The 10 Hidden Messages of the Shofar

0:00You're listening to Rabbi Aria will be of torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Jewish Inspiration Podcast. It's great to be back here, my dear friends. It's so amazing. And I want to just continue on one little point that Rabbi Busko said before I get to our topic tonight. And that is that he was saying here at the end that the sounds of the chauffeur, the sounds of the chauffeur are a solid sound, a broken sound, and a solid sound. It comes as a package. Takiya, Shavarim, Turuya, Takiya. Again, the Takiya is Takua, means solid firm. Then you have the shvarim, which is broken. Our sadists tell us that these sounds represent each and every one of us. Throughout our our life, we have times where confident we've got this, we've got this. And there are times when we're broken. And there are sometimes that we're so broken, we're not shvarim, we're a true one.

1:04We're broken up into little, little itty bitty pieces. And then you know what comes after that? You get strong again. And it's a form of encouragement where this setup of the Takiya, the shvarim, the true of the Takiya is telling you this is normal. It's normal for us to have a cycle of life where things go well for us and then not so well for us. And sometimes we're at the top of the world and it can never get any, it can't get any better, it can never get any worse because look where I'm at, I made it. And then we can fall down to the bottom again. But that is the exact cycle that God wants us to be in our magnificent journey through life. So my dear friends, tonight I wanted to do something I've never done in any of my classes before. And that is I wanted to learn the ten aspects of the blowing of the chauffeur written by Rifzad Yagon. Rifzad Yagon lived in the 10th century and he was a Gone, that means he was a great scholar,

2:09a great scholar who knew all of Torah, all of Mitzvahs, he knew all of everything you can possibly know in Jewish wisdom. And he listed ten reasons for blowing the chauffeur. Now we don't know the reason for the shuffling of the chauffeur. Why don't we know the reason? Because it's a commandment in the Torah. The Torah commands us. God tells us that we should blow the chauffeur on these days, the days of our Shashana. That's why we blow the chauffeur. So if anybody asks you why do we blow the chauffeur because God commanded us, that's the real reason. But we want to make it personal, we want to understand it. I want to share with you the ten reasons shared by Rifzad Yagon and there are other sages throughout the years who have shared more reasons. But these are very, very powerful and I want to go through them one by one. The first is, is we blow the chauffeur because we are coordinating Hashem as King of the universe. Not only a King over the universe, but a King over this world that we live in, the King

3:14over the life that we live and the King over us as individuals. God is my King. God is here with me every single day of my life. How do I make that real? When a King comes, when the President comes out, they have a special trumpets that they have a special salute to the President or here come, hail to the chief, right? Okay, that's one. But when the King comes, the King of England or the Queen of England, when she would never go someplace, they had these trumpets, they would play. Why? Because that's not only the way you coordinate a King, but the way you honor a King. So blowing the chauffeur is like us blowing a trumpet coordinating Hashem. This is a very, a very powerful thing for us to stop for a moment. We're going to talk again. We have 10 reasons why we blow the chauffeur.

4:15But if we stop for a moment and recognize when the sound of the chauffeur is about to be blown, which is why I think it's an amazing thing that we're today, three days, you know, we still have Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and then is Rosh Hashana. Three days to prepare ourselves for the power of this day of Rosh Hashana. Now, we're not going to blow the chauffeur like Rabbi Busko mentioned. We're not going to blow the chauffeur on Chauvin. We are going to blow the chauffeur on Sunday. And if we can prepare ourselves, you know, one of the things I love to say about the chauffeur, the chauffeur is like writing an email. You know, you can write an email to draft, but till you don't click send, it hasn't been sent. You can write whatever you want. I have a friend of mine who told me that whenever he used to get angry, and I was, I've seen some of his emails, he'd get mad, he'd get so angry, he would write these nasty emails and he would be yelling in those emails. And I was like, whoa, whoa, right.

5:17And then he learned, he told me he learned to just draft emails. He doesn't need to send them. Let your anger out. You let it out. You don't have to send it. Okay, you don't have to send it. But when we ask God for the things that we want, how are we sending that email, so to speak? When we hear the chauffeur being blown, the chauffeur is what sends that, you know, that proverbial email to God, sending it up to heavens. It's being transmitted. That is our, our tower, our communication tower transmitting our messages to the Almighty. You know, the Almighty understands both, Clawos, Velayev. God knows what we're thinking. He knows what our needs are. He knows what our thoughts are. He knows everything, what our desires are. God knows it all. But this is a form of communication. A husband and a wife could know and understand each others.

