Parshas Nitzavim-Vayeilech 5786

Automatic transcript of the voice note (unedited) — Hebrew and Yiddish terms may be spelled phonetically.

This is my office in Samva Yilech. We learn of the mitzvah of tshuva v'shaftar Hashem l'kecha. It's obviously very appropriate right before Rosh Hashanah, the end of the Chumash, that we talk about tshuva. What does it mean tshuva? What are we going back to? The Lashon tshuva, Lashon v'shaftar Hashem l'kecha, you're returning, you're going back. Where are we going back to? Where do we come from that we're returning to a place? Normally we think of tshuva much more as correction than going back. That's the first question I wanted to ask. The second one from this expireshow, I got a phone call from a dear friend, a rebellion war sager, a big tzaddik,

and we're discussing the pasuk that says that, kosh baruch oprim forim vas chayim b'mavasim, you choose chayim. Of course you choose chayim. What else is there to choose? First of all, if you're alive you have an ability to choose. If you're dead you can't choose at all. So you are alive already, so of course you're choosing chayim. What in the world is this pasuk teaching us? That was the second question. And thirdly, the hafloh makes a big deal of the Tzadik. There's a big deal about the fact in this week's parashah when it says, k'a mitzvah azayis. This mitzvah, there's a question what the mitzvah is. It's a reference to tshuva or the Torah itself.

But this mitzvah is not far from you. It's sheyakh for you. You don't have to go across the heavens or across the seas. You could get it. It's b'fichu levavcha. And the pasuk says over there, twice, it says you're going to ask who's going to get it for you? v'yashmianu oisa v'naasana. And to do a nishma v'naasa. And the hafloh explains, that you're going to be afraid that you're no longer nasa v'nishma. You're going to have to do a nishma v'nasa. Why would we be afraid that we're no longer nasa v'nishma? What's going on in all of these sheylas? And thirdly, is that tshuva is the concept that it brings us back to the kisah of kovod.

It's a gemara. The gemara says through tshuva you go back to the kisah of kovod. Shaftar Hashem hakechi, get all the way back to Hashem. That's what it means, tshuva. So what does that mean? It means b'chalt b'cham. It's realizing what life's about. It's realizing what we want from life. We want in life to attach to Hashem. That is what we want. And that's exactly what the hafloh is stressing in this psukim ha'rabat. A person's going to think that we're not on this holy level, z'matam tayir kabal, sa tayir v'no longer nasa v'nishma. We're now back to regular nishma v'nasa. We're not holy anymore. This is a big mistake. Ki b'ficha u'vavcha la'saysay. It's in your heart. It's in your mouth.

It's in your heart. You can do it. It's right there for the taking. Nothing happens. Nothing happens to you. You are as holy as you were by kabbalah sa tayirah. And that is exactly the ingin of tshuva. You know what it means tshuva? You know what you're returning to? It's returning to the realization of your greatness. Which means that all of us can be meka'im the mitzvah of tshuva in this week's parasha by looking in front of the mirror and remembering how great we all are. We have a chelika l'iki mimah. We're greater than even the malachim. Nasa v'nishma is the crying call of the malachim, the gemara in Shabbos says. We're greater than the malachim, Rashi tells us in parashas Baloch.

To realize what we are and who we are, that is the tshuva. Going back to realization of our greatness. I think that's why the afloh says, it brings the gemara psachim, if you want to be able to go all the way to kisah kav, that's only tshuva me'avvah. Because tshuva me'ira means we're running away. We're not going back. We're running away from something. Running away from what we don't want to be. But if we're able to go back to what we really are, in other words, realize this is who we are, we are great, we are a cherek alayki mimah, that is the tshuva that is being discussed in this week's parasha. And we could all do it, because befivcha uvavcha lasayseh, we're all nasa v'nishma yiren,

we haven't lost that greatness. Bez v'shamo v'zeiheh teremitzvah v'tshuva, should have a wonderful Shabbos k'sivachasim m'toivah.