Bereishis

The posuk says ויברך אלקים את יום השביעי ויקדש אתו. Hashem blessed the seventh day & sanctified it.
According to the Zohar, Shabbos is the source of all blessing, both physical & spiritual. As the midrash explains ברכת ה' היא תעשיר the blessing of Hashem grants wealth, is a reference to Shabbos.

That it's the source of spiritual blessing we can understand. However, asks the Ben Ish Chai, it would seem that the blessing of wealth is the antithesis of keeping Shabbos. Shabbos is the day when we have to put aside all of our material pursuits not to do even the slightest bit of business. Since that is the case how is it specifically on Shabbos when we are commanded not to do any work that that's the day that gives us the blessing of wealth?

He continues by saying that of course the bracha that we get is from the work that we do all week however this bracha that encompasses us during the week stems from the holiness of Shabbos & its blessings. As the Zohar says all blessings come from the seventh day.

Where do we see that Shabbos causes material wealth? Continues the Ben Ish Chai, when the Torah tells us about material wealth it uses three main terms to define wealth. דגן , תירוש, ויצהר when a person is blessed with these three things one is blessed with all encompassing blessing.

If one will notice immediately at the onset of shabbos we sanctify the Shabbos with these three things. First we make kiddush on wine , תירוש & on the table at the time is the lechem mishne , דגן & all the while the table is lit up by the Shabbos candles preferably from oil , יצהר.
So we see that the Shabbos & its Mitzvos send us the all encompassing bracha of דגן , תירוש, ויצהר.
How do we merit this bracha?

There's a story told over about a young man in Lithuania who bought a car & would shuttle people from the town to the train station on the outskirts of town. Slowly he started working later on friday & starting earlier after Shabbos until he was actually desecrating Shabbos publicly. All the admonishments didn't help & even the Rav tried to stop him but to no avail. His father was a sickly man who turned a blind eye to what was going on.

One day ר זלמן סורוצקין who was the Rav of this town was in Vilna for a gathering of all the rabbi's that was headed by the Chofetz Chaim. On his way home he was on the same train as the Chofetz Chaim who was on his way home to Radin. At a stopover The גרז was looking out the window & saw the sickly father hobbling toward the train. He went over to him to ask how he was & the man said he was going to get on a train to Radin to get a bracha from the Chafetz Chaim. His grandmother had come to him in a dream & told him to ask the Chofetz Chaim for a Bracha. The גרז told him that he was in luck & wouldn't have to make the trip to Radin because the Chafetz Chaim was right there in the train station!

The sickly man told the Chafetz Chaim his story & asked him for a bracha. The Chafetz Chaim was shaking & said to him " can I give a bracha? Do you think my bracha will help? Only shabbos can give you a bracha , shabbos is the source of all blessing. If you observe shabbos you will get its bracha & then mine could help. If you think that by you alone keeping shabbos you will get the bracha look at the posuk it says לא תעשה כל מלאכה אתה ובנך ובתך you, your sons & your daughters. It's the only Mitzva that the Torah says is the parents' obligation to make sure they keep it too. The man was sobbing & promised to make sure his children also kept shabbos & the Chafetz Chaim gave him his bracha.

The way we can get our bracha for the week & have all our material needs taken care of & merit true wealth from Hashem is by us & our families observing the shabbos to its fullest!

Succos

When the Torah commands us to take the ד' מינים on Sukkos it says ולקחתם לכם ביום הראשון, and you should take for yourself on the first day. Chazal explain why it says to take the four species on the first day when in reality we take them on the fifteenth day. They explain its ראשון לחשבון עוונות the first day of the new accounting for sins for the year.


To clarify the words of Chazal why Sukkos would be the start of the new accounting for sins for the year, ר' לוי יצחק מבארדיטשוב explains as follows. The days from Rosh Hashana through Yom Kippur, the teshuva that one does is normally תשובה מיראה , teshuva out of fear of the outcome of our judgment. However, right after Yom Kippur, when we are all busy with all the Sukkos preparations , building the Sukka, getting the ד' מינים etc., that's considered תשובה מאהבה , teshuva out of love, for the fear is gone & the love of the mitzvos takes over.