6:19They can have telepathy and know exactly what they're thinking. But you still got to communicate to be a healthy relationship. We need to communicate with God to be in a healthy relationship. We're coordinating God when we stand in front of a synagogue and we're standing in front of God in prayer and they're blowing the chauffeur. We have to imagine to ourselves like we're standing in front of a king. And yes, the blowing of the chauffeur we're coordinating that king, that king, not for everybody else, for me as an individual. It's very easy to tell everybody else, oh, you should, you should, no, no, I should, for me, you are my king Hashem. I am coordinating you as my king. Now what does this mean? This means that if God is king of me, if God is king over me, then I don't have place to start running after my own desires, my own temptations, because when you have a king,

7:19you follow the order of the king. Otherwise chop chop, right? That's not good. It's no good. And you have to follow what the king wants. So now it brings into our consciousness, yes, God is my king. God is the creator of heaven and earth. God, I need to follow what he wants, not what I want, what he wants, very important. So that's part number one from every side you go. Number two, it's a call to Tushuva. Now as previously mentioned, Farabay Basko, although Raschashana is a day, the first and the second day of the 10 days of repentance, we still have no mention of Tushuva of repentance on those two days. We don't have, you know, we don't say, slach Hashem, forgive me. We don't say Hashamu, Bhagadnu, you know, we don't, we don't get into any of that on

8:21Raschashana. Raschana is just a day to crown God as king. But you know what we need to, we need a call, we need a call to recognize that Tushuva repentance is what is needed as the next step. Because when I understand that God is the king and oh, he sees everything, I may have done something, a thing or two that were not according to his will, it's very simple to clean that up, very simple. We just ask for forgiveness. We say Hashem, I'm sorry, I walked down the wrong alleyway, I walked, I did the wrong thing, I said the wrong thing, I acted the wrong way, whatever it may be. So it's a wake up call for Tushuva, the beginning of the 10 days of repentance. Number three, the amazing story of the Jewish people at Mount Sinai, the Jewish people are

9:23receiving the Torah. What was Mount Sinai? Mount Sinai was the Jewish people having the greatest vision ever between us and God. Imagine you're standing at the foot of Mount Sinai and God Himself is speaking to us in first person. Anohi Hashem, I am a shame your God. It's pretty phenomenal. It's a pretty big thing. It's a pretty big deal. In fact, all the nations of the world, by the way, acknowledge that the Jewish people had a revelation at Mount Sinai. The Muslims documented the Christians documented obviously. But the Jewish people had such a miraculous event over there at Mount Sinai, such a revelation, such clarity. There was a blowing of the Torah records. In Parshast Yisrael, the right before the receiving of the Torah, the receiving of the

10:24Ten Commandments, there was the blowing of the Shofars. You can hear the Shofar blow. Our say just tell us something very special. So were you at Mount Sinai? Well, yeah, I was at Mount Sinai, but you know, Mount Sinai hospital, half the Jewish people were born at Mount Sinai hospital in New York City. But it's like, yeah, technically I was, but I wasn't. I mean, I was just born in 1978. So I mean, was that really there 3,338 years ago? Maybe not. Say just tell us every single Nishama, those who are present and those who are going to be later born were all at Mount Sinai. And if we focus and if we make an effort, we can relive that experience of Mount Sinai. Imagine the power of reliving that Mount Sinai when we hear the Shofar just like we did at Mount Sinai.

11:25We heard the Shofar being blown. We hear it. It moves us to like get that moment of clarity here to have that relationship just as solid. We mentioned this many times in our classes as recently as yesterday. We said, what is a Mitzvah? A Mitzvah is something that brings you closer to God. What is a sin? A sin is something that distances you from God. So at Mount Sinai, the Jewish people had no more sin. They had only closeness with God. Oneness with Hashem. The Shofar being blown can recall that experience. When we are standing there listening to the Shofar being blown, we have the ability to recall our experience at Mount Sinai. The fourth soul, individually, was there. Not only collectively our soul is a Jewish people, no, no, no.

12:28Each individual in the Shama was there at Mount Sinai. And we have the ability by hearing the Shofar to recall that. The fourth, the prophets, the prophets tell us throughout our history. The Shofar, God tells Shofar, you want to conquer Jericho? Surround the city and blow the Shofar. The Shofar was a tool to awaken the person. In modern day, meaning not back in ancient days, not back only when the Torah was given. It's a tool to wake a person up. I was a guest in someone's home over the summer. Have you ever heard of this Sonic alarm clock? Have you heard about this? Sonic alarm clock. Let me tell you about this. Don't ever buy it. Okay? So it's Shabbos evening. My wife and I are guests at someone's home Friday evening and our children with us.

