CHAZAQ | Rabbi Yaakov Rahimi | Elul Chizuk Special

foreign [Music] quick this year don't worry you're not going to sit here for a long time we'll try to say a few words of inspiration to this beautiful community in plain view New York is this a Persian community no mix mixers okay well I was going to make you feel proud because I'm Persian for the person's here I grew up in L.A in Pico area for those who know what I'm talking about um and for the behinds in the community I'm very involved in Queens so I do feel bucharan have a Persian we're holding in the month of Elo what a beautiful gift Hashem gave us an opportunity to do teshuva there's a lawyer I think his name is uh Mr brafman I think that's his name he writes an article every week in one of the Jewish magazines it's called the Army magazine he writes an article about his experience as being a defense lawyer for many many many many years very interesting articles and one of the articles that he wrote as a defense lawyer to defend uh unfortunately people that are misbehaving with the government or different criminals or they're innocent according to him he says being a good defense lawyer is preparing hours and days and weeks and he says sometimes he doesn't sleep at night because he tries to prepare how to defend his client in court next to the judge why do you need so much preparation because you don't know what the judge is going to ask what the judge is going to look for what his mood is going to be so because you have to protect your client he says he puts so much hours and so much sleep is lost just to make sure he has the case clear to defend his client in front of the judge this is why Hashem and Judaism is awesome Hashem doesn't hide when he's judging us doesn't hide what he's looking for when he's judging you and also he also spills the beings and he tells you what's going to erase all that for what Hashem gives you one month one month that he's telling you if you want to be Jose better if you want to repent now is the time because what you can do now in this month to repent for the misdees and the sins a person did can take you in the whole the rest of the year much longer Terrace elul is an opportune time to repent and Hashem is also telling you what he's going to ask a person did you keep Shabbat properly are you learning properly are you making properly are you giving to the car properly are you stealing all the rules and all the questions that the judge who is asking us and wants from us is all in front of her faces everything and say on the table Hashem doesn't hide anything he tells us exactly what he wants from us he tells us what's going to work what's not going to work and he has so much Mercy he has so much he gives us a whole month to repent and even after that look how much chances God gives us human beings in order to defend defend yourself as a Jew is so easy all a person needs to do is want to grow and do to Shiva and repent right he writes a person who's able to repent and chooses not yet to repent it's like a person shalom in jail and while they're in jail one of the people the criminals one of the robbers was able to make a secret tunnel to escape jail say everybody all the gentlemates all running away they're going through the tunnel and they're crawling out one guy says I'm going to be at Sadiq I'm going to be a righteous guy I'm not breaking the law I'm staying in jail like this Cesar the guard comes with a stick and he sees how everybody ran away for the tunnel and he sees one guy sitting there all nice he tells them why did you not Escape he's like because I don't want to break the law the guard takes the stick boom boom starts hitting the guy says up anyway he hits him and he hits him and the guy's saying why are you hitting me I was being a good boy I didn't run away the guard tells them no if you had a chance to run and you didn't run you know what that shows us that we're not doing a good job you being in jail looks like you too comfortable so he starts hitting him and hitting him and hitting him foreign a person who has a chance to repent while he's alive in this world and live the real life of being close to Hashem and there's no greater enjoyment than fun and awesomeness than being holy close to Hashem a person who has a chance to erase all the sins and still chooses not to shows that that person is not aware of the reality of the life that he's living in you're living in jail if you don't know what it means to get close to Hashem if you're not running to do this you don't realize unfortunately how corrupt your life is by the world that you live in a person who does not do the right thing is living in jail you're missing at a life there's no greater enjoyment to be close to academ IA you have a guy that works in I don't know what let's say uh McDonald's yeah just sit over there whatever there's McDonald's something else something chicken whatever it is he works in one of those stores how much do they get paid already in such places not to make fun but how much as a cashier fifteen dollars an hour twelve thousand an hour in Los Angeles I used to be a cashier by the way in Halal Market I used to get paid like