Teshuva and Tzedaka

2:17 So I just want to go through a couple of mar makomos with you, maybe a little bit more of a textual type of shear. But if you look at the pesukim in Re'eh, in Tovarim, the pesukim talk about the mitzvah of tzedakah. It says, 'Ki yeh b'cha evyon,' if there will be a needy person, me'achad. Achecha, one of your brothers, baachad shirecha, in one of your cities, baartzucha, in your land, asher Hashem lo kachah no sein lach that Hashem gave you, lo ta amets Lo ta amets as lavavcha, do not harden your heart, lo tikpotz as yadcha, do not close your hand, me achicha avyon from your impoverished brother. Rather, what should you do? Kipatach tiftach as yadcha, should open your hand, lo to him. But Haavet Taavitano They mech, they machzera Asher Yechzarlo. You should lend him what he needs, to give him that which he is lacking. Why he shamer lucha? Be careful.

3:16 Peni'davar im levavcha belia lemor. Maybe there will be in your heart an unfaithful thought. And you'll say Karva shnas hasheva shnas hashmita. The seventh year, the shnas hashmita is coming. The Kara Alecha El Hashem, v'ha'yev b'chachait. And what will happen is you're gonna begrudge your impoverished brother. You won't give to him, and he will cry out to Hashem against you, and it will be a chait. Rather, nasson titeh lo. You should surely give him. V'lo yerelavavcha besitchaloh. Your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him. Ki beglal hadavarze. Because of this, Hashem will bless you in all of your work and in all of your endeavors. If you look at the actual psukim, the psukim make reference to two organs in our body. The most obvious organ that we see spoken about is the hand, and that makes sense because the hand is actually what's giving tzedakah here.

4:25 But if you look in these psukim In four psukim, three times. What's mentioned is the heart. The heart is mentioned several times here. Why is it so important that Hakadosh Baruch Hu mentioned the heart as it relates to tzedakah? There's a Tosafot in Ksavus. The Tosafot in Ksavus 68a compares anyone who doesn't give tzedakah to somebody who worships idolatry. Why? Because if you look in the pasuk. Over in Devarim, I believe it's Devarim thirteen Devarim thirteen, is that correct? I want to make sure I get this. Devarim thirteen fourteen. The pasuk there says, 'Yatsu anoshim b'nei bili'al meker becha, unfaithful men have gone forth from among you.' We adichu as Yoshe and Iram leimar nelchov and avda elokim achirim asher lo yedatem And they led the inhabitants of the city astray, and they said, 'Let's go worship other gods.' So this lashon that we see over here of yatsu anoshim bnei belial, we also find by our psukim of tzedaka. This is what the Tosafte points out.

5:35 It says by us. I apologize. Where does it say it? Where does it say? Give me one moment. He shamer lucha peni'a davar im lavavcha b'leial lemor. Maybe there will be an unfaithful thought in your heart. So from here, the Tosafta says, just like it says b'leial over there by Avodah Zara, so too it says b'leial over here when it comes to tzedakah. And therefore, anybody who does not give tzedakah, it's like they're an idolater. The question is, why is tzedakah considered a rebellion against the Kadosh Baruch Hu? That's not what we would have expected. We would have expected that tzedakah is a bad middah. A person is miserly. A person is stingy. But Chazal tell us that no, it's even more than that. It's a rebellion against Hashem. The question is why. If you actually look in the sources, and we're going to go through a couple of them inside, if you actually go through the sources and you look at what type of tzedakah we should give It's very clear, and we're going to see it inside, that it's not enough to give tzedakah. That's not enough.

