ROSH HASHANA IN BIBLE CODE – JUDGMENT OF THE WORLD

Rabbi Glazerson said he discovered in the Codes the mention of Rosh Hashana as the 

Day of Judgment. 

This is amazing because Rosh Hashana is not found in the Torah itself. He explains. . .

 

Rabbi Winston: Ki Seitzei – Divine Providence

  

August 23 and 30, 8:30 pm Israel time:

In Advance Of The Ten Days, 

two sessions on rising to the task between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. 

Register here: 

The Talmud relates that G–D will make a seudah for tzaddikim in the World-to-Come, and when it comes time to bentch after the meal, He will offer the Kos shel Brochah to Avraham. Avraham, however, will decline the amazing honor to lead the bentching because he fathered Yishmael, blemishing him.

The Talmud continues and says that G–D will then to turn to Yitzchak and make the same offer. Yitzchak too will decline for the same reason, having fathered Eisav. Ya’akov will likewise pass up the great honor, but for having married two sisters while both were alive, something the Torah would later forbid. The cup will eventually be passed to Dovid HaMelech who will not only accept the honor, he will enthusiastically point out that he is fitting to do so (Pesachim 119b). 

It’s an interesting piece of gemora that raises some questions and leads to some fascinating answers. But one question is not so obvious that comes up only because of a mitzvah in this week’s parsha: 

If a man has two wives, one beloved and the other despised, and they bear him sons…and the firstborn son is from the despised one, when he bequeaths his property to his sons he cannot give the son of the beloved birthright precedence over the son of the despised, the firstborn son. Rather, he must acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the despised, and give him a double share in all that he possesses, because he is the first of his strength and has the birthright entitlement. (Devarim 21:15-17)

And that is exactly what Ya’akov had and did. He had two wives, one which the Torah says he loved, Rachel, and one which the Torah says he hated, Leah. But it was Leah who gave birth to a son first, Reuven, whom Ya’akov later refers to as “the first of his strength.” And yet, his firstborn right was usurped by Rachel’s son, Yosef. Another reason to defer the right of bentching?

Granted that this prohibition is not as severe as marrying two sisters during their lifetimes, but was giving birth to Yishmael and Eisav a prohibition at all? Why wasn’t this a strike against Ya’akov Avinu as well?

The answer is in the Torah itself, with the help of Rashi:

Reuven, you are my firstborn, my strength and the first of my might. [You should have been] superior in rank and superior in power. [You have] the restlessness of water; [therefore,] you shall not have superiority, for you ascended upon your father's couch; then you profaned [Him Who] ascended upon my bed. (Devarim 49:3-4) 

[You have] the restlessness and the haste with which you hastened to display your anger, similar to water which hastens on its course. Therefore, you shall no longer receive all these superior positions that were fit for you. You ascended upon your father’s couch, and profaned that name that ascended my couch. (Rashi)

Apparently, Reuven himself undid his right to the firstborn, not Ya’akov.

THE TRUTH IS that, even without Reuven’s mistake, the birthright seemed destined to pass from him to Yosef, something his name actually name hints to: 

Leah conceived and bore a son, and she named him Reuven, for she said, “Because G–D has seen my affliction, for now my husband will love me.” (Bereishis 29:32) 

She said,“Look at the difference between my son and the son of my father-in-law, who sold the birthright to Ya’akov. This one (Reuven) did not sell it to Yosef, and he did not contend against him but even sought to take him out of the pit.” (Rashi)

Clearly if Reuven was modeh to the switch before it happened, there can be no complaint against Ya’akov Avinu. And if Leah named him this way, it must be that she too accepted the inevitability of the future situation. Everyone knew that Rachel was the akeres habayis, the “mother of the house,” even Leah.

It’s interesting how this was even an issue for the Avos at all. Ya’akov took the bechor—right of the firstborn—from Eisav by purchasing it for lentils. Yosef seemed to get it by appointment. Everything is a function of Divine Providence, especially birth (Shabbos 156a). If someone is born a bechor, is that not the will of Heaven? Why change it?

