Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz: The Shofar - Joy or Trepidation

You see your tomorrow [Music] Okay. Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for coming. I know it's a it's a very busy time. Uh as always, uh this year is dedicated praying for the victory of Raayolim in all fronts of the war. Uh the lasting unity of Ami Israel and for all of those whose health has been affected by the war, the safe return bezem of all of the hostages. A raffle. No, no particular name is mentioned but for all of the Israel and Aliat Shama for Boro Ben Schlommo Dinski whose site is on the 24th of Elo and uh the dedication is given by his brother Ari Dinsky this year should be in Alias Shama for Borak Ben Schlommo. Uh finally, Ibona has been distributing for many many years to needy families for the Khagim. This year again, they will be distributing to widows, orphans, and other people in financial distress. Uh please contribute and uh try to specify what the particular need is for either through the link below or on the Bonet website. And uh as Rabbi Poston announced, this is the last scheduled class until after the who knows if there'll be an unscheduled class that I don't know, but you never know. >> Things many many things can uh can happen. Yeah, we have to leave every possibility open. Uh okay. Uh that's it. Uh you know, there's an old tradition. I'm I'm two days late in telling you this. I should have mentioned it maybe last week that the last week of the year which began Monday, Sunday night, Monday can be a rectification for all of the aos that you did that particular day of the week. So that would mean that today now it's already Wednesday. So uh if you messed up your Wednesdays now you do chuva and that rectifies all of the Wednesdays. So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Uh but you get a second chance because Shabbat is set to rectify the whole week. So the chuan Shabbat will fix everything. So uh you know it's it's common that people have a lot of enthusiasm at the beginning of an endeavor. That's why Roshashana, you know, we have a lot lot of enthusiasm, but by the end things peter out. But in Judaism, it's really the opposite. Schlommoik says in Cohelis in Ecclesiastes the end is more significant than the beginning. Beginnings people begin with bursts of enthusiasm. The question is do you have staying power? So in a sense this last week although we're ending the year and we're entering a new year this is the chance to kind of end the old year in a very very positive way and that in turn will be a great sus a great merit uh for the new year of 5786 that should be a year of redemption a year of health a year of Yeshua uh for both Israel as a whole and for each individ idual person that is in need. And of course remember too when we pray for redemption we are also praying for the non-Jewish world as too the world itself should be transformed. I don't want to comment on current events but uh obviously everyone has heard of Charlie Kirk's assassination and we can discussly uh was he an idoltor because he was a Christian and that's a well-known makus among the commentators. what is the halic status of Christianity uh under the noite code and that is according to mymonities according to the Rambam and this is pre-reformation the I mean there was no Protestant but there's only Catholicism basically and the Coptic church in Egypt according to the Rambam Christianity is considered to be a form of idolatry because it gives God a physical image and it also posits a duality or a multiplicity in the sense of the trinity and therefore according to the Rambam uh even an otherwise righteous Christian could not qualify as a Noahite because he subscribes to a form of idolatry. I do want to point out there are other opinions. There is the opinion of Rabenu Tom who is Rashi's grandson who of course lived in a very Catholic country France and Rabeno Tom posits that although Christianity may obviously be a mistaken belief it may be a false belief it is not an idolatrous belief because of the belief in a single supreme God and as a result according to Rayutam it's very very possible for a righteous Christian to get a share in Maba because he is in compliance with the Noah law. So this is a makus. It's not my role or my ability to decide among the different opinions, but that is a major issue. But nevertheless, whatever Charlie Kirk status is, and it's up to God to decide, he was certainly a a friend of Israel. You may have seen his thing about keeping Shabas, whatever interesting thing like uh he says he keeps the Jewish Shabas. Now, that already raises a certain problem. Uh, but putting that aside, he said, "Puts away the cell phone, everything else." He says, "Uh, it's a good a good thing to do." And then I saw another one that was really funny. Well, I'll tell you two things. It's it just free association. One goes back to Bill Bill Clinton. Uh, when Bill Clinton was president, you know, already many years ago. So, he was inshed in certain scandals, Monica Lewinsky, certain scandals in Kan Makoma la. and he was meeting with some clergy when he was running for his uh re-election. He was meeting with some clergy in Ohio, priests, rabbis, bishops, all sorts of people. So, there's a rabbi went over to him, kind of a courageous