six dollars an hour sometimes whatever it is how much you get paid as a cashier already in these places imagine such a guy meets the wealthiest guy let's say Elon Musk okay let's see meets Elon Musk or Zuckerberg and he tells him Zuckerberg Elon Musk I work at McDonald's you know I give me 12 an hour I do this I do this second maybe I'll afford a phone I could get myself a car Elon Musk and the other wealth you guys are gonna look at them like whoa you live in a bubble you live in a bubble you're happy working you know what you're capable of you know how much money we're making you know how much potential you human beings have making money in this world if you work hard and you hustle you're a happier at McDonald's you're living in jail and specific what it is you think small of yourself you're compromising on your kohut and your strength and your potential to make a lot more money how much more soul when one has a chance to do Torah mitzvot to do the right thing you get close to Hashem and repent but says Nah this is not for me the whole repenting the holy Shiva I think it's not for me I'm comfortable where I am do you recognize that you're compromising on your own potential in this world you're compromising on an awesome life that Hashem gave you to live every moment in this world that is to get close to him if a person is okay with where they are right now instead of wanting to grow especially you are losing out you're compromising on your potential to grow and get closer and closer I want to share with you the other day I was putting my baby to sleep we just put him in the crib his name is yudah we put him in the crib he was all happy obviously he cries afterwards because they get extended at the beginning we put him in the crib how do you put him to sleep you shake the crib everybody remembers that you say that the baby falls asleep until they fall asleep the next day my brother tells him make sure you wake me up early how did I wake him up early I shake him I shook the bed I shook his foot I took off his blanket you have to move the guy when I moved him he got up I thought to myself how could it be a baby in order for it to fall asleep you shake it it falls asleep an adult my older brother I don't want to wake him up I shake the bed he wakes up how can my baby falls asleep when you shake him an adult wakes up the answer is a baby when you shake it it falls asleep an adult when you shake it it wakes up every single day Hashem is shaking the world and he's telling everybody wake up wake up Hashem babies fall asleep adults mature men who know life is real Hashem is real when it comes shaking the world they wake up and they want to because every person that came to this lecture and waited for me shows that there are and they want and they're ready on the path of being showing an interest itself is a sign of that shows that I'm talking to mature people not a bunch of babies that's not the lesson but the point is in Hashem is and he's telling us to wake up a person has to make sure not to be that person and miss another beautiful opportunity gift that Hashem gave us that gift is the chance to repent to get closer and closer together what is teshuva a person might think to Shiva is an overwhelming complicating thing but again Hashem made life so easy just to pay someone so easy these days quick pay zel venmo chick check boom boom boom is even easier one thought of regretting and feeling sorry and sad for Rebellion against God that already is Toshiba the says in the same word as all same letters as as being embarrassed when one is embarrassed and ashamed of their past sins that are radius Toshiba it is like this just to show you how powerful it is for a person to feel a little shame when he doesn't have it writes whoever does the sin the Omer and he says I've sinned which means he admits it he admits it he's not denying it the trees he's embarrassed of it no Angels any resource has any permission to touch them or damage them a person who knows how to admit mode a person who is who admits he did something wrong the observe and he starts leaving the sin such a person will have mercy and such a person but the first step is to accept that a person sinned when a person accepts that that's the first step to actually move forward and be a happy person and get closer and closer every human being Torah tells us every human being has their unfortunately that they've done at Sadiq a righteous person as a person who knows that even though they sinned they know they have potential to erase everything against us you know how evil Wicked it doesn't happen overnight in the beginning they sin and they don't repent for their sins so now they tell themselves that's too late it's ever going to happen I'm anyways out the window Manu is not getting close to God and they start putting themselves down more and more and more and what happens is it's a slippery slope and they get worse and worse and worse and worse the difference between a Sadiq and arasha is as thin as a piece of hair which means it's not just one day a guy wakes up and says I want to be evil what happens is such a level of reshoot of wicked because he did not