Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz - Conclusion of the Chagim - Lessons Learned and Internalized

[Music] everybody allowance I hope you had very enjoyable and inspiring nod with your permission I want to go backwards a little bit I want to give you some thoughts about the end of circus that I think every over into the rest of the rest of the year you know it's very interesting that the Sukkot is a seven-day holiday it's not an eight-day holiday and right after the conclusion of Sukkot there is another holiday called Shmi niet Sarat dancer it is absolutely not Sukkot in every as well you understand that very very clearly because you know you do not sit in this hookup in the Diaspora it gets a little complicated because of the to lend wriggled out social media service does have some aspects of the color that's only because of the calamity build out but the very last day of coats is column OE it's not a holiday but it's given a special name although is only called the mowing that is hoshanah Rabbah and in the torah this day of hoshanah Rabbah has no particular importance other than being the last day of colum oh it's the coats and yes we know that from a very early time it was identified as number one a final day of judgment I'm sure you you learn to you heard that on Rosh Hashanah Hashem inscribes us gives us a preliminary judgments on Yom Kippur it is sealed and signed but it remains as it were in God's drawer and only on Oceania raba is it the Liberty and therefore there is this concept that even until those on Aruba you could ask a sham to rip up the check so to speak don't don't mail it don't put it in the mail and and the line but we know that one of the there are two ceremonies about Oshana robber that are that are important and significant and again you'll see why it's relevant for after Sukkot first we go around the edema seven times just as in the temple we went around we circled the is banner seven times and the second ceremony is we take the willow we take the aroma we shake it and we bang it and these are very enigmatic both of them are very enigmatic crystal this thing about Hakka folks so kiss you know if you're a person who gets vertigo or whatever it is - you're afraid goes the right word for people who get dizzy if they go with a circle you know suka seems to be full of going around within circles I mean every single day we go around once Oshana robber we go around seven times and then the ninth of Shmi niet saris we go around and then the morning of SHM idiots are these already so there's a lot of encircling that is going going around here let me just say historically just to judge that you want you understand the halacha development of it historically the time of the Camorra there were no how perfect a tolerance that's a much later thing so media theory no hukka folks in the base on McDonagh the Kohanim would walk around the MS beya once every day and hoshanah Rabbah they would walk around several others that's in the based on McDonagh so consequently we bhisma Hazare as they say ceramic does do the same thing but again the akka both of Socotra or Shmi nyet saris are absolutely post on ludecke not only that let me just point out a very interesting historical observation when you ask the average even Orthodox Jew why is there a holiday meaning a syrette Samrat - laughs don't say oh we are celebrating the finishing of the totem that is absolutely not the reason for the holiday and that can be proven very very conclusively the Torah was not always finished on an annual cycle the original min hug of Eric Israel was to finish the Torah on a three-year cycle they did not finish the Torah every year and although the three-year cycle is a little difficult to reconstruct him there are different opinions how you did it but interestingly enough most of the reconstructions do not even look at some contour as the starting point meaning even every three years wasn't Simchat Torah in fact the starting point was either Pesach or Zeus which actually has a lot of logic so an atypical Simchat Torah maybe the creati Torah the parsha of the week might have been viagra or something something like that so obviously it's important to understand that when the Torah made me Nia Sarah's a hug it was not because we were finishing the reading of the towing first of all the whole obligation of reading of the Torah is rabbinic so so obviously that wouldn't be why the Torah made it our they and second of all even when we started reading the Torah we weren't finishing it on Simchat Torah so one has to understand very very clearly that Simchat Torah Rashmi niet seven as the Torah cousin was a young tough irrespective of whether you finish the Torah or didn't finish the Torah and in fact the Gemara itself explains the nature of Shmi near servants in a very powerful way that during Sukkot we brought Corbin oats 70 boys seven our bowls that corresponds to the 70 nations of the world that try to destroy us and on Sukkot it's a very unusual configuration because it goes down in number day 113 day to 1211 six eleven ten nine eight seven and that represents the idea that as we get closer and closer to Yamoto machine the power of the seventy nations is going to diminish become weaker and even if we look around and we seem to see a resurgence of terrorism and a resurgence of anti-semitism and of course less than a seventy years ago we had a Holocaust but nevertheless that's understood mystically as the death throes just as a candle has one final burst of energy before it dies so evil will have a certain appearance of power so Sukkot is about the 70 nations of the world but there are two takes on that one is the one I just said that their power gets diminished the other take is more of a positive take that we pray on their behalf and we ask us them to bless them so Sukkot has a universalistic aspect in which we're not just Jews but