Rosh Hashanah: Alive or Dead? - Rabbi Eli Mansour

[Music] this condition Umrah bought now a motivator vodka Alka dose suitor Abunimah Hashim the Rambam talks about the shofar son everybody's mind obviously the shofar is the centerpiece of Rosh Hashanah and the Rambam is very clear when he tells us that there is no reason for shofar because it gives it up Melek it's just one of those things that we do because God said to do it why do you take this odd instrument why do they blow these sounds that are non musical it's a hawk it's something that Bora Alam God Almighty instructed us to do we're obedient we do it and we believe that it'll bring us a sweetening of the judgment that being said if - everybody admits it's a hawk because they're not mythic and then the next line is however there is an MS and every rabbi gives their interpretation of what the shofar represents the Rambam no different what's interesting about the Rambam is that normally he doesn't offer opinions of reasons for the mitzvoth in the yada hosaka normally he leaves that visible in the bikini but i guess her mom didn't want anybody to miss this reason cause not everybody is perplexed so not everybody reads the more rare but the other how's that guy he knew everybody's gonna read it's a local book so he said I'm not gonna squander the opportunity that they should miss the reason that I believed your father is therefore he says it in the other has a cup I'm not mistaken it's the third Pittock of of the laws what's the reason he says the shofar is a wake-up call it's an alarm clock who do you mean let him wake up from your slumber those that have veered off the straight and narrow path that have got lost in what he calls have layalam the frivolity z' of this world the amusements the nonsense so the shofar somehow wakes the congregant up in order to remind him of his purpose of his goal of his destination the higher order that's what the Rambam says and I've been hearing this since I'm a kid so far as an alarm clock wake up that means everybody in this synagogue is sleeping they're not physically sleeping but somehow they're in a spiritual slumber and somehow when the shofar is blown it's supposed to take you out of it but I don't understand how why doesn't an ambulance siren do that why doesn't an alarm clock do that as well in the morning which is what it's the magic of this shofar that it wakes you up from that slumber it's another sound it's another noises another horn there has to be something deeper anyway that's why one of my main questions how to understand this and I'm bummed most of them is that the Imam is telling me that your father wakes us up and takes us away from our distractions Blair how allow the formalities of this world and brings us back into focus how does it do that there's something else I'm nauseous China starting then for the next 10 days we're gonna add four different lines into da me down it's integral that we say all these lines so clean of the hyeme and then we have me llamo cameraman Joe Harris una bella himemiya hyeme what of the hyeme I'm safer hyeme common denominator between all these is the word hyena I got to thinking we're asking for this and we're begging for this item called hyeme what is hyeme if you asked me last week before I prepared this - I know it I am is life physical life existence ie means you have a pulse you have a heartbeat your brain activity your bodily function and I don't have a problem with that we have to pray for life we don't have a guarantee on it we don't have a contract the landlord can evict us at any time and we've seen over the past year that many tenants are no longer with us of all ages of all groups so that reminds us that you have to pray for renewal every single Rosh Hashanah I don't have a problem with that I'm praying for physical life that's what I always understood hi Amos now I don't think I'm gonna change that opinion tonight because that's the fact I am his life my problem is is when I start opening up different pieces of the Talmud and I get into a problem for example one passage in the Talmud will say that the wicked - I am behind him even in their life the crime 18 the wicked while they're living are called dead now I have a problem my definition doesn't fit with that Gibara how could you be alive and dead at the same time I'm not a doctor I'm not a professor I'm not a scientist but see that you relied or you dead I don't work for the I'm not gonna be shy either but you either relied or you dead but the game on that says no not necessarily of course to get mad always has a different way of looking at things in the game others view point you could be alive and dead at the same time and in a shop while he has bodily function and he has a pulse and he's clinically alive but the hemorrhage says for practical purposes he's dead and then the game Allah says the other side the flip side that it's Sadiq even if there is dead well he's still considered alive said they keep him eat at time the claim hyeme that means he's buried underneath the ground he's in shrouds there's a tombstone but the Gomera says nothing to worry he's alive ask a doctor listen he's dead even though I'm like a de chartres says he's dead in that case but the camera says no not so fast you might have to mourn him but rest assure is alive so therefore we have to go back and start to try to understand redefine our definition of what is life because once we figure that out then we'll figure out what we're praying for what is life but the game around bitsa you're Muhammad SAW says that the rabbi's once made a