13:35And we're staying. We're guests at someone's house. Okay. Great. So you're going to be sleeping in this room. Okay. Great. So we go to the room and suddenly at 415 AM, the sonic alarm goes on. Now, okay. Let me explain to you what the sonic alarm is. Okay. It's a vibrating alarm clock that vibrates so loud it can break your phone by how much it vibrates. I mean, the whole room was shaking and the sound sounded like it was an ear rate siren in Jerusalem. Okay. It was, you cannot imagine. This is 415 in the morning. It was like it was in one of the kids rooms. It was one of the children was at war in camp and we had this, you know, we slept in one of their children's rooms and, you know, the beds were just like, it was telling you you can't even imagine. Now, why was it tetah 415? You're wondering because he had to catch a flight a week earlier.

14:37Right? So he said it and forgot to turn it off. Now it's shabbos. I can't turn off the alarm clock. So there I am. Right? What am I going to do? So my wife, my wife happened to have taken a sleeping pill. So she slept pretty well. But I was there and I'm, you know, the sound I was able to wrap a towel around it and then it has this wire for this sonic, this vibrating thing and it was, it was just in my hand so that it doesn't shake the whole room. Now I was like, he probably took me two hours. It doesn't turn off until you turn off. It doesn't turn off. So two hours and until eventually it turned off and I was like, like my hands were like, you know, by the time I was done. What does sound sound has a tremendous power? Music has a tremendous power. As a transformative power. As a transformative power, music, you know, a movie would have no influence on a person

15:40if it didn't have a soundtrack. The soundtrack adds the emotion to the story. You can watch an emotional scene, an emotional clip of something when they add the music to it. And if it's appropriate music, it can make you cry. And you don't even realize why you're crying. Crying for the music, the music has such a power. The blowing of the chauffeur has a tremendous power. Power of transformation. Are it sages or profits would use the blowing of the chauffeur to awaken the people. Guys, don't go down the path of sin. They would blow the chauffeur so that the community would wake up when they needed to make an appeal to people's emotions. They would blow the chauffeur. They'd blow the chauffeur to awaken them. That's number four. Number five is the destruction of the temple.

16:41When they did service in the temple, there was a chauffeur that was blown to a trumpet that were blown by the Levites. Unfortunately, we don't have a temple today to commemorate and to pray that we bring back the temple that we do the right thing so that we deserve to have the temple restored. For that, we blow the chauffeur. Rapsadhyagone, who is about 1500 years after the destruction of the temple, he put together these aspects of why we blow the chauffeur so that we can relive it when we hear the chauffeur being blown, we can connect with these things. We have a bunch of different opportunities. We hear if you're in a traditional synagogue, you'll have three sets of chauffeur being blown before the Amida. During the Amida, you'll have three sets. During the repetition, you'll have three sets.

17:41And after you'll have another one set that's ten sets of the chauffeur being blown. So each one of these reasons, we can dedicate to one of those chauffeur blowings so that we can focus on each one. We have to think of all of them at once. But it's a special time to utilize the blowing of the chauffeur, not to just look around who's here or what's going on. Right? Are they just specifically say you're not supposed to talk from the beginning, from the beginning blessing of the schmalko chauffeur to hear the blowing of the chauffeur all the way till the last chauffeur blowing it to the last sound is blown because we need to be awakened. We need to be alert. We need to be connected. And if we talk, we're distracted. We don't want to be distracted.

18:43We want to be present. And we're hearing the chauffeur and the way to do this is to prepare. To prepare, we have a few days before, to think of these things. Is God really King? Or just every once in a while when I'm having trouble? I'll reach out to him. And if he listens great, if he doesn't, then you know, but of course God is always listening. Our Tom of the Toma teaches us that there is no prayer that comes back unanswered. There's no prayer. You hear this? There's no prayer that comes back unanswered. Every single prayer is answered. So how can it be? I was praying to God for that job. I didn't get that job. I was praying for the race. I didn't get the race. So he told me God returns every prayer is answered. He answered no. He answered no. Sometimes God says, you know what? You want to take that job. I have a better job for you. You want to marry that person. I might have a better mate for you.

19:45There's a better option out there. We want something, but sometimes we don't even realize because of our own limitations. We don't realize that some of the things that we want are not necessarily for our best. The sixth reason. And by the way, the Raph Sadiah going includes in his writings. He writes that when we think about the destruction of the temple during the blowing of the chauffeur, we should add a prayer for the rebuilding of the temple. We want to have our third temple rebuilt in its completion where there will be peace in the world where there won't be any more wars, where there won't be any more anti-Semitism, where you'll be able to turn on the radio and go on to Twitter and go on to all of the social media and not see so much Jew hate. And you'll be able to walk in the street without hearing anti-Semitic slurs. I grew up with it. I grew up in Brooklyn. I heard Jew boy all the time, people knocked off our Yamaha.

20:47I grew up with that in Brooklyn. So to me, it's not, you know, unfortunately I was raised on that. But today people think that those were living in a civilized world. How can it be that you have so many people that are spewing anti-Semitism? We need a temple. Because when we have that third temple, there will be peace in the world. We ask for it on Sukkot. We ask for Sukkata Vid, Hanofaalat. We want the house of David to be restored. God willing, speedily in our days. I mean, what's the sixth reason given by Ravsadyev Gon, the binding of Isaac? The binding of Isaac? Commitment, dedication, at its absolute best.