Just because someone is born a bechor does not mean that Heaven wants them to remain the bechor. Just as Divine Providence arranges for someone to be born a bechor, it can also arrange for someone to lose the bechor, or take it from them if they are unworthy of keeping it. That’s what happened to all of the bechorim at Mt. Sinai when they didn’t respond to Moshe’s call, “Who is for G–D, come to me!” They lost the right to be kohanim. 

In a more general sense, the entire Jewish nation is called G–D’s bechor. It’s a right. Actually it is more a merit, like being a Mamleches Kohanim—Nation of Priests. It is a potential that every Jew has to live up to, which we do by “being for G–D,” like Moshe called out. As the Chofetz Chaim told a young Rabbi Shimon Scwabb on his way to America back in the 30s, “Next time G–D calls out, ‘Who is for G–D, come to me!’ be sure to answer it.” This advice applies to all of us.

The problem is, it is not so clear cut that it is being said. When Moshe asked the question, everyone could see and hear him, and what he was saying. Today, how do we know we’re even being asked such a question? 

Issues. Over the last 15 years at least, events have forced people to get off the fence and make decisions about moral issues. The way things happen make us think that it is only other people causing them, and that no one really cares what they decide. They are wrong. It is G–D causing the people to cause the events that compel us to make a stand, one way or another, to go one way or another. 

Who is for G–D, come to Me, meaning, who is for morality and on My side?

ANOTHER DIFFERENCE BETWEEN the case in our parsha and Ya’akov Avinu is that the hated woman in the parsha supposedly was a yafas toar, a captive woman who was forced to convert to marry her Jewish captor. It was another ugly result of listening to the yetzer hara. Leah may have been a convert to the way of the Avos, but certainly not forcefully, and not through any choice of Ya’akov’s. 

As the Talmud says, the entire mitzvah of the captive woman is speaking to the soldier who can’t control their yetzer hara. If the Torah shies away from desired conversions, how much more so is it against forced conversions. 

Besides, what kind of marriage can come from such a scenario, and what kind of children will they have? The Torah says, she will be reviled by her husband and they will end up with rebellious children. 

Imagine how she must have felt. She was stolen from her home and then forced to make herself look ugly. That alone was probably enough to make her cry, if mourning the loss of her parents did not. What person wants to be put through such humiliation and base behavior?

Exactly. It’s like what the Talmud says elsewhere about a person who cannot stop themself from sinning. The Talmud advises they go to a town where no one recognizes them, put on black clothing like a mourner, and then do the sin. Tosafos explains that the Torah is not providing a “kosher” means of sinning. It is creating an emotional shakedown that should wake the person up to how low they are sinking, so that they will do teshuvah before they sin, not after it. 

Likewise, the Torah makes the soldier treat his captive this way with the hope that he will catch himself and end the episode early. This way he can avoid profaning the name of G–D, and humiliating himself in this world and the next one. It is mussar that gives him the opportunity to discourage himself from sinning.

And it is mussar to all of us. Before a person does anything questionable from the Torah’s point-of-view, they have to stop and consider the cost. It doesn’t have to actually be something forbidden, like eating treif food. The food can be totally kosher, but the overwhelming desire to eat it might be extreme and out of place. When it comes to spirituality, you can be a little “extreme” sometimes. But when it comes to material fulfillment, just the opposite is true.

LAST WEEK’S PARSHA included a mitzvah to be tamim with G–D. Rashi explains that it means a person should not try to figure out the future before it happens. You can plan for it, but you cannot go predicting it. Learn from the past, do the best you can in the present, and let G–D take care of the future.

 

The root of the word is “tam,” a word that was used to describe Ya’akov Avinu back in Parashas Toldos. Some say it meant he was pure, or innocent, or even naive of the world, but in a good way. But since Ya’akov Avinu is also the representative of the trait of truth, it has to also mean that he was truthful.

He didn’t just not lie. He also walked the walk that he talked. In other words, his actions were consistent with what he knew. If he learned a truth, he quickly integrated it into his worldview and adapted his life to live by it. This is how he, and his father, and grandfather before him, earned the title of being a “chariot for G–D” 

I was told a “joke” last Shabbos that many might relate to. Two study partners sat down to learn, and one told the other, “Last night I dreamed about G–D.”

