Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb - Little Things Go A Long Way

[Music] welcome welcome to toriyushalaim 5782 tough shin pei bet shanatovac everybody i trust that you rosh hashanah was inspiring was uplifting i trust he had a meaningful tom dalya a wonderful shabbat shiva and here we are today in memory of such dear friends david and norma fund we stand here at toriyushalayim and we are ready for a day of inspiration we're ready for a day that's going to take us to the next level prepare us for yom kippur prepare us for sukkot and shimini prepare us for euroshmita prepare for chuva and ultimately make us better people i could tell you that the staff at ou israel has worked for months upon months putting together this most incredible schedule of remarkable speakers that are here today literally with one goal each and every one of you to make sure that you're going to stand on yom kippur just a few days from now and that your davening is going to be so much more uplifting because of what you're going to experience today to make sure that you sukkot is going to be so much more joyful so much more enjoyable so much more beneficial because of today as the executive director of ou israel i really have the unique privilege to stand behind the scenes and see my incredible teams working tirelessly in creative ways but what's so special about it is that you see them thinking about each and every one of you when planning each and every event and it's no different for to you shall i the experience that we have from the previous two years that we ran towards yushalayim also in memory of david and norma given us a wonderful flavor of what yom kippur could be of what sukkot could be of what our year could be when we take one day and just emphasize the impact that torah has on our lives i could tell you that when speaking to the rabbanim and the rabbaniyot the incredible speakers that you're going to have today and telling them you know we're planning yomyu toriyushalaim it's an easy sell it's an easy celebrity because they understand that tory you shalom has became become a wonderful and inspiring platform in which we inspire claudius film so whether you're sitting in new york now you shall emir kodesh australia england or anywhere else in the world we know your hearts are in your shalom we know that you physically want to be here and let's be honest israel is pretty empty without our brothers and sisters coming from around the world it hasn't been a couple of easy years the last year and a half have been not easy for any of us and therefore when we look back at what torah yerushalayim was the first year we were able to gather together in yusholaim we're making the best of it and being able to broadcast from yerushalayim to around the world reaching many more people than we would when we're sitting in yerushalayim the advantages of technology has have really brought us to a place where many more jews are being inspired but i'm standing here and not being and not able to give you a physical hug but i want you to know each and every one of you you are so dear to us and we are working day in and day out to make sure that the message from you the message of the o you in israel is being loud and clear he heard loud and clear around the world we at ou israel want to wish each and every one of you we want to thank each and every one of the rabbanim rabbaniot for taking out the time to give you shiurim today to make sure that each and every one of us are going to be better people thank you once again to the fund family thank you ou israel team thank you to all of our endless volunteers thank you rabbanim and wishing all of you to [Music] i want to begin by greeting all of you i'm speaking to you from afar virtually sitting here in hutzlares and wishing i could be back in herita's royal as i've been for the past many many years during the months of ello lentichri i can't think of any better way to begin speaking on the topic of chuva at this time of year during the yasares you may then with my favorite quote from rafcook rafcook as this audience probably is aware wrote a volume called odo satuva the lights of tshuva the lights of repentance of returning to the rebel shalom and of course in that book it's a small book but it's it's very small in quantity in size but it's very very deep and very very broad in its impact in the quality of his message but in the hakhtoma that's usually printed with the safer and the introductory remarks that cook makes about his motives for writing this book he writes about the importance of the topic of chuva how basic chuva is to the entire torah outlook and in his opening words he says that the importance of chuva is complicated because he mitzvah it's one of the commandments of the rebel shalom on the one hand chuva is the easiest thing of all to do it's so easy to do more says that if a person just contemplates he has a an intention a momentary fleeting intention you know i'm going to do chufa that's ready that's chuvagamura he said sadiq gamur with just hiroshima just thinking about it committing himself uh not even tentatively committing himself but committing himself to some extent and he's already he's done sure on the one hand carlos on the other hand it's obviously the most difficult of all the difficult mitzvos why you know why because nobody's ever done it no one's ever done it properly correctly and totally it has not been completely done in the world and in the life i understand that the meaning of the world at large and in the life of the individual person sochuva is easy but chuva is hard the fact that juve is hard is an excuse that we all use even at this holy time of year to resist doing chuva there are many psychological components to this resistance to this difficulty we have of really doing chuva yes we have intentions we have momentary uh occasions upon which we do do a breakthrough into chufa but the real thorough going shuvo we resist it for many in many many ways and behind this resistance lies many many emotions number one the emotion of shame we've all sinned we've all uh have not reached our our goals in life last year at this time we had various objectives we would do this we would do that we would learn torah more we would do more we would be kind of people we would control our anger we would at least diminish our discussions of rashonora of malicious gossip we had all