21:47There is no story in the history of the world that displays more commitment and dedication to God than Abraham being willing to sacrifice his son. Why? For what purpose? Because God said so. That's it. That's the only reason. God said so. God asked me to. I ask no questions. Now, in all honesty, we're flesh and blood, we're human beings. Abraham was as well. If God tells us, chop off your right hand. No, God is not sadistic. God is not right. What benefit do you have from this? Just because I asked you, are you willing to do it? Right? Imagine that. God tells Abraham. And by the way, Abraham had his child from his wife Sarah.

22:48When he was 99 years old, he was promised that he was 100 years old. He has a baby. Sarah was 90 years old and this all happens. And she says, what am I? A young woman? My body doesn't function like a young woman anymore. She laughed. That's why his name was Yitzchak. Yitzchak, she laughed. She said, this is nonsense. I can't have a baby. Oh, he's bringing a baby. What a miracle. What a celebration. And God says, oh, by the way, can you bring him to me on the altar? Bring him as an offering. What? What? Why do that? Why would you do that? Why would you make it such a great miracle? By the way, so that nobody should think that it wasn't the child of Abraham. It was the most eukno. Our Savior's tell us, Abraham and Isaac will look like a carbon copy of one another. So nobody should suspect that it was the king of Egypt

23:49that impregnated Sarah or that it was somebody else who impregnated Sarah. It was a copy of Abraham. God is telling him, go bring him on the altar. Bring him as a sacrifice. For what purpose? What's the reason? Absolute dedication. Because he lived with a coronation of God on a daily basis. Imagine finally has a child. God says, bring it as an offering. Bring him as an offering. And it wasn't only Abraham being a devoted servant of God. He was also Isaac being a devoted servant of God. Why? Because what did Isaac do? As he just tell us, that Isaac was grabbing the knife trying to pull it on me, he says, I want to be a sacrifice for Hashem.

24:49I mean, it's difficult for us to write, Bobby, you did. It's difficult for us to understand this, right? It's difficult. Look at how do we get a grasp on this? Absolute devotion to God. Absolute. Imagine the devotion that someone has to their to work into their health. There are people who all day, all night, all they're thinking about is their health, right? There's nothing wrong on the contrary. I know some rabbis who go to the gym, right? But it's very important. We're obligated to preserve our health. But then there's a very fine line between preserving our health and idolizing our body. Where now it becomes, it's, you know, I don't want to get into other cultures that used to, they used to idolize the body. It was all about the human body. It was all about the physical aspects of, right? We don't have to get that far. But what's that? Yeah, let's not go there. Let's not go there.

25:50Fitness, yeah, be healthy. That's one thing. But you can go take it overboard. And people who love luxuries, we mentioned this yesterday, they can take it overboard. And people who love vacations, they can take it overboard. They can, people in everything in sports, you have people who are just like sports, they're crazy about sports. And they can't miss a game, they can't miss a pitch, they can't miss a, what do they call it? Not a pun, they, one, well, you snap, a snap, right? They can't miss a snap. And then there are those who show commitment to Hashem, right? Is our dear friend David here? If our dear friend David is here, I want him, I don't want to embarrass him, but I want to praise him. He never missed a game on Chabas.

26:50He never, there you go, David, an Alabama game, he never, Alabama, right? Never missed a game. But then he started keeping Chabas. And he said, is my commitment to Hashem? Or is my commitment to my team? That's an example. That's an example of real commitment. I'm giving my most favorite thing. He said his family thought he was nuts. Are you crazy? You're gonna miss a game? You've never missed a game in your life. Who is my God? Is my God the game? Or is my God the creator of heaven and earth who commands me and his Torah to observe the Chabas? To give it all up. Such an, I'm telling you, you're such an inspiration David, thank you. Thank you for being part of our class. I'm in awe. I really am. It's an unbelievable thing.

27:51It's an unbelievable thing. It's someone's ready to turn over their whole world. You know that the mission, the Talmud says, be mocked and shabali chuvah on them, Sadikim Gimurim, enum yukhulim lamud. We're a, someone who is a Baal tashuvah, someone who comes back to Hashem, where they stand, even the most righteous and most pious cannot stand in their place. To change in such a way is the most enviable thing. A kid who grew up in a religious home, doesn't know what that means. They never had a challenge of eating a cheeseburger. They never, you know what I was always saying? I was saying, you know, I was like, I'm gonna come to hopefully to the heavenly court after 120, and they get to say, what did you low life? What did you do with your life? And I'm gonna be like, you're kidding me? Well, you know what I, I pass by McDonald's every day, and I never bought a cheeseburger. Where's my trophy? Like, what are you talking about? It was never a challenge for you.