6:48 Something else needs to be done as well. Let's first take a look at the Sefer HaMitzvos, Sefer HaChinuch. The Sefer HaChinuch says, "Mitzvah sedaka, lasso sedaka ematzarach eleha, besimcha uvetuv leivav." So what's clear, according to the Sefer HaChinuch, is that it's not enough just to give sedaka But it has to be done besimcha uvetuv leivav. In other words, the nature of the mitzvah of tzedakah is that it's not enough to give over money to the person who needs it. That's what we would call the hand experience. But there has to be a heart experience, an emotional experience that comes along with giving tzedakah. It needs to be done with simcha over tov leivav. Let's take a look in the Shulchan Aruch. These are real sources here. We're not playing games. The Shulchan Aruch Yore Deah two forty nine three. The Shocher Aruch says, 'Tzarich li'tein atzdaqa b'sefer panim yafos b'simcha over tov leivav umis onen im ani betzaru umer daberlo devre tanchumim ve'im nasna b'panim zoafos ve'raos hifsid zechuso.'

7:58 In other words, you should give tzedaka, say for panim yafos. You should look glad on your face. Joy and with a good heart. Not only that, but listen. He says, 'Umis onen im ani betzaru.' A person has an obligation to sit with the ani in his state of tsar. In other words, there needs to be a real joining. There needs to be an experience that I'm with you. Umedaber lo devre tanchumin. There has to be a sense of comfort that we bring to the ani. And if you give tzedakah, even if you gave a very nice check But you give it b'panzorafos in a way that the ani feels like you're displeased. You don't really want to give it. He said hifse zechuso. Here's tzidkusos, so you see clearly from here. What's the idea? That if the idea of tzedakah was merely to give a person what they need So then we would be able to say, "I gave him a hundred dollars. I gave him a hundred eighty dollars."

8:52 But that's not the key. The key of giving tzedakah has to be that you're joining with the ani. In other words, there's an emotional experience that the giver is meant to go through, and of course, it has to be done in such a way to appease the emotional discomfort of the receiver. It's even more than that. It's not just the emotional discomfort of the receiver. We have to be people who give. Besimchu b'tuvlevav. We have to become people that know how to sit with another person in their pain. There's an empathy that's meant to exist. As medaber d'ver tanchume means not only that they should feel comfortable, but that we should be people that are capable of giving comfort to another. And again, this idea really comes from the P'sukim. It's not just the hand that gives, but it's the heart that feels along with the ani. You see this also in the Rabenu Yona in Shari Tshuva, says beferish.

9:50 He says NASA nitein lo velo yire l'avcho besitchalou vizaru bezalacharchik men nafshenu tzaras aayin. A person has to be very careful from becoming miserly. Leosenu tove aayin. A person needs to be a generous spirit. Keinyon shenemar, like the pasuk says in Mishlei, Tov ayin hu yavarich. Somebody who is generous is blessed. Below, dai be matanus hayad levad. It's not enough just to give what needs to be given. Kamei mashir nota b'nafshoseinu midas anedivos. A person needs to express this trait. He needs to plant this trait of generosity within himself. In other words, the mitzvah of tzedakah is designed for us to become givers. And that's why the pasuk says you're not allowed to have any regrets. You have to give to the ani readily. And then again, the Rabenu Yonah quotes from our pasuk. A person has to be very careful not to chas v'shalom become cruel. That a person has to be planting within himself.

11:02 A merciful type of charity. He my rachamim and achassadim anemanim. As a person needs to be a generous person, and that's really what the entire idea of tzedakah is about. The entire idea of tzedakah is not merely giving someone what they need, but it's actually becoming someone who's compassionate, who's kind, who's empathic. It's a way of relating to the ani himself. And this is why the Rambam in Avos says that the best type of giving is to give frequently. It's not enough just to give once a big check, but rather it's better to do small acts of giving over and over again. The Rambam says if a person gives a thousand golden coins at one time and nothing to the next poor person, he will not acquire this trait of generosity, as someone who gives willingly a golden coin a thousand times. Why? Because at the end of the day Even though you've given the same amount of tzedakah, one person has constantly expressed this midah of generosity over and over again. In other words, the idea of giving has to become a part of who we are. It's not enough merely to give tzedakah to satisfy the needs of the ani, but it has to be something that transforms us into a particular type of person.