rabbi. And the rabbi said, "Mr. President, I believe you have an obligation to do chuva." And then he proceeded to try to explain what chuva is. And Bill Clinton interrupted him and said, "You don't have to explain. And I just want to know are you referring to Ruff Soliv Extruba or Ruff Cook? So, you know, that was that was very fascinating. And then with with Charlie Kirk, some guy in the audience got up and just said, "Hey, you know, the tomouth says that uh Jews rule the world and the goyam just serve the the Jews. You know, uh are you you're just a who serves the Jews?" So Charlie Kirk said, "Uh, do you mean the Bavi or the usual and do you know how many pages are in each? Do you know the difference between uh Tanakh? I mean it's really Tanakh and Tman. Huh? Do you know any of that? Okay, whatever. Okay. So it's interesting what people pick up over the time. Uh but be it as it may, Roshashana is a day of judgment for the whole world, not just the Jews. And gula and mashiach is for the whole world not just for the Jews. And then rashashana when we pray may God put your reverence put your fear put your on all of your creations. May everything that you created recognize that the God of Israel is the melik over the whole world. So there is something universal in our aspirations. Not that everybody becomes Jewish. Not everybody's supposed to go Jewish. There is a legitimation in the Noahide pathway uh in which a righteous Noahide gets a share in the world to come. So the goal here is not that everybody becomes Jewish. In fact, it's brought down that once Mashiach comes, the conversion gate gets closed. You can't jump on the train once Mashiach comes. Uh so the goal is not make everybody Jewish. But the goal is that everybody should acknowledge Hashem and worship Hashem and in accordance with whatever system God is dictating, whether it's the 613 mitzvos of the Jew or the seven Noah seven Noah laws. Uh be it as it may, uh Rashashana is coming up. It's a very very big big deal. And obviously the central mitzvah of Roshashana is the blowing of the chauffeur, right? That's the central mitzvah. Interestingly enough, women are technically exempt from the mitzvah of hearing the chauffeur. Quite amazing. Uh and that's because it's part of the normal rule that positive commandments that are time bound women are exempt. And even though that rule itself has many many many exceptions, chauffeur is not one of the exceptions. So technically a woman does not have to hear chauffeur and rashashana. But what woman of any religious sensibility would ever miss chauffeur and rashashana? If they come to sh they come to sha and if not there'll be separate chauffeur blowings arranged because it is understood that besides the mitzvah of chauffeur a technical mitzvah that women are exempt from there is a certain spiritual power to the chauffeur that everybody needs to be connected to man woman child so I want to talk a little bit about this mitzvah of teat chauffar Uh now one interesting little point which I'm not really going to develop. I just want to call to your attention. Uh when you look at the sukim in the Torah about rash shana the word chauffeur is not mentioned at all. And indeed the gammorra has to discuss how do you know it's a chauffeur? One puk says yom trua a day of trua and another puk says trua a remembrance of trua. Now the word trua is a word that can mean several things. It can mean shouting. It can mean singing. It can mean friendship. And indeed all of those meanings apply. And the Talmud says, "How do you know that it means you blow the chauffear?" And the answer is we learn it out of yo, the jubilee year every 50 years on yum kipper. The Torah says, chauffar. So in the case of yovale it which we don't need observe today uh for various reasons it does mention chauffear together with trua. So the Talmud has an interpretation that truer sha similarity of words just as the mention of trua in connection with yo encompasses chauffar so too rashashana so it is an interesting point I'm not sure what to make of it that the chauffar which is kind of the star of rashashana the big big miss rashana is not even mentioned in rashashana it is only alluded to in the word trua and we only know it picks up chauffeur through the gazer sha the similarity of wording uh to the context of of yo but be it as it may it is well established of course that we blow a chauffeur what is the definition of a chauffear a chauffeur is basically the hollowed out the hollowed out horn of an animal it does not have to be a ram uh many say it has to be a kosher animal but It could be uh it could be an antelope. Those big chopros that people have or from deer or from antelope. But there is only one animal that is disqualified from whose horn is disqualified from being a chauffear and that is the horn of a cow or a bull or a calf. And here the tomud says the reason that is so is because that is reminiscent of the sin of the golden calf. And uh on rash shana when we plead for mercy we don't use our sin. It's kind of I mean God knows the sin. It's not like reminding God but it's kind of an arrogance to use your vehicle of sin as a way of asking for atonement. The expression that the Talmud uses has entered modern Hebrew a kagar nasa sanor uh which basically means a prosecutor is not the best