we're citizens of the world who care about society and of course that's that is one of the characteristics of the Jewish people the Jewish people have contributed greatly in every society of which they have been a part of until this very day Israel itself extends itself quite generously to many many countries who are not our greatest friends and still are the Jews of Israeli government and the Israeli people the Jewish people step forward affect something to be very very proud of in fact there was a non-jewish very very prominent journalist in Spain who wrote a very powerful article someone sent me a few years ago in which he said that in the 1930s and 40s you know Europe made a choice to get rid of the Jews because the Jews were parasitic and the Jews were undermining society so God made a deal with them God said okay you don't want the Jews will give you the Muslims instead yourself ask yourself the difference in what use in tributed to society again I don't mean to be racist and label every single movie together that's not my purpose but there was a general phenomenon it's just a reality you cannot deny every society which Jews become a part become productive rows success and every society in which you have massive infusions of Muslims goes down the tubes and this is what is happening to Europe Europe is essentially getting getting destroyed by immigration policies and you know the United States do is suffering very very greatly so this non-jewish reporter just said God gave you a choice you didn't want the Jews look at somebody else that's correct that's those countries so it turns out though Sukkot has a universalistic aspect but Schmidty and cereth is described in this way a melon makes a party for all of his subjects and everybody comes and it's fancy fancy dancing and at the end of the party everybody goes home and the mela says to his closest and dearest friends let's go into the kitchen and have a simple cup of coffee together Shmi niet Surratt's is the day of intimacy with God unique to the Jewish people but the point I want to make historically is this is even before it was the CEO that's ok I'll get to another robber but I want to share with you a very interesting the aura of the orsa male the mesh o'clock and that is the mission the gomorian missus Magilla when it goes through what is the torah reading for each day so it says the torah reading Forsch menial servant is Zota bracha the last part of the Torah and the haftorah the prophetic reading for SH Meany insurrance is a llamo de la mano me explain this you know the first temple the temple that MELAS built was dedicated in the month of Tishrei and there was a 14-day dedication ceremony ending of Shammi niet serozha yes interestingly enough the yom kippur is right in the middle and the Gemara tells us that's Yom Kippur they ate and they drank because they were celebrating the dedication of the temple the conclusion of the those dedication was on tinea Samantha and on Shmi Nia Sarah CH mama hemella blessed the Jewish people before he sent them home and this is Colbert Carmela and the gomorian Magilla says that this is the appropriate of Torah now in a way that's very logical because the Torah meaning is Moshe Romanians blessing to the Jewish people the haftorah would be bellick's blessing to the Jewish people and yet it is a very big problem with that that is that is not the haftorah that we read yesterday now after we went yesterday is from the first chapter of yahushua which talks about moshe a vein of dying and you're sure being given the mission of leadership and I am Telling yoshua exactly a must be strong you need to go forward so toast us ask the question how could our min hug depart from the explicit law of the commodity I mean that the Babylonian Talmud is a binding kalanick source and if the Babylonian Talmud tells us that's the appropriate haftorah for menial service is the haftorah about Noah blessing the people then that should be the appropriate of so so ptosis doesn't really answer it but he says sha mati I heard that in the time of rough hyegyo one of the great garrote him they changed it but that doesn't answer the question how could reply God change it and why would he change so listen to what dementia scholar says dimension economist says a fascinating point he says that when the Gemara in Megillah says the creator tohe of Shmi near serra de soto bravado it was not because you were finishing the torah meaning even when you are operating on a three year cycle and you are let's say up to par shot by a crowd but the octave reading of theaters was algebra hopf meaning not because you were finishing the torah but rather since media sara is a day of intimacy and love we read about the bro code that mojo bainham said now under that original configuration they didn't read to the end of the parsha they only read the blessings because they weren't finishing the turret this was just like you just like for example the first day of circuits the Korean Centauri is from purchase mr so the last stage may be a service the critter is also proud and by the way you can prove this because you know in a way you know unyoked if you have to have five mandatory alleles if you look at the Creator observe Simchat Torah the five mandatory a leo do not include four times around and collaboration the five mandatory a leo to take you until the conclusion of the blessing of the tribes and that's a very interesting historical indicator that the original creator saw not only included the blessings and that dates back to where the Torah was read on a three-year cycle so we didn't have to read about Mochis death we weren't finishing the Torah we're simply reading about the love that a chef has for B'nai Israel as seen from the brothels that Moshe of a new case and again if you look at those brothels you know they're very very moving actually you know Moshe remaining is looking at