Podcasts about gadol hador

Welcome to our Anava series. The Midrash Raba Bereshit 81:2 tells the following story: Rabbenu HaKadosh, also known as Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, the redactor of the Mishna, was passing by the town of Simonia , where the residents of came out to greet him and made a request. They said, " Rebbi, provide us with a person who will teach us both the Tanach and the Mishna and we'll judge our disputes." Rebbi gave them none other than Rav Levi BarSisi. When Rav Levi came to the town they constructed a large platform for him and seated him upon it so that he would address them, at which time the words of the Torah became hidden from his mouth. In other words, he forgot some of his learning. They asked him three questions on the laws of chalitza and he was not able to answer them. They said, Well, maybe this rabbi is more of an expert in Aggada, in the Musar aspects and not so much in Talmudic law. So they asked him a question on a pasuk , and again, he wasn't able to answer. When Rav Levi saw how dire the situation was, he got up early the next morning and returned to Rabbenu HaKadosh, hoping that Rabbenu HaKadosh would relieve him of his post, seeing the difficulty he was having. Rebbi asked him, " So how'd it go? How's it going in your new position?" He said, " Please, don't even bring it up. Don't remind me of my troubles." What happened? "They asked me these questions,and I wasn't able to answer them. " Rebbi said, What questions did they ask you ? Rav Levi repeated the questions and gave all the answers. Then he repeated the question from the pesukim and gave those answers. Rebbe then asked, " So why didn't you answer them like you answered me?" Rav Levi said, " They made a large platform for me and seated me upon it, and my spirit became conceited and the words of the Torah became hidden from me." Unbelievable. Why did this happen? Rav Yerucham Levovitz, in his sefer Da'at Chochma UMussar (vol 2, page 53) has an essay called Kedushat HaTorah/the Holiness of Torah . He writes, I was just in the town of Vilna and I was hosted in a house that was directly opposite of the university. I was looking at the students as they were going and coming from the school and I saw something strange. As they were walking in, they were combing their hair, making themselves look good. And on the way out, they were also doing that. The boys and girls were lightheadedly coming and going. And I assume that it was pretty similar when they were inside the classes as well. That's the way they learn their secular wisdom. It seems not to bother their studies, because they're graduating and everything is going fine. Maybe it bothers them a little bit, but it's not so terrible. On the other hand, let's look at how our study halls look. What if we would have that going on? It's a total contradiction. In a situation of lightheadedness, you can't learn Torah. You can't even think Torah in situations where it's unclean or unbecoming, because it disturbs the Torah. He says, You know what that shows me? That Torah comes from heaven. It's holy, it's pure. And therefore it doesn't tolerate anything that is contrary to holiness impurity. Which is why, as we said, You can't learn Torah opposite something that's not clean. You can't pray opposite something that's unclean. That's how holy our religion is. The nature of the Torah is kodesh kodashim. We have to make ourselves befitting to receive the Torah. We have to make sure that we're all shiny clean, not externally shiny and clean, but internally- we have to be shiny clean. Otherwise, the Gemara will not stay with us; Our learning will not stay with us. He says, Torah, due to its holiness and its purity, does not tolerate anyone with bad Middot. A drop of arrogance, or a drop of being makpid/ being exacting is enough to make it leave. As we may know, there are 48 ways to wisdom and most of them are character refinements. After this, he quotes this story of Rav Levi Bar Sisi, and says that because of a little bit of arrogance that he felt, he started to forget his learning. This is unbelievable. We don't find this in any other realm. Torah is compared to water, as we've said. Just like water flows downward, the Torah flows downward, like it says in Shir HaShirim 1:19. Therefore a person has to make himself fit for the Torah. A drop of arrogance, a drop of conceit, a drop of holiness , and it leaves. He says, professors have no problem standing on the highest of platforms with their hearts full of all kinds of abominations, with Middot that are off. It doesn't bother them at all. Why not? Because Torah is min Hashamayim . Torah is holy. That's why we need that refinement. What refinement are we talking about? The ultimate refinement is the refinement of humility . That's why we see that all the Gedoleh Yisrael are extremely humble. There's a famous story about Rav Akiva Eiger. Somebody wrote him a letter and he wrote back to the man with all kinds of great titles, "To the great leader in Israel, to the light of our nation." The person he was writing to was a simple rabbi, and when asked why he had addressed the rabbi this way, Rabbi Akiva Eiger replied, " Well, I see people write like that to me. I thought it was proper etiquette, so that's the way I wrote to him." Rabbi Eiger was not saying to himself, " Of course I'm the Gadol Hador and that's why they write like that to me. " He figured it was probably the way you're supposed to do it. This was the way of all our greats. It's not a coincidence. Rav Akiva Eiger was a giant of giants. When he asked a question, we call them bomb questions. And on the side of the Gemara there's a little gloss and a little sign that looks one of these warnings of a nuclear reactor. We used to say it's like a nuclear bomb, his questions. And he sometimes ends off his questions with, " God should enlighten my eyes," as if I'm the proble m. My glasses are foggy . They train us in Yeshiva that when you don't understand something, you don't say. Tosafot doesn't make any sense . You say, I don't understand this. Okay, very nice. That's good for me. But the greats say, " Oh, how lacking I am. I don't understand this Tosafot. I don't understand this Gemara. I have a weakness . This is what makes the great leaders great. It's not that they're great leaders and by the way, they're also humble. No, without the humility, they wouldn't have their Torah. They wouldn't be able to do it. And that, Rav Yerucham Levovitz says, is the message of that story. That's why it's very scary when we sometimes see people that know a lot of Torah but they're very arrogant people. What's going on? The answer is, quoting a term that the Chassid Yaavetz uses, " He's not a learned person. He's a Yodeah Torah." He knows Torah but that doesn't mean he's a Talmid Hacham . Similarly, there's a Gemara in Masechet Megila 28 B, where someone was asked to give a Hesped for a person that knew a lot of Torah. They asked Rav Nachman to give a eulogy, and his answer was, What should I say at the eulogy? That a basket full of books has been gone? I heard this from my Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Abba Berman. This man learned a lot, but the learning did not become part of him. It was just knowledge . If a person does not have the proper Middot , its not that he can't have knowledge , but that knowledge is just like secular knowledge. The reason Rav Levi Barsisi's Torah left him is because his Torah was Torah Kedosha which can not tolerate bad Middot. If it's just knowledge of Torah, that's a different story. That's the importance of humility when it comes to holding your Torah.

What Is Greatness?

The pasuk says in this week's Parasha, Shemot, that Pharaoh decreed all the Jewish baby boys should be thrown into the Yeor . But the Torah testifies that the Jewish midwives feared Hashem and did not listen to Pharaoh, but rather they kept the babies alive. The Chafetz Chayim asked, the words, "ותחיינה את הילדים," that they kept the babies alive, seems superfluous, being that the Torah already told us they feared Hashem and did not listen to Pharaoh. The rabbi explained that the Torah here is giving us an insight into the great mesirut nefesh that these women portrayed. The midwives could have easily said that they did not want to continue doing this job anymore, in which case they would've been exempt and had no claims on them from anyone. Pharaoh wouldn't be able to have a claim against them for not violating his decree because it wouldn't be their job anymore. And Hashem wouldn't have a claim against them for killing the babies because they wouldn't be. But they did not want to just exempt themselves. They truly cared about saving the Jewish babies and did not want to take the risk of their potential replacements listening to Pharaoh. So they put their own lives at risk to save others, and Hashem rewarded them for that in a big way. It is very easy for a person to find reasons to exempt himself from something. But if instead he goes out of his way to want to please Hashem, then Hashem gives him Heavenly help in a big way. The sefer Toratcha Sha'ashuay tells the following story about the great zechut that a woman got from going out of her way to help someone in need. There was a 13-year-old boy learning in one of the great yeshivot in Europe. He was the youngest in the yeshiva and one of the only ones without a bench to sleep on at night. The boys learned in an old shul and ate the meals by people's houses. They slept in the shul and whoever didn't get a bench had to sleep on the floor. In the bitter cold winter, this was extremely hard. This boy couldn't sleep at night and was therefore having trouble learning during the day. One day he received a letter from his uncle asking him if he wanted to come and work in his business. This uncle did not have any children and he promised his nephew if he would come work for him, he would leave him all his possessions when he would pass on from this world. The boy had a very big internal struggle deciding what to do. On one hand, he knew how valuable Torah study was, but on the other hand, he was having an extremely difficult time with it. And that night, as he was lying down on the ice-cold floor, he decided he was going to take the offer. About an hour later, a widow came knocking on the front door of the shul. This boy was the only one awake and he went to see who was there. The widow explained she just finished sitting shiva for her husband. He sold blankets for a living and left a lot of them in the house. She said she wanted to donate some to the yeshiva. This boy took the blankets and for the first time was able to sleep normally. That made him decide to stay in the yeshiva, and eventually he became the Gadol Hador who affected tens of thousands of people in his lifetime: Maran HaGaon Harav Shach. When the widow passed away in 1975, Rav Shach attended her funeral and told the students how she saved his life with that act of kindness. The Hashgacha of her coming in the middle of the night on the same night that the young Rav Shach was planning on leaving was amazing. We can say about this woman ותחיינה את הילדים, she gave life to the boy. She was motivated l'shem shamayim , and Hashem gave her tremendous s iyata dishmaya to benefit from that act of chesed for all eternity. We should always do our best to go out of our way to help others, even if we may be exempt, because we never know what each act will produce. Shabbat Shalom.

Rabbi Stark speaks about the "mehalech" and greatness of his rebbi, Rav Moshe Shapiro.

The Gemara tells us, one of the areas we constantly need chizuk in is tefila . No matter how good a person's tefilot are, over time they tend to become more habitual and therefore could definitely use chizuk . The Meiri writes that a person should always feel confident in the power of a good tefila to break a decree and if someone is going through a tough time, or has a family member that is ill, he should go to a chacham and ask him for advice on how to have a good tefila . What is a good tefila ? Obviously one with emotion and tears and obviously one with kavana . But there is another very important factor that could make the tefila truly great. When Rachel Imenu saw that she was barren for many years, she told Yaakov to do something to ensure that she will have a child. The Ramban explains, Rachel was asking Yaakov to pray, thinking that the tefilot of a tzaddik like Yaakov would for sure be answered, especially if he puts all of his efforts into it. But Yaakov replied, there is no guarantee that his tefilot would ensure that she'll have a child. Then, says the Ramban, when the tzadeket Rachel saw that she couldn't even rely on the tefilot of Yaakov who was the Gadol HaDor , that's when she prayed with all of her heart and soul, realizing she had to go straight to Hashem because He was the only One who could help her. Then, וישמע אליה אלוקים – that is when Hashem answered her tefila and that is when she finally had a child. The best prayer is one in which the person realizes Who he is standing in front of and what His capabilities are. This is one of the reasons why we start the Amida with praise, so we realize who Hashem is, and only then do we make our requests. We all know that only Hashem could help us, but from time to time, we need to be reminded of it so that it is at the forefront of our minds. I read a story about a couple from Israel who did not have children for many years. They went to a lot of doctors and none were able to help. One day, the man was telling his friend he didn't know what else he could possibly do to be helped. His friend said to him, he heard there's a top doctor in America who has helped many couples with cases that seemed hopeless. People fly from all over the world to see him. He suggested trying to get an appointment with that doctor. They took his advice and traveled to America and consulted with that doctor, who raised his hands helplessly saying he didn't know what to do to help them. There was one more highly recommended doctor there, but his fees were exorbitant. The couple decided they had to try and they waited there for weeks to finally see him. That doctor analyzed their case for a very long time. He did his own testing and finally concluded by saying, "I don't see any problems at all with you. I can't explain why you are not having children, but I do see that you are religious Jews. Pray to your G-d. Only He could help you." When they heard those words from the top doctor in the field, they took on new meaning to them. From then on, they spent every tefila crying buckets of tears, understanding who they were actually talking to and, within a year, they were blessed with a baby boy. There is nothing that can take the place of a good tefila .

Welcome to our special Rosh Hashanah Pesukim of Musaf series. We are up to our second pasuk of Shofarot , taken from the Shofar of Har Sinai in Shemot 19,19 וַיְהִי֙ ק֣וֹל הַשֹּׁפָ֔ר הוֹלֵ֖ךְ וְחָזֵ֣ק מְאֹ֑ד מֹשֶׁ֣ה יְדַבֵּ֔ר וְהָאֱלֹהִ֖ים יַעֲנֶ֥נּוּ בְקֽוֹל׃ The sound of the shofar was getting stronger and stronger. Moshe would speak, וְהָאֱלֹהִ֖ים יַעֲנֶ֥נּוּ בְקֽוֹל׃ /and God would answer him with a voice. The commentaries point out that normally, when a human being blows a shofar, the sound gets weaker. But since the One blowing the shofar here was God, it got stronger and stronger. מֹשֶׁ֣ה יְדַבֵּ֔ר וְהָאֱלֹהִ֖ים יַעֲנֶ֥נּוּ בְקֽוֹל What does it mean that Hashem Ya'anenu? Rabbenu Bachye explains that this was a wonder. This was an enormously large camp, but nonetheless, Moshe Rabbenu was able to speak, and miraculously he was heard, b ecause God would help him. The word Yanenu could mean to help , and God caused Moshe Rabbenu's voice to project to the entire camp. That was one of the signs that God was behind Moshe's voice. This is Torah M'Sinai . We heard Moshe talking, but we knew it was God. The Chatam Sofer says that this is a hint, not just to Moshe, but for every generation. The Gadol HaDor is the Moshe over the generation. And he says that as a Talmid Chacham gets older, even though their strength gets weaker, they still have a certain power and energy, which is God energizing them, like he energized Moshe. The Kesef Mishneh in the laws of Talmud Torah, 4,3, as well as the Brisker Rav on parashat Shemot 19,19 explain this pasuk differently: Moshe Yidaber/Moshe spoke and God responded to him - the Jewish people saw a unique quality in Moshe Rabbenu- it wasn't because of any wonders or miracles that we believed in him, but rather, we believed in him because of Har Sinai, as the Rambam says. We heard with our eyes, with our ears, as Moshe Rabbenu walked up and God spoke to him. That's what this pasuk is saying, that the shofar blew, and we heard Moshe speaking to God. As we said, this is all about what was going on at Har Sinai. The shofar is obviously connected to Har Sinai. But what exactly does it mean to us, as we quote this pasuk ? There are two beautiful points. One is from the Chochmat Shlomo, Rav Shlomo Kluger. In his commentary on Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim , chapter 585, he discusses the connection between the Shofar and Rosh Hashanah, and he says, the shofar is a hint of Teshuva . When God wanted to give us the Torah, the Jewish people were scared. How are we going to keep the entire Torah? There's so much to keep. We're going to deviate and we'll get punished. But Hashem said, Don't worry, I have a way out of the punishment. He showed them that there's a Rosh Hashanah, there's a shofar that's going to rouse us in Teshuva , and we're going to become newly born when we hear that shofar. God blows the shofar into us like a new breath of life. And that was why God blew the shofar at Har Sinai; in order to say, Don't worry, it's going to be okay. We're going to have a Rosh Hashanah. Therefore, if you're afraid that Torah might have a greater loss than a gain, don't worry. There are more gains than losses, because even if you sin, don't worry, there's a Rosh Hashanah for you. Unbelievable . He adds that there are some opinions that the person blowing the shofar needs to have someone next to him, telling him the kolot such as Tekiya,Teruah etc..so he doesn't lose track. That was Moshe to Hashem. Moshe Yidaber . Moshe would say Tekiya and God would answer him and blow the shofar. So that was, so to say, a role modeling of the blowing of the shofar. What an unbelievable perush reminding us yet again that we shouldn't look at Rosh Hashanah as a big scary concept, but the opposite- Rosh Hashanah is what caused them to receive the Torah. Lastly, we have a beautiful Kedushat Levi from Rav Yitzhak Levi of Barditchev, who says there was once a king who was in danger, and some a simple man in farm clothing saved him. So the king put royal clothes on him and elevated him very high in his palace. This man sinned against the king, and the king was very upset with him. But he was a smart man. When he was due to be brought to judgment, he put on the clothing from the day that he saved the king. When the king saw that clothing, he said, I love this man. I can't do anything to him. So too, with the Jewish people. The world was ready to be destroyed, but for the fact the Jewish people accepted the Torah at Har Sinai, where the shofar was blown. So, on Rosh Hashanah, when God judges us, we put on those old clothes. We put on the shofar to remind God of that great day. That's why we blow the shofar, and it's why we mention the Shofar of Har Sinai. The Shofar was there at Har Sinai for whatever reason, and we now we blow the shofar today to remind God of that shofar so that He will be merciful on us, like the king was merciful on that man, and remembered the great day that he saved him. So too, God remembers the great day of Har Sinai when we accepted the Torah through the blowing of the shofar . These are two beautiful explanations of the connection between Shofar and Har Sinai 1-The shofar of Rosh Hashanah was blown on Har Sinai to tell about Rosh Hashanah. 2-The Shofar was blown on Har Sinai for whatever reason, and we now blow the shofar on Rosh Hashanah to remind us of that shofar. Two different explanations, but both very beautiful.

