The Yanuka Rav Shlomo Yehuda-הזדמנות של פעם בשנה - הגאון הינוקא בכנס חיזוק בעיר בת ים תשפ＂ה 2025 על הכוח העצום של חודש אלול

3:41 You know that the Mishnah Berurah brings, in siman 591, se'if katan 14 — he brings in the name of the Magen Avraham — that Hashem, blessed be He, is not like flesh and blood. Flesh and blood, when he holds a trial, judges what is before his eyes; what he rules is what will be. But the Holy One, blessed be He, when He judges the created beings — all kinds of sins and wrongs that a person did many, many years ago can come up before Him, and He can judge the person in one moment. He binds all the sins into one bundle, and can judge the person for twenty years, fifteen years, seven years, ten years — all at once, in bundles — to sentence him to life, to suffering, to livelihood, to poverty. Everything is judged on this holy day,

4:35 on this day. Rabbeinu Yosef Chaim, who wrote in his letters — he wrote, it is found in the letters of Rabbeinu Yosef Chaim, he wrote that one minute in this month, the month of Elul — he wrote — "is as important in my eyes as a month of days." So he wrote: one minute in the month of Elul. A person — we all look at this month, but we don't understand that a day, one month — in the month of Elul, one minute, one moment is teshuvah before Hashem, when people return before the King and awaken in teshuvah to return before the Holy One, blessed be He. Everyone does teshuvah in these days, which are days of forgiveness, days of supplication.

5:11 There is a promise in the name of Maran the Chida, in the name of the holy gaon of Rashkov, Rabbi Shabsai of Rashkov, in the siddur of Rabbi Shabsai of Rashkov — and the holy gaon, the author of Mateh Efraim, in siman 581 — they wrote that whoever says Psalm 27 of Tehillim, "L'David, Hashem ori v'yish'i" — "Hashem is my light and my salvation" — from Rosh Chodesh Elul until Hoshana Rabbah, will come out innocent in judgment. This is truly a promise in the name of these holy ones: whoever says this psalm, Psalm 27 of Tehillim, every day from Rosh Chodesh Elul until Hoshana Rabbah is promised that he will come out innocent in judgment. So those holy ones wrote. And as much as we increase teshuvah and awakening in these days — when we awaken and want to return to Hashem,

5:55 and do teshuvah — the teshuvah must be done from the depth of the heart: to truly return before Hashem, blessed be He, so that our heart is truly humbled, and we take upon ourselves good resolutions: not to return, Heaven forbid, to our folly, not to go back to doing what is evil in the eyes of Hashem. In Shaarei Teshuvah, in the First Gate, in section 2, it is written — Rabbeinu Yonah writes — that a person who, Heaven forbid, holds on to his sin and does not confess before Hashem makes his sin greater every day, and his punishment grows very, very great each day.

6:26 When a person has a sin in his hand and does not confess it and does not do teshuvah for it every day, not only is it not erased for him — it rises and overfills the measure before the King. Therefore a person must do teshuvah every day. That is the reason for what is in the Beis Yosef, siman 239, on the Shema at bedtime, and for what is written in the Zohar, Korach, page 158a, about the "masters of the accounting": each and every day one does teshuvah before Hashem, blessed be He, and confesses.

6:54 And everyone returns in teshuvah before the Holy King, and everyone weeps before Hashem and prays before Hashem that He pardon us, have mercy on us, atone for us; and everyone confesses and draws near before the King. And the more time passes — as time passes — the more quickly a person does teshuvah, the sooner — so He pardons all the sins, all his transgressions. The Holy One, blessed be He, pardons and forgives him for all his transgressions, all his sins, all his iniquities, all his transgressions.

7:22 A person must always do teshuvah, draw close to Hashem, ask Hashem for salvation, for mercy, be more truthful, be more pure. All the holy ones — the Alter of Kelm wrote: these days, the days of the month of Elul, are days of health for the soul. They are days in which the soul attains tranquility, days in which the soul attains its tikkun, days in which the soul — one reaches the greatest levels. All the sages, all the great ones of the earlier generations, would wait for the days of Elul, and would say that these days are days that can bring a person to the most exalted levels.