repent enough and when you don't repent and you don't believe in the power of chuva it can lead the person to even worse things at Sadiq is a person then even though he sinned he knows how to get up and move forward and get closer and closer who because he tapped into his potential that he has as long as he's alive to get closer if Hashem gave us life if we were born today you know every single day when we every single night when we go to sleep tells us it's 1 60th of death when we go to sleep we're basically to a certain extenses again we're dead chose to put awareness back in our bodies that morning that means I showed me the calculation and said even though you do not do good things today even though your whole life you basically were not proper but I still believe you should be alive because I know you're going to do great so every single morning if Hashem puts Awana back what does that mean it means of our own Creator who created this whole concept of mitzvot and sins in the first place is telling us if I'm giving you life that day that means you have a chance to grow and move forward but you can have a person that's alive and healthy and tells yourself now it's too late I can't repent I don't believe in chuva how could it be you're arguing with your own Creator who give you life literally that day and is telling you you're alive if you're alive that means Hashem believes in you if Hashem believes in you how do you not believe in yourself your own inventor and Creator believes in you how do you not believe in yourself many years ago I met this Israeli guy an Israeli soldier who was in a Six Day War Yom Kippur War and Lebanon war for those who know Israeli history he's an old man religious Jew when he was in the IDF he wasn't a religious person so I like interviewing old people and ask them tell me some lessons in life one time I met a holoca Survivor he told me the crazy stuff from the Holocaust he told me he was seriously he was literally in Germany learning in a synagogue as he was learning the Nazism came inside the show and pulled them out I was like literally while you were learning I was learning inshall and never saw my parents since literally came and pulled me out and then I went to who knows where but whatever a lot of a lot of different lessons I learned interviewing old people so this specific old Israeli idea of soldier told me a tremendous lesson he said in one of the wars in that Safar in the North of Israel was Syria it's a beautiful lesson he says the syrians ambushed his whole Brigade his whole uh friends of army Nexus from the IDF his whole team they ambushed them he said there were grenades flying there was Smoke there was blood and people were dying there were gunshots and he said his friends and tell his left until his right were dropping like flies they were dying like flies he said he gets so scared and so panicked that he just dropped to the floor and he wanted to believe as if he's dead but he noticed that the syrians the soldiers the enemies are getting closer and closer not further and further but he told himself that he had he told me that he had this feeling of she had this feeling of just giving up on life just giving up hope he said he just laid there and he said I said I'm out I can't fight them I'm just going to kill me I'm giving up and he said for a few minutes he laid down and he was waiting to see if the syrians are going to kill him but nothing happened he said then out of nowhere he started having these thoughts in his mind get up right now and run you can do it get up and run and he said at that moment in his mind he had to make a decision very fast either I stay on the ground and defeat and they will kill me because I gave up hope or I get the courage to get up no matter what and just run and run and run and survive and he said he doesn't know why but he had this he got to strengthen him to get up and he ran and ran and ran and ran and he survived himself over the story how he did not get killed from that specific battle I thought to myself what a tremendous lesson for our spiritual life when a person is alive and they eat Sahara the evil creation shoots you down another Vera another bad day another year goes by boom boom a person has a decision to make while he's alive should I stay laying down and just let the it's a heart totally take over my life and bihasa Shalom and give up hope or should I tell myself be strong be bold be aggressive get up and just run always move forward in life you're alive Hashem gives you another day another month another year what happened in the past happened if you're alive your job is to be hazak to be strong and not look back and just run for your life run forward accomplish more Meets World and more Torah Hashem give you another day go for it that accomplishes so much being so accomplished in one day you know every time a person is about to speak Russian Hara which means slander by another person oh this person is a horrible uh Baker this guy he doesn't know how to drive this guy has an ugly house every time you control yourself holding yourself back not to say just one sentence the gomovina writes that the amount of reward that