12:22 The question is, why is this? Why is it so important that we have to become people that give? So there's a beautiful rebhersh that I want to read to you. Rebhersh on this pasuk in Re'eh, Devarim fifteen seven. Lo ta'amets. Rebhersh says literally means do not forcefully impose upon your heart. The implied assumption of this expression is that if Jewish hearts are permitted to give free rein to their natural impulses, they will do good. And that only cold, calculating, selfish considerations can suppress these impulses. Jewish hands also are by nature open to the poor, and also can be closed up only by such unnatural selfishness. And that's why the pasuk says, 'You shall not shut your hand.' In other words, what's R'Avi Hirsh saying? R'Avi Hirsh is saying that the natural condition of the Jewish soul is generous. The pasuk has to tell us, 'Don't go against the natural person that you are.' This is a big chiddush of Rav Hirsch, because up until now we've been speaking about giving generously, and the Rambam said a person needs to train themselves to do that. What Rav Hirsch is adding on, which I think is so beautiful and so relevant to all of us We're not going against the grain of the Jewish soul by training ourselves to be compassionate, by training ourselves to be generous. The exact opposite.

13:47 The reason why it's so important to give that one golden coin a thousand times is because what that does is it brings out the natural Jewish soul that we all have inside of us. In other words, we're really supposed to let go of everything and allow ourselves to be as we are—the natural Jewish soul as it is—is kind and compassionate and generous and empathetic. And this, if we would allow ourselves to be ourselves, we would naturally give massive amounts of tzedakah. Why is this so important? Why is it so important for us to be this natural Jewish soul? It's because it's like being a healthy person. It's like if a person is smoking The lungs are meant to breathe. Only the smoke stops the lungs from doing what they're naturally meant to do. The Jewish soul, in order for it to feel alive, in order for us to feel its presence, has to be unleashed on the world, and we become healthy because of that. So when a person gives, and they give freely and generously, to the extent that they can, of their time, of their energy, of their money, and they do it repetitively, that's something that allows us to become harmonious with ourselves.

15:03 Where do we get that from? And we just make that up? This is the midah of Avraham Avinu. The Rambam in Hilchas Matnas Aniyim. I'm going to read it to you inside because it's so beautiful. The Rambam in hilchas matnas aniyim, chapter ten. Says chayavim anu lahazer b'mitzvah sadaka yoser mikol mitzvah asay A person needs to be more careful with the mitzvah of sadaka more than any other mitzvah in the Torah. Shat Sadaka Simin Letzadik Zera Avram Avinu, because someone who gives sadaka is it's a simin that they are the progeny, they are the children of Avram Avinu. Shenamar, as it says in the pasuk, Ki Edativ LaManashe Yitzava Es Banav Lasso Sadaka. Why does Hashem Baruch Hu choose Avraham Avinu? He says, "I've known him because he commands his children what lastsot tzedaka. The Ain Kiseh Yisrael Misconim Vadasa Ms Omedes Ele Betzdaqa" And the throne of Klal Yisrael will not be established, nor will the true faith stand except through the mitzvah of tzedaka. Shanimar Betzdaqa Takanani that we will be established through the mitzvah of tzedaka. The Ain Yisrael Negalin Ele Betzdaqa. And we will only be redeemed because of the mitzvah of tzedakah. This is very powerful, Rambam. The Rambam's a halacha sefer. We wouldn't expect the Rambam to speak in such poetic, such flowery language. But the Rambam is giving us an unbelievable insight.

