Rosh HaShanah - 005 Nothing But The Truth

Why Hasn’t Moshiach Come Yet?

Chazal say, “Why hasn’t Ben Dovid yet come yet – why didn’t he come today, yesterday, or the day before it?”

It is because nothing has changed. Just like we were the same yesterday and the day before it, and we didn’t change - that is why Moshiach didn’t come yet.

We are in a situation which is not good. We can’t say it’s totally bad, but it is not good either.  I don’t think there’s anyone here who thinks that he has a good situation.

We only have one hope: we must change. If we remain the same, we have no hope.

What hope can we have? That each person should say “I need to change”? That’s not enough that just you should change, because it’s not just about you. The world was not created for us to be self-absorbed and only worry for ourselves. We need to unify with each other.

A Spiritual Slumber

I will speak about something that is very painful to speak about. We are in one giant slumber. We are in a total slumber.

Anyone with a little sensitivity to the inner spiritual reality that exists, when he walks in the street, can feel like the world is Gehinnom.

I am not talking about even bad places. I am talking about a regular street you walk in. It’s Gehinnom. Why is it Gehinnom? Because we are in a world that lives so far from a life of truth. The lifestyle of today is totally upside-down.

There is almost no one who worries for others; each person lives for himself and worries for himself, like how he will make money, and he also worries a little for his spirituality. But if someone else’s child gets sick, does anyone go to the hospital to visit him…?

We live today in one giant slumber.

What Is Wrong Today?

After this shiur, everyone will go home and continue on usual, some with a negative outlook and some with a positive outlook, and continue on with routine as usual.

People are wondering: “There is Torah everywhere, there are thousands of shiurim going on. What’s the problem??” The problem is very clear. The problem is that we are in a world where truth has no bearing on a person’s life.

People who run after This World run only after This World, and people who are spiritual only care for themselves; there is almost no one who is truthful.  What hope is there that reality will change…?

The average person doesn’t feel responsibility even for himself, and surely he doesn’t feel responsible for this generation. “Who am I, what can I do?” he thinks. And the less people think and reflect, the more they get ‘buried’ into their desires - “Kivros HaTaavah”.

We must know what Hashem wants from us in this situation we are in. We are not merely in a situation in which we have certain kinds of problems; rather, there is one huge problem enveloping us today. A frum person keeps Shabbos and keeps kosher; he doesn’t have problems with that. The problem is that a frum Jew these days doesn’t know what it means to be a Jew! He identifies himself, deep down, as a non-Jew. He knows that he dresses like a Jew, but deep down, he feels disconnected from his own Yiddishkeit, rachmana litzlan. Even without coming to such a decision openly, that is the attitude deep down in himself.

There are Jews who aren’t observant at all, as well as those who are a little observant. But we must know what the problem really is. The problem is that just like a sick person needs a doctor, so are we spiritually sick, and we don’t know that there is an inner kind of life. We don’t see it.

Self-Absorption

Not only don’t we see it in Jews who aren’t frum. Even in observant Jews, we can’t see an inner kind of life going on. Even when people pursue spirituality, they are self-absorbed in their own spiritual concerns.

We were created to reveal Hashem upon the world[1] – not just in ourselves, but to the world. That is what we should get up for in the morning! If not, one is disconnected from the purpose of living.

It is very painful, these words. Why are they painful? I will give a simple example why.

The Real Help That Is Needed

Here in America, there are many chessed organizations. Baruch Hashem, people help each other. But how many places are there in the world where a person can be guided in what the truth about life is? When it comes to physical help, there is a lot of assistance being offered.  There are even organizations that help a person go on vacation he needs so that he can relax. But why is there no organization that can help a person have emes (truth) in his life? There is very little truth in the world.

People will respond to this, “But there are many organizations that help a person become a baal teshuvah.” This has nothing to do with it. Doing teshuvah is not just for people who aren’t wearing a kippah. We daven every day that Hashem return us to have Teshuvah Shelaimah (complete repentance). Why aren’t people crying out when they daven for this? Why are people only crying out for their physical needs? Why aren’t people who keep mitzvos being helped to return to Teshuvah Shelaimah…?

