Rosh Hashanah / Yom Kippur - I'm Sorry, Can We Go Back to the Way Things Were?

2:26 So it's a good question. Why are we waiting until now to come to the Rebbeinu Shalom and say Hamelach? We should be declaring Hamelach the entire year. We should be running to a Kabbush Baruch the entire year. Why do we have this notion of waiting until Rosh Hashanah to declare the Rebbeinu Shalom Hamelach? That's music. Every Shir needs some Shirim they have like a guitar player playing, and you have to sing along with that. That's the best music. There's three questions. All of them are famous questions, but just to chazer over this Rosh Hashanah, I'm sure you've heard these questions before. But just to chazer these very famous questions The first question, aside from the question we just asked about why we wait until Rosh Hashanah to declare Hashem as Melech The first question is if Rosh Hashanah is an accounting Not just Rosh Hashanah, but aser esim eitshuva. But if Rosh Hashanah begins the accounting of everything that we did in the past year So when should Rosh Hashanah be?

3:27 Rosh Hashanah should have been ten days before the end of the year. The year should culminate with Yom Kippur. And then we should start again. That would be what one would think the calendar would have. It's a strange thing to begin the year with Rosh Hashanah, begin the year with Haseir Simay Tshuva, and then ten days later culminate with Yom Kippur. If it's an accounting, then it should be at the end. If it's in the beginning, obviously it's a different message. We have to try to understand it in a deep way. What is the inner message of Rosh Hashanah, such that it begins the year and not ends the year? That's the first very famous question. The second question is: We would think that Yom Kippur would come before Rosh Hashanah. Because before we're going to be Mamlech Hakadosh Baruch Hu as king We should be worthy of being Mamlech Hakadosh Baruch Hu as king.

4:19 It's not. I know how to say this nicer. It's not so nice. To crown Hakadosh Baruch Hu as king When we're mired in sin Is until we've had Yom Kippur. Who are we to declare Hakadosh Baruch Hu as king? So really, we would have thought that Yom Kippur should come first. Again, these are famous questions. That Yom Kippur should come first. Then you'd have some sort of process, or maybe Asar Esy Metuva would come first, and then Yom Kippur, or Yom Kippur would come first, and then maybe there'd be ten days until we're Mamlech Hakadosh Baruch Hu. But here it's like. We're declaring Hashem as king before we're cleansed of sin. So we're declaring Hashem as king in our broken state. That doesn't seem to be the logical order that one would think. The third question, which I think is not only the most powerful question but the most beautiful question, is really the question of the Ramban.

5:11 If you take a look at the pasuk that speaks about Rosh Hashanah, it's very ambiguous. It says, "Bechodesh Shvi in the seventh month" Beechad lechodesh on the first day. Mikra Kodesh Yelachem. It should be a yomtiv. It should be Kodesh to you. Kol Maleches Avayd Elay Sasser. You shouldn't do any malecha. Yom Terua Yelachem. What does that mean? Yom Terua Yelachem. It should be a day of Trua. There are two problems the Ramban points out. First of all, the pasuk doesn't give us any insight into the nature of Rosh Hashanah. Which is very unlike the Torah. We know exactly what the Yomim Tovim are. We know exactly what Sukkot, Pesach, and Shavuos are. We know Pesach is the time where we left Mitzrayim. Shavuos is matan Torah. The Torah is almost specifically ambiguous as to what the nature of Rosh Hashanah is. In fact, I once heard from a chaver of mine that went to Uman. I never saw this inside.

6:07 A chaver of mine that went to Uman said that he saw that Rabbi Nachman said that nobody understands Rosh Hashanah, and I'm the only one that understands Rosh Hashanah, and that's why people go to Uman on Rosh Hashanah. That was Rabbi Nachman's view about himself. They had a certain insight, not in the Gaiva Dikaway Chasv Sholom, but they had a certain insight into what Rosh Hashanah was. And people should come to Uman for Rosh Hashanah to connect themselves to the true essence of Rosh Hashanah, because the truth is the Torah is very ambiguous. Not only is it ambiguous in terms of the theme of Rosh Hashanah, it's completely ambiguous when it comes to what the shayfar is. It doesn't give us the dimensions of a shayfar. It doesn't tell us how many shayfar blasts are meant to be blown. These are all things that we find in the Torah Shabbal Peid, the Torah Shabchsav. Seems to be specifically ambiguous, not only about the theme of Rosh Hashanah, but also the way that we actually capture the essence of the yontif through the blowing of the shofar is specifically left ambiguous.

6:58 So we have in front of us four questions. The first question is How come we're not declaring Hamelech the entire year? How come we wait until Rosh Hashanah and then we faint? How come I haven't come up until now? That's the first question. The second question is why does Rosh Hashanah come in the beginning of the year? Rosh Hashanah should come at the end of the year. The third question is Yom Kippur should come before Rosh Hashanah. The fourth question is the Torah seems to be specifically ambiguous about the nature of Rosh Hashanah. Those are the four questions. Let's start with our second question. Why does our third question Why does Yom Kippur come after Rosh Hashanah? There are two ways of looking at Yom Kippur. I'm going to say this in a little bit of an extreme way, but I don't mean it in an extreme way.