7:55 They are days in which all the gates are open, and one can merit and truly acquire the World to Come by a short road. After everything a person does all year, if he comes in the month of Elul and truly returns to Hashem in teshuvah, and understands his sins, his iniquities and his transgressions, and does teshuvah, and decides to leave his wickedness and his sin, and decides to crown the Holy King, decides to draw close to the Holy King — then his level is greater, and all his iniquities are pardoned, all his transgressions, all his sins.

8:25 How many times in the year the Holy One, blessed be He, grants us teshuvah! We have Yom Kippur: when one does teshuvah, it atones for us for the whole year. The eve of Rosh Hashanah atones for the whole year. We have the eve of Rosh Chodesh. Rabbeinu the holy Shelah writes that when a person prays the Musaf prayer of Rosh Chodesh, all his sins of the entire month are pardoned. On the eve of the holy Shabbos one prays, and all the sins of the whole week are pardoned.

8:52 Each and every day one does teshuvah and nefilas apayim, and the sin of the entire day is pardoned. From Shacharis to Minchah one says the confession, teshuvah and nefilas apayim, and all the sins and transgressions of that very day are pardoned, of those hours in which the person sinned and transgressed. So the Holy One, blessed be He, always arranges that there be pardon, forgiveness and atonement each and every day. And therefore the standing of Rosh Chodesh is a great standing.

9:17 The kedushah of Yom Tov is greater than that of Rosh Chodesh, but Rosh Chodesh has a merit higher than Yom Tov: the fire of Gehinnom has no power on the day of Rosh Chodesh. So writes Maran the Chida in Birkei Yosef, in siman 419, that a person, on the day of Rosh Chodesh — the greater merit of Shabbosos and Roshei Chodashim is that they were given to us from the creation of the world. And the Yamim Tovim — it was for the miracles and wonders that the Holy One, blessed be He, did for us that we came to have the remembrance of the Yamim Tovim.

9:47 But the holy Shabbos day and the day of Rosh Chodesh are a remembrance of the act of Creation. That is the beginning of Creation, the beginning of everything. These are the days by which all our times, all the festivals, are reckoned; everything depends on these days. And therefore there is merit and importance in always making a festive meal on Rosh Chodesh, as the Rokeach wrote in siman 228, as the Tur brings in siman 419, that the custom is to make a festive meal on Rosh Chodesh, and to make it with joy, with beauty. The Pri Chadash wrote, in siman 419, to make it with bread: one makes the morning meal specifically with bread.

10:18 For the Rosh Chodesh meal there is great merit in this, as the Shaar HaTziyun brings in the name of Rabbeinu Or Zarua, who brought, according to his words, that one should make the meal — the more one makes of a meal and of joy — and especially when it is on Shabbosos and Yamim Tovim, then, as the Eliyah Rabbah brings there, and in the name of the Knesses HaGedolah, who brought that one makes a meal and makes one more cooked dish, even more beauty and even more splendor, so that it is recognizable that it is in honor of Rosh Chodesh — on Shabbosos too, on Yamim Tovim too, whenever Rosh Chodesh falls, one makes joy and beauty in honor of Rosh Chodesh itself.

10:52 Why? On Rosh Chodesh all the souls are renewed, and the whole Jewish people is renewed on Rosh Chodesh. But the merit and importance of Rosh Chodesh Elul in particular, which is close to Rosh Hashanah — the Jewish people merit to be sanctified and uplifted and to receive the highest illumination from Heaven that there is, which is the illumination of Erech Apayim, Arich Anpin; one receives the shining of the Face from before the Holy King.

11:18 And so, specifically for the expenses of Shabbosos and Yamim Tovim, the Holy One, blessed be He, atones, and sends word to a person: "Borrow on My account, and I will repay" — in Tractate Beitzah, page 16 — where the Sages teach us that a person — all that a person has, he is sustained from Tishrei to Tishrei — except for what he spends on his sons' Torah learning, on Shabbosos, Yamim Tovim. And your sign for it is "Tishrei", as the Be'er Heitev wrote in siman 242, that we learn from this: Talmud Torah, Shabbos, Rosh Chodesh, Yamim Tovim — the initial letters, the notarikon, of "Tishrei" — which one receives at these times.

11:51 This is also written in Midrash Rabbah, Parashas Emor, and in the Pesikta d'Rav Kahana, in the piska at the end, in piska 27, it is written about at length — about the great merit of making joy before Hashem, and the Rosh Chodesh meal, and the expenses of Rosh Chodesh, which is above everything. And especially as Rosh Chodesh Elul draws near — and we are in Rosh Chodesh Elul — and for Tishrei there is no mention of Rosh Chodesh. Why? It is "at the covered time, for the day of our festival" — the Holy One, blessed be He, covers it from the Satan.

