הגאון הינוקא הרב שלמה יהודה שליט''א - סוד התשובה • שיעור חובה!

5:59 It is a very, very great thing to complete the holy Zohar They say that Rabbi Pinchas of Koretz was one of the greatest disciples of the holy Baal Shem Tov He used to say that whoever wants to have a livelihood should learn five pages of Zohar every day, and there is in this a Tikkun for the soul The holy Baal Shem Tov used to learn Tikkunei Zohar before sleep He said that it is promised: if one learns Tikkunei Zohar before sleep a person will have settled dreams and he will not have, Heaven forbid, impurity if he learns Tikkunei Zohar before his sleep That is one great thing they used to say about the Zohar The Ramak wrote in 'Or Ne'erav', his book on the greatness of the holy Zohar Also Maran the Chida, in siman 44, in a section of 'Moreh B'Etzba'

6:47 writes on the greatness of the holy Zohar, that it surpasses all other learning when one learns the holy Zohar Also the 'Nesiv Mitzvosecha' Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac Yehudah Yechiel Safrin in 'Nesiv Mitzvosecha', siman 31, also wrote on the greatness of the holy Zohar that when one learns Zohar, there is nothing greater than this learning in the whole Zohar More than a hundred times the Shulchan Aruch rules according to the holy Zohar The law of washing the hands, first thing, when one washes the hands also has its source in the holy Zohar: to take care that there be no spirit of impurity We see that in the holy Zohar one travels through the whole holy Torah and one can know the reasons for what Hashem, blessed be He, did in the world That is through this holy learning: by learning, one rectifies the soul

7:32 and receives good abundance from this learning of the holy Zohar And now, as we draw near to the holy - to Yom Kippur 'For on this day He shall atone for you to purify you; from all your sins before Hashem you shall be purified' The Creator, blessed be He, gave us a gift - Yom Kippur 'For on this day He shall atone for you' - the essence of the day atones for us It says in Vayikra, chapter 16, verse 30 that the essence of the day - 'For on this day He shall atone for you to purify you; from all your sins before Hashem you shall be purified' that before Hashem everyone stands and is purified by the essence of the day So our master the Meiri writes on Yoma, in the eighth chapter that whoever has no awakening to teshuvah on this day, Heaven forbid

8:27 it is as if he has no portion in Hashem, blessed be He if he has no awakening to teshuvah at these times because these are holy days that are auspicious for teshuvah, at this time so when one does not awaken before Hashem, blessed be He, to teshuvah it is, Heaven forbid, as if a person has no portion in Hashem, blessed be He, in the Torah, in holiness because these days have in them the special power, and closeness to Hashem and the stirring before Hashem, blessed be He, in these days which are auspicious for bringing about every good, of every good And therefore at this time, as we go along, the main thing is to do teshuvah as the Sages discussed in Tractate Rosh Hashanah, page 17a to forgo one's due, to have one's sins forgone

9:09 that if someone causes a person pain, and he has traits that are not good then let him pass over his traits, so that Heaven will deal with him that way As a person conducts himself in this world so too from Heaven they will conduct his judgment above if he is merciful, then from Heaven they will deal with him with mercy if he goes with compassion, then from Heaven they will deal with him with mercy And so Hashem, blessed be He, wants and desires that they come to Yom Kippur pure and clean, and prepare themselves that a person prepares himself as for the last day, for the ultimate end that he thinks about the ultimate end before Hashem, blessed be He So therefore the Rosh writes in the eighth chapter this in the name of Rav Saadia Gaon - this of course is not the halachah

9:53 that over the immersion of Yom Kippur one must say a blessing 'Who has sanctified us with His mitzvos and commanded us concerning immersion' Seemingly, in truth, we do not say this blessing As halachah, it was not ruled as halachah that one says a blessing over immersion on Yom Kippur over the immersion of Erev Yom Kippur There is great merit in it, but as halachah we do not say the blessing There is a practical difference in this: on what account the immersion works Because if we say that a person, in order to become pure then he needs nine kabin or he may go immerse in drawn water to become pure from the impurity of a seminal emission as the 'Ginas Veradim' permitted it, in siman 4, letter 4 He wrote that purifying from every impurity is through immersion

