Connecting Deeply with Hashem During Rosh Hashanah
00:01 - Intro (Announcement)
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe, Director of TORCH, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. This is the Jewish Inspiration Podcast.
00:12 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
So, my dear friends, I want to share something in honor of the special privilege that we have as Jewish people, that not only we have Rosh Hashanah coming in tomorrow night, we can get a sense of Rosh Hashanah right now. As we're talking, there are ballistic missiles heading towards Israel. Everyone's getting notifications on their phones. Here I get a phone call. My daughter was in a in a bomb shelter and it is a lot of chaos, a lot of things going on, but it's a reminder that Hashem is in control of the world.
00:46
And we say in Amos, in the prophets, it says the following If a shofar was blown in the city, will the nation not fear? Will they not tremble? If there was something evil that happened, something terrible that happened, do you think Hashem didn't do it? This is the verse and this is how we know the law that we all observe. Every day of the month of Elul leading up to Rosh Hashanah, we blow the shofar. Every day, we blow the shofar again, again, to wake up. We should tremble. So there's a story that's told that someone was once called to the palace to give testimony about his friend who was guilty of treason. Comes into the king's palace he sees like wow.
Massive.
01:48 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
Sorry, sound wasn't good, I apologize. There was a massive, massive hall which big doors open up. And he goes into the next hall Massive, it's unbelievable, the grandeur, the soldiers, all of the armed guards protecting. Then he goes into the next hall, which is even bigger and more magnificent, and he is standing there. He sees the king sitting on his throne and he's trembling, can't say a word, and he's trembling, can't say a word. You know, when we're standing at the doorway of Rosh Hashanah, we're standing. We're right there at the precipice. We're right about to stand in front of the Almighty and plea our case To ask Hashem, hashem, give me another year.
02:44
Hashem, this year should be a year of success. Hashem, thisem, give me another year. Hashem, this year should be a year of success. Hashem, this year should be a year of goodness. Hashem, this year, make it good for us. Make it great for us. Don't just give me livelihood, give me a lot of success in my business. Don't just give me health. Give me a lot of good health.
03:07
Many times we feel me, I'm a nobody. I'm a nobody, me. The holy sages, the great rabbis, they have a special relationship with Hashem. They can connect on this level, but me, I'm a nobody, I'm a nothing. It's not true. Each and every one of us are capable of connecting on Rosh Hashanah and feeling that presence, like we're walking into those doorways, into the king's throne, standing in front of Hashem.
03:48
How do we do it? I want to give you three tips. Number one go visit a hospital. Walk down the hallways of a hospital. Walk down the hallways of a hospital that has the power to shake us to our core. You see people begging for another breath of life. You see people dealing with the most tragic illnesses and we're just walking around like spectators. My rabbi told me if you want to feel the fear of Rosh Hashanah, walk down the halls of the hospital. Number two Number three there's a story told about a great rabbi.
04:48
Very, very holy man shows up one day at the local court in Jerusalem. The Bet Din Rabbi sees a grand rabbi is walking into the court. They're like do you have a case today? Do you have testimony that you need to give? Like, what are you doing here? He says no, I just want to observe. I want to see what it's like when someone stands in front of the heavenly courts. This is just humans, and people are trembling and people are terrified. They have all their notes that they prepared and all says. I want to just observe that so I can know how to properly prepare myself to stand in front of hashem on Rosh Hashanah. So, number one go to a hospital Healthy. Go to a hospital healthy and just look. Number two go to a court.
05:47
Number three find someone you trust to give you a little criticism. Find someone you love and say, please, I want to become a better person. I'm not going to hold it against you, I'm not going to be upset at you, but I know that I have flaws and I'm blind to them. We all have blind spots. Even the fancy cars that have the blind spot sensors still have blind spots. It just tells you that there's something you can't see. We all have blind spots in our own personal character.
06:30
Have someone, someone who you love, someone who loves you, someone who you care about and who cares about you, share with you even one single aspect of your life that you're blind to, because in doing so, what can happen is that you'll suddenly recognize oh my, imagine if you take this one little mistake and now you do that mistake four times, five times a day, times 365 days a year Hashem. I went wrong that many times this year. And that's only one trait, that's only one mistake, one flaw. Imagine if someone was to point out all the flaws. We'd be like, okay, okay, I'm not listening. Too much negativity is not good.
07:23
But if we want to really come to a point of clarity before Shoshana, there's one more gift I want to share with you, and that is really come to a point of clarity before Shoshana. There's one more gift I want to share with you, and that is sit alone in a room with a piece of paper and just write a letter to Hashem you don't have to share it with anybody and you don't have to send it anyplace A heartfelt letter thanking Hashem for all the gifts that he gives us. Because if we're able to do that and pour out our hearts Because it's impossible to be thankful to Hashem without feeling a closeness, without feeling a connection, without saying, oh, my goodness, hashem has blessed me so much, hashem has given me so much, and look how much I've fallen short of His expectations of me. Hashem always exceeds the expectations and we always at least me, I don't know about you. You guys are holy, you guys are righteous, you guys are pure, but I, for some reason always fall short of Hashem's expectations. If we do that, if we take the time to introspect in solitude alone, turn off the radio, take away your phone, take away all the distractions, even if it's just for 10 minutes solitude alone, it will change our Rosh Hashanah. I promise I'm not saying this for all of you, I'm saying this for myself, I'm sharing it with you. This is my objective. This Rosh Hashanah, walk the walls of a hospital, the halls of a hospital, see the sick people Go to a court.
09:25
I have a friend of mine who was in the conversion process and he called me up after meeting with the Bet Din one time, meeting with the court. And it's a big process. It doesn't take, it's not overnight. You don't just pay $1.99 and dip in the mikvah and convert. It's a whole process. It's an undertaking of the laws of the Torah, it's having full belief in Hashem, knowledge of Hashem, trust in Hashem and really taking it all in. So it's a process.
10:01
One of the times he meets with the rabbis, he calls me up a few minutes later. He's like Rabbi and he's really, really, really upset. He says do you know how one of the rabbis talked to me? Do you know how demeaning it was. Do you know the questions he was asking me to ensure that he was being authentic and that he was real and that he wasn't just a make-believe? I said, you know, I'm really sorry. I was being as empathetic as I could. And then he called me up the next day and he emailed me and he said to me I'm sorry for what I said last night. That's exactly what I needed. He says not only that, I'm going to call the rabbi who did that to me today and I'm going to ask him to meet with me once a month and to do the exact same thing that he did.
11:07
I'm afraid of a court here. How am I going to prepare for the court there? If I have the scrutiny of this court here and I'm able to improve and become a better person, then for sure, the scrutiny of the heavenly tribunal I'll be ready for. That's a perspective we need to have. My dear friends, we're going to stand in front of Hashem. He's our judge.
11:42
You know, someone once said aren't you afraid? You're about to stand in front of the judge, the king of the universe, creator of heaven and earth. He says I'm not afraid. The judge is my father, and that's what we need to remember. Hashem is our father and he loves us. He wants to give us a good judgment. He wants to give us a good year. All we have to do is open the door for Hashem and welcome him in. My dear friends, we should be blessed with the greatest, most special Rosh Hashanah ever. In my dear friends, we should be blessed with the greatest, most special Rosh Hashanah ever. We should be blessed Rosh Hashanah itself, without anger, without impatience, without jealousy, without lightheadedness. It should be one where we're focused in our relationship with Hashem and that will result in a year that's filled with blessing and a year that's filled with all of the goodness that we desire. Amen.
12:53 - Intro (Announcement)
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