Daily Bitachon

Welcome to our daily bitachon . We're going to be talking about Chanukah for the next week. The Ben Ish Chai tells us the first night of Chanukah , hopefully you'll be listening to this on the first day of Chanukah which still has that force, we make three b'rachot : l'hadlik to light the candle, she'asa nisim God made miracles, and shehecheyanu because it's a mitzvah that comes from time to time. He says there's a siman for this: עשה לך שרף ושים אותו על נס וראה אותו וחי. It's talking about the story where the Jewish people were in the desert and God sent the snakes against them, and Hashem told Moshe to make a copper snake, put it on a pole, and whoever looks at it will live. Aseh l'cha saraf , make for yourself a fiery serpent, that's fire is l'hadlik to light the candles. Place it on a pole, a nes , which is a pole because it's high up like a miracle is announced from afar, that's she'asa nisim . And finally, whoever looks at it will live, that's shehecheyanu . The obvious question is what exactly is the connection between this copper snake and the miracle of Chanukah . First we go to the sefer Bnei Yissaschar on the topic of Kislev in his second essay, letter 11, where he tells us about the dream that Daniel had, and in that dream it goes through different kingdoms, and it uses copper as a hint to the Greeks. And we see a specific connection at the end of parashat Terumah , the last word is nechoshet , which as we said hints to Yavan . And the next word is parashat Tetzaveh where it says ויקחו אליך שמן זית, take for yourself olive oil, which is the miracle of Chanukah . And one of the Rishonim , the Rokeach , gives a hint from here that the Greeks will attack the menorah . And nechoshet , copper, is rashei teivot נר חנוכה שם תדליקו, Chanukah candle there you should light it. So this copper snake is the force of the Greeks. The Greeks were the ones that said כתבו לכם על קרן השור, write for yourselves on the horn of the cow, אין לכם חלק באלקי ישראל, you don't have a portion in the God of Israel, which means the Jewish people aren't special, they don't stand out, there's no God of Israel, there's no special divine supervision on Jewish people. That was one of the Greek messages. You have your wisdom, we have our philosophy, you're no better than we are. Yaft Elokim l'Yefet , we have the beauty, Yefet is the Greeks, and we can take you head to head. Our job is to look above the snake. As the Mishnah in Masechet Rosh Hashanah tells us on this pasuk , aseh l'cha saraf , make a serpent, v'sim oto al nes , and whoever is bitten will look at it and live. Asks the Mishnah : וכי נחש ממית או נחש מחיה? Do snakes kill or snakes give life? Rather to tell you that as long as the Jewish people look above, they look above the snake and they subjugate their hearts their father in heaven, they would be healed and if not they would be they would shrivel away. Aviham shebashamayim , it's our father in heaven. We look at the snake, he looks fierce, he looks scary, and we pick our heads up above the snake and see that God's in charge and He's taking care of us. The sefer Nefesh HaChaim in his third gate, twelfth chapter, explains why they had to look at the snake. Just forget about the snake. Why look at the snake? Look up to heavens. Doesn't say that, says look at the snake. And he says look at the snake, look how powerful the snake is, and with all the power of the snake, annul it in your heart and don't pay attention to the force of the snake, and now subjugate your heart to heaven, and that will fix the problem. And this he uses the term is the concept of אין עוד מלבדו, that's what he's talking about. He used the term המתקת כוחות הדינים בשורשם. You could fix the negative forces from their source. What does that mean? When you look at the negative force and you see the source is ultimately coming from God, it looks scary, but all it is is a manifestation of God's will and He's doing it because He wants to bring us back closer to Him and He wants us to eventually come closer to Him. And that's why it's happening. So when you see all the evil and realize that all of it is really rooted in God, and he's sending it, he's the cause of it, then it disappears and it won't hurt you. The Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh on this pasuk tells us why didn't God make it that the snakes disappeared? Doesn't say that. He allowed them to continue biting and they had to look up and be healed. He said, because Hashem wants us to connect to him. And that's why he doesn't just get rid of the problem, he gives us the problem and he is the solution. And that's where we stay constantly connected to him. And that's this message of Chanukah . Chanukah is all about realizing HaKadosh Baruch Hu is taking care of us in a hidden way. The miracle of the light is really not the main miracle. The miracle of the milchama is the main miracle. We won the war. But that war was done in a natural way. So therefore, Hashem needed us to, needed to show us a miracle that would reveal what was really going on. And that's our chizuk of Chanukah on the first day. As we light, make three brachot to remind us of aseh lecha saraf , make for yourself a fiery serpent. That's the first bracha , lehadlik . Put it on a nes , she'asa nisim . Whoever will be bitten will look at it and will live, that's our shehecheyanu , reminding us of that little incident, and that's all the negative force of nechoshet of Yavan , of the Greeks, that wanted us to think that we're disconnected from God and remind ourselves and reconnect through the problem.

Welcome to our daily bitachon . We are now in the topic of Shaar Habechina , recognizing God in creation. One of the things that the Chovot Halevavot asked us to do was to recognize how things in creation are put together and broken apart. We spoke about how God uses fundamental building blocks to create things. And as we said, there's a mixture of physicality and spirituality. You put into your body and those things that were put together are broken down into separate components, and they are sent into the proper places. So it's almost like you build a tower of Lego and then you take it apart and you put everything back in the correct box. Everything is built together from these same building blocks, whether it's an apple or an orange or a bottle of Coke. It goes into your body, gets broken down, and gets processed and put in the right place. So that's what we're doing all day, is we're putting together, God puts together, then we break apart, and the cycle goes on. So, I'm going to take a very interesting little breakdown, which I was just out of curiosity was looking into recently. What happens when you drink a glass of Coke? We know Coke's not that healthy for you. Let's read exactly what happens. When you drink a glass of Coke, your body processes its main ingredients, which are sugar, caffeine, and phosphoric acid. Through a rapid chain of events, it involves absorption, metabolism, waste removal via the kidneys and the bladder. Now, let's go through each one separately. We'll go through the digestion, the absorption. The first thing that happens is, there's a sugar overload. Within minutes, the high amount of sugar, about 10 teaspoons in one can, hits your system. Your pancreas releases a large amount of the hormone insulin to manage this spike in blood sugar. That means you need a certain level of blood sugar, too much is no good. We all know people who have diabetes have to deal with sugar levels and with artificial insulin shots. Baruch Hashem , most of us don't have that challenge, and our body naturally is able to break down that sugar even when there's a sugar overload. Then, your liver is signaled by the insulin to convert as much of the excess sugar as possible into fat for storage. That's why you become fat when you drink too much Coke. Then there's the caffeine kick. The caffeine is absorbed into your bloodstream, raising your blood pressure and blocking brain chemicals that make you feel drowsy. This makes you feel more alert and increases your heart rate. Then there's nutrient binding, which we'll show up later the importance of this. The phosphoric acid in the Coke binds with important minerals like calcium, magnesium, and zinc in your intestines, preventing your body from absorbing them properly. So this is like this phosphoric acid is not doing some very good things for your body in causing certain things that should be absorbed not to be absorbed. Then, how does it impact the urination process? There's something called the diuretic effect. About an hour after drinking, the caffeine's diuretic properties become active. What is a diuretic? It's a substance that makes your kidneys produce more urine than usual. Your kidneys, which normally filter waste and excess water from your blood to make urine, are essentially tricked into flushing out the water and the minerals that the phosphoric acid had bound to it. So this phosphoric acid tricks your kidneys into producing too much water. Now, because of that, the waste fluid goes from your kidneys to your bladder, and then eventually it goes out. And that's why when a person drinks these type of coke or coffee, but more coke than coffee, you think you're hydrating your body, but you're really not because it's really causing more water to come out of your body due to this so-called tricking of the kidneys. Now, this will lead eventually, because of this, will cause valuable nutrients and electrolytes to be lost and could cause the dehydration. Why am I going into this? Because this is what happens with a simple activity like drinking a bottle of Coke. There's factories working to process this, break it down, and sometimes the things that we take in causes things to be broken down in the wrong way. That's not our point for right now. But just to appreciate how something as simple as drinking a glass of Coke is not simple. Everything is complex. Everything is bechochma asita . Everything God makes is with wisdom. So it's complex and takes a lot of wisdom and steps. to make these breakdowns that are necessary.

Welcome to daily dose of bitachon . We're now in our recognizing God in creation series. The next thing the Chovos Halevavos tells us is that a person must recognize that this world has spirituality and physicality. This is actually a deep understanding that although we see this world is a physical world, the underlying factor... Take an example when we eat and we live off of the food that we eat. Now, food is not alive. We're alive. How do we get life from food? And the answer is there is life in food as well. There is spirituality in food. As we mentioned yesterday, there's underlying, we'll call it gases that break down. There's something more than the physical that you can touch and feel inside food. But this is on a deeper level. The Sefer Chesed L'Avraham , the Chida's grandfather in the Sefer Shelah Hakadosh , both explain a pasuk that it says that the lesson of the man was כי לא על הלחם לבדו יחיה האדם, man does not live on bread alone. Now, what does that mean? Man does not live on bread alone. What does he live on? And I remember when I first started in adult education, I would enjoy asking this question, who said the statement man does not live on bread alone? And what does he live on? And some people would say Shakespeare, Mark Twain. But it's a pasuk in the Torah. What does he live on? And again, different answers. He lives on connection, he lives on spirituality, he lives on meat and chicken as well, not just bread. But the answer of the Torah is man does not live on bread alone. He lives on כי על כל מוצא פי השם יחיה האדם. He lives from the spirituality that emanates from the mouth of God. The Chesed L'Avraham says man does not live on the physicality of bread. Rather he lives on the spirituality that's in the bread that was that is comes out of the mouth of God, that emanates from God. So what's that's what we live on. This world is a a combination of both. And the proof of this was the man . Because if we take the man to a laboratory, there were no nutrients, there was no carbohydrates, there was nothing of the sort. It was just pure emanation from God. And this again the Chovos Halevavos continues says, Ra'ui she'teida , it's important for you to know, כי כל עולם מחובר מגשמיות רוחניות. The world is created from the synthesis of spirituality and physicality that are mixed and and combined in a wonderous way. The Rambam's son in his ספר המספיק לעובדי השם in the 11th chapter called Hamavak , the struggle. And he says that the struggle comes because man is created from a soul which is heavenly, from a body that's physical, and the body and soul are connected with a connection that the only one that could properly understand this is God himself. No human being could give the definition of how this works. Just like no one could understand the essence of the soul, no one could understand how the body and soul work in tandem. The Darkei Moshe as well as the Ramah in Shulchan Aruch tell us that every day we say Asher Yatzar , we're talking about our physical body functions. We end with the words umafli la'asot , and God does something wondrous. What is the wonder? The wonder is that the physical existence which comes from the heavens is connected to the physical body that comes from the earth, and the soul cannot function without the body. If a person is sick in one of his his limbs, his soul feels it so to say. And that is this wondrous connection of body and soul. One of the examples of this wondrous connection, Rav Wolbe speaks about at length in Alei Shur volume two, chapter seven. He discusses how is it that this brain that's a physical organ. Remember him saying if you open a brain, open the skull you would see this bowl of porridge, that's what the brain looks like. And through this bowl of porridge, this physical organ, thoughts, spiritual thoughts and true recognition are created. How do we connect this spirituality in a physical organ? That's the wonder that no one can understand. And that he says is also the wonder of the concept that our actions change our spiritual beings. We become great as the Rambam writes on the... Mishnah in Pirkei Avot , הכל לפי גודל המעשה, it all depends, I'm sorry, הכל לפי רוב המעשה. We change because not the greatness of the action but the repetitiveness, by constantly doing something again. And the famous example is if you have a choice to give $1,000 to one poor person or a thousand single dollars to a thousand people, the latter is more powerful, because the more action changes you. And that's the famous concept that our external arouse our internal, the Sefer HaChinuch that explains why do we do so many actions on the night of the Seder because אחרי המעשים ימשכו הלבבות, after the actions the heart is drawn. You know, how does that work? How do physical, dry actions impact our soul? And that is the Mafli Laasot , that's the wondrous connection of body and soul. The Sefer HaYashar , Rabbeinu Tam in the fourth gate says, why is it that animals walk bent over and human beings stand tall? That's because since the human being is a spiritual existence and his soul comes from above, he's naturally drawn to his source, so he stands up high. Whereas the animal that sources from below goes down back towards his source, which is the ground. The Maharal says that a human being is like a tree, as it says, Adam etz hasadeh . Man is like a tree. How so? A tree is rooted in the ground, but man is rooted in the heavens. And that's why if you stand up and you spread out your arms and spread out your legs and spread out your fingers and spread out your toes and imagine your head is a trunk rooted in the heavens, and the the nutrients and the sap coming from the heavens goes through your brain, through your arms, down to your fingers and your toes. And the the fruit of your labor, when you do something, that's the fruit of your of your labor. But it comes from the roots. And if we're rooted in the heavens, we produce these wonderful fruits from our actions. But that's the connection between body and soul, the wonders of the connection of body of soul that is one of the things we have to be cognizant of when we look.

Welcome to our daily dose of bitachon . We were going through the Chovot Halevavot , Shaar HaBechinah . We're now in the third chapter. He tells us how we're supposed to do this activity called bechinah , probing and looking for God in creation. He says the first thing you have to do is you have to look into the the building blocks of creation. Namely, fire, wind, water, and dirt, which is the approach that our rabbis tell us. Of course, we could break it down into smaller parts. And pay attention to how they're combined to create a new existence. Pay attention to the different qualities of the combination. For example, a tree has roots, a trunk, branches, and fruit. The fruit itself has different qualities. The orange has a thick peel, it has seeds, the pulp, and so on. All this came from the same original ingredients and material. Each of these is intended for a different benefit for mankind. There's a wisdom in how they came to be. Each creature came to be differently, the tree through seeds, the bird from eggs, mammals from pregnant mothers. All this is done with great wisdom. There's wisdom in how all the parts work together. There's wisdom in how the creatures look. Every creature, besides its purposeful organization, has a look to it. The zebra has the stripes, the octopus looks the way it is. And there's wisdom in how they all function. When you look at a building, a building has some basic building blocks. You have steel, you have cement, you have wood, you have plastic, you have glass. And basically everything in the house, you have marble. And we look around the house, everything in the house is basically made from those same materials. And look at the how different every part of the house looks like. You have some fabrics, forgot about that, left out fabric. And you put all that together and you have a very interesting house. You take music, there's your seven or eight notes of music, and all the music comes out of those same notes, just all the different combinations. So that's the part of the wisdom of creation that God uses the same ingredients, the same... if we use the table of elements. Scientists believe that there are 94 natural elements. So if we go with that, that means Hashem used 94 ingredients in creation. It's like you go into a kitchen and the chef has his ingredients and he makes endless cakes and endless dishes, all with these same ingredients. The entire world, the entire globe, Hashem took 94 ingredients and made these. Now, of course, we can break the ingredients down even further. And again, we'll give you a short little class in chemistry, which again is our responsibility. We'll refresh you. For a little refresher course. We start with our atom, that's the basic unit of matter. It's the smallest thing that can have a chemical property. There are many different types of atoms, each with its own name, atomic mass, and size. These different atoms are called chemical elements, which is what we spoke about on that periodic table. Now how big are atoms? They're quite small. Each element has a different size. It ranges between 0.1 to 0.5 nanometers in width. What's a nanometer? It's about 100,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. That means you can't really see these atoms unless you have special tools. Now atoms join to make molecules. For example, two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, as we know H2O, combines to make a water molecule. And when these atoms join together, that's what we call a chemical reactions. So we have our atoms, as we said on the periodic, those are our ingredients. And those ingredients can now form themselves to make many different molecules, endless amount of molecules. But the molecules, as we said, are broken down from different type of atoms. The atoms can further be broken down: three smaller particles: protons, which are positively charged; neutrons, which have no charge; electrons, which are negatively charged. The protons and neutrons are heavier and stay in the middle of the atom, which is called the nucleus. They're surrounded by a cloud of electrons, which are very lightweight. They are attracted to the positive charge of the nucleus by electromagnetic forces. So you think about this. This is wondrous. God put everything together without any glue, any concrete, any type of connecting force. God uses electromagnetic forces. That means if you ever see you put two magnets next to each other and they'll hold. in a certain state based on their magnetic force. You could push two magnets and play with them and hold them quite, not quite next to each other. Well if you were very very smart, you could use magnetic force to keep a house hovering above ground. We use magnetic forces are used in our whole setup of the of the orbits of our planets. But we ourselves are walking around being held together with electromagnetic forces. This is beyond wisdom that we can't even fathom. That's the first step that the chovot halevovot wants us to do is break things down into their parts and see what's the smallest parts. Our rebbe used to quote Rav Chaim Volozhin said that everything is spirituality, because what's in the middle is really a gas. It's not even, it's although we have everything's solids, but if you the solid is really just slower moving gases. But everything ultimately boils down to if you just pull out for a moment that electromagnetic force, everything would just turn to gas. So it's spirit is the ultimate building block of creation. Something to think about. And this is what we're doing in our chovot halevovot .

Welcome to Daily Bitachon . We're on our Friday series where we talk about Shabbat . In our prayers of Shabbat , interestingly, every tefilah has a different theme. Friday night, we say Vayechulu , we say some pesukim that talk about creation. And we say that it's zecher l'maasei breishit . It's there to remember creation. In the Shacharit prayers, which we're going to discuss now, we mention Matan Torah and how special the Jewish people are. As it says, in Shemot 31:16, ושמרו בני ישראל את השבת, the Jewish people will keep the Shabbat , לעשות את השבת לדורותם ברית עולם. It's an everlasting covenant, it's a deal. Who's it a deal? ביני ובין בני ישראל. It's between God and the Jewish people. Ot hi l'olam . It's an everlasting sign. כי ששת ימים עשה ה' את השמים ואת הארץ. God created the heavens and earth in six days וביום השביעי שבת וינפש. And after that it says, and God didn't give it to the other nations of the world. We'll see how exactly that fits in. There's another pasuk in Shemot Lamed Alef Yud Gimmel that also talks about the ot , and it says כי אות היא ביני וביניכם לדורותיכם. It is an everlasting sign, l'daat , to know כי אני ה' מקדשכם, to know that I am Hashem that makes you holy. And Rashi says, what does that mean? What's this ot ? אות גדולה היא בינינו. It's a great sign between us, as we said, it's a sign, it's a covenant, it's a deal. What is that? She'bacharti bachem , I chose you, ונחלתי לכם את יום מנוחתי למנוחה. I chose you, and how do I know I chose you? Because I gave you the day to rest that I rest on. God allowed us into His resting day. That's a sign of how special we are. That is a sign of honor. We have Shabbat and other nations do not. And that now we understand the continuation that we say in the Amidah . ולא נתתו ה' אלוקינו לגויי הארצות. God did not give this to the the nations of the world. ולא הנחלתו מלכנו לעובדי אלילים. And the idol worshipers did not get this inheritance. Gam b'menuchato , in His resting day, lo yishkenu areilim , the fore skinned ones, those that are not Jewish, did not have a brit milah , cannot dwell in this day of menuchah . כי לעמך ישראל נתתו באהבה. God gave it to us lovingly, l'zera Yaakov , to the seed of Yaakov , asher bam bacharta , God chose us. As Rashi says, bacharti bachem , I chose you. So we walk around with Shabbat . It's a sign that we're special, that we're different. Just like tefillin is a sign, brit milah is a sign. It's interesting that it says that lo yishkenu areilim , those non-circumcised, fore skinned people cannot have anything to do with menuchah of Shabbat . All these signs are signs that we're special. It's interesting, it says that anything shows up in three dimensions: people, place, and time. Holiness shows up in people, place, and time. Holiest person, the Kohen Gadol . Holiest place, the Holy of Holies. Holiest time, Yom Kippur . And they all come together as the Kohen Gadol enters the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur . And this sign that God has is also in people, place, and person. It's a sign in people with the brit milah . It's a sign in place, the tefillin are a box which represents space, makom . And lastly, it's a sign in time, Shabbat . And that's what we're talking about, to be proud and walk around with this badge of honor, the badge of Shabbat that separates us. Something to be proud of. You can wear the king's garments, so to say. You can enter into this special elite place that no one's allowed into, but us. So much so that it says goy she'shavat chayav mitah . If a goy decides to keep Shabbat , he's chayav mitah . The Chida in ספר נחל קדומים על במדבר 22 colon 28 explains why. Because he says if someone decides to use the king's scepter, he's chayav mitah . God gave us this scepter to use because we're His children. There's another analogy I once saw brought down in one of the Midrashim , that if a king and queen are sitting alone in a room. some servant walks in, off with his head. Shabbat is the time when God and the Jewish people are alone, and how dare anyone else enter into that special time. So these are all unbelievable appreciations of this great sign of Shabbat and therefore, let us truly appreciate it and take in all that wonderful, beautiful time.

Welcome to our daily Bitachon series. We're going through Sha'ar HaBechinah . We learned yesterday that we have a responsibility to open the wrapping on the gift that God gave us. One of the gifts is our body, and there's millions of gifts, and I'm not exaggerating. Let's go through our blood vessels. When you get a cut, it heals. No one thinks about that. You get a scab, big deal. You ever tear your clothing and suddenly it's sewed up by itself? Strange, isn't it? So let's analyze what happens when you get a scab. You say, what do I have to know about this stuff for? Is this going back to science class? Because these are gifts of God, and intellect requires that we appreciate our gifts. So think of your blood vessels like a system of pipes running through your house. The pipe springs a leak, you need a way to patch it up immediately to stop the water, in our case, it's the blood, from flooding out. Well, your body has an automatic emergency repair crew for this exact purpose. The process is called hemostasis. Hemo is blood, stasis means stopping. And there's three main steps. The first one is the squeeze, vasoconstriction, which means the moment a blood vessel is cut, your body's first reaction is to reduce the flow of that area. Now, body's first reaction, you know, what is that? That's a nice scientific term. Who told the body to react? That's God. So the muscles in the wall of the blood vessels tighten and clamp down. The analogy, it's like turning off the main water valve or squeezing a garden hose to stop the flow of the water. This limits how much blood can escape while the repair begins. Number two, the plug, which is called platelet aggregation. The first responders arrive. These are the platelets, tiny sticky cell fragments floating in your blood. They're always there. What happens? When the platelets touch the jagged edge of a broken vessel, they get activated. This is wild. Little microscopic vessels, when they're torn, create a jagged edge. This activates the platelets. They change shape, become spiky and sticky. They clump together at the site of the cut to form a temporary plug. The analogy, think of this like sticking a piece of chewing gum or wet clay over the hole in the pipe. It stops the immediate leak, but it's soft and won't hold for long against high pressure. Stage three, the glue, the coagulation cascade. To make the repair permanent, the blood, the body needs to reinforce the soft platelet plug with something stronger. This is where the coagulation cascade comes in. Dozens of proteins in your blood are called clotting factor. By the way, parenthetically, hemophiliacs don't have clotting factors. But Baruch Hashem , we do. That wakes it up a chain reaction and creates a tough stringy protein called fibrin. It's like a steel mesh or net. It wraps around the soft platelet plug and hardens, turning the chewing gum into reinforced concrete. This creates a solid scab that seals the wound completely until the skin heals underneath. But there's really a step after that, which is the cleanup, which happens days or weeks later. Once the skin and vessel wall have healed underneath the scab, you don't need the clot anymore. Your body releases a different enzyme called plasmin, that acts like a pair of molecular scissors. It cuts the fibrin mesh into tiny pieces. The scab falls off or dissolves and blood flows normally again. This is craziness what's going on inside our body at all times. Now what's interesting, one of the very uncomfortable things is paper cuts. Now, paper cuts just last. Why? They're seemingly so innocent. The answer is because since they're shallow, and they don't cause significant bleeding, the blood clotting system doesn't get triggered and therefore it leaves it as it is. This is just one small little example of the wondrous things that are happening at all times inside of us. And it behooves us to think about it and appreciate it.