7:50 There's a childish way of looking at Yom Kippur, and there's an adult way of looking at Yom Kippur. Unfortunately, for many of us, we never graduated to the adult way of looking at Yom Kippur. But the real insight of Yom Kippur is not I'm so sorry Please give us a good judgment. That's the way we grew up thinking about Yom Kippur. I'm so sorry. I feel terrible about what I did. I have such incredible charata. I regret it. I'm not proud of who I was. I'm not going to do it anymore. Please give me a good year. I was talking to a very prominent rav. I don't want to say any more details because I don't agree with him. And he was talking about how last year Clearly We got a bad psak. Because look at what happened on October seventh. We didn't do tshuva, so we got a bad psak. I felt very uncomfortable with the way he was speaking. If I'm being honest with you, it's very much like if we would have done tshuva, Hakadosh Baruch Hu would have given us a better year. We didn't do tshuva, so we got a bad year.

8:53 I don't. I'm not saying how we should frame the year, good, bad, or otherwise. Obviously, it was a very difficult year. But it felt to me a little bit like that childish version of Yom Kippur Rebbe Nachshom, I'm so sorry. Please give me a good judgment. I think there's a deeper way of looking at Yom Kippur. I think it's a shift that we all need to make. And I think it goes something like this. Rebbe Nachsham, I'm so sorry. I just want to go back to the way things were. It's a very different vision of what Yom Kippur is about. The aside is like this. I see we have some unmarried people in the room, so you'll come along for the ride. You'll see from the faces of everybody here that what I'm saying is true. Do you remember when we felt innocent in our relationship with our spouses?

9:42 So for the fifty percent of the room that betrays themselves with their faces, and the other fifty percent are very careful when I say these things. I just want to know for the fifty percent that had a big smile on your face. I just want you to know I'm with you. It's a hard thing to admit, but the truth is I speak to these couples who are dating. It's so beautiful. They have no idea what's going to hit them. And there's something very sweet about it. They go out on an eleven hour date. Could you imagine going out for eleven hours with your husband? Nobody wants to spend eleven hours with their husband. Even if you have a date night, it's like we gotta get home. There was a time in our lives where it was just I can't wait to call her, not Beter's infatuation, not in a childish way, just like a.

10:30 I want to spend so much time with you because there's nothing that has interrupted the relationship. There's no pain. The vulnerability is a completely different type of vulnerability. It's the excitement of Of lechtech acharai ba midbar be eretz lozaruah. It's the Rebbeinu Shalom remembering. Do you remember there was a time where you just blindly followed me into the midbar even though there was nothing there, but there was so much sweetness, so much goodness in our relationship that you just came with me wherever we went. That's the real side of Yom Kippur. The real side of Yom Kippur is I'm so sorry for everything that I've brought into the relationship. That brought us to this place where there's discomfort, where there's pain, where there's friction. I just wish we could go back to the way things were. And that's really the restoration of innocence. That's why kapara doesn't mean that we're forgiven.

11:23 If. If Yom Kippur was about forgiveness, then it would be I'm sorry. Can I please have a good judgment? Kapar doesn't mean forgiveness. Kapara means to be cleansed. Kapara means that the Rebbeinu Shalom comes to us and washes our sins away. So the feeling that we have, or the feeling that we ought to strive to have, at the end of Yom Kippur. Has nothing to do with what's going to happen that year. Difficult things will surely happen over the course of any given year. That's not the question. The question is, can I leave Yom Kippur feeling a sense that Hakadosh Baruch Hu loves me infinitely. And He's washed away all of my sins? Not just that I'm forgiven. But the Rebbeinu Shlom because He's infinite, He doesn't hold petty resentment like we do. And when we come to Him and say, "I just want to restore things to the way they were," He brings us back into the fold.

12:16 That's the true essence of Yom Kippur, and there's a big nafkamina to the way that you see Yom Kippur. If Yom Kippur is, I'm sorry, please forgive me. Can I have a good judgment? Then Yom Kippur could come before Rosh Hashanah. And we wouldn't need Rosh Hashanah to come first. Yom Kippur could come before Rosh Hashanah. Hashem, please forgive me. Give me a good year. Hashem says yes. Now I'm clean of all my sins. I could be Mamlechah Kadosh Baruch Hu. But if you come to the Rebbeinu Shalom and say, "Can we go back to the way that things were?" Then you have to ask yourself the question: When did the relationship begin? Do you hear the difference? I didn't. I didn't say it out clearly. I'm going to say that again. If we're coming to Hakadosh Baruch Hu on Yom Kippur and saying, "I'm sorry, can we go back to the way things were?"

13:03 When the way things were. When did the relationship start? What was the initial point of the relationship that we're going back to that time where there was all that sweetness, all that innocence? When was that exactly? It comes out. That the real Yoseid of Rosh Hashanah is going back to the initial point of origin of our relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu And therefore Rosh Hashanah becomes the introduction, so to speak. It's the first date. It's the first moment where you went out, so to speak, with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That we're introducing ourselves to Hashem in that moment, so that ten days later on Yom Kippur we could turn around and say Can we go back to the way it was on Rosh Hashanah? Rosh Hashanah, in a certain way, is the reenactment of the innocence of our relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and Yom Kippur is calling on the power of Rosh Hashanah and saying, 'Since I'm so sorry about what I did, can we go back to Rosh Hashanah?' It's possible to see Rosh Hashanah as a continuum. It begins with that initial point of origin, and it ends by calling into being the power of that initial point of origin, which is where we draw our innocence from.

