“I am God, your Lord, Who raised you from the land of Egypt, open wide your mouth and I will fill it (Psalms 81:11).” Asked of me all that your heart desires, and I will fulfill every request (Ibn Ezra), on the condition that you hearken to Me. Then you will never know want, hunger, or thirst, just as you were completely provided for one I brought you from Egypt. (Radak)

From these words, the Talmud (Yerushalmi Ta’anit 3:6) derives the halachic principle that the worshiper should supplicate God for all his needs, thereby demonstrating his complete faith in God’s omnipotence and benevolence. The more one asks for God’s help, the wider he opens his mouth, the more he shows that he believes in God’s ability to provide all of a person’s needs.

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.

“Listen, My nation, and I will attest to you; O Israel, if you would but listen to Me (Psalms 81:9).” The Midrash (Shir Hashirim 1) says that God’s commanding voice made such a profound impression on them at Sinai that the Evil Inclination was purged from their hearts. After hearing these two commandments, however, Israel grew weak. They panicked and refused to listen to God’s awesome voice. They demanded that Moses to come their intermediary and transmit the remaining eight Commandments to them. At that moment, they ceased to be spellbound by God’s holy words, and the Evil Inclination returned to their hearts.

Therefore, God says, “Oh, Israel, if you had listened to Me there would be no strange god [i.e. Evil Inclination] within you.” (Shevet M’Yisrael)

The Shofar’s voice is the same voice we heard at Sinai. It potentially carries the same power to purge the Evil Inclination from our hearts. We must lease in as if we are being presented with the same choice as the people who stood at Sinai: Will we choose to listen directly to God’s voice? Or, will we be so intimidated that we will, once again, fail to take full advantage of the opportunity.

What do we desire to hear?

How do we desire to hear the Voice of the Shofar?

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.

“When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn (Isaiah 8:19-20).”

Most of us are seekers, whether we seek God, truth, material success, happiness, or the ultimate thrill; we are seekers.

When Isaiah urges us to,

“Seek God while He may be found;

call on him while He is near.

Let the wicked forsake their ways

and the unrighteous their thoughts.

Let them turn to God, and He will have mercy on them,

and to our Lord, for He will freely pardon (Isaiah 55:6-7),”

he is reminding us, that we not only must choose to seek God and His love, we must choose how we will seek, where we will seek, and whom we will consult.

“Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?” We are seeking life, “Remember us for life, King Who desires life; Inscribe us in the Book of Life, for Your sake, the Living Power.” If we are seeking life, we must seek in something living, vibrant and real.

“Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning.” Elul, the most auspicious time to seek God, as this is the time when He may be found, is the time when we must “Consult God’s instruction,” and search for answers to our questions in His Torah.

We can use this month to make a list of our questions, the issues that we have with God and Judaism, our doubts, and our need for clarity. We should then use this month of Seeking God to “Consult God’s instruction,” to find answers.

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.

David Morris writes in “The Culture of Pain” that to a doctor, pain is a puzzle, but to a patient it is a mystery, in the ancient sense of the word, a truth necessarily closed off from full understanding, which refuses to yield every quantum of its darkness: “a landscape where nothing looks entirely familiar and where even the familiar takes on an uncanny strangeness.”

I study the Vidui, the Yom Kippur Confession, and immediately experience the mystery of pain. I grew up observing people weeping as they recited the Vidui. When asked, they would describe the pain they felt over their mistakes, and how undeserving they were of God’s blessings. I never heard that approach from my father zt”l, but it left its mark. Here I am, pained over my imperfections and failings. I am viewing my life through the eyes of the Vidui, the things I could be doing better, and the landscape looks different from my regular perspective. I try to observe all that I do through the eyes of God’ Judgment, not my daily perspective, and everything becomes slightly unfamiliar. I become a mystery to myself. Why is it so difficult to change? Why do I repeat the same mistakes year after year? In my regular view, my anger was appropriate. In the Vidui’s view, the situation is different; there was no call for anger and resentment.

If my Vidui causes me to see me and my life as mysteries, how will it help me change in practical ways? Are Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur about the mysteries of life or the way we deal with what we perceive?

I decided to take the physician’s perspective; that of a puzzle, not a mystery. I acknowledge the pain and attempt to understand it as a piece of the huge puzzle of a human being struggling with life: “Is the pain another piece in the complex puzzle of my life?”

For some people, the pain is how they experience Teshuva – they only feel that they are doing Teshuva when they feel pain over their mistakes. They want to feel the pain. It becomes an essential part of their religious life: “If I can’t live at a higher level, I will, at least, be pained that I cannot. The pain is my way of exculpating my inadequacies.” The pain has become part of the person’s service. It is one piece of the puzzle; a piece that adds pain to their spiritual lives. They do not believe in the pure joy of serving God; it must come with some pain.

That cannot be the intent of the Vidui.

The Vidui lays out a structure that describes our struggle with mastering a spiritual life challenged by the mundane. It lists the daunting challenges of living a God oriented life. It lays out the map of how spiritual yearnings may mislead us. It points out where we are straying from the path to success. I can pinpoint my mistakes and sigh in relief, not pain, as I realize where and how I can return to my path.

The Vidui helps me identify the source of my pain, and repair it. It is not intended to cause pain, but to identify it at its source. It restores the joy in my service of God. It heals me. It empowers me to move forward without pain.