Welcome to our daily Bitochon . We're now in Chovot Halevavot Sha'ar HaBechinah . We're starting chapter two. He says, who says that we have to do this? To start looking into creation and finding God. What's our, who said? He tells us there's three responsibilities. One is min hamuskal , my intellect says. One is min hakatuv from pesukim , and one is min hakabalah from our midrashim and our gemara . Now, if I tell you that you have to do something because your sechel says so, who said? What does that mean my sechel said so? What responsibility is my sechel ? So Rav Nissim Gaon says in his hakdamah to the Shas , that anything that's logical, anything that comes from an understanding heart, everyone has to do it from the first day that God created man on this world for the generations to come. And these are mitzvot , he calls them sichliyot , versus mitzvot noda'ot . There's mitzvot that are intellectual that you could figure it out on your own. There are things you need to hear about, and of course, that's only we the Jewish people have. Now, what's the proof? The proof is, he says, otherwise it'd be unjust for Hashem to punish people for sins they weren't warned about. And we see goyim and things before Har Sinai being punished, who seemingly had no obligation. And he says if we would not have responsibilities based on our intellect, how could God punish them? First proof is Kayin . Kayin and Hevel . The Torah was not given yet, yet Kayin was held accountable. Why? Because murder is permitted based on logic. And that's why he was punished. Another proof. Dor hamabul . Why were they punished? Who told them they shouldn't do what they did? And he says the term used is כי השחית כל בשר את דרכו. All flesh had corrupted its way. What is it, what is this corruption referred to? And corrupted its way? He says the way is the way of the intellect. Like we say derech eretz , the way of the world. Who said that's, who said you have to do that? דרך ארץ קדמה לתורה means that the way of the world, which is my intellect, tells me what to do, that brings responsibilities upon me. Another proof. Sedom va'Amorah . What did they do wrong? Sedom va'Amorah , they didn't have hospitality. They didn't have justice and kindness. That's logical. Dinah is violated by Shechem . We wipe out an entire town. What's the reason? Because they have to establish a society. And if society sees kidnapping and doesn't judge it, they are liable. That's logic. Rav Nissim Gaon said this discussing masechet Berachot and the source, the obligation for berachot , blessings, and tefillah , prayer, which are rational obligations of gratitude. That means hakarat hatov is not a mitzvah . Hakarat hatov is a דרך ארץ קדמה לתורה. And that's what the Chovot Halevavot says is making us responsible to look into creation. What's, who said I have to do it? The answer is if somebody gives you a gift, sechel , logic, dictates, open the box, look inside. Not nice. Someone gives you a gift, you don't even open the box? You see the outside says, doesn't say Gucci on it so you don't want to open it up? It's beneath your dignity? Well, God gives us gifts. We have a responsibility to look into the gifts. When God gave us Shabbat , God tells Moshe, מתנה טובה יש לי בבית גנזי. I have a beautiful gift in my treasure house. Tell them about it. Let them know I'm giving them a beautiful gift. We don't see Shabbat land from the heavens so Moshe has to tell us about it. But our body we see, and all the wonders of creation we see. And we have an obligation to peel away and look under the cover and see what's going on in this wonderful gift. And when he gives such examples, people sometimes get bored with this, like come on. Who, what do I have to know about these things for? What do you have to know about these things for? Because this is the gift that God gave you. Of course you have to know about them. You have to thank and appreciate when you get a gift. That's logic dictates. That's the chiyuv . Of course we're gonna get to pesukim , but before that. There's a responsibility to appreciate God in creation because logic dictates. And logic dictates is a powerful force. Powerful force. We punish based on logic dictates.

Welcome to our daily bitachon . We are now in the Chovot HaLevavot , Shaar HaBechinah . We finished our introduction and we're now starting the first chapter. He says something very interesting. Of course, we know there's one God, and God created everything. And his wisdom could be found in everything. Yet, there are a lot of different manifestations and different types of wisdom, although they all come from one root. Meaning, one could say, hold on, it's one God, why are things so different? And he gives two meshalim , two parables. One is the sun. There's one sun, yet when it goes through a prism, it creates multiple different colors. All the colors were there in the sun, but they manifest themselves differently. Similarly, you use water and you use the water to irrigate the land. The land has certain minerals, and yet out of these land and minerals, depending on the seeds you put in the ground, you get all different kind of colored flowers. Same water, same earth, same minerals manifesting themselves differently. And so too, there's one God, and everything has ultimately one theme behind it. There's ultimately one foundation. If we want to use a scientific approach, it breaks down to atoms which are broken down to neurons and electrons and protons. There is one theme, there's building blocks to everything, yet it all comes out differently. It's like a piano that has a certain number of keys. That's the fundamentals. All pianos have the same number of keys. Yet different musicians will play differently using the same notes and create different music. So the world is all fundamentally one. So, it's like when a person goes to a piano concert, regardless who's playing, we know there's a piano going on over here. There's nothing to talk about. It takes a certain analysis to say, well, this is that style of music, that, but it's all coming from a piano. And that's the world. Although the world is so different, it all comes from one source, which is God. Now the question is, why did God make it that way? Why isn't everything the same? He says the reason is because then everyone would figure out that there's a God. You need to have the wisdom to peel away. Furthermore, he says that anything that keeps on doing the same thing again and again, a machine that always makes the same thing, it shows that the machine has no freedom of will. The machine is just on automatic pilot to keep repeating the same thing. It's forced, it has no, it has no opinion, like fire that always burns, like water that always cools. They don't do things on their own. And therefore, by the constant changing, that in itself is an indicator that God is deciding and makes things happen that are different. Now it's interesting, I just want to bring this out because this is what the Chovot HaLevavot says we're supposed to look for differences and similar themes at the same time. We have different types of vertebrae. Vertebrae are animals that have a bones or they have some type of spinal cord of sorts. We have fish, like sharks and tuna. We have amphibia, like frogs and salamanders. We have reptiles, like snakes and turtles. We have birds, like pigeons. And we have mammals, like humans, rodents and dogs. Now, they all, like we said, they're all vertebrae. But now let's listen to the differences, the nuances. The body covering: fish have scales. Amphibia have moist permeable skin. Reptiles have dry scaly skin plates. Birds have feathers. Mammals have hair or fur. So yes, they're all vertebrae, but there's something different going on over here. It's like God says, hey, I have more ideas. I'm not tied down to one approach. Reproduction: fish lay eggs in water, and the young breathe with gills. The amphibia lay jelly eggs in the water. They have, start off with gills and metamorphosize to lungs. Reptiles have hard leathery shelled eggs laid on land. Birds have hard shelled eggs also laid on land. And mammals are alive at birth, and their young are fed milk. Now what's the beauty of this is that when you have a human being, they, even though they have differences, something's the same about them. For example, if you like a certain singer, let's take Yaakov Shwekey . As much as I like Yaakov Shwekey , you hear a song you can say, that's a Yaakov Shwekey song. I don't care who sings it. It's a Yaakov Shwekey song, he has a certain style. Mordechai ben David has a style. And so on. They have styles. They sound, their songs have a certain similarity to them. Now, if all of God's songs would sound the same, that's limiting to God. Because the reason why all these artists sound the same is because they are limited. God created them with a certain talent set and a certain abilities and a certain level of creativity, and it stops at a certain point. You can't create this music and that music. You don't have the ability to do both. All Carlebach songs sound the same. God's not like that. God says, I can go and make vertebrae, but they'll all be different. You say, wow, the same guy that made, I shouldn't use the word guy, the same creator that made the fish, also made the snakes, also made the eagles. They're so different. Yeah, they're all different. But by the way, he also has a certain theme, there's vertebrae. And don't think that's the only thing he can do. He can make flowers too. There's all different classifications. This is just, this is and this is what we're supposed to do. This is Shaar HaBechina , to say, wow, look at God's abilities. Look how creative he is. Look how boundless he is. And if he could do all that, he could take care of me too. That's the punchline of all these thoughts. If he could do all of that, he could take care of me too.

Welcome to our daily bitachon . We are talking about Sha'ar HaBechinah and the responsibility for those people that recognize God to share with those that don't, because we're supposed to make God beloved upon others. That's what all people try to do. As we said, if you love someone, you want the rest of the world to love them as well. In the source for this, said the Rambam , was Avraham Avinu , who's called Avraham ohavi , Avraham the one that loves me. There's a beautiful Rashi that brings this out and something beautiful that you could think about every day in your amidah three times a day. בראשית כד ג, Avraham is talking to Eliezer and he says, v'ashbiacha , I want to make you swear by השם אלקי השמים ואלקי הארץ, the God of the heavens and the God of the earth…... So who is the God that he makes them swear by? The God of the heavens and the God of the earth. A few pesukim later, pasuk zayin , Avraham says, Hashem Elokei hashamayim , Hashem , the God of the heavens, that took me out of my father's house. So why now is God referred to only as the God of the heavens, not God of the earth? Rashi explains that originally when Avraham was born, when he was taken out of his father's house, he was only Elokei hashamayim . He was the God of the heavens; nobody knew him down here. So, when he's going back in history and telling Eliezer , the God that took me out of my father's house, that was the God of the heavens. When he's talking to him now in real time, when Avraham already made his change in the world, he now became the God of the heavens and the God of the earth. Why, says Rashi ? שהרגלתיו בפי הבריות. I made him common in the mouth of people. I made him known. The world knew of God because of Avraham . But beforehand, his name was not known in the world. So our father, Avraham , was the first one that made God the God of the earth. Based on this, the Da'at Zekeinim on this spot adds a beautiful thought. He's bothered by a question that everybody asks, which is, the first, let me give you a minute of introduction. In order for a bracha to be classified as a bracha , it has to have the words Hashem , Elokeinu , Melech ha'olam , three things: God, who is the one in charge, and he is the king of the world. If you don't have that, it's not a blessing. Now, sometimes, I can have a blessing like אלקי נשמה שנתת בי doesn't start with that, but it's next to asher yatzar . That's why we want to put those two blessings next to each other. When you have a blessing next to another blessing, it doesn't have to have that. Now, ata kadosh in the amidah or ata gibor in the amidah doesn't start. Well, it's next to the first bracha . But hold on. The first bracha of the amidah is Elokeinu v'Elokei avoteinu . We have Hashem , we have Elokeinu , but where's Melech ha'olam ? Answers Tosafot , that by saying Elokei Avraham , by saying the God of Avraham , that's the equivalent of Melech ha'olam , because Avraham made God Melech ha'olam . He made him king of the world. So therefore I don't have to say king of the world. God of Avraham is the equivalent of king of the world. Very nice. The question is, but why not say Melech ha'olam ? Just say Melech ha'olam . Does it hurt? I have to say Elokei Avraham ? Says the Da'at Zekeinim an unbelievable answer. He says that we want you to know that at the beginning when Avraham came onto the picture, there was no Melech ha'olam . He wasn't known by the world. There was no recognition in the world of God. And therefore, the only way to express is Elokei Avraham . It's the God of Avraham , because through Avraham , the world knew what God was. Rav Yeruchem Levovitz applies this to a Midrash Rabbah in Devarim , parsha three, section three, which tells the following story. About Rav Shimon ben Shetach , he bought a donkey from an Arab, and his students noticed that there was a precious stone around the neck of the donkey. So, the students were all excited and they said to him, ברכת ה' היא תעשיר, the blessing of God makes one wealthy. So look, God blessed you. Rav Shimon ben Shetach says, חמור לקחתי, אבן טובה לא לקחתי. I bought a donkey. I didn't buy a jewel. Go and return it to the Arab. They brought it back to the Arab, and the Arab says, ברוך השם אלקי שמעון בן שטח. Blessed is the the God of Shimon ben Shetach . That means this Arab, through the way of Shimon ben Shetach acted, he appreciated God. And that's something that we all can do. We can all make people say, wow, this is the God of this person. That reflects on who God is if this person acts this way and that's his God. And that's what Avraham Avinu did. He made the world say Elohei Avraham . And we too could do that in a certain sense. And the way we act and the way we talk, make God beloved upon the world and known.

Welcome to daily bitachon , an important thought about Shabbat as we've been doing lately on our Friday class. We mentioned two weeks ago that Shabbat has many areas of parallels to the Bet HaMikdash . We have the candles, we have the menorah , we have the loaves of bread, we have the shulchan . We have the zimirot , we have the liviyim singing, we have our clothing of Shabbat , we have bigdei kehuna . And that is because Shabbat is a sanctuary of time. Shabbat is the mikdash of time. That's why in more than one place in our prayers we mention Yerushalayim awakening when we talk about Shabbat , whether it's in Lecha Dodi , whether it's in our Arvit prayers. So in a sense, on Shabbat we enter the Bet HaMikdash . And this Bet HaMikdash is actually holier than the original Bet HaMikdash in a sense, because as we know, we were not allowed to build a Bet HaMikdash on Shabbat . Because Shabbat is greater than the Bet HaMikdash . The 39 activities that we don't do on Shabbat were the same 39 activities that they used for building the Mishkan . And that means that we're building our own Mishkan every week by refraining from those 39 melachot , so we are building a Mishkan . What's the relevance of that? It's a beautiful thought brought down on the Midrash of Parashat Toldot . When Yitzchak greets Yaakov thinking he's Esav, it says וירח את ריח בגדיו. He smelled the smell of his clothing. The word beged shares the same root as bagadnu , we were traitors as in Ashamnu bagadnu that we say in our Vidui confession. Parenthetically, the same word beged is boged , traitor, because the only reason why we needed clothing, begadim , was because the sin of Adam HaRishon . So when we think of the word beged , beged connects to boged . So now, Yitzchak smells the smell of his clothing, and that the Midrash says, don't read it as begadav but bogdav . He smelled the smell of his sinners, his traitors. And it refers to two instances in history. I will share one of them with you called the story of Yosef Meshita. He was a Jew, and he was, we'll call him, an evil Jew. He was there with the enemies, the Romans, as they entered the Bet HaMikdash . And they were afraid to enter the actual area of the holy, and they wanted a Jew to walk in because they knew someone that walks into the holy area without permission might die. So let's see. And they told the Jew, you know what? As a reward for going in there, you could take whatever you want, it's yours. So here we have this man that is collaborating with the enemy. He walks in, he takes out the menorah . And they tell him, no, this menorah , that's for a king. This is not for you. Take something else. He says, I made my creator angry once, I will not do it a second time. They say you go in. No. Go in and we will give you X and Y and Z. No. And finally, they tortured him to death and a heavenly echo went out that he was destined to Olam Haba . So he went from a wicked man to a martyr. And that's what Yitzchak Avinu smelled, that even the most distant Jew still can turn around in a moment. And the Ponevezher Rav asks, how did that happen? What what enabled him to make that shift? And he answers, being exposed to kedusha . The Jewish heart has a flame inside of it. When it's exposed to kedusha , that small little spark becomes inflamed. And that's what happened to Yosef Meshita when he entered the holy Bet HaMikdash . And the same thing is true about Shabbat . Every Shabbat , we're entering a holy place. We're entering the sanctuary of time. And if we keep Shabbat properly, we too can have our souls ignited. And we too can have an enlightening and inspiring experience. Many years ago, over 20 years ago, I went on a trip to Israel and we visited a home called a safe home for Jewish girls that had married Arabs and escaped from their Arab husbands. And Rabbi Sorotzkin told us the following story. There was a young girl that was there that was married, it's actually a a daughter of a woman that was married to an Arab. And he told a fascinating story. This woman, he showed us the Birkat Hamazon for her wedding, ended up being rehabilitated and married a baal teshuva . What was her story? Her father was a terrorist. He had married a Jewish woman and eventually committed a crime. He was killed in the suicide bombing, and his wife and daughter left the country and went to Lebanon. The girl had no idea that she was Jewish. She was raised as an Arab by her seemingly Arab mother. And she is working as an interpreter and gets a job to interpret in Israel for some Arab delegation. And before she goes off to Israel, her mother tells her, by the way, just want to let you know, FYI, I'm Jewish and you're Jewish. Okay. She files that information and she goes on her way to do her job. She's walking in the old city, in the Arab area, and she's right at the point where you could make a right turn and turn to the Kotel or go straight as she planned. And she had some urge that pulled her and she decided to go to the Kotel and she prayed there. And something got sparked inside of her, and she decided to research Judaism and eventually came back to her roots. At her wedding, she asked the rabbi to bless her with, I don't remember what the number is, let's say eight children. And when asked why, she said that my Arab father killed that many Jews in his bombing and I want to replace them. Fascinating. What ignited this girl's soul? And the answer is, she went to the Kotel . She went to a place of holiness, it inspired her. And we too can go to the Kotel every Shabbat and be inspired.

Welcome to our bitachon series. We are now going through shaar bechina in the Chovos HaLevavos . And he told us that there are three obstacles from us enjoying life in this world. We'll repeat them one more time. Obstacle number one is, we always want more than we have, so we don't appreciate what we have. Obstacle number two is that we are used to what we have. We already take it for granted. And obstacle number three is, things don't always go right for us and therefore, we don't appreciate our lives. Now, all those things are incorrect. And the job of shaar bechina is to find Hashem's wisdom in creation and see that he's wise and knows what he's doing and therefore is taking care of us as well. And he ends this introductory chapter by saying therefore, anyone that has wisdom and understanding has a responsibility to awaken those people that don't understand God's goodness and to direct them to understand and use their sechel to appreciate what they have. And he goes on to say that there are many times that people possess wonderful things and they're miserable because they don't understand and appreciate what they have. And when you awaken them and make them realize what they have and what they were missing, they will start being appreciative to God, they'll be thankful to God, and they will get enjoyment and pleasure in this world and in the next. That's why it's our responsibility to help out those poor souls that don't know what they already have. This is an important concept that we can have something if we don't know about it, we don't have it. And a story is told about by Rabbi Criesworth of Antwerp that he was during the war time, there was a man that gave him his Swiss bank account passwords. He was a wealthy man. He didn't know if he would survive the war, and he shared them with the rabbi. And he told them, if you ever find my son, let him know. And that's the seemingly the beginning and end of the story. The man was perished in the in the war, and we're before the internet and search engines. How is he ever going to find this man's son if he survived? Sure enough, many years later, he's in a shul, and he sees a guy that looks just like that fellow. And he approaches him, and sure enough, he's his son. This man was eking out a living. And he shared with him the information, and he was a multi-millionaire overnight. The truth is, he wasn't a multi-millionaire overnight. He had always been a multi-millionaire. He was just wasn't aware of what he had, and therefore he lived the life of a pauper. And that is us sometimes. We have so many great things going for us, so many things to appreciate, we just don't know about them, and therefore we're miserable. In our siddur in the morning, there's a section called korbanos . There are a lot of nice things there besides korbanos . Talks about Akeidas Yitzchak . And there's a beautiful section that talks about man's frailty and weakness and it ends off on a positive note. But we, the children of your covenant, the children of Avraham that you loved, seed of Yitzchak of the Akeidah , the congregation of Yaakov your first born, you loved us, you're happy with us. And therefore, we have a responsibility to thank, to praise, to uplift, to give song and praise and thanks to your great name. And we have a responsibility to sing a song every single day. Ashreinu , how fortunate we are. ma tov chelkeinu , how good is our lot. ma na'im goraleinu , how sweet is our portion. ומה יפה מאוד ירושתנו. And how extremely beautiful is our inheritance. That means we all have this inheritance. We're all no different than that man walking around with Swiss bank accounts who didn't know about it. We all have Swiss bank accounts. We have our inheritance of what it means to be a Jew. We possess a lot. And fortunately when we get up in the morning and go to sleep at night, and when we go to shul and we go to Beit Midrash and we say Shema Yisrael every single day. How fortunate we are. But we're walking around not appreciating what we have. Now, forget about our spiritual benefits, which we'll get to. Even our physical benefits, our bodies, the value that we have there, we don't realize it, we don't appreciate it, and therefore we're not happy. And therefore it's the responsibility of the people that do know, Chovot HaLevavot is one of those people, and to share it with everybody else. And I'm just following in the direction of the Chovot HaLevavot , and I'm going to share it as well. And you should continue and share it with your people. Because that's, we're going to see tomorrow our responsibility to share this.

Welcome to our Bitachon series. We were going through Sha'ar HaBechina now, and he's bothered by why is it that we're not all jumping for joy over all the great things that are in the world, if tov Hashem lakol . And his third reason was that things don't always go right, and we don't appreciate that and therefore, we don't see the goodness. And today we'll spend some time on appreciating when things don't go right. The Ramchal in his sefer Derech Hashem , volume two, chapter eight, says, we all know that all God wants to do is good. That's why He created the world. And He loves us like a father loves his son. But this very love sometimes brings with it a need for discipline. Like the pasuk says, כי כאשר ייסר איש את בנו, like a man chastises his son, Hashem Elokecha meyasreka , God chastises you. And therefore, we have to realize, he says, that the judgment and the justice is coming from a source of love. And God is not coming like an enemy that has a vengeance, but like a father that wants the best for his son. In his sefer Da'at Tvunot , the Ramchal writes in letter 154 that because it comes for love, God's musar , even when it's done, is always softened and sweetened. It doesn't come in cruelty in an overpouring of wrath. But God tempers it in a way that it's palatable. The Reishit Chochma in the section on Anava , chapter five, quotes the pasuk in Iyov where Iyov says, Hashem natan , God gave, v'Hashem lakach , and God took. יהי שם השם מבורך, God should be blessed. And he makes a diyuk and he says, Hashem took and Hashem ... Hashem gave and Hashem took. It should say, Hashem gave, Hashem took. What do we need the 'and' for? And he says when Hashem gave, it was just He gave without any questions. When he takes, and Hashem means He and His court of judgment, which means God has a whole court of judgment to decide whether He should take. It's much harder to take than it is to give. And therefore, we have to bless Hashem and understand, in his words, משפטיו עמנו הוא לטוב לנו. All of God's judgments are for our best interest, l'taher nafshoteinu , to purify us. And he quotes our pasuk again of tov Hashem lakol . And that's why Nachum Ish Gamzu used to always say, gam zu l'tova , because he understood that even the judgment is ultimately for good when you realize that, when you realize it's coming from a good source. I want to end with something that's a little kabbalistic but it's a very nice piece. There's a sefer called Sefer Yetzirah . Some say it was written by Avraham Avinu , that goes through the 22 letters of the alphabet. And it breaks it down to the following three units. The first three letters are the unit of the mass that created the world, Alef Mem Shin , which stands for Alef , avir ; Mem is mayim , and Shin is for eish . Those are the building blocks of the world: water, wind, and fire, leaving out earth. The next letters are what he calls the seven kefulot , the seven letters that have a dagesh in them, which is beged keferet . Even when we don't have a dagesh in the Reish , the Zohar has it as that. That's my second unit, which is the seven days of the week. The third unit is the 12 months of the year. So if I subtract my Alef Mem Shin , which was the first three letters used for the mass, I subtract the next seven, ten, seven letters: Beis , Gimmel , Dalet , Chaf , Pey , Reish and Taf , I subtract the 10, I'm left with 12 letters of the alphabet, 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. So I start with a Hey . That's the first letter that hasn't been used yet. And the next 12 letters, starting with the Hey , correspond to the months of the year. Hey is Nissan , Vav is Iyar , Zayin is Sivan , Ches is Tammuz , Tes is Av , Yud is Elul , Lamed is Tishrei , Nun is Cheshvan , Samech is Kislev , Ayin is Teves , Tzadi is Shvat , and Kuf is Adar . We can give a whole class on this, to whet your appetite. We know Nun , these also corresponds to the letter, the letters in Ashrei . We know there's no nun in Ashrei , because nun refers to nefila . falling. Cheshvan has no holidays, it's the nun letter. Nissan , which is a time we talk about God's greatness, Hagadol , הדר כבוד הודך ודברי נפלאותיך אשיחה we speak about the wonders of God, Haggadah shel Pesach . Now, what is Av ? Av is tet . What's what is the pasuk of Av ? Of all the psukim of Ashrei , the last thing you would think of is our pasuk we've been talking about from the beginning, טוב ה' לכל ורחמיו על כל מעשיו. The month of Av is symbolized by Tov Hashem lakol . And even the number nine is the nine days of Av , which are seen the worst nine days of the year, are really tov . They're the nine of the tet of the letter tov . Because even the worst of times, it's the month of Av . Av is our father. כאשר ייסר איש את בנו, ה' אלוקיך מיסרך like a father chastises his son. So this is the final hurdle that we have in being happy people. Either A, we always want more. B is that we we are used to the goodnesses. And C is we have the difficult challenges. And we have to overcome all three.

