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The shiur in English
The Yanuka’s own words in this shiur, translated into English by Lehallel · 1,245 words · 6:28. Press a time to hear it said.
0:03 The whole judgment and the whole sealing and everything that was done - is already over. And from now on our only possibility is to ask the Holy One, blessed be He, to give us a new beginning. But I want to help you with something that perhaps we do not think about. The custom is always at the end of the year, on Erev Rosh Hashanah, to do teshuvah for the whole year, and then Erev Rosh Hashanah comes in, and of course the year that is beginning goes out, which is right after Simchas Torah.
0:34 And I always say that this time, right after Simchas Torah goes out, like now, this moment, a few moments to reflect on teshuvah for all that was from Rosh Chodesh Elul until the end of Simchas Torah. If we did not have intention in the blessings, if we did not pray with intention, if we did not have intention with the shofar, if we did not pray with heartfelt intention, if we did not have proper intention on Yom Kippur, "and you shall afflict your souls," in every pain and distress that a person went through, and if he was particular and did not forgive, or all kinds of things, that a person did not disconnect from evil during the holy days themselves, so for this I always recommend to everyone to reflect on teshuvah right away on Simchas Torah.
1:13 If we did not conduct ourselves properly in the holiness of the sukkah, or we spoke idle words in the sukkah, because this is a time when a person does not do teshuvah for it. Pay attention. We passed the holiest times of the year, the most awesome, and we have no time to do teshuvah for them. Truly, this is a very interesting thing. So therefore, right at the end of Simchas Torah, to reflect on teshuvah for these holy days, which are Yom Kippur and Sukkos, if we did not conduct ourselves in the holiness of the sukkah, or spoke idle words, or, Heaven forbid, lashon hara, or bad things that a person did without holiness, every single thing possible - to take care, between a person and his fellow, during this time.
1:51 For after we did the teshuvah on Yom Kippur, people feel pure and enter the joy of the festival, and sometimes one can be distracted from the holiness that we merited to gather. So therefore, to do teshuvah for not conducting ourselves properly on the holy days, and to ask Hashem that He should forgive us. What do the regret and the teshuvah for the holy times actually do? It creates much, much greater vessels, and the light that you will feel from it will be beyond measure, for the whole year.
2:17 Remember this, you will see. That you will reflect on teshuvah for these holy days, if we did not conduct ourselves properly, and you will see how wonderful vessels are made, and there will be such a light... that draws to the soul for the whole year. This is something worth doing. It takes half a minute, just to reflect and to ask Hashem for forgiveness that perhaps I did not conduct myself in these holy days as I should, and did not use every moment, and did not pray with intention.
2:42 Forgive me, Hashem, pardon me, and with this it is finished. So that is one thing that I suggest to you. And the second thing: every time you are in a holy place, whether it is the grave of a tzaddik, whether it is the Kosel, the grave in Meron of Rabbi Shimon, every time a person traveled to pray at a holy place, right at the end, when he finishes staying in the holy place, he should ask Hashem for forgiveness as he leaves, if he did not conduct himself with holiness in the Holy of Holies, in this holy place.
Read the whole shiur in English (7 more parts)
3:11 This is another thing to remember. These things will cause a person to be saved from accusations and bad harms. I do not know if you have heard. You see sometimes, many times, that a person comes to a holy place and sometimes can be harmed; there are many stories that happened, that people went to holy places and bad things happened.
3:35 And truly it is hard for everyone: how can such things be in a holy place? One must know that there is the attribute of judgment in holy places, and people forget this. What is the attribute of judgment in a holy place? That there is a very, very great awe, that one must conduct oneself with holiness and purity very, very much in a holy place, with a terrible fear without measure, when one is in a holy place. One really must fear, a very great awe. And that we do teshuvah afterward for our stay in the holy place, we cause the accusation, and the accuser who accused the person, "How were you in such a place...?"