Asher describes the various restrictions during The Three Weeks, our collective period of mourning, but more importantly, explains what they are meant to elicit. Speaking of which, we are joined by Jeff Schoep, once the “Gadol Hador” of the American Neo-Nazi movement before seeing the light. He describes his life before and after doing t'shuvah - and actually uses that word in a sentence.

We believe that every situation Hashem puts a person in is the best possible situation for that person. Hashem worries about a person's well-being more than the person worries about himself. Our problem is that we want to understand, in every situation, why it's good. When our human logic tells us that things are very bad, it's extremely difficult to feel that they're good. This is precisely why the avodah of emunah is so precious to Hashem. It requires us to fully trust in Him. Hashem wants us to feel that there is no one who loves us more than Him, even when it doesn't seem that way. Our souls did not come down from the highest places in Heaven into this world for rest and relaxation. We are not here to see how much money we can earn and how many pleasures we can indulge in. We are here to toil in avodat Hashem and use all of our time productively. Hashem knows what each person needs to accomplish in this world in order to be able to enjoy the future eternal world. And everything He does is with that goal in mind. Someone who fully trusts in Hashem can be happy in any situation he finds himself in, and for every second that a person is happy because of his emunah in Hashem, he will gain infinite merits. With our eyes and understanding of how things should be, it would appear to us that Yosef HaTzaddik was put into the worst possible situation when he was sold by his brothers. He was taken from a house of kedusha where he was growing spiritually with his father, the Gadol HaDor , and then thrown into a place with the worst tumah in the world. It was not his choice to be there, but once he was there, he made the most of it. The test that he overcame and the levels that he reached there were infinitely greater than he could have reached back home with his father. Because of his purity in Mitzrayim , all of the Jewish people were able to stay pure for the entire 210-year period of slavery. Hashem Himself testified at the end of it, that although the Egyptians had full control over the Jewish people, they were not able to move them one iota from their level of kedusha . All the Jewish women remained pure the entire time. This was an amazing miracle that Hashem helped them with, specifically because of Yosef's kedusha . When Yosef interpreted the dreams of the Sar HaMashkim and Sar HaOfim , it was with ruach hakodesh . Chazal tell us, a person can only merit to have ruach hakodesh if he is in a state of joy. That means after ten long years in a dungeon in Egypt, with seemingly no way of ever getting out, Yosef was still in a complete state of joy. How was that possible? Only because he knew, the One who put him there loves him more than he loves himself, and He was doing the absolute best possible thing for him. Whenever someone is going through what appears to be a dark time, he has an opportunity to show his trust in Hashem and remain happy knowing that he is in the best possible place for his purpose in this world. Even if he doesn't fully feel it in his heart, just knowing that's the way he's supposed to react is also an accomplishment. We can never judge things from the way they appear to be. This is what emunah is all about, to believe even though it doesn't seem that way. From an outside vantage point, it seems that Rut was living a sorrowful life. She was a widow who finally got remarried and then her husband died the next day. We would have said, better for her not to get married again and go through that devastation. However, that marriage made Rut the mother of Mashiach. We hope very soon to experience the most glorious days in all of history with the coming of the Mashiach, and it will all get traced back to Rut. Our jobs in this world are very big. One day we are going to see everything we accomplished going through each and every challenge we experienced. For now, our job is to believe those challenges are good and remain happy and calm, trusting in Hashem's love.

With the proper emunah, a very challenging situation can become much easier to deal with. Hashem sends challenges for our benefit so that we could fulfill our missions in this world. But He also gave us the tools to understand what the challenges are all about so that we could overcome them with a good attitude. Just like Hashem decides if a person will merit to have a child, He also decides the exact makeup of every child that is born, its struggles and its deficiencies, and He puts each child in the exact families that the child needs to be in. Chazal tells us that Hashem partners with every set of parents in creating their children. He is actively putting every neshama exactly where it needs to be. A man related, when he discovered that his wife gave birth to a special needs child, all of his excitement and joy turned into sadness. He thought of all the challenges ahead of him and was not happy to take them on. He thought about all the shame this was going to cause him amongst his relatives and peers, and it bothered him a great deal. He went to his rabbi asking for chizuk . The rabbi told him about a time when someone went to Rav Yechezkel Levenstein for chizuk in this same area. The rabbi told him, “if you would really know how good this was for you to have this child in your family, you would go out into the streets and dance from being overcome with joy.” Somebody else in the same situation once went to Rabbi Yitzchak Zilberstein shlita and asked him, “What does Hashem want me to correct?” The rabbi replied, “Correct? It's a tremendous zechut to receive a child like this. You don't need to ask what you should correct.” Rabbi Zilberstein proceeded to tell him that special needs children have the neshamot of the greatest tzaddikim from previous generations who have come back down into this world to fix small blemishes that they had. In the neighborhood of the Maharal lived an eight-year-old boy who was a deaf-mute. One day a chicken was brought to the Maharal to rule on because it had a blemish that made it a doubtful terefa . The Maharal called for this boy to come. He put the chicken in front of the boy and told him to make a ruling. For the first time in this boy's life he opened his mouth and spoke. He said, “Kasher.” And shortly afterward he passed away. The Maharal said he knew for a fact, this boy was the neshama of a certain Gadol who was always careful in issuing his rulings to people. However, one Friday afternoon he was in a rush and a chicken was brought to him to make a ruling upon. In his haste he ruled the chicken taref, wrongfully so, causing that family not to have their chicken that Shabbat. He needed to come back and rule on the very same blemish and this time he needed to rule correctly. He begged in Shamayim to come back as a special needs child so he wouldn't have a chance to make additional averot . The moment he made his tikun he was allowed into the highest places in Gan Eden . The rabbi proceeded to give his student more chizuk . He said to him, “You only feel embarrassed because you think that this is your child. Imagine you were asked to raise someone else's child with the same issue. Not only wouldn't it be embarrassing, you would receive the greatest honor for it. People would be in awe of you taking on such a big responsibility. And imagine that the one asking you to do it was the Gadol HaDor and imagine it was the Gadol HaDor's son. It would be even more honorable to you. Let me share with you a secret. What you got is even more honorable than that. HaKadosh Baruch Hu, in all of His glory, is the One asking you to raise this child. It's His child and He's asking you for this favor, and if you do it, He is trustworthy to pay you the greatest rewards for it.” After this talk, the young father looked at his challenge in a whole new light. He received so much strength and his excitement and joy for the child was restored. Emunah can help a person with every situation in life. Hashem gave us the tools to deal with all of the challenges that He sends.

The Mashgiach speaks about the greatness of the "Mashgiach Hador" Rav Matisyahu Solomon זצ"ל and shares some of his Torah insights with us.

Rashi writes in this week's parasha, Shemot, That after Pharaoh decreed all the babies should be thrown into the Nile. Amram who was the greatest one of the generation divorced his wife and all the Jews followed. What Amram did on the surface level seemed correct. Why should they continue having children if they were just going to be killed anyway? However, Miriam his young daughter respectfully told her father that having children is the will of Hashem. Furthermore, who says the decrees of Pharaoh will come to fruition? Moreover every child born, regardless of what happens to them, will be able to enter the World to Come. Amram understood the truth of what Miriam was saying and immediately took back his wife. The danger was still the same, but when Amram realized it was the will of Hashem for them to have children, he rose to the challenge. As a reward for his actions, Hashem blessed him with the savior of Klal Yisrael, Moshe Rabbenu. Hashem made it that Moshe was born prematurely so that the Egyptians would not know about it. And then He set up the situation for Batya, the daughter of Pharaoh to discover him and raise him. The avodah of subjugating ourselves to the will of Hashem, despite what logic may dictate, is an unbelievable display of emunah, which is very precious to Hashem. In fact, the Gemara says, the entire redemption from Mitzrayim was in the merit of the righteous women of that generation. What did these righteous women do to merit geula ? The Gemara says it was their resolve to continue having children amidst that terrible decree from Pharaoh. It's one thing for the Gadol HaDor to be able to rise to a challenge, but for the common Jew to do it is much harder. Once the women heard it was the will of Hashem for them to have children, they were all ready for the self-sacrifice to carry a baby for nine months not knowing if it would survive. Hashem appreciated their efforts so much He sent down angels from Shamayim to protect those babies and raise them in underground caves. And when the decree passed, Hashem brought every single child back to his parents and enabled them to enjoy the fruit of their labor. When according to odds things don't seem to add up, yet we persevere knowing we're doing what Hashem wants, that avodah is so precious to Him. When it comes to Hashem, things don't always have to add up. He is the one in charge of results and to Him, odds don't matter. As far as we are concerned, we do our part as best as we can and we know Hashem takes over after that. Today we are yearning for the Geula more than ever. It is the acts that we do with mesirut nefesh that bring the Geula closer. When our rabbis tell us certain things to improve upon, and they may be very hard for us to do, that is precisely our calling to hasten the Geula. To rise to the challenge and do it despite the difficulty involved. Whether it's calling somebody we're at odds with to make peace, whether it's accepting to follow all the halachot of Shabbat, whether it's improving in the area of modesty, whatever it is, the greatest gains will come from the difficulties involved in doing it. And when it seems that if we improve we're going to lose out, that is where we can display our steadfast emunah in Hashem and say that we know we never lose by following His will. Shabbat Shalom.

We continue going through the Bet Halevi's essay in Bitachon. Today he gives us a strong incentive to not rely on human beings, besides the fact that it doesn't help. Like the pasuk says (Tehilim 146,3) אל תבטחו בנדיבים בבן אדם שאין לו תשועה Do not rely on nobles or any man, for they hold no salvation. Now he says, of one who relies on people, קם ליה בארור He is subject to a curse, As the pasuk says in Yirmiyah, ארור הגבר אשר יבטח באדם Cursed is the man who relies on a human being. He says, How foolish it is! How could you possibly think this is the right way to go- to accept a curse from a prophet, that detriment is guaranteed because you want to rely on a human being who can't help you anyway? This is a very strong point to consider. Imagine somebody has v'shalom got cursed by his local rabbi in l synagogue! No one would look forward to getting cursed by their rabbi. It's not a good thing. Or what if he got cursed by the Gadol Hador ? Also not a good thing. And we can go on and on and on, but now he gets cursed by a prophet, in the name of God! That's pretty severe. The Bet Halevi says that he ends up losing double. He loses in this world because he's not going to get what he wants, and he gets punished in the next world for the sin that he did. So for relying on something that's not helping you anyway, you get this double punishment. That doesn't make any sense. Now, besides the curse, there's good news. Baruch Hagever Asher yivtach B'Hashem V'Haya Hashem Mivtacho/ Blessed is the person who relies on Hashem, and Hashem will be his security. The Chatam Sofer discusses these pesukim and says there are different levels of bitachon. Yirmiyah is talking about two opposite extremes. On one extreme, there's a person who does not merely place his faith in man… but, He does not bring Hashem into the picture at all. He trusts exclusively in his own efforts, or on the assistance of other people, without turning to Hashem. That person is in the curse. On the opposite extreme is a person that places his trust exclusively in Hashem, realizing Hashem has an infinite number of ways to provide him with what he needs to solve the problems he faces. Of course, he'll make a reasonable effort, as required, but he's assured that the outcome depends solely on Hashem. In between these extremes is a person who trusts Hashem, but thinks he also has some understanding of how it's going to work, and knows how Hashem is going to help him, so he's not totally relying. It's a little comforting that someone that relies on people isn't cursed unless he removes his heart from Hashem. So, as with everything, there are levels, but you must appreciate every time you have bitachon. People will travel across the world to get a beracha from a Gadol . But we're hearing from the Bet Halevi a very big hiddush : I can get a blessing from a prophet without waiting on line, and it doesn't cost anything. Sometimes we want to go to a great rabbi, but it may cost a lot of money to get in. Sometimes there are large ads in the magazines, to pay $180 and a Rabbi will go and pray for you in a certain place at a certain time. I'm sure there's something to it, but here we see that it doesn't cost you anything. You don't have to go anywhere, and you get a blessing from Yirmiyah HaNavi, in the name of God. ברוך הגבר אשר יבטח בה׳ והיה ה׳ מבטחו Blessed is the person that who relies on Hashem. And Hashem is his reliance. That's a great, guaranteed blessing- the segula of Bitachon. But again, it's not so easy. ברוך הגבר אשר יבטח בה׳ והיה ה׳ מבטח Baruch Hagever Asher yivtach B'Hashem V'Haya Hashem Mivtacho/ This is a superfluous term. We explained recently from Rav Schwab that it means if you rely on Hashem, then Hashem will come through and He will help you. But the Chatam Sofer says this means Hashem is all he has for his bitachon. He doesn't have any other options. He has no way out, he has no plan, he has nothing but his reliance on Hashem. And with that, comes this blessing of the prophet. What a wonderful, wonderful segula . Have a great day.

Rav Chakh, ce Gadol Hador

Being Neighbors with the Gadol HaDor

Our leaders from previous generations were so great that their works were even bigger than themselves, how is that even possible?

Our gedolim and chachamim are (technically) "people"—but not at all in the sense we are familiar with.

Recording Available Via Telephone Dial: (605) 475-4799 | Access ID: 840886# | Reference #: 2387 The Toldot Adam in parashat Kedoshim writes, every single mitzvah carries with it a great segula . For example, tefillin gives life, shiluach haken brings children, and when a person does a mitzvah the correct way, purely l'shem Shamayim , then he is able to access its segulot . Furthermore, every mitzvah gives a spiritual uplifting to a person and has the power to bring him closer to Hashem. In this week's parasha , Korach and his entire family, with all of their wealth, possessions, belongings, slaves and maidservants, got swallowed up by the earth in a horrific way. The pasuk says, however, that the sons of Korach did not perish and the Yalkut Shimoni asks what their zechut was to be saved. It answers, it was one mitzvah. When they were sitting with their father, they saw Moshe Rabbenu approaching and immediately looked down. In their minds they were debating what to do, should they stand up for the Gadol HaDor and fulfill the mitzvah of מפני שיבה תקום ? Or should they respect their father and ignore Moshe? They then recalled the halacha which says that כבוד רבו proceeds the kavod of one's father. And so they stood up and honored Moshe Rabbenu. At that moment, they felt an inner purity and they were able to make teshuva on the spot. And that's how they were saved. The Imreh Yitzchak points out, this midrash implies they had no other zechut than this. It was just the performance of one mitzvah that gave them the spiritual energy to make teshuva and save their lives. The Shomer Emunim writes, when a person exhibits self sacrifice for a mitzvah, he gets a special outpouring of Divine assistance from Hashem. A regular person, with the performance of even one mitzvah with self sacrifice can gain more assistance from Hashem than even a tzaddik who is greater than him who did not have the same self sacrifice for that particular mitzvah. He writes further, if someone excels in believing in Hashem's hashgacha pratit in everything that goes on in his life, then in return Hashem will give that person extra special protection and assistance that he would not have been worthy of otherwise. To the extent that even if the entire world was experiencing a certain form of affliction, he would be singled out to be protected from it. Moreover, if he truly sees the Yad Hashem in every aspect of his life, in that merit, Hashem will do miracles and wonders on his behalf. This is the great segula that comes about from the mitzvah of believing in Hashem's hashgacha . Hashem's hashgacha is everywhere. It is up to us to recognize it. Chazal tell us even something so insignificant as a person putting his shirt on the wrong way is hashgacha pratit . When things go the way we want, even the simplest things, we should stop for a moment and say, “Thank You Hashem for helping us.” That will train us to believe everything is from Him. And if things don't go the way we want, we should also thank Him for giving us the kapara that we needed. The main thing is to recognize Hashem's involvement in everything that goes on and if we do that, b'ezrat Hashem, Hashem will do wonders and miracles for us. Shabbat Shalom.