14:17 It's how we come to ask Hakadosh Baruch Hu not only to forgive us, but to cleanse us and to restore us to the state of Rosh Hashanah. It's a very different way of thinking about it. It could be that if a person goes through this process and they say, 'On Rosh Hashanah, I'm in that state of innocence, and on Yom Kippur, Hakadosh Baruch Hu can cleanse me because we're going back to the way things were.' It could be that in such a state, a person could daven and say, 'I hope that I have a good year. I hope that you give me a good teshuva.' I want a good year, but not because it's transactional. See, the problem with Yom Kippur is like, please forgive me. Can I have a good year? Is that's transactional. You would never say that in a healthy relationship. You would never go to your husband and say, please forgive me. Can I have this? That it's a very petty way of speaking.

15:03 Say, please forgive me. I want to go back to the way things were. Mameila, we have a beautiful relationship. But the real it's not. Please forgive me because I want it's. Please forgive me so that we can have a relationship. The male of the relationship is beautiful. Now the question is, and this is the big question: What does it mean to go back to? What does it mean that Rosh Hashanah calls us back into that original point of origin, where our relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu was established, and that's the place of innocence. So there's a general klal. The beginning of something always contains its purpose. Even if the purpose doesn't play out the way you think it does. Any time you begin a project, there's a tachlis in mind. If even if the tachlis is ambiguous, but there's a tachlis. For example, even a silly thing. If a person gets in their car to go shopping, the point of origin, getting in their car, already tells you Because we're going shopping. I'm not getting in the car.

16:13 The Alter Rebbe writes that on Rosh Hashanah, every single molecule of creation goes back to its original point of existence. Which means that on Rosh Hashanah, every single molecule of creation goes back to its original state, but to the very tachlis for which it was created. Am I saying that clear? In other words, the goal of Rosh Hashanah is not just to restore ourselves to factory settings. It calls into being. It creates in our minds this existential awareness of the purpose of all things. What is the purpose of all things? Why does our Kodesh Baruch Hu create the world? There are many answers to this question. A person could look at the Ramchal and find many answers. In the Balak Kabbalah, there are different answers. The Balatanya gave different answers. I just want to share with you one answer of the Zayra Kadosh. And the Zayra Kadosh's answer, I believe, you can find it very much within the theme of Rosh Hashanah. Zayra Kadosh says as follows: I'm going to use my own words, but I think this is what he means.

17:24 This world is an art exhibition. Today they have a funny type of art. It's called live art. Like they have a person who's like. Like in a glass case, just walking around for weeks, and it's a live art exhibition. They have this psychotic thing. You ever see these things? What was that? They eat when they're. They eat. They sleep. They like live their whole lives in a glass thing, and it's called a live art exhibition. There's something to it. There's something to it. There's something attractive about it. Not that type of art, but there's something that speaks to the soul. This concept of live art. Hakadosh Baruch Hu creates a glimmer of Himself, a glimpse of Himself, a reflection of Himself within us And the purpose of creation is that the thing that He created has the spark of Himself. Will recognize its Creator. That's what we mean when it says Malai Kalla Arutz Kavade. It means that the entire world, the Tachlis of the Bria, is to recognize its own Maker.

18:31 It's like imagine it would be very difficult to imagine, but in this piece of art, a very beautiful piece of art over here, in this piece of art, there is an artist. We don't think of it like that because we're generally used to thinking of the art as its own expression of its own beauty. But it's not really true. Every piece of art really is a reflection of the artist that created it. And the artist desires to be known. That's why an artist creates art. When an artist is anyone here, like a musician or an artist, if a poet, if you are, you know what I'm talking about. If you have a piece, this boy in Yeshiva, he told me this is true. He's he's a beautiful musician. He's written so many beautiful pieces. He's shnayalf in Yeshiva right now. He has he's a tremendous neshama. He says when he has a song inside of him, it's like it's itching to come out, and he can't stop it from coming out. And it's not enough once you make the song. You want the song to be heard by somebody. There's a certain desire that we have to be known through our art.

19:29 It's true that today music has become very corrupted, and the goal of the music is. I don't want to say anything bad about any Jewish musicians, but today it seems to me that the goal of the music is not for the music to be known, and not for the artist's music to be known, but to somehow prop up the ego of the artist. But really, the real Jewish music is. I want to be known not for my ego, not for my gaiva. I need this dimension of myself to be known. I probably shouldn't say what I'm about to say. It could be begather lashon hara, but I'm going to say it anyway. And I hope that it won't turn into lashon hara. And if it is, Baruch Hashem, a sashim yichuba is coming up. Does anyone here know Avram Fried? Anyone here meet him? He's an exceptionally special person.

20:19 I've met him on a couple of occasions. He has a quality of humility about him that is exceptionally rare, especially given the position that he's been in his life, where many would say that he's in the conversation of the greatest Jewish singers of our generation today. His music is not as well known as it once was, but Avrom Fried has a presence on stage that he commands the stage with humility. It's a very special thing. He doesn't dance around the stage like a mashuga. He dances in a very sweet way, in a very holy way. I saw. I had the opportunity. A chaver of mine lost his father many years ago. He's very close with Avraham Fried. When Avraham Fried came to pay a shiva call, it was a real holy event. He has a very special presence. He comes into the room with a tremendous amount of anivus. Everybody in the room knows who he is, but it's almost like he's hiding in plain sight. You ever meet such people?