28:52It was never a challenge for you. Well, you don't get reward for something that's not a challenge for you. Yeah, I grew up in a Shomer Shabbos kosher eating home, not a challenge. But for someone who grew up and has to make all of these changes, it's the most remarkable thing. The most remarkable thing. Don't underestimate the power of change. It's an unbelievable thing. Number seven, speaking of awe, our sages tell us, or our sadiya gohan tells us, the seventh reason for blowing the chauffeur is awe and humility. awe and humility. When we blow the chauffeur, we suddenly realize, oh my goodness, I'm just a little, I'm just a little speck on the screen. I'm one pixel on that whole big gigantic screen that has millions and millions of pixels. I'm one pixel.

29:53But yet, Hashem wants a relationship with me. I'm not so little. You might think you're a little, you're not so little. You're great. Hashem, he knows like, we think, how can I connect with God? God, omnipresent, God is the creator of heaven and earth. God can do anything. God has got a pretty loaded schedule, don't you think? You think God cares about me? And how can I, me, a little physical being here in Houston, Texas? How can I connect with God? God is everywhere. God is here. God is there. God is up in the heavens. God is down here on earth. God is everywhere. How can I connect with something that's so great? Plus, my fingers I can see. My car I can see. My house I can see. God I can't see. It's exactly how God wanted us to be in our relationship with Him. We think God doesn't know how He created us.

30:53He doesn't know the difficulties that we're gonna experience in our search for our connection with Hashem. There are so many tools in Hashem's Torah. Hashem gives us the guidelines in his Torah. You wanna see me read, learn, study, grow, connect, observe the Torah. That's how you connect with God. God says, you'll never be able to see me. But you'll be able to live with me. You'll be able to connect with me. You'll be able to communicate with me. God says to Mosheh, Fane la Yerau, you'll never see my face. But you can know that I'm there. And God communicates with us all the time. The chauffeur reminds us of that. It brings an awe into our lives of how awesome Hashem is. And how awesome we can be. Prayer, the fundamental principle of prayer is humility.

31:55Prayer means I'm not capable. I'm talking to you, God, who is all capable. Right? It's pretty simple. I can't do it. You can. I have to humble myself in front of Hashem. The chauffeur right before the prayer of Musa from Rosh Hashana is exactly the message we are trying to incorporate. We're recognizing I am limited. Hashem is unlimited. I am incapable. Hashem is all capable. Number seven. Okay. Number eight. The chauffeur reminds us of the day of judgment. We need to talk about judgment. Rabbi Basko mentioned judgment in the previous program. Judgment. Hashem is going to judgment. To me, the way I like to look at this is like this. I've said this many times before. You're walking into the boardroom.

32:56You're meeting your boss. Okay, it's your annual review. And now what's your argument? That's it. What's your argument? God, give me another year because fill in the blank. God, I want to have success this year because and you're like, because last year I was a stellar. Now this year I'm going to be even more stellar. Well, let's bring our case. Let's prepare our case. You don't come in front of a judge. Unprepared. With a defense, with an argument. Right? And if you're on the offense, you're going to come with a case. What's our case? Why should God, who's deciding on Russia, Sean, whether or not we will live or die another, this coming year? Why should he say yes? You're going to live another year. I'm going to give it to you. And I'm going to give it to you with all of the sustenance that you need.

33:57Right? It's not just I'm going to give you life. I'm going to give you everything you need for it. I'm going to give you the food that you need, the drink that you need. I'm going to give you the livelihood. I'm going to give you the children. I'm going to give you the success. I'm going to give you the blessing. I'm going to give you everything with it. So it's a big, it's a big pack, it's a big ask. Here, ask the boss. All he has to give you is money, right? The boss all he has to give you money. Right here, he has God's got to give you everything. It's a big ask. Why should God give it to us? Let's prepare that argument. And if we don't have something that we can pull back from this past year to say, God, look, I'm on a good trajectory. If we don't have that heaven forbid, say, in order, asham, Zae, Haiyong, Khilas, Maasecha, you in your Torah say that Rosh Hashan is the beginning of your creation. Today I'm a new person. So, new beginning, starting fresh. God, I just want you to give me a new beginning.

34:57Because this year I will be dedicated to your service. Maybe last year I wasn't. Maybe last year I wasn't on my best behavior. Maybe I didn't focus the way I should have. Maybe I didn't go to synagogue the way I should have. Maybe I didn't focus on what I ate properly. Maybe I didn't put on to fill in every day. Maybe I didn't keep Shabbat's properly. Maybe I didn't, whatever it may be. Maybe I didn't speak properly the way you command in your Torah. Shouldn't be under, under valued. There are 17 biblical prohibitions to speaking with genre. 17. It's not just like one Mitzvah, blow the chauffeur. 17 commands. Very powerful. Imagine you're standing with a bunch of friends and you're about to say a good piece of Lushon or about somebody. And you're saying, you know what? I'm not going to say. Do you know where you stand in the eyes of heaven? Ask anything you want from God.