defense attorney. The prosecutor sees everything wrong with you. He's not going to be the one that's going to look for your defense. So, we don't use the chauffeur of the cow uh or the bull or the calf to seek God's mercy. But every other thing is okay. The minog of Ashkanazim is we do use a ram's horn. A ram is a male sheep. And that's simply because that also brings the positive association with aasitzk the sacrifice of where after hashem called off the there was a ram and therefore this calls to mind theat but that's not meaning to say if you didn't have a ram's horn an antelope is okay different types of goat horns are going to be okay uh the only thing that is excluded Truth is a non-cooser animal like a buffalo not a buffalo whatever a non-coosher animal rhinoceros uh some say it actually is kosher so we don't make it is you take it but you don't make a brea because it's a mlo but the only one that's absolutely puzzle is the horn of a of a cow now chauffeur has many many many different associations there's a famous passage that's reprinted in many makurim from that there are like 10 different associations that chauffeur has. It's connected to the aasitzk. It's connected to the giving of the Torah when a chauffeur was blown. It's connected to mashiach. It is connected to the engathering of the exiles. It's connected to the resurrection of the dead. It is a wakeup call as the Rambam says to call us to repentance. It is the summons to judgment that God is now about to judge us like just like you ring a bell. So there are many many different associations. But let me just me oh it's also a symbol of coronation. Rashashana we coronate God is king. And this gives rise to a very interesting discussion and that is is the dominant emotion of chauffeurblowing supposed to be joyous or is it supposed to be dread, fear, trepidation, trembling. Now again for most of us unfortunately we're not always on the madrega or we feel much of anything in either direction you know we just go through a mitzvah but ideally is the chauffeur supposed to frighten me or is the chauffeur supposed to be joyous so it's interesting that according to the Ariza the chauffeur is the summons to divine judgment this is the call that God is deciding who will live and who will die, who will prosper, and who will fail. And as a result, the dominant emotion, again, I don't want to call it fear necessarily, but it's a trepidation. It's a trembling. It is a serious awefilled moment as we contemplate divine judgment. And divine judgment is a reality. We don't always want to think about it but but look in this past year at so many tragedies that have happened and remember that they were decreed under Rajashana of Yum and Yum Kipper of last year the year of October 7 which was only a few weeks after that Roshashana. So when we were in Shat Roshashana, we didn't imagine um October 7. We didn't imagine what would happen in two or 3 weeks. And yet that is when it was decreed. So this is a serious issue. Yadin, we have to seek mercy. We have to do chuva. That's the Arizal's idea. Trepidation. That is the dominant emotion of tea. The vilnogon says the opposite. The vil nagon says the dominant emotion of teat chauffar is the boundless joy and privilege of proclaiming Hashem as our king. It's the trumpet of coronation. Now, of course, you may ask the obvious question. What does it mean that Roshashana is the coronation of God as king? I mean, God is our king whether we like it or not. So the vil nagon offers a very beautiful interpretation that there are two words for a monarch. One is the word moshelle and one is the word mel. A moshel is whoever has power over me whether I accept him or not. A dictator is a moshel. A mel is someone that is freely accepted by his people. So says the vil naggoen god is our moshel whether we like it or not but every roshashana we reproclaim that he's our melik we accept it with love with happiness with joy and according to the v nagam chauffur is not the summons to judgment that gives you fear and trepidation but chauffeur is the joyous coronation of the king so that's interesting that category and the truth of the matter is this is one of those ideas which are not binary. It's not an eitheror. You have both ideas in the same time. And in fact, if you look at the verses right before the blowing of the chauffear, the Baltoa recites certain verses that we respond to. So you'll notice that uh the first verse is I call out to God from the narrow confining desperate places that suggests the trepidation and the but then one of the is again from I rejoice over your Torah as if I found a great treasure. I mean, look at the verses. You'll see they are literally a mix of trepidation pukim and pukim of excitement and and and happiness and joy that we proclaim hashem as king. Now, actually wants to say he has a compromised position. He differentiates between the blowing of the chauffeur before musaf which is the first blowing of the chauffeur and then the blowing of the chauffear in the repetition. These are two separate sets of chauffeur blowings. Uh the first is called teio the blowing of the chauffeur when you sit down. Although our custom is we stand up, but technically since it's not connected to an amida, you're allowed to sit in the ones before musf. So that's called teio