“Can’t be,” his friend told him. “The gemora says we only dream at night about things we think about during the day. When you got up in the morning, you prayed. Then you came and learned the whole morning, after which you prayed again. Then you learned the entire afternoon, and prayed again at night. This was followed by some more learning. So when did you have time to think about G–D?”

That is the difference between only talking the talk and walking the walk. Anyone can learn and do mitzvos, but it takes a thoughtful and spiritually sensitized individual to connect to G–D while learning and doing mitzvos. That’s the consistency G–D looks for in us, and that is the kind of consistency we are being judged for on Rosh Hashanah. 

Tamar Yonah – What Does Judaism REALLY Say . . .

 . . . About Those Who Die On Rosh HaShanah? – The Tamar Yonah Show [audio]

Tamar covers some of the news stories that happened during the holiday, one of them being the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. U.S. Politicians on the Left are saying that one who dies during Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year, is considered a soul of great rightousnous. Is this true? Tamar speaks with religious end-times blogger, Dov Bar Leib at yearsofawe and asks him what Judaism REALLY says on this matter. You may be surprised.

Also, Tamar reads from an article which plainly sets down the danger of diaspora Jews, and how many of them stay in a state of denial. Read this cutting article here:chananyaweissman …and here is the final part which was not read out due to time constraints:

“The vast majority of American Jews descend either from Holocaust survivors or people who escaped from Europe when they saw the warning signs. (The earliest Jews of America consisted largely of people who escaped the Spanish Inquisition.) They should know from their own grandparents not to be lulled into a false sense of security, to recognize when a previously hospitable society is breaking down, and that it’s always best to leave sooner rather than later. The longer you wait, the more difficult it will be to get out and the more it will cost. Eventually the cost will be everything, and then even that won’t be enough.

You can accuse me of “fearmongering” if it makes you feel better, but remember: this has happened literally every single time in history that the Jews thought they had it made in exile and it would stay that way until Moshiach came to pick them up in a limousine. There are countless reasons to believe that things are going to get very bad for the Jews in America very soon – many of them were cited above – and not a single substantial reason to believe this will all just blow over.

Americans across the country are celebrating wanton death and destruction or cowering in fear of it. When they come for the Jews and their money, the average American will cheer them on, or will be indifferent, or will be powerless to do anything about it.

It is not the attackers who should be accused of mental illness, but those who are still hoping to plan their next Pesach vacation.

I beg of you. Wake up. Get out. Come home. Figure it out when you get here, even if you have to live in poverty and start all over. It’s reached that point.

Far greater people have issued warnings – even prophetic warnings – and were ignored.”

Woe to Their Neshomos!

Over the most important Jewish days in our lives, the secular irreligious were ‘davka’ out in numbers but not in Shuls. Woe to their neshomos!

7,000 lockdown fines issued during Rosh Hashanah

Thousands of Israelis fined during Rosh Hashanah for violating lockdown rules.

Traffic jams and violations citations are the hallmarks so far of Israel’s second lockdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Israelis heading to work on Monday morning battled heavy traffic jams caused by dozens of police checkpoints set up on highways throughout the country.

The lockdown went to effect on Friday afternoon, hours before the start of the two-day Rosh Hashanah holiday. Under the lockdown regulations, Israelis whose places of employment are open can travel to work. All other Israelis are required to stay within 1,000 meters — about two-thirds of a mile — of their homes at all times. 

IMAGINE! TRAVELING TO WORK ON ROSH HASHANA!

Police cited nearly 7,000 lockdown violations over Rosh Hashanah, Haaretz reported, most for violating the rule to remain near home. A restaurant in Tel Aviv was fined for being open and filled with 50 patrons.

Some 40 Israelis died during Rosh Hashanah.

On Monday, Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem and Assuta Medical Center in Ashdod announced that they could not accept more patients with the coronavirus since their wards for such patients are at capacity. At the same time, Health Ministry Director General Chezy Levy ordered all hospitals to suspend elective surgeries due to the surge in cases of the deadly virus.

In an interview Sunday, Israel’s so-called coronavirus czar, Dr. Ronni Gamzu, told Channel 12 that the number of coronavirus cases in Israel is reaching “emergency” levels and called on hospitals to open more coronavirus wards. He did not support tightening further restrictions ....