a nation that gave him a lot of trouble over the past forty years their parents now it's a new generation the parents gave her trouble and this children gave them trouble and there were a lot of times that motor of a no himself you know didn't want the job and there were times that a sham wanted to destroy obvious rail and Moshe prayed but now he's leaving them and as he's leaving them his true feelings come out the love and the care and the goodness that he sees in them one has this really see this as a as a parent taking leave of a troublesome child but a child that he loves so deeply and in this world is not gonna see again so Revere scepter says based on this historical observation here is the point when the gomorrah says that the haftorah of Shmi niet service which lamellas Brooklyn that is dating from the time when they still read the Turin a three-year cycle and the only thing they read it so tough were the bra quotes so the most illogical house Tyrell would be the bro codes of but when they switched over to the one year and therefore Shmi niet suruc became the day that we finished the Torah and we include the death of Moshe Rabbeinu which was going further at that point it was decided that the most logical thing to focus on is the transition from the death of motion to Yoshio and therefore the mayor simcha says our minute is not a contradiction to the gamora's ruling because the kumaras ruling was referring to an earlier historical time when the Creator Allah did not include Moshe a vein of death it was only the Brotherhood which means in other words if we asked a simple question why do we read Zota branch meanie and servants we actually have two different answers answer one is that since media service represents a day of intimacy and love we read about the blessings that maschera be no games answer to is since later it became the day that will finish the Torah so we read it because that's the last partial that we have to read but that's a later that's a later development the notion of transition though which has not become dominant because that's not toward that we have is it very very interesting thing you know one of the I don't know I don't know if it's a jarring experience but it but it might be for some you know in I remember no in the history of English my sovereign right so the most popular English laughs or that's it is of course the arts grow not sort that's their best seller if you remember before arts grow the bird bouncer was a major one that except but if you're really old you may remember the Adler monitor now the ad somach was quite interesting because the translators were British and they had a certain literary Flair and they tried to translate the PU Tim in the same poetic meter as the Hebrew so they would actually translate it in various rhymes but the syntax was horrendous because they would like move a verb in Korean I mean they just moved around verbs and adjectives and and everything else to get that run but it really was quite a kind of quite an amazing skill but I remember that in the Adler monster I remember this is a kid it just struck me she media service was translated and the eighth day of solemn assembly now assembly I understand because one of the translations about syrettes can be assembly but where do you get Solomon son subtracto I mean a solemn assembly so my guess is they put in the solemn because of you score because you know there are many Jews you know of course you have the proverbial three days three days a year Jew right the two days versus on on Yom Kippur but but also uh there is the eastern true I mean that even Jews who were not very religious just I think we take practice thank you score very very seriously and synagogues tried to make you score a significant serious reflective occasion as it should be so one of the jarring aspects perhaps in errors as well so in in Chris Lawrence when we have you score of day eight and we have the super historia the next day you kind of separate in Eretz Israel we put everything together right so we have you know we have hiked up us and then we have you scored a little bit of a strain sting which just kind of remind you as qohelet said there's a time for everything time to laugh a time to cry and you have to understand that life has all of these different aspects and you have to incorporate all of them and sometimes virtually the same time so that's what that's what life in Israel isn't in many many ways so in a sense the juxtaposition on schmitty and cereth is a mirror of what life is the dinner and the Suites all coming together and and understanding that even the bitter is and some level a gift from a sham teaching us how to deal with life but think about you sir I want to share with you is an interesting thought and that is your skirts about memory remembering the past remembering the people that we love remembering but allow the the losses that we are the Jewish people have suffered but you know a person when they the way a person relates to the past there has to be a combination of memory and forgetting I don't mean totally forgetting but in a sense you can't be overly connected to a past because if you get overly connected to a past you get paralyzed and you're not able to deal with the life that you have now this was actually an issue you know if you go back to the beginning of the 20th century you will actually find in America there were red buttons in all sorts of crazy places online Nebraska small towns in Massachusetts who literally were Caddo Lake Toba Amish people who were as great as the greatest rabbi Senora now and by and large number one their own children by and large totally not religious and many of them are just lost not to intermarriage their descendants and they didn't create any infrastructure no he/she knows nothing and part of it was that to them Judaism was defined by what existed in DOMA and in brisk and in