21:19 And it's reflected in his music. There's a certain beauty to his music. Because there's a desire to be known. Not that the world should talk about Avrom Fried, but there is a desire that we have to be known through the art in which we create. I think it's important to keep the original language and fix any grammar issues. I saw a comedian with a brilliant line. He said, 'Teenagers are God's revenge on the world. It's God's revenge on parents. He says, 'Okay, you make someone in your image, and then have them deny your existence. See how you like it.' It's something very beautiful about that. You create a child in a certain way. When we create a child, there's a we are in that child, and then the child to turn around. Nothing is more painful than a child that won't have a relationship with their parents, because it's like the whole in a certain way. You want to be known from your children. Not again, not in a legacy way. Not like my kid is my representative in the world. You want your child to recognize that you're in Him.

22:17 And that is the yachas. That is the relationship. So that's what the Zarah Kadosh says. The Zarah Kadosh says the purpose of this world is to be mamlechah Kadosh Baruch Hu. It's to give cover to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, not Chas V'Shalom in the Gaiva sense. That the Rebbeinu Shalom said he needs our cover in the sense that he's diminished without it. But because Hakadosh Baruch Hu is perfect Our being mamlechim is the ultimate expression of His being known. And this is what we say in Yomem Noarim davening. We say Viyede Kol Poel Kiata Po Alto. We want every single poel, we want every single creation to know its creator. Viyede Kol Yitzor Kiata Yitzarto. We want every single formation to recognize its former. And then Vayoyimer Kol Hashem Neshama Baapo. And anyone that has a neshama inside of them should declare Hashem Alake Yisrael Melech Umalchusoy B'Chom Asha. The whole theme of Yomem Noarim is for everything in creation.

23:09 Every molecule of creation. To scream out and say, "That's my Melech, that's my Creator, that's where I come from." Then the ta the tafkid of creation has been fulfilled. Rosh Hashanah, just to sum up what we've said so far, Yom Kippur has to come after Rosh Hashanah because Yom Kippur calls upon Rosh Hashanah. What's Rosh Hashanah? Rosh Hashanah expresses the purpose of creation. Adkan. There's a beautiful mashal of the Kaddushas Levi that I'm sure everybody here heard. We all, including myself, understand this moshel. I think we all understand it incorrectly. I'll say it quickly because you don't need the details of the moshel. We're not in second grade. But the idea of the moshel is a very, very beautiful moshel, and it's very misunderstood. The moshel is the king that decides to go for a walk, and he gets lost in the forest, and he doesn't know how to get back to the palace. Everybody that the king is speaking to, and you've heard this moshel. Everybody that the king is speaking to, he says, 'How do I get back to the palace?' Nobody recognizes that he's the king. So nobody bothers to help him until he runs into one old Jewish wise man. It has to be an old Jewish wise man in every single mashal. He runs into one old Jewish wise man, and this wise man looks at him and he sees the king is not just a common person.

24:21 He sees it's the king. So in that moment, the wise man drops everything that he's doing, and because he's a wise man, he escorts the king back through the forest into the palace. Not only into the palace, but he escorts the king back into his throne room. The king is so overjoyed to be returned to his throne room, and he sees the wisdom of this wise man that he appoints him to be his head adviser over all the other advisers. But in order to be the head adviser, he needs to be dressed in a royal way. So the king provides him with royal clothing, and he takes the clothing that this wise man was wearing that random day in the forest, and he puts it away in the royal treasury. For many years, the advisor is a faithful advisor, doing everything that the king asks and serving our Kadosh Baruch Hu, serving the king. In case you didn't realize, that's what it was about: serving the king beautifully and perfectly. Until one day, when the advisor commits an act of treason.

25:17 And now he has to stand trial in front of the king. He's about to stand trial in front of the king, and what happens? The wise man gets up and he says to the king, "I have one request before we start the trial." Can I please have my old clothing back? So the king says yes. He brings him his old clothing, the clothing that he was wearing on that day. He dresses in that clothing. The king looks at him and forgives him. Because the king remembers, so to speak, who you were on that day. The nimshal, the classic nimshal to this, is what the classic nimshal is. The Rebbeinu Shlom remembers us for who we were, and that's why he forgives us. The problem is, you don't need a mussel for that. Remember that whenever you have a muscle, what's the muscle articulating? The muscle is articulating something that can't be articulated.

26:06 So if the muscle is saying something, if it's a real muscle, like Yerushalayim al t'mshalim. If it's a real muscle, it's saying something that you wouldn't have otherwise known. So we have to pay more careful attention because I didn't need a muscle to tell me that. Rebbeinu Shlom, I wear my innocent clothing, so to speak. It reminds the Rebbeinu Shlom of my innocence, and then the Rebbeinu Shlom forgives me. That's what the Kedushas Levi was saying. That's a simple idea, and it doesn't require any articulation. There's also one detail in this mashal that's critical that everybody glosses over. The king gets back to the palace. The king got lost in the forest. The king doesn't know how to get back to his throne. That's already a strange thing. If you want to say that the wise man showed him the way back, even walked him back, it's fine to say that. Once he got to the palace, it should have been obvious from that point. At that point, the royal guard should have taken over.