person gets for controlling their mouth not to see something bad he has more reward to the level greater than melakim than Angels in shamaim the accomplishment is priceless every one moment of Torah the accomplishment is prices every Shabbat we keep no money in the world will pay for the price for that reward that we get and then Jews are never bored because there's always a person who Taps into their potential and how much they can accomplish in this world will never be bored and no matter what happened in the past were always not to move forward and accomplish more Torah and more mitzvot when one recognizes how much they're worth when one knows that Hashem gave them is so powerful son and daughter when one knows that if Hashem gave them life that day that means you can get close and closer that person is always going to move forward and never look back you know because the yet Sahara even though it's ELO even though it's a month of repenting the yitzhaka can sometimes get a person to always think about their past and tell them that it's never enough for them to actually grow and become righteous and sadiquely because he says imagine you have a professional Ghana a professional robber who goes into that grocery store and he goes in front of the register and he has you know sometimes by the registers they have all these small products that they want to sell for a dollar fifty cents keychains he goes in front of the cashier this robber and let's see he grabs a keychain in front of his face and he tells him I'm robbing this and he starts running out of the store what is the cashier gonna do he's gonna start chasing this guy and this guy's running out of the store the robber is already running out and meanwhile what happened the cashews running after him meanwhile the robber calls his friend and he tells them the course is clear the cashier is in the whole cashier is open it's empty go for it his friend all the rabbit goes inside the store the cashier is out no one is watching him he goes in and takes all the cash what happened over here the cashier ran ran after this guy for 50 cents worth of a keychain but while he ran after him and he was busy running after the robber he left his whole machine open full of cash and his friend came and took all the cash and rubbed all his money sometimes a person unfortunately Falls they made a mistake but the yet Sahara will make you so busy with that mistake so busy with that past and that sin that it can consume your whole life and meanwhile he's robbing your potential of your life every single day not focusing and accomplishing Shabbat you don't mean to keep Shabbat how accomplishing that is but if a person is sad and if a person doesn't know how to get up and move forward even though he captured about he lost out to a big extent let that person has all four 24 hours to accomplish if he said for the sins that he did say even though Hashem gave him life he's not going to be able to accomplish so what happened you were sad because of the sins that you did but meanwhile you were robbed a lot more from you you 24 hours worth of potential was taken away from you I want to share with you a story about Thai and I'm going to end up with this share with your story about a person doing coven beautiful story this person unfortunate by the lockdown he felt very lost person from the city I was born in and he felt very lost doing covert and he felt that you know life is empty and this has to be more meaning to life and I want to get closer he did not own a pair of tool and this guy's an hour on a peritone and never really learned a day in his life he did not know where to turn to he couldn't turn to his parents and siblings he decided he's going to pray to Hashem David Hashem every single day and he did it by the lockdowns dive into Hashem to show him the way how he can repent to get close to Hashem so imagine this just happened this guy sitting is an apartment he wants to become closer to Hashem he just doesn't know how to do it so what does he do he prays for it he tells the Shema Hashem I want to get close to you please show me the path now listen to what happens when the covert restrictions started opening up a little bit there was after Shavuot time in Israel so some shoes started opening up one of the shows for the synagogues they have a night sitter program which means they have a collel of people learning with classes at night in their show and what happens is you have people from kodal coming rabbis coming and they learn what they're working guys at night one on one so the show that night started the night sitter program everybody comes in the rabbits come to learn the working guys everyone is excited after Kobe a little free able to learn in the show that goodbye of the shul comes and he says no no no no I'm still scared of coven it's still dangerous we're canceling tonight the night sitter no one is learning in the synagogue it's still dangerous no one is allowed to do it tell me yeah but everyone is here we want to learn he's like no it's I'm not taking responsibility no one killer in the show so everyone is waiting outside one guy volunteers he says you know what