When I was in yeshiva in Slabodka — a long time ago — on the day after Yom Kippur, in the morning, the Rosh Yeshiva said a few words to the bnei yeshiva.

We were going home now; some of us stayed but most were going back now to their hometowns for Yomtiv and this would be the last talk we would hear from the Rosh Yeshiva until Cheshvan.

***
And so on the following morning, after shacharis, the Rosh Yeshiva spoke to all of us.

“You all labored very much on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur,” he said. “You put your hearts into your tefillos in the yeshiva and you were elevated and inspired; you accomplished a precious achievement. To pray in a good place these three days is equivalent to three months of learning.”

“But it is important now that you should be on guard,” he said.

“Because when you go home soon, so Yomtiv comes and then Simchas Torah; you have to beware of leitzanus.”

Leitzanus means lightheadedness, lack of thought.

​He quoted to us the famous words of the Mesillas Yesharim that leitzanus achas dochah meah tochachos – one leitzanus can overthrow a built up tower, a skyscraper of over a hundred tochachos.

The Meaning of Schach

But you’re thinking; you look up at the schach and you’re thinking.

“Once upon a time our forefathers sat in little huts like this for forty years. And they were the safest, the most protected of any generation in our entire history because they had the ananei hakavod; they had Hakodosh Boruch Hu protecting them. In the midbar there was nothing but schach overhead and still they were more secure in the midbar than ever afterwards in our history.”

You should gain an awareness; a sensory feeling that the shechina is overhead at
all times on our nation.

And the schach is there to aid you to gain that perception that He’s watching over us.

It means we are living in a world of enemies and it’s only because we are in Hashem’s sukkah that we survive.

We always have had enemies who are talking against us, all kinds of falsehoods.

Every kind of canard, all the time.

The UN for instance even now came out with a declaration that Medinas Yisroel is to blame for shooting the Arabs.

Arabs are innocent fellows, of course. The murderous Arabs, the very worst, are poor innocent fellows and Israel is guilty. So they all came together and they made a declaration blaming Israel.

And our honorable President, maybe he wasn’t too happy about it, but he also joined in.

Now I'm not a big patriot of Israel, but we see that UN is one big gathering of anti-Semites.

They didn't even let Israel come into any one of their committees. No committee was open to Israel to become a member.

Not only in the UN. On all sides, anti-Semites are busy all the time.

There’s a tremendous literature of antisemitism and it’s been like that from the earliest times.

And still we're here.

The enemies who slandered us disappeared already.

The Greeks were the worst of all. Josephus quotes many Greek writers and their falsehoods against us. The Greeks never stopped writing against us and now they’re gone.

​Greece of today is not the Greece of antiquity. Greece is entirely lost.

All their gods have gone lost. Their religion and culture have gone lost.

...the stories that we read about in the chumash about the whole nation apply equally to each person individually.

And that means that just as our nation in general is protected by the sukkah of Hakodosh Boruch Hu, in addition, each person should know that Hakodosh Boruch Hu has a sukkah around him personally.

Hashem is protecting you individually.

The Main Lesson to Take into the Sukkah

As much as possible, use the sukkah to gain an awareness of that great fact that Hakodosh Boruch Hu is overhead and He is the one who is guiding us and protecting us forever and ever.

No matter what the goyim try to do against us, we are going to exist and we will live longer than the gentiles.

And each person too should think, individually, that Hashem is protecting him all his life.

That’s the truth – He’s going to be our sukkah forever and He’s going to be your sukkah forever.

As you enter the sukkah, you're doing all the good things; Jewish minhagim, very good.

Ushpizin, noi sukkah, zemiros, everything; simchas Yomtiv, very good!

But don't neglect the opportunity of thinking that the sukkah now is a lesson to you that Hashem protects our nation forever and ever.

By Gilabrand - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21874843

What's Wrong with This Picture?

When It's Helpful to See Hashem's Justice in This World

When Hashem Doesn't Agree with Your Self-Perception of Funny, Cute, Clever, or Victimized

Once there was a girl – a young woman.

And she was riding in a taxicab in Brooklyn. And the taxicab bumped into another car. And together they bumped into a telephone pole.

And the pole fell on her and she died. Nebach, it killed that girl.

Now, I’m not capable of telling you anything but I’ll tell you something that happened with a girl. Maybe it was the same girl. I don’t want to say.

Once there was a poor teacher and she was trying to make a living. You know that it’s not always easy making a living.

So she was teaching a class of girls. And there were forty girls in the class.

One of the girls in the back of the class mimicked the teacher’s voice. And she did it all the time.

All the time!