10:40 and even in drawn water - in a pool of water He says that this will help only for the impurity of a seminal emission that a person who wants to become pure from this, from that impurity or especially one who needed to purify himself if he can - whoever is able at all to immerse in a spring or to immerse in the sea, all these things the sea will not help for a zav or a metzora but especially as far as one can become pure in order to sanctify oneself and draw close to Hashem but it is enough that a person goes to immerse then this is called corresponding to Imma Kadisha, the holy Mother So writes Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech of Dinov in the second discourse on the month of Tishrei; he explains that the month of Tishrei

11:19 the immersion of all the Jewish people their immersion corresponds to Imma Kadisha This is the letter Mem that is closed on four corners; it corresponds to the mikveh and those who immerse receive new mental powers and new understanding and new abundance, and become a new creation What is the immersion for? If the immersion is to become pure from the impurity of an emission then seemingly, anyone who immerses to become pure from the impurity of an emission and does not immerse for the sake of teshuvah - the immersion will not help him Because if I say that the immersion of Yom Kippur as Rav Saadia Gaon wrote is not to become pure from the impurity of an emission his view is that it is for the sake of teshuvah, the matter of teshuvah that is why we immerse - then all the immersions that a person...

12:05 for example, if he wants to pour nine kabin over himself as people immerse in honor of Shabbos - if a person does not go to the mikveh and he wants to become pure by going to immerse in a pool of water then that will help only for the impurity of an emission, not for receiving Shabbos But if one wants to do this thing if one wants to practice so on Erev Yom Kippur seemingly one must be more careful with the immersion and not rely on drawn water for this on going to immerse in a pool of water, because perhaps they meant that the immersion for Yom Kippur is for teshuvah and if the immersion is for teshuvah, then for the impurity of an emission it is something else Immersion for an emission and immersion for teshuvah are two different and lofty matters

12:48 this one is for this matter and that one is for that matter So if he did it to become pure from impurity, it will not help for teshuvah So therefore one must immerse as the 'Mateh Ephraim' writes in siman 606 that one who immerses in a mikveh should say 'Master of the world, I have sinned, I have done wrong, I have transgressed' - he should do teshuvah because the matter of the immersion on Erev Yom Kippur is for teshuvah to do teshuvah from the depths of the heart and when one does teshuvah, one brings about an extension of time before Hashem, blessed be He therefore, when one sanctifies the body This is what Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech writes; he writes in the second discourse He continues and says that this is 960 lugin; it corresponds to the mikveh

13:28 that one immerses in 960 lugin every creature is nullified in 960 lugin that if a creature falls in, then everything is nullified And he says that this 960 corresponds to the 960 hours that there are from Rosh Chodesh Elul until Yom Kippur 24 times 40 is 960 - the very number 960 So he says that from Rosh Chodesh Elul until Yom Kippur this whole time is like a kind of mikveh Therefore it is forty days, corresponding to forty se'ah and within forty se'ah there are 960 lugin so this 960 is the 960 hours that there are from Rosh Chodesh Elul until Yom Kippur It comes out exactly 960, the number 960 - so he writes He is the grandfather of the 'Minchas Elazar' of Munkatch So he writes; so we see from here that the greatness of the mikveh

14:16 is that these holy times themselves are like a mikveh which purifies a person in his teshuvah but especially whoever goes to immerse himself will draw upon himself even more abundance and holy understanding in order to draw close to Hashem, and for teshuvah and for all this abundance and these matters So therefore one must immerse for the sake of teshuvah that at the time a person goes to immerse he must do teshuvah before the immersion Also the book 'Me'or Einayim' wrote - the 'Chesed L'Avraham' the son of the 'Likutim Yekarim' the 'Chesed L'Avraham', the grandfather of the Chida and he also brought this in the name of the Iggeres, in the name of Rabbi David of Makliv who also wrote that they used to practice the immersion this way they would have the intentions - those who knew how to do it