35:59It's such a powerful thing. We sometimes undervalue our greatness. We undervalue the efforts that we put forward how precious they are in front of the Almighty. I have to tell you an amazing story. The ribbons are ever. He was one of the chastity masters. He passed away about 20 years ago. Very, very, very righteous man. Didn't have any children, Nebuchadnezzar. And he had a different kind of schedule. You know, there was none about the chastity masters. They didn't exactly go by day and night. They went whenever they felt emotionally and spiritually and physically ready to pray. That's when they would start praying. So he always needed a minion on call. So he turned to his God by at the four in the morning. I need my minion for my roof. For the evening service. He would go get nine people so that they would have eight more people so that they would have a minion.

37:02And the same thing happened with Slychos with the supplications that we recite before Shashana. Every day we wake up early. And you know, the ribbons were awake all day all night praying for people learning Torah. Suddenly a random moment, he tells his God, he's ready to start Slychos, he needs a minion. But only people who did not recite the Slychos. Only people who did not recite the Slychos yet, the supplications yet. Okay, he goes out, he gets the people, he gets the minion. They come into his little humble abode and they're about to begin and the rabbi is making his preparations and he turns around, he says, did everybody? Did everybody? Is there none of you who said Slychos yet? None of you said the supplications yet. And was like, no, none of us turns back around. It prepares himself a little bit more. Turns around, he says, you're sure none of you? Nobody, nobody said supplications yet.

38:03Nobody said Slychos yet. Like, no, we didn't, none of us. Rabbi sees it's not working. He turns around and he goes to one individual, he says, you're sure you did not recite the supplications? You didn't recite Slychos? He said, no. He says, I was in the synagogue. We were about to get started. I said the first three words. And then they called me in for your minions. I didn't say Slychos. He says, no, no, we need somebody else. You already said Slychos. He said, all I said was Lakhah Hashem Hagedula to you Hashem is greatness. That's it. He said, no, no, you already said Slychos. You already said it that a human being can feel the holiness of a person who just uttered three words in Slychos. That's it. Three words. We think like, oh, I'm such a bad Jew.

39:03All I did today was recite the Shema. You know, I had a friend of mine. We were talking about putting it onto fillin. He says, Rabbi, it's impossible for me to put onto fillin. Impossible. So why? He says, I'm a personal trainer. What are you doing personal trainer? So it's the big deal. He says, well, I wake up at the crack of dawn at four o'clock in the morning, right? And I work out with people to late at night. So he says, I just don't have the time. I said, what do you mean? He said, it just, it takes time. I said, what are you talking about? It takes five minutes. You put your to fillin on. You see the Shema and you take it off. Said, that's it. I thought it has to be the whole prayer after a state-universite from the beginning of the book to the end of the book. That takes an hour. I did say, you know, he didn't have an hour. You're right. Five minutes you do have. Five minutes to do a Mitzvah. You know what that change is? It changes us from human to angel. We feel like we're on a cloud of lofty spiritual connection

40:08with Hashem. By one Mitzvah, we recite one blessing. We read one verse. We underestimate the greatness, the love that Hashem has for our service. Number nine, our sages tell us that the in-gathering of the exiles will come with the blowing of the chauffeur. When Mishyach reveals himself and the Jews from every corner of the world come back to Jerusalem, it's going to come with the blowing of the chauffeur. Sezir of Sadia going. That ninth reason for the blowing of the chauffeur is we instill that prayer. God, this blowing of the chauffeur should be real soon where we can have the in-gathering of the exiles. Now think for a second, the power of such a prayer coming from us.

41:09Where we're sitting, I'll tell you, you know, I was just traveling a few weeks ago. I was traveling from the East Coast with my children. And as I do every single day praying three times a day, I can pray the morning service in Virginia and the afternoon service in Tennessee and the evening service in Alabama because we continue our drive, right? So we'd stop in different rest stops. And I would put on my filling and when you're on these little rest stops, they have these little gazeboes. So I would put on my filling there. My son would do it as well. We would dive in together, my daughter with the children. They would all dive in. You know, they would have breakfast. And then we'd continue on our drive. And I was talking to Hashem in my prayer and I said, Hashem, do you realize where I am right now? I'm in Knoxville, Tennessee and I'm asking you to heal so and so. I'm in, you know, Mobile, Alabama. And I'm asking you a prayer for this person to find their, their shiddah.

