“Who clothes Himself in acts of Righteousness in judgment.” (Rosh Hashana Machzor)

Not only do the clothes make the person; the person can ‘make’ the clothes. Clothes carry something from the person who wore it before I did. (Chatam Sofer, Toledot)

We dress ourselves in God’s garments with our acts of Righteousness – Tzedaka.

Author Info: 



Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

“God, your Lord, will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring.” (Deuteronomy 30:6) The first letters of “your heart and the heart of your offspring” spell Elul.

“From heaven God gazed down upon mankind, to see if there exists a reflective person who seeks out God.” (Psalm 53:3)

The Holy One, Blessed is He, searches for the truly righteous person who has achieved greatness through the application of his formidable intellect. God then takes a second look to see whether this person is able to let go of the reason that successfully took him so far and use only his heart to search for God. One who uses only his heart can hear what God demands.

Binah L’Ittim Lecture 12

God uses the Shofar of Elul to circumcise our hearts and cut away anything other than our Emunah Peshuta – Simple Faith – to search for Him.

Author Info: 



Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

I spent most of yesterday battling with Land Rover over a receipt. Our car is under warranty and the transmission failed immediately after the engine was replaced. (Long Story!) Land Rover wanted receipts proving that we properly maintained the car and were not the cause of the transmission’s death. We have receipts for maintenance every 3,000 miles, which is impressive as the car has almost 80,000 miles on the odometer.

We even have a receipt for changing the transmission fluid at the 60,000 mile scheduled maintenance. However, we called our mechanic from Land Rover, our car needed some warranty work, and he wrote the date of the call on the work order. The dealer had the car for a few days to make some important repairs, so we didn’t bring the car to our mechanic for a few days.

The work order has the date of the call, not the work. The date is the same day that Land Rover had our car and therefore, Land Rover claims that the receipt is fraudulent and we never changed the transmission fluid and therefore, they are not responsible to replace the transmission.

One detail out of hundreds. They acknowledge that the transmission worked until they had the car for repairs. They acknowledged that they changed the transmission fluid. They acknowledge that the car is a lemon. They acknowledge that we have perfectly maintained the car, except for one detail: The date on the work order is incorrect. That one detail will now cost us almost two thousand dollars to fix the car.

One detail can negate the hundreds of acknowledged positive steps. One detail is sufficient to declare all the established maintenance as invalid. All I can say is: “Thank God, Land Rover is not in charge of the Rosh Hashana Judgment!”

Imagine if God would say, “Well, you have been superb this year except for one detail. All the positive is negated.” None of us could survive a Land Rover judgment.

Details matter. We can lift someone’s spirits with one kind word However, the King’s perspective is Infinite, and each detail is part of a much larger picture.

We also most consider the larger picture of our lives, not the details. What have we become? How have we grown? Where and how do we fit into God’s creation?

God is not defining us by details. Why would we?

Author Info: 



Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

I have to tell you something that I have mamesh been thinking about, but I hope I will be able to make myself clear.

This Shabbos we read ‘Atem Nitzavim Hayom Kulchem’, you are standing before G-d, all of you. Then we read about all the ten kinds of yiddelach that are there.

Everybody knows that on Rosh Hashonna you are standing before G-d, but the question is on what level? We are not being counted on the level of details, we are being counted on the level of all. Every person is the combination of two things. Let’s take a girl who is very beautiful, her eyes and ears are beautiful, but this is all details. But then there is something else, the all a person is. There might be a person who is very talented in Mathematics but sometimes the all is not talented. A lot of big scientists are talented in everything but the all in them is stupid. Then there is a person who is not only talented in every detail, but the all is talented and the all is beautiful. There are a lot of yiddelach who are Jewish in every detail but the all of them is without religion, the all of them. And then there are people who maybe their details are not so religious, but the all of them is so beautiful. So in a nutshell, on Yom Kippur we are standing before G-d on the level of details because on Yom Kippur I confess every detail I did wrong, but on Rosh Hashonna I am standing before G-d on the level of my all.

I want to share something very deep with you, which may not be clear till the end so just bear with me. Imagine I walk on the street and I see a poor man and all I have on me is a dollar. So I’m thinking to myself ‘should I give him just half a dollar and leave half a dollar for myself or should I give him all I have?’ Something happens to me and I feel very high and I give him all I have, but where is this coming from? It comes from the all of me. My all of me gives all to the poor man, but it’s not really all there is. No person has more than all they have. But imagine if there would be such a thing that not only the all of me, but the all of my world. You know what G-d does? The Master of the World is giving you not only the all of me but the whole world. There is such a thing, mamesh all there is.

