0:00 / 0:00
This outdated Rosh Hashanah tradition can enhance your relationships
47 views
The Talmud discusses an extinct High Holiday tradition, but it's message in human connections is timeless.
Comments(0)
Transcript
Auto-generated transcript. Not time-synced to the video.
I learned a powerful lesson what if I
approach the situation from a
perspective of confidence and confidence
is sometimes a good thing and we like to
preach confidence be confident but what
if I approached this situation from a
perspective of confidence and I imposed
my confidence on
him what would I have been doing I would
have been isolating
somebody essentially from me but really
from for for no reason he thinks he's
doing the right thing and I'm
incriminating him
okay friends The Story
begins we are going to dip into a
different track date today to the track
date of rashash if you have the link
that I had sent this is track date
rashash
26b and then we're going to jump to
27A the part of the talm that we're
going to be reading today is actuallya
not
a is strictly instruct ual not uh
philosophical but as we'll see there is
philosophical and meaningful relevance
that we're going to dive into and unpack
unbury and what we're going to explore
is the tradition of how the chofar was
blown in the times of the Bas Mikes this
practice is no longer observed but it
was observed and what we're going to
explore is why and how that is relevant
to us today even though we don't have a
Bas M this we're not following that
practice but there's deep social and
psychological spiritual
relevance um that will influence the way
we understand our relationship with God
our relationship with
people let's start on 26a sorry 26b did
I say 26a 26b that's the link that I had
sent um it's the middle of the page
where it says
mishna mishna says to
so for for those um who are not
familiar um whether you're listening
live or not live the way the Tom is
structured is there is the mishna which
is the short bullet point
laws that had been ultimately
transcribed uh by the sages and then
there is the talmud which is
unpacking the application of the mishna
it would be like somebody's taking notes
and your notes are just bullet points
but now your children the Next
Generation got to read your notes and
they got to unpack it and debate what it
actually is and what does it actually
mean what is the application over here
and that's what a mishna is the mishna
is the short law the talud the gumara
will unpack the
mishna the mishna says that the
chauffeur that was used on rashash in
the temple was made from the straight
Horn of an
IEX okay and its mouth the mouthpiece
into which one blows was plated with
gold now Rashi over here points out that
why was it straight usually the chofar
we use on rashash we make a point that
it's
curved right that it's Ka it's bent but
in the temple the Mikes they made sure
to have a straight chofar what's the
reason um there's significance to both
there is value to being curved to being
bent cuz represents a level of humility
there's value to being straight to
having
Simplicity and apparently in the Bas of
the Simplicity is what we were shooting
for these days we make a point to have a
b CH far and the commentar is explained
because we want to express humility on
rashash Shana because it's a days of awe
but in times of the B mikash says Rashi
having that straight simpl direct simple
communion if you will with God was
something that was ofc value now when we
say the mouthpiece was plated with gold
it doesn't mean literally the mouthpiece
itself because then you're not blowing
it to the chauffeur you're blowing it to
a mouthpiece and it wouldn't be a kosher
chofar but it means the basically right
on the mouthpiece but in a way where
you're actually blowing into the chofar
not into an actual
mouthpiece the mishna then continues and
says there were two
trumpets one on each of the two sides of
the person sounding the
chofar the chofar would sound a long
blast
whereas the trumpets would sound a short
blast because the Mitzvah of the with
the chaar so there were trumpets being
sounded there was a chofar being
sounded but priority or prominence if
you will was given to the chofar because
that's really the Mitzvah of the day
okay the mishna then continues to to
discuss the procedure of blowing chofar
on other days other than rashash such as
other fast days uh
specifically um spontaneous fast days if
there was some sort of uh tragedy going
on um such as the Y the jubile year and
and stuff like that let's skip to 27A
please and we're going to count 12
paragraphs
down give me a
second the paragraph starts with it's
related that RAV Papa over there it says
RAV Papa R Papa Bara
um the reason why we're starting over
here up until this point the talmud
again is unpacking that idea in the
mishna the Gars unpacking that idea in
the mishna asks all sorts of questions
like how can you fulfill the obligation
of chofar if you have trumpets blowing
simultaneously the gamar resolves that
it wasn't necessarily simultaneous they
were taking turns back and forth there
were intervals and that itself is a
whole discussion but here's the main
point that we need to point out it's
related that ra Papa Mar well T thought
to act in accordance with the mishna
regarding the details of the chauffer
and the trumpets now again this is the