4:10 or some adversary, to withdraw from the person, and then the person can gather all the light that he had in the holy place. You try this. Every time you are at the Kosel, every time you go to the grave of Rabbi Shimon, or to any holy place of a tzaddik where you were, at the end of the stay, simply as you leave from there, ask Hashem for forgiveness if you did not stay in this place with holiness as you should.
4:34 "We ask You, G-d of Israel, forgiveness and pardon, and let it rise before You as if we had focused all the intentions that are proper to focus." And then you can simply go. And then this causes a very, very great light to be drawn to the person, and he will receive all the good influences from this place. So remember these pieces of advice, and with G-d's help take this with you all your life, go with it, even to old age and gray hair, remember this, "and you shall make them known to your children and your children's children."
5:01 For this is important advice, that many, many foundations of the holy Torah stand on this. And there are also many proofs for it, but... not now, with G-d's help. - Rav, we ask forgiveness also that we come to you and do not behave also... we need to... - It is all right. But one more thing to say to you, one more thing. I only wanted to tell you that I was truly happy to be with you, all of Rosh Hashanah, from the month of Elul, from Rosh Hashanah, and all the joy together, and the Shabbosos and the divrei Torah, and your chiddushim, and the interesting questions, and all the wonderful things we learned together, that your parting is truly hard for me, it is truly hard.
5:40 Now that it is over, it was truly such a joy, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur together, and Sukkos that we were together, and Simchas Torah. And with G-d's help may we merit much joy, amen, much light; I love you very much, and pray for you, and am happy in you. I say, Master of the world: who is like Your people Israel?
6:05 We merited that we too are from the Jewish people, and how much the Holy One, blessed be He, loves us, His people Israel.
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What’s said in this shiur
The opening of this shiur, in The Yanuka — Rav Shlomo Yehuda’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.
The judgment, sealing, and all that happened is already over. And now our only opportunity is to request that the Holy One, blessed be He, give us a new start. But, I want to help you with something that perhaps we’re not thinking about. It is customary at the year’s conclusion, in the days preceding Rosh Hashanah, to repent for the entire previous year. Then, the eve of Rosh Hashanah enters, and the year which is beginning takes off immediately following Simchas Torah. I’ve always said that when Simchas Torah ends, like now, this very moment, [we should take] a few moments to ponder and repent for everything that happened from Rosh Chodesh Elul [the beginning of the month] to the conclusion of Simchas Torah - if we didn’t say blessings with proper concentration, if we didn’t apply ourselves in prayer, if we didn’t contemplate what we should during the shofar, or pray with heartfelt meaning, if we didn’t have proper intention on Yom Kippur, “you shall afflict yourselves” (Lev 23:32) for every sorrow or anguish a person experienced that he was resentful about and didn’t forgive, and all sorts of things in which a person didn’t separate himself from evil during the holy days. So therefore, my recommendation to everyone is: reflect and repent immediately after Simchas Torah. If we didn’t behave with proper respect for the sukka’s holiness, or spoke about commonplace things in the sukka… Because these are times a person does not [think of] repenting for. Notice, we underwent the holiest and most awesome moments and times of the year, and we don’t have time to repent for our actions during them. It’s really something very interesting. So, immediately following Simchas Torah reflect and repent about these holy days,
Jump to a moment
- 0:03The judgment, sealing, and all that happened is already over. And now our only opportunity is…
- 0:34I’ve always said that when Simchas Torah ends, like now, this very moment, [we should take]…
- 1:04and all sorts of things in which a person didn’t separate himself from evil during the…
- 1:36namely Kippur and Sukkos; if we didn’t behave in accordance to the sukka’s holiness, or spoke…
- 2:06What does regret and repentance about the holy days do? It creates vessels that are much…
- 3:06if he did not behave in holiness in this holy place. This is another thing to…
- 3:36How can such things happen at a holy site? One has to know, the attribute of…
- 4:08“How were you in such a holy place?” to be detached from the person. And then…
- 4:41And then one may simply go. And then this causes an extremely great light to shine…
- 5:11- The Rav, we also ask forgiveness that we came to you and do not behave…
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