everyone come to my apartment I have a huge meal pescet I have huge balcony lets everyone learn in my balcony tonight okay everyone starts following this guy to his apartment one Rabbi said let me stay in front of the shul just in case somebody is going to come late to learn I'm going to tell them it's closed over here but we're all learning in this guy's apartment just in case another Jew wants to come learn I'll be the guy directing traffic telling him to go to this guy's apartment so everybody went to the apartment one ramp I stand in front of the shop he waits five minutes no one comes 10 minutes someone is coming a half hour no one is coming he tells us okay that's it I already waited a half hour it's time for me to go teach tawa and go to the apartment as he's walking out from the sidewalk next to the shul he sees that guy jogging a guy with long hair with headphones on he said and the guy was taking his regular jog over there in petratica he's like you know what let me ask this guy if he wants to learn he said he did not know why he asked him but he asked him he tells them across the street my brother my brother and then he runs across the street and he tells them by the way we have a learning program do you think you want to learn tawa it's right here down the block come learn TOA suddenly this guy that was jogging he said he started shaking because he was all uh near gosh and it's in a gash in English He was all emotional instead of getting all emotional this jogger and never tells him what is going on what did I tell you they're getting all emotional he's like I gotta sit down I gotta sit down he sits by the sidewalk with this Rabbi he tells me you're not gonna believe what just happened for months I'm praying to Hashem Hashem I want to start learning Torah please help me out and I don't know who to ask I'm embarrassed to ask I know who to turn to but I know that I can pray to my father in shamaim to my Father in heaven to please help me out and now as I'm jogging down the street you come across and you offer me to learn TOA the rabbit told not only am I often going to I want to learn with you I want to live with you one-on-one and the boy said it be me instead of crying instead of getting emotional and the rabbit told them by the way can I ask you something he says yes do you own a pair of tiffiline the boy again it starts getting me more nervous for months I'm diving to Hashem that I want a pair of tiffiline whoever tells them well listen you found the right guy because I have a Gamache I guess you call like that's the type of business of giving up pairs of the feeling in my trunk I have a bunch of parathy feeling right now they go to the rabbit's trunk they take the peritophylline that night about this boy that was David into Hashem in his apartment he had no clue where it's going to come from but he knew he can trust Hashem he knew he could trust his father and he says I want to learn and a one pair of filling what does he get Amazon Prime that night that he was jogging he starts learning to me that's a tremendous story because we can live through life and keep the holidays keep kosher pay our tuition for our children do everything right 100 but the relationship with the bar who with God is not really there they're actually trusting Hashem and turning to him and knowing that only he can help you Shalom be missing and that is the nikuda that is the point that Hashem wants Hashem wants a person to be real with him teshuva means to be real to be real to really want to change say even though a person sinned if they're real about change to Hashem that's already is not complicating is a mindset for our person for now on to change the direction of life and say I'm gonna be an honest Jew and I'm going to be sincere and all I want is to get close to Hashem when that's a person's path in life to Hashem that's already teshuva you know ask an obvious question I end with this they say forgiveness but unfortunately right afterwards we know that the rest of the year we're going right back at it okay we're not gonna sit for everybody but I'm saying for a lot of people even though they do this Hashem no more this but a person knows within two three weeks they're going to follow they're gonna fall with me things are going to happen so very obvious question it's very fundamental so why is it that it's not considered as if we're lying every single yamaki poem every single Russia what really is chuva if we know we're going to repeat it basically why are we not lying to Hashem it's a very fundamental question and the answer is even better and if you get this it was worth it for you to wait for this I hope at least I hope like this they say chuva is this is unbelievable and this is why again Judaism and Hashem is awesome is at the moment when you're praying to Hashem whether it's doing City hot whether it's tonight whether it's when you're praying to Hashem and you go through all the vidui of repenting of the sins when you go through it and you sincerely tell Hashem and Hashem knows who's sincere and Italian Hashem you know that I did but you know even more that I did not want to do these sins and the reason why it