comment about the Babylonians highly bubbeleh artificial air they called the Babylonian step scene how would you say it Depeche I guess a fool and imbecile probably more coarse words but you know what it de pecheurs it's not flattering they say these Babylonians at the team why they team the a clan nahama be nahama because they eat bread with bread not to show what that means but the rabbis criticizing the people because of their diet because of the menu fools they go to a restaurant they order a bread sandwich now I'm not gonna have my you put bread in bread the weeds weeds a bread sandwich well if that's the case in every American is it depeche all our sandwiches a bread and bread piece of bread on top piece of bread on the bottom person has a bagel on Sunday morning huh honey I'm Mary Kay a tip shy now I'm happy to have my have a bagel the bagels bread with bread I'm happy now about I mean all the sudden the rabbi's are getting involved in such trivial things you care what the Babylonians eat now I've been Amma what were they worried too much carbs what was the issue I once saw an interpretation although it's a famous interpretation every rabbi talks about this Gomorrah and says their interpretation but the most a sound and the most famous probably that said by all the harsh a meme of note they say it like this Nobunaga ma is a ashcoff ah it's a philosophy it's not a diet robbers couldn't care less what they died it was but they are concerned that if they have a haschke fire of life that is borderline tip shoot what's - Godfather my bin Hammam so he asked a person why are you eating bread he says why I'm eating bread so I could have energy but energy full so I can go to work why do you go to work so I could have money to buy bread and then it becomes what we call a vicious cycle Hamad bin Muhammad's they eat to work and they work to eat that's their whole life they're caught into this sort of whirlpool but they just keep on spinning on a and a certain treadmill I can get off of it and if that's the case then many people fall into that Asafa of namib Adamo person eats its energy that energy he uses it in order to go to work he works not to get money so he has more money to eat again and he does this for 80 years until he can't do it anymore if that's the case the give - is anybody that lives according to that philosophy is it depeche so that tells me that there has to be something more than eating and working I'm not professing tonight that you should stop eating you have to eat nor am i saying that you should quit your day jobs you have to go to work but when that becomes the the essence when that becomes the purpose and there's nothing else in between so then we have a problem of tip shoot so then what do they want from us what else do they want so what I'm going to tell you tonight is really based on something that the ADIZ aisle said I hope I'm not overstepping my bounds meaning I hope I could explain it I know what I mean to say in my head but I don't know if I'll be able to express it properly see I - money out that easel says that there's a misconception when we say that everybody has inside of them an ishshah' mom well that's not a misconception but it's a part truth neshama is only one of five parts of the Jewish soul in school that I want to confuse us when we're young so they just tell you it's in the shaman but it's really more than that he says that the five parts are called nephesh Rua neshama hiya Heda or the way he refers to it as morality that anime nefesh rua neshama Danny says they come in to you these five parts at different stages of life when you're born you get nefesh that's all you have their fish is a very basic it's a minimum voltage just to keep the person alive but it's nothing to be proud of animals have nefesh also and their fish is just entry-level a baby is a little animal he just eats and sleeps and waste and then at 2 3 years old he starts to talk well then already he starts to receive an upgrade which is called revoir rue was where speech is developed but he doesn't get his neshama until he's bar Mitzvahed and i guess the girl doesn't get it till she's bat Mitzvahed it's amazing thing on the day of the bar mitzvah something happens to the child that means something spiritually he's not the same child that's why the mission one body high in the sauna candle says parent should spend oh he didn't say spend should make as lavish as a party on a bar mitzvah like they would make for a wedding because it's an unbelievable day it's the day that the neshamah comes into the child that's why the boy puts on the tefillin shall wash our ezel says that the neshamah is right here it's in the brain right by the cranium that's where they share my rests so the boy puts on the TV Dean as a crown over his neshama not you to show what the girl does I mean that's the maybe it's the pin on the wig or the clip whatever it may be but the point is so by the vomit so everybody has neuron neuron is nefes-kula shamah not everybody gets the less to hi Yonny okay da only said the Kim get doesn't mean you can't get it it's possible to get it as you'll see but it's rare high levels to receive these two layers upgrades haha and yucky down the faint of the youth if you remember when we were young used to see guys wearing a chain and they had a high on it I guess because they didn't expect to get the high on dat da so they just were on the chain that's as close as they got the higher you down wearing the high anyway that is our then goes on to say and this is the key then that Andre is part of you it's not