The Spiritual Elevation of Honest Work Inspired by the Shofar

Okay, good morning everyone. Good afternoon. It's a great honor to be here in the great financial powerhouse JM Valuation Group here in >> Elstree >> Elstree? London. If you need evaluation anywhere in the world, you're in Algeria, you're in Iran, you're in North Korea, you need your property evaluated, call Josh and uh evaluation group. >> [laughter] >> Okay, we're here in a few days before Rosh Hashanah, the day of judgment, the day of the creation of the world. And every morning in preparation for Rosh Hashanah, we hear the sound of the shofar in uh shul. So, let's focus for a moment on the timing of the blowing of the shofar. Because the shofar is supposed to be arousing us and inspiring us to do something. It's supposed to be communicating some kind of message to us. So, let's think about the timing of it. Presumably, it's supposed to the message is come closer to Hashem, serve him better, serve him more. You would expect then that we should sound the shofar before we start the prayers or before we learn. So, this way we would daven better. We will daven with more kavana. We could maybe sound the shofar uh 20 minutes before davening so that we could learn and then pray. And yet, while everyone's, so to speak, unwrapping their tfillin and heading out the door to work, we're we're we're sounding the shofar when people are going to work? It's the bad timing, wrong time. You should sound it before you pray or before you learn, not before you work. So, Reb Moshe Feinstein, the great halachic authority, welcome to JM Evaluation preparation for the high holidays. >> Morning. >> Hi. >> Yes, sir. >> Yeah. >> I'll be right back. >> Make yourself comfortable. So, uh Reb Moshe Feinstein says that we don't need a shofar to remind us about our prayers or about our study of Torah. We need the sound of the shofar to remind us about a very important aspect of our service of God, which is often overlooked, where in Judaism there's no concept of we're Jewish when we're in the sanctuary where when when where or when we're in shul, and then we go to work and we're on our own time. No, work is just as much a part of our service of Hashem as learning and davening. And therefore, the main message of the shofar is go to work and work honestly, work ethically, and make sure the money that you're bringing in belongs to you, and you don't have money that belongs to other people in your pocket. The message of the shofar is to work honestly, not to daven better, not to learn more, but to make sure to ensure that your uh work ethic is on par with other aspects of the service of Hashem. We often overlook [snorts] what kind of spiritual elevation we could achieve by working honestly and working ethically. The greatest man who ever lived, the greatest Jew who ever lived, what's his name? >> Moshe Rabbeinu. >> [snorts] >> Moshe Rabbeinu's level of nevu'ah, his level of prophecy was much greater than anyone else in history. Was greater than Avraham, greater than Abraham, greater than Isaac, greater than Jacob, greater than Yeshayahu Hanavi. The Gemara describes the clarity of vision of Moshe Rabbeinu. The Gemara refers to it as aspaklaria hame'irah, clear prism. That means when the Ribono shel Olam communicated, when God spoke to him, he got a direct message with the utmost clarity as opposed to when God spoke to other prophets, it was with uh somewhat of a hazy communication and the prophet had a decipher what Hashem was relaying. The other prophets were what we call Asclaria Sheina Meira and unclear prism Mosha Beinu uh communicate with Hashem through Asclaria Hameira. The very first communication God had with Mosha. Did Mosha Beinu start? You know, what Did he have to work up toward it? In other words, when Hashem spoke to Mosha Beinu for the first time, did he immediately have this very clear prism? Or did he have to slowly slowly work toward this high level of prophecy? According to most authorities, from the moment Hashem began to communicate with Mosha Beinu, he already was being communicated to by Asclaria Hameira. Which means that Do you remember in the in the Chumash in the Bible, what was the first communication of Hashem to Mosha Beinu? Where was it? At the burning bush. Mosha Beinu was a young man and he comes out to the burning bush and he's he's surprised by the vision of the bush that's consumed by fire but was not being burnt and he tried to understand it and Hashem called out to him, "Mosha, Mosha." And God is now communicating with Mosha at this burning bush, which means you know, uh this was approximately >> [snorts] >> in the year uh 2,448 since the beginning of creation. That means since God created the world, he had never communicated with mankind on this high level. So, probably not with Abraham, not with Isaac, not with Jacob, no one. No one ever spoke to Hashem on this level before. Probably, Mosha Beinu must have done something really holy that God should speak to him at this moment with such clarity. I mean, what did Moshe Rabbeinu do at that moment that that Hashem spoke to him on a higher level than Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov? Did he pray for a really long time? Did he go to uh the mikvah or something? What did Moshe Rabbeinu do? No information is given in the Chumash except for the following little piece of information. He was shepherding sheep. And he did not want to shepherd his sheep in a public area, lest the sheep eat someone else's blade of grass. So, he went to shepherd the sheep in the desert, which was ownerless, cuz he wanted to distance distance himself from stealing. At that moment, the Almighty calls down from the