happened is because unfortunately we live in a society where everybody is doing a vote and we got corrupted and we get influenced but you know deep inside we don't want to be there and even though we might do it again Hashem I'm telling you I don't want to do it please give me the strength not to do it I want to be because at that moment when that person is sincere that is these are main commenters we have and the laws of repenting they're telling us teshuva is to be sincere when you pray to Hashem and they give a guarantee by the way when somebody's sincere every single Yama Ki poem eventually some people faster than others but eventually that person will become more and more righteous closer to Hashem but that person has to be sincere that so when we do this when we're repenting even though in back of our minds we might know what's going to happen again but if we really don't want it to happen even though we know it's going to happen and we're sincere about it to get close to Hashem that is to Siobhan that is repent again what an unbelievable thought that we have over here means to come back to truly who you are chuva means to come back to actually fulfill your potential and be who you're supposed to be and that is closer and closer what is a mindset shuva is a vision for yourself in life I want to be closed at and when someone is sincere when he prays to hashema and really sincere eventually they would change and even though they might fall again that you with the same sin that they repented for to Hashem that still 100 Hashem gave us a tremendous gift tremendous not everyone is alive not everyone is alive we're lucky to be alive to repent for that we did imagine that goes to shamaim and he tells them Black Friday who remembers Black Friday when I was a kid Black Friday was a big deal we still stand with uh tents outside Best Buy in Los Angeles to get in the newest Nintendo so you have to do chuva for that after a pen for that but Black Friday is basically a day where they have I think cyber all the Cyber stuff is whatever that's 50 off it used to be people used to die with their Rat Race running into the stores I know what's going on now people used to die from Imagine Hashem goes to shamaim and it tells all the shamot all the dead Souls Black Friday you could come back to LA Mase to this world for 24-Hour sale come back to this world all the people that already left this world and now they saw the truth and what real value is in the next world and how much you can accomplish in this world well they're going to come in for 24 hours what do you think they're going to do you think they're going to go to Macy's you think they're going to win online to buy ice cream what do you think they're gonna do don't get offended they're not even going to spend time with family they're going to come to this world and learn more and more mitsote because once you see the value of this world whoa so much potential so much value to grab who has time to be busy with sins that already happened if you are alive what are you doing what are you waiting for just run accomplish you're alive Hashem is giving you another whole month because or say not you were born a Jew there used to be born a Jew you won the lottery if you go to Google and you say what are the chances of a person winning the lottery there's more of a chance of you winning the lottery than you being boring into the Jewish world and we were all born Jewish to Hashem that's unbelievable what was why do we have this why do we have the Merit to be Jewish sometimes I could pull my hair you know when you go on the plane and you look outside the window when I went to Chicago the other day I was looking outside the window you see lands and lands and oceans and oceans and I tell them we have this the ability to talk to you Hashem you give us three times a day that we have to pray to you and even more than the whole day you can talk to Hashem and even when we rebel against you you love us and you want us to come back and you give us a chance and you give us light why do we have this to be alive and actually have the chance to connect to you why do you even give us that Merit we have to be model Hashem the fact that we're alive that we're Jewish the religious that we have elude there's so much gifts that he's giving us we're talking to the creator of the world you know what that means it's tremend this gift to be born Jewish and to have this to get close to Hashem one of the chances of us right now being Jewish serving Hashem what is the hood that's we say every single day why is it important to say every day because sometimes the Jew can forget what it means the gift of being a Jew sometimes the Jew can look at the rest of the world and say oh maybe it would have been better off being a guy a person can forget the Matana the gift that you have of being having the ability to get close to Hashem and repenting and learning Torah and getting closer and closer who I'm sorry I was late I could go for five more hours but I'm not because I don't like holding people back thank you for coming from all your children and everybody over here this week thank you so much for listening