dev. And the blowing in mus is teaos, the standing tea because it's connected to an amid. Many blow even in the silent amida and the repetition. Most Ashkanazm only blow in the in the repetition. Now just a little more information about this. You'll notice that when we blow in the repetition of the Amida, so we blow at three critical points because the Musaf of Roshashana has three special blessings. One is called Malios, kingship. The other is called zikronos, remembrance. The third is called chauffaros blowing the chauffar. And each of these braos has an identical format. We recite 10 biblical verses in malios. The 10 biblical verses are about God as king. And the way the 10 verses are broken up, three Torah verses, three kuim verses, all from three nim. So it's not to it's to and the 10th verse is Torah and inos it's about Hashem as mel in Zronos 10 verses again 10 verses it's about God remembering the good deeds of our forefathers and in chauffaros 10 verses it's about the different uses of chauffeur matantora mashiach in gathering ing of the exiles, resurrection of the dead. So at the end of Malios, we blow the chauffear. At the end of zonos, we blow the chauffear. At the end of chauffaros, we blow the chauffear. Those are called teio deaf salvic wants to say on this issue is the dominant emotion one of joy. one of trepidation. He wants to differentiate between the mushab and the muhammad. He wants to say the blowing before musf is one of trepidation and fear in musf. It's about coronating and glorifying God and doing so with simha. By the way, you may ask I mentioned there are two chauffeur blowings. The one before musf is called mushaf the sitting. The one after the one during musaf is called mu the standing but then you'll remember we blow again after musf uh I still remember when I was in the ninth grade I was at ner I was 14 years old and you know I was not used to a yeshiva ding yes rashetta ding is very very very long we're talking about um you know 3 or 4:00 I don't remember so you know I was really really exhausted it and finally it was beautiful dabing but finally it was finished. So I said hashem I can rest a little bit and then they start blowing the chauffeur again. I didn't I I don't know why I wasn't aware of it from prior years but says I thought we finished now they're so I was really afraid they were going to start the whole thing over again. Uh so the truth of the matter is in so far as the Gomorrah is concerned the Gmorrah does not mention at all any type of blowing after Musf. The Gomorrah just mentions the Mushaf and the Mumat and that was it. The origin of blowing a after Musf is a much later tradition that is not in the Gomorrah and that is we have a minog that we want to blow the chauffeur 100 times on Russashana. Uh and that is to counteract Cisra. Cisra was an evil general and his mother cried 100 times waiting for her son who was killed by Yael. And that brings divine mercy. upon our enemies. So we have to counteract the cries of Cisra's mother with our cries. Now if you count the mush and the muhammed I'm not going to go into all the numbers here. You wind up with 60. So when we finish musaf we have blown the chauffeur 60 times. So if if we have a later min to do a hundred times. So you got to do 40 more times. And that is the blowing after after after musf cuz mush is 30 mad is 30 and then you have to do another 40. Now if you follow the and you also blew in the silence. So in a sense that means the mush is 30 the is 60. So you only have 10 to blow after musf. So kabad or whatever will have very little to blow after musf. But if you follow the normal Ashkanazak min of only blowing in the repetition, you're going to have to blow 40 after. So, and that's how you get 100 coloss of chauffeur. Of course, uh 100 is your minimum if every single sound was correct. I mean, as you know, you wind up uh depending on how the Rav Pasins and how the Baltto are blew, you might wind up with 500 chauffeur sounds, depending on how often things have to be repeated. But if every sound is approp you you'll have 100. So that's Raf Salv's compromise uh between the and the nagum that the mush is trembling the muad is simra and joy at proclaiming God's kingship but the truth of the matter is even within the sound of the chauffeur itself there is a combination of joy and trepidation let's take the basic idea right the basic sound of the chauffeur the showa er sound has three variations but the three variations have a very similar structure. We start off with a tea. A tea is a long unbroken sound. You then have in the middle a broken sound. Now the broken sound can take three forms. It could be a sharim cherua which is a combination of an elongated sab and a whimper. So Iay that's called trua. Or it could just be theim I or it could just be the trua a whimper. Okay. But the common denominator is that after the tea there is a broken soundarim truaim trua. And then after that broken sound you once again go back to the tea. Right? So the broken sound in the middle whichever form it takes is bracketed by the tea before and the tea after. The zor says that the tea which is strong, confident, unbroken represents joy. The trua represents the broken heart over my sins and the zakia at the end represents the joy at receiving God's forgiveness. So