Minsk an inversion and they came to an environment where there just wasn't there and you know Voltaire used to say the famous state the best is the enemy of the better when you envision only a certain standard of perfection as the only standard then when you're given some optimal conditions you do nothing with it and in some ways that was the situation they said what can America ever become America is not going to be Vilna it's not gonna be brisk it's not gonna be religion it's not gonna be tells why bother to waste your time so you see in order to successfully deal with the new environment and a new set of challenges on one hand you have to look at the past as a source of inspiration and a source of guidance and a source of role models but you also have to say I'm gonna disengage from that past a little bit because I have a new life in a new circumstance which is not gonna be Vilna or brisk or Volusion but it can still be something good and I'll make it as good as I can make it I'll be honest an example of that at a personal level right every person what makes our young as left most part has left some things behind they're very very precious and sometimes they're hard to replace and sometimes they're not gonna be replaced different friendships different relationships all the brothers that we don't have to sever a relationship baby but in love it's finding your place again people often do have difficulty finding their place in this country and yet a person understands if a person has led to understand that this is a chef's land and this is what a Shem wants the Jewish people to live you can't as it were be fixated on the idea that unless I can replicate everything that I had in the old environment it's not gonna be good because then frankly it'll never be good so this is the paradox of Easter you remember but you also have to forget you can't be a prisoner of memory and there's a wonderful reference to this in no safe no safe had two sons now look at your tips on history he was ripped in the most brutal way sold into slavery by his own brothers who actually wanted even kill the division and he's taken four marriages rallies taken from the home of the other women with the others and he's thrown into a decadent immoral corrupt environment of sinfulness licentiousness miss Ryan and he languages a slave and he's imprisoned and eventually he makes his way up the very first shuttle that he has he calls Menasha I mean that means not shiny yellow camels God has enabled to be true for now you would think that's not a positive statement breakfast chef God has enabled me to forget my father's home what type of statement is that the answer is it's exactly this thing meaning if my mental image is you can have a meaningful life only in that kedusha in that environment and there's nothing you can do here then he's throwing in the towel and he's basically saying my life is over so he says God gave me the capacity to forget so I could move on but now remember this is not total forgetfulness effect cause I'll tell us whenever Yaakov was tempted and when I'm said whenever y'all said was tempted he had an image of his father so of course he didn't forget but it means he was not he was not a prisoner of that memory memory can imprison a person in negative ways you know give you a trivial example maybe it's not so trivial let's say a person's great accomplishment of his life was he was a marathon marathon er I in his 20s right he ran races and he was a great great athlete and as he looks back at his life those were his fondest moments and his greatest memories and now he's 85 years old hmm well I probably arm 85 year olds who run marathons I guess but but not not that many in other words and basically he certainly cannot do it at the speed that he did it then but you see if the meaning of his life is defined by the accomplishments that were only possible at an earlier age then essentially what he's saying is my life is just downhill so you need a certain forgetfulness in the sense of emotionally detaching yourself and understanding that different stages in life have different meanings and different jobs and different tasks and once a vote down in life is to try to find the unique tasks for which they are suited and equipped at every stage of their life in fact I mean Lowell a know and maybe we should all be blessed have good health but sometimes it can be that sickness and disability maybe a person's task to show that they accept Hashem's difficult judgments with equanimity and with serenity and in that way become an inspiration for others who are suffering that is a task right that is an evocative so that is why you score is the paradox of memory and forgetting and that is the significance of transition going back to the October because there never was in terms of Jewish leadership there never was a greater loss than Moshe remain the greatest of the prophets the one who was closest to God more than any other human being who ever lived and ever Willman who could possibly replace motion nobody no and one could try to imagine how psychologically devastating it was to ami Israel that right before this new experience of coming to a land with all sorts of enemies and unknown challenges the one who Shepherd them through everything is leaving and yet what does the have Torah teaches does that be a mess no matter what you lose look at the world that you have and make it good and you can't be a prisoner to even the most glorious past that you have the rep's elevation used to say there was a certain year in the nineteen sixties very tragic year for him like many many say he was never the same from then went on in which he had lost his brother and his mother then his wife lost three very very beloved people in one year and he said that you know we're reading it precious gracious but God creating the world and there's a whole big problem because the Torah says the