Rabbi Akiva Rutenberg - Elul - It's Time to Connect

foreign the month of elul which were towards the end of this month our rabbis teach us that the multivalo the acronym for the word elul Allah is I am to my beloved and my beloved is to me this is a beautiful verse from the book The Song of Songs that Solomon wrote which our rabbis tell us is a this book is a metaphor for the ultimate relationship that a human being can have which is the relationship between us and God and the closest human relationship that a human can have is the relationship between a husband and wife in my class that I give couples before their wedding I I often ask them this question I say what is the closest relationship that a person can have and the Torah tells us the closest relationship is the husband wife relationship that has the potential to be the closest relationship and the the very famous uh obvious question is is um how is a husband wife supposed to be the closest relationship by definition they're different from each other they come from different backgrounds different perspectives different attitudes and how could they possibly become the closest relationship and really we could ask the same question about our relationship with Hashem how can we be close with Hashem okay I could follow them it's vote I could do the Torah I could do everything that God tells me to do how can I be close with Hashem I'm a human being I'm a body I'm created in an animal form and how can I this human being be close with infinity be close with Hashem and I think the answer is they're really one and the same and the answer is is that in our relationship with Hashem with God God tells us that our essence is divine our Essence is spirituality and when we are able to connect with Hashem what that means is is that we're we've become aligned with our purpose in life our mission in life is aligned with Who We Are and in that sense the Jewish people at Hashem become one become literally like one Soul because we realize our true Essence and purpose when we say I am to my beloved and my beloved is to me when we realize that our Essence is the Mitzvah there's the Torah is the connection to Hashem and that everything that God wants from us is really what we want from ourself we want to live a move for life we want to live a purposeful life then the shama the soul that's the essence of who we are as a person who wants to more than anything else even more than our bodies want to eat this delicious food our souls want meaning our souls want purpose and that when we become aligned with our Purpose with our mission then we become one and the same thing is true within a husband and wife when a husband and wife are able to see the good in each other and able to see that spark that got them connected to begin with and able to feel the the essence of each other and and and appreciate each other and build off each other then they become one and two totally different people from totally different backgrounds and totally different approach in life have the ability to become one and during this time of Rosh Hashanah we are celebrating the connection that we have with Hashem a very famous question is asked if Rosh Hashanah is Judgment Day why are we eating why are we celebrating these Jewish people are really interesting right you ask someone from a different religion they say well what is Rosh Hashanah it's Judgment Day what are you doing in Rosh Hashanah well I have a seven course meal and I'm gonna drink and I'm gonna eat it I'm an amazing time and my friends are coming over like hello Judgment Day what are you doing and why do we celebrate maybe some of the other allies will share different reasons but I'll tell you a reason that resonates with me we're celebrating our Rosh Hashanah because if we connect to Hashem from a place of love we don't even have to go through the teshuva process we don't have to go through the beating our chest we don't have to go through the Yom Kippur it's like a husband and wife that become connected with each other maybe they went through a difficult patch and now they got reconnected and they they say I don't have to focus on the mistakes let's just focus on the connections and when we have that connection that Rosh Hashanah we don't have to focus on the mistakes then we have the week after Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur that's if Rosh Hashanah doesn't fully work for us but the ultimate goal is to connect to Hashem to Rosh Hashanah is to have what we call to connect to Hashem from Love And when we have it where we connect to Hashem out of a place of love what does the Torah teach us our sins literally become mitzvah when we return to Hashem out of fear our sins get erased when we return to Hashem out of love our sins become mitzvahs I was see I was speaking to somebody giving a little class in my neighborhood on Shabbat a few weeks ago and I was telling the the family that I was speaking to and I said that means that that sandwich that the person ate that wasn't kosher becomes a Mitzvah the ham sandwich becomes a Mitzvah I was like whoa the guy looks at me like you're out like he's like chill you know like like you're like okay hold on you know um how could it be how could it be that the sin becomes a mitzvah and I think the reason is is because if a person returns to Hashem from a place of love what does that mean it returns from a place of love doesn't mean to repent the Sugar means to return if I return from a place of love that means that because of the great love I have for Hashem I realized that I made a mistake and I don't want to continue that therefore the disconnection becomes a source of connection and the actually the sin becomes a impetus for getting closer and that's how it's a a sin can actually become a Mitzvah what does the word Mitzvah come from connector so the sin actually becomes a source of connection so this is the idea I wanted to share with you about how we can connect both the relationship between us and our spouse and Assad Hashem and my brother really to everybody here is that we'll be able this year on Rosh Hashanah to connect with Hashem to connect with our spouse to find our true Essence and meaning and purpose and more than ever before will be able to become in a state of Oneness foreign [Music]