20 September 2026
HaRav Moshe Sternbuch Shlit"A .......Haazinu
mishpetei hashem emess
We are judged for thoughts, speech and actions of every moment, because Hashem does not forget anything. The A-mighty’s judgments are just. Sometimes we receive rewards or punishments within a short period, and sometimes after a long time. Sometimes we do not comprehend Hashem’s conduct at all, so that we may have free choice to believe in Him and His just ways, despite the lack of our understanding.
Here in Eretz Yisroel they are persecuting lomdei Torah. Their entire goal is for us to slacken our devotion to Hashem and His Torah. However, without Torah, there are no Jews, and without Jews there is no world, and without the world there is nothing. We are required to display mesirus nefesh for the honor of Heaven. And if Hashem expects this from us, that means that we are capable of such self-dedication.
Lack of gratitude
“O foolish people [“novol”] and unwise” (32:6). Rashi says that “foolish” refers to someone lacking gratitude. As the Ramban points out, this character trait makes someone so corrupt that he is no longer considered to be a person, but only a neveilo (carcass). Therefore, such a person is necessarily also “unwise”, since it is an iron rule that the Torah only resides in the heart of someone who has amended his faulty character traits, as Rabeinu Yonah says, “First a person has to amend his character traits. That way will the Torah will dwell within him, for it never dwells in a body which does not possess good character traits”.
pupil of His eye
“He protected them as the pupil of His eye” (32:10). Rashi: This refers to the black part of the eye, from which the light is reflected outward
The greater the darkness, and the black surrounding it, the more prominent the light that illuminates it. Hence, nowadays when darkness is to be found everywhere, with the very atmosphere permeated with trials unknown to previous generations, how great must be the reward of those keeping mitzvos who illuminate their actions in the midst of the darkness, and with a small quantity of light much darkness can be eradicated.
This applies, in particular, to those who find themselves amongst people who are devoid of any spark of faith. With each mitzvah and zikuy horabim we accumulate more merits than our forefathers in bygone generations, since our actions are more conspicuous amongst the prevalent darkness, and Hashem guards our good deeds like the Pupil of His Eye.
new heresies
“Deities they did not know, new things that only recently came, which your forefathers did not fear” (32:17).
The early generations of idol worshippers believed in a Creator, but the last generations prior to the coming of Moshiach are full of philosophies containing new atheistic heresies without any religion or faith at all. Their followers worship their own desires and the evil inclination, and attribute all their successes to their own handiwork. Unfortunately, many of our coreligionists participated in these movements and philosophies, which our forefathers did not know, and they constitute a difficult test for the Jews, which has been decreed upon the last generations prior to the coming of Moshiach.
hester ponim
“And He said, "I will hide My face from them. I will see what their end will be” (32:20).
Contrary to popular belief, hester ponim does not mean that Hashem removes His Providence abandoning us to the mercies of others. G-d forbid to entertain such an idea, since Hashem promised that He will never remove His kindness from us. When He is in pain, we are in pain. However, based on our deeds and situation, the ways of Providence may change so that instead of a revealed Divine providence Hashem puts in place a concealed Providence in which His love for us is less obvious.
Rav Shmuel Bornstein of Sochotchov compares Hashem’s conduct with the Jews to a father teaching his son to walk on his own. The father hides from the son in order to get him to run after him and take steps on his own, without any assistance. He watches his son’s steps from a distance, and as soon as he senses that his son is going to fall, he immediately runs to him to support him. Similarly, Hashem says that He will hide His face from us, so that we will have to look after ourselves without Divine assistance, so to speak, but Hashem will “see what their end will be”: He watches us in order to straighten our ways and guide our actions.
“National Judaism”
“They have moved me to jealousy with a no-god; they have provoked Me to anger with their vanities; and I will move them to jealousy with a no-people” (32:21).
This possuk may be taken as an allusion to current times in which those who uproot the Torah have invented a “Judaism” without a G-d, stripped of religion, with only the symbols of a nation, a state and language, their goal being to turn the Jewish nation into a nation like any other. In doing so, they have provoked Hashem’s anger with their vanities. Hashem will be moved to jealousy for His sake in order to prove that “national Judaism” without a G-d is a recipe for a “no-people”, since the nation cannot continue to exist just by possessing national symbols without the observance of Torah and cleaving to Hashem.
