The High Holy Days: Eternal Values - Rabbi Yisroel Reisman

[Music] there are certain Mitzvah that are very specific to a Mel Israel to a king among the Jewish people and one of the most famous is the obligation of the king to have a safe has to be with him from to be able to read all his life this seems to mean inconsistency in the it's a feminine expression she will be with him and then the he will read in it Bo is the masculine expression it's an inconsistency which is very unusual in the Ty the answer though lies in aashi later in par and Rashi gives us a tremendous insight into the appreciation of a saer Ty Rashi says sometimes it says in feminine and sometimes it says in masculine and there's a difference saer to means a t scroll saer the physical tus girl saer is a word in Hebrew which has has a masculine construction meaning it's saer the word t on the other hand is of a feminine origin and feminine expressions are used now the point here is neither the masculine nor the feminine but the point is that sometimes you look at a SE you say means the scroll the physical Torah sometimes you say is not a reference to the physical but to the concept that the Torah represents and both are true we give respect to a saer Torah scroll what I would call Theus of t or the physical T and then there's the essence of the tah the spiritual the pemus of tah and the Torah deliberately has a contrast when it refers to the sa it's refers to it in the masculine term and when it ter to refers to the pus of Ty in the feminine and therefore what has to be with the king the Torah scroll the physical T well that's the physical obligation but that's not the idea the idea of is that the the T the essence of T what T represents the pus of T has to be present with the king at all times of course when he LS he leads from reads from the physical sa is from a physical sa but the point being that a person has to look at T and see bothus of the of the talk about fools who kiss a who stand up for a and don't stand up for a Torah scholar because they're standing up for the parchment and the ink of a sa rather than the pus what the stands for my rebi focused on this idea very often in his discussion as an example he would talk about the the respect for parents which asov and yob both excelled in excelled in in the outward he brought food to his father he took care of his father certainly a but for a great man what's the real the child that feeds him or the the child that's gave real the external and this the internal it's a challenge we live in a physical world we see physical things it's a challenge to see pneus to see something someone a place and appreciate the of it the inside of it ra visited Isel in the early 70s he visited the kis it caused them great pain people come to the kle they're joyful it's a to be there theyo with each other they talk to each other Raam could not understand it the K is a place of War it's a place of Eur it depends what you see if you see the externality of the kisil the holy kisil you have a certain sense of respect but if you know what it means the pemus of it we're on the wrong side of the C we belong in the other side of the K with the B of mdash if you appreciate the pineus of something you see it in a very different light ra P would say that when a safer falls on the floor Jews have a custom to pick it up and show it respect most people pick up the safer and kiss it which is fine he said alyah picks up the SE opens it and learns a few words in it the SE suffered a disrespect it fell on the floor you can kiss it give honor to the of the saer of the saer rather of the the paper the ink or you can give honor to the pus to the thing that's that it stands for that it represents y are coming what is special about y what's special is that it you stops and the Flesh and Blood the paper and ink of our world the brick and mortar of our world that what we sense we're human beings we sensory people we sense physical things we take a time in the year to see the pus of things to appreciate things to see the essence of things to recognize the reality the reality of of the existence of the Jewish people the reality of of Jews in ER Israel it's wonderful to go to Israel it's a Jewish Metropolis it's a wonderful place but that's Theus of Israel the pus of Israel is someone who stops and thinks about the fact that just 100 years ago just 100 years ago in 1924 there were people starving dying children dying of starvation in ER Isel and today God has blessed us with plenty at that time ER Isel was for the most part a desert and today it blooms at that time there were a couple of hundred thousand Jews in ER Israel and now there are millions the pneus of er Israel the the appreciation of is the appreciation of has given us the appreciation of our mission the appreciation of our jobs the appreciation what means to get out of bed in the morning and serve a kades the pus of life we have to stop have our antennas up and appreciate it we have to go to the CLE and see what it is what it represents what it means have to be appreciated all of this is not an automatic reaction of a human being a good human being a human being is inem it still takes a lot to stop and appreciate to stop and think about the the pus the the the the reality of things that exist when we learn MB we learn about something called kyf we learned about acquiring things by giving cas by paying for them in Hebrew KF means silver is it really silver is it the metal called Silver that's money thead has a fantastic Insight he says you can acquire land with Kenyan KF by giving money even just a down payment and it becomes yours if a man buys a million doll property and he tells the seller I want to do a Kenyon I want to acquire it and he gives him 5050 cents and he says this will be the down the down payment it becomes mine says the SM it's not the physical money giving money that's not money money is shabus is value if you say I'm buying a million dollar property here's 50 cents now I owe you well not a million dollars less 50 cents that's a k kiss if you're making a payment but when you just give money as an item that's not KF that's not money that's a piece of metal he says CF doesn't mean the piece of silver it's what it represents the shist value if that's true about money how much more so about how much more so that it's not the physical item it's what it represents of