Praiseworthy is the Nation That Knows The Shofar

Because the shofar is something that confuses the Satan. Confuses Satan. Satan is full of eyes. 6,000 years old. He's confused by a horn from an animal. Why is he confused? To say the Tehillim The Tehillim, David Hamelach says in Tehillim 89 verse 16. Ashrei am Yodei teruah Adonai be'or paneycha yeyalchun. That it says, "Praiseworthy is the nation that knows the teruah." Teruah is one of the is is the main uh That's the teruah. Praiseworthy is the nation that knows the teruah. It's Am Yisrael. Why? Cuz it's symbolic that they're going with Hashem. They're going in the way of Hashem. So the Midrash Rabbah Vayikra Rabbah Parashat Emor In Parashat 29 or dalet Rabbi Yehoshaya says Why is David Hamelach saying praiseworthy is the nation, meaning Am Yisrael that knows how to blow a teruah? Blow a shofar. Why? The other nations don't know how to blow a shofar? Why? The other nations don't have musical instruments, too? What's the big deal? They blow a boom what's a what? A few tries, you do it. Everybody does it. They have violins, they have all types of things. What's a David Hamelach took a pasuk in the Torah and decided it's so important that they're praiseworthy that they know how to blow a shofar. Everybody knows how to blow a shofar, also. So Rabbi Yehoshaya says It's not that they know and they don't know. There must be some going to know how to blow a shofar. But only Am Yisrael knows how to use the Torah to entice their creator to rise from his throne of judgement and move and sit on his throne of mercy instead. On the seventh month on Rosh Hashanah Hakadosh Baruch Hu is sitting on his throne of judgement says guilty, punished. Guilty, punished. Guilty, punished. And now because of the shofar HE GETS UP OUT OF THIS THRONE TO GO AND SIT on his throne of mercy. Says, "Yeah, he did it. But look, he's doing better now. So forgive him. Let him go." "Yeah, but he did it." "Yeah, he did it, but he's trying better now. Let it go. He's innocent. Give him more time." And all comes from the shofar. Why is the shofar have such significance? The shofar comes from the word leshaper. Leshaper means to improve. Now the same Midrash Rabbah Parshat Emor says that Hakadosh Baruch Hu says to Am Israel, "Just like you improved your actions, shipartem, by the time you came to blow the shofar, you didn't just blow the shofar and did nothing to it and said went home and barbecue on Shabbat. No, you prepared the selichot, you went to the shiurim, you already chatanu avinu pashanu. When you prayed, you didn't just pray and just read the words, but you were thinking about baseball and basketball and your business. You're already doing teshuvah already for a while, you're working on yourself and you're saying to Baruch Hu, Hakadosh listen, in reality we lose us. That's the reality. It's difficult to keep Shabbat. It's difficult to eat kosher. It's difficult to watch your eyes. It's difficult to do all these things. It's difficult for me to do honestly I don't deserve anything and I'm crying to you. I'm crying to you to please help me. The shofar is a cry. The three types of shofar are three symbolic sounds that sound like crying. THE THAT'S LIKE >> [screaming] >> PLEASE I DON'T HAVE EVEN WORDS TO SAY I'M SO GUILTY. The that that's like >> [screaming] >> And the that's pretty much hysterical crying. SOMEBODY JUST DIED. THAT'S OUR WORD. The shofar is symbolic of us crying to and when you cry to you can't even talk. So you say I'm guilty. I'm so guilty. I have nothing to say for myself. I can't even talk. So I'm just crying and this is the shofar sound. says to us That's it. If you've been preparing yourself on the whole month already. You're crying to me on a regular basis. You're working on yourself. You know that you're failing, BUT YOU'RE GOING TO TRY BETTER. YOU PROMISE TO TRY BETTER. You're not guaranteeing, BUT YOU'RE GOING TO TRY. You're doing something about it. You know that you don't know all the Shabbat. So what do you do? You say "Hashem, I'm going to start learning Halachos Shabbos." And Be'ezras Hashem, eventually I'll know them and I'll keep Shabbos appropriately. You know that wasting seed is an addiction for you. So, you say "Kadosh Baruch Hu, listen, it's hard for me to stop overnight, but at least I'm going to stop watching all those porna- pornography. I'm going to stop looking at every girl that moves. I'm going to stop going on the internet on