Shabbat Message- A sanctuary in time Welcome to the daily Bitachon . As we mentioned, this coming Rosh Hashanah is going to be on Shabbat , and therefore since we don't have the shofar , the year before we need to make sure we're on our best behavior on Shabbat , so with Hashem's help we'll be talking about Shabbat on Fridays.This week's parashah , coincidentally, Chayei Sarah , talks about the passing of Sarah and it talks about that when Rivka came into the tent, the miracles returned. What were the three miracles? Miracle number one was she lit the candles on Friday afternoon and lasted throughout the week. She, the bread that she made was warm all week and there was a cloud of the Shechinah on top of her tent.What is the significance of these three miracles? These three miracles have to do with the woman's three mitzvot , which all revolve around Shabbat . Hafrashat challah , which brought the blessing into the challah , you make challah for Shabbat . Lighting the candles, and the cloud that comes down which has to do with taharat hamishpacha , family purity, which brings the Shechinah upon the home. All of these three mitzvot of Shabbat that the lady has corresponds to certain articles in the Beit Hamikdash . The lighting of the candles corresponds to the menorah . The bread refers to the shulchan with the lechem hapanim , and the cloud upon the tent refers to the holy ark that had in it the two luchot that was where the Shechinah dwelled.And this brings us into an important concept that Shabbat has the aspect of Beit Hamikdash in time. That means it's not the place of the Beit Hamikdash , it's Beit Hamikdash in time. That's why in our Friday night prayers we say, הפורש סוכת שלום עלינו ועל ירושלים. There's a sukkah of peace that comes upon us and Yerushalayim . Yerushalayim is invoked on Friday night because on Friday night we're all in Yerushalayim , we're in the Beit Hamikdash . And many of our Shabbat activities correspond to Shabbat . And we'll give you some of them and maybe you'll think of some others on your own. First of all, we sing zemirot , like the Levi'im sang song. Second of all, we say kiddush on wine, like they poured the wine libations. Third of all, the minimum to wash your hands, minimum washing before Shabbat is wash your hands and feet like in the Beit Hamikdash where they washed their hands and their feet. We wear special clothing like the bigdei kehunah . We have incense, ketoret , in the Beit Hamikdash which is either symbolized by the custom to smell certain fragrances, specifically hadasim , or some say it refers to the smell of the food on Shabbat . כי מציון תצא תורה ודבר השם מירושלים. The Torah comes out of Tzion , it comes out of the Beit Hamikdash . The Sanhedrin was in the Beit Hamikdash , the high court, and therefore we say extra divrei Torah at the Shabbat table. Shabbat is called me'ein Olam Haba . Shabbat is a microcosm of the world to come. And it says so too when you enter the Beit Hamikdash , you felt you were in another world. That's why it's they said in the Beit Hamikdash , min ha'olam v'ad ha'olam , from this world to the next world. When they enter the Beit Hamikdash , you felt you were in another world. And that's so is Shabbat , the feeling of being in another world.And there's a beautiful concept that Rav Moshe Feinstein brings out from a personal experience. He walked into the Russian Embassy in New York and he was originally from Russia. And when he entered the embassy, he felt like he was in Russia. The clock was Russian, the tables were Russian, everything about the place was Russian. You felt like you were in Russia and even legally, if someone's born in the Russian embassy, they're Russian even though in America. The area of the embassy is culturally and legally like that nation. And so too he said that God's embassy on Earth is the Beit Hamikdash . When you walked into the Beit Hamikdash , you felt like you were in another world. You felt like you were in God's world and you were legally in God's world. There was no flies, there was no smell. All the wonders that existed in the Beit Hamikdash , you were in a different world, in a different zone. And in a certain way, on Shabbat we're also in a different world, we're also in a different zone, the world of me'ein Olam Haba , a microcosm of the world to come. And therefore, let's appreciate what goes on. Just like when you're by the Kotel and you're at the Beit Hamikdash , you act differently, you feel differently. So too Shabbat we have to realize we're in a zone. We're in the sanctuary of time, which is called Shabbat . And it's not just a nice allegorical comparison to a parable. As we stated, there are many real things that we do on Shabbat that correspond to the Beit Hamikdash . And I'm sure every... of them. The most obvious is Kiddush and the wine. The most obvious is the two challot , the Lechem Mishneh on the Shulchan . The candles are the Menorah . The Havdalah ceremony on Saturday night. These are all things that we do in our mini- Shabbat home experience of the sanctuary in time that we inherited from the Beit Hamikdash , and it's not a coincidence. It's a real connection. Let's talk about Kiddush on Friday night. Why do we make Kiddush on Friday night? First of all, the word Kiddush itself. What does it mean? When you say something is Kadosh , holy, Kodesh , it is dedicated and designated for a specific purpose. And that is what is called kedushah . So, the kedushat hayom , the sanctity of the day of Shabbat , we take a cup of wine, we make a L'chaim on it. Some people make a Shehecheyanu also on the wine, because it represents the joy of Shabbat . But we are making Kiddush . We are declaring the day holy. In fact, the word Kiddush is related to the word kiddushin , which is marriage. It's a special, unique relationship. We also know that there is such a thing as Kiddush Hashem , sanctifying God's name, or God forbid, Chal Shem Hashem , that we should not do which is the opposite, Chillul Hashem , which is the desecration of God's name. So the word Kiddush means to make something holy and special. In the Kodesh Kodashim , the Holy of Holies in the Beit Hamikdash , was a place where heaven and earth kissed. It's that special. Shabbat is that special time of the week. Now, where do we get this idea of Kiddush from? It's a pasuk in the Torah, and it actually appears twice. In the first Ten Commandments, the pasuk says, זכור את יום השבת לקדשו, remember the Shabbat day to make it holy, to sanctify it. And the second of the Ten Commandments, it says שמור את יום השבת לקדשו. Now, there's a famous story in the Mishnah of Shabbat , Perek Zayin , Mishnah Bet . The Gemara , the Amora'im , were discussing what's the best oneg, pleasure of Shabbat ? And one Amora , Reish Lakish , said chamra v'reichana . What's chamra v'reichana ? Chamra is wine. Reichana is beautiful smelling spices. So Reish Lakish said, Chamra v'reichana leisanei . These are the best for the enjoyment. We make a L'chaim , a Borei pri hagafen on the wine and Borei minei vesamim on the spices to enhance the joy of Shabbat .

Welcome to daily Bitachon . We are now in our Sha'ar HaBechinah series, trying to figure out why we're not all jumping for joy if Tov Hashem l'kol , God is good to everybody. Why is it that most people don't realize it? And we gave two reasons. Reason number one is we're always looking for more. Reason number two, we're just used to it. And reason number three, because things don't always go right. And we have financial losses, we have physical ailments and we don't understand how these can possibly be good for us. We don't get the benefit of nisayon , tests. We don't have the benefits of musar . That means anything that goes wrong in our life is for one of two reasons: it's a test, means we didn't do anything wrong, Hashem's testing us, or it's for musar purposes to give us rebuke, to change. And he quotes a pasuk in Tehillim , Ashrei ha'gever , fortunate is the man, asher t'yasrenu Kah , that God rebukes him, u'mTorascha tolamdenu , and he learns from the Torah, which means he gets the message. And we forget that we and everything that we have are nothing more than gifts of God. That's all we are. Our existence and everything we have are all gifts of God. Generous, kind gifts. And everything that he gives us is b'tzedek . Everything he gives us is done with a just approach based on what God's wisdom feels is right. And we are not accepting of that justice. And not only do we not praise him when God reveals his kindness on us, we actually deny the good to begin with. And he says that this denial is rooted in foolishness. And it comes to the point that people think that they could be smarter than God in how they run the world and how they make things happen. And this is a famous, great Chassidic Rebbe that they asked him the question, if you were God, how would you run the world? If you could change things, what would you do? If you ask people around the table now, someone would say, well, I would find the new mayor for New York, or I would stop the terrorist attacks in Israel, or whatever else I would do. I would heal all the sick. I would get matches for all those without shidduchim and cure all mental health illnesses in the world. And the Rabbi answered, I wouldn't do anything any different than's going on right now because God knows exactly what he's doing and I don't think I could do anything better than he can. And it's really, in a sense, it's a sense of arrogance where we think, well, we could do better. We have better ideas for how to run the world than God does. And he gives a mashal of a group of blind people that were brought into a hospital, a center that was made specifically for them and all their needs. And every possible machine was there, every possible comfort was there, perfectly made for them, rails that they could hold on to when they walk, blinking, you know, beeping noises that they know what if things are safe or unsafe, all types of medicines and pharmacies and doctors. And they didn't pay attention to any of the rules, any of the regulations, didn't follow any doctor's instructions. And they walked through the hospital without listening to the beeps. They tripped, they fell, they banged into the machine that was there to fix them. They broke their arms, they were in pain, they were crying. And they said, who built this place? It's a disaster. We're falling all over the place. He doesn't know what he's doing. He's not a good doctor. He doesn't know how to run anything. And they don't realize that everything here was set up for kindness and goodness, not to paint anybody. And if anything, the one that caused the pain was the person themselves. And they now go deny the benefit and the goodness of the one that helped them. And he quotes a pasuk in Kohelet to this effect. The path that the fool takes is without heart and he announces to the world that he's a fool. Which means that's the person that goes through this world in a foolish way, and by denying God, announces to the world that he's foolish. So that's the first important premise in appreciating our lives is to understand that there's a lot of things that we're not gonna understand. I once heard a beautiful line, I don't know who said it. that the difference between the atheist and the believer. The believer has one thing to deal with. They don't understand why righteous people suffer. That's the question that Moshe Rabbeinu asked. That's the one thing that believing people don't understand. Atheists? They don't understand where a flower came from, where an eye came from, where a heart came from, where the Swiss Alps came from, where air came from. They don't understand anything. We have one thing. We don't understand exactly how God deals with us. Okay. Well, if anything, as we'll see later on, the very fact that we see such wonders of creation tells us how smart and understanding God is. And therefore, we'll tell ourselves, if we don't understand how to create a embryo, we don't know how to make a fly, well, shows God pretty smart. And if he could make a fly, he could probably

Welcome to our daily Bitachon series. We continue to talk about Sha'ar HaBechinah . And as we said in the past, it relates to Sha'ar HaBitachon in a very strong way. There's a Midrash that says there was a Kohen who was going on a business trip. And before he left, he wanted to tell his wife different laws about how to figure out Tzara'at , leprosy. And he told her in his discussion that only one hair grows out of one follicle and two hairs do not grow out of two follicles. She told him if every hair has a follicle and God could sustain the hair, don't you think he could sustain you? Why do you need to travel? And he didn't. So let's talk a little bit about hair follicles and you'll appreciate what a hair follicle is and how God takes care of a hair follicle, and he can take care of you.So a hair follicle is actually a dynamic organ found in mammals. It resides in the dermal layer of the skin, that means it's on the top of your skin. And it has 20 different cell types, each with distinct functions. The hair follicle regulates hair growth, that means who decides how fast your hair is going to grow. And it's a complex interactions with hormones, neuropeptides, and immune cells. That's why sometimes people that have a immune, autoimmune disease, their hair falls out, because there's something wrong with the immunity. And there are different types of hair on different parts of your body. It means the hair on your head and the hair on your beard and the hair on your stomach or the hair on your back are all different kinds of hairs. And we'll get to another interesting point soon. And the hair growth also happens in stages. First is it actively grows, then it's at a resting stage, then it regresses, then it sheds, and then it's empty for a time till the next stage goes on. Interesting enough. Then we have a gland called a sebaceous gland which is a microscopic exocrine gland. That means it's a type of gland in the skin that opens into the hair follicle. It means you have the hair follicle and there's a little tube, microscopic, that enters the hair follicle. And what's its job? It secretes an oily or waxy matter which lubricates the hair and the skin.These glands are in the greatest number in the face and the scalp. That's why your face gets oily and your scalp gets oily. But it's on other parts of the body as well, except for your palm of your hands and the sole of your feet because we don't want the palms of your hand or the soles of your feet to be slippery. And this gland secretes an oily, waxy substance. And it's a lot of chemicals go into that. We're not going to bore you with the details. It also helps in our thermoregulatory cycle. That means it helps depending on the heat and the cold. In hot conditions, the secretion emulsifies the sweat. And that way the sweat is not easily lost and it stays on the body. It's important to delay dehydration. In colder conditions, it becomes more lipid and it causes rain to be repelled.It also serves as a shield against microorganisms. So there's it secretes an acid, and this slightly acidic film on the surface of the skin is a barrier to prevent the microbes that might penetrate the skin. Now this is an unbelievable one. During the last three months of fetal development, the sebaceous gland of the fetus produces a waxy white substance that cover, that coats the skin to protect it from amniotic fluid. Wild. That means out of the 120 years you're alive, for three months the gland decides to secrete a different type of substance that specifically will protect the embryo from the amniotic fluid. Wonder of wonders. And this is one of the things the Chovot HaLevavot says in Sha'ar HaBitachon where God's taking care of me in the womb is protecting me. How? In this wild concept.Now, there are also glands in the eyelids that secrete a different form of sebum onto the eye that slows the evaporation of tears. It also serves to create an airtight seal when the eyes are closed and prevents the eyelids from sticking together. They attach directly to the follicles of the eyelashes which are arranged vertically within the eyelids. This is wonder of wonders. More than that, as we said, all these different type of glands produce different types of wax and oil. My father's a dermatologist told me once that there's something called lice. We don't want to know about those lice. You have to clean your hair for lice and and so on. But there's different lice that do grow on different parts of the body depending on the type of secretions there are and oils and waxes, they have different habitats, just like different habitats of the world have different animals living on them. Different habitats of your body, because man is called an olam katan , a mini world. So you have the Amazon jungle in your hair where you have rhinoceroses like to hang out there. Then you might have on your stomach some other type of jungle and so on and so forth throughout your body. And different animals and different creatures like those habitats. These are wonders and wonders, and this is just about the hair follicle. And again, shaar bechinah is about appreciating these wonders and saying, wow, if Hashem could take care of the hair follicle.

Welcome to our daily Bitachon series and we are now in the Sha'ar HaBechina of the Chovot HaLevavot discussing seeing God in creation. And he tells us that the second reason why people don't see God in creation is they're just used to it. They see it all the time. It doesn't talk to them, doesn't mean anything, nothing extraordinary. The Chovot HaLevavot in his Sha'ar Cheshbon HaNefesh chapter three, says that a person should never be at the point which he calls he gives up on the wow. What does that mean? That means when I see something new and exciting, I say, wow. The first time you saw a Tesla car, you said, wow, look at that. It's a car going without gas. Or the wow of anything that's strange and different, we get the wow. But then we lose the wow. And the wow is only saved for the solar eclipse, but there's no wow for the regular sun. And that's the point that he makes, that we get amazed by waterfalls, but not by rain. We get amazed by the things that change, but not the constants. And the Chazon Ish says the difference between nature and miracles is nothing more than nature is just consistent miracles.And this is an important concept which separates different types of people, the kind of people that are only triggered by the changes and the difference and the people that are don't need an outside trigger, but they themselves are the cause to contemplate. And we see this by the four sons of the Haggadah Shel Pesach . One of them is the chacham . He asks, not because he's prompted by anything special. But the tam says, mah zot , what is this? What's the, what's the, why is this called the simple son? Because this is what's this? And we have to look at the context of when he asks the question. We say we do this is in Shemot 13:11. We it's in our tefillin that when there's a firstborn donkey, you can either redeem it on a sheep or if you don't want to redeem it, then you have to chop the donkey's head off. At that point, the child says, mah zot , what is this? When something's strange, then he starts to ask, otherwise, nothing bothers him. This is a beautiful mashal I once heard of a child that goes into a cockpit of an airplane and he's looking at all the different things that are going on and he sees this big red button. He says, what's this? What's this? I mean, everything else in the cockpit you understand, all the different gauges and all the different levers make sense. Just the red button, you don't understand? And that's this tam over here that he's mah zot , what's this? What's going on? You know, I understand tefillin , I understand tzitzit , I understand all of the 612 mitzvot . The one thing that's bothering me is why you're chopping off this poor donkey's head. That's a tam . That that's you only ask questions when things are extraordinary, and the truth is, there are a lot of tams in the world. And that's why at the night of the Seder , we make changes, changes so the child should ask. But that's the child that should ask. That's the tam . That's we're not supposed to be tams . We're supposed to be the kind of people that are always thinking, always contemplating, always trying to understand.So we're just used to our bodies and used to everything that's going on with us. We don't even spend the time to look into it. Then there's an even lower level, the one אינו יודע לשאול. He doesn't even know how to ask. Even after he sees a change, he doesn't ask anything. He just keeps going. So our job is to bring ourselves up to the level of the chacham . The person that contemplates, that looks, that tries to tries to understand what's going on around him. And not just what's going on around him, but like Iyov said מבשרי אחזה אלוה, from my own skin, my own flesh and blood, I see God. Look at your body. A little simple, little simple example. If you ever look at your your knuckles and you see like there's a little extra skin by your knuckles of your hand, you can look at it right now when you bend it. Well, if you'd have knuckles, but the skin would be as tight by the knuckles as the rest of your body, they wouldn't bend. Look at the back of your shoulder. Has a similar look. Look at your knee. You have a little extra skin over there that God put in like the, you want to bend the straw, like there's that extra, you know, accordion piece at the end that you can bend the straw, otherwise it wouldn't bend well. Well, where did that come from? When do we ever notice that little extra flesh on our fingers? And there's endless examples of that, how God is doing things just for us to make life comfortable and good. And that's again, constant strengthening Tov Hashem la'kol . Hashem is good for everybody. We just don't see it because we're so used to it. And again, this is necessary, this is the backbone of bitachon , understanding Tov Hashem la'kol . He's reliable because he wants to do good for us and he's only doing good for us, but we forget about it and we're blind. And as we said, we're blind because we're used to it and we have to break that habit and that automatic way of looking at things and become excited and put the wow into something as simple.

Welcome to the daily Bitachon . As we mentioned, this coming Rosh Hashanah is going to be on Shabbat , and therefore since we don't have the shofar , the year before we need to make sure we're on our best behavior on Shabbat , so with Hashem's help we'll be talking about Shabbat on Fridays.This week's parashah , coincidentally, Chayei Sarah , talks about the passing of Sarah and it talks about that when Rivka came into the tent, the miracles returned. What were the three miracles? Miracle number one was she lit the candles on Friday afternoon and lasted throughout the week. She, the bread that she made was warm all week and there was a cloud of the Shechinah on top of her tent.What is the significance of these three miracles? These three miracles have to do with the woman's three mitzvot , which all revolve around Shabbat . Hafrashat challah , which brought the blessing into the challah , you make challah for Shabbat . Lighting the candles, and the cloud that comes down which has to do with taharat hamishpacha , family purity, which brings the Shechinah upon the home. All of these three mitzvot of Shabbat that the lady has corresponds to certain articles in the Beit Hamikdash . The lighting of the candles corresponds to the menorah . The bread refers to the shulchan with the lechem hapanim , and the cloud upon the tent refers to the holy ark that had in it the two luchot that was where the Shechinah dwelled.And this brings us into an important concept that Shabbat has the aspect of Beit Hamikdash in time. That means it's not the place of the Beit Hamikdash , it's Beit Hamikdash in time. That's why in our Friday night prayers we say, הפורש סוכת שלום עלינו ועל ירושלים. There's a sukkah of peace that comes upon us and Yerushalayim . Yerushalayim is invoked on Friday night because on Friday night we're all in Yerushalayim , we're in the Beit Hamikdash . And many of our Shabbat activities correspond to Shabbat . And we'll give you some of them and maybe you'll think of some others on your own. First of all, we sing zemirot , like the Levi'im sang song. Second of all, we say kiddush on wine, like they poured the wine libations. Third of all, the minimum to wash your hands, minimum washing before Shabbat is wash your hands and feet like in the Beit Hamikdash where they washed their hands and their feet. We wear special clothing like the bigdei kehunah . We have incense, ketoret , in the Beit Hamikdash which is either symbolized by the custom to smell certain fragrances, specifically hadasim , or some say it refers to the smell of the food on Shabbat . כי מציון תצא תורה ודבר השם מירושלים. The Torah comes out of Tzion , it comes out of the Beit Hamikdash . The Sanhedrin was in the Beit Hamikdash , the high court, and therefore we say extra divrei Torah at the Shabbat table. Shabbat is called me'ein Olam Haba . Shabbat is a microcosm of the world to come. And it says so too when you enter the Beit Hamikdash , you felt you were in another world. That's why it's they said in the Beit Hamikdash , min ha'olam v'ad ha'olam , from this world to the next world. When they enter the Beit Hamikdash , you felt you were in another world. And that's so is Shabbat , the feeling of being in another world.And there's a beautiful concept that Rav Moshe Feinstein brings out from a personal experience. He walked into the Russian Embassy in New York and he was originally from Russia. And when he entered the embassy, he felt like he was in Russia. The clock was Russian, the tables were Russian, everything about the place was Russian. You felt like you were in Russia and even legally, if someone's born in the Russian embassy, they're Russian even though in America. The area of the embassy is culturally and legally like that nation. And so too he said that God's embassy on Earth is the Beit Hamikdash . When you walked into the Beit Hamikdash , you felt like you were in another world. You felt like you were in God's world and you were legally in God's world. There was no flies, there was no smell. All the wonders that existed in the Beit Hamikdash , you were in a different world, in a different zone. And in a certain way, on Shabbat we're also in a different world, we're also in a different zone, the world of me'ein Olam Haba , a microcosm of the world to come. And therefore, let's appreciate what goes on. Just like when you're by the Kotel and you're at the Beit Hamikdash , you act differently, you feel differently. So too Shabbat we have to realize we're in a zone. We're in the sanctuary of time, which is called Shabbat . And it's not just a nice allegorical comparison to a parable. As we stated, there are many real things that we do on Shabbat that correspond to the Beit Hamikdash . And I'm sure every... of them. The most obvious is Kiddush and the wine. The most obvious is the two challot , the Lechem Mishneh on the Shulchan . The candles are the Menorah . The Havdalah ceremony on Saturday night. These are all things that we do in our mini- Shabbat home experience of the sanctuary in time that we inherited from the Beit Hamikdash , and it's not a coincidence. It's a real connection. Let's talk about Kiddush on Friday night. Why do we make Kiddush on Friday night? First of all, the word Kiddush itself. What does it mean? When you say something is Kadosh , holy, Kodesh , it is dedicated and designated for a specific purpose. And that is what is called kedushah . So, the kedushat hayom , the sanctity of the day of Shabbat , we take a cup of wine, we make a L'chaim on it. Some people make a Shehecheyanu also on the wine, because it represents the joy of Shabbat . But we are making Kiddush . We are declaring the day holy. In fact, the word Kiddush is related to the word kiddushin , which is marriage. It's a special, unique relationship. We also know that there is such a thing as Kiddush Hashem , sanctifying God's name, or God forbid, Chal Shem Hashem , that we should not do which is the opposite, Chillul Hashem , which is the desecration of God's name. So the word Kiddush means to make something holy and special. In the Kodesh Kodashim , the Holy of Holies in the Beit Hamikdash , was a place where heaven and earth kissed. It's that special. Shabbat is that special time of the week. Now, where do we get this idea of Kiddush from? It's a pasuk in the Torah, and it actually appears twice. In the first Ten Commandments, the pasuk says, זכור את יום השבת לקדשו, remember the Shabbat day to make it holy, to sanctify it. And the second of the Ten Commandments, it says שמור את יום השבת לקדשו. Now, there's a famous story in the Mishnah of Shabbat , Perek Zayin , Mishnah Bet . The Gemara , the Amora'im , were discussing what's the best oneg, pleasure of Shabbat ? And one Amora , Reish Lakish , said chamra v'reichana . What's chamra v'reichana ? Chamra is wine. Reichana is beautiful smelling spices. So Reish Lakish said, Chamra v'reichana leisanei . These are the best for the enjoyment. We make a L'chaim , a Borei pri hagafen on the wine and Borei minei vesamim on the spices to enhance the joy of Shabbat .