within the chauffeur itself within the single sounding of the chauffeur you have the combination of joy and and trepidation but joy has to be the as the balatana writes generally not about chauffeur. He says a person has to designate a time every day where they are heartbroken because of their sins. But afterwards they must revert to joy and sima in the ravote. There is room to be depressed and there is room to be brokenhearted but it is temporary and time bound and the normal state of how you serve Hashem should be with sima and that you see in this in the chauffear the brokenheartedness is in the middle but it must be bracketed with the joy on both sides. So here I want to share with you uh really uh four thoughts about chauffeur that are a little off the beaten track. They're not the usual thoughts but there are things that we can incorporate in addition to sajjon which really even the art moxer if you look it does have the passage from that gives you the 10 reasons for tea chauffar and that's worthwhile to uh to look at. The first thought is from We know that on Roshashana, why is Roshashana Roshashana? Because it is the anniversary of the creation. We say the creation of the world, but that's not quite true. It is the creation of Adamishan. Hashem began creating the world on the 25th of Elo. That was the date. Roshashana is day six from that point. And since uh the human being was the purpose of creation, we do not celebrate the creation of the world on the 25th of Ella. Although some people do make a point of it. We celebrate the creation of the world the day that Adam was created. So Rashashana was the day that Adam was created. How was Adam created? Well, Hashem made a physical body from the dirt, but he then breathed into him. God breathed into Adam the soul of life. The alter the balatana makes a very important point that breath when I breathe into somebody I give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation I am giving my life's force into that person unlike let's say the soul of a cow or a goat or a dog or a horse which was created by God's speech let there be a dog let there be a course. So the life came into being. The soul of a human being is not a created entity. God did not say let there be a soul. God breathed into the physical body of Adam. God's own breath. This is the meaning of the statement which needs a lot of definition. that our nishamos are an actual part of God. Arnishamos are not created entities. Our nishamos is the breath of God. So Rahur says when we hear the sound of the chauffeur, the expulsion of air, the breathing out, we are taken back. We are taken back to a point 5,000 well this rashana 5,786 years ago when God breathed the soul of man back to man or into man. It makes us think of creation. And look how refresh analyzes the sounds of the chauffeur. The tea which as I said before is a straight unwavering confident powerful voice reminds us that the soul that God gave us was pure unbroken undamaged. It was a wonderful, precious part of God. But after that soul was breathed into us, we broke it. We smashed it. That's the chev I I sin disintegrates the soul. It breaks it up. It severs the connections with God. So in the chauffeur, I see the tragedy. so to speak, of human existence in which we took something that was so pure and beautiful and we smashed it. But then out of that smashing comes the next sound of breaking, the trua. The chua represents the broken heart that turns to God in chuva and the chuva repairs the damage. So we get a tea after the chuva. So you see the here the point here the tea the beautiful unbroken soul the disintegration of sin the crying heart that seeks unification with God and the final tea is restoration and indeed the final tea particularly in the final set is longer than the first tea that's tea gdola Because asal said the place where the baluva stands might be greater than the saddic who never sinned and therefore the tea after the trua is the tea of the baluva which can even be more powerful than the one who never sins. So this is the drama of the human condition both in terms of myself as an individual and in terms of the world as a whole. It reminds us of our potential. It reminds us how often we have veered off the path. It reminds us of the capacity for repair and the promise that things will be restored to something that was even better than they were beforehand. This is a a thought from from refers. Now I want to then give you a second again I really have four thoughts. They overlap a little bit but they are also distinct. The second thought I want to share with you is a remarkable insight from Rav Hutner in which he also points out that the blowing of the chauffeur is connected to the creation of Adam when God breathed into Adam the soul of life. But he points out that it's going in a reverse direction. An rashashana 5,786 years ago no rashana God breathed his breath into us. Chauffur I'm blowing it back to God. Seen in this way this is a very interesting way of looking at it. A chauffeur is a symbolic death experience. You are giving your life back to God. You are acknowledging that God is deciding at this very moment if your life should be renewed or God forbid not renewed. And you are declaring with perfect faith, my life is in your hands. You know, in the olden