14:58 would do a truly great teshuvah before the immersion so as not to be like one who immerses holding an impure creeping thing in his hand that if he is still attached to worldly matters and he has not done teshuvah from the depths of the heart then seemingly his teshuvah did not count; so therefore one must do teshuvah And with the first immersion he intends to become pure from all impurity and receive purity intending the Name Ches-Beis-Vav Beis-Yud-Tes, and after that he immerses three immersions after that he immerses a fourth immersion to separate and break from me the power and impurity of the kelipah after that he immerses to draw upon me purity from the upper pure mikveh after that he immerses to draw upon me, from the mazal 'Notzer Chesed' which is the eighth mazal - holiness, purity, blessing, good life and protection

15:37 after that, from the mazal 'Nakeh' - which is the thirteenth mazal holiness, purity, blessing, good life and protection after that one intends to remove the filth of the primordial serpent which is the most excellent immersion among the intentions for if one does not immerse with this intention seemingly one does not remove the filth of the serpent from the world and one must intend this when going to immerse to intend to remove the filth of the primordial serpent from the world which was at the beginning: at the sin of Adam, the first man, it swallowed the whole world and all the minds of human beings were swallowed inside the filth of the serpent and that is all there is; so therefore we delay on Motzaei Shabbos Kodesh we delay the end of Shabbos which is why we are stringent according to the view of Rabbeinu Tam

16:16 which is also the view of the Ittur and the Terumah and the Ravyah, the Maharam of Rothenburg Tosafos, Rabbi Yehoshua di Trani, and all the great ones who held this way the Manhig, the Abudarham - all these holy ones who said of the Rishonim, that one must end Shabbos late This also holds for Yom Kippur; what happens is that on Shabbos we delay Motzaei Shabbos in order to give the wicked a longer reprieve so that they do not return to their place; so we reveal long patience And on Yom Kippur, as I explained at the beginning, that it says 'For on this day He shall atone for you' - so it implies; some say that Yom Kippur is to be lengthened because it is from the Torah so we reveal that the extended day is...

17:00 Hashem's mercy, even more, does not end because we say, 'For on this day He shall atone for you' and if one hurries to end Yom Kippur, then how will His mercy be? Therefore one should be careful on Yom Kippur too, to end it according to Rabbeinu Tam so that it will be 'For on this day He shall atone for you' to draw out the compassion of Hashem, blessed be He, more and more and then, when the mercy of Hashem is drawn into the world and when His compassion is revealed upon all creatures and when one does teshuvah from the depths of the heart before Hashem, in truth, returning to Him then all denial and heresy are nullified from the world for that is Yom Kippur; Yom Kippur is in order that the world return to Hashem, to the right understanding, and not abandon Him, blessed be He

17:50 because all year long people go from bad to worse to forbidden thoughts, to a blemish in the holy emunah which is the root of the denial and heresy in the world that they distance themselves from Hashem; and the one who broke all the filth of the serpent and fought all the heresy there was - that was Iyov Iyov went through so much suffering And so this is what the Mishnah says, in Tractate Yoma, in the third chapter that they would read before him; they would say, Daniel that they would read before him when he dozed - but the book of Iyov the meaning of Iyov is that through learning the book through the thought, his sufferings, and what he went through his contemplation nullifies denial heresy and disbelief from the world So when Tzofar the Naamathite and Meidad the Shuchite and Eliphaz came

18:44 when they came to Iyov, they did not understand his pain because Iyov began to tell them all that was happening to him all the hardships and all the suffering - but he had not done anything So they answered him with a claim; they said to him, 'Can a mortal...' in chapter 4 - in the fourth chapter, verse 17 - chapter 4, verse 17, it is written 'Can a mortal be more just than G-d? Can a man be purer than his Maker?' This verse breaks all heresy - that a person should think that he can never be more righteous than Hashem, blessed be He it is not within his mind to understand Hashem's compassion that Hashem, blessed be He, is the Merciful One, with every kind of mercy beyond description or measure and then one removes all the heresy a person has before Hashem