12:19 So the end of the year and the beginning of the year are precisely in this month. This is the only time — people awaken precisely at this time, because once Rosh Hashanah arrives, one already enters the year at once. So it turns out that the month of Elul now, especially at this time, must be cherished and honored more than all the times and more than all the garments, more than everything. And the more a person honors it and awakens at this time to return in teshuvah before the Holy King, to confess, to awaken before Hashem, to do as much as he can to return from his sins, his iniquities and his transgressions, to return before the Holy King — as the Rambam wrote in the Laws of Teshuvah, chapter 2, halachah 2, that a person should return from all his sins, take resolutions upon himself,

12:59 and be in no stain and in no sin; he separates himself from all the sins and all the transgressions. He draws near before the Holy King, he returns in teshuvah before the Holy King — then he rises and is exalted before the entire world, and he merits levels that no one can merit. Everyone knows, in fact, that this is the secret of the dispute between Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Eliezer. The Gemara in Taanis, page 25, side b — the Gemara tells that "the Sages were murmuring" about Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Eliezer: he said twenty-four blessings and was not answered, and Rabbi Akiva came and at once said "Avinu Malkeinu", and at once rain fell — and "the Sages were murmuring": all the Sages were saying — they were all murmuring — how can this be?

13:41 What is the secret in this? How is it that Rabbi Akiva, who comes just like that, so quickly, says "Avinu Malkeinu" and at once rain falls, and a great one like Rabbi Eliezer, with his wisdom, with his lineage, with all his power, is not answered with the blessings, and this one is answered with only "Avinu Malkeinu"? So the secret of Rabbi Akiva — and this is a new way one can explain it — is that Rabbi Akiva merited a level that is Arich Anpin, that is Erech Apayim, which is the secret of ma'avir al midosav — one who passes over his measures.

14:11 The secret of passing over one's measures is that a person feels that in fact this world would have existed without him too. He does not try to take anything for himself in this world. When a person is within the measures, he is inside vessels, he is inside a constriction; he thinks of himself, he attributes things to himself, he wants for himself, he wants to bring things to himself. But when a person passes over his measures — it does not only mean passing over his measures as in "I don't care if people hurt me." That is not the meaning. Passing over his measures: I am above the measures. I do not think that I have anything at all from this world.

14:42 That is passing over the measures: he rises, as it were, above the measures; he does not think he is within a measure, he rises above the measure. When a person rises above the measure — that is the secret of Rabbi Akiva: Rabbi Akiva rose above the measure. And his whole secret is that he said, "Everything the Merciful One does, He does for the good," which the Shulchan Aruch rules in siman 230: that a person should say it, to feel this aspect — that Rabbi Akiva rose up and knew that everything, everything is for the good.

15:08 So when a person rises to such a level, where he sees all of reality as being for the good, where he sees everything as a revelation of G-dliness, then he passes over the measures, because he does not think he is within measures, he does not think he is within time, he does not think he is within anger, that something is owed to him. "I would be as though I had never been" — I do not exist at all, I have no name, I remember nothing. Like Shmuel, who remembered the pain of his milah — the Sages teach us the great secret, that on the one hand the Sages have the memory at the true root, from before they came into being. That is the secret of Shmuel, who remembered the pain of the milah: a person brings himself back to the beginning, he remembers the beginning of all beginnings,

15:47 he remembers that in fact he did not exist. As a person says in his mind: a hundred years ago I was not in this world. So now — a hundred years from now, too, I will not be here. So what is owed to me? What am I in pain about? What am I upset about? What do I attribute to myself? Nothing is coming to me. It is not fitting for me to take anything from this world. The very fact that I walk about here is pure kindness from the King of kings, who gives me the kindness of walking about and seeing His creation at all.

16:12 So when a person reckons with this, he passes over the measures. The meaning is that he does not attribute measures to himself at all. And because he does not attribute measures to himself, it is fitting to say that from Heaven he is answered at once. That is the meaning: Rabbi Akiva was answered because he passed above the measures. For one cannot say that Rabbi Eliezer had an issue of middos, that he did not pass over his measures. These were great ones, Tannaim, Sages. "No eye has seen, O G-d, besides You" — that is Eliezer, by its initial letters.