26:55 So there's a very, very deep Torah that the kedushas Levi is teaching us here, and it goes as follows: the wise man When he puts on the clothing that he wore that day That's not for the king. That's for him. Because the danger of the wise man. Is he served the king loyally for so many years But over time, what happened? Over time, in a certain way Because he was the adviser to the king, in a certain way, he became distant from the king. From his closeness came the distance. It's like I'm trying to think of a good marshal for it. But did you ever get so close to somebody that you took them for granted? And because you were so In such a deep relationship with them, the idea that I could betray them becomes possible. It's almost like this beautiful relationship that we had, where you were meshubit to somebody, where you were living a life of service.

28:10 In some way, because you were so subservient to them The relationship becomes like Like a regular relationship. It loses its majesty. It loses its godless. And in that moment, from the fact that you were so close, you became exceptionally distant to the degree that you could do something that's so treasonous that now the king needs to ask if you should be chayev misa for what you did. You need to stand trial for this. Because if this wasn't a big affair, then why does he really need to stand trial? Can't the king just pardon him? Why does there need to be this whole procession of bringing him in front of the king? Clearly, this wise man has done something that's really a betrayal of the king's trust. And where did that come from? The wise man has to understand that he lost his wisdom in a certain sense, because he was so close to the king. It's like he became almost, in a certain sense, as great as the king. I'm the king's advisor.

29:06 There's a guy there. So what does the advisor need to do? What does the wise man need to do? The wise man himself needs to return to the place where he first saw the king in the forest, where nobody else did. The wise man in that space couldn't possibly have done an avera. I don't know if you've ever had the opportunity to meet someone famous. Has anyone here ever met somebody famous? In my life, I've had the opportunity at different times to meet famous people, different athletes, musicians, whatever it was. You meet certain famous people. I want you to know that when you meet someone you really respect, you're in awe of them. It's. I'm not saying these people deserve our awe, but you are very famous people. You see them, even if you see them walking through the airport, you shall know when these people walk through the airport, you watch people's heads turn.

29:57 I was once in Miami, in the airport of Miami. It's not a big airport. It's not like JFK is a big airport. LAX is a big airport. O'Hare is a big airport. Miami, you would think it's a big airport. It's a very small airport. I was in Miami, and I was by baggage claim, and all of a sudden, everybody in the entire airport got quiet, and I was like. What have you looked around and you see there was a famous person walking through And like, like everyone in the whole airport Look at this. It's a crazy thing. You really are in awe of these people. I've seen you on the covers of magazines. I've seen you being interviewed by Oprah. I've seen you in whatever faceless, whatever place I saw you. There's a certain awe that you have, and I want you to know that in those moments when you're standing in awe of those people, if they ask you for anything, you would run to do it.

30:42 Because it's it's such a it's an it's an opportunity to serve you. I remember when I was in high school. I was sixteen years old, and I met a very famous basketball player. I promise you, if he would have asked me to do anything, I was ready to do it. And by the way, a player that was from the opposing team that I hated, but it was like the opportunity to say like I met Reggie Miller. I'm not saying it was Reggie Miller, but it was definitely Reggie Miller. You know what I'm saying? As a Knicks fan growing up I hated Reggie Miller with every fiber of my being. If you cut me open, I bleed orange and blue. But I met him, and I hated him. But if he said, 'Can you get me a coffee?' I would have bought him like a fifty dollar coffee. I would have gotten him like the best coffee in the world. You stand in awe of such people. And then over time, when you meet them, that awe diminishes. So where do we want to get back to? What's tshuva really? Tshuva is I need to go back to the place where it was impossible for me to sin Where everybody else couldn't see you and I saw you. That's what the wise man has to go back to. We don't live with Jewish pride.

31:42 It's a sad thing to say, but we really don't. We take for granted Judaism's impact on the world. There's a book written by Paul Johnson called History of the Jews. Did you have to read that in college? Nobody had to read Paul Johnson History of the Jews. I'm the only one that had an education. I went to Torah. Where were you? Girls? The Paul Johnson in History of the Jews. He says every. Every innovation in civility in society for thousands of years has been through Jews. We don't think of it that way. The world is not civilized today. Clearly, we're still living with some barbarians to the north, some to the south. But fundamentally, the world is much more civilized than it was several thousand years ago. Several thousand years ago, a real thing, a common thing. People barbecued their children in an effort to get the Rebbeinu Shalom to pardon them. That was a real thing. Child sacrifice was a real thing. When's the last time we heard of child sacrifice? There's always that one person that says,"I was in South America and I heard that they still do it." So, Baruch Hashem, you found the one corner of the world where a couple of Chaver Kedisha still do this crazy thing.

32:48 Why did the world stop with child sacrifice? It was because of our values that we communicated to the world. We were the first people ever in the history of the world to say every single person is created with salam elokim. Every single person should be treated with dignity. That was something the world had never heard before. All the values, or I should say, the old values of America. When I say the old values, I mean like twenty years ago, not that long ago. But all the old values of America were built on Judeo-Christian principles. That was our innovation to the world. We don't have real Jewish pride. When everybody else was looking at the world and seeing just materialism, Jews were looking through the materialism. We weren't distracted by the materialism, and we went running to find Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Other people knew Hakadosh Baruch Hu before Avram Avinu.