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/287683

An Interesting Essay on Rav Kook’s Concept of Teshuva

An Introduction to Rav Kook's Concept of Teshuva

Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook (1865-1935), Israel's first Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi, was the farseeing Gadol Hador who gave the idea of establishing a Jewish state for the Jewish nation its theological underpinning and its practical interpretation in terms of what he termed Torah of Eretz Yisrael. (The following is an abridged version of a zoom lecture presented on an OU webinar.) arutzsheva

Rav Kook's concept of teshuva, as expounded in his work Orot Hateshuva, is an integral part of his unique way of looking at the collective entity of the Jewish people and the world

It involves many levels of thought and is totally different from our usual use of the word. One article can never do it justice, and can barely be considered an introduction, but we will try to touch upon a basic principle which is found throughout Rav Kook's writings and is particularly apparent in his writings on teshuva: The world's spiritual evolutionary process.

In a letter known as the Igeret Teshuva (letter 268) to Rav Yaakov Moshe Charlap, rabbi of Jerusalem's Shaarei Chesed neighborhood, Rav Kook wrote:

"If someone comes to present new ideas on teshuva today and does not recognize that we are in the era of haketz hameguleh, the era when the end of times is beginning to be revealed, and does not see the light of salvation rising, he cannot, he will not, be able to attain the truth of Torah."

In other words, in order to present new ideas about teshuva, it is essential to recognize and understand current reality – from the time of the return to Zion onward - in its proper framework.

These words at first seem impossible to understand. First of all, if we look at the various problems of his - and our - period, it does not seem that they have a connection with the 'rising light of salvation' – and second, the Rambam wrote that the mitzvot will not be changed, so how could Rav Kook imply that teshuva has changed in the generation of national renewal, of national redemption?

However, Rav Kook meant something else entirely.

• Rav Kook sees redemption and salvation themselves as part of the inyan of teshuva, the goal of teshuva. We ordinarily use the word teshuva to denote the response to a specific sin, but for Rav Kook that concept is to be found in the word 'vidduy'- confession - as defined in the Rambam (who does not employ the word teshuva as one of the 613 mitzvot, but writes vidduy as the mitzva)

• Teshuva, in Rav Kook's ethos is the world's attempt to return, literally, to Hashem. Creation created a distance between that which was created and its Creator. It is that distance that gave rise to the innate desire of all of Creation to return to its original state, to being part of Hashem, making teshuva an integral part of creation.

This idea is alluded to in many sources. For example, the Ramchal in Daat Tevunot explains that the difference between the two Hebrew verbs used for creation, yetsira and bria, is that yetsira is ex nihilo, yesh mi-ayin, while bria means the absence of what already exists. For the creation of light recalled in our morning prayers, for example, we use a verb derived from the root bria, and for darkness, which is the absence of light, we say a word derived from the root yetsira (yotser or u-vorai choshech.)

In that case, we have to ask why the whole of creation is called bria in Hebrew, "Breishit bara Elokim." It should say "Breishit yatsar Elokim because Creation is ex nihilo, is it not?

The answer is that in relation to Hashem, all of Creation is bria, Creation is the absence of Hashem, who filled all space but "limited" His infinity to allow for the universe to exist.

So then, what is teshuva?

From the instant Hashem created the world, a phenomenon that I call the "elastic effect" (at least that is how I explain it to my students in yeshiva!) came into being. The more you stretch a piece of elastic or pull at a rubber band, the more you feel it straining to go back to where it came from, to its original state. One end of the elastic is moving farther away, but at the same time it is pulling back.

According to Rav Kook, that pull to go back is the real inyan, idea, of teshuva.Teshuva is an innate characteristic of creation itself, imprinted in creation by definition, filling all of creation with the continuous instinctive desire to pull back to the Source, to return to its original state.

Chazal revealed this definition of teshuva to us in Tana Devei Eliahu when they state that teshuva kadma laolam, teshuva existed before the universe. If it were connected to specific sins, that would make no sense, but teshuva actually did precede sin. It is not connected to sin. it is primordial

The Ramban does not include teshuva in his list of the mitzvoth, and in the introduction to Sefer Hamitzvot, explains that general mitzvot do not appear on his list.

