The Yanuka Rav Shlomo Yehuda-מה לחשוב ביום כיפור שיעור שמסר הגאון הינוקא קודם יום כיפור לפני מספר שנים

2:59 Yom Kippur - when we do teshuvah properly on Yom Kippur, this teshuvah of Yom Kippur is what brings us to a general sweetening for the whole entire year. The teshuvah must be from the depth of the heart, to express regret for our iniquities and to ask Hashem for help within the heart that from now on we will not do such a thing. And one must know that there must also be emunah that, Heaven forbid, no one should [unclear], be confused, come and say that there is something he does on his own.

3:33 For transgressions and sins one does teshuvah on Yom Kippur, but one also does another teshuvah, for this: that everything we thought we do during the year, what we do - Torah, prayer, we pray - we do not do. Why? For even the teshuvah that we do tomorrow on Yom Kippur - pay attention: the teshuvah, we do not do the teshuvah. Who does the teshuvah? All the Jewish people. No one can come and say that the teshuvah is his; teshuvah is not a [unclear] thing, it is not something a person can just come and boast about - only the tzaddikim. They are the masters of teshuvah; they hand out thoughts of teshuvah to the world.

4:06 A person can do teshuvah, his teshuvah will be accepted. The one appointed over teshuvah, the one who can bestow teshuvah, is the tzaddikim. And this is the matter of Yom Kippur, that there is the Kohen Gadol, the High Priest. On Yom Kippur we see the Kohen Gadol; we do not meet him during the year. We did not see him. We meet him on Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur is a day that can bring us to something that cannot be explained at all.

4:32 It is impossible to explain what can be accomplished on Yom Kippur. The greatest thing that can be accomplished on it is that perhaps we will merit truly to see the Kohen Gadol once again. With the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash, the Holy Temple, the contemplation and the greatness of Yom Kippur were hidden from us. On Yom Kippur we see that it is so holy and immense, we do not push it off. We do not push it off. We deal with it and engage with it on Shabbos as if it were something that is part of Shabbos.

4:59 We know that Shabbos is something that has nothing above it. And a person who, Heaven forbid, saw a dream that distresses his soul, and he is pained by it, he cannot - so he fasts on Shabbos itself. Afterwards he fasts again, for having fasted: for the fast he makes a fast. A fast for a fast. The holy Yom Kippur - the fast, the prayer, the pain of the fast, 'and you shall afflict your souls,' that falls on holy Shabbos - this is the delight of Shabbos.

5:32 A Jew must delight on Shabbos; our delight of Shabbos tomorrow must be in the teshuvah, in the teshuvah that we merit to do on such a holy and awesome day. We know that on holy Shabbos - why do they say the fast has a great virtue? The commentators have very deep discussions about it. What is the meaning of the fast on Shabbos of a person whose soul is distressed? Why does it help him so much, if he dreamed a bad dream on Shabbos, that he should fast on Shabbos?

6:00 Why should he not fast from the start on a weekday? Why should he not just fast from the start on a weekday? After all, if you tell me, 'I dreamed a bad dream,' and the person reached holy Shabbos, he should push it off; tell him, 'Fast today,' [unclear] tomorrow too; let us push it off from the start - fast tomorrow. What is the point that he must fast now, now on Shabbos? If not - he dreamed on Shabbos. So they say that at that very moment, when the Jewish people sit and recline and eat and dine and rejoice and delight, and that one sits in pain and does teshuvah and is sorrowful and puts no food in his mouth, then Heaven is filled with mercy for him, that at such a time he acts this way. But he cancelled the delight of Shabbos.

6:48 So you must fast for having cancelled the delight of Shabbos. Tomorrow is holy Shabbos, when we remember that Yom Kippur goes along for us as one piece with the day of Shabbos - it is an immense gift that cannot be grasped at all; it is a gift upon a gift. We have the day of Shabbos too, and we have Yom Kippur too. Yom Kippur on its own - what a thing! And tomorrow we merit a joining of great, immense kindness that cannot be grasped, with mercy.

7:16 Yom Kippur is the aspect of mercy; the day of Shabbos is the aspect of kindness, complete kindness. Shabbos and Yom Kippur are kindness and mercy. There are no judgments on Yom Kippur; Yom Kippur is not judgment. It is judgment, but it is all mercy; the Holy One, blessed be He, in fact has mercy on us, and we even merit to see the revelation of this mercy - when? On holy Shabbos too. The Holy One, blessed be He, has mercy on us, gives us such great mercy, it is impossible at all to describe and estimate and grasp what Hashem's mercy on us is.

7:51 Every person must go deep, on Yom Kippur and on Shabbos, into Hashem's mercy, to believe and grasp and reckon how merciful Hashem is. This thought alone - that a person thinks to himself how merciful Hashem is, and has mercy on him and loves him, and will sweeten all the judgments from upon him, and understands him, and will [unclear] with him, even though he sinned and transgressed and is very far, and goes through what he goes through, and he could not guard himself during the year, and so he sinned what he sinned and spoiled what he spoiled - yet nevertheless he wants to be a decent man, and wants to have hope and a remedy.