16:37 Who can stand at his measure, at his level? He had no dealing with the measures at all, that he should need to pass over the measures; they were angels. So the meaning is that Rabbi Akiva brought himself all the way back to the beginning, to the start. And that is also the secret of his having spat, laughed and wept — that spitting — and that he reached such a level that he brought himself back to the true and eternal root. And that is why, at the end of Makkos, where the Gemara says that he wept, and that the Sages wept — he laughed, he rejoiced, he saw the vision of Jerusalem, he saw the building of the Beis HaMikdash, the Holy Temple, he saw the geulah, he saw the hope, he saw the joy of the Jewish people,

17:15 he saw all the yearnings of the Jewish people, he saw all the hope of the Jewish people, he saw all the good that is in all the Jewish people, that there is no evil or darkness in a Jew. He saw the great secret, that all the souls of Israel are holy, holy, holy souls, that each one, at his root, returns to the Holy King. There is no Jew who has a flaw in him, Heaven forbid. All of them, at their root, are holy and pure and desire the Holy King.

17:43 One can also learn this from the Gemara in Tractate Rosh Hashanah, from page 6. We all know that a person who vowed to bring an offering and afterwards regrets it, he does not want to bring this offering — the beis din compels him; he must bring the offering. He cannot exempt himself from bringing the offering. So on the one hand, if the beis din compels him to bring an offering — how can he be compelled? The offering has to come — to come from the person's own will. So the beis din sits and explains and compels him until he says "I am willing" — that he is "I am willing".

18:11 And so too the Rambam, Rabbeinu the Rambam, in the Laws of Divorce, chapter 2, halachah 20 — Rabbeinu the Rambam learns from this for the law of a get, where the wife is divorced in that same way; he writes there at length, "until he says: I am willing" — with a get. So that is what Rabbeinu the Rambam writes there, precisely about the yetzer hara: that in each one, in all the souls of Israel, each one has a root of kedushah so high, so exalted, that within his root he wants Hashem, blessed be He; he wants to keep the mitzvos, he wants to uphold kedushah — he is "I am willing".

18:43 He wants out of his own kedushah. He does not truly want this world; he does not want the sins and the iniquities. One simply needs to know how to enter the root of his soul and bring out the light that breaks forth from it. That is "A star has stepped forth from Yaakov." That is the secret of Yaakov Avinu, who saw all his generations, all the Jewish people. That is the reason we say "Blessed is the Name of the glory of His kingdom forever and ever": we recall the tribes who stood around the bed of Yaakov Avinu.

19:09 Yaakov Avinu thought: perhaps there is someone unfit among his offspring. Perhaps — from Yitzchak one who was unfit came out, and from Avraham one who was unfit came out — but perhaps, Heaven forbid, with me — let there be no one unfit. So Yaakov Avinu said: "Shema Yisrael, Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One." They all said before him: Know that in our heart there is only the One. We desire the King; we want as you do. He saw the generations of the Jewish people at that time, when he prophesied about the Jewish people; he heard them saying "Shema Yisrael".

19:34 He heard that all the Jewish people are all holy, and all beloved and precious before the Holy King, and the Holy One, blessed be He, loves all His people — "I have loved you, says Hashem." There is no Jew who is far from Him, blessed be He. One must reveal the light and the power hidden in all the Jewish people. And when the month of Elul arrives, and the holy souls begin to awaken, and all the holy souls begin to return, and one sees that in a generation so far off, after two thousand years of the exile — 1,958 years since the time of the Temple — everyone is in pain, everyone understands that we are in a very long exile — and suddenly the Jewish people return: they are in the synagogues, they are in the study halls,

20:17 saying "Amen, yehei shmei rabba", and weeping, and praying, lifting their eyes to heaven. The Shibolei HaLeket writes, in siman 20, that when the Jewish people say Kedushah and raise their eyes to heaven, it is a time of favor and of pleasure before Hashem like no other pleasure — when the Jewish people raise their eyes on high. It gives the Holy One, blessed be He, pleasure when they say Kedushah, Kedushah, and lift their eyes to heaven — when one sees, after generations so far off — fortunate are you, Israel — everyone who is in the house of Hashem.