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.

The philosopher Michel Foucault postulates that modern medicine began when doctors stopped asking patients, “What is the matter with you?” a question that invited a complex personal response, and began asking, “Where does it hurt?” instead, a question that focuses solely on biology.

What happens when we study the Vidui, the Yom Kippur Confession as a response to these two question?

If the Vidui is in response to “What is the matter with you?”, we offer a long list of all the things that are wrong with the way we behave, a personal response describing symptoms. We will beat our chests, perhaps even cry, and hopefully, promise to change.

However, if our confession is in response to, “Where does it hurt?” we are crying to God as the Ultimate Healer, listing the places within that pain us. We are describing our frustration with internal limitations and illnesses that prevent us from becoming the people we dream of being.

The first response is a psychotherapy session. We will literally “get it off our chests.” The latter is an appointment with a great diagnostician and healer. Such a Vidui is the opening round in a search for a cure.

Before 1882, when the tuberculosis bacterium was identified, consumptives were suspected to struggle with evil spirits, vampirism, vapors, a struggle between body and soul, or even a curse. The disease was personal. “What’s the matter with you?” was literal. It would be half a century before the cure, antibiotics, would appear, but the question changed. The patient could view himself without the crushing burden of personal responsibility for his illness.

We recite the Vidui as a community. We are not the consumptive coughing blood as we hide in a nineteenth century mountain sanatorium. We do not list our responses to “What is the matter with you?”, as if the problems are our own. We are the consumptives who know that the bacterium exists and present the illness to the Healer, requesting a diagnosis and cure. “This is where it hurts!” we declare. This is how we have been infected by dangerous bacteria.

The Vidui does not begin as a personal description of our faults. It is a reading of the diagnostic manual of illnesses and symptoms. It is a pathological report. It is a cry for healing.

We follow the Ashamnu-Bagadnu with the Al-Cheit, as a description of what we must change to be freed of the illnesses described in the opening Vidui. We suffer these diseases because we make ourselves vulnerable when we act with a stubborn heart, or without thinking.

We accept responsibility for making ourselves vulnerable. We acknowledge that our actions make us susceptible to the diseases listed in Ashamnu-Bagadnu, and then ask God as Healer, to cure the disease.

“Where does it hurt?” asks God. “It hurts here, and here, and here. It hurts that we cannot connect with You because of our diseases. It hurts that we are so ill that it is difficult to change the behaviors that make us susceptible to spiritual illness. Heal us!”

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.

What does one do after a hurricane leaves his home without power for six days, ruining all the food, and making it impossible to clean the house? You have really special guests for Shabbat!

We had two of our best friends in the world as guests this Shabbat and the small stuff didn’t matter. It was Shabbat and that was enough to connect and allow us to focus on the important parts of life. It was a life nurturing visit until…

I found out that they are Mitzvah thieves!

Yes; such a concept exists in Halacha. They stole my Mitzvah. They stripped their beds before they left, depriving me of part of my Mitzvah of Hachnasat Orchim: Bringing guests into the home. Every detail is part of the Mitzvah, even cleaning up after they leave. But did they care? No! Such good friends and yet they didn’t leave anything for me to clean up after they left!

I’m considering taking them to Bet Din – Jewish Court – to collect my pieces of silver. I can claim that I never strip my bed after visiting them. I always ask, “Shall I strip the bed?” I always leave a huge mess behind in my unbelievable commitment to help them have a bigger Mitzvah cleaning up after me. Do they show the same sensitivity to me? …the same concern for my Mitzvah?

Debbie, righteous woman she is, argues their case: They saw that my back was hurting and didn’t want me to bend. They have too much respect for me as their rebbi to allow me to strip their beds? Poor arguments: I insist on washing the linen for company and preparing the beds because Debbie takes care of everything else and I want my part of the Mitzvah.

Debbie argues right back: “You are focusing on how you want to personalize the Mitzvah! That is Chassidut; not the Mitzvah itself! They don’t have to pay you for stealing your Chassidut!”

Well, with all due respect, the Chafetz Chaim disagrees with Debbie! A guest was embarrassed when the great Tzaddik wanted to make his bed, and said, “Please allow me to make the bed.” He had the same concerns of respect for a rebbi and concern for the sage’s old age. The Chafetz Chaim responded, “Do you want to put on Tefillin for me too? This is MY mitzvah, and I must do it!”

Debbie is concerned that, by taking them to Bet Din, I will be sending them a message that I am using their visit as an opportunity for a Mitzvah rather than caring for them as the beloved friends they are.

Perhaps. However, friends allow each other to maximize their growth and Mitzvah opportunities. Surely they enjoy the fact that I treasure the time I spend with them because God is even more present when they visit.

They can breathe a sigh of relief. I will not take them to Bet Din; my back hurts too much from doing the laundry, which Debbie believes is a sign that I was not focused on the Mitzvah while doing the laundry.

“Gazalnu,” “We have stolen,” is included in the Vidui, the Confession. It includes being a Mitzvah thief. I don’t want my friends to feel guilty. I want them to so treasure the Mitzvah they afford me when they visit that they will be careful to stop stealing the slightest part of my Mitzvah. They can turn their “sin” into a learning opportunity. That will be a superb Vidui.

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.