16:32 The Rambam is telling us that to be a Jew means to be a generous person, and this is why we know that Chazal tell us that somebody who's not a generous person chas v'shalom. The Gemara in Yevamos seventy nine a says that if somebody is not a rachamon, if somebody doesn't have a certain compassion, they're a cruel person. We question their ancestry. The question is, what does this mean? So there's an idea, a very important idea, that's brought down in Tanya. The Alter Rebbe explains as follows: We have two souls. We have a nefesh abahamis and a nefesh halokis. The nefesh abahamis. Is in survival mode. That's the nature of our bodies. The nefesh bahamis is the soul that animates our body. The body, by its definition, will die. It's a hard thing to think about. The moment we're born, we begin to die. That's what happens.

17:28 And so, some of us it's shorter. For some of us, it's longer. But everybody is in the process ultimately of decay. The primary midah of the nefesh abahamis is survival mode. That's what it means to be a person who has a nefesh abahamis. All we're trying to do is survive in this world. And so a person from that perspective will naturally be more miserly. If I've got ten dollars, these are my ten dollars, and I need these ten dollars in order to survive. However, we also have another soul, and this is the nefesh loqis. The nefesh loqis is the godly soul. And the nature of the godly soul, this is the soul that makes us uniquely Jewish. The nature of the godly soul is that it is life. In other words, life cannot die. Life cannot die any more than salt can go bad. And the idea is that the difference between the nefesh abahamis and the nefesh alokes.

18:31 I like the moving screens, by the way. Thank you very much. I also feel like I need to move my screen very often in my life. I just want you to know, I'm with you very much. I can't tell you how many times I also move my screen in my life. It, you shouldn't be embarrassed, even a little bit. Baruch Hashem. Sometimes in life, I like the way you're positioning your head now because in the kitchen I see. I want you to know you're very clever. I don't mean to call it out. I'm just having such a good time. This is my PTSD from being back on Zoom. It's so good to see you, Rebbe. It's so good to see you again. And you're doing such a great job moving back and forth. Everyone's doing a wonderful job here. The idea of the nefesh shallow kiss, you like that seamless transition right back. The idea of the nefesh shallow kiss is that the nefesh shallow kiss, because it is life. Life cannot die. Life can't die any more than salt can go bad.

19:26 From the perspective of the nefesh of Bahamut, if I have ten dollars, those are my ten dollars. I need to keep those ten dollars in order to survive. But from the perspective of the nefesh of Kisse, if I have ten dollars, the question is not how I can keep those ten dollars. The question is what can I do with those ten dollars? How can I use these ten dollars in a godly way? Because I'm not worried about where my next ten dollars are coming from. Because even if my body dies, I know that I'm not limited to my body. I know. There's something larger than my body, and if I've got ten dollars, then I was given those ten dollars for a reason, and that's why we don't use the word charity. We use the word tzedakah. What's the difference between charity and tzedakah? Charity, as I gave you something, it was mine and I gave it to you.

20:12 Tzedakah means justice, tzedek. What is the ultimate form of justice? Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave us money. That money does not belong to us. We are merely the guardians of that money. We're holding on to it for Hashem. The question is, when we're holding on to this money for Hashem, what did He give it to us for? Initially, when the godly soul comes down into this world, the godly soul has no idea why anyone would want money. The godly soul has no idea what anyone would want anything in this world. The godly soul only yearns to be back by Hakadosh Baruch Hu. It yearns to be back in the place of its maker. But something changes over time. The godly soul learns something in this world, and that's why it comes down into this world. There's something that the godly soul must learn. It learns that the greatest revelation of Hakadosh Baruch Hu happens in the physical world, not in the spiritual world.

21:07 And therefore, if we're given money, the question is how we're going to use it in a godly way, to the degree. That when it comes time for the godly soul to leave this world, the godly soul says, 'I don't want to leave this world. Why would I want to go to the kisei akavod if I could be down here in this world revealing Hakadosh Baruch Hu and dear b'tachtonim?' This is why the soul of Moshe Rabenu did not want to leave this world because the soul of Moshe Rabenu saw that this world was a place where a person could really discover Hakadosh Baruch Hu, to reveal Hakadosh Baruch Hu's presence in this world. So what happens is that when a soul is born, when a Jewish soul comes down into the world, initially, if somebody knocks on the door and says, "Hey, can I have some money?" The godly soul says, "Why would I want to give you money? Why do you want money?" But then, as the godly soul matures and it learns the lessons of this world, it learns that only in this world can we really reveal Hakadosh Baruch Hu, because in the spiritual world, God is already revealed. Hide and go seek is a beautiful game, especially if you find.