Spirit of God was hovering over the water where did the water come from the heavens creating the world now the universe now why is there water so the metric actually says there were prior worlds to this one that I shouldn't destroy it like that is a the simplest answer to things like dinosaurs and fossils that's Joe the Torah is starting the creation cycle from the the man from man but there could have been prior worlds that got destroyed in various cataclysms survived solavei Jurek used to say why did God do God could have gotten things right why why did he create worlds he then destroyed so he said because Hashem wants to keep it a blessing that you have a world that gets destroyed you have to go out and recreate because God had worlds that were destroyed although he destroyed it but but he destroyed it to teach us that idea that even if your world is destroyed you will live in this of course has been the characteristic of on Israel in all the generations think about other Holocaust survivors who lost their families and still have the courage to start again and build again do they forget their losses no they don't of course they remember their losses of course they're connected to their losses of course there's going to be something in their hearts that will never heal or not god forbid talking about a callous indifference but you gotta relegated to a corner you can't let it take over so part of you that has them but you go on and you rebuild because I shall created worlds even though all of those old worlds got destroyed this is this is what I miss relatives we follow the way of God in which we don't give in to despair and of course more recently an error just realm and now we have so many cases again Lowell a new and we hope and we pray that these should not happen again of terrorist attacks and of Jewish people sometimes just children being ruthlessly murdered and yet we also see at the same time side by side the Magnificent Damona of the families the parents spouses go on we're not gonna give in to despair we will rebuild we will recreate we know that life is sometimes hard and sometimes tragic but we don't give up we keep on going and rough salivating said if that was the meter but responsible for a all the months not even so that's what kind of you scores about that's what transition is about no matter how devastating the loss you gotta go you gotta rebuild and that means there has to be a certain a certain disengagement and detachment from the past so the past should not be overpowering and controlling if they indicated this actually was one of the reasons why until the aftermath of world war two Jewish religious life in America was not very successful in spite of the fact that there were many many great rebels but some of the great rabbis frankly said can't do anything in America it's not real no it's not loving therefore there was no use to even try to do anything because it's not going to it's not going to it okay and again I think Voltaire said it well the best becomes the enemy of the better if you think you fact there were the founding Russia before semantics or mental Weinberger said when Allah Brooklyn said it in a very cute way I'm sure all of us have heard from our mothers or we've used it ourselves they saying anything worth doing is worth doing well Jemima changed a little bit he said anything worth doing is worth doing poorly and that actually is a wise statement because if something is worth doing even if you're not gonna do a perfect job your attitude shouldn't be I'm not gonna bother you do as much as you can do because if it's a worthwhile endeavor it'll be worthwhile only if it's 50 percent or 20 percent because 25 percent is better than 0% and therefore if it's worth doing do it even if you're not gonna do such a great job that's it that's an important less life generally because you know many many adults they wish they would have done so just give you an example again it's not a religious example per se but different surveys like do you have any regrets that you should have pursued certain things so many people say I wish I would have pursued playing a musical instrument you know when I was a kid I had a year of piano etc but I wish I think with it it would have given me something that would have given me a lot of a lot of pleasure right but so now you're 50 or 60 so why don't you start playing the piano again right so the answer is gonna be well at 50 I'm certainly not gonna be I'm not gonna develop very well okay so you're not gonna play well but you know if you do something the concept that if I can't be perfect I want to do it it's something that stops a person from a lot of constructive activity that could give a person a lot of pleasure and that's called a former true for Torah and mitzvot okay so I think as I say we live in a land and we live in the world not it's not only limited to areas really where all sorts of unpredictable things do happen and even if it's true as we hope it we pray that the power of the 70 nations is getting diminished as it were but but nevertheless this last death throw so to speak could be very very powerful and disconcerting and we have to know that although there are losses we have to have Kozak via Watts the courage to go on by the way there's a very fascinating comment from the film ago about the 70 Nations first the UN is more than 70 nations but they all come from the 70 nations the Vilna Gaon says 35 of the nations come from Asaph and 35 of the nations come from Ishmael now one has to understand what the Vilna Gaon means he absolutely does not mean well that 35 nations are descended from a sub and 35 nations are descended from each male in point of fact none of the 70 nations are descended from a small array so if you look in part yet no luck they are from the shame company office but they're not from the upper arm line they're from all the other all the