visible it's odorless it's there's no weight on the scale but it's spotted you what's inside of you and you need to nourish it then that outlay needs to be nourished and if it's not nourished if it's not fed so there's a part of you that's not aligned and that's what they're talking about when they say that you have an a Shou can be alive and dead they mean his physical part is alive but since he neglected is not on the play I don't know you feed it yet but he didn't feed it whatever it's supposed to eat so it's malnourished so as a result it's dead where is the Siddiq even though he might not be physically alive but so long as he sustained is not a delay over the years that will remain forever so now I'm learning from this Ivy's out that there's another part of us there's two things there's the physical being and as the spiritual being and the spiritual being is real and then it's gonna be depending that if you're just an aha bin hamad I or June we're not interested in the inside is interested in eating to work and working teaching you're not interested in what's going inside of you so that I'm ready you have no life life is defined by the not under you in tourism and the more that that is you know sustained did the moral idea only problem is that he's sustaining so he tells you only one way there's no supplement for it there's no vitamin for this there's no shake that they invented yet for than that Antley the only one waiters to were sustain nourish it and that's by doing what we call mitts vote interestingly enough mitts thought have five ingredients to them each ingredient goes to one of the parts of the neshamah it's important to know the five parts of every Mitzvah but I'm telling you now is basic the baby's height talks about it all the time the five parts of the Mitzvah number one probably the most important part of a mitzvah is the action I mean you could philosophize about it it's about all you want but until you do it you get no credit the Mitzvah needs to be done and once the Mitzvah is done says the baby's high that influences the nefesh the nefesh receives its sustenance from actions well I guess you're in a class now it's an action if you're awake I mean we do mitzvoth the men put on tefillin ladies light candles mcveigh we say the sioux castle or even blow so far all these are mitzvoth of my said the nefesh needs that without mitzvoth massey yacht the nefesh is malnutrition the nefesh is scurvy the never fish becomes anemic i cannot go into this tonight but once a nefesh is malnutritioned that ezel said it turns into something else because nefesh is uh it's it's it's it's the lowest level and if you don't make sure that it has the right spirituality it it turns rancid and he says it turns into what's called the Gemara calls it the wash too through astute is the root of all sins so you have to make sure to do a lot of mitzvoth to keep the nefesh sustained however what about the other four parts well every Mitzvah also has a verbal part to it the verbal part of mitzvahs key most let's what haven't been aha before we put our talent if you let me say but i car ladies make a better car before they like candles go to the mcveigh or before they take allah we make a better car before so far every Mitzvah has verbal I understand you're gonna tell me rabbi what about them it's what that don't have verbal no but I found that'll be mitzvahs America if my father says son go get me a cup of coffee there's no better time keeping with that Byam there's no better counts in that car for example Jim its father you've said that car but there's no verbal but the mitzvah needs verbal I always that the question why is there no better concert that kind certainly a few years ago I figured out the answer fellow came at our synagogue poor guy I don't judge him he's a poor guy any company's rabbi could you help me and you know I don't have too much in my pocket had a quarter and I gave him the quarter took the coin throw it back in my face he's had him come all the way over here for a quarter I said it's fine but you answer the question now I know why you can't make a bet I can send a car cuz if I would have made it better come Birds nuts in that car and now you threw the quarterback in my face now it's a better caliber tala so the rabbi's understood that there's gonna be here you know the there's no refund sometimes they give it back anyway what are you doing that case so the finish hi says and that is our rights in as well in such a case when there's no better cut you should say the pursuit of the mitzvot on the way to giving your father mother the coffee is a committed I will have a tea maker that will feed the rule when you pay your work and you say be your Morty 10 Sakura that feed the rule ah now I understand some of you are saying rabbi I'm not an expert to know the past sukham every single bits van the Torah so what am I supposed to do so the banished right offers another advice he says you should say the last pursue craft a dim sad day in the 90th chapter of the team the final pursuit over there it says be he know I'm I don't know you know and they know Marcia Denikin an ally no Marcy I didn't call Daniel Phenom before we do mitzvah Savior he no harm and then the rule is sustained we start three more parts well then you have the neshamah what clearly you know what part of the mitzvot and Shamas the camera says mitzvah below Cabana key goof below neshama so the Cabana is related to the neshamah Cabana means intent in fact is very simple by the way instead of doing them it's vote mechanically or robotically or you know