Why Judaism requires trust (as opposed to belief).

Today is the last day of shiva for Maran HaGaon Rav Gershon Edelstein, zecher tzaddik v'kadosh l'veracha . The entire Klal Yisrael is mourning the loss of this Torah giant, who was regarded as the Gadol Hador . He passed away during parashat Naso . In Israel, it was read a few days before his passing and outside of Israel it was read a few days after. The name of the Rabbi, Gershon, is not such a common name. The parasha began with the words נשא את ראש בני גרשון – which literally means, Lift up the heads of the children of Gershon. We all benefited from the Torah of Rav Gershon, who protected the entire generation with his learning. And thus, we are all his students. And students are considered like children. We all need to lift ourselves up and add a little more Torah to our lives so we can collectively fill in the great void that was left. The pasuk says in parashat Naso , if a nazir accidentally became tameh from a corpse, he has to bring a korban to get kapara for his averah . Rav Shmuel Birnbaum asked, why should a nazir need any kapara if he became tameh from something that was completely beyond his control, as Rashi explains, the tumah described in the pasuk came about b'ones . The Rabbi answered, the rule is if a person is careful in any area of Torah and mitzvot to do his utmost to keep that particular halacha, and he places boundaries and fences to protect himself from violating it, then Hashem will give him extra Heavenly help for the times that are beyond his control. And He will ensure that the person never violates the law even inadvertently. And therefore, if this nazir was able to become tameh inadvertently, it means he didn't do his utmost to protect himself for the instances that were in his control, or else he would have been protected. And that requires kapara . We see from here if someone is steadfast in his commitment to any mitzvah, Hashem will give him siyata d'Shamaya to help him always be able to perform that mitzvah. Rav Gershon Edelstein was committed to giving his daily shiur to the students in the Ponevezh Yeshiva. He gave shiur for a staggering seventy years. His commitment to that shiur was beyond belief. He gave the shiur every single day, even during Ben Hazmanim , the months of Nisan and Av, when all of the yeshivot are off. He gave the shiur even on Erev Pesach . When his brother passed away, on the day the shiva ended, the Rabbi gave shiur in the yeshiva. Even when he was in the hospital, he gave the shiur from his bed. He was so committed. And thus, Hashem gave him siyata d'Shamaya for 70 years to give that shiur . He passed away with all of his faculties intact. He even gave the shiur the day before he passed away. He was 100 years old giving a high-level shiur to top bachurim in a top yeshiva, one day before he left the world. Even on the day that he passed away he was planning on giving the shiur , he had already begun writing the notes for the shiur and during that preparation, Hashem took his neshama . He left the world doing the mitzvah that he was so committed to performing and it will escort him to the highest places in Gan Eden . It is incumbent upon all of us, the בני גרשון, to lift ourselves us and accept some of the responsibility of the Rabbi's great commitment to learning Torah. יהי זכרו ברוך .

Today is the last day of shiva for Maran HaGaon Rav Gershon Edelstein, zecher tzaddik v'kadosh l'veracha . The entire Klal Yisrael is mourning the loss of this Torah giant, who was regarded as the Gadol Hador . He passed away during parashat Naso . In Israel, it was read a few days before his passing and outside of Israel it was read a few days after. The name of the Rabbi, Gershon, is not such a common name. The parasha began with the words נשא את ראש בני גרשון – which literally means, Lift up the heads of the children of Gershon. We all benefited from the Torah of Rav Gershon, who protected the entire generation with his learning. And thus, we are all his students. And students are considered like children. We all need to lift ourselves up and add a little more Torah to our lives so we can collectively fill in the great void that was left. The pasuk says in parashat Naso , if a nazir accidentally became tameh from a corpse, he has to bring a korban to get kapara for his averah . Rav Shmuel Birnbaum asked, why should a nazir need any kapara if he became tameh from something that was completely beyond his control, as Rashi explains, the tumah described in the pasuk came about b'ones . The Rabbi answered, the rule is if a person is careful in any area of Torah and mitzvot to do his utmost to keep that particular halacha, and he places boundaries and fences to protect himself from violating it, then Hashem will give him extra Heavenly help for the times that are beyond his control. And He will ensure that the person never violates the law even inadvertently. And therefore, if this nazir was able to become tameh inadvertently, it means he didn't do his utmost to protect himself for the instances that were in his control, or else he would have been protected. And that requires kapara . We see from here if someone is steadfast in his commitment to any mitzvah, Hashem will give him siyata d'Shamaya to help him always be able to perform that mitzvah. Rav Gershon Edelstein was committed to giving his daily shiur to the students in the Ponevezh Yeshiva. He gave shiur for a staggering seventy years. His commitment to that shiur was beyond belief. He gave the shiur every single day, even during Ben Hazmanim , the months of Nisan and Av, when all of the yeshivot are off. He gave the shiur even on Erev Pesach . When his brother passed away, on the day the shiva ended, the Rabbi gave shiur in the yeshiva. Even when he was in the hospital, he gave the shiur from his bed. He was so committed. And thus, Hashem gave him siyata d'Shamaya for 70 years to give that shiur . He passed away with all of his faculties intact. He even gave the shiur the day before he passed away. He was 100 years old giving a high-level shiur to top bachurim in a top yeshiva, one day before he left the world. Even on the day that he passed away he was planning on giving the shiur , he had already begun writing the notes for the shiur and during that preparation, Hashem took his neshama . He left the world doing the mitzvah that he was so committed to performing and it will escort him to the highest places in Gan Eden . It is incumbent upon all of us, the בני גרשון, to lift ourselves us and accept some of the responsibility of the Rabbi's great commitment to learning Torah. יהי זכרו ברוך .

The Mashgiach tells of a lesson he learned while at the Shabbos table of Rav Gershon Eidelstein זצ"ל which helps to explain "hefsid" (loss) we have just experienced.

Discover the life and legacy of Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, a renowned Torah leader. Explore his teachings, contributions, and the impact he has made on the Jewish community worldwide. His wisdom, humility, and dedication to Torah learning have inspired millions of people around the world. In this episode, we will delve into the life and impact of the Ponevezh Rosh Yeshiva. Highlighting some significant milestones and teachings. Rav Edelstein's dedication to Torah study made him the teacher and mentor of our generation. As a spiritual leader, Rabbi Edelstein has guided countless students in pursuing Torah knowledge and personal growth. Rabbi Gershon Edelstein's teachings focus on the importance of Torah study, ethical conduct, andspiritual growth. He is known for his ability to convey complex concepts in a clear and accessible manner, making his lessons both engaging and enlightening. His warm and compassionate nature has endeared him to students and followers who seek his counsel on various matters. Rabbi Gershon Edelstein's life and legacy are an inspiring testament to the power of wisdom, leadership, and commitment to Jewish values. Through his teachings and guidance, he has played a pivotal role in shaping the lives of countless individuals and strengthening the global Jewish community. As we continue to learn from his insights and example, we are reminded of the transformative impact dedicated religious leaders like Rabbi Edelstein can have on our world. Baruch Bayan HaEmes."A true leader leads by example, placing the needs ofothers before his own." - Rabbi Gershon Edelstein.Support the show-------------------The Weekly Parsha is a Torah Podcast that focuses on thought-provoking and energizing Divrei Torah on the week's Parsha. Stop asking, "What is this week's Parsha" and start telling your friends Divrei Torah on the week's Parsha. NEW! Watch our Torah WhatsApp status! WhatsApp the word "greatness" to (757)-679-4497 to watch the Status. ------------------Check out our other Torah Podcasts and content! Follow our Apple Podcast Channel! TMC Torah Podcast Network SUBSCRIBE to The Motivation Congregation Podcast for daily motivational mussar! Listen on Spotify or the new Jewish music and Podcast streaming platform 24six! Find all Torah talks and listen to featured episodes on our new website themotivationcongregation.org Questions or Comments? Please email me @ michaelbrooke97@gmail.com#parsha #shortdvartorah #thetorahpodcast #motivationalmussar

Discover the life and legacy of Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, a renowned Torah leader. Explore his teachings, contributions, and the impact he has made on the Jewish community worldwide. His wisdom, humility, and dedication to Torah learning have inspired millions of people around the world. In this episode, we will delve into the life and impact of the Ponevezh Rosh Yeshiva. Highlighting some significant milestones and teachings. Rav Edelstein's dedication to Torah study made him the teacher and mentor of our generation. As a spiritual leader, Rabbi Edelstein has guided countless students in pursuing Torah knowledge and personal growth. Rabbi Gershon Edelstein's teachings focus on the importance of Torah study, ethical conduct, andspiritual growth. He is known for his ability to convey complex concepts in a clear and accessible manner, making his lessons both engaging and enlightening. His warm and compassionate nature has endeared him to students and followers who seek his counsel on various matters. Rabbi Gershon Edelstein's life and legacy are an inspiring testament to the power of wisdom, leadership, and commitment to Jewish values. Through his teachings and guidance, he has played a pivotal role in shaping the lives of countless individuals and strengthening the global Jewish community. As we continue to learn from his insights and example, we are reminded of the transformative impact dedicated religious leaders like Rabbi Edelstein can have on our world. Baruch Bayan HaEmes."A true leader leads by example, placing the needs ofothers before his own." - Rabbi Gershon Edelstein.Support the showJoin the WhatsApp community for daily motivational Torah content! JOIN HERE ---------------- SUBSCRIBE to The Weekly Parsha for an insightful weekly shiur on the Parsha of the week. Listen on Spotify or the new Jewish music and Podcast streaming platform 24six! Access all Torah talks and listen to featured episodes on our new website, themotivationcongregation.org ---------------- Questions or Comments? Please email me @ michaelbrooke97@gmail.com#parsha #shortdvartorah #thetorahpodcast #motivationalmussar

The remaining Gadol HaDor and great Rosh Yeshiva was niftar. A lesson in influencing ourselves and priorities.

876. El beso del Gadol Hador

The Shomer Emunim writes in his ma'amar on hashgacha peratit ( perek 6), any suffering that a person bears in this world, especially if he believes that it's coming from Hashem and doesn't question Him, then it will cleanse him from endless potential suffering in the Next World. If a person was able to see what he was gaining through each suffering in this world, he would dance with the greatest joy, realizing the unbelievable kindness that Hashem is bestowing upon him. The greatest gains from any affliction come about if the person accepts it with love. Fortunate is the person who accepts his suffering with love. Aside for the tremendous benefit it brings him, the Gemara in Ta'anit says, it is so powerful, it brings about salvations to the entire world. The Shomer Emunim writes further, if a person gets even a small affliction and instead of attributing it to happenstance, he recognizes it was from Hashem and he says, “I deserve this because of my sins,” and he asks Hashem to be forgiven, that would bring him forgiveness for all of the blemishes he created in the Upper Worlds, and all the judgments would then become sweetened for him and it will be considered as if he received much more suffering than he actually did. The angel that used to learn Torah with the Bet Yosef told him, on one occasion, the reason why his wife wasn't having children. It had something to do with her neshama having a male element to it. But then he was told, because she went through certain sufferings and she accepted them happily, that made her soul so pure. Through that, she was zocheh to have children. A man once came to the Steipler Rebbe in need of chizuk due to all the problems he was experiencing. The Steipler told him not to dwell too much on the problems of this world. He went on to tell that man about all the problems he had. He said if he would have paid attention to all of his suffering, he would have remained an am ha'aretz , not learning even one page of Gemara . He said some of his problems were so great they could have been distributed to a hundred people and there would have been enough for all of them. Yet, because of his emunah, he knew all of his problems were sent by his loving Father Hashem, for his benefit, and that enabled him to move on each time with happiness. He grew in Torah, amidst the suffering, until he became the Gadol Hador. If people keep saying they are waiting for this problem to end, for that issue to become easier, they will be forfeiting their greatest opportunities for spiritual growth. We do hope the problems will become easier and go away, but in the meantime, if we persevere and continue fulfilling our roles as ovdei Hashem happily, we could reach the greatest heights. There are also great segulot involved in a person accepting what is happening to him with love. It brings about Heavenly mercy, it makes a person more fit for salvation, and most importantly, it purifies him and brings him to great spiritual levels. Chazal tell us, if Iyov wouldn't have complained about his suffering, he would have risen to the level of our holy Avot, Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov. This is the awesome value of not complaining, and rather accepting that whatever is happening is happening because of Hashem and it is for our best. If when a person is going through troubles, he is able to continue on living happily and serving Hashem to the best of his ability, his rewards will be endless.

Apt Inspiration on the Parsha Shiur given by Rabbi Rabbi Menachem Apter. Shiur recorded in Yeshivas Ohr Reuven, Monsey, NY.

As we enter the glorious month of Adar, it is a time to increase our happiness with the knowledge that we have Hashem with us who can save us from all our problems and take us out of this long exile. The pasuk says in the Megila וזכרם לא יסוף מזרעם– the days of Purim will be with us forever, including the days of Mashiach . It is the story of Purim which teaches us how Hashem relates to us during the galut , orchestrating everything from behind the scenes and making it appear natural while, in actuality, everything is coming from Him. The pasuk says in Tehillim that Hashem is עושה נפלאות גדולות לבדו – Hashem does wondrous miracles that only He knows about. Throughout this long exile of nearly 2000 years, Hashem has performed countless miracles for us that we never even heard of. And part of the glory of the days of Mashiach will be when Hashem tells us about the thousands of times Klal Yisrael was in danger and had no idea and Hashem, from behind the scenes, saved us time and time again. However, as in the days of Purim, there have also been many times that Hashem did show us what kind of danger we were in and the situations were very dire, until He finally saved us. What is the reason for us having to be in trouble or danger and know about it as well? The sefer Kiymu v'Kiblu writes, a Jew could possibly read Megilat Esther every single year of his life and still miss out on of the main lessons that we are supposed to draw from it. The Megila tells us about all of the hashgacha peratit of Hashem and how He saved us from the hands of Haman. But there is much more to the story than meets the eye. Our great Chachamim of the Gemara ask the question of how it was possible for the Jewish People of that time to be in such danger. Our Rabbis, who know how the world works, also know that it is impossible for another nation or person to harm us, or even threaten us, if Hashem didn't command it first. So they asked, why did Hashem bring Haman into power to make those harsh decrees against the Jewish People? The Rabbis answered, it was because of the misdeeds which had taken place beforehand. During the days of Nebuchadnezzar, the Jewish People bowed down to idols and when Achashverosh made a party celebrating that the Jews weren't going to be redeemed, wearing the clothing of the Kohen Gadol , the Jews actually went to that party and enjoyed it. It was their wrongdoings which brought about the danger they found themselves in. And Mordechai, who was the Gadol Hador at the time, knew the underlying reasons for these decrees and did everything in his power to help the Jewish People make teshuva and come back to Hashem. And then, automatically, the decree became annulled. Hashem brought that danger upon His people out of love. He was helping them realize the distance they created between them and Hashem. And He was helping them come closer to Him. If the purpose of life is just to succeed spiritually, when a person is off course, the greatest kindness Hashem could do for him is to help him come back. And usually, it's when a person finds himself in hard times that he does his soul searching. Hence, the Gemara tells us, whenever a person finds himself in a difficult situation, he should take the wisest course of action and try to find an area in which he is failing in and improve on it. This is one of the ways in which Hashem talks to us even today. We are currently living in difficult times with world tragedies and so much antisemitism. Our Gedolim have called upon us to improve in our ways. Each person should think of what he is lacking in and improve in it. And b'ezrat Hashem, we hope this will lead to our ultimate geula and the coming of the Mashiach b'karov . Amen.