Welcome to daily Bitachon as we continue in our trek through Shaar HaBechinah finding God in creation in the Chovot HaLevavot . And as the Chovot HaLevavot tells us, although God's goodness is all encompassing as it says Tov Hashem la'kol , yet most people are blind. The first reason for the blindness is I only see what I don't have, don't appreciate what I do have. The second reason is what we call hergel . It becomes habit and therefore it's mundane.Now Rav Wolbe writes that this concept of habit is extremely important. First of all, it's a gift. We'll call it the gift of automaticity. It's vital for life. You drive a car, if you remember when you first started driving, you're all tight to the wheel and turn it like they taught you in your training and driver's trainer to do it properly. A person, lo aleinu , that has a stroke, they have to teach him how to brush his teeth again. Life will become difficult if everything is heavy. God made it that things become automatic. And we need that for our religion as well. We say, ve'hargileinu be'Toratecha , get me habituated into doing your mitzvot . It's important. But it has a downside, because we stop thinking and we stop appreciating, and habit becomes nature.And as the Chazon Ish once said, the only difference between miracle and nature is nature is a miracle that keeps repeating itself. And the famous example is given that the generation of the desert, they had bread coming from heaven. Those that were born in the desert, that's all they saw. Bread comes from the heaven. They made a bracha , המוציא לחם מן השמים. God that gives us bread from the heavens. When they came into Eretz Yisrael , it was like a shock. I mean you put a seed in the ground, and the ground gives you food? How can the ground, this dirty, muddy ground produce food? Like, what's going on over here? And if we came outside of our doorstep one morning and there was a pile of bread that came from the heaven, we would be in shock like, what's going on over here? Bread from heaven? What's the point over here? Whatever you're used to becomes normal and it's accepted and it's taken for granted. You don't even notice anything. You walk down the street, trees are growing out of the ground. What in the world? How do trees come out of the ground? It's a hard wood and it's coming out of this soft mud. What is going on over here? But we're used to it.And the Chovot HaLevavot brings down one of his favorite, famous mashals of contrasting a child that was raised in a home versus someone that was a captive and redeemed in his 20s. A child that's raised at home, or for that matter, he actually says a child that was picked up from the side of the street and raised by parents, it's the same parents that raise you. And this child was, everything was done for them: fed, clothing, housing, schooling, hobbies, whatever you want. On the other hand, we have a man that was taken captive as age 20 and the Israeli defense force comes in and saves this person. And of course he's indebted to him for life, and he should be. But at the end of the day, without the parents, there'd be no child at all. Of course, these soldiers are our heroes. But the reason why the person that's saved later in his life is much more appreciative is because it came when his mind was developed and he wasn't habituated and conditioned into the goodness. And that's the reason that we are not able to see God, because we're conditioned into his goodness from a young age and everything therefore is accepted and given. And that's why we need to work hard to overcome this challenge.We use the term hergel , as we said, ve'hargileinu be'Toratecha . The root of the word hergel , which is habit, is regel , your feet. Your feet, as we said, walk, it's automatic. Have you anyone ever experienced you move to a new place and you're walking and suddenly you just walk back to your old house, you're not even thinking. Your feet walk without you even thinking. David HaMelech says in Tehillim 119:59, חשבתי דרכי ואשיבה רגלי אל עדתיך. Even though my might be thinking of doing other things, my feet naturally take me to the Beis Midrash . So that's the, you're not even present. Your feet walk and you're not even there. That's what can happen in our life. We just walk through and we don't even see and appreciate the most basic fundamental gifts that God gives us because we're just on automatic pilot, on our automatic feet. And that's part of our job.

Welcome back to our daily ביטחון. We're talking about recognizing השם in creation and appreciating as we said, the concept of טוב השם לכל, everything God doing is constantly good. I once heard an explanation, I don't remember where, this a seeming paradox of rain. Rain is the greatest thing in the world. The גמרא goes on and describes that rain is like תחיית המתים, like the resurrection of the dead. The rain comes down, the earth is dry, it's like it's dead, and it comes back to life. And yet, people look at rain as a nasty day. We don't want rain, we don't like rain. And why is that? Why did God make it that way? The answer is that anytime a great bounty is coming down, עין הרע interferes with it. For example, it says that the first לוחות were given with a lot of fanfare, thunder and lightning, and the יצר הרע got involved and the golden calf came about. Yet, the second לוחות came quietly, and therefore they lasted. If rain would be apparent and everyone would see the goodness like gold coming out from the heavens, it would be, have an עין הרע on the rain. So therefore, in order for the rain to come down and impact us in the best possible way, God made that it's something that we don't enjoy, the puddles, the mess, the sleeting, the all the negative feelings getting caught in the rainstorm. That's השם's greatness. Yet, we're blind as the חובות הלבבות said. So there's different reasons that's we're blind. One as we spoke about yesterday was, we get used, we always want more. Because we always want more, our desire and our our arrogance, because you always want more interferes with seeing what we have. But there's actually a more fundamental problem which is a concept in psychology called inattentional blindness, which has nothing to do with your arrogance or your desire. And the basic study tells us that when attention is focused on one object or task, observers often fail to perceive an unexpected object, even if it's large and visible. The most famous test was called the gorilla test where people focus on counting basketball passes. And during this game to see if you could count how many times the basketball was passed from the people in black or the people in white. In the middle of this scene, a gorilla, man in a gorilla costume, walks on the stage, beats his chest, and walks off for a total of five seconds, and close to 50% of the people don't notice the gorilla because they're focused on something else. So that's a natural blockage, that if we're not looking for something, we don't see it. And there are many such examples. But the truth is when it comes to הקדוש ברוך הוא, the question is, are we looking for him? We might not be looking for him because we're focused on something else. We're looking for what we want, we're not looking for him. And God is hidden in the world. The world עולם, the root of the word is העלם which means hidden. God is hidden. And if there's something, you're not looking for something, even if it's large and visible, you're not going to see it, surely if it's invisible. That's one strong reason. We're not looking for it, so we're blinded by that, by our inattentional blindness. There are other reasons for our blindness that is subconscious. One of them is we'll call it the obligation trap. The more we see השם's goodness, the more we're obligated to change our lives and show הכרת הטוב, and nobody wants to do that. We avoid recognizing what others do for us to avoid feeling beholden and responsible. And this is, we'll call a self-inflicted blindness, because we don't want to see something that's going to cause me to change my life or change how I look at myself. This is a point brought up by ר' אלחנן וסרמן that the world's greatest philosopher, Aristotle, could not see God, not due to the lack of his intelligence, because he was blinded by something else. He didn't want to see it because he didn't want to have to live his life by God. And that's why the ר' אלחנן וסרמן says that even the youngest person in the Jewish people is asked to have אמונה, because אמונה is really simple. If you see a beautiful building, it didn't come from nowhere. That is just obvious. If you see a, if you see a refrigerator on on Mars, obviously someone was there. Refrigerators don't come from nothing. Yet how could you think the world comes from nothing? The answer is, it's the blindness because you don't want to see it. And שוחד יעוור עיני פקחים, bribe blinds the eyes of the wise. And we're blinded by the bribe of living a life of liberty, a life with no one telling you what to do. And that's why we can't see. So there are many reasons for this blindness that doesn't allow us to see God. And therefore we have to fight against that blindness. And that's our job.

Welcome to daily בטחון. We're now continuing to discuss the concept of recognizing God in creation, recognizing all the good that he does for us. And now that we said, as explained yesterday, טוב השם לכל, God is good to everybody, not just most people, everybody, we have to figure out why is it that we're not all jumping and dancing in appreciation for all this goodness. And the חובות הלבבות is going to give us three reasons. Reason number one is, we're so busy in this world and the pleasures of this world and our desire is driving us to get to the next thing. And we're looking at what we don't have: the house that we don't have, the car that we don't have, the clothing that we don't have, and so on. That constantly looking for what we want next causes us to ignore looking at what we have now, because our hearts are dependent and are being dragged after that awesome force of looking forward to the next thing. And whatever they have, they want the next level, and they're searching for the next one. And therefore, what they have becomes small in their eyes. What they have is less than they should get. And the greatest of gifts become inconsequential. Means you get a gift saying, "Oh yeah, you only gave me a Rolex watch, you know. I wanted a Patek Philippe, not enough." Always going on to the next one. The point he says, that people think that every goodness that they see by their friend is as if it's missing from them. And whatever they have is no good. And they don't appreciate the goodness. So he started off by saying the driving force is desire. But he ends off with the פסוק in תהילים, רשע, the wicked one, כגבה אפו, due to his arrogance, בל ידרש, he's not searching. אין אלהים כל מזמותיו, God's not on his mind. So what's driving him is both the desire and the arrogance. I want so much and I deserve so much. You deserve that, all the great things that you've done, you deserve that. So these bad character traits don't allow us to see the goodness that we have.And that's why we know that people that come from humble beginnings quite often appreciate the most basic things, appreciation of being an American citizen. I heard that once a man who was, came to this country, and he's in his 80s and 90s, and he appreciates that he's an American citizen. I don't even think about that. If you came from communist Russia or you came from some difficult third-world country and you're waiting years to get your green card, you appreciate what it means to be an American citizen. Who appreciates that? And there are endless goodness's that don't mean anything to us.The key is to be able to look at what you have. And that's a lost art. There's a beautiful גמרא in נדרים 50a. We all know the story. רבי עקיבא marries the daughter of כלבא שבוע, one of the wealthiest men. And he was not in favor of the שידוך, and he disowned the couple. And they were living in a hut, sleeping on the floor with no pillows, no mattress, sleeping on the straw. And every morning when רבי עקיבא's wife would get up, she'd have straw in her hair and he'd pluck the straw out and promise her, "One day I'm going to get you a beautiful tiara called a ירושלים של זהב." One day, there's a knock on the door and אליהו הנביא comes looking like a human being. And he says, "Can I have some straw? My wife just gave birth and I have nothing, she's on a mud floor." And רבי עקיבא tells his wife, "You see, we have straw. He doesn't have straw." At that point, she said, "Go out to ישיבה," and the rest is history. My רב would ask a strong question. He says, "I don't understand. אליהו הנביא comes from the heavens and he should come with a pot of gold. You come to רבי עקיבא, not only don't you give him a pot of gold, you take away the straw that he has? What's going on here?" And he said that אליהו הנביא gave רבי עקיבא the greatest gift, which is the proper outlook, which is, "Hey, look, we have straw and they don't have straw." And that's worth all the money in the world. world. That מוסר lesson is more valuable than all the money in the world. And that's what he gave him. And that's the key to happiness. And that's what gave רבי עקיבא and his wife the ability to reach what they reached.

Welcome to daily dose of בטחון . We're on the topic of finding Hashem in creation, which as we said is important for our בטחון .Now, the חובת הלבבות in his שער בחינה opens up with the following important line. טובות הא-ל יתעלה על בריותיו . The benefits and the goodness of God on his creations, הם כוללות את כולם . They include everybody. As it says in תהלים , we say it every day in אשרי, טוב ה׳ לכל . God is good to everybody. Even though that's the absolute truth, he says most people are blind from recognizing it. And even if they recognize it, to understand the true benefit and levels of goodness that God gives us, and we don't really pay attention.This is what we're going to talk about today, this important concept of belief in this פסוק called טוב ה׳ לכל . And we say every single day in our עמידה, הטוב שמך . Your name is good. That is God, that's God's name, his name is good. Everything about him is good. His whole goal in creating this world was good. We say, ובטובו חיינו , we live in his goodness. In the גמרא it says you can't say מיטובו , we get from his goodness, because that sounds like we're outside of his goodness. He's here, giving us something good, that's מיטובו , that's not true. ובטובו , we're living in his goodness, everything is good, we're surrounded and bathing in his goodness. There's a beautiful מדרש in תהלים that says יבוא טוב , let the good one come, ויקבל טוב , and receive the good, מטוב , from the good, לטובים , for the good ones. A lot of good going on here. יבוא טוב , let the good one come, who's that? That's משה , as it says about משה, ותרא אותו כי טוב הוא . What's he getting? יקבל טוב , the goodness. What's the goodness? תורה is goodness, as it says in משלי 4:2, כי לקח טוב נתתי לכם , I gave you a gift of goodness. טוב, מטוב , from the good one. Who's the good one? That's Hashem. How do I know? Our פסוק, טוב ה׳ לכל . Give it לטובים , that's the Jewish people, like it says, הטיבה ה׳ לטובים . So God's description giving us the תורה is he's called the טוב . That's his name.It's interesting, we say every day in our prayers, המחדש בטובו בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית . When I was preparing this class, I realized something more than I ever paid attention to. I know that Hashem is מחדש בכל יום תמיד . He's recreates, creation's not here once and just stays on. Every moment God is recreating, מחדש בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית , every day constantly renewing creation, pumping energy into creation. But I missed a word, מחדש בטובו . God is constantly renewing his goodness, it's coming from his goodness. The שפת אמת in ויקרא פרשת החודש , year 5638, has an interesting way of reading the פסוק . מחדש בטובו , God rejuvenates, renews with his goodness. What does with his goodness mean? It means with the Jewish people that are called good, that we're the ones that recognize God's goodness in creation and we renew it and appreciate it daily. That's our job as טובים . There's a משנה in פרקי אבות 3:15 that says, הכל צפוי , God knows what's going on, he sees. והרשות נתונה , means he knows what's going to happen, yet we have freedom of choice. ובטוב העולם נדון , and the world is judged with goodness. And the רמב״ם says on this משנה in פרקי אבות that Hashem judges us with kindness and goodness, not what we deserve, but rather he has ארך אפים ורב חסד ואמת , God is full of kindness. And what's my source for this משנה ? טוב ה׳ לכל . טוב ה׳ לכל doesn't just mean that God gives goodness, but God judges us with a good eye. And this is a principle that the מסילת ישרים says in more than one place. In דרך ה׳ , unit one, chapter two, when he discusses the purpose of creation, he says, תכלית הבריאה . היא . What was God's purpose in creation? להיטיב מטובו יתברך לזולתו , to give from his goodness to others. In the ספר דעת תבונות , letter 18, he says, what we could understand is that השם is תכלית הטוב ודאי , is the ultimate goodness. And therefore, מחוק הטוב הוא להיטיב . The way of the good is to do good. And that's what השם wanted. He created us so that he could benefit us. But he says, since השם wants to give us the ultimate good, and he knows that if you receive and you didn't work for it, you can't appreciate it. It's someone that receives what he didn't work for is ashamed to pick his head up and look at the benefactor. Therefore, God in his ultimate goodness made life full of challenges so that we can overcome the challenges and truly enjoy the goodness that we get. Look how concerned Hashem is with our Goodness !

Previously we spoke about the רמב"ם that says that אהבה and יראה comes simultaneously by looking into creation. The רמב"ם actually mentions אהבה first. Interesting to note the חובות הלבבות in the tenth gate, the gate of אהבת השם, clearly states that אהבה is all at the end of the totem pole, it's his final gate. And he says that quite often the Torah mentions fear of Hashem before love. Like it says, ואתה ישראל, דברים 10:12, מה השם אלוקיך שואל מעמך? What does God want from you? כי אם ליראה to fear ולאהבה and to love. דברים 10:20, את השם אלוקיך תירא ובו תדבק. Fear Hashem and cleave to him. Cleaving refers to loving him. And he says, חייב להקדים היראה על האהבה באלוקים. You have to start with fear. Because if you don't have fear, he says, you can't come to love. Again he says, אי אפשר שיגיע אדם אליו, you can't reach it, אלא אחר שתקדם יראתו ופחדו. First you have to have fear and פחדו and and trembling from your God. Interestingly enough, as the source for why we need to look into creation, the חובות הלבבות quotes a פסוק in קהלת 3:14, והאלוקים עשה, God created the world, שייראו מלפניו that we fear him. So the חובות הלבבות is consistent with his reasoning that I have to start looking into creation to fear him, to realize how great he is, that I shouldn't sin in front of him, to stand in front of him with awe and trepidation. Love will come later. That's the tenth gate. Got some time for that.And now let's discuss this פסוק והאלוקים עשה שייראו מלפניו. God created the world to fear him. The גמרא מסכת ברכות in two places quotes this פסוק. One time, רבי יוחנן says this refers to a bad dream. The purpose of a bad dream is that you should be afraid. What does that mean that bad dreams were created for people to fear Hashem? The גמרא מסכת ברכות says that a bad dream is actually a good sign. Because you have the bad dream, in the dream you were whatever the in a car accident, and you're all shaken up. Well, hey, you got scared from the dream, you got all shaken up. You say, oh no, these things could happen. I gotta get closer to Hashem. And by having the bad dream, the bad event didn't happen. So the bad dream accomplished what it was supposed to do, to instill a little fear in your heart. Based on this, the Steipler says in one of his letters that one of the reasons why people חס ושלום have to go for a medical testing, and they have to wait for a week till they get the results, and then ברוך השם you say, ah, the results came out good. That's really, he says, the same message as a bad dream. You needed to have some fear in your life, you needed some trepidation, and that fear healed you. God does things in this world to cause fear of him. That's one example of the of the reason why of what an example of that is. Another place in ברכות אמר רבי יהושע בן לוי. You know why God created thunder? To smooth out the crookedness of one's heart. As it says, והאלוקים עשה שייראו מלפניו. God did things to make us fear him. When you hear, says the מהרש"א, thunder, which is very scary and seemingly there's no real purpose of it, the purpose was to instill fear into you, and that will cause you to repent because you're afraid. But there's a beautiful point over here. The חובות הלבבות is telling us you can get fear through a bad dream, you can get fear from thunder, but you know what? You could get fear from looking at the apple and the orange, by seeing Hashem in creation. He's always watching me, he's always with me. And therefore, the smoothest way, the easiest way, the most painless way of fear, is by us finding God in creation and that gives us a level of יראת שמיים. So that's what we're going to be doing over here. Either the רמב"ם we're doing love and fear, or the חובות הלבבות doing fear alone, but regardless, we're involved in a very important activity of finding Hashem in creation. שער הבחינה, finding Hashem, testing, probing, being able to discern God in creation. Interesting, the first ברכה in ברכות השחר, הנותן לשכוי בינה. God gave the שכוי, which could mean the rooster or the human. being, בינה understanding, להבחין to discern between day and night. That's the ability to be critical, to be a critical thinker, to be able to discern and see and find. That's the להבחין, בחינה, שער הבחינה. And we will

Welcome to daily בטחון on our daily dose of gratitude series where we're talking about finding Hashem in creation. רב וולבה in his ספר עלי שור, volume 2, page 59, quotes from רבינו יונה in שערי תשובה, the third gate, the 17th piece. Where he's talking about מצוות עשה that we have to know about, that we need to do. And he says you should know that some of the most highly lofty levels are actually given to us as commands. We're commanded to love Hashem. We're commanded to cleave to him. These are commandments, but they're also high levels. We have to work on them. And one of the things that he lists is מעלות התבונן בגדולת השם. The quality of delving and looking into the greatness of God. And he brings two sources. Number one, וידעת היום והשבות אל לבבך כי השם הוא האלקים. Now, how do you do that? How do you realize השם הוא האלקים? By looking into creation. דוד המלך said in תהלים 14:2, השם משמים השקיף על בני אדם. God's looking down from heavens. And we know the term השקיף, רש״י tells us in פרשת כי תבוא, is usually negative. And what's God looking down at us in this negative way? לראות היש משכיל, is there someone that's using his intellect, דורש את אלקים, searching for God, looking for God in creation?רבינו יונה ends off and says, we were created for these to reach these qualities. As it says in ישעיהו 43:7, כל הנקרא בשמי, whoever calls, is called by my name, ולכבודי בראתיו, and is here for my honor, I created him. I created him to call my name and to bring my honor out to the world. And therefore, he says, if that's the case, what is man's hope if he doesn't put his עמל נפשו, his hard work, עיקר עסקו, and his main business בדברים שנברא בעבורם, for those things he was created for? So, what we're doing now in שער הבחינה is dedicating ourselves to this responsibility. רב וולבה further quotes from the חפץ חיים in his ספר שמירת הלשון volume 2 at the end of the ספר, chapter two, where he talks about the מצוה ואהבת את השם. And he says, I want to arouse you on an important point. The גמרא ברכות 14A tells us in the name of עולא, whoever says קריאת שמע not wearing תפילין is as if he's saying false testimony on himself. Why? Because he says and tie תפילין and you're not. So you're testifying falsely. And he says, the same is true when you say ואהבת את השם אלקיך. When you say and love Hashem your God, you can't have false testimony. And therefore, you have to put into your heart to love Hashem.And how do you do that? And again he quotes the חובות הלבבות in שער אהבת השם, chapter three, which as we mentioned yesterday, the חובות הלבבות does not deny that you get love of Hashem through looking into creation. Just he says we start with fear of God and then we get to love of God. And what should you do? Look into the greatness of God and his loftiness and that he keeps all the worlds going and look at how small you are and look at with the greatness of God and the smallness of you, look at all the goodness he gives to you consistently from the day you are on the earth, not because you're deserving, hides your sins from people and has patience with you. That's what you're supposed to think about and say, wow, look how much what Hashem's doing for me. And he says if it's difficult to think all this when you're saying קריאת שמע, do it sometime during the day. Interesting, I once heard from רב וולבה that's why we have the ברכות of יוצר המאורות in our in our תפלה before we say קריאת שמע. And he says, because it's a constant מצוה that's not time dependent, does that mean it should be less than anything else? And he says, ideally, do it right after you pray before you eat. Before you have your your your breakfast. Why? Like any מצוה, like לולב, like אתרוג, like תפילין, like מגילת אסתר on the night of פורים after a fast day, we don't eat until we fulfill the מצוה. So how could you eat before you fulfill the מצוה ואהבת את השם? And how do you do that? By looking into creation. You could actually do that as you walk to the breakfast table and look at the beautiful kiwis with all those little seeds in the middle and how beautiful and tasty it is. And so on and so forth. And then say, wow, look at this. Hashem made this beautiful feast for me, even though I don't deserve it. And as great as he is, he looks at little me and makes sure I have breakfast.