For example Kedoshim tiheyu – 'you shall be holy' is not listed. because it is in fact a general mitzva and encompasses the whole Torah – and after learning Rav Kook's concept of teshuva, we can say that since teshuva encompasses all of creation, it, too, cannot be on the list.

In conclusion, mitzvot have not changed,chas vechalila, going back to our first question, It is just that what most people call teshuva is vidduy, a specific mitzva, in Rav Kook's thought, while teshuva is a totally different concept.

******************************************

If we look carefully at the world with Rav Kook's concept of teshuva in mind, we find that from the minute of its creation, the world is undergoing a kind of spiritual evolutionary process, moving little by little towards Redemption, geula, which will be the state of being subsumed, encompassed in Hashem.

Let us try to understand that. First of all, it is not a superficial statement. Spiritual evolution does not mean looking around and expecting everything to be perfect, expecting no setbacks, it is not an all or nothing issue.

In fact, the return can take place in two ways:

If we discover the path of return to Hashem and point ourselves in that direction, then it will be a faster process and the world will reach its goal, as Hashem intended. That path is called "achishena" ( Isaiah 60) – "I will expedite it," referring to Redemption.

But if we are not aware of the process of the world's developing, of innate teshuva to Hashem, we will not discover the path nor point ourselves in the right direction, and then the world's teshuva will come by way of great suffering. Then the Redemption will occur at its preordained time, "be'ita" (Isaiah 60) and not earlier, not “achishena."

A generation that discovers Hashem's Will-- the Divine Will that beats in its heart and soul, will be the generation where all the mitzvot are fulfilled the correct way. This, however, is a work in progress with ups and downs.

What about our times? Let us try to understand Rav Kook's thoughts on that question.

In the generations of Redemption, the period in which we all can see the miracles of our return to Eretz Yisrael, as prophesied -for example, the country becoming fruitful again, the ingathering of the exiles, (Ezekiel 36) - there is a unique and special process of return to Hashem.

On the one hand, things look terrible on the surface. Most of the Jewish people have abandoned Torah and mitzvot. It's difficult to see the process of the inner return to Hashem in the day-to-day world.

But on the other hand, if we look beneath the surface, if we compare the distant past to the last two centuries, we see that there is spiritual evolution, an attempt to find the right path.

Those searching have not yet found the path, but entire generations are really in a state of quest, a state of upheaval, beginning with the rise of Zionism, which was an emotional, ideological desire to return to the land of Eretz Yisrael.

Secular chalutzim were willing to die for the holy land, for Eretz Yisrael. What moved them? They did not connect to religious observance. Their love for the land came from the Tanach, because the Jewish people had an emotional connection to the Tanach.

Rav Kook wrote a great work called Maamar Hador, which translates as The Essay of the Present Generation, written for this idealistic self sacrificing youth, those early Zionists. It opens our eyes and reveals how he saw that those of his generation who wanted to return to Zion were actually really searching for Hashem's way without knowing how to put it in words, without knowing the direction to take

That is why he travelled to the kibbutzim, danced with them, encouraged them, while also talking to them about basic mitzvot like Shabbat (Journey of the Rabbis, 1913).

Over the years,he predicted, those emotions would gradually die down, melt away– and we see it today. In the early days of the state, even Ben Gurion agreed that Shabbat had to be different in a Jewish State, that marriage, divorce, conversion must preserve the Jews as a people, everyone felt strongly that Jerusalem was indivisible, the Temple Mount should be in our hands – but as time passed, those emotions, not backed by a real connection to Torah and the reasons for mitzvot, are in dispute.

But, again, this is also part of the process of Redemption, in Rav Kook's ethos. It is not the first possibility, that of knowing the way to Hashem's Will, of achishena. Instead, It is the geula that comes from a gradual spiritual evolution, beita, and when that emotional connection disintegrates, it becomes possible to find the real connection to Torah. That is a challenge we must meet, and in Israel there is a broad and real quest for deep answers, for understanding the meaning of our being here.