How To Create Souls of Next Torah Giants - JEWISH INTIMACY (17) https://youtu.be/S99buTpFGMM The Ramban's Iggeret HaKodesh will now unveil the secret hinted by the Chazon Ish (centuries later) about how there are certain people born with unbelievable holiness and Torah genius to some special parents. In fact its now time to unveil how do the Gadolie HaDor tend to have children who also become Gadol HaDor. Since Torah is acquired and not inherited, there must be something else, and in this shiur by Rabbi Yaron Reuven we'll find out what it is, and how you can do it too.

How To Create Souls of Next Torah Giants - JEWISH INTIMACY (17) https://youtu.be/S99buTpFGMM The Ramban's Iggeret HaKodesh will now unveil the secret hinted by the Chazon Ish (centuries later) about how there are certain people born with unbelievable holiness and Torah genius to some special parents. In fact its now time to unveil how do the Gadolie HaDor tend to have children who also become Gadol HaDor. Since Torah is acquired and not inherited, there must be something else, and in this shiur by Rabbi Yaron Reuven we'll find out what it is, and how you can do it too.

It is very common for people to look around and see other people's blessings and feel bad that they aren't sharing the same success. We tend to look at financial gain as the ultimate blessing and can't help but wonder why people who aren't observant are doing so well in that area. There is so much more to life than money. We have no idea what is going on in other people's lives. Financial gains does not mean that the person is living a blessed life. The main rewards for our avodah are in the Next World. But even here, Hashem has so many meaningful ways of blessing people beyond what money could ever buy. Rabbi Yechiel Meir Tzudker told a story about a man named Mr. Donat who received a share in the first public transport company in Israel, called Shachar as part of his immigration privileges. For Donat, this was a marvelous stroke of good fortune. In time, Shachar merged with HaMikasher, another transportation company, forming the iconic Egged Bus Service and shares skyrocketed. Just the dividends earned from his share in Egged were sufficient to support Mr. Donat's family comfortably. Yet, this merger resulted in an unforeseen problem for Torah observant shareholders. When the newly founded Egged began operating, a large number of bus lines ran on Shabbat. Now anyone who owned shares in the company would be profiting from chilul Shabbat . Mr. Donat asked the Rav of Haifa, Rav Avraham Yitzchak Klein about what to do. Simply, this was forbidden, but Rabbi Klein wouldn't rule on the matter because there was so much poverty in Israel at the time, and if Mr. Donat would give up his shares, he would most probably have to start collecting to feed his family, which was not a simple matter. It borderlined a question of pikuach nefesh . And so he sent Mr. Donat to the Chazon Ish with the question, saying only the Gadol HaDor could answer such a critical question. At that time, the Chazon Ish was ill and bedridden, but because Mr. Donat traveled for a half a day to get there, they allowed him in to quickly present his question. After hearing it, the Chazon Ish responded with just two words. “ אין אפשרות ” which meant it would be impossible to allow. Mr. Donat heard the Gadol's reply and his heart plummeted. Yet, despite his heartache and fear, he completely accepted the ruling and immediately set out for Egged's main offices. When he arrived, he requested the deed of his share and ripped it into pieces, forfeiting his share in the company and its considerable returns. In that second, Donat was reduced from a man of means to a pauper. Instead of living in comfort, he became a low wage vendor and spent his days lugging around a heavy suitcase, selling soap door to door. But despite all the difficulties, he walked with his head held up high, knowing he sacrificed wealth and comfort to follow Hashem. Even when he turned 80 years old, he was still working hard. While his friends were reaping the benefits of their pensions and living off their savings, old Mr. Donat was still working hard to make ends meet. In his later years, he ended up changing jobs and became a helper in a yeshiva building. One day, he came into the building with a beaming smile on his face. One of the boys there asked him why he was so happy. Mr. Donat replied, “This morning I was walking in one of the upscale neighborhoods on Mount Carmel when I bumped into an old acquaintance of mine, a former colleague from my days in Egged. He recognized me and said, ‘You see all these splendid houses around you? They all belong to veteran Egged shareholders. Look at what you lost when you foolishly forfeited your share. That one share would have been worth millions today. We are all living in beautiful homes with pools and cars while you are still toiling away like a workhorse.'” Mr. Donat continued, “I didn't answer him because he would never understand what I have. Besides for my eternal rewards for what I gave up, tonight I am going to attend my son's Siyum HaShas . This is not any siyum HaShas , my son was tested and knows the entire Shas by heart. Tonight, I'll be sitting with great Rabbis and the room will be filled with my children, children-in-law, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, all of whom are filled with Torah and yirat Shamayim . You see, Shabbat paid me back ten-fold with the most nachat a person could have in this world.” It is not always about money. There is so much more to life than just dollars and cents.

A man was complaining that Hashem is not helping him. He has been praying for a very long time for something, and even took upon himself to be stricter in certain mitzvot , but he has not seen any reciprocation and he is contemplating lessening his observance in Torah and mitzvot . If this man only knew how much Hashem is appreciating every word of tefila that he makes, and every improvement in mitzvot that he is making, he would never think like this. The Chovot HaLevavot writes in the Shaar HaBitachon, perek 1, one of the requirements necessary for a person to do his job properly in avodat Hashem is to know for a fact that Hashem is going to reward him for every single thing that he does. Nothing goes unnoticed. Every drop of effort he makes will be rewarded. And Hashem rewards in a very big way. Sometimes people see small connections between their actions and Hashem helping them. For example, someone gives tzedaka and, the next day, he makes back the exact same amount of money to the penny. And the person feels so special, seeing Hashem rewarding his efforts. That feeling is not even a millionth of the feeling he will have when Hashem openly rewards him for all of his good deeds. The pasuk says ותשחק ליום אחרון – on that final day there is going to be complete euphoria. The joy will be indescribable. And the Midrash in Shemot Raba explains that day is referring to the day that Hashem is going to show us our rewards in the Future World for our efforts here. In this world, we do not necessarily get to see immediate reciprocation. The greatest people who ever lived prayed very hard for things which they had to wait decades for. Sarah Imenu was greater in nevua even than Avraham Avinu. She lived every day with open miracles, seeing blessings in her bread, in her candles and having the Shechina rest right above her tent. Yet she prayed and prayed to have a child. She was even willing to give her husband a second wife if that's what was necessary. But she went fifty years without seeing reciprocation. That is precisely what made Sarah Imenu so great. That is how she became who she became. She kept praying and she kept growing, without seeing the yeshua . The same was true with all our Avot and Imahot . We must all feel confident in the fact that Hashem is appreciating every effort that we make. And if we must go a long time without seeing yeshuot , it only makes our avodah that much more precious. In this world, we have a job to do. Hashem, who knows what that job is, carefully plans out every moment of our lives. The rewards are coming. Hashem takes care of the righteous. It may appear that there is nothing good to look forward to at times, but we must always remind ourselves, the yeshua of Hashem comes in the blink of an eye. Somebody pointed out to me an unbelievable yeshua which I never picked up upon. Rivka Imenu was born into a family of resha'im . She wanted, more than anything, just to grow and stay pure. But she was in the worst environment to do so. But then came the yeshuat Hashem in an enormous way. She woke up one regular morning, surrounded in the same environment of tuma(impurity) , and that day, Hashem brought Eliezer Eved Avraham to her home in the blink of an eye. And by the next day, she was married to the son of the Gadol HaDor in a city that would normally take seventeen days to get to. She became surrounded by the greatest kedusha. Hashem put her in the best environment in the entire world. That is ישועת ה' כהרף עין . We must all stay the course and continue serving Hashem the way we are supposed to. The rewards are coming, and they are going to be very big.

We've been talking about the trait of Savlanut/ tolerance . Rav Wolbe, in his sefer Alei Shur ( vol 2 page 216), says that first a person has to condition himself to get the idea of tolerating others. But he says, a person also has to learn how to tolerate himself. What does that mean? Sometime a person is trying to work on a trait, such as tolerating people. He decided, “ Hey, that's a great thing to work on. I really need to work on tolerance. I don't have tolerance for people,” and he's been working on that for the past few days. He is going to see that he is not as strong as he thought he was. You really can't beat this bad trait so quickly. So you might forget about it. You might not be so stable and you'll get Yetzer Hara attacks. So now what? He quotes a midrash, which is also quoted by Rabbenu Yona in Shaar Teshuva ( Shaar 2, אות כו ), explaining the mishna in Pirkei Avot: וּכְשֶׁאֲנִי לְעַצְמִי מָה אֲנִי, כְּשֶׁאֲנִי לִי לְהִשְׁתַּדֵּל לְתַקֵּן נַפְשִׁי בְּכָל כֹּחִי, וַאֲנִי הוֹגֶה בַּחָכְמָה בְּכָל עֵת, מָה אֲנִי, כִּי הַשָּגַת הָאָדָם קְצָרָה וְדַלָּה, וְעִם הַטֹּרַח וְהַתִּקּוּן יַשִּיג מְעַט מִן הַמַּעֲלוֹת. רְאֵה מִי אֲנִי וּמֶה חַיַּי כְּשֶׁאֲנִי לְעַצְמִי לְהִשְׁתַּדֵּל When am I for myself, what am I? Even when a person tries to fix himself, with all his strength, and is constantly working on myself, still he says, What am I? Because of my abilities are limited. With all the hard work I put in, I'm only going to produce a few good qualities. He gives a mashal of a very low grade field. Even with all the hard work you put in, and all that you do to try to fix it, it's still only going to produce a very small crop. But if you don't work on it, then it's only going to produce weeds and thorns and thistles. And he says from Avot D'Rebe Natan perek טז on the Pasuk in Tehilim (103,14), where David Hamelech says כִּי הוּא יָדַע יִצְרֵנוּ God knows our Yetzer Hara, that it's comparable to a king that gives a field to his servants and tells them to guard and watch it, and bring 30 pounds a year. And they work hard but they can only bring five pounds. The king asks,” What's going on? What'd you do? I asked you for 30 pounds!” And they say, “ Our master, the king, the field that you gave us is a very low grade. We tried our hardest, and with all our hard work, this is all we produced.” This is an important concept, says Rav Wolbe This field you gave us, it's low grade. And therefore, he says, “ Woe to someone that doesn't have tolerance with himself, who is very quick to despair from service of God entirely,” someone who says, “ Forget it. I tried to work on tolerance for two weeks and it's not working.” Even if he doesn't despair, when he pushes through, he's going to be depressed. And there's nothing that ruins service of God more than being down and depressed. He says, Human nature, is that when we start serving Hashem, we want fast results, instant gratification. We think, “I heard that you're supposed to pray with kavana, so I'll just try, and Boom! I'm going to be able to pray all my prayers with kavana from beginning to end. And one by one, I'm going to go through Mesilat Yesharim and knock off every Middah. If I just stick to it by the end of the year I'll be a Gadol Hador.” Then, how despaired and frustrated we become when we don't see it happening. So we have to realize this important rule- that in everything that we're trying to do, slow and steady wins the race. You can't overload, you can't exaggerate. As the Gemara in Kedushin (17A) says, If you try to grab a lot you're not going grab anything. And if you try to get a little bit, you can get that little bit. And even with that little bit that we can do, we're going to stumble and mess up. But don't despair. Keep pushing forward. Now, at the same time, there is a catch: Don't now be overly tolerant with yourself and just accept the situation and become apathetic to change. Don't say, “ Okay, that's it. I got a garbage field. I'm not working. I'm just going to sit down and throw in the towel.” No, I have to keep working steadily at it and fall and get up. As Mishleh says, (24,16) The Sadik falls seven times and he gets up . And if we stick to it, eventually we will be successful. That is this important rule called Tolerance with yourself. Have a great day.

Rav Yechezkel from Kuzmir once said, even if a person was on his way to shul on Erev Yom Kippur, if his friend would stop him and ask if he could go for a walk with him because there is something that is bothering him and he would love to be able to speak his heart and remove the worry, the man should say yes and go with him because the goal of Yom Kippur is teshuva, and fulfilling the great mitzvah of ואהבת לרעך כמוך, which is a klal gadol b'Torah, is an enormous zechut and will help fix all the times during the year that we ignored people instead of helping them. At this time, we need every zechut we can get. Rabbi Yoel Klofat learned in the yeshiva of the Chafetz Chaim for six months when he was a bachur . That year on Yom Kippur, the Chafetz Chaim got up to speak as usual between Kol Nidreh and Arbit . He quoted the pasuk , ולגר הגר בתוכם ונסלח לכל עדת בני ישראל– that Hashem forgives all of the sins of the Jewish People and of the converts. He gave an example of a goy who converted to Judaism at a very old age. Then, on one of the first few days as a Jew, he made a light transgression. “Will Hashem have a claim against him?”, the Chafetz Chaim asked. “He never learned, he doesn't know better. He wants to do what's right; he just doesn't know yet. Even though he is considered a full-fledged Jew, he was not trained properly and has no idea of what is truly expected of him.” Then the Chafetz Chaim added, “We, as well, what do we know? How much do we learn? ונסלח לכל עדת בני ישראל.” The Chafetz Chaim said, “Hashem forgives us just like he forgives the aged converts. Why? כי לכל העם בשגגה – because we are all considered acting mistakenly.” Rabbi Yoel said, “When I heard that speech, I was baffled. That is what the great Chafetz Chaim decided to speak about on the holiest night of the year?” He was so disappointed. He was hoping to hear a fiery speech from the Gadol HaDor that would ignite him to improve his ways, but in the end, the entire speech was all about being milamed zechut on Am Yisrael , giving the Jewish People the benefit of the doubt. Then, later on in life, Rabbi Yoel finally understood some of what the Chafetz Chaim was trying to accomplish that night of Yom K ippur. He read in the sefer Shem Olam, authored by the Chafetz Chaim, how wondrous it is to give people the benefit of the doubt and judge them favorably. One reason is because whoever judges others favorably, mida k'neged mida , will get judged by Hashem favorably. The Chofetz Chaim was teaching his students how to judge favorably on the day that it counted the most. When we are asked for forgiveness, if we can give the people asking the benefit of the doubt and wholeheartedly forgive them, then b'ezrat Hashem we will also be forgiven and we will also be judged favorably by Hashem. Tizku l'shanim rabot and g'mar chatima tova.