19:28 Because how can one receive Yom Kippur? How can one do teshuvah when a person is full of questions and queries and doubts about Hashem, blessed be He? So therefore they said to him: 'Can a mortal be more just than G-d?' Could it enter the mind that a human being can be more just than G-d? 'Can a man be purer than his Maker?' Are you purer than the One who made you? Surely not; and truly, they did not understand that Iyov is passing through the decree that Hashem, blessed be He, decreed; so therefore we say as it is written in Devarim, chapter 32, verse 4 'The Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are justice a G-d of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is He' that Hashem, blessed be He, is truth in the utmost truth

20:12 and He is the Righteous One in every kind of righteousness and He is great in every kind of greatness, and He is awesome in every kind of awe and He is the great and praised One, whom we must praise and whom we must laud and whom we must serve, and whom we must fear That is Hashem, blessed be He - the great, mighty and awesome G-d who took Israel out of Egypt, who redeemed them from the house of slavery That is Hashem, blessed be He; that is the G-d of Israel and when we know that everything, everything is G-dliness, that everything is Hashem, blessed be He and there is no question at all about Him, blessed be He - then we will do teshuvah that teshuvah is done from the depths of the heart before Hashem

20:48 when one does teshuvah before Hashem, then one can draw close to Him, blessed be He And so the Sages instituted for us the law of Nefilas Apayim, falling on the face, right at the end of the prayer that after we pray, we do teshuvah at once that a person prays before Hashem and falls on his face right after the prayer Of course, according to the secret teaching, there is in this, in order to cut off the outside forces from drawing nourishment from the prayer so that they cannot have any connection and not touch, Heaven forbid, our prayer then they have no contact at all, and no sight of this world because our teshuvah brought it about that we succeeded in toppling the outside forces to break them, so that they do not touch and do not take hold, Heaven forbid

21:28 of the ascent of the worlds, of the prayer - so that the prayer reaches Hashem So right at the end of the prayer we follow on and do the confession and the prayer before Hashem, and in the secret of Nefilas Apayim this is Psalm 25 - Psalm 25 in Tehillim 'Of David. To You, Hashem, I lift up my soul. My G-d, in You I have trusted' Those who hold according to the view of the 'Magen Avraham' among our brothers who follow him - he says not to say it, because of the fear for the ruling is from the Zohar; it is written in the Zohar, Parshas Naso page 121a and 121b, that Rabbi Shimon says 'Happy is the man to whom Hashem does not count iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit' that he truly means to do teshuvah, but he does not deceive himself

22:11 If a person is already saying teshuvah he must concentrate greatly and be very careful; so therefore they refrained from saying it so that, Heaven forbid, passing away not be brought upon a person because one can pass away from it, from this psalm since it is so much the attribute of judgment At the time of Nefilas Apayim it is forbidden to move not right, not left, nothing at all only to be focused on saying the words that are said in Nefilas Apayim And then a person becomes a new creation - at the end of Nefilas Apayim a person is a new creation, as if he never sinned and he is clean and there is nothing in him, and he is clean and Hashem, blessed be He, has pardoned him and forgiven him, and he becomes a new creation

22:51 only through the teshuvah he did before Hashem, blessed be He which is the 'Of David. To You, Hashem, I lift up my soul' this is the secret of Nefilas Apayim And therefore we say it with intention and even one who says it a little - it is an immense thing, beyond all measure for Hashem, blessed be He, loves - Rabbi Shimon says in Zohar Balak in Zohar Chadash, Parshas Balak, page 66b that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai says that Hashem, blessed be He, loves everyone who returns from his sin everyone who returns from his sin - Hashem, blessed be He, loves him in Zohar Mishpatim, page 106a and 106b 107a, 107b - there is much in the holy Zohar about this...