Olom Habo
“I kill and I make alive” (32:39).
The Ibn Ezra writes that many people interpreted this possuk as a biblical source for the eternal soul and the afterlife. He notes that Rav Hai Gaon suggested that the Torah does not explicitly talk about Olom Habo because these matters were handed down by oral tradition. The Ibn Ezra himself suggests that since the Torah was given to the entire nation and meant to be universally understood it does not talk about such a topic, which is very profound and understood only by “one in a thousand” people. Our reward in Olom Habo depends on the state of the neshomo, the quality of which is the result of “working on our hearts”. This avodas halev is achieved by contemplating the handiwork of Hashem, which is the ladder one has to climb in order to acquire the fundamental quality of knowing Hashem.
A person’s avodas halev consists in performing mitzvos with joy and enthusiasm, thereby molding and refining his neshomo and making it an appropriate vessel for receiving the spiritual pleasure of closeness to the Creator in the afterlife. Just like the form of the face differs from person to person, so does the form of the neshomo, and the person himself shapes it. It takes on a new form on a daily basis, based on the person’s avodo. Each person, based on his level of avodas halev, and the extent to which he has contemplated the ways of Hashem, is able to cleave to the Creator, which is the preparation for the afterlife.
This difference between people’s neshomos cannot be understood easily intellectually using terminology stemming from Olom Hazeh, and therefore the whole topic of Olom Habo was not set out explicitly in the Torah, because the Torah was handed down to people with physical bodies who are meant to observe it with mitzvos pertaining to physical matters such as eating and speaking. Hence, Olom Habo is only hinted at in the Torah sheba’al pe.
The Lomdus of Rebbi Akiva Eiger & Ksav Sofer…..and the Shela Hakadosh & Chasam Sofer
if Women Have a Mitzvah to Eat on Erev Yom Kippur
The Shela Hakadosh & Chasam Sofer Astounding Approach to the Mitzvah of Eating on Erev Yom Kippur
Rav Miller zt”l – The Best Day of The Year .....Yom Kippur
LIVING RAV AVIGDOR The Best Day of the Year RAV AVIGDOR MILLER · LECTURE 933 From Chapter One of Yom Kippur Lessons | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lecture 933 in 42 quotes — the Rav’s exact words, in the order he said them, taken from different points in the lecture. Each one stands on its own, so there is no need to read them all at once. Take them slowly — he is building one argument across the ninety minutes, and by the last of them it is made: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Yom Kippur was one of the two most joyous days in the year. It was a happy day, a day when the mind was at its best. And when the mind is at its best, that’s the happiest day. Hakadosh Baruch Hu made this world in such a manner that people should not see Him. And He put up barriers, walls, between us and Him in this world. And our purpose in our lives is to break through these barriers, one after the other. That’s our purpose in life, to break through all the barriers. During the year, one of the ways of breaking through the barrier is keep your mouth closed. Working for a living helps you smash the mechitzos. Whenever you have any difficulty in life, you should know that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is helping you out. It breaks down the mechitzos because when everything is going smoothly, you forget about Hashem. Of course, if somebody prefers a more comfortable way of coming close to Hashem, we say, כָּל הָעוֹסֵק בַּתּוֹרָה, יִסּוּרִין בְּדֵילִין הֵימֶנּוּ — “If you engage in Torah,” which causes your mind to be united to Hashem, and you’re thinking of Hashem in Torah, then “yissurim, suffering, goes away from you” (Berachos 5a). You don’t need suffering. That’s an easier way. So you have your choice. Eating in luxury, unless you’re capable of appreciating it, constitutes a barrier between you and Hashem. We approach the subject of Yom Kippur. In the Torah it states, קְדֹשִׁים תִּהְיוּ — “You should be holy” (Vayikra 19:2). קְדֹשִׁים תִּהְיוּ is a commandment in itself. How do you do it? So our chachamim tell us, פְּרוּשִׁים תִּהְיוּ — you have to be abstainers (Sifri, Kedoshim, parashah 1). You have to abstain. You want to become a kadosh? You have to learn how to say no to yourself. He writes (Iggeres HaGra) that the best prishus is when you don’t talk. מָה אֻמָּנוּתוֹ שֶׁל אָדָם בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה — “What’s a man’s profession in this world?” His profession is, יָשִׂים עַצְמוֹ כְּאִלֵּם — “He should make himself as a mute” (Chullin 89a) He has to make himself as though he cannot talk. To keep