Rabbi Binyamin Yuhanan - Preparation For Rosh Hashana

[Music] thank you as we approach the day of Rosh Hashanah our excitement grows our happiness in what awaits Us in the new year as well as our apprehension what's going to be our judgment we know that Rosh Hashanah is the day when the first Man adamarison was created and on that same day he made a mistake mistake and Hashem gave him a merciful judgment even though he decreed that if he eats from the tree Hashem said I will judge you mercifully and I will consider the day in my um account and in hashem's eyes one day is a thousand years in our measurements and therefore Adam received 1 000 years to live later he shared 70 years with King David and he lived only for 930 years but we learned from this that the day of Rosh Hashanah is number one off Humanity as we know it that is the day when the first human being was born it is also the day of judgment when our actions are put on scale and our scrutinized and what's going to happen the next year is decreed and most importantly the judgment on the day is merciful and for that the Torah gives us a secret that if we blow shofar and we listen to shofar and we listen to the message of shofar the message calling us to do to Shiva to improve Hashem will stand up from his Throne of judgment strict judgment and Hashem will sit on his throne of Mercy so as we approach Rosh Hashanah we are calm and confident that our judgment will be merciful because who is judging us it is our father in Heaven the custom that we we have we prepare for Rosh Hashanah and months in advance from the first of elul We rise up early or stay up late at night or spend some time during the day to safely hot prayers asking Hashem for forgiveness we reflect on our behavior during the year we take upon ourselves commitments for the new year and we try to increase charity we try to increase Total Learning and performance of mitzvot in order to prepare for the Judgment Day for the court d we are preparing for a whole month and we're trying to come to the day of judgment with defendants defending angels and these defending angels are our good deeds and our commitments are a custom a very important custom however do not override any Mitzvah from the Torah for example if a person stays up late because he practically hot and then he wakes up late and misses the time for Shema it would have been better for him not to say hot late at night and go to sleep on time and fulfill the Mitzvah of saying Shema in the morning properly similarly if a person stays up late or wakes up very early and because of it he's tired the whole day and he cannot learn Torah he loses more than he gains or if a person is tired and therefore he becomes irritable and easily angered and he might scream at his children or at his spouse and might be impatient with people again he lost more than he gained recessively hot in order to ask for forgiveness in order to fix ourselves not to make it worse therefore we have to do everything that we are we have been doing so far and we have to add in the month of elul before Rosh Hashanah our work in the month of early should not detract from what we are accustomed to do during the year only to add and enhance our service to Hashem and therefore each person according to his own strength has to figure out a schedule that would best suit him to reflect upon his behavior to ask forgiveness to pray to Hashem more to learn more Torah and to give more charity it is customary that when we speak with someone at the end of the conversation we wish them a good year we say you should be written and sealed for a good and sweet year when we write a letter or even an email it is also a good idea to make that ending you should be written and sealed for a good and sweet year the day before Rosh Hashanah in the morning it is customary to do meaning nullification of vows reminding us that our words have meaning that our words can cause damage our words can commit us to more obligations and if we fail in those obligations even though it was just words we are still at fault and therefore we have to be careful with what we say to say to say to ourselves our speech is very powerful that's the message of throughout the month of elul different communities have custom to block shofar some blow it at the end of the morning prayer and some below shofar during slihad during the recitation of the 13 attributes of Mercy however on the day before Rosh Hashanah we do not blow shofar in order to confuse the Satan we blow so far the whole month and all of a sudden we stop so the Satan thinks oh the Jewish people finished with their service to Hashem now tomorrow I'm going to bring their sins to God and then the day comes and the Satan is about to bring our sins to God and all of a sudden he hears shofar from all places of the Earth and he gets scared and he becomes silent and Hashem hears the shafad which is like the Cry of a baby and Hashem Rises so to say from the Throne of judgment and sits on the throne of Mercy and instead of Satan representing our sins are the good Angels our Meets World our charity our Torah study come before Hashem and defend us therefore in the few days that we have before Rosh Hashanah it is very advisable to take upon ourselves at least temporarily to be a better Jew to be a better spouse to be a better uh child to your parents and to try to assemble together as many mitzvot as possible in the next few days give as much charity as you can learn as much thought as you can spend free time in the next few days take every moment that you have and learn something spent a few minutes every day with a piece of paper and a pen and think what can I improve who can I ask forgiveness from what relationship I can fix what Mitzvah I can take upon myself so that when Rosh Hashanah comes we will be judged according to our Behavior right before and our commitments on Rosh Hashanah and then we can take all those papers with us to our prayer put them in our sidhu and our maxor and as we're praying we will remind ourselves of our commitments and we will be given a good and sweet judgment on Rosh Hashanah everyone should be signed and sealed for a year of blessing a year of goodness a year of sweetness of accomplishment or growth of connect with Hashem [Music]