Rav Moshe Feinstein, zatzal , writes in his sefer Igrot Moshe , the same way we have an obligation to give ten percent of our earnings to charity, so too a Torah scholar is obligated to dedicate ten percent of his learning to teaching and helping others. When someone takes away from his own learning to help other people, in the natural way of the world, presumably, he will not be able to accomplish as much as he could have had he used all that time for himself. However, when it comes to avodat Hashem, it does not matter what seems natural. Just like when a person gives away his money to tzedaka , Hashem blesses him with more, so too when a person takes away time from himself and gives it to others. Hashem gives that person extra siyata d'Shamaya in his own life and in his own learning. Rav Moshe Feinstein was known to be available for anyone who needed, especially when it came to giving piskei halacha . He attended weddings almost every night, sometimes several times in one night. Yet, he was still able to master every facet of Torah and become the Gadol HaDor . His sensitivity towards other people's needs only gave him more siyata d'Shamaya in his learning. On one occasion, Rav Moshe was meeting with Rav Aharon Kotler and Rav Yaakov Kamenetzky behind closed doors while distinguished rabbis were waiting outside to find out the outcome of the deliberations of these great Gedolim . There were many weighty she'elot that they were deliberating over. Suddenly, in the middle of the meeting, Rav Moshe apologized to his colleagues and stood up to leave. He said he had an important wedding he needed to attend and he dashed out to the car in which his student was waiting to take him there. When Rav Moshe arrived at the wedding, the excitement in the hall rose to a pitch. The posek hador had arrived. Everyone gathered to greet the Rabbi, including the chatan's father. Rav Moshe shook his hand and explained that he came on behalf of the kallah's side. “You merited a truly precious treasure,” Rav Moshe told the beaming chatan . “A wonderful kallah she is, make sure you value her.” Normally, Rav Moshe would wish the people at a wedding mazal tov and then leave, but this time he deviated from his usual custom. He remained there for a long time, giving berachot to all those who waited on the line to shake his hand. Afterwards he danced with the chatan and then praised the kallah with more accolades to him. Just before he left, the Rabbi asked for the kallah to come over to him. He wished her a mazal tov and added his heartfelt berachot . When Rav Moshe and his student returned to the car, the student asked whose wedding was so important that the Rav felt it necessary to leave an emergency meeting with the other Rabbanim to attend. Rav Moshe smiled and went on to relate the story behind it. A few days earlier, a young girl had knocked on the Feinstein's door, pale and hesitant. As soon as she entered the room, she broke out crying, asking if she could speak to Rav Moshe. When she was sitting before the Rabbi, she explained that she had grown up in a poor family from Yerushalayim and had gotten engaged to a boy from America. The wedding was going to be in New York and her family couldn't afford to fly in. They managed just to purchase one ticket for her. “I'm all alone,” she cried. “I have no family here. The chatan's side is going to wonder what's wrong with me. They may even think that my family rejected me.” Then she made a bold request. “Maybe the Rav would attend my wedding? Then no one would care about the absence of my relatives.” Rav Moshe's eyes lit up. “Of course, I'll be happy to come by,” he said. The talmid was impressed by Rav Moshe's kindness. Then he asked why the rabbi stayed and felt the need to personally bless the kallah . The rabbi replied, “I knew after the wedding she would find out that I came. But during the wedding, she may have been troubled the whole time, wondering if I did come, so I decided to reassure her so that she would be happy during the entire wedding.” Look at the sensitivity of the Gadol . Rav Moshe taught us to give some of our time away to helping others, especially when it comes to helping in Torah study. He himself exemplified this principle. We never lose by giving, we only gain more.

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The Gemara tells us, one of the areas we constantly need chizuk in is tefila . No matter how good a person's tefilot are, over time they tend to become more habitual and therefore could definitely use chizuk . The Meiri writes that a person should always feel confident in the power of a good tefila to break a decree and if someone is going through a tough time, or has a family member that is ill, he should go to a chacham and ask him for advice on how to have a good tefila . What is a good tefila ? Obviously one with emotion and tears and obviously one with kavana . But there is another very important factor that could make the tefila truly great. When Rachel Imenu saw that she was barren for many years, she told Yaakov to do something to ensure that she will have a child. The Ramban explains, Rachel was asking Yaakov to pray, thinking that the tefilot of a tzaddik like Yaakov would for sure be answered, especially if he puts all of his efforts into it. But Yaakov replied, there is no guarantee that his tefilot would ensure that she'll have a child. Then, says the Ramban, when the tzadeket Rachel saw that she couldn't even rely on the tefilot of Yaakov who was the Gadol HaDor , that's when she prayed with all of her heart and soul, realizing she had to go straight to Hashem because He was the only One who could help her. Then, וישמע אליה אלוקים – that is when Hashem answered her tefila and that is when she finally had a child. The best prayer is one in which the person realizes Who he is standing in front of and what His capabilities are. This is one of the reasons why we start the Amida with praise, so we realize who Hashem is, and only then do we make our requests. We all know that only Hashem could help us, but from time to time, we need to be reminded of it so that it is at the forefront of our minds. I read a story about a couple from Israel who did not have children for many years. They went to a lot of doctors and none were able to help. One day, the man was telling his friend he didn't know what else he could possibly do to be helped. His friend said to him, he heard there's a top doctor in America who has helped many couples with cases that seemed hopeless. People fly from all over the world to see him. He suggested trying to get an appointment with that doctor. They took his advice and traveled to America and consulted with that doctor, who raised his hands helplessly saying he didn't know what to do to help them. There was one more highly recommended doctor there, but his fees were exorbitant. The couple decided they had to try and they waited there for weeks to finally see him. That doctor analyzed their case for a very long time. He did his own testing and finally concluded by saying, “I don't see any problems at all with you. I can't explain why you are not having children, but I do see that you are religious Jews. Pray to your G-d. Only He could help you.” When they heard those words from the top doctor in the field, they took on new meaning to them. From then on, they spent every tefila crying buckets of tears, understanding who they were actually talking to and, within a year, they were blessed with a baby boy. There is nothing that can take the place of a good tefila .

We continue with Emuna lessons from Rav Chaskel Abramsky's sefer Melech B'Yofyof ( page 612): In Parashat Vayetzeh , when describing Yaakov Avinu , the Torah says, “ Yaakov made a neder/vow saying… If God will be with me..” But Rav Abramsky says that we can read also the pasuk as, “ Yaakov made a neder, to constantly say, If God will be with me.” In other words, Yaakov Avinu's neder was to get used to saying B'Ezrat Hashem, Im Yirtzah Hashem, With the help of God, If God wants… The first statement of his neder was to constantly mention, “ God is with me.” The Shelah Hakadosh says that a siman for this is the phrase, “ עצת ה׳ היא תקום The advice of God will stand up . ” If you have a thought in your head and it's God's idea, it will last. But how do we know if it's God's idea? עצת ה׳ היא תקום The letters of the word היא rescrambled, stand for א ם י רצה ה ׳ If Hashem wants When a person gets into the habit of saying,I'm Yirtzeh Hashem/ If God wants, it will bring success. He also says something fascinating- We see in Parashat Hukat that God was exacting with Moshe Rabbenu for hitting the rock rather than speaking to the rock. But the commentaries say that really, Moshe Rabbenu wasn't supposed to go into Eretz Yisrael anyway. God was, so to say, looking for a pretense to hold him back from entering, so it had to be something. Rav Abramsky tells a story that he says he heard from Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer- As was well known, the Chafetz Chaim planned to move to Eretz Yisrael later in life, but he did not end up going - for a variety of reasons- As we have said in the past, when the great Syrian Mekubal Rav Shaul Dweck HaKohen, who was in Eretz Yisrael at the time, was told that Chafetz Chaim was preparing to come (it was world news), he said he's not coming. How did he know?He was a great mekubal. When the Chafetz Chaim did not end up coming, they asked him how he knew, and Rav Shaul answered that a Gadol Hador has to be owned by Klal Yisrael, by the people at large. If he is owned by one party, then the other party thinks he is not theirs, and he can't be a true Gadol and world leader. The Chafetz Chaim was a world leader. But if he were to come to Eretz Yisrael, with so many different groups, factions and parties, he'd end up belonging to one group over the other, and would not be able to have the same leadership power. Sure enough, he didn't come. There were other, on the ground reasons that covered up the real reason Hashem didn't allow it to happen. In 1935, the Chafetz Chaim spoke in Radin for what they thought was the final time before he'd leave. It was his final goodbye speech. After he spoke, one of the baalei batim , a sked (in simplicity and with no ill intentions) why the Chafetz Chaim did not say Im Yirtzha Hashem even once in the whole speech. That night, the Chafetz Chaim's wife suddenly got sick with very severe disease, and they canceled their trip. Rav Abramsky added that of course, Hashem was very medakdek/exacting with the Chafetz Chaim, and there were more reasons he didn't end up moving, but what Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer brought out was that when a person doesn't use the term Im Yirtzah Hashem, it might be a signal, or even a cause, for something not to be successful. We have to get into this habit. In our community we say, “ Inshallah ,” which is the Arabic way to say, “ With God's help, ” so this has been in our vernacular for a long time. We also say “ Allamaak ,” which means “ God be with you.” This is an ancient tradition, whether in Arabic, English or whatever language you speak. B'Ezrat Hashem , we will take this lesson to heart. Have a wonderful day.

While we were in Eretz Yisrael, we merited to hear the grandson of Rav Chaim Kanievsky tell us some stories, such as the following: Rav Chaim once put out the hidushim of Rabbi Eliyahu Dushnitzer. He had learned by this Rabbi in the Lomz Yeshiva in Petach Tikva. Many great Gedolim learned under this Rabbi, who was a student of the Elder of Kelm and the Chafetz Chaim. It was uncharacteristic of Rav Chaim to take the time to raise money and work on the manuscript, as he usually spent his time learning When people asked him why he did it, he explained as follows: When he was a boy learning in the yeshiva, Rabbi Dushnitzer had asked him to send a question to the Chazon Ish, who was Rav Chaim's uncle (his mother's brother). He would leave from the Yeshiva to return home to Bnei Brak, and as there were no phones or other modern means of communication, Rav Chaim was the trusted messenger of many people, sent to ask questions to the Chazon Ish and report back. Rav Chaim said that he felt that when returning messages from the Chazon Ish to Rav Dushnitzer, he failed to give him the proper respect. Imagine a young boy of 18, being sent by an older Rabbi, to ask questions to the Gadol Hador. He might come back with a little chip on his shoulder. Whatever it was, Rav Chaim felt that he did not give his Rabbi the proper respect, and he had never asked forgiveness for it. The Rabbi had passed away by then, so he felt that in order to appease the rabbi for that lack of respect, he would put out his Rabbi's sefer. What is unbelievable about the story is that it is known that when Rav Eliyahu Dushnitzer gave somebody rebuke, it was always with a soft word and a warm smile, and he would always ask forgiveness from the students, in case he hurt their feelings. He explained that it was because it says that when you give somebody rebuke, you have to make sure that you are doing it properly. If you don't do it properly, and hurt the person's feelings, you have to ask them forgiveness- otherwise it is not a proper rebuke. This Rabbi was on such a level that he was asking forgiveness from his own students, so obviously he didn't really care about the little slight that might have happened from Rav Chaim, and yet Rav Chaim felt that this was enough to warrant spending time and money to put out his old Rabbi's manuscript, in order to appease him for that lack of respect. Wonder of wonders. This shows us the level of respect that we are supposed to have for our fellow human beings. Have a wonderful day.

I would like to quote from the Chafetz Chaim's sefer Ahavat Hesed (vol 2, chapter 5): “ We are in a time that God's justice is extremely strong in the world, and there is no way to get out of the problems that are constantly arising ( he was referring to the era between World War I and World War II), How much more so do we have to strengthen ourselves in the trait of Hesed, because through this, when we do kindness down here, we arouse God's kindness above.” He continues to quote from the Tanna D'Vei Eliyahu, a Midrash from the great Eliyahu HaNavi (end of 23rd chapter), that says, “ When the Jews were in Egypt they held a meeting and said that they should all be together. And they made a deal, before they left Egypt, to do Hesed with one another.” The Chafetz Chaim explains that the purpose of that was in order to arouse God's kindness above. He said that it worked- they got out! Their Hesed is what caused the decrees of Paroah to be annulled. He quotes a source that we say in Az Yashir every day (from Shemot 15,13), ‎ “ נחית בחסדך עם זו גאלת You guided this nation, the Yehudim, with kindness,” Which means in the merit of kindness, they got out. He continues and says, “ Whoever is consistent in this Middah of kindness, you will have children that are wise and successful. He quotes a Gemarah in Bava Batra to that fact. Then, the Chafetz Chaim, the Gadol HaDor of his generation and many generations to come, says, “ It's a wonder on people that look for Segulot for children, and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars ( depending on their finances)… it's better to do the segula that Chazal tell us- Do the trait of Sedaka, do as much as you can for the poor, and if you don't have the money, raise money for them … be of those that fundraise for people that don't have. It's greater to fundraise than to give, because you're the one that causes others to give. And he says that it must be done consistently, he has to condition his body, to be, as the pasuk says, “A chaser of Sedaka.” In that merit God will do kindness to him, and fulfill his needs. It says that many people in his time, that needed children, have done this, and they were successful. He adds that if Heaven forbid, for some reason, God doesn't want the person to have children, at the least the Sedaka that he spent will become like his children. Like it says, “His deeds are his children.” Whereas if a person spends money on segulot that aren't like this, then he doesn't ending up reaping the benefit. He quotes again from Tanna D'Dvei Eliyahu, (end of chapter 26) where the pasuk in Devarim ( 28,2) says that “ All these blessings will come upon you, will catch up to you, because you listen to the voice of Hashem, your God.” The Midrash continues, “ They will come if listen to His voice, and go in His ways. What are God's ways? That He is merciful.. even on the wicked. Eventually He accepts them in Teshuva, if they do Teshuva. God gives everyone parnasa…those are the ways of Shamayim.” The ways of Shamayim are that God is a Hanun and gives Matnat Hinam, says the Tanna Dvei Eliyahu, even to people that don't deserve it. You too can give Matnat Hinam to people you don't even know, and for no reason. These are the ways of Shamayim, and he says that if you act like that, you arouse God's kindness. So there is a direct connection between acts of kindness and Yetziat Mitzrayim. It's no wonder that there is such an abundance of kindness done at this time of the year. Because, as we say, every year there is a Yetziat Mitzrayim. We got out in Nissan, and we will get out in Nissan. The only way to do that is by doing acts of Hesed. As a reminder, if you have not yet given to Lev Chana, an organization that uses donation to purchase clothing cards, now is your chance. Anyone who wishes to participate in this special mitzvah can write a check made out to Lev Chana, and mail it to Lev Chana c/o Rabbi David Sutton 1059 E. 10th St. Brooklyn, NY, 11230. To be billed, email me directly at rabbisutton@gmail.com For Quickpay, use rabbisutton@gmail.com Or click on this link: https://www.rayze.it/levchana/

In this week's parasha Shemini , in the middle of the festivities of the inauguration of the Mishkan , Nadav and Avihu, two great tzaddikim were taken from the world and the Jewish People went from a state of celebration to a state of mourning. This past week, while Yerushalayim was celebrating the joyous day of Purim, the news came regarding the death of the Gadol HaDor and celebration turned into mourning. This Shabbat, we are also going to read parashat Parah and Rashi brings the Chazal who tell us the reason the Torah puts the death of Miriam next to the para aduma is to teach us that just like para aduma is michaper , so too the death of tzaddikim is michaper . We don't know why at this time we needed such a big kapara , but we do know there is definitely a massive void in the world that needs to be filled and every single one of us could do our part in trying to fill it. Although we have been hearing about the unparalleled greatness of Rav Chaim Kanievsky Z”l who became a master over every facet of Torah, it is not incumbent upon us to fill his shoes. Rabbi Menashe Reizman quoted from the Chovot HaLevavot in the Shaar Avodat Elokim who teaches us that every single person is sent to this world to do a different mission and nobody is expected to be someone he is not capable of becoming. Hashem chose this Gadol to lead the generation. He gave him the tools necessary for him to become the person he needed to become. And, he used those tools to their capacity and fulfilled his role. A boy learning in yeshiva should not feel bad if he doesn't remember his Torah like Rav Chaim Kanievsky did. A person doing his utmost to learn an hour in the morning and an hour in the night should not feel bad that he is not making a siyum on the entire Torah each year. It is known that Rav Chaim was not a public speaker. Only twice a year he gave a derasha in the Kollel Chazon Ish, on the yahrzeit of his father the Steipler and his uncle the Chazon Ish. He was not given the tongue of an orator because that was not his mission. He had a golden pen and a computer-like mind and the greatest diligence imaginable. Hashem gave him what he needed. Hashem wants all types of people serving Him in all types of ways. Some people need to excel in chesed , some in Yirat Shamayim , some in Talmud Torah and so on. Everyone needs to use the strengths that Hashem gave him to become the person that Hashem wants him to become. A person is supposed to feel good in his avodat Hashem and usually the area he is drawn to is the area that he needs to perfect to fulfill his mission. Of course, we have to follow every halacha , but regarding where we excel, it should be in an area that we feel drawn towards. So on the one hand, we need to hear about how great this Gadol HaDor was, we have to know what we had and what we are missing, but at the same time, we have to use that knowledge to improve ourselves and become the best we can be with what Hashem gave us. We don't have to know Shas baal peh , but we should know the Gemara that we are learning. Everyone can always improve, and now is a great time to do it. May Hashem give us the siyata d'Shamaya to grow more and fulfill the roles that He wants each of us to fulfill. Shabbat Shalom.