websites that I'm not allowed to. I'm going to stop watching TV. I'M GOING TO WATCH MY EYES AT LEAST. I'm going to do the best that I can, so at least I'm not causing myself to do it." I'm going to do something about it. You know that your job is illegal. You're in a cash advance business or you sell illegal goods or you being switched and you cheat people. You say "Kadosh Baruch Hu, I don't know how I'm going to pay the bills, but all I know is that you don't like what I'm doing, so I quit." I quit. I'm not working in this business anymore. Why? I don't want to cheat anymore. Why? Cuz I know you hate it. You know that you don't know enough. You say "Kadosh Baruch Hu, listen, I can't become an Avreich overnight. I can't go learn 8, 10, 12 hours a day, but I Kadosh Baruch Hu, for sure, I can do 15 minutes a day." Just like I need to eat and breathe every day, I need to learn Torah at least 15 minutes a day and gradually go up. But you make a commitment that from now on I'm learning every day. No matter what, EVEN IF ATOMIC BOMB chas v'shalom comes, I'm still getting my 15 minutes. After I got did that for a little while, 3, 4, 5, 6 months 15 minutes, now you go up to half hour. Then a half hour a day, then it's an hour. Whenever you get a chance you can do more. You come to the shiur for 2 hours, you listen to the whole shiur for 2 hours, but you don't take the 2 hours and spread it the whole week. It's every day. Why? Cuz you say "Kadosh Baruch Hu, you said V'egisa bo yomam valaila, I have to learn Torah yomam valaila, morning and night. I can't do all of it, but I'm going to try. Why? By making a commitment to learn Torah every day, a little bit. I'm going to watch a shiur. I'm going to watch a clip and so on and so forth. I'm going to go to beshalach.org to go. I could have been stingy my whole life. And anytime I give I only give for honor. So what I'm going to do from now on just like I have the auto pay for my phone bill AT&T deducts 100 200 bucks from me automatically every year every month and the cable takes money and this one takes money and everybody takes money for me and the car takes money. You know what I can because you like it not because I understand because you like it I'm going to from now on I'm going to take my send it to that organization that can help people do that. Send it to a real organization that's going to help people do automatically without thinking about it twice. Meaning I'm not saying I'm going to give all my savings my no that I'm not I like my savings but what I'm going to do I'm going to try from now. Point is you come to on Rosh Hashanah with something in your hands other than just sins. You've tried. You've tried you've tried and by the time you get to the villa you're crying to cuz you understand how hard it is to do that but you still want to forgive you. You still want to give you a much better year than the last one. You still want TO LIVE YOU KNOW WHAT HE wants to die if they're normal. I love Friedlander Shalom. When he got to got the cancer he told us tell me didn't bring me to the Yeshiva. In the bed. Right before Rosh Hashanah. So what do I have why? So I want to show that tell me that's what they're praying for. They're praying so they don't end up being the same way. Why you healthy now you think you're going to be healthy tomorrow? You're alive now you think you're going to be alive tomorrow? Who guaranteed you that? Who promised you tomorrow? You have money today you think you going to tomorrow? All these different people are making a lot of money on nothing today. Most people in reality work a lot less a lot less hard than they did in the past. People are making millions off of nothing. Off of nothing. A guy decides that he's going to start opening a website on Amazon. He starts selling, I don't know, something. Ends up somebody likes it. He's selling little, I don't know, MP3 players or glasses or whatever, it hits. It hits. All of a sudden 10, 15, 20,000 dollars a week goes into his account. He thinks he's a genius now. He forgets it's Hashem. He barely does. All day he's drinking beer and watching TV. He thinks he's a genius of the world cuz he's making money. Other people do a few trades, they got lucky with one option they bought for a thousand dollars, turned into a million dollars. They think they're geniuses. They're the next Warren Buffett. They think it's them. They forget Hashem. All types of people, they invent something. One