23:29 The Rav knows - he completed the Zohar that Rabbi Shimon writes this many times - Zohar Pekudei, and more there are many times that Rabbi Shimon speaks about the meaning So there he writes, in Zohar Mishpatim, page 106a he says that the power of teshuvah 'Nothing stands in the way of teshuvah' there is nothing that can stand in the way of teshuvah that the power of teshuvah is so great that it topples walls of iron and chains of iron and hard things that cannot be broken and cannot be toppled this is only through teshuvah - that if a person has obstacles and if a person has difficulties, and if a person has something that holds him back from drawing close to Hashem or in all the material matters of this world the power of teshuvah - when a person returns to Hashem with all his heart

24:19 and asks Hashem to pardon him, to forgive him for every sin for every iniquity, for every transgression this is the power that can nullify all the walls of iron This is what Rabbi Shimon says - this is a promise from him that 'Nothing stands in the way of teshuvah' that nothing will ever be able to stand in the way of one who does teshuvah When a person does teshuvah, he breaks all the locks he breaks all the screens, he breaks all the things that separate so that they cannot rule over him; therefore this is the secret of baalei teshuvah And therefore one must be very careful, never to spread, Heaven forbid, a bad name - as it is written in the Jerusalem Talmud in Bava Kamma, chapter eight, halachah seven that Rabbi Assa said: one who spreads a bad name never has forgiveness

25:04 that, Heaven forbid, if one spreads a bad name about a person, there is never forgiveness Why? A bad name - it is as if one chains the person inside an evil that does not belong to him but when a person does teshuvah, he is uprooted from evil completely that even a person who returns after seventy years and eighty years who sinned and transgressed much - he becomes a new creation and it is as if he does not exist, as if he is not found in the world and this is a completely new creation; that even after 120 years like Rabbi Elazar ben Durdaya - he became a new creation Therefore the Gemara says in Tractate Moed Katan, page 15a that they would come to the Kohen - after all, how was a tzaraas affliction ruled on?

25:49 When there is a tzaraas affliction, one goes to the Kohen and the Kohen sees the affliction and rules that it is impure and then he goes and dwells alone, sitting outside the wall until the time comes and whoever sees him, he must say to him, 'I am impure' lest he come near him - so that he not make him impure So the 'Chinuch' writes in mitzvah 169; the Chinuch explains he says: why was there this matter, that Hashem, blessed be He reveals to us that one must go to the Kohen if there is a tzaraas affliction?

26:14 Rather, from here we learn that for everything one must return in teshuvah to Hashem that if there is an affliction, if there is a problem, if there is pain one must go to the Kohen, one must go to the Torah one must go to prayer, and then Hashem heals And so a person would be healed; he would not go - a person who had a tzaraas affliction would not go to a doctor rather the Torah stresses that he would go to the Kohen in order to heal himself and because he would go to the Kohen, until he returned to Hashem so for this we have teshuvah when he does teshuvah, then he would be healed that is how the tzaraas affliction would disappear from him from the teshuvah he would do because teshuvah would make all the illnesses disappear

26:55 by the power of teshuvah to heal all creatures by the power of teshuvah, that the world will return from their sins and iniquities and transgressions, that the world will come to its rectification This is the secret of teshuvah: that all will return from evil then Hashem, blessed be He, will pardon and forgive And the main thing is to serve Hashem - when one does teshuvah to Hashem one must do the service from the depths of the heart to come before Hashem with a broken heart and to offer before Him the offering - prayer The Sages taught in Tractate Megillah, page 28a the Sages discussed: 'The one lamb you shall offer in the morning and the second lamb you shall offer in the afternoon.' What is the law of 'the one lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the second lamb'?

27:39 Why did they stress to us the matter of the one lamb? What is the matter of the one lamb? The matter is that the Gemara says: 'the one lamb' - the unique and special one that before Hashem one must bring the one lamb the special one, the finest, before Hashem To Hashem, blessed be He, one must bring the good and the finest And so ruled our master the Rambam at the end of the Laws of Things Forbidden on the Altar, chapter seven this is the end of the Laws of Things Forbidden on the Altar, the last halachah - halachah 11 So the Rambam ruled that before the good G-d, blessed be He when one wants to bring before Hashem, before the good G-d one must bring the good, the finest of everything the most beautiful, the most praiseworthy

28:21 and if he builds a synagogue, it should be the most beautiful synagogue if he feeds a hungry person at his table, he should give him of the sweetest food on his table; he should set it before the poor man before that one who is hungry before Hashem he should give the best thing he has because before Hashem, blessed be He, one must give the very best the most praiseworthy, the finest, the most beautiful - so it is before Hashem And there is nothing in the world more beautiful before Hashem than doing teshuvah before Hashem And to do teshuvah truly, as is fitting as teshuvah should be done and to give Hashem all our fat and blood - that is teshuvah from the depths of the heart for that one must learn much Torah, the Torah of Hashem