in by routine or wrote pedestrian the way to do the Mitzvah is just have a little cabana and the memorize understood that our attention span is limited so they said in the army now for example 19 but I thought you don't need covenantal 19 I just need to come around the first paragraph that's difficult to know and they said in schima you don't need coming out all three policy oh just in the first two lines Jemma and Volusia that's Cabana and that feeds the neshamah so again it's possible you can do a mitzvah but if you don't have come on at the mission I will never get sustained the receiver goes hungry then it share my starves and where is pioneer a document well hiya that is all rights is the deeper cover note not for tonight but all of you know that every single month I has deeper Cabana this game add to your dissociative odds of it evolved as mysticism those people that have deeper understanding of a mitzvah they're able to sustain a fourth level so we got the action we have the verbal we have the Cabana we have the arid Cabana what's left well we start one part of our nation are called da da but there's no more parts of them it's my left actually that easel says there is one more ingredient left which after the action is the most important part as a matter of fact he says it is this ingredient that brought that is out there highest levels and that of course is the attitude the joy of doing a mitzvah attitude during a mitzvah is key mitzvoth must not be like a heavy luggage that we carry to the airport burden attacks a yoke mitzvoth have to be light mitts won't have to be exciting this would have to be a source of excitement exuberance vim motive motivation let's both have to be done happily somehow that's the five parts now if you do might swap with some heart you'll build your Yeti down and you'll get that most elusive part of the neshamah once I heard about this idea I understood now that it's possible to be alive and that at the same time and I started to realize that life according to these understand is these rabbis is on the inside not on the outside outside is now been a hammam but we know what it says man does not live by bread alone man must live by mitzvoth Christmas food are gonna feed the inside of him anyway there's another pursue the pursuit says the attempt they became pardon I adore him high in quality my young they told us in school that Timothy became but the writer him if you attach yourself to God you will get life well I definitely want life but I do not have any idea what that means to attach yourself to God but the rabbi's knew what they were talking about they saw difficult how do you make difficult to God I could hold onto my sunglasses I could hold onto this phone I could hold onto this record it's tangible but how am I supposed to be Davich in something that's I can't see no difficult wait how could I be that vague but they say well if you could figure it out and be you benefit because you're gonna get life because they've Akutan - it brings life well I'll tell you very simple with the Zorica - lights difficult and ashame means doing mitzvot when you do a mitzvah you're the victim ashamed how does this all know this the name of God is you'd give up here you'd kept asking mitzvot well the last two letters of mitzvahs vodka not bad two out of four would it be nice if there was all four letters but then it's valued came out to be the same word but sisters Laura says no Mitzvah actually through magic we can make the moment that sadly are you in the head no you can't how could you do that well using the system called at posh I know I'm a limited on time you know there's different formulas how to make the Hebrew alphabet one formula is every time you see an Aleph you can exchange it for a tough and every time you see a tough you can exchange it for an Aleph at bash you take the second and the second to the last it goes like this at bash girl doc hats vath zap should I continue has tan yam you got the point well a quarter system a bad patch I didn't invent it Kabbalah talks about it as well well in app bus system a man is transferred an exchange to be healed and that sadly is exchanged to a head so basically if you add passed amendment that suddenly you gotta you'd care so basically Mitzvah is you vodka that Timothy became but don't I innovation when you attach to the UK basket or aka Matt's VAR then you have life where is that life under neuronal a life on the inside and that's what we're asking for when we're asking God ie ie ie it's that life the life that connects us to God not the superficial life on the outer now granted you need physical life for this to work but the physical life is only a means that we can satiate the inner life so basically all this time that by mentioning hyeme in the prayers we have to change our mind we have to change our focus so they tell you oh this your father will do it that's what it so far comes it that's what how the bomb comes in it says all and take out the magical instrument and take out that instrument Regina and it's gonna change your old perspective and I asked you at the beginning of the shoot how and I'm telling you now that the morale as well well if I had to give a speech on nutrition I'd probably give this speech you focusing the congregation all the workaholics that we have all the bread the bread sandwich eaters I would try to refocus them but better than that would be if I could show them something that they could see pictures a thousand words so it was better to see it than to hear it the zora kadosh always introduces its words with