We know that when a person does תשובה מיראה, all one’s intentional sins turn to accidental ones, and when one does תשובה מאהבה, one’s sins turn into merits. So Hashem in His infinite mercy wants us all to come back to Him out of love. Therefore, on this yom tov when we are doing everything out of love, He waits to count our sins, so that He will know how many merits we have instead of our sins. That's why it’s called the first day of our accounting of sins for the year; for it’s the first day that Hashem counts all of our sins that He turned into merits & can then give us goodness & blessings for the year.


There's a story told about Reb Avraham, the brother of the Vilna Gaon, who after he got married left Vilna to live in a different town. His brother, the Gaon, sent him a letter to move back because he wanted to learn with him. His brother sent back a letter saying that he couldn't because his wife wouldn't move for the following reason.


In those days it was very hard to get a nice esrog & the ones that you could get were very expensive. One year, there were none to be found until one merchant came to town with only one esrog demanding an exorbitant price. At that time, the town would usually chip in & buy it together so there would be one esrog for the whole town. This time, they decided that they would have to forego the mitzva because they didn't have enough money to buy it. When the wife of Reb Avraham heard this, she was broken hearted & turned to her husband & said "how could it be that we won't have an esrog for sukkos?" Then, she had an idea. She said, “we’re living in a house that we got as a wedding present. We don't really need it so let's sell it & then we could buy the esrog. That's what they did.


When Reb Avraham told his wife about his brothers request to move to Vilna he asked his wife & she said we can't go because every time I walk by that house we sold to fulfill the mitzva of esrog I'm filled with such happiness & I can't give that up.


What's so special about the mitzva of esrog that people are willing to give up so much for it & happily?


Another reason why its called ראשון לחשבון עוונות is because the first sin done by man was the sin of the עץ הדעת & the fruit that he ate was the esrog.

The Ramban write that by us fulfilling the Mitzva of esrog we are atoning for the first sin of man.


Maybe that's why we are so connected to the esrog because by our fulfillment of this mitzva we are rectifying the original sin. Not only that, but we are also turning all our sins into mitzvos erasing all sin. If we are able to eradicate all sin, then perhaps we could bring back the original world without any worry or strife & have only bracha straight from Hashem!

Yom Kippur - Vezos HaBeracha

As Moshe nears his death, he takes the opportunity to give one last blessing to the shevatim; however instead of going in order he puts Yehuda after Reuvain.

Rashi says he did that because both Yehuda and Reuvain admitted to a wrongdoing they did.
Rashi continues with the gemara that says that during the forty years in the desert, the bones of Yehuda were rattling around in the coffin because he accepted excommunication on himself. Moshe said in Yehuda's favor "who caused Reuvain to admit his wrongdoing? Yehuda.” In that merit, Yehuda’s bones stopped rattling and went into their proper place.

The question is: how could it be that Yehuda caused Reuvain to admit his wrongdoing when the teshuva that Yehuda did was for the story with Tamar. We know that Reuvain was doing teshuva even before Yosef was sold, which was way before the story with Tamar even happened. How could it be that Yehuda caused Reuvain to do teshuva when he hadn't even sinned yet?

The Chasam Sofer once stated in a Shabbos Shuva drasha that the posuk says סור מרע ועשה טוב, separate from evil and do good. First you have to separate from evil and then you can do good. That's the way teshuva has to be done; first you have to resolve to remove yourself from sin and then do good, unlike people who will go to shul, daven and say tehillim. However, when they leave shul, they go back to repeating the same sins as before. As the Rambam explains teshuva, one has to leave his evil ways and resolve in his heart not to sin anymore. Only then will he be forgiven for the past; the main thing is to say aloud and admit what he’s doing wrong and resolve not to do it anymore.

The ממעינות הנצח says that first Reuvain thought that the way to do teshuva was by fasting, davening and wearing sackcloth. As Rashi explains why Reuvain wasn't there when Yosef was sold, because he was busy fasting;
He was busy doing what he thought was teshuva.
That's what he learned from Yehuda, that the real teshuva is the admission of what you did wrong and the resolve not to do it again.The purification of your heart is what counts.