What does Hashem want from us? He wants us to search for the truth and not be able to fall asleep from it at night, just like a person can’t fall asleep at night when he owes money. But the truth of what life is about doesn’t bother us!

Turn Over A New Page In Your Life

You can understand that it took time for me to come here and speak and to go back. What is the reason that I came here? I did not come here to say words of inspiration. Other speakers will come after me and do that. I came here for a whole different point: You should know that your life as it was until now, must end.

We all know one day we will die; you should know that from now on, starting today, you have no more of your previous life. Turn over a whole new page in your life, of how you live life.

Understand that there is a deep problem with the whole lifestyle of today. Just as we see that people who are not frum are living their life wrong, so too must we look at ourselves and realize that we are living our life wrong.

A Lack of Truthful Living

Although a person can look like a good person, someone who does chessed and helps people, if he takes away families for vacations for Shabbos (there are organizations that do this!), although he has a good heart, it is his actions that are incorrect.[2]

When we examine ourselves, we all know that there are things we have to improve; true. But we have to be aware that there is a bigger problem we have: we are missing the whole point of life, because we are disconnected from living a truthful kind of life. Our whole life is based on erroneous beliefs.

Raising Good Children

Here is a very simple example. A person has a five or six year old child. What would he like to give him? He wants to give him good clothing, a good kindergarten, good food, good sleep, happiness, toys , etc. But does he ever think about giving over to his child the truth of life?

Hashem has given a child to a father to raise. For what purpose? We need to worry for our children and give them their physical needs, of course; but that’s not the purpose of why Hashem gives us a child. Hashem has given us a child so that we can raise him to be a true Jew, and to live a truthful life.

A non-Jew also wants his child to be nourished and happy. If so, what is the difference between the way a Jew should raise a child and the way a non-Jew raises his child? Physically, there is no difference. A non-Jew who has a child in the house, he also wants his child to have it good. The difference is, that a Jew is supposed to raise his child and guide him to live a truthful kind of life.

From morning to night, a father works so that his family can be supported with food and clothing and be able to go to school. For what purpose? When a father comes home at night, he’s tired and exhausted from the whole day. How then can he teach his children about the truth of life? He feels it’s too much pressure! He says: “When am I supposed to find time for that?! Maybe on Shabbos I’ll have time.”

But think about it. Hashem gave you a child so that you can teach him what the G-dly truth of life is. Yet, the reality we see is not concerned with this. Most of a person’s life is spent on working so that the family can have their physical needs - and the inner essence of life is abandoned.

Why? It’s very simple. It’s because the father himself doesn’t consider the truth of life to be a priority by him. If the truth would burn inside him, and the external aspects of life would be seen as less important, he would be able to find time to teach his child about what it means to live a truthful life. But when the father doesn’t have this value, and he does not think that life is about truth, he has an apathetic attitude towards life - and that will be all that he can give over to his children.

Lose Sleep Over This

We all know what’s going on in our hearts.  Even if it bothers you, does it make you lose sleep at night? I will tell you clearly: If you can fall asleep at night with no trouble, you will not reach the truth of life; if you have trouble sleeping at night from this, then you will reach a truthful life.

Realizing The Situation of our Times

But we must understand that there is a problem. We hear inspiring lectures, we come to the lectures, but of what help is it for us? We all go back to routine afterwards. We don’t think we can escape the routine.

I always hear the question: “In a time like this, if I have to stop working to make a living [so that I can dedicate my life to pursuing only truth], how will I eat?”  But compare this to the following. Imagine if one’s child is hospitalized, and he has to keep going to the hospital to be with his child. He can’t be at work. He takes shifts with his wife in visiting his child. How come they don’t wonder about the question, “How will we get by the month if we aren’t going to work? How will we eat?” It’s because their child needs them. They realize that they have no choice; they have to take off from work and be with their child, even though that means they won’t be getting paid that month.