And just bear with me, it will become clearer to you. There is such a thing which has to do with after I’m born, after I’m already in this word, and there are certain things which touch my very being in this world. These things touch my being born, my coming into this world. For instance, I can connect to a person on two levels, I can love a person on two levels. I’m already in this world and I know you so I love you. But then there is something much deeper. Sometimes I can love a person so much that it touches my very being in this world. Imagine a china man, he is connected to Peking and a yidele is connected to Yerushalayim. I’m sure that the all off the China Man is connected to Peking but this is the kind of all which is after I am created. After he is already created as a China man he is connected to Peking. If he cannot be in Peking so he lives in New York he forgets about Peking. For a yidele, Yerushalayim is not connected to me after my creation, this touches the very foundation of my creation. If not Yerushalayim I can’t have something else, cannot exchange it.

Let me make it clearer. I want you to know something else, the more outside it is the more the little bit is also meaningful. Imagine I’ll make a deal with Coca Cola. I would like to sell you ten thousand bottles of Coca Cola. My friend tells me ‘well, my soul is not that big, I cannot use ten thousand bottles but I would be glad to buy a thousand from you’. Imagine I walk up to a girl and I say ‘I want to marry you’ and she says ‘well, I cannot marry you but I can be your secretary’. Or she will tell you ‘I cannot marry you for a lifetime but for a weekend I can’, it’s sweet but it just doesn’t go. Anything that comes from the outside – then a little bit is also good. If I am very hungry and I walk into this restaurant and I ask for five steaks and ten hamburgers and they tell me ‘listen brother, we are just closing up. All I can give you is a leftover donut’. Since I am so hungry I will take that because it’s outside of me. Now listen to this, on a physical level. The more outside it is in the body it doesn’t have to be complete. It should be complete but if it’s not, it is possible. G-d forbid, we should have all our feet but if one foot is missing I can still live. If someone might say ‘I’m going to cut off half of my heart G-d forbid, so I’m living on half’, it just doesn’t go because the heart is the inside of my inside and the inside of my inside has to be complete.

Let me tell you something. I am giving a speech on Maoism and I’m speaking to the China folks and they don’t understand exactly what I say because maybe I am speaking in Hebrew. In the meantime I am telling them that it doesn’t matter, they understood a little bit, it served its purpose. Imagine I am going to a girl and I want to propose to her and I say three words to her, I love you. And she says ‘I didn’t hear the two last words’ it just doesn’t go. When it comes to the deepest depths of life, when it comes to the real things – unless it’s complete it’s not there.

There are people who want to give you a lot and you only want to take a little and it’s okay. But there are people who are that close to me and I want to give them so much and they only want to take a little…

So just in a nutshell listen to this. You know how much life G-d wants to give us all year long? The flow from heaven is so deep, you can only take a little bit but it’s okay. On Rosh Hashonna, the day of the creation of the world, our closeness to G-d is so awesome that unless we take the whole thing – it just doesn’t go. Rosh Hashonna, the day when G-d created the world is such a deep day, mamesh the deepest depths there is. All of me has to be ready to take all of G-d, mamesh all of it. In order to live all year long I should do tshuvah, I don’t have to be that good and I don’t have to cleanse myself that much. So I don’t take the whole thing, I take a little bit and I will manage. I don’t keep all of Shabbos, I keep Friday night. I don’t keep Friday night, I keep a little bit. Rosh Hashonna is one day which is so deep, it has to be all… it has to be all.

Thanks to the Holiest of Holy Reb Moshe Stepansky for this post.

http://www.notowitz.com/Torah/TorahRSimchaWeinberg.html

We were playing handball against the western wall of Yeshivat Eitz Chaim in Toronto. I clearly remember that it was the western wall because there was a drawing of the Kotel – at that time called the Wailing Wall – posted on the wall. It was 1964 and Jews were unable to access the Kotel. The school posted the drawing so that we would remember and pray for the Western Wall.

The ball went flying behind us into the backyard of the house just next to the school. I was going to climb through the hedges to reclaim my “pinky” ball but everyone yelled, “Stop! You can’t go there. Grouchy lives there!”

Thank God, I listened. Grouchy came flying out the back door just waiting for his next victim to devour!