Another insight in Rav Kook's words in Maamar Hador, is that if we look carefully we see that the nonbelievers in this generation, as opposed to others in history, don’t abandon the Torah because of weakness, laziness, or the feeling that they are not strong enough to observe the Torah. It is also not because they feel the Torah wants too much of them – but exactly the opposite.

Today's non observant generation sees itself as better than the Torah, the Torah is "unenlightened" or not liberal or progressive enough. These young people think they are truly ethical and that only they worry about justice. Today they champion women's rights, fight for those with other lifestyles, the weak, the persecuted minorities, etc. They aspire to reach the moral high ground and feel they are fighting for justice, for absolute equality.

In that case, extrapolating from what Rav Kook says about his generation, they are on the way but have lost their compass, are misdirected, and we have to find the way to bring them back by showing that when what they want is truly just and right – it is to be found in the Torah on a level – a divine level -- which is greater than they can imagine or hope for, which they cannot always see at first or understand in a human's short life span,. and that sometimes the benefits are societal, national, long term.

This is a tremendous challenge for us.

Rav Kook stated that in our times, the connection to mitzvot and the moral and ethical understanding of mitzvot can come only from the study of Emunah, the innermost part of the Torah, and from analyzing the reasons for each mitzva.

From an in-depth observation of reality, Rav Kook reveals that the teshuva of a generation touches three planes:

-The first is the search for values of truth, but it can be sidetracked and get off course.

- The second is a desire to return to nationhood, the desire to establish a state in the Land of Israel as a people, as we have witnessed in our time

-The third is a return to nature, to revealing Hashem there, in the tangible, the physical, the earth, a truly high level, difficult to attain, something that can only happen in Eretz Yisrael: Here we are both Mamlechet Kohanim and Goy Kadosh

How does the threefold teshuva of the nation lead to geula? The Rambam brings the halakha that the Jewish people are not redeemed without teshuva

אין ישראל נגאלין אלא בתשובה

But what does that signify? That galut will be forever and continue and if G-d forbid, we don't each do teshuva there will be no geula?

In Hilchot Mlachim Chapter 11, halakha daled, he says that "The Mashiach is the one who will force all of Israel to go in the paths of Torah."

In other words, Mashiach doesn't only come because every individual did teshuva, but can come as a response to the nation's return – and the Meshech Chochma explains the phrase "veshavta ad Hashem" to be a return to the klal, to being not just a people, but a nation.

As we enter the new year, can see the three things Rav Kook deemed necessary unfold before us: We are a nation, We are in our land, We are connected to it, Our young people – no matter how misdirected - are striving to improve the world.

We are on the path of teshuva as a klal, striving, even if unconsciously, to return to the Source. To being part of Hashem's manifestation in the world, to bring Redemption closer.

Shana Tova.

Rabbi Avraham Yisrael Sylvetsky teaches at Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem and heads the Kollel Iyun at the yeshiva. He is the author of the book Nachon Yihye Har Beit Hashem, a halakhic study of the issue of ascending the Temple Mount today. 

Reb Neuberger — Ksiva v'chassima tova!

 TEARS

By Roy S. Neuberger

 

Dear Friends,

 

This year the first day of Rosh Hashana is on Shabbos; we do not blow the shofar. 

 

Our Rabbis issue a statement about this. “And Rabbi Yitzchak said: Any year in which they do not sound a tekiah [blow the shofar on Rosh Hashanah] they will sound a teruah [out of sorrow] at its end.” (Rosh Hashanah 16b)

 

The shofar is our advocate. When the advocate is absent, we are, G-d forbid, vulnerable. After the past twelve months, we already feel vulnerable. So this is frightening.

 

Granted, we cannot help it. Halacha prohibits us from blowing the shofar when Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbos, so we are simply following halacha. But that is scant consolation. The fact is that, for whatever reason, we lack our advocate.

 

My wife and I were recently in a government office on a relatively routine matter, but the official was not being reasonable nor cooperative. I began to get upset, as a result of which I was not able to state our case fluently. Fortunately, however, we had brought our attorney along, and he took over. He calmly made several suggestions which were accepted by the official. We needed an advocate!