33:33 That wasn't the chiddush. Wasn't that Avram Avinu discovered God? Noach knew God. Moshe Shalach knew God. Adam knew God. Kayin knew God. Hevel knew God. The big chiddush of Avram Avinu is that when he looked at the world, he said there must be a Rabbanu Shalom. That had never been done before. Everybody else knew there was a God. Avram Avinu was looking for him. He was searching for him within reality. That was the obsession with the what that the wise man had. The wise man, when the king presented himself in the forest, where everybody else saw a commoner, said, "That's the king." And what did he do for him? Now the story switches. The wise man feels innocent now. That's pasha. The wise man now he remembers who he really is. I can't believe the wise man says that I ever got to a state where I lost my sense of gratitude for this person.

34:20 There was a girl who was an older single, got married, and she told me when she was engaged. I will never lose my sense of hakarasatov to this person for marrying me. I was single for so long. I just can't imagine I'll ever lose that sense of hakarasatov. I said that's so beautiful, but I wanted you to know in my heart. I was like, yes, you will. You will. We all do. It's the nature of the world, but we can return to that place of gratitude. That's half the story. The other half of the story is the king. The king is in the forest for a reason. There's a reason the king went to the forest. There's a reason why he left his throne. He wants to be known, and he wants to be restored. So when the king finds himself in the forest and nobody else sees him, that's the most painful thing in the world.

35:10 I don't know how old your children are, but I have two younger kids who are at the age where they play hide and go seek, and that's a fun game. My seven-year-old son has a ten-year-old sister, and that's his best friend in the world. It's a beautiful thing. They love playing together. We'd like him to play more with the boys in the neighborhood, but he has five older sisters, so the kid doesn't have a chance anyway. This past Shabbos, he was hiding And the game went on without him. And he was like, "Abay hid so well that they can't find me." I said, "Mikey, I think they went outside. The game is over." And he's like, "They stopped looking for me." That was the pain. The pain is when we're playing hide and go seek and somebody stops looking for us. The pain of Rebbeinu Shlom is when he's walking through the forest. He left the kingdom for a reason.

36:00 He needs to be restored to his kingdom. Nobody else was looking for him. Only that wise man was, and it wasn't enough that the wise man restored him to the gates. It has to be the wise man that doesn't teach in the sense that the king doesn't know how, but that it's the wise man that says, "I'm bringing you into our world." There's something that I know it's going to sound a little bit ketheretic at first. I don't mean it in a ketheretic way. Just bear with me for a second. There's something that the Rebbeinu Shalom can't do for himself. Not in the sense that he's chas v'shalom diminished But the one thing the Rebbeinu Shalom can't do is choose himself. Does that make sense? If the Rebbeinu Shalom creates us and then forces us to choose him, that's not a real choice. So when the Rebbeinu Shalom gives us free choice, he says, 'And use your free choice to choose me,' but he can't compel that.

36:53 Hakadosh Baruch Hu creates the world, and there's only one thing he can't do: he can't force the world to choose him. That has to be up to us. In other words, we can't restore the Rebbeinu Shalom just to the gates of the palace. We have to bring Hakadosh Baruch Hu all the way back. Just to give you a marshal for this kaviyachol. It's like imagine a wife who's really working on herself. She doesn't want to be codependent anymore, so she builds up her sense of self. And now she's in a real good place, and she's totally in a healthy way, independent from her husband. You know what the negative impact is? Now that she's so independent from her husband. So she's lonely. So she comes to her husband and she says, "I know I wasn't okay for so long. I know I was pulling from you for so long."

37:40 Now I'm okay, but I need you to choose me. And I'm lonely if you don't choose me. So the Rebbeinu Shlom, I don't mean it in a clear way, but in a certain sense, the Rebbeinu Shlom is infinitely lonely. And it was Klal Yisrael that was Mablik Hakadosh Baruch Hu. We were created to be the wise man to find Hakadosh Baruch Hu in the forest and to restore him to the Kisei Hakadosh. That's what our job is. Our job is to bring the world to a state of Ayla Mabah, where the entire world Vahaya Bayom Hu Yi Hashem Echad Ushmo Echad. We're here to restore Hakadosh Baruch Hu's name in this world. So the Kalushas Levi is saying a very big thing. Not only does the wise man discover his innocence, but on Rosh Hashanah the Rebbeinu Shalom remembers, so to speak, that it was us that was the tafkid of all of existence. We're the ones who hold the nefesh Elokes. We're the live art. We're the ones that are meant to find him in this world and to restore him all the way to his throne. And is that not what we're doing? Is that not what a Jew is doing every single day of their lives? So it's not only that we've discovered our innocence; the Rebbeinu Shlom has also discovered our innocence on Rosh Hashanah.