course the physical sa is Holy when we do hgba we have accustom to say this is the Torah we point some people with the pinky some people with the finger says in S I believe don't say unless you can see the letters why I know it's a sa am I afraid it's not really a sa why do I have to see the letters the answer would seem to be don't take the moment to respect the part and the ink Ze the feminine expression refers to T the essence of T not the physical Tyra look at the letters look at the message look at the idea look at the concept that's what we have to appreciate we have to learn to do that all year round but certainly I come into in the Summers and I look at the young men to the they look like Yeshiva Boys some Yeshiva Boys that are on a higher level of study some on a lower level of study that's Theus the pus the work it took to get there the travel many of them have come from distant lands it's just incredible to the eye this is aiva boy that's the aiva boy I move on a boy I know very well moved on to the mirr and he's there with boys from you look at them the Yesa boys they're not the same the they're the same hopefully in panas they're all growing but these are young men who turned over their lives who changed their lives to get to where they are it's extraordinary so to the eye looks like it looks to the theeus whenever I sit in I feel like I'm the center of the universe really the center of aes's worldish will be the center of aes's world but today they're all KES they're all holy but we have to see pemus we have to see the essence what it takes to get to the place you are de Das is recognition Das is not knowledge is the key to to differentiating between things it's the recognition says know me doesn't mean to know God it means to recognize to recognize the spirituality to recognize the difference be between things that are holy and things that are ordinary between places that are holy and places between times that are holy and times that are ordinary that's is and that idea that Essence it's the essence of Y to train ourselves to be people who look at something and see more see deeper see meaning see value see expression you have a good friend have a spouse you look at the person it's not the physical it's the person behind it it's the human being that that you see that you know that you recognize it's something more that's pus God sits in hidden places but he hits in hidden places and gives us the ability to schmeck to smell to tap to feel the kadua and so as the are upon us it's time to be conscious of it to be aware of it to look at a seah differently to look at differently to look at the streets of differently to look at the differently to see differently to see something else to see to see things for their Eternal value not not the physical which which just disappears on a person and so that's Mya as the are upon us I should be we should all be to stop to stop the running to stop the bahala and just pause and appreciate the godliness in everything around us the gift in everything around us if we do not only will we be better people we'll be happier people as well because someone who appreciates pineus someone who appreciates spirituality somebody who connects to his this is it the the essence of T to live a life of Torah it should bring us toasy wishing everyone a good all of why do people want to come to why should I be interested my Judaism inside every Jew however far they become estranged from the beliefs the Traditions the knowledge of our fathers and our forefathers there's that little pin lead that goes on glowing and glowing and glowing it never goes out we want to introduce Jews to something which is their Birthright just as much as it is ours the objective of w is to give someone the fuel to carry them in a dynamic Jewish life for the rest of their lives we live in a world which is full of uncertainty and insecurity aims to give as many people as we can reach out to the opportunity to find something to hold on to finally there were other people who I could talk to and ask the questions that I had been facing for years I could have ream at my fingertips who not only could help me literally with what I needed to know but also could show me what it was like to lead a from life to have a kosher home any question can be asked the most foundational questions are encouraged and disgusted I don't really have a Jewish background and by don't really I mean don't have a Jewish background so I was nervous about getting to a Yeshiva and opening up a page of gamarra in Hebrew a language I didn't know and I'm actually figuring out that even without a background you can open it up and in time it works from complete complete beginner novice all the way through to the most religious black C wear in like any Yi you'd find and we all coexist Under One Roof under the commonality that we're all Jewish you want to learn this is the place you want to grow this is the [Music] place Shalom to everybody good been such a difficult year for cl Isel this year should come to its end with its curses and the new year I think one of the things that the British are really good at doing are coronations the pump and Circumstance the Majesty anybody who remembers the coronation of King Car King King Charles III will certainly attest to the fact that the British know how to do that kind of stuff really well now I'm old enough to remember the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II when I say I'm old enough I just about remember it but what I really remember about what I really remember about it was how this was the beginning of Television this was one of if not the first televised outside broadcasts and the whole country those of those who were not privileged to have personal invitations to Westminster Abby the whole nation or anybody who could find the television sat around the television watching entranced this ceremony and it went on all day now when we're talking about television we're not talking about the sort of Television screens of on the wall today 36 in I'm talking about this little gray glass Fishbowl where there was a murky image inside black and white poorly defined and yet we sat there mesmerized hour after hour watching this and I was thinking you know although the coronation of King Charles was much more colorful and much more broadcast but it was nothing in comparison how how quickly how much even