 

“Rabbi Abahu said: Why do we blow with a shofar of a ram? The Holy One, Blessed is He, said: Blow before Me using a shofar of a ram so that I will remember for your sake the binding of Yitzchak, the son of Abraham, and I will consider it for you as if you had bound yourselves before Me.” (ibid 16a)

 

I would like to present to you the words of Aruch La Ner, which my heilige chavrusa, Rabbi Shaul Geller, kindly brought to my attention. I believe these words will give us perspective, and strengthen us as we enter the Days of Judgment.

 

It seems that the years on which the first day of Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbos are usually either very good or very bad. Why is this so? The Aruch La Ner gives a moshul to explain.

 

A king’s servant committed a misdeed and was sentenced to death. This man had a loyal wife who decided that she would be an advocate for him, so she went before the king to plead on her husband’s behalf. She had something in her favor; she was one of the king’s highly-regarded secretaries. Her appeal was successful, and her husband was saved from death.

 

Shortly afterwards, another servant incurred the king’s wrath and was also sentenced to death. Having seen the recent success of the wife of the first official, this man’s wife also went before the king to plead for her husband. She also, in fact, was one of the king’s valued secretaries, but there was a difference. When she appeared before the king, he noticed bruise marks on her face. Upon questioning, he learned that her husband had mistreated her. This husband was not saved from death.

 

What do we learn from this moshul?

 

We do not blow the shofar on Shabbos because of the high honor in which we holdShabbos and the strict laws which govern our behavior on that holy day. Shabbos is the “bride” of Am Yisroel, as we say every week in Lecha Dodi and as our Sages explain in the Midrash. (Beraishis Rabbah 11:8)

 

When Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbos, Shabbos itself becomes our advocate before the King! If we honor Shabbos, the King will free us and seal us in His book for life! But if we mistreat Shabbos – G-d forbid! -- then the King is not going to free us! 

 

If we honor Shabbos and treat her as our beloved bride, this will be a year of blessing!

 

The Gemora in Rosh Hashanah says that the shofar confuses the Satan. I always wondered what that meant. Doesn’t the Satan know exactly what goes on Rosh Hashanah? Why should the shofar confuse him? 

 

My humble suggestion, my friends, is as follows. The Satan is smart and tricky, way ahead of us. But there is one thing the Satan cannot deal with, and that is our sincere emotion, the tears and outpouring of passionate pleading that comes from the heart of aYid. There is nothing the Satan can do to stand in the way of a torrent of tears that emanate from deep in our heart.

 

The shofar sounds like our remorseful moaning and causes us to cry out to Hashem, as in Biblical Egypt, when “the Children of Israel groaned because of the work and they cried out. Their outcry … went up to G-d. G-d heard their moaning and G-d remembered His covenant.…” (Shemos 2:23ff)

 

Sometimes it is difficult to pray. Our very distance from Hashem makes it difficult to re-establish the connection. But there is a way.

 

“Even though the gates of prayer have been locked, the gate of tears has not been locked, for it is stated [in Psalm 39:13], ‘Hear my prayer Hashem! Give ear to my outcry! To my tears be not silent.’” (Berachos 32b)

 

Rabbi Eliahu Dessler says that prayer which emanates from deep within the heart, to the point that the supplicant is moved to tears, can open the gate. (Michtav MeEliahu IV, page 262, quoted in the Artscroll commentary to the above Gemara)

 

Tears confuse the Satan because Hashem knows who is sincere about coming back to Him in teshuva. He goes right past the Satan! “Hakadosh Boruch Hu liba boie … Hashem wants the heart.” (Rashi on Sanhedrin 106b)

 

That is what it is all about! Tears penetrate the Heavenly Gates.

 

L’Shana Tova … A Gut Gebensht Yor to Klal Yisroel!

 

May we greet Moshiach ben Dovid this year! 

 

Roy Neuberger’s latest book, 

HOLD ON: Surviving the Days Before Moshiach

Available at Jewish bookstores and online at 

https://mosaicapress.com/product/hold-on and Amazon.com.

“Hold On” is soon to be released in Hebrew 

as “Tachzik Chazak” (Feldheim Publishers)

Roy and his wife speak publicly and via Zoom 

Website: www.2020vision.co.il.