29:05 and learn aggadah, learn on Shabbos or each person should have a class from time to time one must learn Midrash Rabbah, learn Yalkut Shimoni as the Sages said in the Sifrei, Parshas Eikev, section 59 'Do you wish to know the One who spoke and the world came into being? Learn aggadah for through it you come to know the Holy One, blessed be He' And so it is written in Midrash Mishlei, section 10, that whoever learns aggadah 'Whoever learns aggadah - the sins of Israel are forgiven' sins are forgiven through learning aggadah - when one learns a little lesson then the sins of the Jewish people are forgiven, and they draw close to Hashem because one can receive fear of Heaven through this when one learns it, one receives fear of Heaven and returns to Hashem

29:45 when an appointed time comes, when the time comes one can understand the things that are happening one can understand everything that is done So the 'Pnei Yehoshua' explains on Tractate Shabbos, page 30 he writes: what really was it with Rava that he told something humorous? It says: Rava told something humorous He writes this also in the introduction to the 'Pnei Yehoshua' where he says that Hashem made a miracle for him in what befell him, the loss of his wife and his household, and the fire that there was he had completed the Shas 36 times and he took upon himself to engage in this work as a kind of offering to Hashem So he says that he set aside all the midrashim and all those things he engaged only in the sugyos themselves, so that it would be the main learning

30:29 so that they could draw from it the benefit and the learning and learning aggadah - a person knows how to explain it for himself, he can learn it So he says that Rava really who told something humorous - so he says that his humorous remark was words of aggadah that is the meaning: he spoke soft words with them so their minds would be receptive and after that they could understand the learning - that is to say according to the 'Pnei Yehoshua', the way of learning in their time was that before they learned, they would learn little by little, a little at a time learning aggadah each time learning and engaging in the praise of Hashem, blessed be He and then they would engage in the sugyos; for Heaven forbid to think that they engaged in humor the way people understand it

31:15 certainly, certainly not humor the way people understand it rather the meaning is words that would gladden their minds about the greatness of Hashem about contemplation and the awesomeness of Hashem, blessed be He That is the meaning of teshuvah of this engagement, of this contemplation, of this thought and for this they needed to do teshuvah before Hashem that they grasped the greatness of Hashem the greatness of Hashem, blessed be He, was grasped by the tzaddikim in every generation there were awesome tzaddikim who grasped the greatness of Hashem what no one could understand with his mind the greatness of the souls of Israel and of the tzaddikim Therefore the 'Me'or VaShemesh' writes in Parshas Pinchas Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman, in the book 'Me'or VaShemesh' he writes in Parshas Pinchas that this was the dispute between Yehudah and Yosef

32:09 that this one saw that the redemption would come from him and that one saw that the redemption would come from him Mashiach ben Yosef and Mashiach ben David that from this one would come the redemption, and from that one would come the redemption each one held that the redemption would come from him but in truth, the redemption in the end comes specifically in that Mashiach ben Yosef comes before Mashiach ben David, who is the last this one is first and that one is last And why did Yehudah specifically merit this?

32:37 As it is written in Sotah, page 7b, about Yehudah that he returned from his sin and was not ashamed - he merited eternal life that because Yehudah was not ashamed and said, 'She is more righteous than I' that he revealed it openly - so that everyone knew that he had erred that he had sinned, that he had transgressed - he said, 'She is more righteous than I' it is her merit: she is more righteous than I, I erred these words brought him to the attribute of kingship so that eternal life would be his inheritance, because he was not ashamed Also look at Onkelos - he too writes 'Yehudah, you acknowledged' that Yehudah acknowledged Hashem, and 'was not ashamed' - he was not embarrassed And from here we see that Onkelos also explains, and not only translates