20:47 And in a generation so far off, when there is so much darkness outside, such gloom, and one sees holy Jews who are in Noach's ark — they are in the synagogue, in the study hall, and they lift their eyes to heaven, saying "Amen, yehei shmei rabba", wearing out their feet on the way to the study hall, rising early and staying late for the synagogue, overcoming their inclination. It is hard for them to get up, and they lift the body, they lift all that flesh, and go to the house of Hashem.

21:14 The cold is hard on them in winter, and the heat in summer — and so they go and pray. And in this merit we live and endure — in the merit of our fathers' self-sacrifice, in the merit of the self-sacrifice of this holy people. "Who is like Your people Israel", Master of the world! It is only in the merit of this unity and of our people. You should know — this is most important. There is the holy gaon, the Maggid of Kozhnitz, Rabbi Yisrael son of Rabbi Shabsai, author of Avodas Yisrael.

21:40 He writes — he has his commentary on Tractate Avos, on chapter 3 — he writes there that the impurity of the mouth, when a person, Heaven forbid, speaks lashon hara, Heaven forbid — it holds back the prayers of Rosh Hashanah from being accepted. Therefore one must do teshuvah precisely at this time. Why? When a person speaks lashon hara, Heaven forbid, about the Jewish people, it is as if he speaks about the Holy One, blessed be He. For what does the Holy One, blessed be He, have in His tefillin?

22:06 It is written that the Holy One, blessed be He, also puts on tefillin. We put on tefillin and we have His Name, blessed be He. The Holy One, blessed be He, puts on tefillin and He has our name — the Jewish people. "My son, My firstborn, Israel." "Israel, in whom I take glory." All the praise of the Jewish people — the Jewish people — that is the tefillin of the Holy One, blessed be He. So if, Heaven forbid, one speaks of something unfit in the Jewish people, then, Heaven forbid, it turns out we are saying there is something unfit in the tefillin of the Holy One, blessed be He; we are murmuring against the Holy One, blessed be He, that He puts on unfit tefillin, Heaven forbid.

22:34 And therefore one must be careful, Heaven forbid, not to speak against the Jewish people. And if, Heaven forbid, one speaks against holy ones, or against holy tzaddikim, that lengthens the exile even more, and it is as if the person has put out slander against the entire Jewish people. Just as when a person commits a sin in front of the greatest of the generation, it is as if he sins in public and with a brazen face — so it is the other way round too. And therefore one must always be careful, always guard the mouth and the tongue, speak holy words, awaken good upon the Jewish people and judge the Jewish people favorably — for the Holy One, blessed be He, loves this people.

23:03 And I, the small and lowly one, bless you — the whole congregation, and the Rav, the Rav, the mara d'asra — may the Holy One, blessed be He, lengthen his days in goodness and give him his years in pleasantness — and all the rabbis of your communities here in your holy city. Fortunate are you, people of the city — for the Holy One, blessed be He — "bnei yama", people of the sea — you are precious and beloved before Hashem. Rabbi Chaim Palagi writes of great virtues of the people of the sea, who once lived close by the sea. Komarna writes too — Rabbi Yitzchak Eizik Yehudah Yechiel Safrin of Komarna — that the air by the sea is pure, pure; and you have a clean spirit and extra wisdom in meriting to be here in this city. And I, the small one, bless you: may you succeed and rise and flourish,

23:51 and may you have long and good lives and salvations from Heaven. All who need a complete recovery — may you have a complete recovery. All who need living, enduring children — may you have living, enduring children; and robust health, and good and fitting matches, and length of days and years. May all the blessings stated in the Torah, in Scripture, in the Mishnah be fulfilled in you, in your children and your children's children. And to strengthen the hands of the rabbis, to strengthen them, and especially our teacher the Rav, Rav Bar Shalom — may the Holy One, blessed be He, lengthen your days in goodness — Rabbi Eliyahu Chaim ben Yael — may your borders grow with students, and may you have no [unclear] in the legs, and may you go on doing mightily here in your city.

24:35 Yasher koach to you! Be strong and take courage. "Length of days is in her right hand; in her left, wealth and honor." Fortunate, fortunate are you to have merited such a rav. - The city of Bat Yam loves the Rav, the Yanuka, very much. Now we have heard a new name: Bnei Yama. We invite you here with the greatest love and the greatest desire, with the warmest of welcomes.