'fnim, and we're saying to the Rebbeinu Sholom, it doesn't matter if the court is in session. You're my father, and I love you.
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