33:29 Therefore the Shulchan Aruch, in siman 285 in Orach Chaim ruled that one must read the Scripture twice and the Targum once so that they can learn the Scripture and also understand the Targum, because the Targum also has commentary in it Rabbi Yonasan ben Uziel explains more he also has prophecies, and something like ruach hakodesh - he knew things but Onkelos - sometimes there are some expressions in which one sees that he is explaining like about Yehudah, that he actually explains and does not translate he explains that he acknowledged Hashem but he was not afraid, he was not ashamed That is the meaning of the teshuvah that he did - Yehudah And so, when we understand why Yehudah merited specifically Yehudah, son of Yaakov our father that of all the brothers, Reuven and Shimon he was the fourth son of Yaakov

34:17 that was Yehudah son of Yaakov - he was his fourth son and of all the holy brothers, Yehudah himself merited that he merited kingship, and from him the King Mashiach is destined to come only because he said the words of kingship I have sinned, I have done wrong, I have transgressed, she is more righteous than I People think that to say 'I erred', to say 'I sinned' is a shame - they do not ask for pardon they do not ask for forgiveness And therefore Yom Kippur does not atone until he appeases his fellow in paragraph 1 in siman 606 that one must appease his fellow, that Yom Kippur does not atone for this And Yehudah reveals that the secret of kingship and the trait of kings is to say 'I have sinned' to have it always on his lips, to say 'I have sinned, I have done wrong, I have transgressed'

35:05 to do teshuvah before Hashem, to feel regret and when a person says teshuvah, when a person regrets and confesses then Hashem, blessed be He, renews him, and he becomes a new creation And this is the secret of teshuvah which in fact Adam, the first man, did not attain If Adam, the first man, had - at the time of the sin of Adam, the first man, had he revealed teshuvah Therefore only Kayin revealed teshuvah, and then revealed Hashem's compassion but if Adam, the first man, had revealed the loftiest words And look - the book of David the King who came from Yehudah son of Yaakov our father, who revealed the book of Tehillim the book full of praises and songs of praise so many expressions: 'I made my sin known to You, and my iniquity I did not cover

35:49 I said, I will confess my transgressions to Hashem, and You forgave the iniquity of my sin, Selah' How much David reveals his sins and reveals that the words of a king are to say 'I erred' to say 'I sinned', to say 'I transgressed' - these are the traits of kings the opposite of the world's view, which thinks one does not err This is something we have not found - people are proud and do not say (sorry) And the Sages praise Yehudah, who said 'She is more righteous than I' Yehudah merited and inherited eternal life because he said 'She is more righteous than I' And Hashem, blessed be He - in Tractate Chullin, page 60b 'The Holy One, blessed be He, said: Bring atonement for Me, for I diminished the moon' Hashem, blessed be He, Himself did teshuvah

36:27 He said about this, 'I diminished the moon' - Hashem, blessed be He, regrets, as it were For understanding, one needs to see the Maharal of Prague and many more Rishonim, who explain that the meaning is not, Heaven forbid, that there is any kind of mistake in Him but it is to reveal His compassion, blessed be He, on the creatures how much Hashem has pity on everything He created, even a thing that has... but rather, in order to teach us Hashem, blessed be He, said this in order to teach us that we should know His ways, so that we know how to pardon, know how to forgive know how to say 'I erred', know how to say 'I sinned' And why is the connection the Shulchan Aruch makes so strong - 'until he appeases his fellow' - why does one depend on the other so much?

37:11 that Yom Kippur atones but sins between man and his fellow it does not atone - why? because if a person cannot say to his fellow 'I have sinned, I have wronged you, I have transgressed against you' he cannot say before the Omnipresent, 'I have sinned, I have done wrong, I have transgressed' That is the reason: because when a person cannot say to his fellow, 'I sinned against you I erred before you, forgive me, pardon me' - if he does not say this before the Creator he has not truly returned because before Hashem too he does not say 'we have sinned' properly Therefore this is true teshuvah: to say 'I have sinned' truly to say teshuvah, to do teshuvah, 'I have done wrong' truly because all of Israel are holy - if we only knew...