in my short lifetime has the cavod The Glory of Kings descended in this world and if you extrapolate that back a 100 years 200 years you'll see kings are not what they used to be Kings used to have the power of absolute life and death that was a king Off With His Head kings are not the Kings they used to be roli says that the only reason who created the institution of kingship while there were Kings at all in the world was to give mankind the most distant whisper the most distant gleam cintilla of the that in some way mankind the human brain should be able to understand that there was something called a king and because there was a king of Flesh and Blood he could extrapolate to the limit of his imagination What it must be the me the King of Kings cesari this was when Mankind in general believed in a god when mankind turned away from God when atheism started to take hold we're talking about in the last 100 years or so where atheism became something which was prevalent dominant this was something unheard of if you look at around the world 152 300 years ago people believed in God generally so concomitantly gave mankind this everpresent symbol of the but when man turned away from God God Hashem kav shrank media Mida his presence in this world and he took the power away from Kings and nowadays as we said there are very few Kings who have any real power except of course by the Arabs the Arabs still have Kings and Kings who have the power of life and death and I don't think it's by coincidence that they are for all their evil and for all their cruelty I don't think I don't think anybody could argue that they are MIM their amuna is crazy their amuna is excessive their amuna takes them to lengths which are disgusting and obscene but they have auna this is a war ofuna this is a war between us and is as to who has the greatest in that's the test that's what's going on now and we when we're that's our job is to express that you are our King we believe not that just you're a king but you control everything there are two names there are two peoples that are colish who has attached his name to us Isel and the Arabs Isel Israel means yes we are mtic whatever whatever Hashem does in the world we say it yesha it's straight whatever Hashem does is straight it's yesha I believe that even though things seem terrible and inexplicable I can't explain them but I say what hasem does is yesha and the Arabs are they say that Hashem will hear yesma Hashem will listen to us and in a sense they have a point because ishma has a certain right to is a limited right it's a right that comes through the Brit but just as their Brit Brit is incomplete so is thata so is their grasp on ER Israel incomplete and eventually it will come to an end but in the mean time we have to understand that it's a battle to the death a battle of imuna a battle of Faith there's a a sign in the shop in America which said behind the counter in God we trust everybody else pays cash we trust in God but how much do we trust in God how much do we really feel that we're in control of the situation this is in a sense a pagam in our Ines in our being crowning AES there's an American election going on now an election in the most powerful nation in the world world for the person who is the most powerful person in the world but really is he the most powerful person in the world the heart of the king and the prince is in the hands of AEM it's learned from a in the Novi meaning that although man man mankind has B has choice and everybody has choice but that choice when it comes to a presid pres when it comes to a leader is limited to things which do not impinge on National or all the more so International matters meaning when it comes to the creation of History Flesh and Blood have absolutely zero influence on the result it doesn't really matter if Donald Trump is going to be the president or Donald Duck it doesn't matter if Cala Harris is going to be the president or Kermit the Frog and I think a lot of people would probably agree that Kermit the Frog would do a better job it doesn't matter these leaders quote unquote are are puppets and they're puppets of a certain power that has been given to the Jewish people there's no privilege without responsibility the Jewish people have been privileged to be hashem's people the nation of Hashem I'm Hashem with that incredible privilege comes a responsibility then describes how every Mitzvah every Every Good Deed every good thought ascends through all of the worlds Above This World until it reaches the highest places in shamayim and there it causes an effect in the control room of the universe and the K of that power be it somebody doing in in in in Alabama or or somebody putting on filling in the five towns somewhere that action goes up and up and up and up and up until it reaches the highest places of the verse and it comes down as if that was a Mitzvah as which comes back all the way down and it ends up in this world that a typhoon in the China Seas is canell that abundant rain falls in Namibia averting a terrible drought I just had the privilege to make a movie make a video about uh an incredible Miracle which was ver verified independently which happened to a group of ordinary American Yesa boys they were making a tour they were touring the Texas the the Texas border as it meets Mexico and they came across this uh farmer a lady farmer and she didn't know who they were she'd never seen Gringos with peos but she said to them you're Jewish and they said yes yeah we're Jewish and she went up to the leader of this group somebody called schom science and said I know that a KES hears the prayers of Cl of the Jewish people I'm in a terrible situation I have some pean Orchards and they're dying they're on the per on on on the on the verge of completely dying completely we haven't it's been the most terrible two years drought for two years and if we don't have rain now that's it I'm out on the road I'm I'm packed up here there's been nothing not a drop of rain in 4 months would you pray for me so they all got together and they sung some they said three times and schs made a mishab in English for this lady that hasem should send send rain and uh also for everybody else who needed a br of rain and you know they all stood around and and some of these boys I mean you know how seriously take anything when you're 18 years old but they DED and they sung