other children and alike so if the Vilna Gaon says 35 nations are you shmeil and 35 nations are a sub he is not referring to genealogy in terms of genealogy there none of them are from a syringe model but he means in terms of spiritual power their potency 35 nations are getting their spiritual energy from a sense and 35 nations are getting their spiritual energy from each model what is the nature of that negative spiritual energy what exactly is the difference we talked about in other words the prototypical villains that try to destroy us are the Ishmael villains and the ASA villains what's the difference between them so here is one suggestion a sub represents which you might call the world of hedonistic materialism a world in which God does not have a role and God does not have a place and the only thing that matters is power pleasure control of others and egotism we see this with ASA because ASA comes from afield and ASA was famished and Yakov wants to buy the birthright survey so if the birthright is the right to head be the spiritual leader an ace of remarks he naen optical elements behold I am going to die Lama liebe Sosa why do I need the birth so cuz I'll offer an interesting interpretation it doesn't simply mean as you might say oh I'm so hungry if I don't have the beans I'm gonna die rather ASA was making a theological statements all that counts in this world is eat drink and be merry my physical life after I die there is no other my bother is known as Shama so whether what I need this for and that's why it says by Eva's a serviceable focus he despised the Pahoa it was worthless was nothing at all so a sub represents that power in the world that focuses on hedonism pleasure well egotism and that's one type one type of enemy the Jewish people face which is really a spiritual threat in which we are threatened not by an enemy wants to kill us necessarily but we're threatened by all of the allure of Western civilization of Western civilization has of course many many positive aspects one is not going to deny that because I'll talk about La Boheme time in that there is wisdom among the non-jews but at the same time that wisdom is often put towards the ends of satisfying the material in animalistic parts of man think about the entertainment industry in which you know you're brilliant brilliant people people who are really smart and talented and they put in you know well well you vote in all sorts of worthy causes are suffering and cannot pay even a decent living wage you have billions and billions and billions of dollars many of them funded by Jews now going to these types of pursuits so Asaph represents Denis a young of trying to relegate God either into non-existence or into relevancy Ishmael represents a very opposite type of problem now I understand - do I you can't identify Ishmael and Islam 100% relational obviously lived way before as well yes I do understand at this point not every Muslim is an Arab and not every Arab is a Muslim that's under percent true Iran for example are non Arabic Muslims and of course in the Arab world there are Christians as well I understand that the correlation is not complete but by and large the overlap is extremely substantial and it is said that Islamic fundamentalism is rooted in a certain ideology of Ishmael going back to you know that is the idea that God is very much part of their consciousness but it's a god that is co-opted kind of kidnapped hijacked for immorality for hatred for destruction so when the Vilma God says 35 nations are you smile and 35 nations are a cells he means metaphorically that the Jewish people are going to face two different threats as we approach the goal of what is the threat of Western hedonistic materialism and the other is the threat of hateful religious fanaticism and that's what the Vilna Gaon means some of it is a self and some of it is Ishmael what is interesting is that these represent not only forces outside of us but these represent tensions within our own personalities when a person as it were succumbs to laziness indifference lack of interest or passion in a fashion that's the AC that's pulling him away from my cottage water when a person succumbs to religious fanaticism in toddler bigotry there's somatically now in the guise of being with Shan Shan I am that's the issue I am that story now I hasten to add I am NOT drawing a moral equivalence between an Arab terrorist and any Jew Bertha Shem even when we have our religious fanaticism as deplorable as it is it is not the same as their religious fanaticism one needs to understand that we don't tell the Jews that god forbid murder children but on a spiritual level there is a commonality and that is you use the name of God to besmirch two little D legitimates and demonize to consider someone as not worthy even though the word of mulling gets thrown around and when you have a religious Keio you may go to a faith Knesset and somebody spits on him where does that come from doesn't come from God it doesn't come from tow-ready doesn't come from Judaism it comes from the meat of Ishmael that takes the name of God and uses it for hatred and polarization and destruction so it's not just the a sub on your smile that's out there so to speak there's the a7 Ishmael that's within us and by the way I'm Aleph which represents the epitome of evil is said by the iris all to be based on the conjunction of a savannah smells a little complicated because of the Torah although it's true that one of Aesop's wives was a daughter of each month unfortunately I'm Oleg did not come from that Union so so you can't you can't make a direct case that I'm Oleg is the union of the base of English well but the result spiritually says he proves that various kamat Rios of various other numerology letter symbolism that a moment is the combination of a Savannah smile and that creates the evil that exists in thee in the world by the way that