42:12And I mean, New Orleans, Louisiana. And I'm asking you, it's like from like the prayers not coming from Jerusalem. The prayers not coming from from Brooklyn. The prayer is coming from out of middle of no place. I'm crying to you from no place. Mima Maakim Karasi Hashem. I'm calling you from the depths, from the valleys, from where there's nobody else here. We are all wandering Jews in our wherever we go. And we have tremendous power in our prayer. Hashem, I'm reaching out to you. I'm here by the JCC. I need your help. I need your help. I had a guy came to my class once, to your friend of mine. He came to my class. I used to teach a class in congregation, Beth Rombam, every shop is morning. And he was a class on prayer. We do the partial. So the rabbi asked me, he said, can you please, after you've done the class, send them into the sanctuary so they can be part of the singing, of the prayers.

43:18They can be part with everybody else, with the congregation. No problems. I tell everybody, the rabbi has asked if everyone can go join in the sanctuary to be part of the end of the service. So this one individual tells me, says to me, rabbi, prayer is not for me. I'm done with prayer. I said, you're just a guy I'm looking for. Sit right back down. Right? He sits down. I say to him, what happened to you? Why is prayer not for you? And he says to me, I'll tell you. I'll be honest with you. He says, I come to synagogue. I find the prayer book. And all I'm doing the entire time is trying to catch up to where the Hashem is going. And I'm going to Peter, he said, by the time I'm done, I'm just tired. I'm worn out. I'm just trying to follow what the Hashem is saying. Like, what are you talking about? He said, that's not prayer. Is what? Is it not prayer? Prayer means you close your eyes and you open your heart.

44:21And you talk to God. That's what prayer is. Prayer, you need to be in a synagogue, you need to need a prayer book. You could be on the line at the bank. You could be at a red light. And you could be waiting to board your plane. You could be anywhere in the world and just talk to God, creator of heaven and earth. That's it. That's what prayer is. Prayer means I'm having a conversation with God. I'm talking with God. That's what prayer is. Wherever we are, we can talk to Hashem. We have the most powerful ability in the world with our mouth, with our heart. We just talk to God and God answers us 100% of the time. We can pray wherever we are and to not underestimate the power that we have to talk and communicate with the creator of heaven and earth.

45:23Such an amazing thing. This individual, I told us to maybe 15 years ago. Every time he sees me, he reminds me, says even at the red light I pray. He says, wherever I am I pray now. He says I had no idea. I thought prayer means I need to follow along with the Chazen, what the leader of the congregation, what he says and that's why I just need to follow along. Said, didn't realize that prayer was within. I can just talk to God. Wherever I am, it's such a powerful thing. You're dealing with the challenge. You're sitting in the waiting room at the doctor's office and you're afraid they're going to come and tell you, talk to God. Talk to God. He's listening. He hears every word. When we pray on Rosh Hashanah for the in gathering of the exiles, God hears us. God says, you know something? Those people out in Houston, they're praying for the in gathering of the exiles so that

46:25we are all reunited back in Jerusalem with the rebuild temple. Reason number nine for the blowing of the chauffeur. We want to hear the chauffeur of Mashiach. We want to hear the chauffeur that will end this exile. And finally, number 10, the resurrection of the dead. The sages tell us that the chauffeur will be blown. The verse tells us that when those who are already deceased will come to life again, it will come with the blowing of the chauffeur. chauffeur has a tremendous power because it transforms sound, not words, sound as a message to the Almighty. It's an incredible thing on Rosh Hashanah.

47:28We limit the words that we speak. In fact, if you look, there are many customs that people have on Rosh Hashanah. One of them is that people don't know chit chat on Rosh Hashanah. People limit the words that they use on Rosh Hashanah. You know why? We know what we do instead of it. We eat different kinds of foods that symbolize good tidings. We dip the apple in honey so we should have a sweet new year. And some say that you should verbalize that but you have to eat it also. You say he wrote something. You say specifically why? Because we want the food to communicate for us. Like we want the chauffeur. We don't need words. We need action. Rosh Hashanah is a time we're saying God. I'm going to let my actions speak for themselves. Not my words. My action is my blowing of the chauffeur. My action is dipping the apple in the honey.

48:29Eating the pomegranate. It's just like the pomegranate. It's filled with so many seeds. We should be filled with so many midsts, as we say. So many beautiful customs that we have in, if you look in the prayer book for the service that we have during the meal on Rosh Hashanah. It brings, it's really fascinating. If you have the wasserman edition on page 768, okay? Dipping the apple in the honey. Made be your will Hashem our God and the God of our forefathers that you renew for us a good and sweet year. Carrots. Carrots have to do with it. Shiaibus, Riyasano because the word of carrot means to increase. So what do we say?