22:07 So it's much better To give someone who needs and to take care of their material needs. That's the most Jewish thing we could do. So it's not by accident that Avraham Avinu is defined by his trait of giving tzedakah. It's not an accident at all. Because this is an expression of being in deep harmony with the actual soul of life, not the soul that animates you. But the soul that is life itself, the chelak elokami mal mamish, that piece of Hakadosh baruch hu that lives inside of all of us. And with all of this in mind, we now understand why it's so important not only to give tzedakah, but to actually tap into the heart of tzedakah, to tap into the generosity. If a person only gives, that's wonderful. You should still give, even if you don't have the heart to give. You should still give. But if you've only given tzedakah, you failed. The ultimate test, which was the expression of your godly soul, is to give. This is not my money. I have in order to give.

23:09 And with this in mind, I think we can begin to understand why this is such an essential mitzvah and why it's so tied in to the mitzvah of tshuva. Because the notion of tshuva is going back to the true self of who we are. That's what tshuva is really all about. It's going back, reaching into the essence of who we are, that state of being that is pre-sin. In other words, we all do averes. But ultimately, underneath all of the averes that we've done, there's a godly soul that never participated in any of the averes that we did. Elokein neshama shanasat be tahorei, our soul remains pure the entire time that we were doing an avera. We weren't really present. The godly soul was not really present. And so, what we want to do is tap back into that initial purity that we all have inside of ourselves.

23:58 And this is what the mitzvah of tzedakah does. The mitzvah of tzedakah, when it's done besimcha over tovleivah, when it's done bneimus, when it's done in a way where you're sitting with the ani and you're being empathetic and you're being kind to them, it's tapping into the true essence of who you are and that person Bringing about that person, the revelation of that person has no shayches to the world of sin. What avera? I never participated in that avera. Because the roah hagzera that chas v'shalom, that evil decree that could fall upon a person, it fell upon that person. But that's not the person that I am. As you see, look how I give tzedakah. I am zera avraham avinu. So it's not shy for a Jew to really do tshuva without the mitzvah of tzedakah. To do the mitzvah of tzedakah comes naturally from the generosity of spirit that we have, and that taps into the person that we really are.

24:53 I'm not here to make an appeal. I'm not a young Israel rabbi sitting at Kol Nidre and saying, 'Who's going to pledge a thousand dollars? Who's going to pledge ten thousand dollars?' I'm not selling Aliyahs here. That's not the point. But I want to share with you something. Every one of us is a member of a family. I, Baruch Hashem, am a member of several families. I'm a member of the Berg family, the Mevaseret family. One of the families that I'm a part of is the family of Toma Devora. And in that's why it says Meshbachas Toma Devora. It's a family. And we all have hakarasatov. It's easy to make up reasons why we're not makertov. The teacher that I was close with isn't there anymore, and it's only this person, that person. Shtuyot. We all gained tremendously from Toma Devora. I know, I gained tremendously every year. I come to Devora, Toma Devora. I have all these new rabbinsons. I learn from all these students. They're incredible. I learn the most from my students. I'm so privileged to be able to be a part of this wonderful family. I'm not here to make appeals that other people can do. They could send out flyers. I'm just here to say a simple thing.