my realm makes the points which is amazing the morale wrote this in the fifteen hundreds that's biast iridium in Persia will resurrect and join with Ishmael to persecute the Jewish people so that answers the argument well how can you talk about your smile as being and fault the Iranians are not Arabs okay the Iranians are persons and the my file says that humming what kind of because humming is a Moloch right that I'm relic finds his natural place in Persia as well and therefore Paris is going to get together alright so the 17-nation thing is a very very interesting point and Sukkot as a whole has a very very strong messianic component I didn't notice both the habit arrive for day 1 of Sukkot and after aa Shabbat column Oh a so-called deal with the war of Gog and Magog which is described in the book of Caesarea that's the first day of Sukkot and described in the book of UNESCO which is Shabbat follow my way and by the way I mean I let me make an obvious point I mean it is very obvious but people sometimes get it wrong go get Magog or not the two sides it's not the war of go against or go that is absolutely correct if you read the passage you see a man called go is the mellah of a nation called Magog and the people they're fighting are the Jewish people right so it's gold and my bow is one side now who is Gogan mug up we don't really don't know and the only you know as they are described as coming may arrest sir phonin from the north and different before ship going all the way back to have such a go some identify it with Turkey and some identify it with Russia and some identified with Germany and various Confederations and the like and has the war already happens and what would it be cetera the air is so fun of course in the book of Tonio we are told of great wars between the king of the north and the King of the South and it's not you know at all clear what that's talking about the one thing the Rambam tells us is Christians love to try to take contemporary events and read them into biblical prophecies and at least in Israel many Jews like to do that as well although normally it was a Christian thing the Rambam tells us that that's a very futile exercise because only when Messiah comes will you then be able to go backwards and understand how every Biblical prophecy was fulfilled but as things are happening you really don't know although intriguingly there was an oral tradition from the Vilna government this is phenomenal and no one know what it meant now it's in writing but it was preserved orally for years that the war of Gog and Magog will last for 12 minutes and no one understood what type of war could be over in 12 minutes now we do understand what type of war could be open 12 minutes and now if you go back to me but nobody Zakaria you see things that mmm-hmm because it talks about the enemy the flesh on the faces of the enemy will melt could that be describing I could actually be describing them god forbid a nuclear holocaust or these some type of nuclear destruction the good news is that the words of Gorgon Marvel can be circumvented meaning they're not inevitable meanings because I'll say to Shuba and massive Tobin various good things you could be saved and spirit from the words of Chavez tell me any negative props you have any negative that's correct that's correct it's like the Bible Cole is like not just your sins yeah well you know they're interesting I don't know I mean unless they're rooted in very authoritative sources I just think there is speculation I can there I can't assign any automatic credence to them all right I'll tell you part of the problem part of the problem this is a fundamental issue is that's the Bible codes can only describe things that already happen so you look for Hitler in our mullet the Bible codes cannot make any predictions because you don't know what you're looking for so if if somebody could somehow use the Bible code to predict an event that's not yet happened and then the event happens and I would see a very very tough book well that would be well they give you the code if they could somehow practicode and use it as a predictive mechanism like that's how Einstein theory of relativity till they got proven mean he pretty predicted some astronaut uncle events based on this theory and it happened so the problem is that the the Bible codes have only worked to to show how the passes in Caledon therefore the concept is you're looking for something that introduced them again I'm not a enough of a scientist to be able to give a whole technical evaluation but but some airplanes that when you're looking for specific results there's a certain a bias built in and therefore you would need a a predictive thing for the future so the Bible codes are interesting I am NOT I'm not denying it at all and and I do believe that in principle they could be true but I but I just wouldn't make my faith rest on it one way or the other and that you know there are debate this this is a very sharp debate there are some probability experts who are absolutely convinced that the Bible codes represent the divine encoding Harold Gans we know from from Maryland widsom to read winsome you know these are big experts who really swear so to speak by the Bible codes there are others who are much more skeptical and I can't I can't automatically dismiss their skin is just the beginning how going back know cos not for the future say again they just go back what you said to beginning the class I'm looking back at the pictures nowadays no not so so so the basic lesson that I am leaving you with is that number one that Sukkot is a great message of hope because it reminds us the seven deeper in that although the seventy nations persecute us but their power does diminish transition reminds us the death of moshe reminds us that even when we have great losses we have to go on and we have to build and we have to have seas look and like