49:30Made be your will Hashem our God and the God of our forefathers that our merits increase. You just take that word right there. The merits increase that our enemies be decimated, that our adversaries be removed, that our enemies be consumed, that the decree of our sentence be torn asunder, and may our merits be proclaimed before you. This is gourd and dates and beets and pomegranates that our merits increase as the seeds of a pomegranate. Fish that we should be fruitful and multiply like fish. And we eat from the head of a fish or the head of a sheep in our family we take the little gummy of the fish candy and the kids eat the head, right? It's more, right? The kids don't eat the, from a fish head, right? So I know that's also a band, right? But okay. So that we be as the head and not as the tail. The symbolism, why do we do the symbolism? For what?

50:31There's some who add raisins with celery that they should have a raisin celery. For others who add cinnamon, cinnamon so they should send a minimum, right? There are many things and you can do it and have a good time with it. Think of creative ideas because we want to symbolize that we're trying to put our desire into action. You wonder like what? Because you know, a carrot is to increase so we should increase. I mean, come on, really? Yes! We're trying to find every piece we can, everything. Be busy eating, be busy blowing the sofa. Don't be busy chit-chatting. Don't keep carried away because we're about to recognize on the day of Rosh Hashanah Hashem is the king, the king of the universe.

51:32Hashem is our creator. And once we realize that on Rosh Hashanah, we're ready to go into Yom Kippur. Because what happens on Yom Kippur? On Yom Kippur, we ask for atonement, for forgiveness. Hashem, please. I didn't realize that you were there. I didn't realize. I thought it was just me, so I sent. I didn't realize that you see everything that goes on. I didn't realize that. But on Rosh Hashanah, I just reestablished that. We reestablished the relationship. You're the king. You're the creator of heaven and earth. You see everything. You know my thoughts, you know my intentions, you know my actions, you see everything. You record everything. You know the Kha'vatschayim's granddaughter asked him why there was so much technology in his generation. The Kha'vatschayim passed away over 100 years ago. Right? There's so much technology. They had an ability to write a train that a locomotive. Wow! What technology? Kha'vatschayim said the reason why there's going to be more and more and more development

52:34of technology is because when a little plastic camera can see, people will suddenly realize, oh, of course Hashem can see. When your phone can record, you'll notice one second. Of course Hashem can record every word I say. When your phone can react, you can look across the globe. You can, I can sit there and talk to my children 8,000 miles away. Oh, but Hashem can't see us. And Hashem knows Bochent, Klyos, for life. Hashem knows our thoughts, our intentions. Kha'vatschayim said the development of technology will hopefully bring us closer to Hashem because we will realize if technology can work so well. Even more so the creator of heaven and earth, what do you think? I've said this number of times. There are no inventions. There hasn't been a single invention since the creation of the world.

53:35There's only been discoveries. It was always there. I was explaining to my daughter, my four-year-old daughter. She was asking me, how does the phone work? How does the phone work? So I was explaining to her, trying to explain, I wasn't going to get into the technology part of it because I don't know it. I don't understand it myself. But obviously it's a miracle, right? What's the miracle that we have sound waves? I said to my daughter, here, you're sitting across the table for me. How do you hear me? How do you hear me? Because you're talking. I said, yeah. But my words are here. My sound is here. How does my sound get to your ears? It travels through sound waves. Those sound waves are how we're able to communicate. I'm able to sit here in Houston. In many of you, not only Alabama, other places are Brizoria, Texas. I see other places, right? Tascacita is that, right? Unbelievable. We're able to communicate people on Facebook, on YouTube, on Twitter, on LinkedIn, on all these other places, are able to hear.

54:36How? Oh, but Hashem doesn't know how to communicate. But Hashem doesn't know how to see what's going on in this world. It's a reminder. Every single day we need to be reminded. Hashem is the day we can infuse our entire year with the kingship of Hashem. Hashem should bless us all. We should merit to have the most incredible Hashem and that every blow of that chauffeur should awaken each of these ten things. And if you're able to think of more things, send your messages to Hashem through these prayers. I always tell people before we blow the chauffeur, close your eyes, stop what you're doing. Just contemplate what is your message for God? And then we can blow the chauffeur. Meditate for a moment. Think I'm about to send the most powerful message to the Creator of Heaven and Earth with the blowing of the chauffeur. What's my message? What is my message?

55:38And the message could be a plea of Hashem. I want to be closer to you. I want to be closer to you. Last year I took a good stride. I want a bigger one next year. I want to do more. I want to get closer. Remove the barriers. Remove the limitations. And sometimes the limitations we create for ourselves. Idea friends, we should be blessed with an incredible, beautiful new year. Amen. Shannato Vattu. You've been listening to Rabbi Arya Woli on a podcast produced by Torch, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. Please help sponsor an episode so we can continue to produce more quality Jewish content for our listeners around the globe. Please visit torchweb.org to donate and partner with us on this incredible endeavor.