heavens, "Moshe, Moshe." God had never spoken to anyone in history with such clarity. And the only thing we know that Moshe Rabbeinu did to warrant that is he was careful not to take paper clips from the office. He was careful about gezela. It's amazing. That means the highest level anyone ever reached in history up to that point was seemingly achieved through carefulness and business ethics. So, you know, we think, "What's my main elevation during the day? When I'm davening, when I'm learning." That may or that may not be the case. It could be the biggest aliya, the biggest elevation one experiences in ruchniyus, is working honestly. I'll give you another example about this. Remember Jacob, Yaakov Avinu? Yaakov Avinu in >> [snorts] >> Parshas Vayeitzei, he's leaving Harah he's leaving his father's house. He's leaving Beersheba and he's leaving the land of Israel and he goes to sleep. Remember where he went to sleep? Holiday Inn Temple Mount The Temple Mount Holiday Inn Now it wasn't actually a Holiday Inn, but he went to sleep on the Temple Mount. And in a dream what he see? A ladder. And what's going up and down the ladder? Angels. So Yaakov Avinu seeing angels in a dream in a dream. You see angels in a dream. What do you dream about? That cake. I know people that they dream about that cake before they eat it after they eat it. Yaakov Avinu dreamt about angels. Now this wasn't a regular dream, it was a prophetic dream. A little while later 22 years later he's now returning from Haran back to the land of Israel and this time he doesn't dream about angels. He encounters angels. He meets them on the street like I'm looking at you Yaakov met angels. Question what 22 years earlier Yaakov Avinu was only dreaming about angels. Now he's actually meeting them face to face. That's a much higher level. What did Yaakov Avinu do in those 22 years that he elevated himself that now he's not just dreaming about angels, he's talking to them. He's meeting them. He's seeing angels. Was he learning? No, doesn't say he he had gone to the Yeshiva before he had the dream on the Temple Mount. He was in the Yeshiva Shem Ever before. For 22 years by Laban's house by Lavan's house he wasn't learning. Was he praying? It's not reported that he was praying. What was he doing? He was working with sheep. And he told Laban, "Listen, I didn't steal one sheep from you. I gave a full day's work. I didn't cut corners. I didn't have a mild cold and call in sick. I didn't say that uh I can't make it to the office and really I was at I didn't steal. Jacob didn't steal for 22 years and it catapulted the learning for 14 years didn't do it. The working did it. The honest working did it. In Judaism, there's a great value of honest working. Honesty in the workplace could elevate somebody in a way more than the synagogue could elevate somebody. And therefore, during the month of Elul, we blow the shofar to inspire us to work honestly because that is a underrated way to elevate the Jewish soul. In fact, in a certain sense, it defines us as human beings. In Parshat Vayikra, it says, "Adam ki yakriv mikem." When a man brings a carbon. Right? That's the beginning of Vayikra, Adam. What does Rashi say on the words Adam? Just like Adam Harishon didn't steal anything, now why didn't Adam How do we know Adam didn't steal anything? There's nobody to steal from. There was no one to steal from. So too, a carbon, a sacrifice, has to be yours and yours only. You know when we're Adam, you know when we're in the ideal state of the way God meant to create us? When we're confident that what we have in our homes, in our accounts, belongs to us and not to anybody else. So, this is an underrated um part of the month of Elul. I'll just share with you another aspect of elevation in the workplace. Sometimes people like to uh to have very specific [music] confines. In other words, in the synagogue, I study and I learn, and at work, I work. There's a concept and an important idea, you want to bring the study of Torah even into your work. You know, it says that Rabbi Shmuel says, "Hanheg bahem minhag derech eretz." Literally, what this means is as follows. There's a big dispute in the Gemara, what's the ideal? Is the ideal to study Torah all day, and then someone else will support you, or is the ideal to learn and work. Rabbi Shmuel says, "Hanheg bahem minhag derech eretz." But, it could also be interpreted, Rav Chaim Volozhin interprets it, "Hanheg bahem minhag derech eretz." While you're working, you want to inject Torah while you're working. "Hanheg bahem minhag derech eretz." In the Torah, accord yourself with your work. Meaning, if you could squeeze in some limudei Torah into the work before, during, again, if the bo- if you're working for somebody, you got to give it your full. You can't be studying Torah on someone else's expense. But, when it's not undermining or uh mitigating the job you could do, you want to inject Torah even into uh your work. So, I think today, this afternoon, you uh had this zchus to bring Torah into JM Evaluation, Josh work. Um and again, wherever you may be, all over the globe, this is your address for the best evaluations and my humble blessing to all of you. May I bless you with the year of good health, happiness, prosperity, only Simchas and I want to welcome Josh's father, brother Alan, all the way from Israel. He came all the way from Israel just to hear this year. It's amazing. Thank you so much. Thank you for coming. You should You should come only for Simchas, okay? Amen. And thank you Josh for having me. Thank you Yossi for bringing me here today. Thank you very much. And thanks for your kind attention. Thank you very much. Thank >> Thank you.