Taha'a ii they came around the other day and says hey mom well Taha'a is always better than Tashia mom see it well here's the story that i would like if i had to put on a skit on rosh hashanah and had some actors and I wanted to impress this this theory on to the students of the congregation I would say well I need some actors okay who volunteers you will have to be you're gonna be a de MIDI Shawn okay fine I'm buddy Shawn well you need somebody has to play God okay somebody play God I'm the president of the congregation and then the event no other rabbis not anyway you have rabbi what do we have to do what's our script very simple god you're gonna create Adam grab Mike wiskus simple question why are you putting on the skit today because this is the anniversary nor soon as the anniversary of this event God created Adam money Sean on Rosh Hashanah so we want to put on a skit beautiful what do we have to do and then we just lie there and God takes the dirt and he forms a but Adam is still dead Adam is dead at that point he has no life and then God performs what we call not mouth-to-mouth resuscitation but mouth to nose resuscitate what's that resuscitation mouth-to-mouth resuscitation I guess he susat AIT's him to the first time and he blows into his nostrils and over sudden anomaly Sean is alive what did he blow into his nostrils that he didn't have before that ezel says not on me he blew into five pots and once he blew into five parts boom I doubt many shows animated he's alive that would be the skit that I would put on lotion and what would be the message that I'm giving the congregation you see until Adam had his inside he wasn't alive so the hyeme is on the inside not on the outside but guess what the thought I said leave your actors home leave your script home and leave all your drama home because we're gonna do it for you it's built into the system we have eight okay yeah the battle to ki he's gonna play God and he takes the shofar and all of us in the congregation are gonna play Adam the morale says when he blows the shofar we're reenacting when God blue in the Nalanda entire demolition so when the token hoof that's the he Popov and at that moment over there we're woken up the show father wakes us up because we remember that event of the blowing of the spirit into Adam and then that I Bob says that's the alarm clock of the survived that hollow instrument we blow the air into it and at that moment the sort of Kadosh is God at the same time blows as well another spirit into the band this is okay take two take 22 take 52 take again start again knowing that I hey is blown in and we're able to start again the new year so actually this whole speech is the shofar that's the function of it that's the purpose that's what wakes us up it moves us away from Hadley Howell now from the nonsense of this world it reminds us of the mitzvoth of a higher order last but not least and then I'll call it a night although this is this is a short version of a very long talk but will have a will have a sequel another night my conclusion is Johanna who talks about the laws of shofar in the laws of shofar tough hoof pave of it might be safe you'd bet over there he gives a strange halaqa nobody will aver surround by this question but Johanna who discusses it himself what's the law if a person blows a shofar within a shofar I mean she has a surefire takes another joy puts it in the robot and he's blowing now or so far in a shofar now we don't have that case we took care as a hard enough time blowing one shofar let alone to do this you know this circus trick of blowing a shofar within a Jovan I mean our tokaiya also has a year it's not a patent method because I think everybody figured it out as well as I did that he struggles in the beginning thing to get a sound down but then he takes to shofar and he turns it over and he starts to bang it that's his way of saying it's the shofar asfalt you know it's a fuzz broke it's not working up there you have to bang it anyway what is this business so Moran says from Honolulu says well it depends when you have a shofar with an issue of odd it's culture if if the initial fun extends outside both sides of the outer surface if the inertia but extends out on both sides cash aired and I miss it's a question what's the message behind this a lotta nobody will ever ask has to be a message Johanna Luke is telling you everybody's made up of two shofars there's the outer shofar that's the body and then you have the inner so far that's been around for you everybody's a shofar within it so far and then what's the attitude well if you're in nahama been a Hama if you're a bread in bread sandwich either so then clearly your body extends it's your body that has the extension it's your physical that's the primary but for it - because share for the Jew to be kosher his inner shofar has to extend out which means that's where the priority must lie that's where the the focus must be the inertia pharmanex extend on both sides which means that's where his focus that's where his energies must be spent and if that's the case then it's got shared my blessing to the those that are here tonight smell what cultural father like to hear the shofar but to understand it mr. far tells us a story to understand the story of the shofar the very power of the blowing of the neuron and the reminding of us that were more than just physical and then visitation will be fulfilled the pursuit on all of us without exception that Timothy became Madonna you'd cave our K means Mitzvah the five parts then hyeme could ahem young amendment you [Music]