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Shmini Atzeres & Simchas Torah - Joy & Inspiration by Dr. Rubie Minkowitz · The Frum Health Club Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good Chabis, Good Yamtiv, Shmini Yatsaris, and Simchaster.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: The holiday of joy is bringing joy to us, seeing miracles this week, and we are able to point and say Vizais Habracha, this is a blessing.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: And that is the title of the last parsha that we read on Simchaster.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: And how apropos that this year we can point and say this is a blessing and a miracle.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: And all of us celebrate it as it says further, Yachad Shifte Yisrael, we are unified in our joy.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: And we need this joy, and it helps counter our sorrow of three years ago, October 7th.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: And how apropos that we say Yiskar Anshminiat Seris, remembering all those holy souls who perished then, and for all of our loved one who passed away.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: And when we say Kadesh for the Nishama and Yaheshme Rabbah, which means Hashem name is great, this has seven words and twenty-eight letters.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And that connects to the first Pasuk, the first verse of the Terah, Veracious, that has seven words and twenty-eight letters.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: And get this, the first verse of the Asarasadibris, the Ten Commandments, also has seven words and twenty-eight letters.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, we are proclaiming God's greatness by connecting the soul to creation and Tarah.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Powerful.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Mesha is referred to as Ishelikim, a man of God, the greatest prophet ever to live.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: He was able to talk to Hashem whenever he wanted, yet he still had setbacks and disappointments, which is a lesson to us that life is not perfect, no matter who you are.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: The first mission Mesha had to tell Pare to let my people go made it worse for them, a failure in his eyes, and his last request to enter the Holy Land was not granted to him.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Not because he was too old, he had his full strength at 120, and that should be a blessing to us to be strong for all of our days, since the spark of Mesha is in each of us.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: So what made Mesha so great?
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: He was an Evanemon, a loyal servant to God, and even more so loyal to the Bene Israel.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: And when Hashem wanted to destroy us for the golden calf, Mesha countered and said, If so, erase me from your book, your Tirah.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is loyalty, and that is why we bless the Chasan and Kala, the bride and groom, to have loyalty, like Mesha and the Bineisra.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Loyalty is key.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: And what made Mesha great was God put his trust in him in Evanemon.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: And if we trust in God, God counters and has faith in us.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: And we end the Terah with the words Leine Bene Israel, and Rashi explains that Mesha got a Yashu Kah or kudos from God for breaking the tablets in front of our eyes.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Why is that mention instead of leading us out of Mistraim or the giving of the Torah on Harsinai?
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: And this answer always hits home for me.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: The Rebbe says that the breaking of Lucais is a message to us, especially since the pieces were placed in the ark in the Holy of Holies, that we can still serve God even while being broken.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: We are human, not angels, yet we still need to show up and serve God despite not being whole.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's like someone saying, I need to lose weight and feel good with no pain before I can go to the gym or start to run.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it doesn't work like that.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: You do what you can do even though you are not feeling whole.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: And for this, you can serve God in your brokenness.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that is when we say chazak and go forward with a new cycle, reading Baratius, the purpose of creation.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: And get this the last letter of the Terah is Lamid, and the first one is Baz for Laev, a heart.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's all about love that Hashem is showing us.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: And we dance with the Terah and hold it tight, since throughout our history in Gullus everything was taken from us except for the Tera.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: And to conclude, on Shminyatseras we pray for rain, Geshem.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Geshem also means an abundance of good things, and may we be blessed with Geshem, and may we continue this joy and dance on Yamtiv with Mashiach, the ultimate joy, good shabis good Yamtiv Khazak.