The Gadol Hador, Rav Chaim Kanievsky זצ"ל, has passed away and while many of us are aware of this great loss, we can't truly comprehend the gravity of what we will be forever lacking. Rabbi Stark attempts to shed some light on who this angel of Hashem was and how we are to try and deal with his passing.

Today we present a story about Rav Chaim Kanievsky's father, the Steipler ztz'l , as told by our scholar in residence, my father-in-law, Rabbi Nosson Scherman, shlita: The Steipler Gaon was the Gadol HaDor in his time. He was a brother-in-law of the Chazon Ish, and the father of Rav Chaim. When the Steipler's father was a young man, he was a chasid of the Hornosteipel Rebbe (which is where the name Steipler came from). When the time came for Shidduchim, two girls were suggested for him. One was from a very wealthy family, so he'd be able to sit and learn for the rest of his life, but the girl was not so desirable in terms of spirituality and religion. The other girl was a very fine girl, but from a poor family, and he'd have to go to work right away. He went to his Rebbe to ask what he should do, and the Rebbe said, “You don't go for the money, you go for the person. Marry the girl who is very good, and don't worry about the money.“ The Rebbe saw on his face that he was a little bit disappointed, so the Rebbe said, “You will have a son who will light up the whole world with his Torah.“ Later on in life, the Steipler would say, “Why do people buy my sefarim? There are better sefarim.. it's because the Sadik gave a beracha, and you can't ask questions about a Sadik's beracha.” He attributed his success to the beracha of the Hornosteipel Rebbe. This story is an an example of the humility of an Adam Gadol, of Emunat Chachamim, a nd also- of Middot , which is what we have been talking about. Ahavat Yisrael, Ve'Ahavta LeRe'echa Kamocha, are is the foundation of the entire Torah. The Derashot Haran points out that when Avraham Avinu was looking for a wife for his son Yitzhak, he went to a place where people worshipped idols (so maybe their Hashkafa wasn't the best), but they had the proper Middot . She had the Middah of Hesed . When looking for a wife, the future mother of your children, that's always what you are supposed to look for. You are supposed to look for the proper Middot . And the ultimate Middah is Ahavat Yisrael , which is what we are working on. We see from here that the Steipler's father chose a wife that had proper Middot , and, so to say, sacrificed on his learning, but in the end, he was paid back, with his great son, the Steipler, and his grandson, Rav Chaim Kanievsky. Have a wonderful day.

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The Midrash tells us that since the creation of the world, Hashem has been involved with making shidduchim. This doesn't just mean that when it's time for a couple to get married, Hashem brings them together, but rather already from decades before Hashem is leading each person to the position they need to be in in order to eventually find and marry their zivug. In the beginning of the new biography of Rav Yitzchak Sheiner, the former Rosh Yeshiva of the Kaminetz Yeshiva, written by R' Nachman Seltzer, there is a quote of a speech that Rabbi Sheiner himself once gave of the amazing hashgacha of Hashem involved in him finding his zivug. He said he grew up in Pittsburgh at a time when there were no yeshivot or talmud torahs to learn at. His parents were religious, but with no other choice, they had to send him to public school. After 8 years of elementary school, he went on to a public high school called Peabody High. After graduating from there, he was accepted to the University of Pittsburgh where he planned to become a math major. He was very good at math and Latin and his teachers told him he was going to become a big scholar in those subjects. One of the potential problems with this plan was, as can be seen in hindsight, when his wife was born a Heavenly voice rang out Esther Leah bat Rav Moshe, granddaughter of the famed Rosh Yeshiva Rav Baruch Ber Leibowitz, is going to marry Yitzchak Aryeh ben Rav Dov. But, at that time Rav Yitzchak Aryeh was a 3 year old boy growing up in Pittsburgh with no Torah learning available, while his wife was born in Vilna, a capital center of Torah. Yitzchak Aryeh was not going to know that much about Gemara for the first 16 years of his life, but he was destined to marry a girl from the family of the Gadol HaDor , the author of the Birkat Shmuel , a sefer used in every yeshiva in the world. Not to mention that they lived almost 6,000 miles from each other. How did Hashem arrange such a marriage? In the summer after Rabbi Sheiner graduated high school, Rav Avraham Bender came to Pittsburgh to raise funds for a yeshiva. He had never come to the East end neighborhood where Rabbi Sheiner lived, but on this occasion Hashem sent him there and being that the Sheiner family was from the few families that kept kosher, the Rabbi stayed by their house. When making small talk one day, he discovered that Rabbi Sheiner was going to go to the University of Pittsburgh. Rabbi Bender asked his parents why they weren't sending him to New York to learn in Yeshiva? Rabbi Sheiner's parents actually had no idea that there even were any yeshivot at that time in New York. They agreed to send their son there and he went. The following summer, Rav Yitzchak learned in a camp in the Catskill mountains called Camp Mesivta, the only Jewish camp that existed at the time. Because he developed a bad cough, it was recommended that he go there to breathe the fresh mountain air. And it was there that he met new people who ended up bringing him to Yeshiva Torah V'Daat where he studied under the great Rosh Yeshiva Rav Shlomo Heiman for years and then under Rav Reuven Grazovsky where he was developing to become the great Rosh Yeshiva that he himself eventually became. Rabbi Grazovsky married the daughter of Rav Baruch Ber and he lived in Vilna. Later, he moved with his father-in-law to Kaminetz and learned in the Yeshiva there called Keneset Bet Yitzchak, but during World War II Rabbi Grazovsky escaped Europe and eventually found his way to New York and the Torah V'Daat Yeshiva. He was the shadchan for Rabbi Yitzchak Sheiner over there. He suggested his own niece, a granddaughter of Rav Baruch Ber Leibowitz. And that is how this couple came together. These are just some of the details of how Hashem made just one shidduch. The same is true in millions of other people's lives. Hashem is the mizaveg zivugim , He matches up people from all different backgrounds and from all different parts of the world after years and years of advance planning.

Rabbi Yisrael Salanter was once traveling by train from Salant to Vilna. He was in the smoking car, holding a lit cigarette. In those days, it was accepted to smoke cigarettes. It was considered healthy. A young man started complaining about the odor of the smoke. Other passengers were appalled. After all, they were in the smoking car. Despite that, Rabbi Salanter extinguished the cigarette and opened the train's window to dissipate the fumes. A few seconds later, the young man closed the window and yelled at the elderly sage for opening it. This was the height of chutzpah, that shouldn't be done to any elderly man, let alone the Gadol HaDor. Rabbi Salanter apologized to the man young for making him cold, and buried himself in a Jewish book of law. Upon arriving in Vilna, the young man was horrified to see throngs of people gathered to receive one of Europe's most prominent Rabbis. The man immediately ran to the home where Rabbi Salanter was staying to beg forgiveness. “Don't worry,” explained Reb Yisrael, “a trip can make one edgy. I bear no ill will. Tell me,” continued the mussar master, “why did you come to Vilna?” The young man explained that he was looking to become an ordained shochet , and an approbation from a Vilna rabbi would be universally accepted. Rabbi Salanter smiled. “My own son-in-law, Reb Elya Lazer, can test you. He is a Rav in Vilna. Rest up and tomorrow you can take the test. The next day, it was apparent that the man needed more than rest, for he failed miserably. However, that did not deter Rabbi Salanter. He encouraged the man to try again. For the next several weeks, Rabbi Yisrael arranged for tutors and prepared the young man well enough to pass Reb Elya Lazer's make-up exam along with the tests of a host of other well-known Vilna rabbis. He even arranged for the man to get a job. Before leaving Vilna, the man appeared before Reb Yisrael with tears in his eyes. “Tell me, Rebbe,” he cried. “I was able to understand that you could forgive me for my terrible arrogance on the train. But why did you help me so much? That, I can never understand.” “Reb Yisrael sat him down, held his hand and explained. “It is easy to say ‘I forgive you'. But deep down, how does one really know if he still bears a grudge? Way down in my heart, I actually was not sure. The only way to remove a grudge is to take action. One who helps another develops a love for the one he aided. By helping you, I created a true love which is overwhelmingly more powerful than the words, ‘I forgive you'.” Recently my dear friend Aaron Moses from Hollywood, Florida mentioned that Chacham David Yosef was in town. Between Mincha and Arbit, he told this story and related it to the Parasha: Why did Yosef Hasadik take such good care of his brothers in Mitzrayim? The Torah stresses this. Wouldn't it be enough just forgive them? He applied this story of Rav Yisrael Salantar and said that it was because Yosef wanted to make sure that his grudge was truly gone. Therefore, he went to great extremes in order to make sure that he forgave them wholeheartedly. This goes along with the approach that Yosef did forgive his brothers wholeheartedly, as we mentioned in a previous class. Have a wonderful day.

This is a beautiful story that starts off a little sad, but has a happy ending. There was boy from Bnei Brak who, unfortunately, left the religion and moved in with an irreligious cousin somewhere else in Israel. Then things got worse, and he became engaged to a non-Jewish girl. Even his irreligious cousin was quite upset, but was unable to convince him to break up the engagement. However, he did convince him that since he would be cutting ties with the Jewish people and with his family, he should at least go home, and tell his parents what his plans were-face to face. He agreed and invited himself home for a Shabbat on "his terms." He spent Friday night smoking on the porch, and Shabbat day found him again on the porch, with his iPhone. His father approached him Shabbat afternoon, and invited him to join a shiur he was going to, given by Rav Aron Leib Shteinman ztz"l, who was the Gadol HaDor. Interestingly, the boy agreed to go. After the shiur , his father brought him over to Rav Shteinman, who could see that the young man was quite distanced from Torah. Rav Shteinman looked at him and asked, " How long have you not kept Shabbat?" The boy answered " Two years.” " And during that time, did you ever have a hirhur teshuva/ a feeling of teshuva?" " Yes ,” the boy answered, “ About four times. " " And how long did that feeling last each time ,” the Rabbi asked. " Approximately 10 minutes ." "Oh , so it comes out that for 40 minutes during the last 2 years, you were on the level of a Baal Teshuva/repenting person. And it says in the place where a Baal Teshuva stands, even a purely righteous person can't stand. I am jealous of you. Shabbat Shalom." The boy went home, and returned to his cousin's house, but Rav Shteinman's words left him no peace. How the Gadol had spoken him, respected him, and loved him! He broke off the engagement and returned to Torah and Mitzvot. His father later asked him what made him go to the class, after he had been smoking and playing with his iPhone the whole Shabbat. He replied that when he was in 4th grade, his class was tested by Rav Shteinman. The boys were asked very simple questions. Each boy, upon answering a question received a candy from Rav Aron Leib. When this boy's turn came, he did not know the answer to the question. So Rav Aron Leib asked him an easier question. Again, he did not know the answer. So the Gadol asked him an even easier question, which, again, he did not know. When the test was over, everyone except this boy had a candy beside him. As the boys were leaving the classroom, Rav Aron Leib motioned for him to come over. He told the boy, " In our religion, we reward for effort, not results. All the other boys put in an effort for one question, so they got one candy. You put in the effort for three questions, so you are getting 3 candies." And with a smile, he handed him 3 candies. And that is why, when his father invited him to go to that Rav's class, he went; Because of the respect and love that Rav Shteinman had shown him 20 years earlier. That is powerful. That is a Gadol BTorah . That is why they have such an impact. Have a wonderful day

Rav Yehezkiel Sithon, a Rosh Yeshiva from Eretz Yisrael who was very close to Hacham Ben Sion gave a eulogy for the Hacham, and discussed his tremendous love for the Jewish people, citing a Zohar that says, Yisrael (Jewish people), the Torah and Hashem are all one. Therefore, he said, if you love Hashem, you have to love His Torah, and if you love His Torah, you have to love the Jewish people. You can't split the three. It is impossible to say, “ I love Hashem and I love his Torah, but I don't love the Jewish people. ” He told a story about when he was a young rabbi in kollel, and had asked Hacham Ben Sion for some advice about renting an apartment. The next day, Hacham Ben Sion told him that he had gone to a certain lawyer to ask about it, and told him what to do. This was Gadol HaDor, who troubled himself to go to a lawyer, to clarify something for a young kollel rabbi. There is a similar story with Rav Shach. A young kollel rabbi had asked him about whether he should move to a certain neighborhood, because he wasn't sure if that area was religious enough for his family. Rav Shach said he wasn't sure, and told him to come back the next day. When the young rabbi came back, Rav Shach told him that he had done the research, and that it was okay to move to the area. The man went down to building, and someone told him how interesting it was, that they had seen Rav Shach walking around the neighborhood the day before! The young rabbi realized that Rav Shach wasn't sure if the neighborhood was suitable , so before advising, he himself went to see the area, and walk the streets to see if it was the proper place for him. That is yet another example of what great people do. There are endless stories like this, of Gedolim. We too, can become great people. We become great people by looking out for what we can do for smaller people. This is always important, but especially in the month of Elul. The Chazon Ish once said that if you want to learn a sefer Musar, read stories about Gedolim. The great Rav Moshe Feinstein, the Gadol HaDor, was once seen during the high holiday season, reading a sefer called Meorot HaGedolim, a book of stories about great rabbis of Musar. That was his musar- to read this book. He was the Gadol HaDor, but going back, in previous generations they were even greater. So reading stories about Gedolim is wonderful Musar, and that is what we are trying to do now, to strengthen our Avahat Yisrael.

In 1940, Russia annexed Lithuania. Everyone was terrified. As we mentioned, Rav Chaim Ozer was the Gadol HaDor at the time. All the hard work, of his entire life, was about to be destroyed and crumble around him. Yet he kept his morale strong and raised the spirits of those around him. As we mentioned earlier, towards the end of his life, just as the war was starting, he was very sick. In Vilna, there were printing shops that were printing false visas. He was asked whether they should print one for him. He said, “ All I ask for is a visa to remain in this lowly world.” What he meant was that he wanted to stay alive long enough to help all the people that were depending on him. He wanted a visa just to live in this world; he wasn't even thinking about getting out of war torn Europe. As we get ready for Rosh Hashanah, that is supposed to be our attitude. What do I want? I want a visa. Not a visa to get into Israel now because of corona, but a visa to stay another year in this world. Why? In order to be able to help people that need me. That is the attitude of great people, people that have Ahavat Yisrael. Rav Wolbe writes, in is Sefer Alei Shur, vol 2, that the Heshbon HaNefesh, the accounting that a person should make before Rosh Hashanah, is that one should clarify to himself, בשביל מה הוא חי What does he want to live for? A person should go down deep into his feelings about the future. Do you want to be here to enjoy yourself? Is that the goal of your life? Or is the goal in life to be a little spark of bringing respect to Hashem, using all of your abilities for the Jewish people? As much as you build yourself, you realize that your talents and abilities are not just for yourself. Your talents and abilities are for the Jewish people at large. I heard Rav Wolbe say, many times, that a boy who is 18 years old and learning in yeshiva has to know that he is learning for the Jewish people. Eventually, he will give back to the Jewish people. And he has to know that when he is 18. He can't wake up when he's 30 and say, “ Hey, it's time for me to give back. ” This has to be a person's thoughts all of the time, but especially during the high holiday season. Rav Wolbe says, “ How much does a person have to lift himself up on Rosh Hashanah, to put aside his personal thoughts, and connect himself to the Jewish people at large.” That is what we want our visa for. To spend more time in this world, to be able to help others.