days, you might remember this, the older people might remember this, before computers were widely uh used. So, when you rented a car, let's say you rented a car for a week and you were supposed to return the car on Sunday, but you needed to renew it for two days. So, there used to be a I don't know why they ever had to do this, but maybe it wasn't even widely done, but I I remember it being done. You had to physically there was like a physical thing. You had to physically go go down to the place, the rental car place. You had to physically hand over the keys and then there was a new kenyon that was made for the extra two days. There had to be like a physical idea of giving the old life or giving the old car and taking it. R Hutner says chauffeur is that way as well. We are handing our life over to God and asking him for a renewal of the lease. First of all, life is only a lease anyway. We don't own we don't own our lives, right? To remember that all all life is a lease and the lease is given in one-year increments. meaning to say the lease expires on Roshashana but you ask God for a renewal of the lease. So that's one idea, very striking idea that the chauffeur is a form of death. But but it's a little more than that too because that may sound a little scary, a little frightening, but there's also something positive to that because in Cabala a point is made that every rashana a new life force suffuses the world. The old life force is withdrawn and a new life force comes in. Now, that doesn't automatically mean better, might be worse, but it can mean better. Meaning to say there's so much potential. It's like you're turning in the old car and you get a new car. See, it's not just I'm asking for a renewal of the same old car. Rather, my hope would be that this involves renewal. It's a new life. Everything's up for new, right? So, you're handing over your life to God is both the recognition that my lease is up. I need a renewal, but it's also asking for renewal in all sorts of in all sorts of positive ways. Right? So, so again, uh we would summarize Raf Hersh by looking at the kiat chauffar as a description of the process of chuva and healing. Ref Hutner looks at it as a symbolic giving your life back to God, a symbolic death. Let me mention a third thought from the um themes and the fas that I mentioned or actually on Mishna that I mentioned earlier. Remember what the Mishna says? The Mishna says that every animal horn is kosher for the chauffeur except for the horn of a cow or a bull because since that's reminiscent of theel. So a kateor the prosecutor cannot be the sanor cannot be the defense attorney. We don't seek mercy by waving around as something that is connected to our sin. The Gomorrah by the way mentions one other application of this principle. Uh so remember this that this is why when the Cohen the Cohen God has two different uniforms during the year he wears a uniform with a lot of gold thread on Yam Kipper he goes back and forth between the gold uniform and the white a white uniform of pure linen. And whenever he goes into the holy of holies, the keshakashim, he takes off the gold garments and he puts on the white garments. And the reason that's so is once again he's there to plead for mercy. So gold is also a reminder of the sin of the golden calf. So when he goes into the keshak dashim, he only wears white. Okay. So the two cases where the gammor uses the rule of kagar nasar case number one is we don't use the chauffur of a cow or a bull and case number two is the cohen gundle does not go into the holy of holies wearing his gold vestments he only goes in wearing pure white linen. Uh, interestingly enough, this is in part the source of the min that people dress in white anam kipper. Uh, many men wear a kit and women too often. It's not it's not a per se. Uh, but often will wear uh will wear white and this is also the source of the min that many people try to avoid gold jewelry. Any kipper makus is that only applied to yellow gold or even white gold. There are different different customs about how strict this is. But again, it's connected to the idea that yum kipper we seek God's mercy. So uh we wear white because of purity as the coloring daughter wore wore white. But in addition, we don't want the gold because of a katear nasar. But I do want to emphasize that although this is a minog and one should respect the min of course it is not an absolute the absolute only applied to the coen guttle entering the keshak dashim we are not the coen guttle and we are not entering the keshak dashim so technically we don't have this in fact interesting enough kipper itself when the coen guttle was not in the keshak dashim he actually wore golden garments by the way that itself raises a fascinating question and that is h if it's inappropriate to bring up reminders of the ego when you're seeking divine mercy then why does the coen gole wear gold when he's not in the keshak we should have had a rule that he wears white the whole day sokin gives a really really interesting he says when the cohen guttle is in the keshak dashim there is literally nobody who sees him. It's just him and God. So when he's with God, all he should seek is the mercy of the Jewish people. He's not there to criticize. He's not there to bring up sins. So when it's just between him