8:22 This very desire in the heart - there is very great [unclear] of the Holy One, blessed be He, on Yom Kippur, for this day the Holy One, blessed be He, did not give for judgment; He gave it only for mercy. A day of atonement - the day on which He has mercy, not a day on which He judges. He judged us on Rosh Hashanah; the judgment was already on Rosh Hashanah. And it is not [unclear] teshuvah on Rosh Hashanah, because it is the Day of Judgment. We do not arouse more judgments upon judgments. Yom Kippur is gifts.

8:47 The Holy One, blessed be He, says: 'You I forgive, you I forgive. I forgive you. Pardon - move forward, carry on. Make a new beginning. Move forward, lift your eyes to Heaven, know that I am with you. You spoiled, you sinned, you transgressed.' There is always a remedy. As long as the candle is burning, one can repair.

9:11 It is not meant simply; it is more than that. One can understand that it is endless secrets. A person can understand what it means that you can live here in this world, and you understand the holy Yom Kippur: there is a day when Hashem, blessed be He, in His glory and His own self, turns to me and has mercy on me. And through Hashem, blessed be He, having mercy on us, we advance toward a new year. A year that can open gates for us, a year that can bring us to the geulah, to the Beis HaMikdash.

9:45 The moment there is the gathering and the assembling of Yom Kippur, there is in it a kind of spark of 'If the Jewish people keep two Sabbaths, they are immediately redeemed.' Last year there was also Yom Kippur - how did it fall for us? Shabbos. The Jewish people kept one Shabbos. This year, this Yom Kippur also falls for us, with the help of Heaven, on Shabbos - that is already two Sabbaths.

10:10 There is a hint here that they are immediately redeemed. Why? When we remember that Yom Kippur and Shabbos fall as one piece, there is no desecration of Shabbos among the Jewish people. The desecrations of Shabbos are greatly reduced. They are very - even if there are some, the majority, the majority, the great majority keeps it. Even the secular who are very, very far - Yom Kippur they keep more than the whole year. They keep it. That is to say, we see that there is here a kind of two Sabbaths, in the aspect of Yom Kippur, which means immediately redeemed.

10:40 Therefore one sees in this also a kind of complete mercy, that perhaps, perhaps, who knows, perhaps, perhaps, perhaps this year too - perhaps we will merit the complete geulah. It is impossible to know, and we can look forward to it. But what - I say: a Jew must go with emunah so strongly that even if we are not redeemed, Heaven forbid, Heaven forbid - [unclear] this emunah in Hashem: 'I will serve Hashem for His sake, blessed be He.' We have no contract of conditions with Hashem, blessed be He.

11:07 Hashem, blessed be He, owes us nothing. Only we owe Him, blessed be He; we owe Him endlessly. Our iniquities are debts, all our things are debts. Hashem, blessed be He, owes us nothing at all. He already promised what He promised, and we promised what we promised. We fulfill, He fulfills, He fulfills, we fulfill - it does not matter; He already said: 'What do you want? Take - I give.'

11:32 Our task is to do. Yom Kippur is a day when we renew the covenant, the day when we sanctify ourselves and purify ourselves and continue the Tikkun of Avraham Avinu. We say to Avraham Avinu: we have not forgotten you. You came and did, and entered the tent of holiness and engaged in Torah; and Yitzchak Avinu came, and Yaakov Avinu came, and they engaged and learned. So this is teshuvah: we did not forget this, Heaven forbid.

11:59 We never abandoned it, but we sinned, our Father, we transgressed. This Yom Kippur we are again - 'and they shall be in your eyes as new.' Everything returns to renewal. We do teshuvah, we sanctify ourselves, we purify ourselves, we resemble the ministering angels on Yom Kippur. We pray to Hashem and we merit to be renewed, we merit to be before Creation.

12:25 Before Creation the Holy One, blessed be He, said: I already have teshuvah, I already have Shabbos, I already have Torah, I already have the name of Mashiach. This came before Creation for Me. We are already returning; on Yom Kippur we are already above time. Already above - this is before the creation of the world; we resemble and are included in the place that is before Creation. This whole purpose of 'before Creation' is to connect us in infinite cleaving with the One who spoke and the world came to be, and with the name of Mashiach.

12:55 The matter of 'Menachem is his name,' a matter of mercy, a matter of the Holy One, blessed be He, comforting us, the Holy One, blessed be He, has mercy on us, the Holy One, blessed be He, [unclear] us, the Holy One, blessed be He, redeems us. That is to say, the understanding is that tomorrow is such an immense day that it is all mercy, and the fast is something completely beyond grasp. How important and precious, immense, that a person pray and fast and do his teshuvah from the depth of the heart.