26:03 We have halacha. We give to our cities first. We take care of the people that took care of us. It's a kara satof. In this man of tshuva, where we're tapping into the person that we really are. Baruch Hashem, the Rebbeinu Shlom has given every one of us a little bit of tzedakah. For some, it's more; for some, it's less. You should know, it doesn't matter. You give that one coin a thousand times, it reveals the true person of who we are. If we have to choose where to give our tzedakah, does it not make sense to give our tzedakah to our family first, to our homes first? To our cities first? Of course. But my husband—he wants to take care of his yeshiva. So your husband has to take care of his family, and you have to take care of your family. For some reason, I'm not sure why. Somehow the men seem to win this argument, and the yeshivas get a lot more. I'm not sure why that is. I have theories about why that is, but probably not theories that I want to say out loud, and probably things that I don't want to say when I'm recorded.

26:57 But for the meantime, suffice it to say that if we have a couple of shekels, what could be better than giving those couple of shekels to the people that raised us, to the people that were there for us in some very vulnerable moments in our life as we were growing into the people that we have. If you give, you'll give, and it'll change who you are. That's really what we tried to do when you were in Torma Devora. We tried to get you connected to the real person that you are, to the authentic Jewish soul that we have underneath all of us. And again, I'm not here to make appeals. I baruch Hashem, I'm a salaried employee. I come, I speak, I leave. I think you all know that very well. But I also want to say that I feel very much kasher to Toma Devora. I feel very much a part of it, and I'm not just speaking about Toma Devora. Really, I'm speaking about all the institutions that you went through, the high schools, the elementary schools. We have to give generously to these beautiful makhaymus hakdoishim that went to. Every one of them, were loved into being. These people raised us, and I'm not saying that anyone. I'm not here to tell you, you're going to get rich off your tzedakah. But there are people that need scholarship.

28:02 There are people that need things, and you have no idea. Our institutions, Baruch Hashem, in Klal Yisrael, our institutions are not just institutions of education; they're institutions of Chesed. I know in the yeshivas that I grew up, and I can't tell you how much Chesed went on behind closed doors, handing a couple shekels to this one, a baseball glove to this one, a baseball bat to that one. And Baruch Hashem, we are institutions not only of education but of Chesed, because for a Jew, education and Chesed go together. So the only thing I want to say is in this season we all want to be maver and Eretz Yisrael. Give Give to your people. It's always a beautiful thing to give to Klali Yisrael. We have to take care of our family first. That's what Allah is. Of course we should give to everybody. We have to give to our families first. And so it's a privilege to be part of this. And I know everybody's reaching out to us all the time. We're always getting called upon, and Baruch Hashem. Khaliyshol can rely on its people. I don't know. I don't know how it goes in the secular world. I don't know if they're giving as much tzedakah as we are. I hope they are. I'm just not familiar so much with that world.

29:05 I just want to say Everybody's reaching out. But when your family says help us out, the first people we turn to is our family. So Toma Devorah is turning to you again. I'm a salaried employee. I'm not running the show here, but I understand. I was privileged when Mrs. Kassarale asked me to do this. I said yes right away, Miss Kesaro. Did I hesitate? I didn't even hesitate a little bit. Not even a little bit, because I know that Toma Dvaravas has done so much for me. I'm sure they've done a tremendous amount for you. Anything you could give is, of course, tremendously meaningful. But Ezer Hashem, it should be a shlos for us to tap into the true people that we are.

29:41 Please forgive me for the Kol Nidrei appeal. I'm not here for your money. I do not get one penny more from giving this shir. I don't get one penny more. They're not paying me more. To do this, I'm just here to say. Mrs. Kassarli, I would like to get paid for this year, but that's not the point. I'm saying I'm not going to get a higher salary. I'm not going to get a higher salary by giving this year. There's no money coming into my pocket here. I'm just here to say, Baruch Hashem, we were part of something special, and we should pay it forward and continue to make Talmud Torah into the special place that it is. I want to wish you all a gemar chesim atayva. A good gebensh jar. It's amazing to see at least six or seven of you, and it was also very nice to see all the blank screens. It was also very nice to see some husbands in the background. Be'ezrat Hashem, we should be zeicher only to good things.