gar where was the gor
authored in
Babylon right in
B the Mish so so Rao tried doing this
but Raa said to him no no no they said
this only in regard to the temple so R
Papa opens up a mishna and says okay
let's do it rashash is coming up let's
get our trumpets ready
and R tells him hey the application of
that mission only applies in the B Mikes
in the temple does not apply outside the
temple this is also taught in ABA which
is an earlier teaching in what case is
this statement said only in the temple
but in the provinces anywhere outside
the temple the Hal is as follows
wherever there are trumpets for example
on Fast days there is no chofar and
whenever there's a chofar for example
rashash there are no trumpets
similarly established the custom inur
which is a location as it is described
in the mishna and so did RAB Bard
in and when the matter came before the
rabis they said that they acted this
manner only at the East Gates of the
temple and at the Temple Mount but not
Beyond what's the Reason by the way what
what is there where did they get this
from one of the things that t does is
unpack the context of the mishna but
also sources the mishna how do we know
this only applies in the temple that you
blow the chaar together with trumpets
and that it doesn't apply outside the
temple so let's take a look at the next
paragraph rava said and some say it was
rushu Ben
Ley right there's a debate in who
actually said
it what is the verse from which this is
derived as it is written with trumpets
and the sound of a chauffeur make Joyful
Noise before the Lord the King this is
what it says in
Psalms from which it may be inferred
only before the Lord the king in other
words in the temple do we need both
trumpets and the sound of a chofar but
in general outside the temple we do not
need
both okay so to
recap just real quickly the mishna
discusses how the temp how the chauffeur
sounded and it says that we use a
straighted chauffeur not a curved chofar
this is specifically in the
bikes outside the bikes in these days
common practice is to have a curved
chofar and we blow with two
Trumpets the talmud resolves that that
is only within the temple in front of
God in the temple itself outside the
temple we don't sound trumpets and this
is the Practical as well if you were to
open up the ram my man's uh compendium
of
Hal he writes that in the times of the
temple this is how they would show far
in these days we don't do it
anymore and our question for today is
why everybody knows chaar you blow the
rashash you blow the chaar we we know
that already but what is the Two
Trumpets have anything to do with
anything it's not explicit in the Torah
necessarily what is the purpose of this
practice now granted the practice isn't
relevant to us today on a behavioral
level because we're not in the temple
we're not going to be doing that unless
mhia comes and we attend services in the
temple but the Torah itself the premise
of my question over here is that the
Torah
itself is
eternal it doesn't mean it's
behaviorally Eternal not everything
applies everywhere but on some level
there's eternality is that a word
eternalness um help me out
guys on some level there is stability
okay I think that's the right does that
work eternality yeah I think that's
eternality okay we'll go for it we'll
send it okay let's do it on some level
or permanent permanence okay that's a
good one on some level there's
permanence to every instruction in the
Torah again not always behaviorally we
don't have a Bas in miklas right now and
then if if God forbid mashia doesn't
come before rashash we're not sounding
that that Chau far with trumpets but on
a spiritual psychosocial level there is
eternality to the message behind why we
would be sounding the chaar together
with trumpets and our hope in the next
few minutes is to unpack those
messages where do we know about the
making of trumpets that the Jewish
people are instructed to construct these
trumpets so if you look back in the Book
of Numbers B midbar chapter 10
God instructs Moses to instruct the
Jewish people to construct Trum trumpets
and there were different types of
trumpets some were
silver some were gold and while we're
camping in the desert this is the
Biblical context of trumpets while we're
camping in the desert sometimes we'd
sound one trumpet sometimes we'd Sound
True trumpets sometimes it was to gather
the Jewish people sometimes it was a
message of let's March forward let's
keep on going which makes sense you have
3 million people traveling in the desert
there's no communication system Jews
were afraid of PAG no I'm
kidding below the belt I
know pun in no pun intend
um but there's no communication
system so trumpets was a very practical
way to gather the Jewish
people um in fact the Hebrew word for
trumpets if you look back in the Mion
you'll see
it's what is the root word of
I just learned this yesterday I didn't
know this so there's a commentary on the
Torah authored in the late I think it's
late 1800s maybe early
1900s by RAV shim Rafal H ra shim Rafal
H was leader of the modern German
jewelry and in his commentary he's he's
very into unpacking the
ideology and uh of words
and he says that the root word of which
is a trumpet is the word
Courtyard because the whole role of
these trumpets was to create like a
courtyard was to create this court was