guy I know invented a certain types of saw, plier, or something. He sold it to a big company for almost 55 million dollars. It took him 55 dollars to make it. He sold it for 55 million dollars. Thought he was a genius. People are making a fortune off of nothing cuz Hashem is giving people a chance to do mitzvot. But they forget Hashem. They forget Hashem. They don't use it for that. Cuz they think they're going to have it tomorrow and then you hear or you see them in the news, they lost everything. Or they died. Or there is a lawsuit. All of a sudden it's not really theirs. Their dream turned into a nightmare. The guy won the lotto but he committed suicide. You know how many of those that happen? People win hundreds of millions of dollars but then they call it the biggest curse that happened in their life. It's a known thing. So, Hashem gives everybody a chance and he's giving everyone many, many chances. But, they don't use it the right way. They don't realize that Hashem could take all of it, all of the blessings and turn them into curses. So, when a person does real teshuvah, he says, "You know what? Listen, Hashem, I can't I can't do all of it. I'm failing constantly. But, I promise one thing. I'm going to try." But, don't say it to Hashem, "I'm going to try." Like you tell the rabbi, "I'm going to try to come." But, you don't end up coming for 6 months. I'm going to try I'm going to come to the lecture. "Bli neder." It's pretty much no nicely. Religious no. It's a religious no. It's a no with a kippah. "Bli neder, I'm going to come I'm going to come. Bli neder, I'm going to come." That's like pretty much, "I'm not coming." But, you have a kippah on and some maybe pairs. Bli neder. Don't do that to Hashem. "Hashem, I'm going to I'm going to try. Bli neder, I'm going to try to watch my eyes." And then, 5 minutes later, you're watching some website. Hashem No, if you do real teshuvah, you say to Hashem, "Listen, I'm a loser. I'm failing. And really, you should convict me. I'm guilty. I can't deny the sins that I made. You know everything that I made, even more than I know, cuz I don't even know all the sins. I'm so illiterate in Torah. I honestly don't even know all the sins that I made, cuz I don't even know some of the stuff is even sins. So, in reality, I'm guilty and you should charge me. But, Hashem, you're my father after all. Please, give me another chance. Based on what? Based on the promise that I'm going to try to do better. But, not just with words. I took some actions to show you I'm serious. This last month, this last day, this last week, whatever it is, I've been praying to you. I've been learning. I've been changing different things in my life. I I left the goya. I left the I left the job, I left the sin, I stopped eating pork, I threw it all in the garbage. I did I did something and I promised to stick with it. And then the Midrash Rabbah says, Hakadosh Baruchu says to us, He says to Am Yisrael, He says to all of the baalei teshuvah, which is everyone that is considered religious. Whether you were born with a heart or without is irrelevant. Doesn't make you religious. If you're religious, that means you're about teshuvah every day. Especially on Rosh Hashanah. And the Midrash Rabbah says, Hakadosh Baruchu says to Am Yisrael, just like you improved your actions, shipartem et ma'aseichem, I will improve your judgment by rising from my throne of judgment and sitting on the throne of mercy. And this is why, rabbotai, if you notice on Rosh Hashanah, you're going to see that when the guy starts blowing the shofar, initially he's sitting down. And then he's standing up. AND THE GEMARA SAYS, WHY IS he sitting down and then he's standing up? Why are we sitting down and then we're standing up? We're sitting down, then it says, no, guys, okay, blow the shofar again and stand up this time. But why? If it If it was okay for us to sit, let us sit. Cuz no, the shofar is a representation of someone that's a mishtaper, someone that's improving their actions, someone that's committed to doing teshuvah. In order for Hashem to be committed to improve our judgment, and just like Hashem rises from his chair of judgment and then sits on a chair of mercy, we rise like Hakadosh Baruchu rises and And sit like Hakadosh sits. In essence, we're in the same courtroom together. And that's what Kadush Baruch expects from us. Now, how do we know that real teshuvah is always accepted? >> [music] [music]