38:50 And that's what it means that everything returns to its point of origin. Everything goes back to a place where it will proclaim Hakadosh Baruch Hu as Melech, from the smallest molecule all the way to every single person in the world. There will be a time where every single thing in this creation proclaims Hashem as Melech, and that happens because of Klal Yisrael. That's our job. That's our role. Now we understand why Rosh Hashanah has to come before Yom Kippur, and we have explained the nature of Rosh Hashanah. Why is a shayfar so ambiguous? Why doesn't the Rebbeinu Sholom give us in a clear way these are the halachas of a shayfar? Perhaps we could suggest that. Even though in Torah Shabbal Pe, we know all of the halachos. You can't prescribe. The primal scream of going back to your essence. There's no formula for how that should be Not in a written way. In a Torah Shabbal Pe way, yes, but in a Torah Shabbesav way, from the perspective that's what the Torah Shabbesav is. It's the essence.

40:02 From the perspective of the essence, you can't prescribe to somebody how to scream out from the depths of their soul. I don't know. I don't even want to say what I'm about to say, but there was. Have you ever seen someone who discovers that they've lost a child? Have you ever seen what that looks like? Yes. I hope you never have to see it. But the scream that comes from that mother, the scream that comes from that father for those people who suffered these terrible tragedies in that moment when the news is delivered. They come. The Israeli army comes. They're very sensitive. They don't just come with psychologists. They don't just come with social workers. They don't just come with the mifakade of that plugga or whatever it is. They come with the rav of the town. They do whatever they can to support. And when that knock on that door happens, that mother gets that dreaded, opens the door and sees. She knows right away.

41:02 There's no formula for that cry. But in that moment, because she lost the most precious thing in the world to her, the cry that escapes from her lips, the cry that emanates from deep within the well springs of her soul. It calls. It brings up the primal essence of who we are. The Rebbeinu Shalom comes to us on Rosh Hashanah and he says the world is going back to its origin. Scream out to me. There's no halachos. There's no halachos in Torah Shabbosav. In Torah Shabbosav, I can tell you what to do. But in Torah Shabbosav, on the level of the essence, a Jew has to scream out to the Rebbeinu Shalom. That goes back to the very core of their being. That's the insight of everything on Rosh Hashanah. To return to the core of our being. To return to that point of innocence. We scream from the depths of our being. Rabbanu Shalom, I amamlech you in this world. I belong to you. I am at your service. That's the nature of Rosh Hashanah.

42:03 Says the Lebavitcher Rebbe. There is only one thing left to ask. If we know why Rosh Hashanah comes first, because we need to say this was our state of innocence before Yom Kippur. And now we know that on Rosh Hashanah all of our innocence is restored, both from our perspective and the Rabbanu Shalom's perspective, and we've called out to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. We've screamed out and we're now in touch with our essence. So why do I need Asar Simay Tshuva? Why do I need Yom Kippur? It should be done. Rosh Hashanah, one and done. So says the Rabbah as follows. We'll finish with this. Really, the Rebbe Shlom doesn't need it. The P'sak is on Rosh Hashanah. It's always a funny thing. Like you know, by Chassidim, it never ends. On Rosh Hashanah, Kol D'Baruch Hu Paskins, and on Yom Kippur, he seals the deal. But really, you haven't told Hashanah Rabbah. It won't be delivered until Rosh Hashanah Raba. But then, even then, you could intercept the letter on Zoyschanukah. And even if the letter was delivered and everything happens on Zoyschanukah, and you didn't intercept the letter, but we know on Purim you can undo everything. Because the total of the Nafochu. And even if you didn't get to it, but you see us Metzrayim with Pesach.

43:08 And even if you didn't get to it then, you should know by Tish above the tears can break open the gates. So by the time you're done, if you're a Chassid, you're right back at Rosh Hashanah, and everything was fine. It's a very beautiful way of living. But for the rest of us that are down here on this world It's a funny thing. Rosh Hashanah pask and Rosh Hashanah paskins and on Yom Kippur he seals it. What's the pshat in that? The Torah says, really, it's done on Rosh Hashanah. It's over. For the Rebbeinu Shlom, it's over. We're innocent on Rosh Hashanah. He's already seen our innocence. That's not the question. The question is, are we actually aligned with it in a real way? So there's a taalich on Rosh Hashanah. We rediscover our innocence. In the Aseres Yimei Tshuva, we start to live that reality. It's not a, it's not a small thing, right? It's not a small thing to know that you're innocent.

43:57 I don't hesitate to say this, but when's the last time we really felt innocent? Everyone in the world is living with a deep sense of shame. Having this debate now with a Talmud, he's a very close Talmud, and I love him very much And he's like, you have to know you're a sinner first. I was like, no. If you know you're a sinner first, then you're going to be focusing on your own unworthiness. You're not going to be focusing on the avera that you did. It's like if your husband does something wrong and all he does is feel bad about himself, what do you feel? You don't feel very good. It's like stop focusing on yourself. That's narcissistic. You did something to me. So if you're worthy, then you could say I did an avera. So on Rosh Hashanah we establish our worthiness. We're innocent.