to create this Gathering was to create
this this
environment um you you see another
example of this by the way in this
week's
paraa the
par this is just a parenthetical point
but I think it's worth mentioning the
portion of which talks about the Mitzvah
of hak of gathering the Jewish people
once every seven years in the B mikdash
and the kohanim had to go out and blow
chofar sorry not chofar trumpets they
had to go out and blow trumpets golden
Trumpets the talud says any Cohen who
doesn't sound that trumpet to gather the
Jewish people listen to Cohen doesn't
count he's not a good he's he might not
be a Coen right he's he's not doing his
role by gathering the Jewish people with
trumpets is an integral part of
our of our
history of our of our
Traditions so I I don't know I'm
suggesting that on rashash Shana the
message of the trumpets together with
the chofar the chofar is a spiritual
wakeup call but the trumpets is let's
get together let's be one we're going to
be traveling together we're going to be
going on a journey together if not
literally if at least
figuratively but I recently read another
explanation what is the difference
between a chauff far and a
trumpet few hundred bucks no I'm just
kidding couldn't hold myself back what
what the
difference I just got it no the the
difference between a shire and a trumpet
a
trumpet has a motivating sound a joyous
sound right it evokes
Joy
chofar is more somber it evokes a
heavier sense of
emotion chofar is heavy it's emotional
It's associated with
reverence the trumpets are associated
with love with joy with
motivation you need
both right in Judaism you have the what
the Zohar calls the two wings of a bird
which is the love and the reverence the
love and the fear and in order for a
relationship to be sustainable you need
both of
these you
need you know you you need kind of this
Duality you need to be motivated by love
you need to be motivated by respect
relationships need love but
relationships need
respect which one is more
important I shouldn't say more important
where do you
start where do you start in a
relationship the answer is
respect you can't really love somebody
properly if you don't respect
them if you don't respect somebody I if
somebody doesn't respect somebody but
still loves
them it's very possible that they love
themselves they love the feelings that
they have they love the experience
they're getting but they don't
altruistically love that
person you can't love somebody Pro
properly I'm not questioning somebody's
feelings but I'm saying you can't
properly altruistically uh selflessly
love somebody if you can't accept them
for who they
are and that's very
tough you let let me phrase it this way
it's very hard to unite with
somebody without being able to take a
step back and give them a little bit of
space
first a little bit of distance first and
you have this structure by the way built
into
the mechanics of
relationships in marriage the Mikvah
laws are structured in a way where
spouses are together for a certain part
of the month and then give each other
space in terms of intimacy to give each
other space for a certain part of the
month that space creates a vacuum for
more love that's what the tud says
creates a vacuum to allow connection but
that connection requires space requires
respect requires
reverence so we have the chaar which is
the
refence we have the trumpets which is
the love and in the B Mikes both of
these were
highlighted but which one was given
Prime attention which one was given
prominence the
chaar right the the Miss if you look
back at the Mion it says that the
trumpets were short blasts the chofar
was a long blast because
mitv because the Mitzvah of the day was
thear the focus of
rashash is reverence is our reverence
for
god um which I think by the way is is an
interesting paradigm shift and how we
understand uh how we I was listening to
this comedian Jewish comedian he says
this Jewish New Year's it's like the day
after New Year for everybody else we get
up and it's like what did I do and
what's wrong and what we're
introspective it's like the day after
New Year's right it's like the day after
the secular New Year or everybody's all
introspective you know what happened
last night um Russia Shana does have a a
seriousness to
it because the focus of rashash
Shana is coronating God respecting him
as our King which inherently means
there's going to be space between us and
God Independence between us and
God ironically om Kipper is the day we
celebrate closeness with God Oneness
with God
to put it this way rashash Shana is
where we
celebrate or or yeah
celebrate the space between us and God
that has to be
filled with connection and oner is the
actual
connection but in order for that to
happen we have to be honest with
ourselves and recognize the distance it
might be an artificial distance but
there is some sort of gap between us and
God between Creator and
creation that's the
chofar that's
the that's this Duality between love and
reverence another
[Music]
explanation this is based off a teaching
from the mag
mzz he was the successor of the B so
this is going back to
the mid
1700s mid to late 1700s and here's what
he says you know what are that's the
Hebrew word for
trumpets he says it's a compound of two
words if you look at the Hebrew this
will be more
evident half an image or half a form