and God, get rid of theel. Don't bring it up. But when he's not in the keshak, people see him. So maybe when people see him, maybe it's a good idea for them to be reminded of the so they'll do chauva. You see uh this is reminiscent of a f of an exchange of the satrebi. Now somebody once had the know the satmere was a great great god but he was very very critical of almost everything. He was critical of the state of Israel. He was critical of uh yeshivos and organizations that supported Zionism in whatever way took money. So somebody once said said to him big big he says you know how come you know you're always so negative I mean Arau was confronted with Saddam and Amora the most evil people in the world and what was Arainu's attitude he prayed to God he asked for mercy and he bargained with the Almighty says maybe there are 50 righteous people or 45 or 40 or 30 or 20 he only wanted the good for these sinners. So the person said to me, "What are you going to tell me? You're going to tell me that religious Jews who support Israel are worse than Sudom and Amora? If Sudom and Amora deserve mercy and compassion and respect, how can you be so negative?" So the sarbi said, "Aram was talking to God. So when you talk to God, you only seek mercy. You don't seek punishment. But I have to talk to people and give them muser based on what I think is right. So I got to be critical. And then he said, "And how do you know what I say when I talk to God?" Yeah. So when he talks to God, he prays for the Zionists. He prays for the army. He prays for the soldiers. But visav what he feels he has. Again, I'm not endorsing the sheets one way or the other. I'm just saying. But based on what he thought was right or wrong, he felt he had an obligation to communicate it. So Rav Zamman Saskkin is making the very same point of why the Cohen God wears gold on the outside even though he only wears white on the inside. Visav God, you only seek mercy for the Jewish people. But sometimes visav the Jewish people. You got to call the spade a spade. You got to be honest. You have to give uh Muser when it's appropriate. Okay. But be it as it may, the two situations where we wear uh where we're concerned with Nazar, we don't use the chauffear of the cow and the coangle does not wear gold garments when he goes into the kadesh. Now these two teachings seem to be consistent, nasar. But in point of fact, they are actually contradictory. Because here's the problem. You see from the Yamipper rule that the concern with nasar only applies in the holy of holies. But on Roshashana when I blow chauffeur, I'm not in the holy of holies. So why are you applying the kate nasa rule to the chauffeur of a cow which is outside of the keshakim if we see from yam kipper that this is only a concern in the keshak. So these says we see from here a remarkable idea that actually it's not just the Gmorrah Kimat says it be but he's explaining the Gmorrah that the moment of teas chauffeur is so elevated and holy it is as if each and every one of us are standing in the kodus Meaning that which only the Coen guttle could do only one day a year. All of us are transposed transported to that level of intimacy and holiness and therefore the kesh shakadashim rules apply in the moment of the kata. So now here's what these says. Chauffur could be seen as a prayer of the heart, a cry of the heart, but it's a cry without words. It's a nonverbal prayer. says the when you're in the kodes, you can only give God something that is totally pure and untainted. That's why you don't use the chauffeur of the cow and that's why the coen guttle doesn't bring in gold. So says this fis if the blowing of the chauffear is being in the keshak you can't pray with words at that moment because our words are also nasar our words are often insincere our words are often hypocritical our words are often not expressing the truth that's in our hearts So during the year, God will accept it one way or the other. But when you're in the dashim, you have to give God that which is pure, that which is untainted. And that comes from the innermost essence, the kishkas, the innermost essence of the Jew that is pure and good, untainted by sin. And that is why this says teas chauffear is a prayer but it is a wordless nonverbal prayer that emanates from that part of the Jew that remains holy no matter what everything else is. This is whatus calls in Yiddish the pint the spark of the Jew. the spark of the Jew that remains holy. And this is the source of chuva because if sin truly destroyed everything, then there's nothing from which there can be a reconstruction. But the answer is there is something within every Jewish soul. Every Jewish soul that doesn't get tainted, doesn't get destroyed. And from that the organism can be reconstructed and revived. So again the so far I've mentioned three maybe kind of off the beaten track interpretations the pathway of chuva rav hutner symbolic death giving your life back to God a prayer without words as you stand in the keshaktashin and you offer God that part of you that is untainted, unblenmished, pure, that sin didn't reach. There's something that's untainted. And a person has to know this because otherwise you get depressed, otherwise you get hopeless. I'm not sure if a if a study has been written on this. I would be surprised