Transcript
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In Judaism, we're very big into having a
little bit of a heads-up before anything
happens. For example, we have the
concept of erev Shabbat, which is the
eve of the Sabbath. Then we have erev
Yom Tov right before holidays. We have
the month of Elul. Here we are, Elul Ani
Ledodi Vedodi Li. It's a time of
selichot. It's a time of connecting, the
time of teshuvah, repenting. It's 30
days before Rosh Hashanah. It's 40 days
before Yom Kippur.
And we all know the parashah before the
month of Elul is parashat Re'eh. The
letters of the word Re'eh, which means
to see, could also spell out Re'eh, see,
Elul again. The month of Elul is here.
It's a time to wake up and smell the
coffee and say, "Why wait for the Yom
Kippur rush?" All of a sudden, before
Yom Kippur, everybody wants to do
teshuvah, which is an amazing thing and
a great thing. Everybody wants to become
a ba'al teshuvah. Wants to do big
things.
>> [music]
>> But why wait for the last minute? Let's
try to plan as much as possible in
advance. The month before Elul is the
month of Av. Av could also tell us,
aleph and bet, Elul ba. The month of
Elul is coming. It's a heads-up for us
to wake up and to b'ezrat Hashem do
teshuvah and to repent. We all know in
the month of Elul, Moshe Rabbeinu went
up to Har Sinai, onto the mountain, and
he got the Luchot. 40 days later is when
he came down on Yom Kippur and God said,
"Salachti ke-dvarecha. I have forgiven
Am Yisrael, the Jewish people, for the
sin of the golden calf." This is the
time that every single one of us is see
and do some cheshbon nefesh, some
soul-searching. What can I do to become
a better person? What could I do to tip
the scale for us to have a shanah tovah
u'metukah, a sweet and amazing new year.
New year is new you. Rosh Hashanah, the
head of shanah is year also, but it
could also be shinui, which is change.
The beginning of change. I want to
become a better person. I want to do
more good. I want to b'ezrat Hashem take
things upon myself to make a difference
for Am Yisrael, for my family, for
everyone and anyone that could be. We
must remember that when we change
ourselves, we're in essence changing the
world. There's a famous story of a child
that was playing with uh, his father and
the father was busy and he [music] took
a newspaper and he ripped it and he said
to the child, "Here's the world map.
I ripped it into pieces. I want you to
do a puzzle." After just a few minutes,
he thought it would take a long time,
the son comes back with with with the
paper all taped up, all nice.
The father's like, "How in the world did
you put the world map together so fast?"
>> [music]
>> And the child said something amazing. He
said, "Dad, on the other side of the
page was a picture of a human being. So,
I put the head and the and the hands and
the feet and the and the and everything
together and I turned around the page
and the whole world came together as
well. Many people that are looking to
change the world and make the world a
better place, which is an amazing thing,
but you know where it starts? It starts
with us.
>> [music]
>> Every single individual works on
himself, changes himself. Once we change
ourselves, you know what's going to
happen? The whole world will come
together as well. May the Hashem give a
bracha that we should be zoche, we
should merit that we should have the
ultimate blessing, which is the geulah
shleimah, the complete redemption, it
should come be meheravah meheravah in
our speedily in our days. Amen ve amen.