trumpets are half an
image so he says when the Torah says to
make to sound the to sound the trumpets
what it's saying is to activate a part
of us that only feels like
half and that we need to connect to our
other
half a Jew and God and by the way a Jew
and his or her
people has has to see themselves as as a
half we're incomplete we're missing
something um in in order to feel that
we're missing
something and to fill that Gap with the
right
thing it
requires it requires
B it requires humility it requires
B is uh is is
openness you know how I like to describe
it actually you know what it really
requires
curiosity because somebody who's overly
confident ends up being judgmental
because I know it all and I'm perfect
and what can I give you somebody who is
curious has a little bit of humility and
could say what can I possibly learn from
you
[Music]
the way I I read this recently from from
the Alba the author of The Tanya he puts
it like
this he says even if you are even if you
think you're at the
top you're the greatest sadic in the
world you're probably not but even if
you think you are I'm paraphrasing here
but he said something to that effect
even if you think you are you still have
have something to learn from somebody
else because the Jewish people are one
body of people even if you think you're
the head there's something you need to
gain from the feet that you wouldn't
have had on your
own now you might not even be the head
right we have to be honest with what our
role is but even if that were the case
we can't let no pun intended you can't
let that get to your
head we have to connect with everybody
every single Jew because every single
Jew and by the way this is a deeper
message than what it says in the Tanya
in the Tanya in chapter 32 of the Tanya
it says you have to connect with every
single Jew because we all have something
in common the soul where we have a
Common Thread that runs through all of
us and we're really all the same
internally externally maybe not but
internally yes over here at a different
teaching the Ala says it's not just that
you have something in common with other
people it's that they have something you
don't because we're one body of people
and the body is
connected and you're not going to have
two right arms or two left arms or two
left feet everybody's going to be
different everybody's going to be uh
completing this bigger body of
people and nobody's being
amputated we're all healthy we're all
necessary and that's true in our
relationship with each other as Jews
it's true in our relationship with God
where the trumpet's
the which is the trumpet translates
really as we just half the image because
there's another
half the mag mesich in this teaching
points
out that what was the trumpets made out
of there was different trumpets for
different occasions but these trumpets
were made out of silver the Hebrew word
for silver is CF in modern Hebrew CF
means money but in Biblical Hebrew CF
means silver CF has another meaning in
Biblical Hebrew
anybody
know CF means to yearn to
desire I I guess CF silver is something
people desire so
it's but this trumpet what oh so we we
always desire money so that's why it
became the word for money it's very
possible I I don't know that as a fact
but it would make sense right that
there's that
correlation um
the the
the the Curiosity or openness to realize
that there's someone else who could make
me
whole has to be done with love with with
a desire with a yearning not just out of
Duty okay fine I'll be open to other
people in my life no it has to be a
little bit more meaningful than that has
to be a little bit more genuine and that
it has to be with a yearning with a
desire what awakens that
level of
humility is the
respect the internal respect that we
have what activates that is the
chaar because the
chaar is
that cry of the soul that can't be
articulated in
words in other contexts inic literature
we might call this the of the Soul
there's different layers to the
soul soul has layers the human beings
have layers we have
layers um right what's the deepest
part of
us um the deepest part of you you know
what Dr Sue says nobody could be youer
than you except you um the deepest part
of you isn't just your feelings isn't
just the way you
think isn't just what drives you or
motivates you I mean all these things
can change right the deepest part of you
is the part of you that's
unchanging which is your connection to
God your connection to your
people and the sound of the
chofar activates
that activates that level of
humility that we all need to complete
each
other I I
I've shared this story before but I'm
going to share it again because I think
it's
relevant I think it's very
relevant I'll share with you two stories
Story number one is when I was running
camp summer camp and training our
counselors and I let them know
that um you know we have a policy in
Camp that the bathroom do the public
restrooms not not the Stalls obviously
always have to remain open because I
want a counselor to be able to just poke
their heads in make sure no bullying is
going on make sure no vandalism is going
on and if it is going on you know we
have to be supervising the kids every
moment and if it is going on then let me
know and we'll deal with it if a
bathroom door is closed the counselor's
never going to end up checking and it's