I noticed that Grouchy had a tattoo of numbers on his arm, just like Ben, the school-bus driver, and most of the teachers and rabbeim. In fact, almost all the parents I knew had similar tattoos. I was jealous because neither of my parents, and none of my grandparents had tattoos. My doctor had one, as did my dentist. The butcher had one, and so did the barber, and my building’s super. It seemed like most adults had numbers. I wondered how old you had to be to get one. After all, my parents were already ancient and they didn’t have numbers. My grandparents were beyond ancient; they were from a different century, and they didn’t get to have tattoos either.

I met Grouchy one day at the bus stop and he was very nice. “Why are you so scared of me?” “Because, you’re so grouchy!”

“You would also be grouchy if you had one of these,” he said pointing to his tattoo. When he saw the blank look in my face, he explained who tattooed him, where and when. I still tear when I remember his story. The Germans tortured and killed his wife and children in front of his eyes before sending him to a place called Treblinka.

Grouchy and I became friends. I asked the other kids to stop calling him Grouchy and retold his story. The most common response was: “My parents’ story is worse and they are not grouchy!”

I thought of Grouchy this morning on my daily walk. There is a man who looks just like Grouchy who never greets any of the other walkers. He refuses to move aside for anyone, despite the unspoken rule that you always walk to the right. I greet him every morning with a big smile and he refuses to acknowledge me. His grouchiness is infectious. It affects my mood.

This morning I saw his tattoo when I past him on my first lap, and remembered Grouchy.

There is another man I see every morning who is the polar opposite. He has the most beautiful smile and he greets everyone. We all call him “Smiley”. He lifts my mood even more than Grouchy ruins it. I passed him just after passing Grouchy and I was so infected by his smile that I decided to try again with my new Grouchy. “Good morning! How are you this wonderful morning?”

He stopped, looked at me, noticed my Curious George t-shirt and laughed. “Good morning to you.” Smiley infected me with his smile and I was finally able to infect Grouchy.

The power of a smile. No wonder God asks us to smile when we serve Him: “Because you did not serve God, your Lord, amid gladness and goodness of heart.” (Deuteronomy 28:47) The bible is describing the most horrible curses and explains that they will come because we are, well, so grouchy when we serve Him!

Imagine if everyone walked around with Smiley’s infectious smile when serving God! Awesome!

Author Info: 





Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

We approach God on Rosh Hashanah on many levels. One approach is that of a subject participating in the coronation of his King, and relating as a subject to a King. This series, “King and Subject,” will focus on verses that describe the relationship between a King and His subjects.

“God, deliver us! The King will answer us on the day we call (Psalms 20:10).” What is the deliverance we seek? What do we want that must happen immediately, “on the day we call”? We look to God, the King, as using Is power to empower us with the intellect and perception to know how to properly address Him. We turn to the King and say, “We need You, as King, to teach us how to speak to You as King.” (Ohr haMeir, Miketz)

Author Info:
Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

One of the ways we approach God on the Day of Judgment is as a child approaching a parent. This series, Father and Child, will focus on versus that describe the relationship between a parent and a child.

“I will tell of the decree: God said to me, ‘ You are My son, I have this day given birth to you’ (Psalms 2:7).” “I will tell of the decree,” the following is to me a decree, without reason or rationale, for what am I, what is the meaning of my life, what is my importance, that God would say, “you are my son.”? I do not deserve this unless I hear the stress on the word “this day,” “Hayom,” that God is telling me, “Today I am looking at you the way a parent looks at a child in the 1st moments of the child’s life when everything is perfect and beautiful. This is the way I see you on Rosh Hashanah. Turn to Me and share in the beauty that I see in you.” (Yeitiv Lev, Re’ei)

Author Info:
Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

From Michael Linetsky: “I am come [back] into My Gardens, My sister, My bride (Song 5:1). . . The Torah teaches one good manners, as that a groom is not allowd to enter the bridal bower until his bride gives him leave (Pesikta de-Rav Kahana 1:1).”

In the Scriptures God urges the Jewish People to return to Him, but in fact it is God who actively desires to join the community of His People.

God cannot join the community of the Jewish People without their consent; perhaps consent is the reciprocation which He seeks in the Scriptures.

http://pesikta-derav-kahana.blogspot.com/2011/09/god-seeks-out-jewish-people.html

The 9th of Elul is the Yahrtzeit of Rav Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin: According to the Talmud love is symbolized by “man,” and fear by “woman.” Man indicates the bestowing of divine abundance, and woman it’s passive receipt. The Association of fear with the female is that fear is one’s state upon recognition of a lack, i.e., of the Shefa, the Divine Abundance, it is yet to receive. Therefore, man’s 1st effort following the recognition of a void must be directed toward fear, not love; the latter will then surely followed the former (Tzidkat haTzaddik #212).

Author Info:
Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.