So why don’t people realize that their spiritual situation is sick? If people would know how ill they are in their spiritual situation, they would immediately leave work so they can dedicate themselves more to searching for truth, because they would see that they have no other choice. Why can’t one feel that his spiritual situation is devoid, and then go seclude himself for three hours and concentrate on this, and realize the truth?

We must realize that we are in a situation in which materialism is where we are getting our whole life from. It won’t help to speak about spiritual matters; we can speak about ruchniyus (spirituality) for an hour, for 2 hours, 10 hours, 100 hours, even 1000 hours, but it won’t help at all! I can’t say that it’s pointless; maybe a little bit it will help. But it won’t give a person hope to really change.

The only thing we can do is: decide to change.

Being Prepared To Lead A Truthful Life

It’s not easy to live your hometown that you’ve been living in for 30 years. You are comfortable here and you have a firm livelihood and schools for your children. But if you realize that the place you live in is not a truthful place, you can indeed leave it, even though you have no idea what will be.

True, maybe you won’t have livelihood and maybe you will have to find new schools for your children, but it’s better than the alternative, because if you stay in the untruthful place you are living in, your spiritual situation is doomed. When you realize that you need truth in your life and that you must leave the place you are in, it will be easier for you to leave it all behind, and instead search for the G-dly truth about life[3].

In the world we live in today, it doesn’t seem like we need to make extreme changes. We know that we need to better and improve ourselves, but we don’t see why extreme changes need to be made. But it’s much worse than what we think. Just like a person in a false kind of community must leave it - because he has no choice - so must a person know. that even if he lives in a place which seems truthful, he knows good and well that his life is empty! How much truth do we have in throughout our 24 hours a day…?

One must clearly recognize why he lives, and once he is clear in that, he must charter a new life for himself. The new life must be a life in which truth is the central priority to him, and it’s not enough to pursue truth for a half hour in the morning and an hour at night – it means that truth must be constantly be pursued throughout the entire day. The truth demands that.

Inspiration Vs. Real Change

I want to ask a question. Is there anyone here who thinks that the words here are not true?

You are all silent; that does that mean you agree? If you agree with the words here, then who here is willing to do something about this, practically?

(One person said, “We will try”. But if your son is sick, would you just “try” to go to the doctor, or would you actually do something about it?) What is the point of me speaking here? Will it help for me to keep speaking again and again? (Naaseh V’Nishmah? Don’t say Naaseh V’Nishmah to me and accept the words here because I’m saying it. Say Naaseh V’Nishmah to Hashem!)

What is practically resulting from these speeches? If people here will actually come and tell me that they want to come here because they want to change their life, I will set aside time to speak to them. But if people just come to me and tell me that they are hearing nice ideas from me and hearing inspiration, and if they tell me that they would rather hear a softer kind of speech that makes them feel good – of what use would this be??

If people are taught and taught what they have to do but they don’t practically change, and they go back to routine, it’s a waste of time for them to hear all that they heard. 

The Message

Know that Hashem is the One who created us, and the One whom we must serve is Hashem.

If we really decide that we are ready to change our life no less than how a non-religious person is ready to change over his entire life so he can become a baal teshuvah, then there is a point of me continuing to speak, because it will lead to practical change. If not, then I don’t have time to speak, and it will be a waste of time for you if you come to the speeches.

[For example], if a Rav is told that no one is listening to his Halacha shiur, there is no point in giving the shiur, because it’s better that they not realize how many mistakes they are making, rather than committing their sins on purpose. But if people really come to a shiur because they want to practice what is being said in the shiur, then there is a point in giving the shiur.

Facing Reality

People might think that the words here are too harsh. But imagine if a person brings his child to a doctor and they tell him that he needs heart surgery.  The father can’t deal with the shock, so he tells them, “Please, just tell me it’s a problem with his foot.” We get scared when we can’t deal with the truth. But we really cannot run away from reality.

People are running away from reality and they complain to me, “Why do you have to talk so harshly?” But I’m not talking harshly, I’m just telling you what reality is! You can’t run away from reality, so you have to learn how to actually deal with it.