these intentions but then you know sometimes we made it sometimes we didn't so we feel ashamed and that shame makes us i i'm not going to say i sinned rebellion i'm so ashamed of myself i'm afraid to do it i'm afraid to do chuba that's one motive the other motive we have is it's so difficult it's so difficult it's so hard to do chuva i know who i am i know my limits i know my weaknesses i know my eggs are horror it's so difficult to do true it's against this that the rebel muslim said to the first or one of the first sinners in the human race cayenne who killed havel and he stands before the rebellish loan the abolish shalom says to him you know we are taught tim shobo you can dominate over this yate zahora la pesa gatos rovates yes creates a horror of this tendency to want to do things which are wrong in your case to want to murder your brother it's it's that that that power it's a powerful passion within you a negative passion but you can control it the author shall you can dominate over it you can do it for one of the first words that three bullish love spoke to a human being you can do it but nevertheless we feel we can't do it and part of why we feel we can't do it is because we feel somehow this is not me i know who i am i'm a plain ordinary guy i'm not a big sonic i'm not a victim of joche i'm an ordinary person okay i do what i do i do what i can but i can't i can't really change i can't really do a thorough going extensive reworking my whole persona it's not me just not me how do we combat these resistances that we have these defenses that we have that defend us against doing chuva against our yetzer tov against our better uh the better angel within us i'm going to propose that there are many things we can do which constitute a very powerful chuva and they're very easy to do it takes nothing to do it doesn't cost much money maybe it doesn't cost any money doesn't necessarily mean we're going to change ourselves we can become different human beings different creatures and become great sadiq small things let's look at the little things that we can do better because little things mean a lot and that's the theme of this this talk this keynote first of all we say every morning a bryce which says is a list of things that we can do that brings about a reward in this world it brings tangible realistic down-to-earth rewards the initial investment remains and we gain that reward in the world to come and allah that's a real important list a list of things like there's no downside i'll i'll get rewarded in this world with material things whether it's wealth or health or children or or recognition or fame or whatever we want to know in addition to that we'll still still come to ulama with a big big package of good deeds and you notice most of these things are quite easy to do keyboard avoid honoring one's parents doesn't take much when parents are alive a phone call an occasional phone call a birthday card a smile a visit that takes very little and we all can do better on that those grounds and if our parents in my case both departed to the olo ms no longer in this world nevertheless i can honor them by visiting their graves by keeping their yard sights by learning mishnayas in their zerus by giving charity in this uh by making them proud of me in some way there are things that i can do even after they've departed this world very easy doing favors for other people running an errand for somebody waking up in the morning in time to make the chakras minion at the local shul and dropping in also from enchantment doesn't take much the ordinary conditions is the easiest thing to do we live in a city in europe in benebrach in teen act new jersey in the los angeles california bar hashem there are schools all around us and we can pretty easily keep that mitzvah another easy thing to do to have an occasional guest a needy person or all needy people uh welcoming people into your home not so hard to do pikachu visiting the sick giving a phone call to someone who's ill remembering old people who are never stuck in their homes or these days people with all sorts of physical and emotional difficulties who are lonely giving them a call paying them a visit not difficult to do giving a little stucco to a collar who needs money for her dowry is going to an occasional funeral escorting the the nifter or the nifters as they're taken to their final resting place not much not much just demanded of us the ian srila studying the davening you know in various places in his writings when he's asked you know how what's the secret of a better governing how can i daven better how can i pray more of a sincere a more devotional prayer prophet time has some suggestions but one is very simple he says nothing from a siddha instead of dubbing by heart stopping from a sin look into the siddha when you're dominating follow the words put your finger on the place very simple very easy to do little things that mean allah bringing about peace between one person and the other and of course the town the torah can negate coulomb tell me toru means studying terror whenever you can some of us can do it eight hours a day some of us can do it only one hour a day given our the conditions of our life the circumstances of the which we live but using the time that we do have that's free and there's much more time that we're free to learn torah than we know about it doesn't take much these days there are editions of you name it you want to learn kabbalah there are translations of the zohar you want to learn mishnayis who knows how many different reader-friendly editions of of mishnayos whether in the original text or whether in translations in whatever language uh works for you learning gomorrah these days there are so many uh editions of the gemara that make life easier that make learning easier easier than it's ever been so all everything on the list we've covered like to especially mention when it says to bring about shoddon there you might say to me hey rabbi hashi that's not so easy to bring about peace between people you ever try it right you know sometimes there's a much locus and it's not so easy but i'd like to share with you a gamora which tells you how easy it is and how important it is and this is one of those easy mitzvos that we all uh tread upon and we can do much better it's a good morning message if you know that when you meet this person who's approaching you in the