Thought for the Week Nitzavim Vayaeilach, Year end Diagnosis & Empowerment Rabbi Yaakov Winner 5784

how is everyone I hope everyone is how are you I hope everyone is healthy strong and happy physically and spiritually today excuse me it's so we're standing within a week of r and as usual we have to understand the connection between and this and what's the message that's relevant to our lives right now and as usual I would like to demonstrate how illuminates every single aspect of T and takes it to the next level completely and what we'll see today is there's which says is such a Godly um knowledge how lowly man is and how high he could reach I don't if I mentioned it I'm right now to come to the I'm in and I wish everyone to have this to be part of a large Jewish Community together the more you're together with others the greater the blessings so this is the idea to show the Paradox how on one hand you should be honest and true to who you are and where you're holding and the other hand to realize always the Redemptive angle there's no limits to how high you could reach since the war started we gave so we're adding right now we're going to start with the prayer after the and this is that we all staying these days and the first of I'm sure we probably mentioned this before is [Music] is my light and my salvation Whom Shall I Fear Hashem is the stronghold of my life from who shall I be frightened so the is and theb explains in many places we start off with the first you have to see the light you have to have Clarity there's two levels there's one level where sometimes you don't know the distinction between right and wrong and what's good and evil then there's another problem even after you know what's the right thing to do sometimes you don't always have the strength to carry it through but first you have to be able to distinguish distinguish between right and wrong so this is the request the first thing is that we should we should see and understand have the clarity to know what's right and what's wrong that's the first request once we have the then could be then hasem could help and then you ask for the help to be able to carry through that once you know what's right and what's wrong to do the right thing and not to do the wrong thing so the PK we'll focus on today which is a very famous PK and last shabas was so from the on a now first of all since this is the last shabas of the year so we could say in general the conclusion the sum total of comes down to this shabas so this is the time we have to make a reckoning so it's a very important shabas when we have to make a reckoning of the sum total of what happened in the previous year and to prepare ourselves for the next year so it's very similar to what we're reading about in the pases is passing on and he hands over the responsibility so to speak to Yeshua as a leader and he speaks about the future so the PK is talking about first of all there's a message of empowerment twice the PK says over here about kak to be strong be strong and courageous and then he repeats it again when he speaks to yeshu be strong and courageous so that's a message of empowerment my friend you're going to face a future and the future might include a Road a rough ride so be strong and courageous so that's what mha tells the yid and he tells Yeshua and he tells of the times where the Y are not going to be doing the right thing and thinking about the past year and we're not giving Hashem any excuses but the reality is that you could say that it says in the and it says says I will conceal myself there will be many troubles and then the P says Hashem says I will conceal my face in that day that's what the says that's Capal I will surely hide my face on that day I'll call I will surely hide my face that day because of whatever okay so here there a famous famous T of the B and we're going to speak of first the the which on the one hand shows how reveals the loneliness of man that a person has to be aware of his true condition and then will show how takes it to the next level completely so first of all the said on this verse that double concealment what does it mean a double concealment a double concealment means they not even aware that you're in the darkness that's how bad the concealment is there's one level of concealment that there's Darkness then there's another level of concealment that the person is not even aware that he's in darkness and he thinks that the darkness is light and in a certain sense by the way you you can say many people have this discussion about our days and our times and you could say that the world in general if we look in history we're making progress life is much more easier there there's rules there's human rights there's crimes against humanity there's no more slaves and all these things is is progress that's true but on the other hand and now's not the time to elaborate on the negative the problem is that some as we see the situation right now where Israel is fighting terrorists and we are considered by the majority of the world as the bad guys so in a way in that way it's worse than ever before because in the past at least what was Black was black and what was white was white but today we have a situation that the world looks at White and calls it black and the world looks at black and calls it white and in that level of of mistake never existed before to such a degree as it is right now so that's the it's a double concealment that don't even realize what the situation is and this is the main thing which prevents a person from Improvement in general is his own bias this talks very much about the idea of AAS because because a person has an agenda and he has a bias so therefore he doesn't see the truth about himself what can we say that's why like we recently had a person usually cannot see the truth about himself because he has a bias so someone who is low does not see the truth about himself how low he is he needs a friend he needs a mentor you need a third party an outside party to be objective to be able to see the truth and this is the first step of salvation of healing of growth of improvement you need to get a correct diagnosis and with the correct diagnosis then you could move forward that's the way it is and to be able to receive a correct diagnosis if you're a mature person you appreciate it you love it I think we've spoken about this many times anybody who has any dealings with with tests and medical tests and just recently before I came to the re I had a couple of tests for whatever reason in any case every time you take a test it's because there's a reason you're taking a test something's wrong something's bothering you the order of the test and then you're worried what's going to be the results of the test all results should be positive but the point is you got to get to the bottom of it why do the doctors order tests because they all say the same thing without