I hope that the people here understand what exactly is wanted over here. The hope I have here is that you should live in the kind of life that Hashem wants you to live in, a life in which serving Hashem is your central priority, and that materialistic matters are less important to you.

If this sounds like too extreme of a change, I can’t argue with you. You asked me to speak here, and this is what I had to say. If you came here and you didn’t like what you heard, you won’t come back and hear another of these speeches.  But even if you wanted to hear the words here, you must actually seek to actualize the words here in your life.

I have done my obligation towards Hashem by coming here to speak. When I return to Heaven after 120, I will have to give a self-accounting to Hashem, and I will be asked, “There are many people swooning around on This World, running and running and running after This World. Why didn’t you tell them to stop for one day in their life and say to them, “You will end up dying like everyone else dies. Instead of dying amidst running around in chasing desires on This World, why don’t you at least die from reflecting deeply on the G-dly truth of life?”

I can’t stifle myself from saying these words, because these words are the simple truth, and since they are the truth, they must be heard. But it’s painful for me that no one else is saying these words; but it is the truth.

Returning To Our Temimus (Original Purity)

I will be very happy if people understand that the words here are words that even a five-year old should know. Because this is the lifestyle we are supposed to live with and train our children with.

But what does a five-year-old child see today? He gets put on a bus, and he sees all kinds of ads on the bus. What does it say in these ads? “Ain Od Milvado”? “Know from where you came from and to where you are going, and before Whom you will have to give an accounting?” No, the ads are about a new car, or something new that comes from America. That is the kind of surroundings that a child is growing up in, and this is the air he breathes; he is breathing in the opposite of the real reality we are supposed to live in.

What is the truth? The truth is as the Jews were told, “Follow Me into the desert, to an unsowed land.”  The temimus (simple belief) that a Jew has is that besides for serving Hashem, we have nothing else in our life, and that this is the purpose of life which must fill us constantly.

Chazal say “Make the Torah permanent and your labor temporary”. In your actual soul, as the Nefesh HaChaim says, you can have “Torah and Derech Eretz at the same time, meaning, even as you’re going about your mundane affairs, your thoughts and heart can be connected to Torah in-depth. This is the paradigm of a “normal” Jew!

Preparing Ourselves For The Time of The Future

May Hashem merit us that all who are sitting here, and even those who are not sitting here, should understand – that the world we are in is only temporary. It will one day be destroyed totally; it will become a dot. A new world will be revealed in its place, a world of total purity, a true world, a world in which there is nothing except knowledge of Hashem. That is the future world that will be revealed.

If one yearns for knowledge of Hashem, then when that future world becomes revealed, he will find pleasure when he experiences the revelation of the future world. But if he didn’t yearn to know Hashem more, he never got used to what it means to yearn for Hashem, so he won’t know what to do with himself! All he knew of from his life was the bank account, the phone ringing, meetings, business deals, and other activities he was busy with from this world.  He never lived in the world of the future which Hashem will reveal.

There is a very sharp statement of the Baal Tanya, who was asked: “Why didn’t Moshiach come yet?” (It’s unclear why the question was asked in the first place, because it’s obvious why Moshiach didn’t come yet. But that was the question). The Baal HaTanya answered, “The Moshiach you’re hoping for will never come, and the Moshiach that will come is the Moshiach that you never hoped for.”

People want Moshiach to come so they can go free from their problems and their stress, from financial problems, from health problems, from shidduchim.  This was what the Baal HaTanya meant: People want Moshiach to come just so that their problems will go away, and such a Moshiach will never come, because that’s not Moshiach! The Moshiach that will come is a person who will reveal the truth to all people, that besides for knowing Hashem, there is nothing else we have.

If a person is bothered all day that he doesn’t know Hashem as much as he could, that is someone who truly awaits Moshiach, because he is awaiting the purpose of Moshiach’s arrival. Without awaiting this truth, a person won’t be able to survive in the future, because he never yearned for it.

May Hashem give us all a yearning to know only of Him - and nothing else except this.