and they got back into the coach and that night and that night schom zence got a WhatsApp from this lady farmer to say it rained solidly for half an hour I can't thank you enough and I can't thank Hashem God enough you've saved us I'm so glad that I met you today illers Ascend to the highest possible places in shamayim and even though when those prayers maybe they're not the strongest we're not sadikin we're not loved bnck but we have to understand that K put into each one of us this tremendous power to affect world events and we're responsible for that each one of us on the day of the coronation of the king our hearts have to be completely shim completely accepting completely humble in our acceptance of the old Mal I want to end with a story that I heard from Rabbi y why Jacobson a beautiful story about the Kinder transport the Kinder transport was an attempt to rescue Jewish children children from Nazi Germany from Germany from Poland from Danzig and they managed to get 10,000 children they British government waved the normal Visa regulations and requirements and they managed to get 10,000 Jewish children out of Nazi Germany and found them foster homes in England they put them in schools in dormitories and one of those children was a little boy called barl Gartner barl was an 11-year-old boy and he was in a foster home he was in a dormitory actually not not a foster home I'm sorry he was in a school the Headmaster stood up one day and told them the following day King George V 6 would be visiting the village in which the school was and the following morning they all got up very early and they polished their shoes and they polished their knees cleaned their knees because they were wearing shorts and their faces shined and they parted their hair and they stood there again together with the rest of the villagers waiting for the car of kinging King King George II they're all pushing up against the barriers and suddenly the Royal car turns the corner and comes into sight everybody pushes forwards onto the barriers but little Barrel doesn't push onto those barriers onto those barricades he leaps over the barricade he runs up to the Royal car jumps onto one of the running boards and he's starting pounding on the door of the car and one of of course the the the the bodyguards come and they try and take him off and suddenly the door opens and there in front of barrel Gardner is King George I 6 the King says I see you want to say hello to me Little Barrel Garder opens his mouth and he instantly bursts into tears the king says there's no need to cry barl said your majesty your majesty thank you so so much I can't tell you how grateful I am that you've rescued me and all the children but I'm so worried about my parents I can't be happy when I think of my parents under the under the control of of those those monsters I have no idea what's going to happen to them I can't please your majesty please please save my parents the king said what is your name and he summoned an eiry the eiry took down the name of barel and the name of his parents and where they lived and the King says well let's see what we can do it's a pleasure to meet you barl the king's procession carries on turns the corner and barrel stands there for a long time watching the disappear into the distance he thinks he's really going to be for it he thinks that the the Headmaster is going to cane him nothing happens at least until about two weeks later when he gets a summons from the Headmaster now he thinks oh wow I'm I'm for the high jump he knocks very gingerly on the door of the Headmaster voice comes come in barl opens the door and there's the master sitting there and said barl you remember a couple of weeks ago when his majesty the king visited us barl said yes sir said barl you made quite an impression on his majesty in fact he sent you a present the Headmaster got up he opened the side door to the office and there were Barrel's parents my friends this is the time for us to storm the barricades don't wait jump over those barricades the king is going back back to the Palace returns to his on R it's our last opportunity it's our job we can save clarisel each one of us in our own little way and don't put aside any feelings of inadequacy maybe I did this a very I did that a very I'm not Roy I'm not willing I'm not worthy my friends seize this opportunity throw yourself upon the mercy of the king say you you are the king you're the me and you can do everything save CL and this time next year we will be celebrating the coming of mashia Amen the guys come to hear and they say one word wow and that's exactly what we wanted when you come into the hallway you see this unbelievable beautiful building [Music] and the beauty of the building I must say it took my breath away I sat there for the first half an hour and I was having difficulty concentrating everything here is unique and a piece of art the architecture is brilliant the breadth of it the airiness it exalts you brings you up it gives you a feeling of modern of space but yet it retains a certain tradition fi to it it's modern without being modernistic a space where you just want to learn I can't wait to get back into the Bas Mish our student body generally is coming from secular homes upper middle class to upper class homes I think that where they come to learn should be at least as beautiful as where they came from to walk into a building which is the equal or more than any equivalent building anywhere in the world gives the talmidim a feeling of the importance of what they're doing in the outside the noises are loud the lights are bright we need to build an atmosphere which allows a person to feel comfortable despite what they might be used to the new building have done that and so much more the guys in a a lot of them have made really challenging life decisions to find their way here these guys are heroes and if anyone really deserves a nice pristine comfortable spacious building it's these guys there's a tremendous dynamic in the ASI a tremendous feeling of of newness of expansion of possibility we hope that this will continue to be a place to connect and we'll have thousands of thousands of students and we'll continue to do the goal of Life K has it's a privilege to be here you know to see how these guys are growing how they transform it's it's the most exciting place I I wouldn't want to be anywhere else [Music]