Welcome to daily ביטחון . We are now focusing on finding God in creation and realizing his kindness, which is the fundamentals of reliance.Now when we're doing this, what exactly are we doing when we're finding God in creation? What should our intent be? We know there's a rule מצוות צריכות כוונה . Our מצוות need to have proper intent. What is the intent? The רמב"ם , in his ספר יד החזקה on the foundations of תורה chapter 2, tells us that we have a מצווה to love and fear השם . And he quotes a פסוק to back up each one of these. And interestingly enough, the same way, the same path to love is the same path as fear. And he says as follows: when a person delves into God's wondrous acts and creations, and he sees from them his wisdom that has no end and no comparison, immediately, he loves him, he praises him, and he has a great desire to know that great creator. As דוד המלך says, צמאה נפשי לאלוקים . I yearn, my soul yearns for God, לאל חי , to the living God.So that's the first reaction. Wow, look at the beauty of the Swiss Alps. Look at the oceans, look at the view. And as he continues to think about those very same items, immediately, both times the רמב"ם says immediately, he is jolted backwards and begins to fear and realize, hold on, I am a small, little, lowly darkened creature standing with my limited understanding in front of the perfect one. As דוד המלך said, כי אראה שמיך מעשה אצבעותיך, מה אנוש כי תזכרנו . What is man that you even mention him?So this is very interesting. We don't realize that when I'm looking at the apple, the orange, or the pear and seeing God's wonders, I am on my way to love and fear השם . That's what we're doing. The ספר מצוות הקצר , another one of the ראשונים that lists the מצוות , when he talks about loving השם in his third מצווה , he says the more you understand God, the more you love God. If it's a little bit, a little bit. If it's a lot, it's a lot. And therefore he says every person has to set aside time to delve into the wonders of creation that through that you will get the honor of God, depending on your abilities. So there's endless things that you can do. And understand when you're doing them, it's not a science lesson, it's a lesson in the wonders of God.Now, there's endless things that you could talk about. This one hit me recently. We'll change the clock now, maybe not sleeping as well, maybe get older you're not sleeping as well. So I got myself one of these watches that measures how much deep sleep you have. I want to know how much I was sleeping at night, tossing and turning. And one of the the factors on this watch is something called REM, how much rapid eye movement did you have? I'm a curious guy, I said, what what exactly, why is rapid eye movement important? And does a lot of things, rapid eye movement. That means that's the time you're asleep when your eyes move back and forth. What is the purpose of this REM sleep? It's when you're dreaming and you're going through your day and processing things. People that don't have this stage of sleep, they can develop anxiety, irritability, even hallucinations, difficulty concentrating, appetite may increase. A lot of things going on. Now I don't want to get into that right now. To me the most fascinating thing about this rapid eye movement sleep is that when a person is in this stage, there's something that happened called rapid eye movement atonia. What does that mean? It's, it means when you're in this stage and you're having your dreams, so in a dream you might be jumping out of a building or running away from a fire or anyone else has their dreams, we're not going to share our dreams now. But the body becomes temporarily paralyzed because it protects the body from acting out the dreams. And that way you can process the emotional experiences, and at the same time not be in danger for what you're dreaming about actually acting out, and that's why you stay in your bed. People that are sleepwalking are obviously missing out on this aspect. But how this developed, you could sit and read about it if you'd like. That's not the important point, but the amount of chemicals and the electrical waves and who knows what's going on. Anyway, this is just a small example of this kind of בחינה , looking for God in creation that you could find with anything as simple as getting yourself a new Fitbit.

Welcome to daily ביטחון . We're going to make a little bit of a switch in our series, which we've done many times over our history. Our focus is ביטחון . ביטחון doesn't just start with ביטחון . Interesting to note, the חובות הלבבות wrote ten gates. שער הביטחון is the fourth gate, which is the fourth floor. To get to the fourth floor, you usually have to walk through the lobby, the first, the second, the third, until you can get to the fourth floor. You can't just jump right onto the fourth floor. And therefore, it's necessary to walk up the ladder of the חובות הלבבות . The first gate is called שער היחוד , which is a little philosophical, and the חובות הלבבות himself says the best way to recognize God as one is through his chapter two, which is called שער הבחינה , which is looking for God and searching for God in creation and seeing him and seeing his goodness.Now what's also very interesting is that when the חובות הלבבות wants to prove his point that God is good for everybody, and we have to look for it and find it, that's our job, but he is good for everybody. He says the following. He says, the first thing I want to tell you is that God's goodnesses upon his creations includes everybody. כוללות את כולם . He doesn't say that it includes most people, it includes everybody. How do I know? The only way I know things is from a פסוק . The פסוק says, טוב ה' לכל . God is good to everybody. And even though that's true, we don't always recognize it, which is the goal of this unit of the חובות הלבבות , his second gate to explain that. Now this is extremely important for ביטחון because the חובות הלבבות in his שער הביטחון chapter two tells us that in order to rely on somebody, you need to go through a seven-step checklist. And even after you get through all six, the final checklist, number seven is, that the person that you're relying on, you know is has the ultimate of generosity and the ultimate of kindness, whether you deserve it or not. And his generosity is consistent and his kindness never ends and never stops and goes on forever. Because if you don't have that understanding, well, I'm not worthy, or maybe the kindness ran out, or maybe the generosity is no longer. How can I rely on him? And no human being has those qualities. Like we say, אל תבטחו בנדיבים . Don't rely on the generous. Their generosity doesn't last forever. God's generosity and kindness lasts forever.And he goes on to say, it includes everybody. How do I know? The answer is, the same פסוק that he tells us in שער הבחינה is what he says you need for שער הביטחון . טוב ה' לכל . God is good for everybody. He's good to everybody. He is merciful on all of his creations. And that's why we can't rely on him unless we first went through שער הבחינה and really believe in our gut that God only does good.The חובות הלבבות in in in שער הביטחון , in the chapter seven when he talks about what people are missing and why they don't rely on him, one of the reasons is because they don't realize how kind he is. And he says, I want to tell you a general rule about ביטחון . What makes people have more ביטחון and less ביטחון , it all depends on how much you know about how God treats you. You have to believe that he's constantly protecting you and you have to believe that he's supervising and making sure that whatever happens to you is good for you.That's really everything, because what stops us? Things are not going right, God's not taking care of me, this is no good. How can I rely on him if all the things happening are no good? Well, but once you really get into your mind and your psyche, this principle of טוב ה' לכל , then everything changes. And that's the goal of שער הבחינה , to drill into one's head this important concept of טוב ה' לכל . God is good to everybody. And that's what we're going to be start doing now in our. daily בטחון series. You can switch the name if you'd like to daily בחינה , which means daily finding God in creation. Or you could call it daily dose of gratitude. However you want to refer to it, that's up to you. But the main point is to have this attitude of keeping your eyes open to find Go

The Highest Level of Reliance ( Bitachon ) Welcome to our daily thought on Bitachon (Reliance on God), focusing today on a verse from Tehillim (Psalms) Chapter 40: " אשרי הגבר אשר שם ה׳ מבטחו, ולא פנה אל רהבים, ושטי כזב ." "Praiseworthy is the man who has made God his trust, and turned not to the arrogant, nor to the strayers after falsehood." The commentary Tefillot David explains what it means to truly place one's reliance in God ( שם ה׳ מבטחו ): Relying on the Means vs. Relying on the Source There are different levels of bitachon : Lower Level: A person relies on God to save them, but only through natural means . They count on God, but their mental focus is on a tangible item—their business, a specific person, a deal—that God will use to bring the help. This means God is not the item of their reliance; the means are. Higher Level: The praiseworthy person does not focus on the means. They are confident that God will help them directly, without speculating on how it will happen. The verse emphasizes this by stating the praiseworthy man "turned not to the arrogant, nor to the strayers after falsehood." "The Arrogant" ( רהבים ): This refers not necessarily to arrogant people, but to people and things in general that, by acting as if they are the source of power, are arrogant in relation to God. "Falsehood" ( כזב ): This refers to things that are temporary or fleeting—things that don't last. The only thing one can truly rely on is God Himself. Yaakov Avinu's Lesson on Pure Bitachon The Beis HaLevi, commenting on Genesis 28:12, uses this concept to explain a Midrash regarding Yaakov Avinu. Yaakov was contemplating the immense difference between his grandfather Avraham's servant, Eliezer, who traveled to find Rivka (Rebecca) with ten camel-loads of wealth, and his own current situation. He had been stripped of everything by Eliphaz and was traveling with nothing. Initially, Yaakov thought: " אשא עיני אל ההרים, מאין יבוא עזרי ? (I raise my eyes upon the mountains, whence will come my help?)" At first glance, this thought— Where will my help come from? —seems harmless. After all, Yaakov certainly believed help would come from God. However, the Midrash reveals a deeper level of self-demand from Yaakov: Human nature is to rely on God but still get caught up in speculating on the method : Will my uncle bail me out? Will I win the lottery? While believing the help comes from God, the heart is busy generating ideas for how God will deliver. Yaakov realized this was a lower level of bitachon . He elevated his thought to: " עזרי מעם ה׳ עושה שמים וארץ . (My help is from God, Maker of heaven and earth.)" Yaakov demanded a higher level of trust: He must stop giving God suggestions or "ideas" on how to bring about the salvation. His reliance must be direct with "the Boss." This is the essence of the ideal bitachon in Tehillim 40: The praiseworthy person deals directly with God, turning neither to the arrogance of temporary means nor the falsehood of fleeting helpers.

Welcome to daily בטחון . As we know, one of the sources are אמונה and בטחון is שבת . And as we mentioned last week, since next year ראש השנה is going to be on a שבת , we need our שבת of this year to be on our best behavior. So, בלי נדר , every Friday's class will be something about שבת with השם 's help. I'd like to share with you something very interesting that I just learned this week. We all know that we stand up Friday night by קידוש, ספרדי custom, and we sit שבת morning. Now, what is the reason for the difference?So there's three different reasons brought down as to why we stand Friday night by קידוש . The more popular one, which I was aware of, is because you're staying testimony. When you say קידוש , you're testifying that God created the world in six days and rests on the seventh. And witnesses stand when they say testimony. That is Friday night קידוש , as we're making the testimony as we go into שבת . שבת day קידוש does not talk about, doesn't say ויכלו השמים והארץ , we just say מזמור לדוד . We don't talk about creation. As an aside, the חיד"א says that it's brought down that on Friday night your sins are forgiven as you walk home from שול . And he says the reason is, I'm about to testify, witnesses has to be כשר witnesses to testify, so therefore, in order to allow the Jewish people to testify, God forgives their sins.Reason number two is a fascinating reason the של"ה הקדוש brings down, which is that at a wedding, we stand up under the חופה out of respect for the bride. And since שבת is a bride, בואי כלה , enter bride, we stand out of respect for the bride, as we do by the חופה . Those that are under the חופה stand in Israel, many have the custom, at least in the ספרדי world, that everyone's standing, anyone at the ceremony. Some say that in חוץ לארץ , where our weddings are on a platform and we stand up, that's considered its own domain and therefore one is not considered part of the חופה necessarily. But if you're under the חופה , you have to stand out of respect for the bride. And so too Friday night, as the bride is entering, as the as the as the marriage is happening, we stand by קידוש .Again, beautiful thoughts to realize you're at a wedding Friday night. Reason number three is שבת , God is the king. And out of respect for the king we stand. That's why we bring God in when we are standing up, out of respect for the king. Three fascinating reasons to appreciate Friday night when you're standing, why you're standing.Another important thing to understand about קידוש is it says that when you make קידוש , you're considered a partner with God in creation. Question is, how do you become a partner in God with creation? What are you doing to partner up? You didn't create the world. Rabbi עדס explains with a beautiful משל that I've said in the past. We have four brothers that run a business. One of them flies to China and he is going to the Canton Fair, spending two weeks there working on production. The other brother works in the showroom as a salesman to sell the products. The other brother works in the back office to make sure that all the billing is coming in properly. And finally, our fourth brother, he works on advertising, social media, billboards, getting the word out all over for his product. And they make, the first year they make a million, two, three, four, now they're really doing great. And one of the brothers says to the other two, "Hey, the fourth brother, he's doing advertising. Why is he getting an equal share? He's not going to China. He's not going to... He's not selling. He's not even in the back office. Why should he deserve any money?" And they say, "You know what? Let's cut his salary." Okay? They all vote, three to one, they cut his salary. And lo and behold, the sales go down. What's going on? And they realize we really need advertising. He is an equal partner and he starts getting a portion again.So too says Rabbi עדס , we are partners in creation. There's one thing that God needs us for, and that is marketing. That's advertising. We do that. Our job is to market. So that means just like there's all different ways to advertise, we can have airplanes flying with banners, we can have advertisements in your Uber, and there's endless advertising platforms. The way newspapers and periodicals make money is advertising. The way Google makes money is from advertising. There are these trucks that pull these large, enormous 10-by-10 digital screens advertising. Well, you know what? All of us are walking on שבת with a digital screen on our chest saying, I am a Jew and I believe that God created the world in six days and rests on the seventh. As we go to שול , as we walk in the street in our שבת clothing, we are announcing. this unbelievable testimony. And therefore, we are partners in creation and we have a share in this huge business, this multi-billion dollar business that we inherited this partnership going back to אברהם אבינו who was the one that announced to the world that God created the world, and שרה אמנו . And what's שרה אמנו known for? She lit the candles Friday night. So both the husband when he says קידוש and the wife when she lights candles are involved in the advertising. And now for the final beautiful thought. When someone's a partner, they have a say in the business. And therefore, on Friday night, we have a say in the business. We are part of the business and we have a right for an opinion. That's why there's a story of a great צדיק that they came for a blessing and he said you should have come to me at קידוש time. That's when I'm a partner. Similarly, when a lady lights candles, she makes requests because she's a partner. So appreciate the power of קידוש . Again, we stand for one of three reasons: we're testifying, respect for the bride, respect for the king, and when we say קידוש , we are partners with God in creation.

Refuge vs. Guarantee: Two Levels of Trust Today we focus on a verse from Mishlei (Proverbs) : " בִּירְאַת ה׳ מִבְטַח עֹז, וּבָנָיו יִהְיֶה מַחְסֶה ." "In the fear of God is a powerful stronghold, and for his children, it will be a shelter." The Vilna Gaon explains this by contrasting two concepts of reliance, drawn from Tehillim 118:9 " טוֹב לַחְסוֹת בַּה', מִבְטֹחַ בַּנְּדִיבִים " (It is better to seek refuge in God than to rely on nobles). Defining Bituach vs. Chassayon (Reliance vs. Refuge) The Gaon distinguishes between two forms of seeking help: Bituach (Reliance/Guarantee): This stems from an Havtacha (a guarantee). If someone tells you, "I guarantee I will pay your mortgage," you are relying on their explicit promise. This is a spoken commitment. Chassayon (Refuge/Shelter): This is seeking shelter without a prior conversation or guarantee, like running under a rock when it starts raining ( " צוּר חֶסְיוֹנוֹ " —the rock in which one seeks refuge). You don't need to speak to the rock; you just need shelter. The teaching is that it is always better to seek refuge ( Chassayon ) in God than to rely on the guarantee ( Bituach ) of a human being . Applying the Concepts to the Verse The Gaon connects this distinction directly to the verse from Mishlei: " בִּירְאַת ה׳ מִבטַח עֹז " (In the fear of God is a powerful stronghold): A person who possesses fear of God merits that God will provide a guarantee ( Bituach ) for him to do good. This happened with Avraham Avinu after the Akeidah (Binding of Isaac). God guaranteed him: " כִּי יָדַעְתִּי כִּי יְרֵא אֱלֹקִים אַתָּה " (Now I know you fear God), followed immediately by " כִּי בָרֹךְ אֲבָרֶכְךָ " (Because I will surely bless you). Avraham is the example of this powerful, guaranteed stronghold ( mafte'ach oz ). " וּבָנָיו יִהְיֶה מַחְסֶה " (And for his children, it will be a shelter): His descendants (us) were never directly spoken to by God, so we don't have that personal guarantee. However, because of the merit ( Zechut ) of the Forefather (Avraham) , we merit the ability to seek refuge ( Machaseh ) in God . The Power of Zechut Avot (Ancestral Merit) This is a powerful concept for those who wonder, "How do I know God cares for me if He never guaranteed it?" The answer is that God guaranteed it to your great-grandfather Avraham . We benefit from that historical connection. Rashi confirms this interpretation, emphasizing the word " בְּצֵל זְכוּתֹו " (in the shadow of his merit) . A shadow offers shelter without needing a conversation with the tree that casts it—you simply enter the shade. Rav Nosson Wachtfogel further illustrates this idea using the concept of the Sukkah: The Sukkah is called the "shadow of faith" (Tzel Ne'emanut). After the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), when we are uncertain of our judgment, we run into the Sukkah, which serves as God's shade (Tzel). This echoes the incident with Rebbi (in Bava Metzia 85a ), where a calf about to be slaughtered sought shelter under Rebbi's coat. The Heavenly court ruled against Rebbi for his lack of mercy because the calf sought refuge under his wing . The concept is that when someone seeks shelter in you due to reliance, the Middat HaRachamim (Attribute of Mercy) demands you protect them. This is similar to Lot , who told the Sodomites: " כִּי עַל כֵּן בָּאוּ בְּצֵל קֹרָתִי " (Because they came under the shadow of my roof) —they relied on his protection, obligating him to defend them. Thus, Rashi's precise wording— "shadow of His merit" —teaches that we have an inherent right to seek refuge in that divine shadow, regardless of direct communication.

Trust Not in Possessions: Psalm 62:11 Welcome to Daily Bitachon. Today's verse is Psalm 62:11: תבטחו בעושק ובגזל. אל תהבלו חיל. כי ינוב, אל תשיתו לב .) "Do not trust in oppression or robbery; do not have vain hope in ill-gotten gain. Though wealth flourishes, set not your heart on it." The Illusion of Material Satisfaction The verse cautions us against placing our trust in wealth acquired through unethical means ,It also warns against even having vain hope in material gain , even when that wealth seems to be flourishing . Maram Albedeila offers a deeper explanation: even when we are financially flourishing through legitimate means, that prosperity rarely brings true satisfaction. This is due to the concept of , "one who loves money," who will never be satisfied with money. The more a person acquires, the more they feel they need. This idea is captured powerfully in Midrash Rabba Kohelet 3:13: "Man does not leave this world with half his desire fulfilled. If he has 100, he wants 200. If he has 200, he wants 400." The Ba'alei Mussar emphasize this paradox: the more you have, the more lacking you feel. A person with a hundred needs two hundred; a person in the millions now needs billions. The relative gap grows larger! The True Definition of Wealth Rav Shach famously asked how this paradox reconciles with the teaching in Pirkei Avot—"Who is wealthy? The one who is happy with his lot." If everyone always wants double what they have, how can anyone truly be happy with their lot? Rav Shach offered an insightful answer: Who is the truly wealthy person? The one who has nothing. The objection is obvious: How can someone have nothing? The answer is: You do have possessions, but you understand that you don't truly own them. You grasp that everything you have is HaKadosh Baruch Hu) lending to you temporarily. Your money is no different than the bank teller receiving a temporary deposit. This perspective mirrors the teaching of the {Chovot HaLevavot in his introduction to Sha'ar HaBitachon (The Gate of Trust). This is the first message of our verse: do not rely on money, even when it flourishes. Setting Not Your Heart Upon It King David concludes by stating, " אל תשיתו לב )—"Set not your heart on it." What does this mean in a practical sense? It addresses the temptation we face when we see others—even those engaged in shady dealings, corner-cutting, or outright scams—flourishing. To that, David commands us: Do not look at their success and think, "He's getting away with it; I can do that too." Even if unethical dealings appear to succeed temporarily, that success will not last forever. Justice awaits, whether in this world or the next. Because of this eternal reality, money—no matter how powerful it seems—is not worthy of our Bitachon. For lasting security and true satisfaction in life, we can only trust in God.

Trust in God: From Psalm to Parable Welcome to Daily Bitachon We begin with Psalm 25:2: {Adonai, b'echa batachti, al avosha. Al yail'tzu oivai li.} ( אלהי בך בטחתי אל אבושה אל יעלצו אויבי לי .) "My God, in You I have trusted; let me not be ashamed, let not my enemies exalt over me." The Midrash of the Stranger There is a beautiful {Midrash on this verse Midrash Tehillim} The story tells of a man entering a country at its border. The country's guards seized him immediately. The man cried out, "Do not strike me, for I am a member of the King's Household!" Hearing this, the guards released him and guarded him until morning. In the morning, they brought him to the King, announcing, "We found a member of your household last night." The King asked him, "My son, do you know me?" The man replied, "No." The King questioned, "If so, how are you a member of my household?" The man admitted, "Please, I am not a member of your household, but I trusted in You. Had I not claimed to be, they would have beaten me." The King responded, "Since he trusted in Me, leave him alone." This, the Midrash suggests, is what David means when he says, "My God, in You I have trusted." And because of this trust, "Let not my enemies exalt over me." Universal Reliance The Midrash continues, based on the next verse: "Also let none who hope in You be shamed. Let those who betray without cause be shamed." David then expands, asking: "You might think only I can do this? No, rather Kol Koveicha כל קויך a ll those who hope in You." The Sefer Shomer Emunim Ma'amar Bitachon (Essay on Trust), Chapter Eight, cites this as proof that even a person who may not seem "befitting" can rely on Hashem and be saved. Furthermore, the Sefer Dugma Mi-darkhei Avi by Rabbi Aryeh Leib, son of the Chafetz Chaim brings down this very Midrash as a source for this concept—that even one who is seemingly unworthy can rely on Hashem. He showed this to his father, the Chafetz Chaim who was pleased with this Midrash as a source for the concept. The Partner with God The Sefer Shomer Emunim also shares a story from the great Apter Rebbe, the Ba'al Ohev Yisrael. There was a man who ran an inn and sold whiskey, and he became a Ba'al Mofet, capable of giving Brachot that would be fulfilled. When the Apter Rebbe heard this, he sought to understand the source of this man's power. He observed the man all day; he seemed like a simple liquor store owner. The Rebbe finally asked the man his secret. The man replied, "I have always been a Ba'al Bitachon (one possessing trust). I never worried about anything. I once lost all my money and went bankrupt. My wife pressured me to find a partner. So, I left my house, went to the outskirts of the city, and declared: 'God Almighty, I want You to be my partner. I guarantee that I will split the money half and half: half for my family and half for charity.'" "That's what I did," the man concluded. "It became extremely successful. And whenever I gave someone a blessing, it was fulfilled." The Apter Rebbe understood: "Now I see. You became a partner with God, and therefore you have the power of the partner and can give blessings." This parallels our first story: a person without a direct, known relationship with the King (like the man who didn't know him but trusted him) was saved through that reliance. You can "partner up" with the King even if you don't know him, as shown by the innkeeper. Partnering on Shabbat The truth is, we all have some level of this power. A man in desperate need of a Bracha came to a great Tzaddik one Saturday morning. The Tzaddik told him, "You should have come to me at Kiddush on Friday night. When I make Kiddush on Friday night, I have greater power for blessings than the rest of the week." "Why?" the man asked. The Tzaddik explained, "It says that whoever recites Kiddush on Friday night becomes a partner with God in creation. Therefore, if you are a partner, you have equal rights and equal power—and that is the right time to give a blessing when I am a partner." We all possess this ability. This also ties back to reliance on Hashem, because on Shabbat we perform no work; we rely entirely on Hashem, and in doing so, we can partner up with Him.