And the teacher was very much embarrassed. Very embarrassed. Very hurt. But what could she do? It’s her parnasah.

​So she kept quiet. She kept quiet but she was terribly hurt.

Now maybe this girl forgot about what she did. And maybe the teacher forgot about her pain.

But Hakodosh Boruch Hu doesn’t forget. He might give you time to fix your mistake – to do teshuvah – but when you don’t, and instead you forget about it, He doesn’t forget.

​You hear that?! Hakodosh Boruch Hu doesn’t forget!

Here’s a girl in Bais Yaakov. 

Her teacher, a woman trying to make a living, she teaches the girls. And she’s trying to make a lecture on a certain inyan in hashkafah. 

So one of the girls raised her voice to mimic her teacher. “Mmmm mmmm.”

​The teacher didn’t say anything. She heard but she didn’t say a thing.

A terrible thing what that girl did!  Malbin pnei chaveiro berabim! A terrible thing.

Well that girl was sitting in a taxi one day and another car came and bumped into a telegraph pole and knocked it down and it fell on her taxi; a freak accident and she was killed.

Nobody knows why.  Nobody knows why! 

Hakadosh Baruch Hu knows why. 

Lo avad dinah belo dinah – Hashem doesn’t do things without judgment.  

And therefore mi haish hachafetz chaim, you want to live long? 

Netzor leshoncha meira – close your mouth against saying bad things.

Yiras Hashem tosef yamim – if you fear Hashem it will add to your years, ushenos reshaim tektzornah – while the lives of the wicked are cut short.

A Bat Yisroel isn't Refundable

Here’s a man who died young; he got ill and died young. 

A tragedy!  A mystery! 

But I know the answer to the mystery.  I knew him. 

When he was a bochur he got married.  Right after the chasuna he said he wants a gett from the kallah. 

I went to him; I tried to persuade him. 

You’re just married,” I said. “You’re ruining her.” I tried. “Your parents put so much money into the chasuna.”

“I don’t like her,” he said.

You married her!  Once you married you can’t say “I don’t like her.” 

But no, he was an akshan.  He was a stubborn fellow.

He was a good bochur, a good learner, but he had akshanus in him. 

He wanted a girl that he liked and finished. And so he divorced her.  
​
Now, when the time came and he became ill prematurely, nobody understood why.  I think I know why.  He passed away early. 

​Hashem’s judgment was on him.

(//torasavigdor.org/rav-avigdor-miller-on-persuasions-of-the-yetzer-hora/​)

Here’s a man – a beautiful man. A strong, tall man and a good learner. A tchachka he was. Something special – a real tachshit.

And then he became ill – a cripple. And he died young too. Nobody know why. 
I also don’t know why.

But I have one hava-amina. I have a svarah for why he died young. I have a good svarah.

Because I dealt with him once.

He had a bride. He had a new kallah. And right after the chuppa he said he doesn’t want her anymore.

I visited him. I said, “How can it be? You’re ruining the girl! You chose her. You chose this girl. And her parents spent a small fortune on the chasuna. And right after the chuppa you don’t want her anymore?!”

“No,” he says. He doesn’t like her, he tells me.

Well, I didn’t win.

And there was a divorce. It was a tragedy.

And I think that it was a very big crime that he committed.

Nobody knows why, but I think that’s the reason. He ruined her.

Now, I wouldn’t go and publicize it, but I believe that’s the reason.

(torasavigdor.org/rav-avigdor-miller-on-suspecting-hashem-of-wrongdoing/)

Here’s the case of a young man who died. 

A big talmid chacham.  And he died.  And everybody is surprised. 

He had a family with children.  What did he do wrong that he was punished?
​
But I know!  I remember! 

He was once married – before this marriage – and he got into a quarrel immediately with his wife’s parents. 

Something happened right after the marriage night.  He became insulted and he went out of the house; he went back to his parents and he refused to come back to his wife anymore. 

She was ruined.  A young girl and now she’s being divorced. 

It was a tragedy.  She wanted to take her life!  She wanted to commit suicide. A frum girl. 

But he was adamant.  He refused to go back.
​
Well, the years passed by.

​He remarried but Hakodosh Boruch Hu didn’t forget it. 

And suddenly this man became ill and died – there’s a reason for it.

(https://torasavigdor.org/rav-avigdor-miller-on-divorce-and-retribution/) 

What about the Power of Forgiveness?

A Good Scare is Better Than a Bad Move

It was a pleasant dream but in the morning I asked myself, “Why is it that I don’t dream about Hashem?”

A very big kasha! Why don’t I dream about Hashem?!

Maybe that Hashem spoke to me, something else maybe.

It never happened!