Sometimes it’s hard to make a real resolve. Do we just give up?
Rav Shach said that he heard from רב יחזקאל לונשטין an insight on how to approach teshuva. While in Russia, when it would snow, every person was responsible to shovel in front of his house or shop and the police would come around to make sure it was be done. If it wasn't, they would issue a ticket. The people didn't really want to shovel so much so when the police would come around, they would grab a shovel and start shoveling so the police would think that they were doing it and leave them alone.

The mashgiach continued, even if we can't do a proper teshuva, at least grab the shovel and start the process.
This Yom Kippur, let’s learn from Yehuda not just to pay lip service without changing our ways. Rather we must resolve to remove ourselves from sin admit what we did wrong and at least start the process to become better people!

Rosh Hashana - Haazinu

Our Rabbis teach us that on the days of Rosh Hashana the ספרי חיים & ספרי מתים , the books of the living & the books of the dead, are opened.

The אוצרות התורה asks, it's understandable that the books of the living are opened in order to review the actions of people during the past year & judge accordingly, but why do we open the books of the dead? They were already judged at their time of death & can't do anything else. Why does Hashem judge them, too, every year?

The Maharsha interprets ספרי חיים & ספרי מתים the way most of us were taught, that it’s to judge the living & in which book they will be inscribed for life or death.

However, הגאון רבי יהושע הלר explains a little differently. There are two types of mitzvos, one where the mitzva itself is paramount, like shabbos or lulav where the observance of the mitzva itself is what counts. Then you have mitzvos that bear future fruit, things that you do now that have a lasting effect. For example, you inspire someone & because of you that person changed his ways & became a better person & his children became better. For that, you get credit every year even after you're gone.

The first Rosh Hashana after a person is gone, the heavenly court summons him & puts him in a better place than he was initially assigned. The person wonders how is this possible? I can't do any more good deeds. How did I get elevated? The answer is that while you were up here, someone down there was inspired by you; one of your teachings enlightened someone; a story about you triggered someone else to change; you get rewarded for all that because it came about because of you.   

How can we accomplish not only getting inscribed in the book of life but making sure what we do counts for eternity?
In the song of Haazinu which is the song of the history of our nation, the Torah states הלה' תגמלו זאת עם נבל ולא חכם, is it to Hashem that you repay this, O people who are vile & unwise?

The Chafetz Chaim explains this rebuke with a parable. A father married off his son & gave him a large sum of money as a wedding present. The son still lived off his father for many years. All his needs were taken care of. After a while, the father told the son that it was time for him to fend for himself. The son took all the money that he was given & went to the marketplace. When he got there, he saw some gold utensils that he really liked which the people told him were a great deal. Without checking them out too much, he spent half his money on them. With the rest of the money he bought bonds that he was told were worth a lot more then he paid for them. Pleased with his purchases, he set home happily anticipating the profits he would make.  

When he got home, he showed his father what he bought. After a little examination, he saw that, even though it looked like real gold, it was just gold plated & worthless. You wasted half the money I gave you. Let me see what else you bought. The son brought out the bonds & showed his father. Look, the amounts that are written on here are a fraction of what I paid! Again the father looks & sees that the documents are forged. He loses patience & says, not only won't you make any money but it's a crime to even own these documents. You will probably end up in jail for having these!

Look what you did to me, continued the father, I raised you until today; I took care of you; I even gave you the opportunity to succeed. You act like a blundering fool. First, you just look at the glitter & buy gold plated worthless utensils. Then, to add insult to injury, you buy forged documents to land us in jail!

This, says the Chafetz Chaim, is us. First, Hashen brings us into the world  and gives us everything we need to succeed. Instead of using our intellect to serve him, we're fooled by the glitter & use it for nothingness. Even worse, we sin with it & can get punished.

The posuk is saying Hashem has given us the tools we need, each person on his own level. Just as a father gives his son what he needs to succeed, we need to examine our lives to see where we're lacking & study the Torah & do mitzvos instead of looking at the glitter.

If we could take this lesson to heart & focus on what Hashem wants us to do, then not only will we make our lives & the lives of our children more meaningful, we will also no doubt inspire many others, leading to the ultimate goal: inscription for eternity!