The Three Gifts from Heaven I'd like to share a beautiful Midrash from Parashat Masei (22:7), which discusses three gifts created in the world: wisdom, strength, and wealth. The teaching is that whoever attains just one of them has acquired the most precious treasures of the entire world. If one has attained wisdom, he has attained everything. If he has attained strength, he has attained everything. If he has attained wealth, he has attained everything. But there's a vital condition. When is this true? When these gifts are truly gifts from Heaven and are accompanied by the strength of the Torah. However, the strength and wealth derived solely from a mere mortal being are essentially worthless. This aligns with what Yirmiyahu meant in chapter 9, verses 22–23. Thus says Hashem: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor the strong man glory in his strength, let not the rich man glory in his riches. But only in this may one glory: in knowing Me, that I am the Lord..." This presents a deeper understanding of the verse. Simply put, we often interpret this as: "Disregard pride; don't glorify yourself with these three qualities; only knowing God matters." That's not quite right. The message is that you can be praiseworthy for these qualities, but only if they come with the knowledge of God. This is similar to what we say in Eishet Chayil : "False is grace and vain is beauty; a God-fearing woman, she shall be praised." The simple reading suggests ignoring grace and beauty, focusing only on being God-fearing. However, commentators explain that the God-fearing woman is praised for her grace and beauty— because she possesses the proper connection to the Divine. The Danger of Snatching Divine Gifts The Midrash continues by demonstrating that the aforementioned qualities, when misused, can actually lead to a person's downfall. When these gifts do not originate from Hashem, they will eventually cease to be in the owner's possession. The Midrash then shares examples of two wise men, one Jewish and one from the nations: Achitophel and Bileam. Both were exceptionally wise, and both were ultimately eradicated. Two strong men: the Jew Shimshon and the Gentile Goliath. Both were eradicated. Two wealthy individuals: the Jew Korach and the Gentile Haman. Both were eradicated. Why were they eradicated? Because their gifts were not truly from Hashem; rather, they snatched them for themselves. Doesn't God give everything to everyone? The Sefat Emet in his commentary on Parshat Masei (from the years 5631 and 5634) explains: A person upon whom Hashem showers riches must remain humble, always remembering that the wealth doesn't come through his own efforts but is entirely a gift from above. As long as the recipient recognizes Hashem as the source of his good fortune, the gift remains connected to its sacred source and stays in his possession. However, should the recipient forget the source and imagine that he himself created his wealth, the link to the Giver is severed. He has effectively snatched the fortune for himself, it can no longer be described as being from Hashem , and it will inevitably leave him. Maintaining Our Gifts as Gifts from Hashem We learned from the previous Midrash a crucial concept: our gifts from Hashem must remain gifts from Hashem , not things we've snatched away and claimed as solely our own. So, how do we accomplish this? How do we ensure we recognize our blessings as gifts? The commentaries quote the Zohar (Volume 2, page 62a), which discusses the Manna ( Man ). It notes that people of faith ask every single day for their mezonot (food) and parnassah (sustenance) from the Kadosh Baruch Hu , and they pray for it. Such a person is called a Ben Ne'eman (a loyal son). The Zohar then quotes Rebbi Yisa the Elder , who famously would not prepare his food until he first asked Hashem for his parnassah . He would say, "I will not prepare my meal until it has been given to me from the House of the King ." Only after asking would he pause and then say, "Now I have enough time to get the food from the King's house, and now we can start preparing the meal." He stated that this is the way of those who fear God . This is quite profound. He already physically has the food. What is he doing? He is actively connecting what he possesses to its Divine Source , choosing to receive it as a gift even though he knows, technically, he already possesses it. The Daily Prayer for Sustenance This concept is the source for the prayer many people recite in Shema Kolenu , asking for their parnassah and food every single day. The words are: "May it be Your will, Hashem , my God and the God of my forefathers, to prepare sustenance ( parnassah ) and food ( mezonot ) for me and for all the members of my household today and every day—freely, not with limits, in honor but not in disgrace, in contentment, not in pain. May I not be in need of people or their loans, but only from Your hand that is generous, open, and full." We already have the food, so why do we ask for it again? This highlights the central concept of working on our Bitachon daily: Every single day, I need to know that what I have is a gift of God given to me today . When I wake up, my house is a new house I received today; my children are new children; my body is a new body. Nothing I possess—not my wisdom, not my wealth, not my strength—is mine from yesterday. It is all what I receive from God today . This brings us back to the prophet Yirmiyahu : "For only this may one glory: knowing Me ." If you want to be glorified, let it come from your knowledge of God , understanding that He gives you everything anew each day.

This is a special edition focusing on the importance of enhancing your Shabbat for the year of 5786 in the Hebrew calendar). I'll explain why shortly. The Significance of Rosh Hashanah on Shabbat We're all familiar with the Sefer Minchat Ani regarding Parshat Ha'azinu , which states that a year in which Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbat is either one of the best or one of the worst of years. It lists historical downfalls associated with such years: the destructions of the Beit HaMikdash (Holy Temple), the Spanish Inquisition. As we know closer to home, October 27th and 9/11 both occurred in such years. The core question is: what about a year where Rosh Hashanah is on Shabbat makes it capable of such extremes? Next year, 5787, will have this alignment, and it will happen intermittently for several years after that. It behooves us to understand its importance. I'm discussing this now, not just before next Rosh Hashanah, because preparation is key. The Shofar Analogy and the Role of Shabbat Most people ask: "Why is it potentially a bad year? Well, you don't blow the Shofar on Shabbat, so there's no Shofar—it won't be a great year." But this doesn't explain why it can sometimes be a great year. If the only difference is the missing Shofar, why the duality? The explanation lies in a mashal (parable): Imagine a king with two servants. One, a male servant, works in the treasury, managing the royal jewels and crowns. The other, a female servant who is an excellent chef, works in the kitchen, and she is married to the treasury servant. One day, the treasury servant is caught embezzling and sentenced to death. His wife pleads with the king, arguing that if her husband dies, she will be emotionally paralyzed and unable to cook for the king anymore—it's not worth it for the king. The king agrees and pardons his servant. A few years later, the servant falls back into his old ways and starts stealing again. He is caught. The wife again goes to plead for him, but this time, she enters wearing a cast on her arm. The king asks about the cast. She explains that besides stealing, her husband has a temper and broke her arm last week. Hearing this, the king decides: "It's better for you if I don't pardon your husband. If your husband treats you this way, I'm better off having him executed, and you will have a better life." The man's life is then over. Connecting the Parable to Our Lives What does this have to do with us? The servant is the Jewish people. The king is God. The wife is Shabbat . Shabbat is called Shabbat Malka (Queen Shabbat). We know the famous Midrash that says every day has its match, but Shabbat has no match, and God made the Jewish people Shabbat's match. So, we are a couple, and God is the King (or even the matchmaker, the shadchan ). When Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbat, the Shofar is not blown. The Sages were concerned that people might carry the Shofar, thereby violating Shabbat. Thus, we are protecting Shabbat. Shabbat, our "wife," becomes our lawyer that comes to our rescue before God. Now, how does our lawyer, Shabbat, look when she comes to our rescue? Is she prim and proper, well-dressed, and composed? Or does she have a broken arm or leg—is she injured? How our Shabbat appears when representing us before God on that day determines the outcome. If she looks great, we are pardoned; if she doesn't look good, chas v'shalom (God forbid), the opposite occurs. Why Prepare Now? Why am I telling you this now, with a year to go? Because you cannot wake up the day before Rosh Hashanah that falls on Shabbat and suddenly start fixing your Shabbat observance. You must prepare well in advance. We have forewarning; we know the calendar tells us that our Rosh Hashanah next year falls on Shabbat. The advice is clear: Make sure your "Shabbat Kallah" (your bride/Shabbat) looks her best next year! Start working on your Shabbat now , ensuring it looks as good as it possibly can. What does this mean practically? It means respecting Shabbat with your food and drink, respecting Shabbat by meticulously observing the 39 melachot (prohibited activities). Furthermore, consider your level of spirituality: your learning, your Tehillim (Psalms), whatever it may be—focus on enhancing your Shabbat this year. On a personal note, I know of two very good books on Shabbat observance: "Living Shabbat" and "Embrace Shabbat." Both are available from Artscroll; you can order them at artscroll.com. Perhaps you could read even one piece from one of them at every meal, and in that way, you can work on enhancing your Shabbat this year and getting your [outcome you desire].

The Power of Bitachon: "Behold, God is my Salvation" (Isaiah 12:2) The verse from Isaiah 12:2— הִנֵּה אֵל יְשׁוּעָתִי אֶבְטַח וְלֹא אֶפְחָד כִּי עָזִּי וְזִמְרָת יָהּ יְהוָה וַיְהִי לִי לִישׁוּעָה : Hineih Eil Yeshu'ati Evtach v'Lo Efchad ("Behold, God is my salvation; I shall trust and not fear")—serves as a core expression of Bitachon (trust in God) and is a source of strength in many Jewish practices. Its traditional use at Motzei Shabbat , as noted by the Sefer Pri Tzaddik, is to combat the sense of fear one feels when descending from the sanctity of Shabbat back into the challenges and uncertainties of the mundane world. The passage highlights three classic rabbinic interpretations: 1. The Vilna Gaon: Relying on Mercy, Not Merit The Vilna Gaon (Gaon of Vilna) focuses on the specific term used for God: Eil אל The Gaon explains that the correct approach to prayer is to invoke God's mercy and kindness. Eil is a Divine attribute often associated with compassion ( Eil Rachum v'Chanun ). The Interpretation: By declaring Eil Yeshu'ati ("God is my salvation"), we are relying on God's infinite mercy, not our own worthiness or merits. The Result: Therefore, we do not need to fear ( v'Lo Efchad ) that our sins or unworthiness might prevent God's kindness, because God's compassion is eternal and unconditional. The Bitachon is rooted in the quality of the Savior, not the quality of the recipient. 2. The Maharit: Salvation is Guaranteed in Suffering Rabbi Yosef Trani (the Mahari"t), in his sermons on Parshat Va'etchanan , sees this verse as the foundational reason for hope. The verse contains an explicit hint: Ozi v'Zimrat Yah יה , the two-letter name Hashem the full four-letter name), va-Y'hi li li'Y'shu'ah . The Interpretation: The verse teaches that God is with us in our trouble and suffering. Just as the Divine Name is currently incomplete (only partially revealed) in this world, but guaranteed to be complete in the future, so too our ultimate salvation is guaranteed. The Hope: Knowing that God's full name and glory will eventually be revealed provides certainty that the individual will also emerge successfully from their current distress. 3. The Maggid of Dubno: The Salvation is Already Here The Maggid of Dubno highlights a crucial grammatical point in the phrase, va-Y'hi li li'Y'shu'ah ("and He was a salvation for me"). The Grammatical Insight: The verse does not use the future tense, -Y'hi ("and it will be"), rather the past tense, Vayehi ("and it was"). The Interpretation: This implies that salvation is already here, right now, even though we do not perceive it. The suffering is not merely a prelude to salvation; it is itself an intrinsic part of the redemptive process. The Analogy: This is likened to the growth of the Messiah ( tzemach David ), who is compared to a growing plant ( tzemach ). When the seed is buried underground and seems to be decaying, it is already in the crucial stage of growing toward the visible tree. The Element of Surprise: Hineih This understanding connects powerfully to the opening word of the verse: Hineih הנה , which means "Behold!" or "Surprise!" Citing examples like the birth of Jacob and Esau ( כד) וַיִּמְלְאוּ יָמֶיהָ לָלֶדֶת וְהִנֵּה תוֹמִם בְּבִטְנָהּ :or Jacob's surprise upon marrying Leah וַיְהִי בַבֹּקֶר וְהִנֵּה הִוא לֵאָה , Hineih signifies an unexpected realization. The Conclusion: The surprise is the realization: "Behold! I didn't realize it, but God is my salvation right here, right now." In the future, we will look back and understand the underlying meaning of history and even be grateful for the tribulations, because they were the necessary process leading to redemption and spiritual triumph (as referenced in Isaiah 12:1). This powerful verse encapsulates the teaching of Rabbi Wolbe to be a "pasuk of strength" when situations are unclear, urging us to root our trust not in our circumstances, but in the unwavering and ever-present nature of the Divine commitment.

The Lesson of Bitachon: Overcoming Jealousy and Finding Your Unique Mission This lesson on Bitachon (trust and reliance on God) is drawn from the teachings of Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe , specifically in a letter he wrote to a young Yeshivah bachur (student) suffering from depression and lack of focus in his learning. Rabbi Wolbe identifies the root cause of the student's distress—and the core theme of the story of Cain and Abel in the weekly Torah portion ( Parsha )—as jealousy. The Root Cause: Measuring Yourself by Others The student, being in a Yeshivah environment surrounded by talented peers, was constantly comparing himself to others. He could only see his friends' positive qualities and talents while focusing exclusively on his own deficiencies and lacking's. He felt that because he didn't possess their specific gifts, he was unable to achieve success. To combat this, Rabbi Wolbe stresses a fundamental principle of Bitachon : You must know that HaKadosh Baruch Hu (God) gives every single person the necessary talents and abilities to fulfill his or her mission in life. This concept is acknowledged every morning in the Birchot HaShachar (Morning Blessings) when we declare: She'asah li kol tzarchi ("Who has provided me with all my needs"). This blessing confirms that everything a person requires—both physically and spiritually—to fulfill their unique destiny has already been granted to them by the Creator. The problem, therefore, is not a lack of abilities, but a lack of perspective: constantly measuring oneself with other people's measuring sticks. The Principle of Non-Overlapping Kingdoms Rabbi Wolbe calls the recognition of one's unique giftedness an Avodah Gedolah (great and important work). The crucial realization is embodied in the principle: Ein Malchut Noga'at B'Chavarta (One kingdom does not touch the other.) This means that the reign of two kings will not overlap. In a spiritual context, it signifies that God gave you your abilities, and only you can do what you are meant to do. Your friends, with all their specific talents and knowledge, will fulfill their missions, and you will fulfill yours . You must stop comparing yourself to others and instead believe that your Creator has already provided all your spiritual needs. The Lesson from Cain and Abel The lesson of non-reliance on external approval is mirrored in the Torah's account of Cain. When God rejects Cain's offering, He asks him: "Why are you so upset, and why has your face fallen? If you do good, you will be lifted up..." (Genesis 4:6-7). Commenting on this verse, the Or HaChaim (a classic commentary) notes that when a person performs good deeds, those deeds naturally elevate themselves. The spiritual status of the deed is inherent, not dependent on external validation. Rabbi Wolbe emphasizes a related powerful statement: HaKedusha einah tzerichah la'acheirim (Holiness does not need the approval of others.) You are not dependent on others to validate your efforts or your talents. If you possess the qualities, you need only to execute your mission. The Danger: Rotting Bones This concept is rooted in the verse from Proverbs (14:30): Rakev atzamot kinah (Jealousy causes the bones to rot). When a person is consumed by jealousy, they forget all the positive things God has given them. They only focus on what others possess, and in the process, their own inherent potential atrophies. The "bones" that support the person's self-worth become rotten due to the focus on what is lacking. The Final Foundation It is crucial to believe that God does not want everyone to look, learn, or understand things the same way. Each person has their own approach based on their unique talents and abilities. When a person dedicates effort using their personal gifts, they will merit achieving what they need to achieve. Rabbi Wolbe concludes with a famous story of Rabbi Naftali Amsterdam, one of the foremost students of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter: Rabbi Amsterdam once lamented to his Rebbe : "If only I had the keen intellect of the Sha'agat Aryeh, the pious heart of the Yesod V'Shoresh HaAvodah, and the perfected character traits of my Rebbe (Rabbi Salanter)— then I could truly serve God!" Rabbi Salanter immediately responded: "Naftali, with your head, with your heart, and your character traits, you can be a true servant of God." This is the fundamental principle of Bitachon : Believing that God has given you exactly what you need to fulfill your mission in life, and relying on Him to help you get there. The first murder in history stemmed from this failure to understand one's own mission, a "Cain" trait that we must all recognize and strive to overcome.

Rambam's Understanding of Sukkot (Guide for the Perplexed, 3:43) The Rambam explains that the holiday of Sukkot is designed to achieve the goal of ששון ושמחה (happiness and joy), and for this reason, it must last for seven days, " כדי שיתפרסם הענין " (so the topic will become well-known and advertised) and make a lasting impact. The Timing and Mindsets (Cognition and Character Traits) The time of the holiday is explicitly set by the Torah during the gathering of the harvest, a period when people have peace of mind and are relieved from the most basic needs. This setting is ideal for imparting two crucial lessons: 1. Mindset (Cognition/Knowledge): Remembering Miracles: It is an opportunity to remember the miracles that happened to the Jewish people in the desert for the benefit of future generations. 2. Character Trait ( מדות - Humility and Gratitude): Remembering Humble Beginnings: A person, successful and at the "top of the world" while gathering their grain, must remember their earlier, humble beginnings and "bad days." Reason 1: Gratitude: To take the opportunity to thank the Creator who brought them to this success. Reason 2: Humility: To cultivate the trait of humility and prevent arrogance due to current success. The Act of Dwelling in the Sukkah To fully internalize this lesson, the Rambam emphasizes the physical act of leaving one's home and dwelling in the Sukkah: Living the Lesson: We sit in temporary booths, reminding ourselves that we were once desert wanderers and were in a "suffering state." The Sukkah as a Booth (Not necessarily 'Ananei Kavod'): The emphasis here is on the simple booths of desert wanderers, a more fundamental understanding of the commandment, rather than solely the "Clouds of Glory" ( 'Ananei Kavod ). The Transition: We remember that from those simple beginnings, God brought us to our beautiful homes. The Role of Zechut Avot (Merit of the Forefathers) The Rambam explains that the Jewish people merited to leave the simple booths and live in beautiful homes for two reasons: God's Kindness. The Promises Made to the Forefathers: Specifically, Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, who were perfect in their mindsets and character traits. This leads to a fundamental principle: Source of Blessing: All the good that God has given and will give is because of זכות אבות (the merit of our forefathers), who maintained the דרך השם (path of God) and performed acts of righteousness. This reinforces the lesson of humility, as our success is not solely due to our own current merit. Shemini Atzeret and the Arba Minim (Four Species) Shemini Atzeret: Since not all the requisite happiness can be fully achieved in the temporary Sukkah, the people come back into their homes to "finish off the happiness" on the concluding eighth day. Arba Minim : The four species indicate appreciation for the transition from the desert to the fertile land of Israel ( Eretz Yisrael ). The desert does not produce such fruits and beautiful plants, which require fertile, moist land. Choosing species for their nice smell and beautiful appearance allows us to appreciate the success of our crops, which further necessitates humility at this time. Modern Application The Rambam's outlook is highly practical and can be applied in modern times: Material Success: Just as farmers appreciate their crops, a modern person (e.g., selling shoes or handbags) can view their products and appreciate their year's success, which further inspires humility and gratitude. Personal Origins: The lesson extends beyond remembering the journey to Eretz Yisrael to remembering one's personal, family, or national origins. Anyone whose family immigrated can remember the humble beginnings and origins of their grandparents—the modest homes, apartment buildings, and origins—to appreciate their current success, become humbled and thankful, and remember the זכות אבות .

ספר ערבי נחל - פרשת בהר וחיות האדם נחלק לנפש רוח ונשמה חיה יחידה, וביארנו כמה פעמים כי זה הוא מעשה דיבור ומחשבה ושכל והוא נפש רוח נשמה חיות וכל אחד משתלשל מהקודם, ובחינת יחידה הוא רצון פשוט אשר הוא דק ורוחני עוד יותר מבחינת השכל והחכמה והוא מבחינת כתר : ספר ליקוטי תורה - פרשת בלק שבחי' פנימי' נקודת הלב היא בחי' יחידה שאין לה אלא רצון אחד לאביה שבשמים והיא המעלה והמדרגה שאין דוגמתה ולא בערכה נמצא בגשמיות כלל רק לה' לבדו נמצא בבנ"י עם קרובו: Welcome to the Erev Yom Kippur Edition We're quoting from Rabbeinu Yonah in the fourth gate of his Sefer Sha'arei Teshuvah (The Gates of Repentance). In the eighth letter, he explains that a person who has sinned, even after performing Teshuvah (repentance), still requires a final Kapparah (atonement), which arrives with Yom Kippur . Therefore, the entire year should be spent yearning and waiting for this great day. Why? So that we may once again find favor in God's eyes . This divine favor is the ultimate source of life for both the body and the soul—it is the source of everything. As the pasuk (verse) in Tehillim (Psalms) says: "Chaim bi'Rtzono" — Life comes from God's will. The Joy of Atonement: Why We Eat on Erev Yom Kippur Rabbeinu Yonah uses this concept to explain why we are instructed to eat and drink on Erev Yom Kippur (the day before Yom Kippur). The festive meal holds the value of Yom Kippur itself because it is a way to express our happiness over the great atonement that is about to come. He also presents a second, related reason: Every holiday involves a meal or Seudah because the holiday itself is a Mitzvah (commandment). We eat and drink to celebrate the Mitzvah, following the principle that the happier a person is about a Mitzvah, the greater the reward for fulfilling it. Conversely, serving God without joy limits the reward. Since Yom Kippur is the only holiday on which we are commanded not to eat, we shift the celebratory meal—the Simchat HaMitzvah (joy of the Mitzvah) of Yom Kippur—to Erev Yom Kippur . This celebratory meal becomes a testimony to our profound concern and worry over our sins, and our absolute certainty and joy in the coming atonement. Therefore, we should be in a happy mood and celebrate the great day of Yom Kippur and its atonement. The Five Levels of the Soul and the Power of Ne'ilah To add further depth, Rav Wolbe (as do many other holy books) teaches us about the unique nature of this day. We normally have a day with three or four prayers, but never five. This fifth prayer, Ne'ilah , corresponds to the five sections of our soul: Nefesh (Corresponds to the liver) Ruach (Corresponds to the heart) Neshamah (Corresponds to the brain) These first three are the standard parts of the soul within us: Moach, Lev, Kaved (Brain, Heart, Liver). Chayah (Life) - A part of the soul hovering above us. Yechidah (Singular/Unique) - The highest part, rooted in God. Every soul is a "chelek Eloka mi'ma'al" — a piece of God from above . This highest root, the Yechidah , is a point of pure connection where we are simply "plugged in" to God without question, beyond the realm of good and bad or choice. Rav Wolbe explains that each of the five prayers on Yom Kippur ignites one of these parts of the soul. Finally, at Ne'ilah , the highest part of our soul—the Yechidah , which is often dormant all year—is engaged and enlightened. This is the ultimate source of the Kapparah (atonement) that happens during Ne'ilah, granting us an understanding of God's Oneness ( Yichud ). The Meaning of Ne'ilah : Locked In with God The word Yechidah shares the same root as Yichud , which means to be alone. One understanding of why the final prayer is called Ne'ilah , which means to close, is that the gates of mercy are closing . However, a deeper understanding suggests that we are now being locked in a room alone with God . Just as a bride and groom enter a locked room for Yichud to begin their marriage, we are granted the opportunity to be alone with God in a special way. The moment of Yechidah is that moment when we are alone with God and achieve that ultimate clarity. This is also what we look forward to—this is Rtzono , His will and desire to be alone with us in such a special way. Let us therefore look forward to Yom Kippur not with dread, but as a wonderful day to be embraced, taking in every moment of this unique time that will give us life for the whole year: "Chaim bi'Rtzono," life that comes with His will.