Email: newsletter@2020vision.co.il

 

© Copyright 2020 by Roy S. Neuberger

 

Heated ‘Discussions’ Over Rosh HaShana Restrictions

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday will hold a special meeting to discuss the plan for operating synagogues during the coronavirus crisis. 

[This comes after Gamzu threatened to quit unless .... The Haredi Parties are fighting for the Mispallelim. Shuls range in size from gigantic to very small. These details must be driving the Israelis crazy. What could be the spiritual meaning to all this? All CV restrictions are bringing the non-religious into the inner workings of the religious world. Are they going to be judged for their attitudes and cooperation? This is bringing the non-religious into the halachos that we live by that they also are responsible for. Will this awaken anything in their neshomos?]

The meeting comes at at the request of the Knesset's haredi parties, and will also include discussion on travel to Uman, Ukraine, for Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year). 

 Housing Minister Yakov Litzman (UTJ), Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas), and coronavirus czar Professor Ronni Gamzu will participate in the meeting. 

Gamzu's plan for opening synagogues was put together by former IDF Central Command Commander Roni Numa. Under it, the number of worshipers allowed in a synagogue is dependent on the number of entrances the synagogue has, the number of cells (capsules), and the city's rating according to the "traffic light plan." It also limits the number of worshipers to one person per four square meters (43 square feet), up to a maximum of 1,000 people. 

According to News 12, Gamzu has agreed that each of a synagogue's exit can serve up to two capsules, but the haredi ministers are insisting on allowing three capsules per exit. 

The sides also disagree on what constitutes a "red" city under the traffic light plan. Gamzu wants one of the parameters to be the percentage of new cases from the total number of *new cases, so that people will not be afraid to get tested. 

However, the ministers want the parameter to be the percentage of new cases out of the city's entire population. Under the plan, prayers will be permitted during the holiday season under the open sky, regardless of a city's rating. 

These prayer gatherings will be limited to 250 people, who will be in groups of 20. Prayers will be held sitting down, with marked seats. 

Holding prayer sessions with over 250 people will require the approval of the local authority and the district health office. 

In the Western Wall plaza, prayer capsules in areas which allow for sitting down will contain 50 people each, and there will be an empty chair separating members of different households. 

Where there is standing room only, prayer will be limited to groups of up to 30, with a two-meter distance between worshipers.

______________________

*the ‘testing methodology’ should be extremely scrutinized for its authenticity and accuracy by an “independent” medical laboratory not connected to any governmental scrutiny or international body.

Rabbi Winston and The Highest of Holidays

Rabbi Pinchas Winston Shlit”a is offering a special series for The High Holidays: Rosh HaShana

Only one more week until the first session of “Highest of Holidays,” on Tuesday, September 1, at 8:30 Israel time / 1:30 pm EST

Session 1: The King Has Arrived

Tuesday, September 1, 2020, 8:30 Israel time

A major emphasis on Rosh Hashanah is on God as King. But He is our King all year round. What changes on Rosh Hashanah, a day when God is really our Judge, that makes Malchus such a central issue.

Session 2: The Subject is Arriving

Tuesday, September 8, 2020, 8:30 Israel time

The King will be there on Rosh Hashanah regardless of what we do or acknowledge. The question each year is, will we be there too? Physically, it’s unavoidable. But intellectually and especially emotionally, that’s a variable only we can control each year.

Session 3: Finding Chayn

Tuesday, September 15, 2020, 8:30 Israel time

In one short verse we learn what it takes to survive God’s strict justice. And yet, people read the verse as if it is the least important verse of all. Isn’t it worth while learning what God values most in this world?

Session 4: Final Preparations

Tuesday, September 22, 2020, 8:30 Israel time

How to apply this knowledge as we follow the Machzor, especially this year when many may find themselves dovening at home alone, or as part of a service unlike they have experienced so far to date.

The webinar is $36.00 for all four ZOOM sessions, which includes the notes from each session, and the video link for each class. The PDF version of “Changes That Last Forever” is also included. Register by using this link to PayPal. 

L’Shannah Tovah, and hope to see you there,

Pinchas Winston