quiet. Among the studies of [different forms of] prishus, we have to know that one of the most important is to keep away from goyim. Yom Kippur is a wonderful opportunity, when we sit all day only among Jews. What a berachah that is. The mechitzos are down today. You feel a closeness to klal Yisrael. And Yom Kippur becomes for you the day of the greatest success. We’re coming to the theme of today, to understand that this day is the happiest day of the year. Of course, for some people, it isn’t. You want to get home, you’re looking at the clock, counting how many hours until Ne’ilah, and thinking what will be for supper tonight — it’s human nature; but you have to start training yourself now so that when you get a little older you might even start to enjoy Yom Kippur. Start now, start persuading yourself that Yom Kippur is a happy day. The Mesilas Yesharim tells us there are three causes why men forget their purpose in life. And one is haschok v’halatzon, all the joking around, making fun, amusement, all kinds of things, entertainment. The second is chevra raah, wrong company, which most people are. Most people are wrong company. And the third reason he said is the most prevalent one, hatipul v’hatirda, being too busy. On Yom Tov, on Sukkos, you can cook, but not on Yom Kippur, because Yom Kippur is the day of prishus, it’s a day of abstinence, not to have any business with anything. Your mind should be available for the greatest purpose in life, and that is to think about Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The commandment of קְדֹשִׁים תִּהְיוּ is completely fulfilled by us on this one day in the year. Our forefathers practiced it, and therefore, it was one of the two most joyous days in the year. Another very great achievement on Yom Kippur is the subject of bitachon, trust in Hashem. On Yom Kippur, what are you doing? You’re declaring all day long who is going to be the author of your happiness, only Hashem. The purpose is that you should hear what you’re saying; that everything comes only from Hashem. When Yom Kippur is over, you’re not the same man. You have changed fundamentally. You have learned the very great lesson of bitachon. There are smaller benefits. You ever think what a benefit it is to talk lashon hakodesh all day long? Every letter of the alef-beis is made for the purpose of changing our souls, the neshamos of those who talk that language. Saying the words alone, even if you’re an am ha’aretz and don’t know the meaning of the words, just saying them — the words transforms your neshamah. We come to one of the most obvious achievements of Yom Kippur: כִּי בַיּוֹם הַזֶּה יְכַפֵּר עֲלֵיכֶם — “On this day Hashem will atone for you” (Vayikra 16:30). When people hear that, they feel it means Hashem will forgive us for the wrong things we did and give us a good year. That’s not the purpose of lichaper. Lichaper means Hashem wipes you clean. We come to the most fundamental of all the things that happen on Yom Kippur. Who are you? You are the neshamah. That’s all you are, and that’s forever and ever and ever, until techiyas hameisim when you will be clothed again. Sin is a stain on the neshamah. The purpose of Gehinnom is to remove the stains. Yom Kippur is an opportunity to get rid of your stains in this life. Hashem says, “Offer your face to Me. Do teshuvah a little bit and cooperate. Don’t miss this opportunity. It’s a glorious day, Yom Kippur. And that’s why it’s a day of happiness. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
WAYS TO HAVE IT
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Reading, listening, hearing our Messages
We are receiving simultaneous messages,
celebration of our return and settling Eretz Yisrael
(not all but soon with the courageous of Holy Jewish Settlers
claiming and farming our Holy Land…….
After thousands of years and golus happenings
vs
dire warnings of
impending upheavals
and earth shattering events
in the greater world nations
and this just must be the birthpangs
our Holy Prophets
told us would be
our matzav
in these end of days
Embedded With Hilltop Youth in Qusra | What Really Happened During the "Siege"
There’s a race to settle the second-highest mountaintop in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). It sits in no-man’s-land — Area B. Eight months ago, a group of bold Israeli youths took it upon themselves to settle a hilltop farm outpost there, after months of attacks from the nearby Arab town of Qusra. Just when they thought they’d won the battle, the media arrived and created one of the biggest lies of the year: that a besieged Palestinian family home was under attack. @channel18israel founder Sam Schubert (@samschub) was given access to the other side of the mountaintop in the middle of the media frenzy.
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