getting to the bottom of to know precisely what's wrong we can't really help and the same thing is true in every single one of us and I'm talking to myself has to look deep inside himself never to fool himself one should never fool themselves and think they're finished I once heard a good saying once you think you're finished you're finished so you have to be able to look at yourself self-examination with honesty and then realize where there's room for improvement and work on it I just heard just recently I heard from my brother abusa winner a musall that I never heard before in the name of the world world famous Mas from my Masia and my brother's mash my brother's 10 years older and he just told me a new ver that I never heard before and it goes together with this idea how you know the person who fools himself no matter what evidence he's presented with he keeps on continuing full himself this is what it means it's a double concealment one shot is the people are ignorant and they go in darkness in other words they're doing the wrong thing but a deeper shot is they don't even realize that they're going in the darkness and they continue going in the darkness so the mus that my brother once was about in the olden days when they would have a today it's not politically correct to call anybody M but I'm sure everyone understands the language this was everyone knows what a mish is so in those days you know there usually be one Mish to a to a city and they they couldn't afford to to to build an asylum or an institution that would house these M Mish so there was a city that not only they had one Misha they had two now what do they do to the they would tie the Mish to the to a tree because if it was a mild M so no problem we could have you know local not a problem people understood the guy's mug but sometimes the mug was violent sometimes the mug was out of control sometimes the mugan would cause all sorts of Havoc embarrass people do damages so would have to take the M they would have to take the m and tie him to a big to a tree so he would just be there but not cause any harm anyways there was one town one city where they were and they were tied to a tree at the center Main Street of this town and they're both tied to this tree and they're sitting over there standing over there and they're discussing and they're go they're getting involved with their favorite activity what's their favorite activity observing all the passers by of the town and making their observation so they're observing everybody and they're looking at first goes the town's mayor and one says to the other he's power hungry he makes all stupid decisions then the goes by the rabbi to the m says to the other he wants covet he likes honor he he doesn't know how to treat people properly no one likes him he should leave this town go to another town maybe be more appreciated then you name it the CER walks by the plumber walks by Electric walks by so one M tells the Other M about every single person that walks by every Passive by from the entire from the entire Community okay after they finish observing all the pass and they pass the verdict the final verdict each one's a m finally the other Mish that tells his friend but but but okay we came to the conclusion that everyone's a mish and us two are the only same people left I have a question please explain it to me we're the normal ones and everyone else is crazy how come we're the ones that are tied to the tree and not everyone else so this friend answers him it's a good question but I have a simple explanation and the explanation is there's not enough rope to tie up all the people everyone else so they decided to turn the tables they they tied us up that's what he answered his friend so in other words and then he says that they decided to tie the two same people me and you because there's not enough rope to really tie up the rest of the world so we are the ones that get tied up so you see what it means that the person is living a lie he's living a mistake he's misguided misinformed and then based on this misinformed misguided he goes deeper and deeper down the hole into the darkness into the mud and this is what we have to ask from the enlighten me it shouldn't be a that I shouldn't be aware of whatever flaws or limitations that I have because if I'm not aware of it I'll never improve so that's the first that's the the and that's the first thing we learned from this PK and which is a message for us at the end of the year let's look deep inside ourselves to be able to correct it so that next year should be better than this year in our growth which is the whole purpose of our life is to constantly go what's the second so we'll understand it based on the famous gim in Milla where the gim says listen to this the name Esther Queen Esther in the story of the Milla where did we learn out that name from from this very what's the profundity of these words so the Reb explains in on put him that with this gim we see the whole Paradox the whole profundity of what PM is all about and it lies in these words itself that the PK says I what is in the concealment the very highest highest highest level of Hashem isn't that very Darkness but when you realize what's the purpose what's the objective of the darkness and that even in the darkness there's this angle this aspect of redemption and you connect with that and you get in touch with that and you access that then you reveal the whole point of the h a and then it's not a concealment in the end but in the contrast on the contrary the darkness itself illuminates so what does it mean and this is the idea one second and this is the idea of the to teach us that this is the concept of purm as we all know that the whole idea of the nest purm is that it was a miracle that wasn't clothed in nature number one number two that hashem's name is not written in the m so again when we say that CHS an a loneliness that such a level the Milla Milla say is a lower level than the other and therefore H's name is not written according to on the contrary now's not the time to get into it I'm sure we spoke about it many other times we're dealing with a level we're not dealing with levels of light we're dealing with the essence of hem hasem alone just like we see in the there's the word I am the Lord your God and we say is higher than is higher than higher than the names of the names are label the names are Revelation the names are a level but it's not the essence of hem is the essence this is what it means over here you should realize that in the is the essence of Hashem himself the highest level and this is the story of Pim there's an aspect of P him that's higher than any of the other it says all table be this battle but put not there's an aspect of hashem's true ultimate Infinity which is revealed in the story of p and the Reb explains in the over there that in the words millas Esther we see this Paradox