The Essential Obligation: Forgiving Others on Yom Kippur This is a beautifully insightful text about the spiritual preparation for Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), focusing on the less emphasized but crucial aspect of forgiving others . Here is the edited and cleaned-up version, maintaining the original's tone and rich sourcing: Welcome to a special edition of our Bitachon (Trust in God) class, as it relates to forgiving people on Yom Kippur . We place a major emphasis on asking others for Mechilah (forgiveness). It is critically important to seek forgiveness from anyone you may have wronged before Yom Kippur. However, we often place less stress on the equally vital obligation: that we must remove from our hearts any ill feelings, or what is known as K'peidot—being upset, holding a grudge, or exacting in judgment toward others. Rav Chaim Palaggi , in his work Moed L'kol Chai (Chapter 19), quotes the Zohar which states that if a person does not remove upsetness from their heart, their Tefillos (prayers) are interfered with. He cites his teacher, Rav Eliyahu Cohen of Izmir , who explains that throughout the year the angel will bring up prayers, on Yom Kippur specifically, one must remove these negative feelings. Rav Palaggi reiterates this in Chapter 16, stating: "One who does not remove hatred from his heart on Yom Kippur—his prayer is neither heard nor accepted." Therefore, he concludes, one should be ma'avir al midosav, meaning they should be completely easygoing and overlook the faults of others. This is the intention behind the passage many recite nightly before Kri'at Shema al HaMittah: "Harenini mochel v'sole'ach..." : I hereby forgive and pardon anyone who angered or provoked me—whether it affected my body, my money, or whatever the matter may be, I forgive them. We must ask ourselves: when we say that, do we truly mean it? Chacham Ben Zion Abba Shaul , in Or L'Tzion, actually states: if you don't mean it, you shouldn't say it. But, as Rav Chaim Palaggi emphasizes, during these days we must work on genuinely meaning it. We have to overcome our true upsets and genuinely forgive those who wronged us. Why Forgiveness is Our Shield Why is this internal forgiveness so important? The Sefer Cheshek Shlomo from Rav Shlomo Sirok (brought in a collection of ancient manuscripts by Rav Yaakov Hillel) explains the profound reason: On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur , when we ask God to forgive us, the Satan (accuser) stands up and says: "Hold on! Treat them the way they treat others. If they don't want to forgive others, You shouldn't forgive them either!" This causes a person's sins to be remembered and held against them. Therefore, one should be meticulous in forgiving and being easygoing so that God will treat them the way they treat others. Just as we want God to forgive us, we must forgive others. The Power of Bitachon (Trust in God) The question, however, remains: How? How can one truly forgive when a person has deeply wronged or upset them? This brings us back to the Torah's command not to bear a grudge. It's an enormous ask: "Let bygones be bygones and forget what the person did to you." The Sefer HaChinuch provides the only path to achieve this: having Bitachon (trust in God) and believing that no human being could do anything to you—no human being can impact you in any way—unless God specifically decreed it. The person who wronged you will be punished by God, but that is not your concern. That is between them and God. As for you, if it was going to happen to you, it would have happened regardless of who performed the action. The Sefer HaChinuch brings the famous story of Shimei ben Gera , who cursed King David when David was fleeing from Absalom. David's response was profound: "Hashem said to him, 'Curse!'" David understood that God put the cursing into Shimei's mind. It had nothing to do with Shimei's personal spite; it was part of God's decree. Because of this profound control and understanding, David was elevated to become the fourth "leg" of God's throne (alongside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob). His self-mastery, rooted in the understanding that God ultimately orchestrates everything, earned him this immense spiritual status. The Saving Power of Forgiveness This is not an easy job; it takes hard work. But this is our assignment on Yom Kippur: to arouse that deep-seated Bitachon . We are all familiar with the story involving Rav Chaim Shmulevitz . The Mir Yeshiva was in a bomb shelter during a war, and as people prayed, a bomb struck the shelter. The building shook, but the bomb turned out to be a dud. Rav Shmulevitz later said that people assumed it was the fervent prayers of the young men that protected the Yeshiva. He then related that he was not far from a woman who had been grievously wronged by her husband many years earlier—he had abandoned her, leaving her an agunah (a woman whose husband's whereabouts are unknown). At that precise moment, she simply looked up and said: "Hashem, I forgive him. Please forgive us." Rav Shmulevitz stated he believed those were the words that made the impact and saved the Yeshiva. It is a powerful, saving strength. We must delve deep into the recesses of our soul to find the strength to forgive someone who wronged us and believe that ultimately, they were not the ones who truly made it happen. When we are able to forgive others, God is able to forgive us, and our prayers are heard. May we all merit to engage in this deep spiritual work.

The Essential Theme of Humility in the High Holidays The Bent Shofar: A Symbol of Humility On Rosh Hashanah , we blow the Shofar . The Halacha emphasizes the importance of a bent Shofar. Even if we have a choice between a bent Shofar from a goat and a straight one from a ram ( Ayil ), we choose the bent one. Furthermore, if the choice is between a straight Shofar with a great sound and a bent one with a lesser sound, the bent Shofar is still preferred. Why? The Mishnah Berurah explains that the essential requirement is for the Shofar to be bent, as the Gemara states. The bent shape symbolizes humility ( Anavah ). Rosh Hashanah is a day for humbling ourselves before God, and this principle of "bending" carries through the entire High Holiday period. Ne'ilah and the Essence of Awe This concept of humility extends directly to Yom Kippur , specifically during the concluding Ne'ilah prayer. The Gemara teaches that the core of the Ne'ilah service lies in the words: "Mah anachnu, mah chayeinu, mah kocheinu, mah gevurateinu" — "What are we? What is our life? What is our strength? What is our power?" We are declaring that we are nothing on our own. Why is this fundamental declaration of powerlessness so central to both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur? The Desire to Be the Boss: The Original Sin The answer goes back to the Original Sin . The Serpent ( Nachash ) told Adam and Eve, "The reason God commanded you not to eat from that tree is because He ate from it and it made Him a boss. He doesn't want you to be a boss, too." We bought into the lie and ate. This event reveals a fundamental human flaw: a person's deep-seated desire to be in charge , to be the boss, and to reject the authority of anyone else. The "Curse" as a Correction ( Tikun ) To fix this innate arrogance, God instituted what is commonly called a "curse," but which the Nefesh HaChaim interprets as a correction ( Tikun ). God told man, "B'zeat apecha tochal lechem"—"By the sweat of your brow you will eat bread." And to the woman, "B'etzev teldi banim"—"In pain you will give birth to children." Why these two specific things? Because when is a person closest to feeling like a creator? When a man plants a seed in the ground and out comes a tree. When a woman conceives a seed in her womb and out comes a baby. In these moments, one is most likely to exclaim, " I'm the boss! Look what I just did! " God's wisdom ensures that precisely in these areas—your business and your family—where you feel most in control, a curveball will appear: a setback in your work or a difficulty in raising your children. The purpose ( Tachlit ) is to force us to cry out to God and declare, "I realize I'm not in charge; You are in charge." This is the meaning of the Tikun —the correction. The entire season of the High Holidays, symbolized by the bent Shofar , is designed to help us internalize this essential truth of humility and dependence on God.

Shabbat Shuvah A close connection exists between the observance of Shabbat and the experience of teshuvah . This connection can be discerned already in the word שבת , which relates to the verb שוב , the root of the word תשובה . This connection also emerges from the following story told in the Midrash ( Vayikra Rabbah 10:5) about a meeting that took place between Kayin, after he repented for his sin, and his father, Adam: כיון שיצא פגע בו אדם הראשון אמר לו מה נעשה בדינך אמר לו עשיתי תשובה ונתפשרתי כיון ששמע אדם הראשון כך התחיל טופח על פניו אמר לו כל כך היא כחה של תשובה ולא הייתי יודע באותה שעה אמר אדם הראשון מזמור שיר ליום השבת. Adam asked Kayin what happened to him as a result of his sin, and Kayin replied that he repented and was thus given a light sentence. At that moment, the Midrash tells, Adam began slapping himself in frustration. "If I had realized that teshuvah was so powerful," he cried, "I would have performed teshuvah after my sin!" The Midrash concludes that Adam then proceeded to compose the Psalm of מזמור שיר ליום השבת , the special song for Shabbat. This clearly indicates that Shabbat somehow closely relates to the concept of teshuvah . Another indication to this effect can be found in a Midrashic passage cited by the Orchot Tzadikim( Shaar haTeshuvah) . The Midrash tells that when Moshe ascended to the heavens to receive the Torah, he found angels with a Sefer Torah open in each of the seven levels of heaven. At each level, the angels were learning about the corresponding day of creation: the angels at the first level were learning about the first day of creation, at the second level they were learning about the second day, and so on, until the seventh level, where the angels learned about Shabbat. Additionally, the angels at each level were discussing and praising G-d for a certain concept. At the first level, they spoke about the Torah; on the second, the Torah and the Jewish People; on the third, the city of Jerusalem; the fourth, Moshiach ; the fifth, the suffering of Gehinom ; on the sixth level, they spoke of Gan Eden and prayed that G-d grant the Jewish People a portion in Gan Eden . On the seventh level, which corresponds to Shabbat, Moshe Rabbenu held onto the Throne of Glory, which is situated on that level, and he saw all kinds of angels assembled discussing teshuvah . They praised the power of teshuvah , which reaches all the way to the Throne of Glory, as alluded to in the pasuk , שובה ישראל עד ה' אלקיך . This, too, points to a close connection between Shabbat and teshuvah . The seventh level of the heavens, which is situated near the Throne of Glory, corresponds to Shabbat, because Shabbat is associated with teshuvah , which rises directly to the Throne. The basis of this connection is the concept of return. Rav Wolbe noted that teshuvah does not actually mean "repentance," but rather "return." Teshuvah is about returning to Hashem, and Shabbat is the time when all of creation returns to its source. The concept of the seven different layers of the heaven is discussed by the Gemara, in Masechet Chagigah(12b). The Gemara there gives the names of these seven layers – וילון, רקיע, שחקים, זבול, מעון, מכון, ערבות . At the seventh level, the Gemara describes, there is "righteous, justice and charity," as well as "treasuries of life, treasuries of peace, and treasuries of blessing." (This, too, is connected to Shabbat, as it is the מקור הברכה – the source of all blessing – and thus G-d's "treasuries of blessing" are found on the seventh level of the heaven, which corresponds to Shabbat.) This level also contains the souls of the righteous, the souls of those who have not yet been born, and the טל תחיה – the dew with which G-d will one day resurrect the dead. Our Rabbis explain that the Gemara refers here not only to the literal resurrection, when the deceased will actually come back to life, but also the figurative "resurrection" – namely, teshuvah . A sinner is considered spiritually "dead," and the process of teshuvah enables him to regain his "life." The "dew" which enables us to "resurrect" ourselves after sin is found there, in the seventh level of the heaven, the level of Shabbat, because on Shabbat we are given the unique ability to grow and negate the harmful effects of sin. This unique power is given to us every Shabbat, but especially on Shabbat Shuvah, when Hashem calls to us, שובה עד ה' אלקיך – to return to Him, promising that our repentance will go straight to His Throne in the highest levels of the heavens. Shabbat Shuvah is so significant that the Tur ( Orach Chaim 612) records an opinion among the poskim permitting the recitation of Selichot on this Shabbat, despite the fact that Selichot is normally forbidden on Shabbat as it is inconsonant with the festive spirit of the day. The Bais Yosef explains that according to this view, the period of the Aseret Ymei Teshuvah is a time of danger, as we are being judged, and this unique situation allows us to recite Selichot and beseech Hashem for forgiveness. Although we do not follow this opinion, it demonstrates the special status of this Shabbat and how this is a most propitious time for teshuvah . Let us, then, take advantage of the unique opportunity offered by this special Shabbat, and thereby ensure that our teshuvah and efforts to grow and draw closer to Hashem will rise directly to His Throne, so we will be worthy of His kindness and grace throughout the coming year, אמן .

Welcome to a special edition in honor of Tzom Gedaliah ( צוםגדליה ), the Fast of Gedaliah. This day is a potent reminder of a tragedy that occurred following the destruction of the First Temple. Today, we commemorate the assassination of the righteous leader, Gedaliah ben Ahikam ( גדליהבןאחיקם ). His death was the final blow to the remaining Jewish community in the Land of Israel ( ארץישראל ), forcing them into exile and marking the end of the last vestiges of Jewish life there. The Dangers of Habit: Lessons from Gedaliah In his book on the Days of Awe ( ימיםנוראים ), Rabbi Nosson Wachtfogel brings forth a powerful concept: Rosh Hashanah ( ראשהשנה ) is not just about shedding bad habits; it's about renewing ourselves, even in our good deeds. The greatest pitfall, he argues, is continuing a positive behavior simply out of habit. This, Rabbi Wachtfogel explains, was Gedaliah's tragic mistake. He was warned of a plot to assassinate him but dismissed the warning, relying on his ingrained practice of never accepting slander ( לשוןהרע ). He failed to re-evaluate the situation and realize that this specific instance of gossip ( רכילות ) was permitted for a greater, life-saving reason. This rigid adherence to a pre-existing, even positive, behavior—without re-analysis—led to his death and the further exile of the Jewish people. This teaches us a crucial lesson: Don't remain stuck in old habits. Habit is the opposite of the essence of Rosh Hashanah, which demands we become a new creation ( בריהחדשה ). When Routine Becomes Rote This idea is beautifully illustrated by a story about the Satmar Rebbe, Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum. At a Chasidic wedding, a gifted jester ( בדחן ) who was known for his imitations asked the Rebbe for permission to mimic him. The Rebbe, with a smile, granted the request. The jester then proceeded to impersonate the Rebbe's unique way of shaking the lulav and etrog ( לולבואתרוג ). Everyone laughed, but in the middle of the performance, the Rebbe burst into tears. The jester's face turned pale as he rushed over to beg forgiveness, terrified that he had caused offense. "No, no," the Rebbe assured him. "You did nothing wrong." "Then why are you crying?" the jester asked. "I said to myself," the Rebbe explained, "'If you can copy the Satmar Rebbe, well, maybe I'm just copying the Satmar Rebbe, too.'" The Rebbe feared that his own prayer movements, once filled with sincere intention, had become nothing more than a mechanical imitation of the way he had prayed in his youth—a rote performance rather than an act of genuine connection. This is the danger of מצוותאנשיםמלומדה , or doing mitzvot by rote. Breaking Free of the Elephant's Rope Another powerful story highlights this point. A man once observed a group of huge circus elephants restrained only by a small rope tied to their front legs. Puzzled, he asked the trainer how it was possible that such powerful creatures didn't break free. The trainer explained, "When the elephants are small, we tie them with these same ropes, which are strong enough to hold them at that age. As they grow, they are conditioned to believe the rope can still hold them back. They never even try to break free." We, too, must break free from our "elephant rope." We may be conditioned to act a certain way, but we must constantly reassess our actions and not get stuck in the mindset of "that's just the way I do things." A Call to Action Therefore, as Rabbi Wachtfogel teaches, after Rosh Hashanah, there must be a tangible change in our lives—in our prayers, our learning, and our interactions with others. This requires a profound re-analysis of our daily routines to ensure our actions are driven by genuine renewal, not simply by old habits. A practical takeaway for this day of Tzom Gedaliah is to set aside some time to evaluate your own habits. Which routines are serving you well, and which ones could use improvement? Have a wonderful rest of your day.

An Immigrant in This World Welcome to our special Elul series of Cheshbon HaNefesh (Soul-Searching). We've now completed our 30th reflection, which prompts us to view ourselves as immigrants in this world. This is a celebration of our journey through these 30 spiritual units. Imagine a transient immigrant arriving in a foreign land. He knows no one, and no one knows him. But a compassionate, powerful person takes him in, provides his daily food, and gives him a set of instructions to follow, with clear consequences for disobedience. This guide tells him how to act and that he will eventually leave this land, though the time of departure is unknown. How should this immigrant act? Lessons from the Immigrant Humility: He should be humble, shedding all pride and arrogance. He is a sojourner, not a judge of others, as Lot was told: " One came to sojourn, and he would now judge? " Readiness: He must be ready to leave at a moment's notice and should not become too comfortable. As God says in Vayikra , " The land is Mine, for you are strangers and sojourners with Me. " Understanding the Laws: He must diligently learn the laws and statutes of the land and his obligations. King David expressed this perfectly in Tehillim : " I am a foreigner in the land; do not hide Your commandments from me. " Love for Others: As an immigrant, he should feel a special bond with other foreigners and help them. The Torah commands us, " Love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. " Another verse in Vayikra says, " The stranger who sojourns with you shall be to you as the native-born among you, and you shall love him as yourself. " The Ramban suggests that this command, " Love him as yourself, " is even stronger than the general command to love one's neighbor, as we ourselves are immigrants. Clinging to the Guide: He must dedicate himself to the service of the one who is guiding him, as this is the only person who will truly have compassion for him and come to his aid. Like King David, who said, " I looked to my right and I saw that no one was with me; refuge was lost to me; no one cared for my soul. " Unlike the Shunammite woman who felt secure among her own people, we are truly alone but for our Creator. Contentment: He should be content with the minimal necessities provided—food, shelter, and clothing. He should not put excessive effort into accumulating possessions, as he must be ready to travel at any time. The smallest gift should bring him great joy, and he should never stop giving thanks. Tolerance: He should tolerate difficulties and not complain about simple discomforts like a lack of air conditioning, because he is grateful just to be in the country. Our True State My friends, we must accept these conditions of being an alien, because we truly are strangers here. We might think we have friends and allies, but this is an illusion. The proof is how we came into this world. No one was there to help you develop in your mother's womb. No one but God could make your limbs grow and your heart beat. And just as you were alone in the womb, you are alone in this world. No person can truly help you without God. No one can add to your life or take days away from it. As the author asks, " What relationship do you truly have with other people? " You are an immigrant in this world, and you are neither helped by the many nor harmed by the few. You are an isolated individual whose only true ally is your Creator. No one has compassion for you but Him. There may be many distractions in the world, but ultimately there is only one force to focus on. Therefore, dedicate yourself to His service, just as He dedicates Himself to creating, guiding, and sustaining you in life and in death. Keep His Torah before your eyes, hope for His reward, and fear His punishment. By accepting your alien state in this world, you will truly enjoy the delights of the world to come. This powerful message is especially fitting for Erev Rosh Hashanah , as this is what the day is all about—our special one-on-one connection with God. As God says, " I am the Lord, your God " in the singular. We must deal with Him directly, for no one else can truly affect us. This is our final reflection.

The Value of the Soul Over the Body Welcome to the Chovot HaLevavot series. We are on Cheshbon 29 , a deep introspection that prompts us to consider the value of our soul over our body. This idea helps us understand why some people hold more weight than others, not in a physical sense, but in their spiritual and moral worth. The Gemara says that a certain person is as valuable as a thousand people. For instance, Moshe Rabbeinu was considered to be worth 600,000 people. This wasn't because he was physically strong, but because of his immense spiritual stature. The Chovot HaLevavot author proves this point by quoting a verse from Shmuel II , chapter 18, verse 3. When King David was going to war, his people insisted he stay behind, saying, " You are worth ten thousand of us ." Targum Yonatan explains this was because David would pray for them. This shows that King David's true value was in his spiritual strength, not his physical might. The Importance of Inner Beauty The same principle applies to a beautiful woman. Her true quality isn't just her physical beauty. If a person is physically beautiful but lacks intellect or has poor character traits, they ultimately aren't attractive. The author quotes a verse from Mishlei (Proverbs): " A gold ring in a swine's snout is a beautiful woman who lacks discretion. " This verse, "Isha yafah v'sarat ta'am," means her beauty is worthless because she is "missing her flavor"—her proper character traits and actions. Another verse from Mishlei, "Sheker ha-chein v'hevel ha-yofi," teaches that charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting. Physical beauty, which is tied to the body, only has true value when it is accompanied by a beautiful soul. Once we realize this, we understand that our true value is our spiritual worth. You Are Not Your Body To illustrate this point, consider the story of actor Christopher Reeve, who played Superman. After a horse-riding accident left him paralyzed, he fell into a deep depression. For a year, he withdrew from the public eye. When he finally re-emerged, he was asked what gave him the strength to do so. His answer was profound: " I realized I'm not my body. " This is a powerful statement we should all internalize. Our true qualities are spiritual. When we understand this, we realize the importance of prioritizing our soul over our body. When God looks at us, He sees the merits and blemishes of our souls. He looks at our midot tovot (good character traits), and our choices to follow either our good or evil inclinations. What makes us special is what's inside, not what's outside. A Spiritual Spa As we prepare for the High Holidays, our focus must be on our spiritual well-being. Rabbi Yerucham Levovitz once said, " Elul is a spa. " The month of Elul and especially the Aseret Yemei Teshuvah (Ten Days of Repentance) are like going to a spa. Just as a physical spa uses massages, salts, and minerals to make the body stronger and healthier, these 40 days are a spiritual spa. They give us the ability to enhance and improve everything about ourselves. We must tend to our soul more than our body, knowing that it is easier to cure our body from a grave disease than to heal our soul from the sickness of sin and the yetzer hara (evil inclination). Another verse from Mishlei, "Ru'ach ish y'chalkeil machaleihu, v'ru'ach n'ka'ah mi yisa'ena," translates to: " A person's spirit can endure a physical ailment, but who can bear a crushed spirit? " This teaches us that a spiritual ailment is far more difficult to bear than a physical one. This is why another verse in Mishlei says, "Mi-kol mishmar, netzor libecha," —" Guard your heart above all else. " We put fences, gates, and security around our homes, our money, and other valuables. But the most precious commodity we have is our heart and spirit. It needs the most guarding and protection of all.

What Happens When Trust Is Tested? This text is a discussion of the 28th cheshbon (reckoning) from Sha'ar Cheshbon HaNefesh (Gate of Introspection), focusing on a high level of bitachon (trust in God) and what happens when that trust is tested. The highest level of bitachon isn't just relying on God to get what you want. It's about complete self-surrender—giving your life, your money, and your children to God, trusting that He knows what's best. The true test of this trust comes when things don't go the way you expected, and God gives you something you didn't bargain for. To explain this, the text uses a parable: imagine a man gives his nephew a house and a field as an outright gift. The nephew then decides to tear down the house and rebuild it. If the uncle returns years later and finds his gift unrecognizable, does he have a right to be upset? Of course not, because he gave it away completely. It's now the nephews to do with as he pleases. Similarly, if we dedicate our soul and our resources to God, we can't complain or mourn when He does something we don't like. We must trust that He knows what's best, even if it doesn't look that way to us. We should not retract our commitment or show expressions of pain and upset, especially since God has been taking care of us all our lives. The text then references several biblical sources to support this idea: Hosea 11:3-4 : God says, "I trained Ephraim, I took them by My arms, but they didn't know that I healed them." This verse highlights that God is often working behind the scenes to help us, and we are not always aware of His care. Rabbenu Yonah in his commentary to Mishlei (Chapter 3) adds some other sources: Psalm 31:6 : We say nightly, "Into Your hands I commit my spirit." This isn't just a bedtime prayer; it's a declaration of trust, asking God to guide our path because He knows what is best for us. Job 2:10 : When Job's wife tells him to curse God, he replies, "Shall we accept good from God, and not accept evil?" This shows that we must accept all that comes from God, both good and bad, as part of His plan. Proverbs 3:12 : "For whom the Lord loves, He rebukes, just as a father rebukes the son whom he favors." This verse teaches that hardships are not punishments but a sign of God's love and a means for our growth, just as a father disciplines a child he loves. This introspection reminds us that even when life doesn't go as planned, our trust in God should remain unshaken. He is always working for our benefit, even when we don't understand it.

Two Ways to Tolerate Suffering The Chovot HaLevavot emphasizes that there are two ways to endure suffering ( sevel ). The first is to accept the "load" God has given you willingly and with a good heart. This is the positive approach. The second is to carry it against your will, with complaints and anger. The Chovot HaLevavot contrasts these two approaches using two verses from the book of Yeshiah: The positive way: "I am waiting for God, who is hiding His face... and I hope for Him." This verse describes a person who knows God is present, even when He seems hidden, and they remain hopeful. The negative way: "And when he becomes hungry, he gets angry and curses his king and his God." This verse illustrates a person who reacts to hardship with rage and defiance. Abraham's Example and the Desert Generation To further illustrate the difference, the Chovot HaLevavot uses two examples from Jewish tradition: Abraham: He was praised not for simply enduring his ten trials, but because he accepted them willingly and with a good heart ( beratzon uvetov levav ). The verse "You found his heart faithful before You" highlights his faithful mindset. The Desert Generation: Their sin was not simply that they faced difficulties, but that they were "upset and their heart was not with God and with Moses." The verse "their heart was not honest with Him" shows that their negative reaction was what made them guilty. The Purpose of Challenges The Chovot HaLevavot highlights that there are different types of challenges and their purpose may not always be clear. They can be: Tests: To help you grow and earn a greater reward. The speaker emphasizes that these are not necessarily a punishment for wrongdoing. Punishments: To help you atone for your sins and get back on the right path. We will never know which of these purposes a specific challenge serves. It's important to remember that challenges are not always an indication that you've done something wrong. Regardless of the reason, all of God's ways are either kindness ( chesed ) or truth ( emet ), as stated in Psalms: "All the ways of God are kind and true." They are either meant to increase your reward (kindness) or to help you atone and get back on track (truth). The Importance of Mindset The Chovot HaLevavot concludes with a powerful message: "Do not fail to think about this all the time." By consistently reflecting on the idea that challenges are here to help us grow and find atonement, you can: Strengthen your ability to tolerate hardship. Make it easier to weather life's storms. Show that you accept God's will. This understanding brings comfort, as King David said: "Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." It also shows faith ( bitachon ), and strengthens the heart of all who hope in God.