Years and years pass by and nothing. I talk about it all the time but I never dreamed about it.

The answer is now I see what a hypocrite I am.

[Ein mar'in lo la'adam eleh mehirhurei libo]—a man is shown in a dream what he really thinks about (Brachos 55b).

It tells you the truth about yourself. You understand that?

​A dream sometimes reveals to you important things about yourself.

Even One-Thousandth of a Malach Matters

The Secret Revelation of Why Hashem Uses Malachim

A mitzvah is not like we think, just something that we once did, or thought or said.

No; every mitzvah is an especial kind of creation.

That’s what the Kuzari says.

He says that a mitzvah that is performed is a living entity, an actual creature.

Now the Kuzari you have to know is a Rishon; he doesn’t go into fantasies.

He is practical and his every word is counted and so we have to listen to that — even the smallest mitzvah is a living being that will stand in the Beis Din Shel Maalah and advocate for you.

It doesn’t have to be something with wings — the wings are just a form of vision that is granted to us, so that we should see them and be impressed by them.

A living mitzvah is higher than wings; it’s something of ruchniyus that is of tremendous power — it doesn’t need any wings to propel it.

Encouraging Words

Shanah Tovah!

The Fundamentals of the Human Soul

We must understand something about the human soul and its function in this world.

The human soul is very deep; it’s profound and bottomless.

Hakodosh Boruch Hu breathed the soul into man and anybody who breathes into somebody breathes of himself.

And that means that there’s unlimited greatness, infinite possibilities, in each one of us.

Turn to Hashem First

Building Your Own Fire

At the end of the hour, when you came out, you were a new man.

You saw things so clearly that nobody else understood.

The same statements that were superficial before now became so sharp and so brilliant in your mind.

​Don’t look at the people around you!

The glorious opportunity of tefillah should be utilized even if it means you’ll have to disregard all those people around you.

Even if they are talmidei chachomim, if they're stuck in the rut of habit, disregard them.

Sometimes if you want to become something, you have to be independent.

You cannot lean on the opinions of other people; you must set out on the path to Hakodosh Boruch Hu all by yourself.

Save your life! You only have one life!

Getting Practical about Self-Transformation 

Our sages (Sanhedrin 39a) give a mashal; it's like the sun shining.

It's midday and the whole world is flooded with light – not only is there an abundance of sunshine on the street but even in the homes, even when the shutters are closed, there is still light inside.

It steals through cracks in the shutters and under the door.

Now, is the light that comes through a crack in the keyhole or a shutter the same light that you'll find on the street?

No. There’s a big difference.

On the street you're directly receiving the rays of the sun.

You look up and see the sun and the rays are coming directly down upon you.

But if you're inside a house and the doors and windows are closed, so the light doesn't come in directly; it comes in through some form of radiation; the light waves come in by devious ways but it's not the same.

Similarly, the Shechinah is everywhere...

The Reality of a Frum Jewish Home

The poor chosson, his head is not there.

At least if the mesader kiddushin, would do a chessed and whisper in his ear just before he takes out the ring and say, “Do you know what you're going to do now? You're bringing down the Shechina between you and your kallah now,” so at least the chosson can awake from his stupor and he'll try at least to think what's taking place.

I once did that – I whispered into the ear of a chosson before he put the ring on, “Think that the Shechina is coming down now.”

And that remains forever.

Not only at the chasuna. It remains forever!

They told of a certain chassidishe rebbe who used to think this way. When he looked at his wife, he imagined he saw the Shechina between him and his wife.

He worked on it. He took it seriously because it’s true!

The Shechina is always in the home of a frum married couple, as long as they live together.

It’s true, husbands and wives are different; by nature they’re entirely different, but the presence of Hashem overrides everything else.

Who cares if your wife has certain interests and you have different interests? She likes to talk, you don’t like to talk?

It makes no difference.

Both together are united in the great ideal of building a Jewish tabernacle of avodas Hashem, a place where the Shechina resides, so who cares if there are puny little differences?!

​Everything is puny when it’s compared to that!

The Jewish Dining Table is a Mizbe'ach

Some Final Words on the Matter

Imagine the kohen gadol went into the kodesh kodoshim with a little portable television in his hand.

There would be no Shechina there!

Safety First!

What are Yissurim & What is the Right Way to View Them?

We’re talking about intelligent servants of Hashem who know that “Hashem is yoreh chatoim, He shows us the way in life,” and they react to big signs.

The question is how far is a man expected to go?

​How far should he go in interpreting the events of his life as messages from Hakodosh Boruch Hu?

​Let’s say a man ordered a new jacket from a tailor and finally the day comes when it’s ready.