44:45 And then what do we spend aseret yemei tshuva doing? We spend aseret yemei tshuva saying, "I know that I'm innocent, and I need to bring that into my reality." It's what gives us the ability to look at our avers and say, "That wasn't me." In yeshiva, especially when their boys are eighteen, and they do tshuva, it's a very cute thing because I say to them, 'You're not that guy anymore.' They're like, 'Rebbe, I was in camp two months ago.' You know what I was doing two months ago. How could you say it's not me? I always say the same line. Do you think in your forties you're going to be looking at your sixteen-year-old self in the same way? When you're in your thirties and forties, how do you look at your sixteen-year-old self? You were basically protoplasm and hormones. That's what you were, just moving through life, protoplasm and hormones. You weren't thinking of anything. There was no seichel going on, so you behaved in an inappropriate way. You were sixteen. You were in a tough environment. You were in maybe an environment that never should have been to begin with. It's not your fault. You're not going to look in your four. If you're still looking with shame at your 16 year old self when you're in your 40s, something is wrong

45:40 Because at some point we have to move on past our shame. At some point we have to say this is not who we are anymore, and we have to let go of that old narrative of ourselves. That's what Asar Simetuva is all about. It's integrating the perspective of Rosh Hashanah into our lives, and then on Yom Kippur, Hakadosh Baruch Hu says. Since you integrated into your lies, now you can start saying Ashamnu B'gadnu. We don't say Ashamnu B'gadnu on Rosh Hashanah. On Rosh Hashanah, the avoda is I'm innocent. The Rebbeinu, please look at me as innocent. And then we can come to our Yom HaMizra, so to speak, on Yom Kippur. We can only confront the averas that we have done because we understand that's not who we are. And then the Rebbeinu Shem can cleanse us. And I think that's the avoda that Reb Baruch Kaliner was talking about in the very beginning.

46:28 Are you waiting? People are just waiting. I want to be mamlechah, kadosh baruch hu. I want to bring al kadosh baruch hu into my life. I'm tired of this existence. That's why we all moved to Eretz Yisrael, because we didn't want to be in a place that was there's like a spiritual void. I was driving in Yerushalayim today. I spoke in the shul Torah this morning. I was driving through Yerushalayim, and I had this visceral feeling. I always have it in a certain point in Yerushalayim. It's like I don't know why, but you know where the King's Hotel is. I think it's because I stayed in the King's Hotel when I was a kid. So whenever I drive by the King's Hotel, I feel like I'm back on vacation, like when I was a little kid and my parents would bring me to Israel, and it was like early in the eighties. So we'd bring home all the Sprite and Coke bottles because they had Hebrew writing on them, and we thought that was so cool. I was driving through Shalaim today. So grateful to the Rebbeinu. I get to live in a land where I could drive through Shalaim. Isn't that amazing?

47:18 We're not in Tinek. We're not in the five towns. We're not in Pesach. We're not in Muncie. We're not in Los Angeles or Chicago. We live here in this country. You walk through this country. This country is a place of kedusha. Every one of us came here because we want to be in a posture of declaring Hakadosh Baruch Hu as Melech in our lives, and we don't want to chase materialism, and we don't want to be in a world. And I'm not saying it's like that over there, like that's everything. And this is, I'm not saying every but every place has its challenges. And we all know that apartments today are millions and millions of shekel, and the chevra that have the money are buying the apartments, and those that moved here without the money can't buy the apartments. Gufa in the place that we live, so we're renting the apartments from the people that have the money. I understand the problems. I bought twenty years ago, Baruch Hashem. But I understand your problems. They're my kids' problems. They don't afford to buy.

48:07 We want to declare Hakadosh Baruch Hu as Melech. We want to be doing it the entire year. Why are we waiting for Rosh Hashanah? Because we haven't integrated Rosh Hashanah into our lives. We haven't brought Rosh Hashanah into Asar Esimay Tshuva. If we would bring Rosh Hashanah into Asar Esimay Tshuva, then we could bring Asar Esimay Tshuva into Yom Kippur, and then we would know we're back. Hakadosh Baruch Hu. I'm sorry. Can we go back to the way things were? And then our lives would be the way things were. But we fail at the very beginning. We fail in Rosh Hashanah. Because already on Rosh Hashanah we don't feel that sense of innocence. We're not crying out to the Rebbeinu Shlom. It's not that we don't want to cry out to the Rebbeinu Shlom. It's that we feel like who am I to cry out to the Rebbeinu Shlom? Who am I to say Rebbeinu Shlom? I'm really innocent. I'm not this person.

48:48 It feels fake. I've done this haverah for so long. When's the last time I davened with kavana? I'm going to show up to shul on Rosh Hashanah and say that I'm going to daven with kavana. I haven't davened with kavana in so long. I was davening with three kids hanging off of me and a dirty diaper in the corner while one kid was screaming. The only time I have kavana during davening is at the Shira Shalom because I have to think about what day it is. So I'm going to come to the Rebbeim Shul. I'm going to be Mamlechah Kolish Baruchu. You know what the answer is? Yes. The king came out to the forest because he wanted to be found. Which means the king has to be lost, and the wise man has to be able to see. So you racham that this year, I don't know what's going to be this year, but one thing I know for sure: if we're mamlech Hakadosh Baruch Hu on Rosh Hashanah, be'ezza Hashem, we can restore our relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and if we can restore our relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, we can declare Him as Melech. Then this whole process of galus could be over, because the whole process of galus is just for us to find Hakadosh Baruch Hu in the forest.

49:44 Thank you again to the Lubavz for once again hosting us so many times. Baruch Hashem. And thank you to all the sponsors who made this show. I didn't know who the sponsors were, but I saw that it was for the Schos of the Chayalim. For the safety of Montreal and for the return of a couple famous people to our city. Amen.