distance you know that he's going to greet you when you meet each other he's still a block away walking toward you you're walking toward him you know that that fellow he's going to say good morning to me he's going to say hi how you doing he's going to be maktim shalom you know what beat him to it before he gets a chance to do it when you're still 10 steps away with him pick up your hand away from both hands and we have ah beat the other guy to his extension of welcome of a friendly smile of a hello if the person says to you good morning how are you doing and you don't answer you're in a rush or you're so distracted or you just don't care about this guy and you ignore him and walk right by after he extends you he extends you shalom you're called a gazlon a thief is the thievery stealing robbing from the poor is in your home if you don't return shalom to a person you you're guilty of stealing and only stealing stealing from the poor and here she says a fascinating comment rashi says what does it mean to steal from the poor the poor is broke the poor has no money i can understand i shouldn't steal from a rich man he has a lot of money i shouldn't steal from him what does it mean you can't steal from a poor person he's got nothing to take this is the question about the bothers rashi so rashi answers so beautifully and such a relevant way for us in our life conditions rashi says stealing is a theft as a sin whether you steal from a millionaire or you steal from a pulper ella says you're guilty of being a thief of stealing from somebody who has nothing to steal he's totally broke angelo klum but suppose this poor person comes by and says to you good morning sir and you ignore him you've stolen from him the only thing which he has all he has is a little bit of pride i'm a human being i'm a person i want somebody just to recognize that i exist not to ignore me ignoring him is stealing the only thing that he has the only thing he has is those pieces of self-respect a little bit of self-respect that he still has and you're ignoring him you're treating him like he doesn't exist that's that's stealing zelas it's very easy very simple to correct the next time a person is in your dollardamos is approaching you within the six feet or so give them a smile say hello how are you doing it's very easy because you can get doesn't cost a penny and for a poor person or for a needy person for a person who needs recognition and which who of us wealthy or poor doesn't need recognition doesn't appreciate that someone greets us warmly and sincerely so you do that and you've accomplished a great deal a great deal of camilla said increasing increasing peace and harmony among human beings there's nothing better than that it's uh it's you know you could lead the payrolls so this is one of those small things that could mean big things i'd like to share with you a report of an interview that someone who i knew well who since passed away had with the stipa this person has written about this he may have come across as various writings but i heard it from him personally he was a man by profession who was very interested in raising children he was a teacher he was a parent and a grandparent a great grandparent himself and he wanted to know what what is the parent what should a parent be teaching his child or her child after all nowadays we we depend upon the yeshiva the basiaco or the seminary or the to teach our children torah and they teach us whether it's how to read the siddha whether it's how to read humision rashi whether it's how to read komodo and typesvist whether it's how to read whatever it is we we we we we would depend upon the school for that what's the parent to do what's the parent's role so stipler who passed away now many many years ago but he lived into more or less into modern times in the 1950s 60s maybe even into the 1970s and so he knew our world he said there's three things that you have to teach your children make priorities number one you have to teach them that there is a creator there's a god in this world and you could teach it to them from their earliest age saying krishma with them when they're putting them to sleep telling them a simple story they should know there's a god in the world yesh boday there is a creator ramban at the end of pasha's bow says the whole torah the whole filler everything that we do all can be wrapped up into two words we say to god these are the words of ramban we are your creatures we didn't come here because we were dropped down from another planet we didn't come here because of evolution we came here because god created us that's one thing you have to instill in your kids and it can be done from the earliest ages the simplest ways songs that you sing to them stories that you tell them number two you've got to tell them the world is not hefca the world is not chaos the world is not a free-for-all there's a reward for the righteous and punishment for the evil and the child has to internalize that message the world is not a free-for-all you can't do what you're doing please you've got to do what's right you've got to stay away from what's wrong the world is not hefco and finally says the science diploma you have to teach your children in yiddish arrogance hubris is ugly is disgusting you have to teach him that so many of the aspects of this world fame and reputation and prestige and being having your name and their headlines and your picture in the newspaper and being honored at all sorts of occasions etc etc all of that is ugly we look at it as being oh it's wonderful it's beautiful it's all mius it's all disgusting a person has to realize he must shun arrogance he must shun gava he must remain and on of he must use moshe rabbenu of mikhail adam as a model and that's something else to teach your children three easy lessons to be a parent they're very easy to do obviously it's sometimes kids resist it and rebel against it etc that's the way of the world but your mission is it's a god in the world the world is not a free-for-all and gava arrogance is not a good thing in fact it is it is repulsive these are some of the easy ways that one has to do there are many many others that i could mention one of my favorite ones is if you quote someone and you quote him accurately you say so and so said the rav in our shul this shabbos said such a nice vort he inspired me for the whole week to say this fart is not my