13:26 Who will open his heart - 'I will return to the service of Hashem.' Not, Heaven forbid, that it should be - that he says, 'What - what is it worth?' No, it is all worth it, everything you do. Open your eyes, open your ears, understand that you are on the Day of Judgment, which is all complete mercy and all complete kindness. We were on Rosh Hashanah last week. There was the attribute of judgment, sweetened with kindness and mercy that Hashem, blessed be He, sweetens, but tomorrow, from the outset, it is a judgment that is all mercy and kindness.

13:58 We have no judgment. It is a kind of trial in which Hashem, blessed be He, judges us. It is like a parable, for example: there is a very, very, very, very great king, immense, beyond any grasp. The king comes, and the judgment he makes is only how to do good to his [unclear]. Before this he judged them, whether they did the work in the palace: this one cleaned the floor, he changed the lamps, this one arranged the garden, this one arranged the courtyard, this one brought the royal garments, this one did this, this one did that; he holds a judgment: who was not in order, who was not in order.

14:31 After some time, after a week, he says, 'Good, I have judged them.' What judgment does he make? He makes a different judgment: what to give them? 'How do I pamper them? How do I love them? I have mercy on them. I want to forgive them for what they did. That one who was - was not in order, and this one who did not bring the garments, and this one who broke the lamp, and this one - I want to meet them to tell them that I love them, and I pardon them, and forgive them, and that they should move forward during that year, that they should go on serving me properly.'

15:02 We see the same thing here. The Holy One, blessed be He, puts on complete mercy toward us - 'G-d, King, who sits on the throne of mercy.' He has mercy on us so much, it cannot be grasped at all. And all, all, all He wants is that we be pure, full of mercy, so that we merit the Beis HaMikdash.

15:28 That we see at long last, at long last, we will see a House for Him, blessed be He; we will see salvation for Him, blessed be He, in Heaven. We will see at long last that there is already something for His glory, blessed be He. A Jew must know: my life must be for His sake, blessed be He. The teshuvah I do tomorrow - each one must say: the teshuvah I do touches within the point of my heart. It is not my heart doing teshuvah, it is not my body. I find myself on a day when I must atone for everything I did and spoiled, and feel within my heart how great the pain is of 'the sin that we sinned before You,' and understand how much I hurt Your mercy - You have mercy on me and love me, and if I had not sinned, there would have been a closer revelation of mercy between us,

16:22 and with that I would have brought a House near to You, done Your will. And [unclear] my mind and my blemished desires, and what I go through. For as I say, as our Sages say, the nations of the world sin out of great goodness and wealth, and Your people Israel sin out of great trouble and poverty. This is a very great point of merit for the Jewish people.

16:47 Look at the Jew: because he is so distressed and bitter and oppressed, he gets upset and angry, and he feels bad and not good, and he goes and does transgressions. Look at the non-Jew: he is not badly off and not distressed, all the time everything is good for him, everything is abundance, everything - and he just goes and does transgressions in the world. The teshuvah we must do tomorrow, our grasp and contemplation, must be beyond the fact that we sinned; rather, the teshuvah is also for hurting His honor, blessed be He, for the delay in doing His will, blessed be He, for the lingering we lingered, and did not quickly do the work placed upon us, Hashem's command - that we were like King Shaul and we were not like King David.

17:30 [unclear], including three, four, 'I did two,' slowly, slowly, three. Action must be continuous. Action must be strong. A person must know how to direct his mercy. There are situations where one must have mercy, there are things where one must not have mercy. One must know how to be like David: on whom to have mercy, on whom not to have mercy.

18:02 King Shaul - when he did not bring the mercy down to the world properly, then there was judgment. This is the matter of Yom Kippur. One must know how to bring down the mercy so that there will not be judgment. And this grasp of mercy must be in this: that the Jew rejoices and is glad in the service [unclear], and does it, and hurries to do it. He quickly does teshuvah, he hurries. This is the matter of Yom Kippur with the Kohen Gadol.

18:29 The Kohanim were blessed with alacrity, that they should not have the trait of laziness, that they be quick in the work of their Owner, quick in every single thing, doing it with speed, in haste, quickly, quickly, so that the whole Beis HaMikdash would run with speed and in order. This is the matter of the Temple, this is the matter of Yom Kippur, the Kohen Gadol. Yom Kippur - teshuvah must be with alacrity, like King David, all the time doing teshuvah, quickly, with speed. He does not wait for anything; all the time he confesses, before, after.

18:56 A Jew must do teshuvah before, after - circumcise the foreskin of our heart, circumcise it, circumcise. To feel in the heart the pain, the pain of the sorrow of the Shechinah: how I hurt her honor, how I did not make an effort, how I did not awaken, what came over me - oh, how sealed my heart was. With Hashem's help, may each one have a good final sealing. And may we all merit, with Hashem's help, to see nachas from Jerusalem, [unclear].

19:23 that the whole entire world cheers and gives nachas and honor to Hashem, blessed be He.