The Pasuk in Megillat Esther says, וּמִשְׁלוֹחַ מָנוֹת אִישׁ לְרֵעֵהוּ On Purim we send portions, man to his friends וּמַתָּנ֖וֹת לָֽאֶבְיוֹנִֽים and gifts to the poor The rabbis find a hint in this, to the month of Elul - א יש ל רעהו ו מתנות ל אביונים - אלול The first letter of each word spells out Elul . The Chayeh Adam says that it's a hint to us that, during the month of Elul, we should give gifts to the poor, and even give little gifts to our friends. The lesson is that in the month of Elul , which is the last month of the year, we are supposed to be creating friendship and warmth, like we do in the month of Adar (which is also the last month of the year, when starting from Nissan ). This is because creating unity among the Jewish people arouses Hashem's mercy. We have another story about Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzensky, the Gadol HaDor, a giant in understanding what it means to do hessed . He was such a genius, that people witnessed that he was able to talk to people, while simultaneously writing two responsas, one with his right hand and one with his left hand. He was a giant of giants, a genius of geniuses. He said that when he was younger, he thought that the greatest thing was to write a sefer of Hiddushei Torah . He thought that was what he would bring to Olam Habah. But as he got older, he realized that that greatest thing he had was his charity book, where he recorded all the money given to widows and orphans. He understood the greatness of giving to people. In the last months of his life, a delegation came to him about a certain matter. Rabbi Chaim Ozer was sick and in need of medicine. A member of the delegation, who was returning to America, asked the Gadol if there was anything that he personally could do for the rabbi, after taking care of the needs of the community. The Rabbi thanked him for his kindness, and said that yes, there was actually something he could do: “ There is a widow that works in my house, she helps clean up. She has very wide feet. The correct size shoe for her is not available in our little town. Maybe you could send her a pair of shoes. I would really appreciate that. That is what you can do for me.” And then the Rav added, almost parenthetically, some medicine that he needed. That's what, “ Doing something personal, ” meant for the Gadol . Personal meant, “ Take care of my housekeeper.” That is the way an Adam Gadol looks at life. Have a wonderful day.

There is a halacha in Shulchan Aruch ( siman רמז ) in Yoreh Deah, Laws of Charity: כל המרחם על העניים הקב " ה מרחם עליו Whoever has mercy on the poor, God has mercy on them. That's important. We are in the month of Elul , which, when announced in Sephardic communities as a new month, is called “ Elul Rachamim/ Elul Mercy.” This is the month of mercy . If we want to arouse God's mercy, we need to have mercy on others. The Rama adds, “ A person should place to his heart that just like he asks Hashem for his parnassa, and wants Hashem to listen to him, so too, he should listen to the cry of the poor.” With the outbreak of World War 2, Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzensky, who we will call the Chief Rabbi of the Jewish people, instructed his student, Rav Eliezer Silver (there is a whole book written about him) to establish the Vaad Hatzalah, an organization established to offer relief to the Jewish people of Europe, who, at the time, were under fire. Rav Silver told him that he would be more successful in his efforts if he had someone who could describe, in writing, the work of the Vaad Hatzalah. He chose Dr. Samuel Schmidt, who was originally from Kovno, Europe, but had gone to America and graduated MIT. He was an irreligious socialist, but he was devoted to Rabbi Silver and agreed to travel to Europe to see, first hand, the work of the Vaad Hatzalah. At that point, Rav Chaim Ozer was in his final illness. When Dr. Schmidt came to see him, Rav Chaim placed his hand on Dr Schmidt's shoulder in a gesture of warmth and respect, and greeted him as “ Reb Shmuel.” This irreligious Dr. Samuel, who was not eating kosher or keeping Shabbat, responded, “ Rabbi, if only you knew who I was, you wouldn't call me Reb Shmuel.” Rav Chaim Ozer countered, “ If you could leave your family, and the security of America, to travel to war torn Europe, you are indeed Rav Shmuel!” At that point, a metamorphosis occurred. Dr. Schmidt became Reb Shmuel. He became a fully observant Jew, just from that warmth of this Gadol HaDor, and the respect he had for what the doctor was doing for the Jewish people. Before the doctor return to America, he received a message that Rav Chaim Ozer wanted to see him. When he arrived, the Gadol HaDor gave him a letter to take back to the United States. He thought it must a very important letter, but when he was on the boat, he noticed that it was addressed to his wife. The leader of European Jewry had taken the time to thank her, for allowing her husband to leave the tranquility of America to travel to war torn Europe and execute a mission on behalf of the Jewish people. That is how a Gadol looks at things, and that is how we should look at things. It is about having mercy, and going out of your comfort zone, for others.

We are getting ready for the high holidays, and coming to realize how important Veahavta LeRe'echa Kamocha/Love your friend like you love yourself is to our high holiday preparations. A dear friend of mine, whom I respect very much, told me that he enjoys stories. So, in keeping with our theme of Veahavta LeRe'echa Kamocha, I will to make him happy, by telling two more stories. During World War 2, the great Rav Yitzhak Soloveitchik, also known as the Brisker Rav, had to flee from Brisk to Vilna, and in the process he and his wife became separated. While in Vilna, the Gadol HaDor, the great Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzensky passed away. The Rav, and everyone in the household, wanted to go to the funeral of the Gadol Hador, but one of his younger daughters was sick, and couldn't be left alone. No one wanted to stay behind and miss the funeral, so he told him the following story, which had happened to his grandfather, the Bet HaLevi: He was on his way to the synagogue on Erev Yom Kippur and overheard an argument going on in a house on the way. He went to see what was going on, and discovered that one of the children was sick. Someone had to be there with the child, but there was an argument about who would miss going to shul on the night of Yom Kippur. No one wanted to miss Kal Nidre. The Bet HaLevi told them, “ You should know that the one who stays behind with a sick person will be blessed with a better year than the person that goes to shul to create a good year for himself.” That is a very powerful story. The second story is about Rav Meir Simcha HaKohen, known as the Meshech Hochma, the Or Someach, the great rabbi of Dvinsk. At the end of his life, he was sick and on his deathbed. A certain great Rabbi wanted to send telegrams to shuls all over the Jewish world, asking them to say Tehillim for the great Rav, but he refused. He said that by singling him out and making him a special person, there might be more demands placed on him. He would rather remain part of the Jewish people, with a low profile, as it says in the Zohar about the Isha Shunamit, who was asked by Elisha on Rosh Hashanah whether he could do anything for her, or if he could speak to the King (Hashem) on her behalf. She answered, “ בתוך עמי אנכי יושבת I dwell amongst my people ” That is the safest place to be. But you can only get there with Veahavta LeRe'echa Kamocha. Our mindset should be: I don't want to stand out, I don't want to be high profile, I just want to be a simple Jew, a part of the Jewish people. I care about them, and I care about their success. Have a wonderful day.

If you have received this lesson, you are part of a group of people striving to become better and closer to Hashem. Yet sometimes we miss the mark. We get very concerned with our own spiritual growth and development, which is good, but we can sometimes be a little off. Rav Nosson Wachtfogel, the Mashgiach of Lakewood, brought down, in his sefer on Elul (page 14) that there was a once young rabbi who complained to him, “Ani/ I am not learning enough .. Ani/I am not praying well… Ani/ I don't remember what I learn.. Ani/ I am not successful at all..” To which, Rav Wachtfogel responded, “ My advice to you is to stop thinking about yourself. Start thinking about the Jewish people. Stop being so involved with yourself. Here you are, getting ready for Rosh Hashanah, standing in front of the Creator of the world, surrounded by the Jewish people, an entire nation. And all that you are thinking about all day is yourself?” So they asked the rabbi how to disconnect from Ahavat Atzmo/love of yourself. His answer was to get involved with the sibbur/ the people , and think about them. He said that when a person starts doing for the people, and thinking about them, he starts becoming part of the sibbur . That is the job of Rosh Hashanah. On Rosh Hashanah, we are totally involved in our prayers about God ‘s kingdom. We are praying for God to be known by the whole world. Therefore, he says, you have to be able to forget about yourself. It is very hard. Our love for ourselves is the most powerful love, as we have discussed previously. The only way to break out of it is by doing for others, making the “ you ” a little bit bigger. He says that the reason why we do not mention sin on Rosh Hashanah is because it is two days that we disconnect from ourselves. We are not talking about our lacking's, or our stumbling's. We aren't talking about our needs. We are just thinking about God and the Jewish people at large. This is not easy, and we can't fool ourselves, but at least we have to know what the goal is. Even if you can't do anything to help, there is a valuable lesson to learn from a story about Rav Shach, the Gadol HaDor of the previous generation. Toward the end of his years, in one of his last meetings, he called in the Rav of Natanya, Rabbi Yisroel Meir Lau (who later became the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel). He took Rabbi Lau's hand in his and started to cry. “ I heard, ” said Rabbi Shach, “ that there are forty stores that sell pig meat in Natanya; that there is a problem in Ashkelon with chillul Shabbos; that they want to institute secular reforms in Tel Aviv. “I'm over one hundred years old, I have no strength, and people are not listening to me. The only thing I have left is the ability to cry.” Rabbi Shach continued crying for a few more minutes. And then, while crying for Klal Yisrael, he slipped into an exhausted sleep. That is a Gadol B'Yisrael. He is not thinking about himself. He is always thinking about what he can do, and if he can't do anything for the Jewish people, he can at least cry for them.

Stories about Gedolim are important. They show us, in real life, how important it is to live your life for others, especially in the high-holiday season, when people sometimes get a little too focused on themselves. The following is a story that Rav Shach told over in his sefer Shimusha shel Torah : Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzensky was the Gadol HaDor in prewar Europe. He suffered from a certain medical condition for which he had to go to Karlsbad, Czechoslovakia far away from his hometown of Vilna. He had to spend a certain amount of time there, including the high holiday season, which he was not accustomed to. He had always spent the high holidays in his own shul, in a very high and lofty atmosphere. He was broken and upset to have to be away during this time. He wondered what he had done wrong and why Hashem had sent him there. Why was it decreed upon him to be so far away from the beautiful center of Torah that he was used to? He felt distanced from the feelings of Elul in the streets of Pre-war Lithuania. Then during Mincha of Shabbat Shuva , a new man entered the Karlsbad synagogue. Being the kind rabbi that he was, Rav Chaim Ozer approached the man, welcomed him, and asked where he was from and what had brought him there. The man said that he was from America and on his way to Petersburg, where his young brother had passed away and left behind a young widow with young children. His friends had advised that he marry the wife of his newly deceased brother, rather than let her marry a stranger, so that the children could be raised by him, and not a stepfather. He was on his way to meet her and planned on marrying her shortly after the holidays. As we know, a man is not permitted to marry his brother's wife unless the brother has passed away without children - that's called Yibum . But if the brother did have children, as in this case, it is considered a forbidden union, no different than marrying one's sister, and punishable by death. When Rav Chaim Ozer heard the man's plan, he shivered. He told the man he wasn't allowed to marry her, but the man was not swayed. The rabbi explained and said, “ You think this is just a chumra/ strictness like chalav Yisrael? Open the Humash.” But still, the man was not impressed. He replied that his mother, who was from Europe had told him that there is only one great rabbi- the Chief Rabbi of Vilna- Rabbi Grodzensky! “ If he tells me I can't marry her, then I won't.” Sure enough, Rav Chaim Ozer stood up and said, “ You are speaking to him. I am the chief Rabbi of Vilna. I am Rabbi Grodzensky.” Rabbi Chaim Ozer then understood why he had to spend his high holidays in Karlsbad- it was to save this man. Rav Shach continues, “ Look what Hashem will do to save someone from a sin. He will send the Gadol HaDor away during the high holiday season, away from his congregation, away from the environment that he is used to, cause him all this heartache, and even cause him the illness that made him go to this retreat, just to save one Jew from sinning. That is how much Hashem does not want us to sin. That is how Gedolei Yisrael look at living for others. Have a wonderful day.

During the bitter slavery in Mitzrayim , Pharaoh decreed death upon any newborn Jewish baby boy. At that time, the Gadol HaDor, Amram, made a decision to stop having children. But then his young daughter Miriam convinced him otherwise. One of the things she told him was even if the Mitzrim would fulfill this decree, the baby would still live on forever in Olam HaBa . It did not matter how long the infant would actually survive, what mattered was that if their neshama would be brought down into this world, it would enable them to live on in eternity. The job of every Jewish parent is to be the guardian of a holy neshama which Hashem brings down into this world and places into their care. They are to ensure that the neshama stays pure and eventually be zocheh to live on forever. Some children live for 120 years and some live for just a day. The amount of life that they need to reach Olam HaBa is determined by Hashem. Some children are brilliant and some are not, some have handicaps and some don't. Every child is different, but the goal for every one of them is the same. The sefer Divreh Yeshua v'Nechama told a story which took place many years ago in Gateshead, England. A man had a baby born to him with Down Syndrome. He and his wife raised the child and loved him very much. They had, baruch Hashem, many other children who were all strong and healthy. When the Down Syndrome child was turning 13, his parents decided to make him a small Bar Mitzvah celebration. The father invited a minyan of men to a seuda at his home and the author telling this story was one of them. During the meal, the Rosh Yeshiva of Gateshead, Rav Leib Gurwicz, got up to speak and this is what he said, At this time in history, we are all gilgulim, which means we have all already lived in this world before and we had to come back here to fix something we didn't accomplish the first time. If there is a person who is born with a tremendous amount of potential, for example he is wise and strong minded and has charisma, that means he has a lot that he needs to accomplish here that he did not do the first time. But if there is a person who has very little potential, his body doesn't really develop or he doesn't have the mental capacities to do that much, that means he is a gilgul of a very great tzaddik who almost finished his job already before. He came back to do some minor corrections, perhaps to say some berachot, or to do acts of kindness, or perhaps just to be the vehicle which others can perform kindness through. For sure, this type of person needs to do much less than others to be able to live on forever in Olam HaBa. The less capabilities a person is born with, the better his neshama is already. The Rabbi then concluded his speech by saying, fortunate are you, the parents of such a lofty neshama. You were chosen to be the guardian of this great tzaddik, which means he will be in your family amongst your children not only here but in the World to Come as well and there you will see how great he really is. The parents were noticeably emotional from these words of the Rabbi and they thanked him very much for coming and for his heartwarming words of chizuk . The father then took his Bar Mitzvah boy to Israel to get berachot from Gedolei HaDor . When he returned, he told that when he went with his son to the Chazon Ish to get a beracha , immediately the Chazon Ish stood up fully from his sitting position. The man was astounded and turned around to see if there were any other great rabbis behind him. When he saw no one was there, he assumed that the Chazon Ish stood up for him and so he said, “Rabbi, you don't need to get up for me.” The Chazon Ish told him, “I'm standing up for your son. This boy has one of the greatest neshamot in our entire generation. He is deserving of my honor.” We have no idea of how great people really are. A parent who may feel broken over his child's lack of development or lack of ability must know, he is raising a very holy tzaddik and he will be zoche to have that child in his family l'netzach netzachim (forever).

During the bitter slavery in Mitzrayim , Pharaoh decreed death upon any newborn Jewish baby boy. At that time, the Gadol HaDor, Amram, made a decision to stop having children. But then his young daughter Miriam convinced him otherwise. One of the things she told him was even if the Mitzrim would fulfill this decree, the baby would still live on forever in Olam HaBa . It did not matter how long the infant would actually survive, what mattered was that if their neshama would be brought down into this world, it would enable them to live on in eternity. The job of every Jewish parent is to be the guardian of a holy neshama which Hashem brings down into this world and places into their care. They are to ensure that the neshama stays pure and eventually be zocheh to live on forever. Some children live for 120 years and some live for just a day. The amount of life that they need to reach Olam HaBa is determined by Hashem. Some children are brilliant and some are not, some have handicaps and some don't. Every child is different, but the goal for every one of them is the same. The sefer Divreh Yeshua v'Nechama told a story which took place many years ago in Gateshead, England. A man had a baby born to him with Down Syndrome. He and his wife raised the child and loved him very much. They had, baruch Hashem, many other children who were all strong and healthy. When the Down Syndrome child was turning 13, his parents decided to make him a small Bar Mitzvah celebration. The father invited a minyan of men to a seuda at his home and the author telling this story was one of them. During the meal, the Rosh Yeshiva of Gateshead, Rav Leib Gurwicz, got up to speak and this is what he said, At this time in history, we are all gilgulim, which means we have all already lived in this world before and we had to come back here to fix something we didn't accomplish the first time. If there is a person who is born with a tremendous amount of potential, for example he is wise and strong minded and has charisma, that means he has a lot that he needs to accomplish here that he did not do the first time. But if there is a person who has very little potential, his body doesn't really develop or he doesn't have the mental capacities to do that much, that means he is a gilgul of a very great tzaddik who almost finished his job already before. He came back to do some minor corrections, perhaps to say some berachot, or to do acts of kindness, or perhaps just to be the vehicle which others can perform kindness through. For sure, this type of person needs to do much less than others to be able to live on forever in Olam HaBa. The less capabilities a person is born with, the better his neshama is already. The Rabbi then concluded his speech by saying, fortunate are you, the parents of such a lofty neshama. You were chosen to be the guardian of this great tzaddik, which means he will be in your family amongst your children not only here but in the World to Come as well and there you will see how great he really is. The parents were noticeably emotional from these words of the Rabbi and they thanked him very much for coming and for his heartwarming words of chizuk . The father then took his Bar Mitzvah boy to Israel to get berachot from Gedolei HaDor . When he returned, he told that when he went with his son to the Chazon Ish to get a beracha , immediately the Chazon Ish stood up fully from his sitting position. The man was astounded and turned around to see if there were any other great rabbis behind him. When he saw no one was there, he assumed that the Chazon Ish stood up for him and so he said, “Rabbi, you don't need to get up for me.” The Chazon Ish told him, “I'm standing up for your son. This boy has one of the greatest neshamot in our entire generation. He is deserving of my honor.” We have no idea of how great people really are. A parent who may feel broken over his child's lack of development or lack of ability must know, he is raising a very holy tzaddik and he will be zoche to have that child in his family l'netzach netzachim (forever).