the word Milla also is connected to the word Gil so what is the word millas es mean millas the Revelation coming to the the ultimate Heights the highest highest level which is the from the worst situation which is the lowest of the low and the ultimate Darkness becomes transformed and we see that in that Darkness was the essence of hasm himself that's the message of Pim that's the message of the words M and that's the message of the for example the situation that we're in now if we make was a terrible situation it's almost a year never in the history of since Israel was founded have we been in such a not only because of what happened in October 7th that we was 1,200 that's one level of but the H situation every single day since then this entire year and right this second save the hostages right now Mah should come right now so we're in a situation with the entire enre year there's been this situation of that never was before and this is what the situation is now but there's an element where at the same time that we're crying out about this we're also realizing that there's going to be Miracles any second now Miracles that there were never were before because there was never such a descent you needed there's going to be the greatest greatest Miracles coming and it starts with each and every single one of us turning to Hashem himself and realize that there's the in the and telling hasem it's enough of the H we're crying out to you please reveal yourself with the greatest greatest greatest greatest miracles in and we have to remember every sing single time in our memory The Six Day War the mipa war Whenever there was a massive of danger in the end afterwards the said that there were greater greater Miracles and these were the greatest Miracles so this is what we're waiting for right now but this what does it mean we have to turn to hem we're turning to you directly because we're going for not levels when you turn to with the essence of your heart as we spoke many times heart to heart when you cry out so that draws forth also the essence of hasem we tell hem we know it's all you but please make the transformation now in a revealed way and this is the connection to we once spoke about this before we say the re explains means returning to you alone I want you alone I want you alone we don't want to deal with bureaucracy we don't want to deal with red tape we don't want to deal with any officers we don't want to deal with any people that are management we want himself that's what it means and it's also the with you alone is forgiveness and there's a story that ran around just recently a beautiful beautiful story that just went around this week I'm going to repeat it that in the time of right before the outbreak of World War II there was a um England made something which was called a a Kinder transport they tried to save as many Jewish children that they could and 10,000 Jewish children were brought to England the United Kingdom from the surrounding countries these 10,000 children Jewish children were put into faster homes and schools and Farms one such Child by the name of barl garter we told this story many years after World War II that he was a child one of the kids from the Kinder transport and he was in one of these schools and he was told that King George was going to visit their their Town their city and they would give strict instructions they have to be dressed in the best and be at the best behavior Etc anyways so came the day after they prepared themselves and there barricades and the procession and Royal and respect everything connected to a royal visit from the King anyways as the the royal coaches appearing and the Entourage and Convoy is coming along barl just started took a step back made a giant leap he jumped over the barrier and started chasing after the main car of the king himself and he started banging on the window of the car of the king anyways immediately there was security guards around it they pulled them off the off the car the car stopped the doors of the car opened and barl found himself face to face with the king and the King said I see you want to say hello barl looked at the king face to face he couldn't speak and he just burst into tears and started crying so the king said don't cry now we're not going to punish you and barl says your majesty please forgive me for banging on your door but I beg you please help me you're the only one that could help me and the King says how can I help you and the King says your majesty I am a Jew from Germany I was brought here in the Kinder sport but my parents are still in Germany and I'm so frightened about what might happen to them and that I may never see them again and he was crying sobbing uncontrol controllably the king said please write down he told his people around him take down the name of the parents and what where they live the address he asked the child and after he took the information the king looked at the child and he smiled at him and gave him a pat on the head and he said let's see what we can do anyways couple of weeks past barl thought who knows he might be in big trouble he's waiting to find out how was going to be punished meanwhile he a couple of weeks later he gets called by the Headmaster the principal to his office this time he thought for sure he's going to get it he's in major trouble anyways he comes to the office and the principal tells him you know what you made quite an impression on the king in fact he sent you a gift the Headmaster opened the side door of his office and standing right there were Barrel's parents what's the lesson of this story we are turning to the king himself you alone we're going to the top when we turn to the king himself the king is smiling and waiting for for us to just show up and pour forth show our love love and admiration to the king and then the king responds reciprocally to us and takes care of all our requests it should be this should be a Redemption of all the captives physically in is the greatest mitah the greatest mitah every single one of us is a in a certain sense because we're still in Exile and also every single one of us is a certain level of sh because of our and this is the request from [Music] the right now and the main thing is we should remember both sides of this paradise migas eser the idea that on one hand there's a concept of we can be in a darkness and we're not aware of it and we should be aware of it and look always to grow and improve but at the same time we should realize that our G our business is only with with the himself and therefore we guarantee that everything will work out in we just have to make the good resolutions and as the Reb said many times just from making the reol the resolutions it changes the reality chabab should fulfill all all our requests this mon of and everyone should be blessed in all areas of the life posting from the Your Man in the called chabas