it's just it could be a safety
hazard um and I said there's going to be
that kid who takes the wet paper towels
and sticks it to the ceiling and you
know does all these things it's just
kids are
kids I said I got to know about it
especially that year we were running
camp out of a public school and it
wasn't even our own property and it's it
could have been
bad couple weeks in Camp a young
counselor runs up to me Rabbi Josh Rabbi
Josh the kid who's doing the paper towel
stick I found him my Sirens start going
off and I run to the
bathroom and I said and I I stopped
myself in my tracks like I was cuz I was
about to crack down on the kid I'm like
you know
what let's approach this a little
differently let's just let me calm down
and I said hey what's going
on why are you putting those paper
towels on the floor this is a
four-year-old you know try to get into
the perspective of a four-year-old
that's I'm I'm not even that tall but
you know I'm looking down at him he's
looking up at me he's says not everybody
can reach the paper
towels I want to put them on the floor
so people can come and reach
them now it could be he was lying and
trying to save himself and if he was
good for him because that was pretty
good I bought it right but but let's
assume he
wasn't um that's incredible but I I
learned a powerful
lesson what if I approach the situation
from a perspective of confidence and
confidence is sometimes a good thing and
we like to preach confidence be
confident but what if I approach this
situation from a perspective of
confidence and I'm confident that we're
not supposed to be putting paper towels
on the floor I am confident about that
and I impose my confidence on
him what would I have been
doing I would have been isolating
somebody essentially from me but really
from for no
reason because turning something
something positive into something
negative
he thought he was doing the right thing
right he thinks he's doing the right
thing and I'm incriminating him because
I'm confident that this is
wrong but I and I'm thankful I did
because I don't always do this but I try
I approached the situation from a
perspective of
curiosity of
openness and that invited me to see a
better self of this
person it invited me to see positive
intentions it invited me to learn
something that this kid is trying to be
helpful to other
people when we approach people not with
confidence but with curiosity and
openness which is I think code word for
B we're creating space in ourselves for
those people in our lives we're creating
space with for connection when we
approach people with
respect we're creating
space for connection because part of
respect is curiosity because curiosity
implies I don't know everything about
you and that you're you and I respect
you um I'll share with you one more
story there's a rabbi named Lawrence
Kellerman you can look him up on
YouTube really interesting speaker he
has great
talks and I was listening to a podcast
of him he was talking about
his journey
toward toward uh um embracing Judaism
because he didn't grow up with a strong
Jewish Education and a strong Jewish
involvement and later in life he ended
up embracing his Judaism and he ended up
becoming a rabbi and he goes around and
teaches and he's really interesting
guy he had some sort of degree in like
religion study comparative religion
study and and was well-versed
in King James Bible and the Quran and
all a lot of heretical things
which he thought as more just
academic um which by the way it served
him well because he has interesting
classes proving the validity of Judaism
from a perspective of social science and
comparative religion very interesting
Talks on
YouTube but he said he had met different
rabbis that he had a hard time
connecting with and many of them would
say you know you got to wash your brain
out
buddy and it I get where they're coming
from there you know you you if when you
learn certain things that are heretical
and that are not true and that are
antithetical to to objective truth it
could be harmful to our spiritually
harmful and they were honest with him
you know you really got to wash your
brain out before Eng engaging in your
Judaism but he met one particular Rabbi
which he had really connected with and
to this day still connects to his name
was Rabbi
WBY this Rabbi meets him and he says so
what did did you have study in
college and he's expecting to be a
little you know kind of reprimanded and
he shares with him what he had studied
and he says can you he says in in
classic
English can you share with me a can you
share with me a share with me something
new he said this information is somehow
going to help your Torah studies God
didn't send you there for no
reason maybe I wouldn't advise people
studying it but it happened
it's for a purpose and I can't wait to
hear a I can't wait to hear something
new and positive and how this is going
to shape your your understanding and
ability to share and actually teach
concrete
truth this Rabbi Rabbi WBY approached
them from a perspective of curiosity not
from a perspective of confidence a
perspective of bit respect and openness
not from a perspective of arrogance and
isolation that's the chofar that's the
trumpets there's more space because
there's more room for more connection
with more people connection with
God okay that's my story and I'm
sticking to it