idea it's not nobody's idea it's rafi's idea omidova unfortunately nowadays people often get up to make speeches and they're repeating things which they you heard from someone else and they don't attribute it to the original owner of the message there are people who write books and raven baltimore stanislav was an expert on plagiarized forum where people would publish holds for him and it wasn't their own torah it wasn't their own ideas it wasn't original to them they were literally stealing intellectual information and not attributing it to the proper author first if you attribute to the proper spokesperson to the man who said it or the woman who said it in their name maybe olam you bring redemption to the world such an easy thing to do you know if anything i said today that you appreciate it they will say rabbi weinrep said this and i tried very as much as i could to attribute whatever i said to those who said it before me very little original in what i have to say i want to conclude with an original idea i think it's original not to me but to the person who wrote it whose name was isaac he was part of the family who were the heads of the yeshiva slobodka in europe he escaped the holocaust because he had to go to switzerland just before the holocaust the world world war ii broke out before he'd learned beta poland he had to go to switzerland and he stayed there for part of the war eventually he came to heritage royal and he founded and led the shiva of slavotka in benebrach and this is rather isaac's share big bomb musso and he takes a look at the af toilet for shabbat shiva which is the season and he says something which i i just treasure and treasure and treasure he writes and says look and shabbat shiva we say and we're told also here which you could look at in various ways but he looks at it as part of our vidul we confess to the ribonucleolum in this selection from the navi hoshea which we call the haftara shabashuva follow nomar o de lo que no la masa we confess this is part of a video according to rasher we confess that we will no longer no longer say god to things which are just our handiwork we will no longer worship idols the idol could be a person a hero a heroine a a uh a literally a pagan idol or it could be our own accomplishments in life that we worship and think our wealth our profession our genius our intellect our skills and we can worship them no below nomar oh de lo que no la masa your thing that we can understand but then we say because in you god will the orphan be shown mercy shall be what type of a confession is this asks and i'll share answers yes a person reaches the stage where he understands might is not going to help me the sahal is very important and we appreciate every soldier and everything that's done for our military and political security yes but we all understand that that's not enough that's not enough we can't put all of our trust in our army we can't put all of our trust in our allies put your trust in the united states of america you know we know we can't do that anymore put our trust in our wealth in our strategies in our plans our schemes no we've already reached a point below no mario de la candela marcio day we no longer will say god is our material strengths our material accomplishments no so what do we feel we feel like we're orphaned we're orphaned we feel what he calls yasmus we are orphaned an orphan is ignored abandoned discarded alone frightened overcome with anxiety where's the next meal going to come from what's going to be who's going to help us helplessness that's what we feel we even refer to ourselves as a dory asom doriatov a an orphan generation so rav share says no no no no we must remember that we the jewish people are not orphans we've not been abandoned we have a venus we have a god and we can count on him that feeling of your soul i may feel like an orphan but i know that i have an author a merciful god so i'm not a yasuo because you must remember what we what we read and said so many times on rosh hashanah oh yeah yeah leave me alone's lesson each one of us is a bain yakir a beloved god a cherished child of god emyelecha him a delightful little child says every time i mention the name of every jewish boy or girl man or woman old oh i remember him so well i remember him so well al kane remembers us and cherishes us we are not isam and yosomos we are not orphaned orphaned we are not abandoned we are not helpless but we have an avenue we have a god to rely on that belief i said i believe that we can burn into our soul inscribe into our minds embellish upon our hearts that idea that we're not usually we're not orphaned it's ashamed of i will ultimately show them such more than they ever imagined they could have he had so may be his will that the little things that we do there are so many that we can do just use your own creativity your own ingenuity your own initiative to think of small gestures that you can that you can do little things mean a lot of your intention is is solid your attention is benevolent because a little bit a little bit goes a long way and it will go a long way toward achieving the goulash for every individual person the whole nation of claudius royal and the entire human race there aren't many places to take in kids without preconditions as is a place that provides warmth and shelter music that creates a powerful connection friends that become family home that's how it is at the zulu is a place that's loving and caring no matter who you are where you come from or where you're going it's always going to be my home because this is the place that the first time i actually felt accepted our future are those that are 14 and 17 and 19 now and if we invest and we build them up to what they could be today then we will have the most incredible future our goal is to inspire them to light the fire inside them and make them the best people they possibly could be let's bringing back the jewish people to their sources i invite each and every one of you to come and see our programs partner with us to continue inspiring our jewish future oh you israel judaism zionism responsibility [Music]

Channel: OU Israel המרכז הישראלי

Views: 375

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Keywords: OU, OUISRAEL, JEWISH, Torah Yerushalayim, Aseret Yemei Teshuvah

Id: N-uFrIxllCA

Length: 38min 1sec (2281 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 11 2021