37:52 everyone knows that the holiness of the Jewish people is so great that the Sages ruled in Tractate Moed Katan, page 25a that a person who stands and sees a Jew - Heaven forbid, a person who passes away who departs - it is like seeing a Torah scroll burned, it is the same matter that it is really like seeing a Torah scroll burned and one must rend one's garment and cry out to Heaven at the time one sees the soul leaving, at the departure of the soul Indeed, what is done in the holy Ark - that if there are wrapping cloths that wore out there are worn-out wrapping cloths of Torah scrolls they would make them into shrouds for a met mitzvah so the Gemara in Tractate Megillah, there, on page 27 and in Orach Chaim, siman 154, and in Yoreh De'ah, siman 284

38:47 who brought it so, in the Tur and the Shulchan Aruch that they would go and make from them wrappings, shrouds for a met mitzvah and there they would place... So indeed in Moed Katan, page 25 the Ritva and the Ramban bring there - they brought that the body of a person the body of a Jew - its law is that of a holy article therefore one makes shrouds for it, like for a Torah scroll therefore we are commanded to bury it like a Torah scroll So we see that every Jew, every soul, every member of Israel has the status of a living Torah scroll - all of the Jewish people are holy books Therefore when a holy one passes from the world - every person, whoever he is whoever he may be, whatever his state may be

39:31 they would wrap him in shrouds as for a Torah scroll, as they used to do and place him in the earth - according to the view of the Ritva and the Ramban who say that this is because of the storing away of what is holy that his very body was made for holy concealment, that his body... So too it is written in the 'Chasam Sofer', at the end of siman 336 he writes this too - this matter of the body, of holiness that according to this we see that the body rose so high and was sanctified that the body is on such a level; so we see the compassion of Hashem And if Adam, the first man, had revealed the secret of teshuvah even before this, when Hashem, blessed be He, asked him: 'Where are you?'

40:12 and he had revealed it and said, 'I have sinned, I have done wrong, I have transgressed' death would have been nullified from the world and the filth of the serpent's venom would have departed which is the filth of the serpent, and then everything would have returned to its place everything would have returned, and the kingship of Hashem would have extended over all creatures And this is what one must do before Hashem: to hold ourselves strong in prayer and to give Hashem, blessed be He, satisfaction, to pray before Hashem, before Him, blessed be He that there be teshuvah before Hashem, to do teshuvah from the depths of the heart to bring the redemption closer; and know that we have already grown far so very far from the Beis HaMikdash, and the exile grows longer and longer

40:53 and certainly we have no one to lean on except our Father in Heaven but the thought is that we see the world is in chaos already, with what is happening in the world and that the creatures have lost the control and the ability to rule over the laws of Hashem, blessed be He over what Hashem makes rule in the world - and every plan and scheme they make Hashem, blessed be He, does the opposite because they do not return to His laws and His teachings that He bequeathed them to His Torah, to His mitzvah If the creatures return and seek the Creator...

41:27 He will wait until they raise their eyes to Heaven, and if it does not help and again and again, until the creatures raise their eyes to Heaven and ask for His kingship, ask that He reign - and this is what Hashem has done that the whole world has come to despise all the leaders and all the kings and wants only the kingship of Heaven - and may they ask for this and increase in this then Hashem, blessed be He, will reign over us; and may we merit to do teshuvah to Hashem may we merit to return our hearts from the depths of the heart, to return to Hashem to bring satisfaction before Him, blessed be He that there be satisfaction before Him, blessed be He and may He, blessed be He, have mercy on us and save us

42:06 that there be good abundance for everyone that everyone be inscribed and sealed for good and that everyone have nachas and joy May Hashem, blessed be He, fulfill the wishes of all your hearts, for good and for blessing that you be glad and joyful May Hashem, blessed be He, guard all His people Israel may you have nachas, and ease, and good abundance with joy and gladness of heart And may Hashem, blessed be He, accept your prayers with mercy and favor may we merit complete teshuvah, and to return before G-d, blessed be He and may He accept our teshuvah; may we merit to return to Him, blessed be He with joy and gladness of heart; may it be fulfilled in us 'Peace to you, peace to your house, and peace to all that is yours' May G-d Almighty bless us and grant mercy to all of Israel

42:48 good abundance, with joy and gladness of heart may you be inscribed and sealed for good, good tidings and good abundance - amen!