And so he puts it on for the first time and something bothers him. He’s not sure what – it keeps him warm, it fits him, the color is right – but it doesn’t satisfy him.

That minimal dissatisfaction, says Rabbi Elazar, is already called yissurim; it’s a message mishomayim.

Does it have to be such a big misfortune like that to be called yissurim? After all a garment, you don’t make it every day; to get a new jacket is a special occasion and if it didn’t please him, that can’t be the smallest signpost that Hashem will show a person.

Anybody would take that as a message!

You hear that?!

He says that anybody would notice that; even a dumbbell has to react to that.

Rava Ze’ira says a bigger chiddush – even smaller inconveniences are messages from Heaven.

If a person wanted his wine mixed with warm water and by error they mixed it with cold water, that’s called a misfortune.

It’s a more common occurrence – your tea is not exactly the way you expected.

​That man has to know that he’s being guided on a certain path by Hashem.

He says that sometimes a person is putting on his undershirt and he happens to put it on inside out; now he’s going to have to go through the trouble of taking it off and putting it on again.

​Such an inconvenience should be considered a message from Hashem.

If he put his hand in his pocket to take out a quarter and out came a nickel, that’s a misfortune.

He has both in his pocket, he’ll be able to reach in now again and get the right coin, but the wrong one came out the first time; that’s suffering, it’s a form of yissurim.

It’s like Hashem has spoken with a voice into his ear, “I’m the One who made your tea a bit too hot. I’m the One who pulled a nickel out of your pocket instead of the quarter you wanted. And it’s because I’m a moreh derech; I want to teach you which path to take in life.”

And He expects you to listen – He expects a response.

Specific Examples of Minor Inconveniences & Their Interpretations

Hashem Loves....YOU!

If you’re loyal to His Torah then Hakodosh Boruch Hu says to you, “All of space is Mine, all the billions of star worlds belong to Me, but it’s you that I’m thinking about.”

Who’s “you”?

It means the men and women and boys and girls of the Jewish Nation – each one of them is more important than the entire creation.

Hakodosh Boruch Hu loves Chaim and Dovid and Berel and Yerucham and Elazar.

He’s thinking only about Yenta and Chana and Pelta and Chava!

So Mr. Greenberg – Hashem loves you more than He loves all of space.

Mr. Katz, Mr. Rubin, Mr. Friedman, Mr. Shama and everybody else, you’re all that Hashem is interested in.

​“Each one of you,” Hashem says, “is to Me a beloved child!”

How to Start Loving Your Fellow Jew

So here's what I heard from a gadol b’Yisroel many, many years ago.

Choose one person, he said. Don't tell him about it but you should begin to love him from a distance. Look at his face – “Ah, I love that frum Jewish face.”

You don't have to say anything to him. You don't have to become a friend of his.

You don’t even have to associate with him. Just practice loving him.

Men should practice on men and women should practice on women.

Love one woman. Don't tell her about it. Don't call her up and speak to her.

​Just love her.

Little by little your heart becomes full of love to one Jew.

And it’s contagious – after a while it will spread to others too.

You'll find that you’ll be able to expand it to include other people too.

​Once you get the hang of it, it’s easy to spread the love.

It’s something you can practice all the time in the street, even with strangers.

“He’s ours! I don’t care what kind of yarmulke he wears, he’s still my brother. And even though he follows a different Rebbe, or a different set of political objectives, nevertheless, I’m going to begin loving him right now.”

Bind Yourself with Blessings to Fellow Jews

Now you can't do it all the time, but once in a while, once a day from now until Rosh Hashana make it your business to spend about two minutes saying these words.

​Practice it every day from now until Rosh Hashana.

That’s your homework.

And not merely in general. Mention names. Specify.

Lake Kinneret & the City of Tiveria in northern Eretz Yisrael (Image by Александр Деревяшкин)

Keeping Eyes & Minds Focused in the Right Direction

Eretz Yisroel was a prescription for the benefit of those who were there – it was for the purpose of making them the very best that they could become.

***

And it was a very big thing for them because they were reminded of Hashem!

Ahh, the great achievement of life!

And finally when their prayers were answered and rain came down, it was a tremendous simcha of thanksgiving to Hakodosh Boruch Hu.

Okay, now...what does THIS cloud mean?

Big Fat Atheism

Atheism flourishes when there’s abundance because a man whose stomach is full doesn't want to have competition in the world.

He becomes arrogant and he wants to be all alone; Hakodosh Boruch Hu is making it too crowded for him.

“There's just not enough room in this universe for me and Him” (Sotah 5a).

Whether you like it or not that’s what you’re thinking – that's the result of being overfed.