if there isn't a study on it about um the psychological stress uh depression among orthodox Jews during El and Yum no Ryan. Um I I think in my experience it is actually very significant problem. Uh this is a very very depressing and anxietyridden time for many many people even if they don't want to admit it. I mean I I will be honest. I will admit it to you that it's a difficult it is a difficult time for me. Uh but again but you got to correct that by remembering there is this essence that's good that's righteous and combine that with divine love and that gets you through it and the dominant emotion as the balatana said you have your broken heart for half an hour a day. Yeah. Give yourself a good cry and then face life with simka. To me, it's amazing how the balatanya was able to swerve back and forth like you know cry with a broken heart for half an hour and then be joyous like how do you move? Now he says that's already a concession because according to his view you should feel both emotions simultaneously. He then says okay most people can't handle it simultaneously but just do it one after the other. Well, you know, one after the other is pretty hard too, but apparently he said that that was manageable. Okay, a final thought about the chauffeur blowing is from the shame who was another great the son of the abnor was one of the gdoleador and he points out the following you know the sounds of the chauffeur tea trua etc are not just for chauffeur there's another place where they're used actually a totally different context and that is the katsotros the silver trumpets. Mosher Rabenu made silver trumpets and those trumpets were blown on various occasions. And the Sheamish says, well, listen, the Tyra does not explicitly tell us the meaning of the sounds for the chauffeur, but it does give us the meaning of the sounds in theotros. So perhaps homalytical license will allow us to import the meaning of the sounds in the and make a similar meaning for the chauffeur. These are the silver trumpets that existed that Mosher made that existed when there was a B mikdash. By the way, there's a whole big some say we should reestablish them today. You may be aware that there are people during time of war. The Torah says the trumpets shall be sounded. There are people who maintain that this is a even today and they've done it. You may have seen on YouTube or whatever. Maybe you're at the hotel. Maybe you saw it yourself. Although I would have to say although there's no logical connection, but people who are into trumpets tend to be in the Harabias as well. So, so, so the trumpet blowing will normally not be in the Kaiso Plaza. it'll normally be in the Harbayas because for reasons I won't go into these these types of innovations tend to come together. Uh, okay. But be it as it may, here is what the Torah says. When it's time to assemble the people to come together to get ready to travel, we blow a teaka. So teaka is the message come together. And when it's finally try time to journey forward, we blow the truest out. Now this is by the is not by the chauffear. But I think you see a very interesting thing. Tea is the sound that indicates coming together with unity. Trua is sallying forth, journeying forth. And I think the sheamish even adds the reason why trua is the symbol or the sound for journeying is because a trua can be both a laughing sound and a crying sound. Right? Laughing and crying can often sound the same. And in fact you can cry until you laugh. You can laugh until you're crying. And he says journeying is a combination of trepidation and joy because it's something new. You know, we're leaving the old behind. We're entering a new existence. The new existence may be filled with new opportunities, new achievements, but you're also leaving the familiar. And there's a certain sadness even if life was not so great. But you know the hell that I know is better than the hell I don't know. So the trua which represents the ambivalence of laughing and crying is journey. So if we can legitimately transpose the uh message with to the chauffeur. So the tea and the trua sound is and journeying. So what is the message? God is saying if qual israel is to journey into the new year with exhilaration, hope and optimism, we have to come together as a nation. And we come together as a nation. We're then ready to travel. If we haven't come together as a nation, we're not yet ready. You cannot blow the trua with or the which is just a broken sound. You cannot blow the trua without the tea. And that's the important message, right? So these are like four maybe a little bit off thebeaten track meanings of chauffeur blowing rav the process of chuva rav hutner symbolic death by giving your life back to God. uh the spasm a wordless nonverbal prayer coming from the part of you that is pure and untainted and finally the idea of unity as a condition to traveling and encountering the new challenges of life. So uh as I say this is not to replace this is just to kind of augment all of the other associations. So chauffeur is a very very rich association and may hashem bless all of you bless all of bless all over the world with a sha tova msuka a good and a sweet year aim tova >> and uh may we see a true true redemption >> uh in the coming year [Music] You see your tomorrow. [Music] Oh my