the ace of a new smile reminds us that the two forces that we face is one spiritual apathy and the other ism fanaticism and both of them are dangerous and negative and and destructive and of course let me just say generally you know we've been through a single month not even a whole month three weeks basically you know I'll end with this story it's a cute story there was a fellow in Russia it's a made-up story there was a fellow in Russia who became Jewish because he really liked he was in the Hasidic community and he really loves all the parties there were constant celebrations he converted let's say around polish BOTS so which was great we're Scottish right they have a big party where oh there's two biscotti ring party bush for this other great party pour him a super party so Scottish Nissan party pesach great party so he tells his friends you know listen you got to join this religion this is the greatest party zijn drinking and eating in festivals is just tremendous so his friend didn't get around to it till around Thomas the beginning of Thomas so Thomas he immediately gets it with sugar syrup Atomos in the three weeks in the nine days and no music and no weddings and no no whining no no no meet all these do privations fast days so he goes over to his friends and says hey you know you told me this is a religion of parties and celebration and all I get her fast days of deprivation so the guy first guy scratches her sentences you know I don't know ever since you joined it we've been going up I don't know what happened here but the truth is that is the nature of sacred time we go through all of these different experiences we have times of joy in times of sadness times of jubilation and time introspection but what's interesting is in the first three weeks of a single month we go through all of those emotions we have times of seriousness somberness reflection fear trepidation times of joy times of remembering the deaths of the loss of our loved ones on the very same day that we danced with the Toman because when what is what is the following life will give you all of these different experiences so in the beginning of the year is like a template or a model how do deal with everything that life will give you you kind of have to experience it in an accelerated way to be able to take you know all of us have a natural personality so for example some people love singing and dancing and Webber dick you know they're very happy joyous personalities there are other people I'll tell you that there are people who actually I can use the word they enjoy tisha buff more than some customers what do I mean enjoy tisha buff I don't mean enjoy in the sense that I'm singing and dancing but they enjoy the idea of reflection the idea of thinking the idea of flesh bananafish now they're not so comfortable you don't necessarily singing and dancing so there are what you might call tisha but people they write what you might call because some customer people maybe correlates introvert extrovert you know there are different ways of correlating even with rabbi's they actually say there there are cat rabbis and dog rabbis the dark rabbi use the rabbi you know how how you doing you know they slap you on the shoulder the cat rabbi would rather you know learn whatever it is they say the cat traveling prefers officiating at a funeral and to going to a husband you know whatever it is right different personalities this way but what a chef is teaching you is you got to learn to serve Hashem with all aspects of the human personality the Tisch above a person has to learn how to sing and dance and the suppressed or a person has to learn how to be reflective in series because you can't just serve God with whatever your comfort level is you got a stretch you gotta go beyond your comfort level so the overall message of the month of Tishri like the overall message of this great season that is now over is sir fashion as a complete and total person but you have a spectrum of love emotions and feelings don't just take that narrow part of the spectrum appreciate the entire spectrum and surface show me accordingly in that way and that is why some say flesh fun is the most important month of the year because such fun is the most ordinary month notice I came in freshman there's a famous for it although it's grammatically not absolutely not true so I'm gonna tell you it's not true but they call are such fun it's called Mark touch fun meaning the bitter edge fun because there are no holidays no actually that is not the reason why it's called abolishment Marimar was connected terrain etc but but be visit many the folk the folk thought is that my recession is connected to the notion that Russia does not have a game and the lesson is it is the litmus test have the sungeum transformed us meaning the cousin is used to say it's very easy to be inspired when you're in moments of inspiration but the true test of whether something has made arrocha on you is how do you behave when you're away from the inspiration so much so that he gave was when a pots overflows when it's on the fire that does not tell you how full the pot is because even a half-empty pot will overflow when it's out of there but when it's off the fire and it's cold then if it's half empty it's not gonna overflow if it's full it will so the fact that I'm inspired during a con doesn't mean I've really filled up with holiness it's only afterwards that you can tell and that is why such fun is the great litmus test whether the SAR game have truly changed it so be at the gem we now kind of begin the year in earnest as all of this was preparing us for the challenges of top semi intense 5755 657 17 I think I'm living in the past okay and interested xem it should be a year of growth under your shovel year of growth a year ago dr. shamon again is a peace and health for Eric Israel from Easter Island Billy Bishop for all of the [Music]