The Fear of Punishment and the Fear of God Welcome to the "Heshbon HaNefesh" (Soul Accounting) series. The 26th reflection asks: What happens when a person in authority gives you a command and you're afraid of being punished if you don't listen? The parallel for us today isn't a king, but a police officer, a mayor, or a governor. Think about driving on the highway and seeing a police car with its lights on in your rearview mirror. Your heart drops in fear of getting a ticket, and then you realize the officer is chasing someone else. That moment of relief can be a powerful trigger for self-reflection. This event is a mashal (parable or analogy) for our relationship with God. Why are we so concerned with the arbitrary rules of society—like a speed limit that can change from 35 mph to 25 mph—and so afraid of their consequences, yet we are not equally concerned with God's commandments? The fear of getting a ticket feels immediate and real, but the fear of God's punishment often feels distant. What's the difference? A human authority figure has limitations. They can't always see you and are often distracted. God, on the other hand, is constantly watching. He is never preoccupied or deterred. This realization should lead to a profound question: Why do I not have a similar fear of God? Lessons from Judgment and the High Holidays This is especially relevant as we approach the High Holidays. There is a story about a great rabbi who would visit a court during the month of Elul (leading up to the High Holidays). He would sit and watch people's fear as they were judged, observing how much time and effort they put into their cases. This, for him, was a living mashal for the coming Day of Judgment. Rabbeinu Yonah , in the second gate of his work Shaarei Teshuva , discusses the Aseret Yemei Teshuva (Ten Days of Repentance). He uses the example of a person in a real-life court case to inspire repentance. He writes that an intelligent person should feel a certain shame. Here we are, standing before God, whose decrees are everlasting and who is constantly overseeing our actions, yet we go through life without a fear of God or a fear of punishment, continuing to sin while He watches. The Supernatural Disconnect Rav Yitzchak of Petersburg , a student of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter , offered a profound insight: There is an almost supernatural trait in humans that prevents us from fearing God as we fear people. If we truly grasped that God is all-powerful, ever-present, and could punish us at any moment, our free will might disappear. We would be so terrified that we could never sin. God, in His mercy, created this "disconnect" that allows us to ignore this fear and maintain our freedom of choice. This is the deeper meaning behind the famous story of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai telling his students on his deathbed, "May you fear God as you fear a human." When they responded, "Is that all?" he replied, "Would that it were! Fearing a human is a great thing." We are able to be ashamed of our actions in front of others, but we struggle with the same shame before God. Arrogance and Inattentional Blindness So why do we lack this fear? A verse from Psalms (10:4) may provide an answer: "Due to his arrogance, the wicked one does not seek; all his thoughts are, 'There is no God.'" The verse uses the term " bal yidrosh " ("he does not seek"), which is particularly striking when we remember that the Ten Days of Repentance are called "Drashu Hashem Behimatzo" ("Seek God when He is to be found"). The wicked person's arrogance blocks them from seeking God. This is also supported by another verse: "Your heart will become arrogant, and you will forget." Arrogance causes us to forget God. This concept can be understood through "inattentional blindness," a psychological phenomenon where a person fails to notice a fully visible, unexpected object because their attention is focused on something else. We are so focused on our own affairs and our own ego that we fail to see God's presence in the world. Our arrogance creates an interference. It's not just inattention; it's an attentional blindness driven by our desire to see ourselves, not God. Like a clinician who is so hyper-focused on looking for one specific thing on an X-ray that they miss something else, we become so focused on our own lives that we don't see God unless we actively look for Him. Arrogance causes us to not want to see Him. That's why we fear the police officer but not God—our arrogance gets in the way. This leads to the crucial first step of Rosh Hashanah : humility . By humbling ourselves, we can remove the arrogance that blinds us. Only then can we begin to see God and truly turn back to Him.

Welcome to Our Elul Project: The Journey of the Soul Welcome to "Sha'ar Cheshbon HaNefesh," our 30-day Elul project. Today, we're on "cheshbon" number 25. This reflection is for those moments when we realize we're too fixated on this world, giving it more attention than the next one. This is a common human tendency, and as the text says, we have to actively work on strengthening our love for the world to come. How do we do this? By comparing the two. This world is short-lived, while the next is eternal. The Ba'alei Mussar (scholars of ethical teachings) offer a powerful "mashal" (parable) to help us grasp the concept of eternity. Imagine a stadium completely filled with sand. Once every 100 years, a single bird comes and removes just one grain. The time it would take for the entire stadium to be emptied is still not eternity. This helps us understand that forever is a concept our minds can't fully grasp. The Two Worlds: A Painful Conflict Chovot HaLevavot teaches that just as you can't have fire and water in the same pot; similarly, you can't have love for this world and the next world in your heart at the same time. While we all have earthly interests, the key is determining which is the dominant force. The text compares the two worlds to a man with two wives. The Hebrew word for a second wife, "tzarah," literally means "pain" because they're in a painful rivalry for their husband's attention. In this parable, we are the husband, and both worlds are vying for our focus. The Talmud reinforces this idea with a similar story. Two students were learning from their rabbi: one wanted to study Mussar (ethical teachings) and the other Gemara (Talmudic law). The rabbi couldn't satisfy both. He shared a parable about a man in his 40s with both black and white hair, who was married to a young wife and an old wife. The young wife would pluck out his white hairs to make him look younger, while the old wife would pluck out his black hairs to make him look older. In the end, he was left with no hair at all. This illustrates that we can't please both worlds; we must choose one as our primary focus. Caring for Both Body and Soul The text explains that we have both a body and a soul, and both require proper care. To strengthen the soul, we need Mussar (ethical teachings), wisdom, and self-control. To strengthen the body, we need food, drink, and proper health care. While we can't completely ignore either, one must be in charge. We should prioritize the soul, which is everlasting, over the short-lived body. A person who focuses too much on their body will ultimately weaken both their body and soul. We can draw some parallels between the two: Your body needs three meals a day, and your soul needs three prayers a day ( Shacharit, Mincha, and Ma'ariv ). Your body has physical health; your soul has spiritual health. Your body has 248 organs and 365 sinews, and your soul has 248 positive commandments and 365 negative commandments. Rabbi Wolbe used to say that he made a point to spread out his "meals" of prayer throughout the day, praying Shacharit in the morning, Mincha in the early afternoon, and Ma'ariv in the evening. This ensures that the soul receives consistent nourishment, just as the body does with regular meals. The Middle Path and Your Yearly Check-Up A verse from Kohelet cautions us against extremes: "Don't be overly righteous or overly wise, why destroy yourself? Don't be overly wicked or a fool, why die ahead of your time?" This means we must avoid either extreme, finding a balance where our main focus is the soul, but we also care for the body so it can be a healthy vessel for the soul. The text clarifies that "dying ahead of your time" doesn't mean a physical death, but rather the death of one's soul, which can be drowned in a sea of desire. The phrase "hold on to your destiny" means to stay connected to your spiritual purpose, but "do not detach yourself from this world." We need this world to reach the next one. As the saying goes, "This world is a vestibule to the world to come." We prepare ourselves in this world for the ultimate palace. Rabbi Miller taught that a key to greatness is to spend at least 60 seconds a day thinking about the world to come. This is especially relevant during the High Holidays. Our sages teach us that on Rosh Hashanah , the righteous are sealed for life, the wicked for death, and those in the middle have until Yom Kippur. Tosafot clarifies that this "life and death" doesn't refer to physical existence, but rather our spiritual life in the world to come. Every year, we are judged on the spiritual health of our souls, based on the Torah, mitzvot (commandments), and chesed (kindness) we've performed. The High Holidays are our "yearly spiritual physical." We use this time to get our spiritual lives in shape, just as we work out to improve our physical health. Through these "cheshbonot," or spiritual reckonings, we are performing a 30-point physical to ensure everything is in proper order, securing a more meaningful destiny in the world to come. What's one small step you can take today to focus more on your soul?

Heshbon 24: Re-enlightening Our Learning Welcome to the 24th lesson in our Heshbon HaNefesh (Accounting of the Soul) series. Today's lesson is a continuation of our previous one, but instead of focusing on the physical world, we turn our curious minds inward to the realm of Torah knowledge. This lesson is about re-examining the spiritual concepts we have known since childhood—the stories of the Torah , the words of our Sages, and the liturgy of our prayers. When we are young, we learn these things on a simple, foundational level. As we grow older, our intellectual capacity to understand them deepens, but a new challenge arises: complacency. We become so familiar with these concepts that we stop looking for more. Do you truly understand the stories of the Avot or Adam and Chava in their full depth? We must not be satisfied with the understanding we gained in our youth. Instead, we should approach the Torah and the words of the prophets as if we are reading them for the very first time. Probe the words, analyze the concepts, and seek out their deeper meanings. The Dangers of Arrogance and the Power of Humility The same is true for our prayers. Many of us say our daily prayers without a full understanding of the words. It is crucial to get a Hebrew-English Siddur (prayer book) and strive to understand what you are saying. Don't settle for the level of comprehension you had as a child. Chovot HaLevavot offers a critical piece of advice: "Do not let your arrogance seduce you" ( Al Tasi'acha HaGaavah ). Arrogance is the main obstacle to deeper understanding. It makes us think, "I know this story already; there's nothing new here." We are often too proud to admit that we have been looking at things superficially for years. It's difficult to acknowledge a gap in our knowledge and say, "Wow, I never heard that before. I didn't know that!" For example, a person might hear that Pinchas was not a Kohen when he killed Zimri and only became one afterward. The first reaction might be, "That can't be! No one ever told me that." It is hard to admit such ignorance. But this arrogance is the work of the Yetzer HaRa (Evil Inclination), which tries to prevent us from delving deeper, making us believe we are already full-fledged sages. The Wise Man and the Fool The Book of Proverbs says, "Do you see a person wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him." In contrast, "The wise man's eyes are in his head." What does this mean? It means the wise person constantly re-evaluates and strengthens his old ideas. A fool, on the other hand, is like a person traveling a long road in the dark who never looks back. The verse says, "The fool walks in darkness." King Solomon says, "I saw that wisdom is better than folly, as light is better than darkness." The fool walks in darkness, and the only way to turn the lights back on is by delving into the words of Torah , by analyzing them. This is why we pray every day, "Enlighten our eyes in Your Torah ." ( V'Ha'er Eineinu B'Toratecha ). This enlightenment doesn't happen by rote repetition. It happens by pushing ourselves to understand, by breaking away from our preconceived notions, and by allowing the light of Torah to truly illuminate our souls. This is our Heshbon .

Heshbon 23: The Curious Mind Welcome to the 23rd lesson in our special Elul series. Today's heshbon , or accounting, focuses on how we view the world, cultivating what we'll call a "curious mind" or a "learner's approach." This concept is rooted in Shaar HaBechinah , the "Gate of Probing." Bechinah means to examine, to test, to constantly feel and probe everything around you. It's about looking for and trying to understand the smallest creations as well as the largest—from inanimate objects to human beings, from the sun and moon to the wind and rain, from a newborn baby to all the wonders of nature. Each of these creations reveals God's perfect wisdom, His power, His supervision, and His profound mercy over all that exists. Overcoming Apathy: The Constant Miracle So why don't we do this? Chovot HaLevavot warns us not to be seduced by the familiar. We are so used to seeing these things that we lose our sense of awe. The "wow" effect is gone. We may be amazed by something we've never seen before, like a solar eclipse, but we fail to see the daily miracle of the sun and moon, the constant rain, or the regular wind. As the Chazon Ish once said, the only difference between a miracle and nature is that nature is a constant miracle. We don't get amazed by what is constant. We are excited by a strange animal at the zoo but not by the familiar trees on our street. We would be amazed if manna fell from the heavens today, but we are apathetic to the equally miraculous fact that wheat grows from the ground, providing us with bread. The only difference is that one we're used to, and one we're not. The problem is that we got used to these miracles when we were young, before our intellect was fully developed. As we've gotten older, our familiarity has led us to stop thinking, looking, and wondering. Seeing with New Eyes The goal is to look at the world as if you've never seen it before. Try this exercise: on Rosh Hashanah morning, open your eyes and look at the world like a Martian who has just landed. Look at a tree and ask: "What is this hard, wooden thing growing out of the soft dirt? How does it grow? How do the leaves come out of it?" We walk past trees every day, but by looking at them with a child's curiosity, we rediscover their wondrous nature. Chovot HaLevavot suggests that in a sense, we are all "blind" until we open our "mind's eye." The fool, he says, is like the blind person. When he begins to open his mind's eye, he becomes a seeing person. This is what happened when Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge. The verse says, "Their eyes were opened" ( Va'Tifkachena Einei Sh'neihem ). They were not physically blind beforehand; rather, they gained intellectual understanding. This idea of a "mind's eye" is also reflected in the Four Species of Sukkot. The three myrtle branches ( hadasim ) represent our eyes. We have two physical eyes, but a third one is for our mind—for our curiosity. This "third eye" also needs to be perfected. Lift Your Eyes to the Heavens Don't ignore this essential part of your soul. Do not continue on the same path you've been on until now. Start opening your eyes. A sage once said, "The heart of the wise has eyes," meaning they see what fools do not. The prophet Isaiah cries out, "Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told to you from the beginning?" He then implores us, "Lift up your eyes on high and see! Who created these?" ( S'u Marom Eineichem U'Reu Mi Bara Eileh ). God brings out the stars by number, calling each by name, "because of His great might and strong power." This is our job: to lift our eyes to the heavens and to all of creation. Interestingly, the first Hebrew letters of S'u Marom Eineichem spell Shema ( Shin , Mem , Ayin ). Before we say the Shema prayer, we are meant to appreciate the very things God created, as mentioned in the blessing of Yotzer HaMe'orot (Who creates the luminaries). It's all there for us to see. Our job is to be curious and to keep our youthful sense of wonder alive.

Uniting for a Shared Burden: An Elul Reflection on Human Interaction Welcome to our special Elul series, a journey through the principles of Shaar HaCheshbon HaNefesh (Gate of the Accounting of the Soul). In this 22nd lesson, we focus on how to approach our interactions with others, whether it's in business, community, or daily life. The core principle to embody is "Love your friend like yourself" ( V'ahavta L're'acha Kamocha ). This means you should desire for others what you desire for yourself, and feel aversion for them regarding what you would not want for yourself. Treat everyone with compassion and mercy, and strive to ensure their well-being. This concept, though applicable year-round, is especially crucial as we prepare for Rosh Hashanah, a time when we stand together as one unit to accept God as our King. The Parable of the Travelers Imagine a small group of people traveling to a distant country. The path is steep and difficult, requiring them to spend many nights camping together. Each person has a heavy load, and they must constantly load and unload their animals on their own. If they were to work together, helping one another with the burdens and easing the overall effort, they would surely succeed. But if they are incompatible, unable to agree on a shared plan, and each person only looks out for their own interests, they will all become exhausted. This is a parable for the world we live in today. He states, "The world bears down on its inhabitants" ( Kaved HaOlam Al Yoshvav ). Why is so much effort required? Because everyone focuses on their own portion, wanting more than their due. When people demand what is not theirs, they end up losing even what is rightfully theirs. Think of it like traffic gridlock. If every driver only cared about themselves, trying to squeeze ahead and run a red light, the entire flow of traffic would stop. Nobody would get to their destination smoothly. This is a metaphor for life. Life is a constant gridlock because people lack patience and concern for others. This is why we are so often dissatisfied and complain—we demand too much from the world, and in turn, the world withholds even our essential needs, forcing us to overexert ourselves. The Benefits of a Collective Mindset If people were satisfied with what they have and worked to improve their own well-being alongside everyone else's, they would "conquer their world" ( Hayu Menatzchim Olamam ) and "get even more than they want out of it" ( U'Magi'im El Yoter MiChaftzam Bo ). Instead, not only do people fail to help one another, they often hinder each other, diluting everyone's abilities and preventing anyone from getting what they truly need. This is further illustrated by a parable found in the Siddur HaGra (Prayer Book of the Vilna Gaon): Imagine a town that catches fire. In those days, everyone would run with pails of water to put out the blaze. But what did those who lacked concern for the common good do? They would pour their water directly on their own storefronts. This might stop the fire from spreading to their property, but the fire would still rage and burn down many other buildings. If everyone had gone with their pails to the source of the fire and worked together, the fire would have been extinguished entirely. This is the lesson for Rosh Hashanah and for every day of the year. We must be concerned with God's kingdom, the success of the Jewish people as a whole, and our collective service to God. If we stop looking at our own "storefronts" and instead unite our prayers and energy at the source of the fire—the spiritual "fire" of the world's brokenness—then redemption will come. The Power of Empathy and Good Counsel Therefore, strive to live your life in a way that reflects this mindset. Seek out loyal friends and interact with them in an honest and wholehearted manner. The Book of Proverbs states, "Oil and incense gladden the heart; so does the sweetness of a friend's heartfelt counsel." ( Shemen U'Ktoret Yesamach Lev, U'Metek Rei'ehu Mei'Atzat Nafesh ). Giving someone good counsel is more valuable than any physical gift or comfort. Focus on the betterment of your family, your community, and the world at large. This may seem like an act of selflessness, but as explained, in the end, it is truly an act of enlightened self-interest , because a world that is whole and harmonious benefits everyone.

Elul Introspection: Breaking Through Spiritual Plateaus Welcome to our special Elul series on C hovot HaLevavot**. In this 21st introspection, we'll explore how to overcome spiritual dead ends—those moments when you feel you can't grow or develop beyond your current level. The path to spiritual growth isn't always a smooth upward climb. Sometimes we hit a plateau, a point where our current efforts seem to yield no further progress. The key is to not give up. Here's a powerful framework for breaking through these barriers. The Power of Sincere Desire and Prayer First, you must sincerely desire to grow. As the author explains, the first step is to "yiksof lo bilvav" —to desire in your heart. Let the next step in your spiritual journey be on your "wish list," constantly on your mind. Next, and most importantly, ask God for help . Pray for the ability to understand and to act. When you consistently ask God for assistance, He will eventually fulfill your needs. He will "open up the gates of understanding" and strengthen you to do what was previously beyond your capacity. This concept is rooted in the verse from Isaiah 48:17 : "I am the Lord your God, who teaches you for your benefit, who leads you on the path you should take." This verse is the source for the famous statement in the Talmud: "On the path a person wants to go, they are led." If you take the initial step, God will guide you, revealing shortcuts and insights you never knew existed. Incremental Effort, Divine Assistance This principle applies not just to spiritual growth but to all areas of life, from crafts to academic study. A teacher of geometry, for example, starts with practical problems before moving to theory. As the student masters the basics and continues to strive, God reveals the deeper theoretical principles to them. This idea is highlighted by the Gemara in Bava Batra 12b which says, "A wise man is greater than a prophet." The author applies this to all wisdom, explaining that there's a level of "prophecy" in every discipline. When you push your abilities to the maximum, God grants you a deeper, intuitive understanding beyond what you learned. This is the essence of our entire spiritual service. The Chovot HaEivarim (external commandments) are meant to awaken the Chovot HaLevavot (internal commandments). Our physical actions have the power to arouse our hearts. The verse in Devarim 30:14 says, "For the matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it." This means that by doing God's will with our bodies, we will eventually be able to do it with our hearts. Since our natural human desires often create obstacles, it is through our dedicated physical efforts that God opens the gates to spiritual enlightenment. The author uses the analogy of a person planting trees. The farmer's job is to prepare the soil, water the saplings, and fertilize them. He does all he can and then relies on God to bring the fruit. You cannot neglect your responsibilities and expect a miracle. Similarly, in Avodat Hashem (service of God), if you make an earnest effort, God will grant you abilities far beyond your natural capacity. The Ladder of Spiritual Growth This concept also sheds light on the Mishnah in Pirkei Avot 4:9 : "One who fulfills the Torah in poverty will ultimately fulfill it in wealth." While this can mean a person who serves God with limited money will eventually be blessed with wealth, the author offers a deeper interpretation: One who starts with a "poverty of abilities" but makes a sincere effort, will ultimately be given a "wealth of abilities" by God. This is the entire premise of the Mesilat Yesharim's spiritual ladder, which progresses from Torah to Zehirot (diligence), to Zerizut (alacrity), and so on, ultimately reaching the level of prophecy. Each step is a prerequisite for the next, with God providing the help needed to ascend. The key takeaway is clear: God gives us help when we maximize our own abilities. If we ignore what we can do, we cannot expect divine assistance. As Rabbeinu Yonah writes in the beginning of Sha'arei Teshuvah , a person's effort leads to God giving them abilities beyond their natural ones. This is akin to God "circumcising your heart," removing the spiritual impediments that are too difficult for us to remove on our own—but only after we have done everything we can.

Chovot HaLevavot: Introspection on Money Welcome to our introspection series on Chovot HaLevavot (Duties of the Heart). We're now on the 20th introspection, which focuses on your relationship with money. Your bank account is the trigger for this powerful exercise. Look at your balance and ask yourself three key questions: How did you earn this money? How do you plan to spend it? Do you use it to fulfill your obligations to God and to other people? Re-evaluating Ownership The core of this introspection is to challenge our fundamental assumption about money. Do you see it as yours , or do you see it as a deposit that God has entrusted to you? This is a difficult concept to grasp. We tend to view our money as our own, safely in our bank account, a result of our own efforts. But the true perspective is that God is the owner, and we are merely the custodians of what He has placed in our care. He can add to it or remove it as He sees fit. This shift in perspective has profound implications. When you understand that the money isn't truly yours, you're no longer paralyzed by the fear of losing it. A bank teller doesn't worry when a customer withdraws money because they know it was never theirs to begin with. Similarly, you can be grateful to God for as long as the money remains with you, and you can accept any changes to your financial status without despair. This perspective also makes it easier to use your money for good. When you view your money as a divine deposit, giving charity becomes less about sacrificing your own funds and more about returning what was always meant for someone else. Money and Humility The Torah portion in Shemot 22:24 says, "If you lend money to My nation, the poor man who is with you." The simple meaning is that you should help the poor in your community. However, there is a deeper interpretation: "The poor man's money is already with you." This suggests that when you give, you're not giving from your own wealth, but rather distributing what God placed with you for the benefit of the needy. Rabbeinu Yonah discusses this in Sha'arei Teshuvah , explaining that a proper attitude toward money is essential for developing good character. He warns against looking down on those who are less fortunate. He quotes Mishlei 17:5 , which says, "He who mocks the poor taunts his Maker." Someone who looks down on the poor reveals a dangerous arrogance. They believe their success is a result of their own power and wisdom, a perspective described in Devarim 8:17 as "My strength and the might of my hand made me this wealth." This person believes they are self-made and therefore scorns those who failed to achieve similar success. In reality, they are cursing God, the true source of all wealth. As Mishlei 22:2 says, "The rich and the poor meet together; the Lord is the Maker of them all." An individual with a proper understanding of money—viewing it as a deposit from God—will never look down on the poor. This perspective, Chovot HaLevavot concludes, is one of the most powerful causes for cultivating positive character traits and eliminating negative ones. This introspection on money is not just about our finances; it's a vital part of shaping our entire spiritual and ethical being.