I read a story about an 87 year old man who was put on a respirator last year. Baruch Hashem, after a few days, he was taken off and then able to come home. For the days he was on the respirator he was charged $10,000. After leaving the hospital he was crying tears of gratitude. He said, “For a few days of assistance to breathe, it cost $10,000. How much do I owe Hashem for giving me the ability to breathe normally every day of my life?” A man told me last week that 8 years ago his lungs collapsed during a procedure in the hospital which made him in need of a double lung transplant. He was on a waiting list for months but nothing became available. It got to the point that he would not be able to continue living the way he was, even connected to high-tech machines. His family was called in to say good-bye. The doctor said if he didn’t get a transplant done by the next morning, he would have to be sedated and, soon after, he would run out of life. Of course, his family prayed that night like they never did before. Miraculously, after waiting months, in the middle of that night two lungs became available and they were a perfect match for him. Baruch Hashem, he is able to tell this story today and teach people about the enormous chesed Hashem, saving his life at the last minute. Every moment of life is a chesed Hashem. With a moment of life, a person could acquire eternity. If someone is tested, for example, he is tempted to speak lashon hara or eat a forbidden food, at that moment, he should stop and say, “Thank You Hashem for this chesed that You are giving me – the opportunity to turn away from doing wrong and acquire eternal merit as a result.” If a person has an urge to do something forbidden but he resists it and says, “Hashem, I’m not going to do this because I want to do Your will and bring glory to Your Name.” That would become a glorious moment in his life that he will benefit from forever. Hashem gives us so many ways to do mitzvot, He even rewards us for having good thoughts. The sefer Nafshi Cholat Ahavatcha writes, if we hear about someone going through a difficulty and we feel compassion for that person, we fulfill the positive commandment from the Torah of emulating Hashem- והלכת בדרכיו-מה הוא רחום אף אתה רחום. If we would then, even in our minds alone, make a request to Hashem to help them, that would give us yet another mitzvah called tefila – two mitzvot without even moving our lips. If we would know the value of a mitzvah, we would be rejoicing all day thinking about our accomplishments. Many years ago, an avrech in Israel was walking on the street when he heard a large commotion. Someone had passed out in an apartment and people were calling for help. He knew CPR. He ran in and revived the person and saved his life. Afterward, he found out this person was none other than Rabbi Eliashiv, the Gadol Hador . A couple of weeks later, this avrech received a letter in the mail. It was from a man in America who attached a $1 million check, offering to buy from him the zechut of saving the Gadol Hador ’s life. That money would have been very useful for him at that time. But before he made a decision, he went to Rav Eliashiv to ask him what to do. Rav Eliashiv told him, using a parable, something to the sort of, if he would take the million dollars, he would be like a young boy taking a bag of chocolates instead of the multi-million dollar inheritance that his father left him. The value of one mitzvah is priceless, and Hashem gives us opportunities every moment of the day to perform them. What a chesed !

I read a story about an 87 year old man who was put on a respirator last year. Baruch Hashem, after a few days, he was taken off and then able to come home. For the days he was on the respirator he was charged $10,000. After leaving the hospital he was crying tears of gratitude. He said, “For a few days of assistance to breathe, it cost $10,000. How much do I owe Hashem for giving me the ability to breathe normally every day of my life?” A man told me last week that 8 years ago his lungs collapsed during a procedure in the hospital which made him in need of a double lung transplant. He was on a waiting list for months but nothing became available. It got to the point that he would not be able to continue living the way he was, even connected to high-tech machines. His family was called in to say good-bye. The doctor said if he didn’t get a transplant done by the next morning, he would have to be sedated and, soon after, he would run out of life. Of course, his family prayed that night like they never did before. Miraculously, after waiting months, in the middle of that night two lungs became available and they were a perfect match for him. Baruch Hashem, he is able to tell this story today and teach people about the enormous chesed Hashem, saving his life at the last minute. Every moment of life is a chesed Hashem. With a moment of life, a person could acquire eternity. If someone is tested, for example, he is tempted to speak lashon hara or eat a forbidden food, at that moment, he should stop and say, “Thank You Hashem for this chesed that You are giving me – the opportunity to turn away from doing wrong and acquire eternal merit as a result.” If a person has an urge to do something forbidden but he resists it and says, “Hashem, I’m not going to do this because I want to do Your will and bring glory to Your Name.” That would become a glorious moment in his life that he will benefit from forever. Hashem gives us so many ways to do mitzvot, He even rewards us for having good thoughts. The sefer Nafshi Cholat Ahavatcha writes, if we hear about someone going through a difficulty and we feel compassion for that person, we fulfill the positive commandment from the Torah of emulating Hashem- והלכת בדרכיו-מה הוא רחום אף אתה רחום. If we would then, even in our minds alone, make a request to Hashem to help them, that would give us yet another mitzvah called tefila – two mitzvot without even moving our lips. If we would know the value of a mitzvah, we would be rejoicing all day thinking about our accomplishments. Many years ago, an avrech in Israel was walking on the street when he heard a large commotion. Someone had passed out in an apartment and people were calling for help. He knew CPR. He ran in and revived the person and saved his life. Afterward, he found out this person was none other than Rabbi Eliashiv, the Gadol Hador . A couple of weeks later, this avrech received a letter in the mail. It was from a man in America who attached a $1 million check, offering to buy from him the zechut of saving the Gadol Hador ’s life. That money would have been very useful for him at that time. But before he made a decision, he went to Rav Eliashiv to ask him what to do. Rav Eliashiv told him, using a parable, something to the sort of, if he would take the million dollars, he would be like a young boy taking a bag of chocolates instead of the multi-million dollar inheritance that his father left him. The value of one mitzvah is priceless, and Hashem gives us opportunities every moment of the day to perform them. What a chesed !

Hashem created every person with a unique potential that we need to discover and tap into in order to fulfill our mission in this world. One of the reasons people underachieve is because they don’t have enough belief in themselves. Looking at the life of Rabbi Akiva, he might have been voted least likely to succeed in Torah. He was an am ha’arertz at the age of 40, and until that point he did not have a pleasant experience with religion. He said about himself that he had a hatred towards the Rabbis and had a difficult time comprehending the words of Torah. But then, his soon-to- be wife Rachel saw potential greatness inside of him. She believed in him and she gave him chizuk to try to succeed. And from that inspiration, Rabbi Akiva became the Gadol HaDor and master of Torah She’Baal Peh. He had it in him the entire time, he just needed to believe in it. If we only knew how much potential we really had, we would soar to great heights. Rabbi Naftali Horowitz gave a mashal to bring out the point. One summer while his family was in the Catskills and he was staying in Brooklyn during the week, it was a Sunday night and he saw that the toothpaste container in his bathroom was empty, but he was too tired to go to the basement and get a new one, so he squeezed it hard and, lo and behold, there was enough toothpaste to use. The next night, once again, he forgot to bring up the new toothpaste container and, once again, he squeezed the one that was there and there was enough toothpaste to use. This ended up happening every single night of that week and every single night, there was more toothpaste to use. He thought to himself, how much good, usable toothpaste must there be in the landfills, due to people discarding the containers without using them to their fullest. Then he thought, how many people must there be buried in cemeteries that had so much potential that was not used to its fullest. Sometimes, Hashem puts people in circumstances they would rather not be in, but those circumstances might very well be Hashem squeezing them to help them get out all of their untapped potential. In the year 2007, a soccer player named Snir Gueta was the star of the Israel national under 21 team. He went on to play professionally and had a very bright future in soccer ahead of him. But, at the age of 24, he began becoming more religious and more learned and was faced with a dilemma because playing professional soccer meant he had to play on Shabbat. Heroically, he decided to give up on his dream and, instead, keep Shabbat properly. His father tried to convince him that he could still play without technically violating Shabbat but he would not hear of it. His father had invested so much in him and was disappointed with his decision. Snir Gueta started going to more classes and learning more Torah and began discovering the tremendous potential that had been hidden inside of him. Just four years later, he started giving classes in people’s homes, inspiring hundreds to come closer to Hashem. People from all backgrounds flocked to hear him. Now, at the age of 33, he is a rabbi who has tens of thousands of people that he inspires on a daily basis. A man that used to fill stadiums with fans coming to watch him play soccer now has thousands coming to hear his divrei Torah. Someone asked the Rabbi what his father thinks of him now, and he replied, “My father is so proud of me. When I am giving speeches, he tells people, ‘Look, that’s my son!’” Everybody has endless potential inside of them. If we would believe in ourselves more and act on that belief, b’ezrat Hashem, we will bring out more of our potential into action.

Hashem created every person with a unique potential that we need to discover and tap into in order to fulfill our mission in this world. One of the reasons people underachieve is because they don’t have enough belief in themselves. Looking at the life of Rabbi Akiva, he might have been voted least likely to succeed in Torah. He was an am ha’arertz at the age of 40, and until that point he did not have a pleasant experience with religion. He said about himself that he had a hatred towards the Rabbis and had a difficult time comprehending the words of Torah. But then, his soon-to- be wife Rachel saw potential greatness inside of him. She believed in him and she gave him chizuk to try to succeed. And from that inspiration, Rabbi Akiva became the Gadol HaDor and master of Torah She’Baal Peh. He had it in him the entire time, he just needed to believe in it. If we only knew how much potential we really had, we would soar to great heights. Rabbi Naftali Horowitz gave a mashal to bring out the point. One summer while his family was in the Catskills and he was staying in Brooklyn during the week, it was a Sunday night and he saw that the toothpaste container in his bathroom was empty, but he was too tired to go to the basement and get a new one, so he squeezed it hard and, lo and behold, there was enough toothpaste to use. The next night, once again, he forgot to bring up the new toothpaste container and, once again, he squeezed the one that was there and there was enough toothpaste to use. This ended up happening every single night of that week and every single night, there was more toothpaste to use. He thought to himself, how much good, usable toothpaste must there be in the landfills, due to people discarding the containers without using them to their fullest. Then he thought, how many people must there be buried in cemeteries that had so much potential that was not used to its fullest. Sometimes, Hashem puts people in circumstances they would rather not be in, but those circumstances might very well be Hashem squeezing them to help them get out all of their untapped potential. In the year 2007, a soccer player named Snir Gueta was the star of the Israel national under 21 team. He went on to play professionally and had a very bright future in soccer ahead of him. But, at the age of 24, he began becoming more religious and more learned and was faced with a dilemma because playing professional soccer meant he had to play on Shabbat. Heroically, he decided to give up on his dream and, instead, keep Shabbat properly. His father tried to convince him that he could still play without technically violating Shabbat but he would not hear of it. His father had invested so much in him and was disappointed with his decision. Snir Gueta started going to more classes and learning more Torah and began discovering the tremendous potential that had been hidden inside of him. Just four years later, he started giving classes in people’s homes, inspiring hundreds to come closer to Hashem. People from all backgrounds flocked to hear him. Now, at the age of 33, he is a rabbi who has tens of thousands of people that he inspires on a daily basis. A man that used to fill stadiums with fans coming to watch him play soccer now has thousands coming to hear his divrei Torah. Someone asked the Rabbi what his father thinks of him now, and he replied, “My father is so proud of me. When I am giving speeches, he tells people, ‘Look, that’s my son!’” Everybody has endless potential inside of them. If we would believe in ourselves more and act on that belief, b’ezrat Hashem, we will bring out more of our potential into action.

The Torah doesn't tarry ... second parsha (portion) of the year and we jump right into what I think is the most recall-able Biblical “story” – the story of Noach (Noah) and the teiva (the ark). Run up to anyone on the street and ask them how many days it rained on Noah's Ark. Ask them what kind of olive-branch-carrying bird is important in the story, or what multicolored weather phenomenon has a starring moment at the end. I think a lot of people could answer all those questions! Noah's Ark might just be the most accurately recalled event in regard to Torah / Bible readers. When we first meet Noach in this parsha, he is introduced as a righteous man, perfect within his generation -- נֹ֗חַ אִ֥ישׁ צַדִּ֛יק תָּמִ֥ים הָיָ֖ה בְּדֹֽרֹתָ֑יו, and we are told that Noach walked with G-d ~ אֶת־הָֽאֱלֹהִ֖ים הִתְהַלֶּךְ־נֹֽחַ. What is an Ish Tzadik (אִ֥ישׁ צַדִּ֛יק, righteous man)? And also, why add the qualifier "in his generation ~ בְּדֹֽרֹתָ֑יו"? Just like a parent loves their children without end, a righteous person loves good deeds without end. A parent doesn't love their children out of duty, they love them, because they love them. And like a parent doesn't dismiss an unremarkable child as unimportant, a righteous person doesn't dismiss a small mitzvah (commandment / deed) as insignificant. Rav Moshe Feinstein (20th century rabbi known as the Gadol HaDor, the greatest in his generation) taught that a person should work hard to perfect their deeds, just as they spare no effort to help their children. And why was the qualifier "in his generation ~ בְּדֹֽרֹתָ֑יו" added to Noach's descriptor? Famously there are different interpretations. The first interpretation is that the people in the time of Noach were so awful that for him to still be righteous was a great feat. Another is that he was only good in comparison to those same awful people. Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, essential 12th century Torah commentator) taught that if Noach were to exist in the generation of Avraham (Abraham), he would be insignificant. On Rashi's train of thought, I have to ask a question -- why did no one else join Noach and his family? Noach builds his Ark, but isn't able to bring anyone to make teshuva, or to repent. He's building this Costco warehouse-sized boat over 120 years, and we have to assume that none of his neighbors ever stopped and asked him what he was doing? And if someone did stop and ask Noach why he was building this huge boat, did Noach not explain that the world had deteriorated so terribly that G-d was planning to destroy it? I don't know that anyone of Noach's time would necessarily even believe that explanation. But if we think of Noach in this not-so-perfect way, we see that he's a great example of a perfectly good man who is just not a leader. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks has put Noach in context -- Adam and Chava (Eve) failed the test of personal responsibility, Cain failed the test of moral responsibility ("Am I my brother's keeper? ~ הֲשֹׁמֵ֥ר אָחִ֖י אָנֹֽכִי?"), and Noach fails the test of collective responsibility. Chasidic thought teaches that Noach was a "tzaddik im/in peltz" -- a righteous man in a fur coat. Meaning, there are 2 ways to be warm: wear a coat or make a fire. Which one do you think Noach was picking by getting on the teiva, the ark with just his family? It's nice and well to be snug and warm in your own goodness, but a fire can be enjoyed by everyone around you. Think about this -- which choice do you make in your own life? Is collective responsibility something you value? For full text, join my mailing list! :) Email me at shirajkaplan@gmail.com to ask any questions, request sponsoring an episode in someone's merit / for someone's healing, or just to say hi! Music: reCreation by airtone (c) copyright 2019 Licensed --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/shira-kaplan/support