Don't Let the Kosher-Looking Pig Fool You

Sure, I'm kosher! I mean, don't I LOOK kosher? Heh-heh-heh...

Now it’s a big chiddush what I’m telling you now.

It’s such a chiddush that most frum Jews will not accept it, but listen anyhow because actually it’s the most important element of avodas Hashem.

More than anything else, the foundation of kol hatorah kulah is hodu l'Hashem ki tov.

Avodas Hashem means to think of what He’s doing for you and to serve him in terms of gratitude.

How to Prevent a Full-Bellied Rebellion

...you’re in trouble; pen yifteh levavchem vesartem – you'll turn away, chas v’shalom.

It doesn’t mean you’ll go to India and join the Hare Krishna chas v’shalom.

It doesn’t mean you’ll become a ‘Jew for Cheeses’.

You’ll still do everything!

You’ll go to the synagogue three times a day and you’ll bentch after every seudah and you’ll keep Shabbos too.

But you'll turn away from Hakodosh Boruch Hu.

Because how much are you thinking about Hashem?!

How much are you thanking Him?

How much are you looking up to the heavens for your daily needs?

And if you’re not thinking about Hashem, that’s already atheism; it’s frum atheism but it’s atheism nonetheless.

If a person is a cold philosopher, a stoic who is capable of uttering grand banalities, noble statements that are remote from his own emotions, the Torah language doesn’t care for such people.

Only a man who lives his ideals is respected.

​That’s why all the great men of our past were revered only for personifying their ideals.

Love of Hashem Means Loyalty to Hashem

You have to have everything Jewish, even Jewish eyes.

You look only at kosher things.

You have to have a Jewish stomach and a Jewish mouth.

No question about it. You cannot talk about things that a Jewish mouth doesn’t say.

A Jew can't say dirty words.

​Nivul peh, bad language, is a very big sin among Jews.

But of all the things you must have, more than a Jewish mouth and Jewish hands and Jewish feet, you must have also a yiddishe kop.

That's what makes a Jew – a Jewish head – a head filled with good thoughts.

Love God-Based Love Leads to Real Love

What is the Yetzer Tov? And How Do We Access It?

And the answer is that the yetzer tov is a mysterious quality which we possess within ourselves.

It's the quality of wisdom, a great native wisdom that comes from within.

In English it's called conscience, but I don't want to make it small by using that word because when you attach that word to it, immediately it means nothing.

But in the ancient times conscience had a great meaning; it derives from the Latin word con science, ‘with knowledge’ – it means a native wisdom that derives from the human mind.

That’s the Yetzer Hatov!

Only that we have to bring it forth.

You have to lower a bucket into your mind and draw forth that wisdom of the yetzer tov, that perfection of achieving ahavas Hashem, that is concealed deep within.

How do you lower a bucket and bring forth this depth of greatness that is inside of you?

By means of thinking.

Thinking!

To love Hashem with the yetzer tov means to summon your abilities and draw forth from the depths of your natural wisdom all the thoughts that will help you love Hashem.

A Simple Program of How to Use Your Yetzer Hara to Love Hashem

Let’s say she knows that when her husband comes back from work and she is tired and exasperated from being with the children all day long, that’s when she sometimes lets go with a barb at him.

So she makes a plan; “When my husband comes home today, I’m going to show my love to Hashem by controlling my yetzer hora; I’m going all out for Hashem!”

***
As she hears him unlocking the front door, she steels herself and says, “I am making a shvuah that for the next fifteen minutes, I won’t say anything unkind.”

She should swear! Fifteen minutes you can risk.

And for those fifteen minutes, she’s all sugar and spice and everything nice.

It’s a quarter of an hour of loving Hashem!

Don’t disdain that – it’s a tremendous achievement!

The evil inclination of anger and arrogance and dissatisfaction is going to be his ladder to climb the rungs of ahavas Hashem.

“Out of love for You Hashem, I’m going to do one of the hardest things that a man can do in this world – I’m going to break my bad middos.”

So as he is fumbling with the doorknob, let him stop for a moment and say,

“I take upon myself in the next half hour just to keep quiet. No matter what my wife will say, I am not going to say anything mean. If I can’t say anything kindly, I will keep my mouth shut.”

For a half hour.

Of course after the half hour he will let go!

But that’s a good beginning because for a half hour he loved Hashem with his yetzer hora.

After that, maybe next week, he might increase it to an hour; he might add on the mornings too.

It’s a good idea by the way, to love Hashem in the morning too.

How to Use Our Most Common Bad Middot for the Good

5 Minutes to Utilize the Power of Rosh Chodesh